Serpent by Kathryn Le Veque Page B

difficult. Everything was gray or shadowed, making it difficult to focus on the details of her surroundings. She knew she had put herself in some danger by bolting off but she wouldn’t dwell on it. She was riding at the tail end of the group of men going after the beast until abruptly, they split up and went different directions. The swiftness of the movement caught Penelope off guard and she was unable to pull her horse up before the animal slipped headlong into the marsh.
    Panicked, she spurred the animal out of the water and back onto firm land. She could se e men off to her right in the distance, skirting the edge of the marsh, and she thought to go in their direction until the water in front of her suddenly exploded up into the air like a great silver fount. The charger startled and reared, dumping Penelope off onto the soft and wet ground. Falling on the hilt of her broadsword, she grunted in pain as she rolled to her knees. She tried to grab the horse but he was too spooked and bolted off. As she struggled to regain her footing, a familiar and terrible roar burst out next to her.
    The creature was suddenly there, emerging from the marsh in a great eruption of water and mud. Penelope, stunned and horrified, watched the beast rear its neck out of the water, no more than a dozen feet away from her. It spied her instantly as she knelt on the ground, halfway to her feet, and the big mouth gaped open, roaring again. It was an utterly terrifying sound.
    Penelope could see that it was looking at her and at that moment, she could have done one of two things; she could have surrendered to the inevitable, knowing it meant to kill her, or she could do what her character dictated - she could fight it. She was a de Wolfe, born and bred for battle, and whatever this creature was, it would not be the end of her. She would not allow it. She had to kill it, or injure it, before it did the same to her. The crossroads of life and death were staring her in the face and she was not about to back down. She was not going to concede defeat.
    Quick as a flash, Penelope unsheathed her broadsword, the one she had fallen on when the horse had dumped her . There was nowhere to run or hide as the enormous head of the beast began to reach for her; if she turned her back on it to run away, it would surely kill her, and she couldn’t run fast enough to get out of the reach of its very long neck. Therefore, she stood her ground as a trained warrior would, watching the thing come down on her and waiting until the last second to roll away, away from the momentum of the lurching head. As it slammed to the ground beside her, she lifted her sword and jammed the blade straight into the baleful right eye.
    The creature screamed, a howl that was so loud it nearly ruptured her eardrums, and her broadsword remained stuck in the beast’s eye as it reared up and screamed in pain . Terrified, Penelope scrambled to her feet and began to run, running so hard and so fast that she dare not look behind her. As she ran for the safety of the nearby trees, men on horseback raced past her, heading for the animal. All except one; he pulled his horse up as she ran past him and bailed off of the animal, grabbing her on the arm.
    Her momentum sent them both to the ground . Penelope was in a flurry of panic, beating at the man who held her, struggling to get away from his grip. But his embrace was like iron; he was a very big man and extraordinarily strong.
    “Let me go!” she howled. “We must run from this place! It will come back!”
    The knight held on tightly. “Easy,” he said, laboring to calm her. “You’ll not run that way. There is only more swamp and many ways to drown.”
    Penelope had stopped fighting him but she was still struggling. “Please,” she begged. “We must get away from here . That beast will surely return.”
    The man sat up, pulling her with him . His dark green eyes were on the scene in the distance; the creature with a broadsword in its