Page 112 of Tiger's Quest
He slid a finger under my chin and tipped my face up. “You have a chance to get the man back. Don’t worry so much about the picture.”
“You’re right, you’re right. I know. Let’s get going then.”
We chose the left side of the tree trunk and began walking. The trunk was so huge that I could barely see it curve in the distance.
“What happens when we see the snake, Kells?”
“It’s not a vicious snake. It simply guards the tree. At least that’s the way it looked from the omphalos stone. If the snake feels that we have a legitimate reason to pass, it will allow us. If not, it will try to stop us.”
“Hmm.”
An hour or two later, I was trailing my finger along the bark when the trunk moved.
“Kishan! Did you see that?”
He touched the trunk. “I don’t see anything.”
“Put your hands on it. Feel it right . . . here. You see? The texture changes. There! It’s another shift! Put your hand on top of mine. Can you feel it now?”
“Yes.”
A section of the trunk about six feet wide began to move. Another segment above that shifted in the opposite direction. The patterns seemed familiar, but I couldn’t put it together. It was confusing, like seeing the giant tree and mistaking it for an entire forest. Wind swirled around us like deep bellows. A giant suction of air followed by a strong wind disturbed the short grass and caused prickly goose bumps to rise on my arms.
Kishan looked up and froze. “Don’t move, Kelsey.”
The air began moving harder, like the bellows were pumping faster.
I hissed, “What is it, Kishan?”
A rustling noise stirred behind me. It sounded like someone was dragging a heavy bag through a pile of leaves. Twigs cracked, leaves shuddered, and branches groaned. I heard a deep, sibilant voice.
“Why isss ittt you are comminngg to my foressssttt?”
I slowly turned and looked into a giant, unblinking, horned eye. “Are you the guardian of the world tree?”
“Yessssss. Why are you presssssenttt?”
I looked up and up and up. Now I knew what I’d been looking at before. The giant snake was coiled around the tree, and the six-foot segments were the snake’s body. It was perfectly camouflaged. In fact, as I watched, its body shifted color to match its environment like a chameleon. Its head was as big as Ren’s Hummer, and there was no way to know just how long its body was. Kishan stepped up beside me to take my hand. I noticed he held the chakram loosely in his other hand.
“We’re here to claim the airy prize that rests at the top of the tree,” I declared.
“Why sssshould I let you passssssss? Why do you neeeeddd the Divine Ssssscarffff?”
“The airy prize is a scarf?”
“Yessssssssss.”
“Huh. Well, we need it because it will help break the curse placed on two princes of India, and it will also help to save the people of their country.”
“Who areee thesssseeee princccccccesss?”
“This is Kishan. His brother Ren has been kidnapped.”
The giant snake flicked its tongue out toward Kishan several times, who withstood the inspection bravely. I would’ve run in the other direction.
“I know not thesssssseee brothersssssss. You may notttt passsssssssss.”
The huge head began to turn as heavy coils slid over the ground. I felt a similar movement on my arm and shouted, “Wait!”
