Chapter 152: Chivalry of a Sulking Knight

Ren blinked once. Then twice.

She squinted through the gloom and the mud splattered on her eyelashes, her legs wobbling slightly as she stood in the center of the pit.

“Viper?” she rasped, disbelief coloring her tone.

The snake guard, who had been standing stoically in the mud like a statue of heroism, suddenly stiffened. His eyes adjusted to the low light. He looked at Ren.

He saw Ren.

Specifically, he saw all of Ren.

“GAH!”

Viper let out a sound that was less like a fearsome warrior and more like a stepped-on squeaky toy.

In a blur of motion that rivaled the Beast Kings themselves, Viper dashed to the absolute furthest corner of the pit. He slammed his body against the muddy wall, turning his back to her so violently that Ren worried he might have given himself whiplash.

“I saw!” Viper shouted at the dirt wall, his voice cracking. “My eyes have betrayed me! I am a disgrace!”

He began to tremble. “I cannot believe it… I stood so close… to the King’s mate… while she was…”

He couldn’t even say the word.

“I must pluck them out,” Viper muttered frantically to himself. “Yes. It is the only way. I will offer my eyeballs to the King. Then I will offer my head to atone for this crime. It is the only honorable path.”

Ren, who was shivering and miserable, stared at his back.

“Okay,” Ren said slowly. “You are being extremely dramatic. And extreme.”

“I am a dead snake walking!” Viper wailed, clutching his head.

“Viper, listen to me,” Ren said, trying to inject some logic into his panic spiral. “It isn’t your fault. You jumped in a hole. You didn’t know I was naked. It was an accident.”

She hugged her arms around her chest. “Look, just… don’t say anything to Syris. I won’t say anything either. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. It’s not a big deal.”

Viper went rigid.

“Lie… to the King?” he whispered, horrified.

He turned his head slightly, then remembered she was naked and snapped it back toward the wall.

“You ask me to commit treason?!” Viper hissed. “To deceive my King? Such betrayal is punishable by death! Death by crocodiles! Death by crushing! Death by—”

“Oh my god,” Ren groaned, rolling her eyes.

She sighed deeply. Her valiant knight, her savior from this wretched pit, was currently sulking in the corner, contemplating ritual suicide because he saw a boob.

“Fine,” Ren muttered. “Keep your eyes. Lose your head. Whatever. Just get me out of here.”

Viper didn’t move. He was too busy praying for forgiveness to the dirt wall.

Ren gave up.

She looked up through the hole of the pit. The log grate had been pushed aside, and the moon was bright and brilliant, illuminating the small space with a sharp, silver light.

Now that there was light, Ren wished there wasn’t.

She looked down at herself and the ground she was standing on.

“Oh… gross,” she gagged.

The “mud” squelching between her toes wasn’t just mud. It was a slurry of stagnant water, decaying leaves, and unmistakable mounds of animal faeces. And it was all over her legs, splattered on her stomach, and smeared on her arms.

“Ignorance truly is bliss,” Ren muttered, suppressing the urge to vomit.

She looked up at the opening again. It was about eight feet up.

“If Captain Neurotic over there isn’t going to help me,” Ren decided, “I’ll do it myself.”

She gritted her teeth. Summoning every ounce of strength she had left, she waded toward the wall. She dug her fingers into the wet earth and tried to pull herself up.

Her muscles screamed.

She got her foot into a small notch and pushed, lifting herself about six inches off the ground before her arms shook uncontrollably, her grip failed, and she slid back down with a wet splat.

“Ugh,” Ren groaned.

She couldn’t do it. The flu, the hunger, and the concussion had drained her battery to zero. The determination in her eyes was just that—in her eyes. The rest of her was useless.

Ren looked at Viper. He was still huddled in the corner, muttering to himself.

“I have failed… I am unworthy…”

Ren didn’t even bother asking him to lift her. If he wouldn’t even look at her, touching her bare skin to hoist her out would probably cause him to have a heart attack and die on the spot.

Ren sighed in defeat, her legs finally giving out. She slid down the wall until she was sitting in the muck, hugging her knees.

“Well,” she whispered, rubbing her muddy arms in a futile attempt to warm herself. “I’m still trapped. But at least now I have a roommate.”

The open pit let the cold night air rushing in, make her shiver violently. She needed a distraction from the cold and the smell.

A curious thought crossed her mind.

“Hey, Viper,” Ren called out, her teeth chattering. “How did you find me? And where are Syris and Kael?”

Viper finally stopped his manic whispering. He took a deep breath, composing himself, though he remained steadfastly facing the wall like a child in timeout.

“King Syris and the White Tiger King… are occupied,” Viper said stiffly. “They are battling the Black Tiger King in the village.”

“Together?” Ren asked, hopeful.

“No,” Viper corrected. “It is… complicated.”

He cleared his throat.

“After we rescued the White Tiger King from the Black Tiger earlier today,” Viper recounted, “I gathered herbs for his wounds. But Kael refused to reveal your location. King Syris sent me to find the tree where the Fox had taken you.”

Ren nodded, listening intently.

“I found the hollow in the tree,” Viper continued, his voice gaining a bit of pride. “But you were gone. I picked up the Fox’s scent. It was faint, but I tracked it.”

“You tracked Vex?” Ren asked, impressed.

“I followed his trail through the forest,” Viper said. “I saw him heading in this direction. He was moving through the underbrush, circling the village.”

Viper paused, adjusting his stance.

“I knew if the Fox was sneaking around, he was up to no good. So, I continued to follow him.”

“He stopped near the bushes to… groom himself. He was picking leaves out of his tails and smoothing his hair.”

Viper continued, still facing the wall.

“He was distracted by a particularly stubborn burr on his middle tail. I came up behind him. And I knocked him out with a rock.”

Ren froze.

She stared at the back of Viper’s head, her mouth falling open.

“I hit him quite hard,” Viper added thoughtfully. “He went down instantly. Then I heard your voice in the pit and jumped in.”

Ren was stunned. Her brain couldn’t process the image of Vex, the Fox Shaman, the infamous trickster who terrified the forest, the guy who moved like smoke and played everyone like a fiddle, getting taken out by a single bonk to the head because he was too busy preening for his grand entrance.

“You…” Ren stammered.

She looked at Viper with newfound awe.

“You did what?!”

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