On the dark chilly night, two strong warriors were running thru the Snake Castle, fighting each other on the way. Ziran with S ran excitedly to the training grounds to compete who will be back first!
"Where is she?" S wondered worried as he did not see Sienna's cheering figure. They both ran even faster back now, only to find Sienna cuddled up on the bench and snoozing off!
"Did she just fall asleep?"S stared in unbelief. He felt a bit silly that they run back as two crazies!
"Maybe we took too long, my king." Ziran chuckled."She must be exhausted from today." he nodded."Pure human females are not that strong."
"Pure human...she is so innocent."S sighed with a smile. He just felt happy. He had fun playing games with her and sparring with Ziran. His muscles liked the exercise and he felt really good!
"Let's take her to her room," Ziran suggested.
S nodded and picked Sienna into his embrace.
"I will guard, so you can go hunt in peace, "Ziran added.
"Hunt again?"S furrowed his brows curiously."The tiger is way too helpful!" he thought.
"Sure, a big deer meal after the training is the best for muscle power, so you will be even stronger tomorrow. We should train some more!" Ziran laughed brutishly.
"Sure.What about you? I did not see you hunt at all."S noted. He was suspicious of why the tiger is sending him away!
"I will go tomorrow."Ziran nodded."I overate a lot last week." he grinned brutishly. "The deers are so plentiful around the Crystal City now, is hard to resist." he chatted with S as they walked back to Sienna's room.
"My queen is so beautiful and soft."S carry Sienna lovingly in his arms." And cuddly...," he smiled and pressed her sleeping body to himself tighter.
"Yes, she is one of a kind, you will never find another like her!"Ziran nodded.
"So, how do you like to be her bodyguard ?"S asked nonchalantly.
"I do like it, it is always a challenge to survive..." Ziran said brutishly.
"Survive ?"S furrowed his brows."Should not you be protecting her?"
"Her other mates are crazy, "Ziran touched his neck somehow and felt the last of his healing scars.
"How crazy?"S asked curiously.
"Well, you don't know, because you don't spend much time with her lately, "Ziran noted. He had to play more carefully.
"So tell me?"S asked worriedly.
"Well, you should ask her, "Ziran said. "She will always tell you everything, she loves you so much!"
S smiled but then he start thinking. "She loves me so much?" he glanced at the sleeping queen in his arms."But why has she not mated with me yet? She is always busy somehow... "S grinned his teeth loudly and Ziran felt the chill on the back of his back suddenly.
"Maybe she tries to spend time with you after your betrayal."Ziran tried to make up an excuse and buy more time for Sienna.
"Ahh, you mean the wetlands ..." S nodded slowly.
"Yes, "Ziran nodded, " Your pride cost her a lot of struggle. She was almost killed!"Ziran's voice rasped at the horrible thought. He felt so guilty for not joining Ramse and Xander!
"I will make it up to her!"S nodded. "She would never suffer again with me."He kissed Sienna's head gently. He was so furious at his brother in his heart! When his father told him how Sharchan brought his queen to a clear trap and she was supposed to be bled to death...S blinked his eyes and his tall father's figure appeared in his mind as if he was instructing him yesterday...
"Your brother has a new mate, Sienna is her name. Beautiful, kind queen with golden hair and blue eyes. " Sharmut said to S.
"That is good, maybe I will be an uncle soon."S smiled.
"Not likely. He is treating her so badly, she always tries to run from him..."Sharmut shook his head.
"Do you think she doesn't like him?"S furrowed his brows.
"How can she bear life with your evil brother? She is trying to love him, but he is just too cruel to her. You heard how he led her straight to the trap for Tyrell?"Sharmut shook his head.
"No, father!"S was disturbed, he could not believe his big brother would mistreat his queen so badly!
"Your brother keeps endangering his mate, I'm not sure how long she will live. If her other kings do not help her, she would be dead..."Sharmut sighed. "The Snake Kingdom will have no little heirs..." he said longingly. He was playing on S's kindness on purpose...
