Looking from behind a thorny bush, Astel stared at the beautiful sapphire blue water of the small lake.
"We've been here for an hour and still haven't seen anything… Are you sure the so-called guardian even exists?" he whispered.
Something rustled in the tree branches above him as a voice appeared inside his head.
'I'm sure… I think.'
Astel clicked his tongue. "Are you sure or not? Which is it?"
Felix suddenly dropped down, landing on the bush.
'Actually, I haven't visited here for a few years. It's possible he left or perished. These things can happen fast, you know?'
Astel's head sank. "So not only do we not know what we're fighting, we don't even know if we'll be fighting at all."
Felix shook his head. 'There's no chance this lake is without an owner.'
He could practically feel Astel's eyes burning a hole in his back.
"Okay, let's say that the guardian hasn't changed — who or what is it?"
Felix turned around slowly. 'I'd like to say that it's a serpent, but that wouldn't be quite right.' He brought one of his wings to his beak, appearing to think. 'I think a closer comparison would be a centipede?'
Astel frowned. "Are you asking me?"
Felix shook his head. 'No.' He added matter-of-factly, 'It's definitely closer to a centipede.'
Astel shifted his body into a sitting position. "I'm guessing it's not a small centipede." His tone sounded hopeful.
'Last I saw him he was quite big.' Felix looked around, then pointed at an unusually tall tree in the distant reaches of the forest. 'At least that big, I'd say.'
Astel's body slumped. "How the hell am I supposed to beat something that big, that can swim, while not being able to move…" He held his head in both his hands.
Felix slowly raised his wing.
"What is it?" Astel asked, noticing the gesture.
Lowering his wing, Felix murmured, 'I never said it could swim.'
Hearing that, Astel's hands fell beside his body as a smile crept up his otherwise tired-looking face. "That changes things."
Felix tilted his small head, his bright red eyes shining in the dimly lit forest.
For the next few days, Astel dug out a small hole in the ground to hide from any beasts while he slept, keeping watch on the lake whenever he could. Felix supported him by bringing berries and warning him whenever danger approached.
In just a few days, Astel witnessed the lake's guardian with his own two eyes.
As morning came and he climbed out of his small hole, he noticed something moving in the thick bush just behind the lake. Under the shadow of a large stone cliff, an enormous centipede emerged. It looked like it was a part of the cliff until its elongated body started pulling itself apart. The sound of thousands of tiny legs clicking all in unison, as if it were a musical instrument, filled the nearby area.
Astel shivered. Even from this distance the voices in his head began screaming, the pressure almost pressing him against the ground. It felt familiar, akin to the presence of the mother basilisk. A chill ran down his spine just thinking about the gaping jaws and multiple rows of teeth.
The centipede, meanwhile, continued rhythmically clicking its legs. As it did, pieces of stone began to fall from its shell, revealing a deep blue chitin that covered its entire body.
"Wow," Astel mouthed quietly.
Even with his amazement and curiosity, he couldn't help but shiver.
The centipede raised its head; slowly, its body rose along with it. It looked like it wasn't even standing on half its body, yet it was already taller than the distant tree Felix had pointed at earlier. Astel's eyes widened, his mouth hanging wide open.
'This can't be real…'
Suddenly, the centipede flicked its body, seemingly locking onto something. Its mandibles clicked — the sound like the screeching of metal — making Astel cover his ears and curl his body. Without warning, it launched itself in the direction it was facing, using its long body to speed across the ground, evading all trees on its way.
As it disappeared into the darkness of the forest, Astel let out a deep breath he didn't realize he was holding. The pressure gradually eased from his mind, the voices going quiet.
As he was catching his breath, Felix landed above him on a branch.
'He looks healthy. I seem to remember him a tad smaller.'
Astel turned his head to stare at Felix. Swallowing his heavy breathing, he lashed out, "A tad smaller? Are you kidding? The tree might as well have been a little branch compared to that thing."
Felix shrugged. 'He must be eating well. I wonder what he eats in a day.' He inspected his own body with curiosity.
"So…" Astel sighed. "How do you propose we do this?"
Felix froze. 'You mean kill him?'
Astel shook his head. "Now that I've seen him, I don't think it's possible."
Felix tilted his head. 'But you need the lake to survive.'
"Maybe I can just use it while he's gone?"
Felix paused, then shook his head. 'Not possible. He doesn't leave much, but even if he did, he'd know you were there, using his lake.'
Astel's head slumped. "How then… What am I supposed to do?" His voice sounded completely defeated.
Both of them were quiet for a while before Astel raised his head.
"Maybe I don't need to do anything."
Felix flew down to the ground before Astel. 'What do you mean?'
"Well, first I thought about throwing it off the cliff, but now that I've seen it I think it'd just climb right back up like nothing happened." Felix nodded along. "Then I thought about luring it into the lake, but I don't think it'd follow me there, and even if it did, I would probably be the one to die first." He paused. "Then a thought occured, if I can't fight it, then someone else might be able to." He said staring Felix in the eyes.
Realizing what Astel was thinking, he jumped up exclaiming, 'Absolutely not. I won't so much as approach the thing.'
Astel shook his head. "Not you. The basilisk."
Felix stopped flailing around and shortly responded in a more serious tone. 'That wouldn't be wise.'
Astel was taken aback by the change in demeanor. "Why not?"
'If you were to somehow disrupt the fragile balance of this place, then even I can't imagine what would happen.'
"Balance?" Astel pressed, confused.
Nodding, Felix answered, 'For as long as I can remember there have been five regions. each ruled by a king… or queen. If anything were to happen to any of them, the balance could shift and this whole place, my home, could suffer.'
Astel frowned. "But didn't you say before you weren't sure if the lake guardian was even alive anymore? Why the uncertainty? Wouldn't the balance have been broken then?"
Felix sighed. 'It's not as simple. The individual rulers can change. Sometimes it's their descendants, and sometimes it's someone new — more powerful.' He paused for a brief moment, 'But for hundreds of years the balance never broke, not even once.'
Astel could see that he was lying, hiding something, by the way he paused slightly when speaking and the way he moved his head, but he decided not to push it. Felix, after all, didn't seem to have bad intentions.
"So I can't make them fight because you're afraid it could destroy your home?"
Felix nodded. 'For the most part, yes. Granted, they probably wouldn't even leave their territories, much less fight each other.'
Just as he finished talking, a loud roar resounded through the entire forest, making the trees shake. Quickly turning toward the source, Astel saw the enormous centipede's body reaching into the sky, fighting a swarm of flying monsters. With a swing of its body, it used its mandible to tear one of the beasts in half. The inertia of the maneuver flung the halved body straight toward Astel.
"Is that?..." He noticed something flying toward him, growing larger with every passing second. "Shit. Get down!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, hoping Felix would dodge.
Immediately, the halved body slammed down, causing a small shockwave that felled a few nearby trees, flattening the soft ground around it.