rpents dove at his head at once, and Lysander felt his body shake off balance. But he jumped up quickly, landing on their sensitive tails. They winced in pain.“You serpents are no match for a hero like this,” Lysander laughed, pointing to himself.“Be careful with that parti prissssss…”“You’ve yet to taste a serpent’s kisssss!”The thirteen active serpents lowered their jaws, each revealing two razor sharp pointers and a tongue a crimson red. They whipped their tongues out and created a chorus of “Kissssssssss!” Their tongues were thin and forked at the tips. They drew their tongues back into their mouth and then out again accompanied with blazing fire. Lysander jumped to avoid the spurts of fire thrown at him every which way. A fireball zoomed within a whisker from his eye and he fell to the ground, dizzy. He wanted to run back to his home of hammocks and con artistry. Lysander felt the cold scaly body across his forehead. Frightened, he grasped it with his hand and held it high in the air above his head. Lysander, with his other hand, lifted his whiskey bottle ready to strike the serpent over the head. The other serpents froze in their attacks.“Let him go… he isssss our most highly esssteemed sssserpent.”“We’ll ssssssacrifice and let you passssst, dear gent.”“It is done,” Lysander replied, dropped the serpent and hurried to the next corridor. As he rounded the corner, Lysander could see the outline of the girl! Her golden blond hair shone like a radiant light at the end of the tunnel. Lysander, tired and sore, scraped and beaten, scrambled to meet her. I’m almost there, he thought, to having the beautiful princess in my arms, to tasting her sugary sweet lips! Just a little farther. Lysander dragged his feet along the ground, closer and closer, bit by bit, watching the fuzzy image of the maiden draw ne...