S listened in awe, "But my brother is gentle with females..." he noted.
"Hardly! You see, he already made a golden cage for her here. I'm afraid he will be really bad to her and keep her like a wild animal in that cage..."Sharmut shook his head.
"Did you not also hold mother in chains?"S furrowed his brows.
"Only when I went out. You know our customs. I wanted her to stop escaping all the time to keep her safe. She wanted to roam in the forests wildly and it was too dangerous. She was having a lot of kings hunting her. It took me some time to kill them all. I will never endanger her life for anyone!"Sharmut sighed."My spies told me, that the trap maker, who captured Tyrell, crocodile mage Crodius, wanted to bleed your brother's queen to death for cosmetics."He whispered to his second son.
"What ?"S was enraged."This is unheard of!"
"Yes, the Scorpion King Sarcos helped her out. Then she was so kind, she even saved your brother's life by sending him away with Tyrell and she stay behind...She is a selfless soul. She deserves better than him."Sharmut shook his head.
S felt his heart clenched painfully."How could my big brother allow this?!"
"You are right. It is so disappointing! Our family always protected females, not bring them to hustlers!" Sharmut said sadly enraged." The beautiful queen Sienna needs someone kind and considerate, like you... "he looked at his younger son.
'Me?"S asked in surprise.
"Yes, you are old enough to have a female, my son, you should help out your suffering innocent sister-in-law and get Sharchan out of the picture. Only you can fight him. For her sake!"
"You want me to kill my own brother?"S furrowed his brows.
"No, just lock him up for the start. I heard you got a freezing crystal, and this can be so useful," Sharmut smiled gently. His plan was working!
S blinked his eyes and the memory of his father was gone! He understood his father set him up, but the queen was innocent. "You both will pay now, father! For your cruelty!" he murmured to himself.
S looked at the sleeping soft queen in his hands."She surely deserves better than my brother. She is so gentle, kind, funny and easygoing. I should make her happy..."He nodded in his head.
S glanced at Ziran. The tiger was walking quietly behind him. "The tiger is not that bad, but he is up to something..." he thought.
S and Ziran came finally to Sienna's room. S put Sienna into her bed, covered her with soft blue velvet blankets and kissed her forehead. He felt so good taking care of her."She is mine now." he thought.
Ziran was laying like a huge brown tiger under the window. It looked like they are settled peacefully for the night.
"Guard well, I'm going to hunt to grow my strength," S smirked at Ziran and went out. Ziran watched S leave the castle like a big snake.
"He is finally out!" Ziran sighed and then he glanced at his sleeping queen. The snake ring shone brightly on her finger! The huge brown tiger came to Sienna and tucked her with his pink nose." Wake up! It is time to find your Snake King!"
Sienna awoke tiredly but she got a rush of excitement all over her body as she saw the gold ring still on her finger. This was the chance like no other!
She just looked at Ziran and nodded. They both slipped away from the dark room. Ziran carried Sienna as a tiger till they came to the heavy metal door. Then he took his human form, and open them carefully...
Ziran saw hundreds of wild snakes waiting up the stairs and in the corridor, but they did not cross over the metal door for some reason.
"The queen came to see the king!" Ziran called to the snakes and Sienna held the Snake King's ring in front of her. "The Snake King's ring." hundreds of deadly poisonous snakes hissed and dispersed at the sight of the ring.
Sienna clenched into Ziran's arm tightly as they walked dark stairs down, then thru the long corridor till they came to a big icy cold iron door. Ziran opened the door with a hard metallic screech. The massive door felt way too heavy and Ziran did not understand, why.
"Bloody hell, I need to train more, what is wrong with me? "he thought. Then he noticed that the door have a counterweight on them and bit his lips. "They are closing by themself as the trap in Sienna's cell!" he realized suddenly.
He held the door open pressing all his weight against them, but he did not say anything to Sienna, he did not want to look weak!
