Chapter 7 - the lake obstical

Rose and Fu, after being shot through the wormhole to the trial dimension, roughly landed on terra firma, front first. After coughing out the kicked up dust, they got back on their respective feet and dusted themselves off.
“Remind me to stick to the teleport-system.” Rose said as she fully got up. Once the dust cleared, She and Fu gawked in awe at what the dimension looked like; it was a large, cool-colored void with levitating islands of terra firma as far as one could see. Rose gasped at the surreal wonder that surrounded her. She looked down at the void below her and asked, “How far do you think that it falls?”
Fu walked over and kicked a small rock off over the edge. They both watched as it fell, and kept falling until it was completely out of sight. “I’d say that this is one of those drops where there is no splat at the bottom.” Fu answered in a failed-comedic fashion. Rose gulped and pulled out the golden hourglass that she was given, and noticed that the sand started moving.
“We’d better get going,” Rose said as she walked off, following the forward-path, Fu Dog muzzled whatever guts he had and followed, wondering what wold kill them first.

- “Hole in the Wall”

The dragon councilors, along with Jake, Lao Shi, Trixie, Spud, and everyone else in their inner-circle, sat in a private booth, watching the holographic projection of Rose and Fu in the trial dimension from the small mirror Omina had.
“So, this mirror lets us watch what Rose is doing while she goes through the trial?” Jonathan asked as he curiously ran his finger through the projection, incidentally distorting the image.
“Yes,” Klude responded, “now could you please not run your fingers through it?”
“Sorry,” Jonathan said as he quickly took his hand back. “But I don’t think that the mirror thing will be necessary with Rose’s trial already on Live news,” Andam and Omina almost choked on their drinks when they heard what Jonathan said.
“I beg your pardon?” Andam coughed. Spud basically got what Jonathan was saying and pointed to a TV over the bar that was broadcasting the exact same thing, but at a different angle of vantage, and at least dozen’s of magical creatures were deeply focused on it. Omina used her mirror to see where the footage was coming from by adjusting the vantage point of the image. She found two fairies flying as a distance from Rose, one male, one female, the male holding a news-camera, the female dressed in a reporter’s uniform and carrying a microphone.“Reporters?” Klude started, “How did those reporters get there?” he inquired.
“More than likely they got in while we were ambushed,” Andam suggested. At that note, Trixie noticed that Jake used his napkin to sketch out crude, stick-figure likenesses of the silhouettes he saw. “So, uhh,” Trixie started, “are those the ones you saw who ambushed us?”
“Well, kinda,” Jake answered. He held it up so that Sun and Lao Shi could see it.
“Hmm, they don’t look familiar,” Sun stated.
“Either way, we should probably worry about them once the trial is over,” Lao Shi added. Jake put the napkin down and sighed quietly. “I just hope that she can make it to the end of the trial.”

–Back in the trial dimension

“This is Lana T. Bell reporting live, here where a young human girl is attempting to pass a trial that hasn’t been ran in centuries.” The reporter declared. “We are reporting from an out-of-sight distance from the candidate, and are using a special sound-spell to prevent the Shar Pei from hearing us.”

- “Hole in the Wall”
“But they will be hearing from us.” Klude said.
- Trial dimension
“Now we sit back and watch quietly as the candidate makes her way past the first obstacle.” Lana finished

Rose and Fu Dog made it to the lake, and noticed a trail of large, parted rocks that swerved side-to-side like a snake. “Do you think that this is why they call it serpent Lake?” Rose asked Fu Dog, referring to the stones.
“I can only hope.” He responded. Rose took a look at her hourglass to see how much time they had. It was a lot, but Rose didn’t want to risk it. With that, she lifted Fu off the ground and said, “Lets get going,” as she leapt from one rock to the other, Fu exclaiming with each leap, “the sooner we get out of here, the better. I’m not liking the quiet vibes of this place.”

Rose leapt from rock to rock for what felt like hours, Fu just got more and more nauseous with each leap. When they were half-way across the lake, Rose paused for a moment when they landed on the next rock, or what seemed to be a rock.
“Thanks for the break, Rose,” Fu Dog said, nauseously, “I personally don’t handle sudden moves all that...”
“Shh!” Rose hushed Fu as she put her hand to the stone they were standing on to feel for something. After a freaky silence, Fu dog whispered, “why are we bein’ so quiet?”
“This rock is way to smooth and symmetrical to have been naturally shaped,” Rose observed.
“Same as the last buncha’ rocks you hopped ova, so?” Fu retorted.
“And do you feel a weird vibration?” Rose asked, “As if something is, breathing?” A disturbing silence followed, afterwards came the sound of something large rising out of the water ahead of them. Rose and Fu Dog slowly looked upward ahead of them to see that the path of large rocks in front of them, as well as the ones they were standing on, as well as some behind them, were the spinal ridges of a giant, green, sea-serpent. Rose’s and Fu’s eyes widened respectively as the beast turned it’s head to face them eye-to-eye, hissing between it’s razor sharp teeth. Rose put on a fearless expression while Fu Dog just gulped.

