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matter
of time before it all became too much.
    The path ahead of her was distorted and
twisting; or rather, that was how her disoriented eyes saw it. Her
head pounded loudly between her ears, throbbing in protest to what
the rest of her body was experiencing. Ruby soon came to an opening
in the wall, but didn’t realize it. Leaning against the rocks, she
slipped into the chamber and fell to the floor when her shoulder
met with the gap. She released a soft groan, as she splattered her
poison and blood onto the hard ground.
    Her eyes were fuzzy, but she looked up to
find a strange sight. The chamber itself appeared to be moving in a
writhing, twisting knot. Ruby forced herself to stand, and she
cautiously approached one of the undulating sections. Every step
toward it increased the temperature, as it seemed to be giving off
immense heat. Raising her hand to inspect it, only too late did the
princess realize what she was seeing in the dim light of the
underground chamber. Her fingers felt the scaly surface of an
enormous serpent, coiled and sleeping far below the earth. Ruby’s
touch roused it from its slumber, and it rigidly snapped to
attention. The serpent’s body slapped her away, and the princess
slammed into the wall of the cave.

Chapter 5. The Serpent and the Fruit
    Ruby recalled her history lessons
growing up. Some of her teachers had focused on hard facts and
figures, but a man named Art had taught her history lessons,
including the stories of her kingdom and the world at whole. He was
a rather eccentric figure that really just liked to weave tales, so
the young princess sometimes had difficulty distinguishing the
truths of history from the exaggerated yarns of folklore. One
specific story had been about a giant snake called Sythys.
    Sythys had been a mighty serpent that had
collected powerful treasures and artifacts, hoarding them in the
region that was now Lavidia. Ruby’s ancestors, who were at the time
led by Lavidia’s eventual first king, Cyrus, came to the land,
fleeing the tyrannical empire to the east, wishing to settle there.
At the time, their people were living in the region that Ruby now
found herself, the Abyss. In those days, however, it was not a sick
and wasted land. The region was not as lush or livable as what the
great serpent had claimed, and so Sythys and the princess’
ancestors quickly came into conflict with one another. After
warring for some time, it became clear that Cyrus and his people
could not best Sythys in combat.
    The future king changed his tactic. During
their time in that land, Cyrus’ people had found that there was a
strange fruit, which came to be known as blissroot, which grew in
scarcity beneath the earth. If ingested, the spicy tasting fruit
would cause general elation and bliss to the imbiber, but it was
also exceedingly toxic. Everyone who had eaten it died shortly
thereafter. The blissroot was not only dangerous if ingested
though. It also released a strange gas when plucked from the
ground. Though not deadly in small amounts, the more the fruit was
removed from the earth, the more the gas would spread and
contaminate the nearby wildlife. Given this knowledge, Cyrus came
up with the plan to make peace with the giant serpent, offering it
a gift of the poisonous and more importantly, addictive, fruit.
    Sythys met with the future king and humbly
accepted their surrender as well as the peace token. Fearing that
the serpent would not eat the blissroot on its own, Cyrus had a
pair of lambs roasted and then drenched in the fruit’s sweet
smelling juices. Ruby’s ancestors watched in anticipation as Sythys
swallowed one of the lambs whole. The serpent’s eyes lit up
instantly, and it strangely cocked its head to the side.
    The beast quickly gobbled up the other as
well, and everyone waited for the eventual death that had come for
all the others to eat the blissroot. Cyrus had underestimated the
creature’s physiology though. The toxic fruit did not harm Sythys.
The sense