I dealt with several smaller creatures as we made our way to the rumored area that the flower was located. The most recent ones were like a small monkey that kept spitting at us. When their spit didn't work because I could easily dodge it, they attacked in a mass. By mass, I meant there was about fifty of them and they tried to swarm over me. My glowing knife never let them touch me with a single claw.

I did the mage shield trick again and held them within the shield, rather than protecting myself from them, and not one of them managed to get to Victoria. She had watched with a shocked face as I fought and dodged the little creatures, let out sounds of surprise as they barely missed me with their attacks, then she let out a shaky sigh as the last of them was sliced across the body and died. Victoria didn't say anything as I dismissed my mage shield and walked over to her.

“We need to go. Their remains are going to attract a lot of attention.” I said as I put my pack back on. She took my hand with a nod and we left the area, avoided another attack from a venomous pod from the treetops, and continued on our way to our destination. As we neared where we needed to go, I noticed the telltale signs of snakes inhabiting the area.

I brought us to a stop and put a finger on Victoria's mouth to stop her from asking what was going on. She nodded in understanding and I let her hand go as I slipped off my pack. She knew what I was doing, essentially using myself as bait, and I eased forward as I intentionally nudged the places with my boot where a snake had passed. I got about twenty feet away from her when I heard a slithering sound.

I dodged backwards, because the sound was much louder than it was supposed to be. This was confirmed when a twenty foot long snake, with a head the size of my fist, hissed and darted past my face. I fell onto my back and rolled over and into a crouch with my knife at the ready. The snake coiled up and hissed at me again.

I held my knife up and made it glow. The snake's eyes locked onto it and I started to sway it from side to side. The snake followed the movement and its head swayed from side to side as well. I continued this for several minutes and saw the snake's eyelids flick. I moved forward and kept the motion up until I was within a few feet of it. I flicked my knife to the side much farther than I had previously, then darted forward and brought the knife back across the throat and sliced the head off.

The head flopped to the ground and I ran back over to Victoria. The body freaked out with the head removed and it thrashed around as it pretty much wrecked the spot it was in. None of the underbrush survived its death and even a nearby tree suffered torn bark.

“Oh, my god.” Vanessa whispered as she clung to me. “That... that's the guardian snake? No one ever said they were man sized!”

“I don't think anyone knows. That's alive, anyway.” I commented and she shivered. “Did they say how many were there?”

“A group... several dozen, maybe.” Victoria said. “I thought... I thought they were just snakes. Normal snakes, I mean. There's no way...” She turned to me and looked into my eyes. “I changed my mind. I don't need this flower.”

“We can't quit now.” I said. “We've come all this way.”

“David, I can't lose you. I refuse to let you continue with this. Please, don't go.” Victoria pleaded.

“It's all right. I won't take unnecessary risks.” I promised and she relaxed.

“Okay, then. Let's head back. We'll have lots of time to take a look for the other ingredients you researched and...”

“We can leave right after I go look at it.” I said.

“David!” Victoria gasped. “No! Please!”

I gave her a smile. “I have a plan.” I nodded at the now still body of the snake. “Trust me.”

Victoria gave me an incredulous look. “I'm not going to stand here and watch you eat that thing.”

I laughed at the thought. “It would take too long to cook it all, unless we made a huge fire to roast it.”

“David, this is no joking matter.” Victoria said, sternly.

“Watch and learn.” I said and let her go. She held on for another second, then she sighed and let me go. I went over to the snake's body and dragged it out to its full length. Victoria stared at the thing and then she covered her mouth when I used my knife to split it and gutted it. She didn't repeat the comment about me eating it and watched as I carefully skinned it. When I had it all off, after intentionally leaving some of the meat on the skin, I cut it up into two foot sections.

“This part is going to be disgusting.” I commented.

“It can't be much worse than watching you do all that.” Victoria said and then she gasped when I started to tie pieces of meat to her boots. “I stand corrected.” She said and closed her eyes. “Let me know when you're done.”

I finished adding the improvised scent masking to her boots and covered it with a piece of skin. It couldn't be too obvious that the snake we were impersonating was dead. I did my own feet with the same technique and then used several pieces to stick them to our packs, our thighs, and after putting on a long sleeve shirt, our arms as well.

“I'm done.” I said and tossed the entrails and the rest of the remains near one of the venomous pods and their assault area. It only took a couple of minutes for the evidence to be consumed and the pod retracted with a full belly.

Victoria opened her eyes and tried to only breathe through her nose. “Good lord, it stinks.”

“That's the point.” I told her and held a hand out to her. “If anything happens, don't panic and run. You won't get far.”

“But...” Victoria closed her mouth and took my hand. I led her where the snake had come from and it was the right decision. The clear path it had made brought us right to a little glade. It was eerily similar to the area inside the marsh where the fungal blooms grew. My eyes darted around the area and I easily found the snakes. There were a lot more than a dozen of them.

