They remained confined to the green room for the rest of the day, and most of the next. Since there was nothing else to do, most people tried to sleep. Ruth looked around the room and realised how many of her friends were in couples, sitting together with maybe an arm around each other, talking quietly together.
Those who weren't in couples sat talking in small groups. She hovered alone in a corner by one of the high windows, feeling lonely even amongst all the others.
Eventually they saw a small planet coming closer. "Where is it?" Will was asked. He shook his head. "Nowhere I recognise," he said.
They landed, and still without being told anything by their captors, they were herded off the ship and into a tunnel leading into a low hill. The tunnel was circular, like a hobbit-hole, and wound from side to side as it worked its way back into the hill. It was cold and damp, and there were faint, indistinguishable sounds. Even if she hadn't been a prisoner it would have been enough to set Ruth's spine tingling. Somehow she could feel that there was something even more frightening than anything they had met so far close by.
The long passage led eventually to a circular space with a domed roof. Their captors pushed them forwards into it. Ruth took one look round and shrank back in horror. That was the terror she had sensed. Snakes!
She had always been afraid of snakes. There was no real reason for it, she just was. Bees, wasps, ants, spiders she was fine with, and when her house had been invaded by slugs she had dealt with them without hesitation, but snakes had always filled her with fear.
And these were no ordinary snakes. They were two metres long at least, and fat- probably thirty centimetres in diameter. Their mouths were huge and terrible- big enough, Ruth thought in her terror, to swallow her or one of her companions. At the front of their mouth were two long, deadly fangs. Their eyes were reptilian, cold and calculating, but she could see that they were intelligent. Their tunnels had the look of a habitation, almost a subterranean town. But why had they been brought here? It didn't sound like the astroninja bases Will had described.
She wanted to turn and run, but one of the astroninjas prodded her onwards. She tried to keep in the middle of the crowd, as far away from the snakes as possible. But the snakes moved towards them, and one, bigger and fatter than the rest who seemed to be the leader, greeted the astroninjas in a hissing, spitting language. The ninjas replied in the same language. There was some discussion, during which the snakes wriggled around the captives, surrounding them. Ruth felt sick. The others all looked scared, and one or two were holding on to each other tightly, and keeping close together as far from the snakes as theastroninjas would let them. She wished she had someone to hold onto.
The leading snake turned his head to three of the other snakes, and hissed something. One set off down another tunnel like the one they had entered by, but leading in the opposite direction. The other two began to herd the prisoners towards that tunnel. The prisoners looked at the astroninjas, hoping perhaps for a last minute change of mind. They had not actually been mistreated while the astroninjas had held them prisoner, but there was something about the snakes that suggested it would be a turn for the worse if they were to be left in their custody.
They were herded along this second tunnel, a snake ahead and two behind. The ones behind pressed forward so fast that Ruth found herself forced to almost touch the one in front. Hardly conscious of anything other than her overwhelming desire to be sick she stumbled along, trying to avoid crashing into anyone but even more anxious to keep as far as possible from the snakes.
After what seemed an age the snake leading the way stopped, and using the tip of his tail he opened a low circular door in the side of the tunnel. He indicated that they should enter. Bending almost double the prisoners did as they were told, and found themselves stepping down into another dome like chamber, big enough for all of them to fit in but not with much comfort, and with a ceiling too low to allow even the shortest of them to stand upright.
The snake who had seemed to be the leader appeared in the doorway and looked at them. "Welcome to Pssserpentinia," he said, in English that was recognisable if not easy to understand. "Your captorsss are too busy to look after you jussst now, ssso they are leaving you in our care. If you behave, you have nothing to fear from usss. Misssbehave, and you will find that we do not tolerate disssobediencsse. Which of you are the princsse and princssessss of Bognor?" Will and Zoe exchanged a glance, then stepped forward.
The snake leader looked at them, as if memorising their features. Then he nodded. "You we mussst take particular care of. We wouldn't want all our friendsss trouble to have been in vain." He smiled. "Or to missss out on any money." He turned around and slithered off. The door shut behind him, and there was a clink as some kind of lock was fastened.
The room was damp, and dark except for the pale light that filtered in from a skylight at the top of the dome. The planet they were on appeared to have quite short days, for it had been not long after dawn when they landed yet they hadn't been in their sandy-floored prison for many hours before the light grew weaker and faded away to a dismal twilight.
Will and Zoe knew very little about their jailers. "The Pserpentese, giant carniverous snakes who live in underground cities," Zoe said. "And that's about all. We don't have any trade links with Pserpentia, and they keep themselves to themselves. And it's a long way from Bognor." She turned away. "We're farther from home than ever."
The story continues...
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