Sienna felt her heart beating excitedly. She saw such a bright light suddenly, that she had to close her eyes for a moment! The room was full of snow and light as a bright white day. Sienna shivered but stepped in with one foot carefully. She watched how her foot burrowed into the fluffy snow making a muffled noise. It felt soft, cold and really quiet in there!
" Ziran, stay outside, please! You need to hold the door." She pointed before Ziran got a chance to say something." They got no handle from inside."
Ziran looked at her worriedly but nodded. She was right anyway!" Be careful my queen, don't touch anything." he bit his lips. This just fell too wrong to him!
Sienna walked into the enormous cold snowy room, she was shivering but felt excited. In the back of the room, she noticed a silver-decorated table with a big quartz crystal on it and a closed crystal bottle next to it.
"It looks like some treasure, like an Aladin's lamp, I should not rather touch it or I might freeze to death!" she thought. Sienna liked to read fairytales a lot too, so she was wary of everything! Next to the table, was a big weird double mountain of snow. She looked back at Ziran and noticed a higher snowy shape near the doors as well.
"It looks like a grave!" Sienna gulped but she decided to investigate the mountain first. Sienna took off her wetness-drenched sandal and wiped off a bit of snow. The copper scales were revealed!
"It must be Sharchan, he is all covered as a big snake!" she thought."Is he here on purpose or is he trapped? Well, he would like to see me for sure before his hibernation, so he must be trapped"Sienna thought."This is not normal snow! It is from some kind of magic!"Sienna started to think about how to get him out, but the snake was just too big. She bit her lips and put some snow back on him with her sandal, so no one will notice she was there! Sienna decided to go back to Ziran and make a plan on how to get the huge snake out! She felt her body frozen and her feet were getting numb from walking in the snow till she reach the door with Ziran in them.
"Ziran, I found a frozen snake up there."She whispered in a bit of shock, shaking from cold as a leaf.
Zirand saw frozen Sienna and embraced her. His body was still steaming hot and it made Sienna feel better."It must be Sharchan, how are we going to get him out?" She asked worriedly.
"We can't now," said Ziran, "You will be not able to hold this door open, they are on the counterweight, they will just close up on you by themself. I'm not sure if I will be able to open them from the inside once they close. It might be another trap!"
"So what now?"Sienna furrowed her brows. She noticed how Ziran is leaning his back against the door strongly, so she suddenly understood that the door must be extremely heavy.
"We will need to call Tyrell or Marco to help. If we got stuck here, we will freeze to death! "the burly tiger bit his lips.
"But Sharchan..."Sienna was still trying to find the way...
"Sharchan is safe for now! Hibernation is just like sleeping for him."Ziran looked at her strongly and closed the heavy door.
The darkness eloped them again and Sienna felt as her heart clenched painfully. Her eyes teared up, she hated to leave Sharchan hibernating!
"At least I know where he is and that he is still alive." she sighed. Sienna saw that Ziran was right, if she send him in, and could not hold onto the heavy door, they both freeze to death! Ziran was the only link of protection she got left! Sienna grabbed after Ziran's hand in the darkness. It was warm and strong. She felt as he pressed her hand gently to calm her down. She felt safe with him...
"How do we contact Tyrell or Marco?"Sienna asked Ziran as they walked the dark corridor back."I have only you here."
Ziran looked at Sienna."I will have to go fetch them. "
"Would not S find that suspicious?"Sienna bit her lips.
"Not if we argue and you send me away. " Ziran was making a plan.
"Better if I find an excuse to write them, "Sienna shook her head.
"That is a better idea."Ziran nodded.
Sienna felt as he grabbed her around her waist tightly and pulled her up to walk the stairs. The long way in the darkness seemed unreal to her. She had the white mountain of snow still in front of her eyes, the copper scales shining brightly...
Ziran was dragging thinking Sienna up to the last stairs to the big metal door when a dark figure stood in their way! Sienna felt her heart pounding in fear, the adrenaline rise in her body, but Ziran still held her tight around her waist, so she tried to sober up!
"Who is there? "Sienna asked sweetly.
"Me, my love... "said S calmly. "Why are you not sleeping? " he asked suspiciously.