- “Hole in the Wall”
“So that’s why they call it Serpent’s Lake,” Spud said foolishly. Trixie just put her forehead to her hand, wondering why she hung out with him.

- The trial dimension

The Serpent stared at Rose and Fu dog with it’s large, yellow eyes as it raised it’s tail up from behind them. From head to tail it was at least a half-a-mile long. It slowly began to move in towards them, Rose just stood her ground and crouched to reach Fu.
“Uh, Rose?” Fu asked nervously, “what’re you doing?” Rose didn’t answer. She just kept her cool as the serpent roared, lunging toward the two, mouth agape. Using her ninja-like reflexes, Rose leapt out of the way, thus tricking the serpent into biting itself. It shrieked viciously at it’s pain as Rose and Fu landed in the water with a splash. They were beneath the surface for a moment before they were topside again, Fu gasping for breath.
“COULD YA WARN A DOG!?!” he exclaimed. But before Rose could answer, the serpent saw them and began to chase after them, particularly Rose. As she tried to paddle away, it grabbed her by the ankle and tossed her several hundred feet into the air, Rose exclaiming accordingly. As she began to fall back downward, she saw the serpent’s mouth wide open, and that she was plummeting toward it. Thinking fast, she quickly pulled a hunts-staff from her satchel and aimed it in a side-direction and fired it at a level high enough jolt her to the side enough to change her direction of falling. When she saw that she was safe for a water landing, she quickly assumed a diving position and took the plunge, but that didn’t stop the serpent from trying to follow her.

- “Hole in the wall”

Everyone in the restaurant was cheering and/or exclaiming about what they were seeing. The councilors, however, were not very happy that public media decided to exploit Rose’s trial for ratings. Jake, however, overheard two trolls chortling about Rose’s situation.
“Heheh, I’ll bet that human chick won’t survive for five seconds against that serpent.” one troll said.
“What’cha bet?” The second one asked.
“Every gold tooth in my mouth, and that’s the entire left half of my mouth.” The first troll grinned to show his golden teeth. Jake, however, wasn’t too fond of them making wagers against his girlfriend, but he didn’t speak up, knowing that telling them off would only make them think that he was going to be something. In fact, a lot of the less desirable creatures in the building, along with some leprechauns and some respectable creatures, were making bets and wagers of their own, wether it was over a pot of gold, a gem, or a spell book, most of them were betting against Rose. The only thing that Jake could, that he would focus on, was what was going on in the trial as Rose continued to battle the serpent.

- the trial dimension

The Serpent kept trying to chomp on Rose, but she kept dodging it. After the serpent’s third try, it reared it’s head for a fourth; leaving Rose a chance to strike back. She reached into her satchel and pulled out a small bomb. She pressed the red button on it to arm it. As the serpent dove back downward, she threw it at it’s eyes. The bomb exploded, unleashing a cloud of a combination of tear-gas and pepper-spray. The stinging pain of the gas made the serpent shriek in pain. Rose thought that it had incapacitated it, but her confidence was cut short when the serpent still managed to catch her in it’s mouth entirely in one bite.

- “Hole in the wall”

Everyone gasped at what just happened. Jake almost went pale.

- The trial dimension

The serpent slowly lifted it’s head from the from the water, then looked at Fu, who was still floating in the middle of the water. Fu was just about ready to make a warm-spot when the serpent began to twitch at the lips, as if there were something in his mouth causing him pain. It then spat out something with a green discharge to it, which skipped across the water for at least three jumps before it was fully under the water. When it resurfaced, it turned out to be Rose, and he was carrying a large, rotten tooth.
“ROSE!” Fu excitedly exclaimed as he paddled toward the sputtering Rose. “Oh, thank goodness, for a second there I thought that he actually ate you,”
“Although it wouldn’t have killed that guy to just open and say ‘aw’,” Rose exclaimed when she caught her breath.
“Well excuse me for not having a clear diction when in pain.” There was an awkward silence for a moment before Fu and Rose turned to see that it was the serpent that just spoke, and with an odd European accent. “Yes, I can speak, and I do thank you for relieving me of that sour tooth, its been agitating me for ages. I do hope that I didn’t cause any scrapes or bruises.” Fu and Rose were still silent until Rose broke it.
“Uhh, no serious injuries.” She said.
“Oh here,” The serpent said as he swam towards them, “Let me carry you to the shore, you must be exhausted after your bought with me,”

- Hole in the wall

The room was silent at the moment. Apparently no one saw that whole “tooth-ache” thing coming. “Did anyone see that coming?” Haley asked. Jake looked to notice that the councilors were writing something down on a sheet of paper that they each had respectively. He then turned to see those two trolls again, who were bickering about the wager they made. Then he saw one troll pull out a set of plyers.
“This is gonna be fun,” Jake thought in his head.

-the Trial dimension

Rose and Fu were riding the back of the serpent across the lake to save time. Rose checked her hourglass to see how much time they had left. Meanwhile, trailing behind the serpent’s were a small groups of dorsal-fins following them

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