There were hundreds of them.

“Oh, god.” Victoria whispered.

“Relax and copy my shuffling steps.” I whispered back and slid my feet forward, very slowly, as if I was a snake slithering across the ground. Victoria easily copied my movements and we gradually made our way into the clearing and to the closest group of flowers.

“D-David, it... it's beautiful.” Victoria whispered.

I ignored her and held a hand out to stop her reacting. One of the snakes moved over towards the flowers and beside us. Victoria's breathing sped up and I covered her mouth to stop her exhales. She mumbled something and I ignored it as the snake's large forked tongue darted out and licked the inside of the flower. The snake shivered as it sucked its tongue back in and then it took another taste. It turned lazily and slithered back over to where it was keeping warm with its fellow snakes.

“I hope you're okay with how unceremoniously I'm going to do this.” I whispered to my botany teacher and she watched with wide eyes as I lifted my foot to touch a different flower with the toe of my boot, then I dug my foot down into the ground.

Victoria mumbled loudly and I held her mouth closed as I dug out a good sized patch of soil and flowers. She gave me a murderous glare as I pried it up with my boot and I took out my knife. I couldn't make it glow, because it would get the attention of every single snake there. That would be bad. Very, very bad.

I let her mouth go to bend down, did my best to slice through the sod, then stood with the clump of sod and six flowers in my hand. I motioned with my head to leave and she got the hint. She turned around without a word and repeated our snake-like steps to take us out of the clearing. Three more large snakes crossed our paths and Victoria had been smart and stopped to let them pass. One of them flicked its tongue at her boot as it slithered by and she didn't even flinch.

We continued on and I told her we could walk normally. She did, quite quickly, and we went back to where I had killed the snake.

Victoria turned around and glared at me, then she started to rant. “David! That was the scariest and most horrifying thing I've ever done! That was insane! Completely crazy! It was... it was...”

“...completely successful.” I said and held out the sod that was full of roots. “Hold this while I get the specimen container.”

Victoria clamped her mouth shut and took it very tenderly. She waited to speak until I had taken off my pack and dug out the heavy container that was its own little botany heaven for a plant.

“I promise that I'm going to rant at you for being so reckless later.” Victoria said as she glared at me.

I had assumed that as soon as I had strapped the snake meat to her boots and covered it in snake skin. I didn't tell her that, though. We both carefully added the sod to the container and Victoria gave me a disbelieving look as the sod fit perfectly into the available space.

“Why take the chance with only a single flower? The container had the room for more.” I said as an explanation.

“You dug it up with your foot!” Victoria spat.

“The shiny trowel and spade would have gotten the attention of some, if not all of the snakes.” I said. “Plus, as far as they are concerned, the only thing that was near their flowers was another snake.”

“All right, I can't argue that.” Victoria sighed. “It was pretty smart.”

“I used to carry smelly marsh mud from a near-beaver dam so that I could acclimate back into the normal marsh smells when I went back.” I said and she looked surprised, then she looked thoughtful. “Yes, it worked.”

“I know. It would have to. You would be covering up your foreign smell by using a local smell.” Victoria said and looked down at herself. “Just like here.”

“It won't always work, especially depending on the creature you want to fool.” I said. “It worked well this time because snakes taste and smell with their tongue and not their nostrils.”

“What? Then why do we have it on our packs and arms?” Victoria asked.

“In case there were any snakes hanging in the trees before the clearing, like guards or scouts to protect the main group.” I said and her mouth dropped open from shock. “There weren't and we made it in and out.” I packed the container back into my pack and strapped it on again. “Let's go.”

We walked away from there and Victoria followed me as we made much quicker time leaving. I was familiar with the area now and could tell where the dangers were much easier now.

“What about what we're wearing?” Victoria asked.

“We need to get farther away from the main nest before we can discard our protection.” I said. “Also, a lot of the smaller creatures won't bother trying to attack a twenty foot long poisonous snake.”

Victoria was silent for several minutes before she said anything. “Maybe we should keep it on until we leave the forest.”

I chuckled and she gave me an odd look for a second, probably because she thought I was making fun of her, then she laughed, too.

“Okay, you're right. A false sense of security isn't worth wearing a dozen pounds of decomposing snake meat.” Victoria said.

“We'll be eating good tonight.” I commented and she put a hand over her mouth and gagged. “I guess only I will.” I corrected and we walked on in silence.

Our primary task was done and now we had a lot of free time to go exploring. I glanced at Victoria's face and it looked like she was just as happy as I was that we had succeeded. With six flowers to try and cultivate and a good chunk of soil for Victoria to examine, our minimum chance of success for transplantation had become almost guaranteed.