The Toils (Book One)

VIII. To Eldore Greene

Ritty and Antonia awoke startled, loud banging coming from overhead filled out the house.
"The fuck?", Ritty dragged his matted mane of hair from his face, sitting upright.
"Mmmmm", Antonia grumbled annoyedly.
"I'll go check it out", Ritty flicked his legs off of the bed and stood.
"Uh-huh", Antonia groaned, pulling the blankets over her face.
Ritty pulled his tattered robes over his head, crossed the floor and gently closed the door behind him. He jogged down the spiral staircase, it wobbled uneasily as his feet as he passed the third floor. Hitting the ground, he passed through the main hall and exited the house, passing two guards standing strong at the exit.
Out on the lawn, he found the source of the banging; the fifteenth floor was being deconstructed from the inside out. Drew, Randall, and a handful of guards stood inside the room, tearing down brick after brick.
Agnes exited the house and met Ritty on the lawn - "You seeing this?", he asked her.
"Mhmm", she pursed her lips, the wrinkles on her face becoming more pronounced.
"This is... I can't...", Ritty shook his head and trailed off.
"Yeah", Agnes agreed.
Ritty kicked his feet in the grass nervously, his stomach grumbled loudly. A spackle of rain fell on their faces.
"What do we have left in the way of breakfast?", Ritty sucked his teeth.
"Fish", Agnes put bluntly. Her greying hair was slowly becoming sodden as the rain grew harder.
"Just fish?", Ritty cringed, looking up at the fifteenth floor - despite the rain, Randall and the others hadn't stopped deconstructing the cell.
"Well, it's salted fish", Agnes shrugged.
"You say that as if it's better".
"Isn't it?", Anges looked to Ritty.
"It's dried fish", Ritty placed a gentle hand on Agnes's shoulder.
Agnes gave a little smile, taking Rittys' hand from her shoulder and holding it close to her chest.

"Stay still, Magnus, do not spook them", Rena urged her, speaking over the snakes rattling their tails aggressively.
"They're spooking me, Rena", Magnus responded tearfully, "My fucking ankle is killing me!"
"I know, but you need to keep calm - I'm going to get some flax and pull you out".
Magnus looked down to her ankle, to the blood dripping from the bone down onto the dirt beneath her, and back up to Rena.
"Please, please be quick", Magnus urged, watching a snake slither over her waist toward a nest of eggs in a small burrow in the side of the hole.
Rena bolted into the bushline either side of the pathway, leaving Magnus alone.
She whimpered, feeling fangs sink deep into her back. Biting her fingers to keep from screaming, an overwhelming sense of dread sunk in.
Rena scanned the immediate surroundings, hurriedly searching for a flax bush.
The sound of rattles faded away as Rena stepped deeper into the bushland.
As if there was someone overhead trying to help her; sunlight broke through the canopy above to shine brightly on a flax bush to her right.
Rena jogged over to it, selecting the longest frond she could immediately see.
Using the nails on her thumb and index finger, she made a small cut at the bottom of the leaf. She tore the leaf in half, tearing a small strip from the frond. Repeating the process, she tore a second strip. Picking the first one up off the dirt, Rena bolted back through the scrub out onto the path.
"Magnus", Rena crouched over the hole in the ground, "I'm going to lower these two strips down and I need you to hold them tight".
"They're biting me, Rena", Magnus was incredibly pale.
"I know, I know they're biting you but you need to hold tight", Rena wrapped the strips tightly around her hands and lowered them into the hole.
Magnus reached up, gripping the strips, her arms bitten and bleeding. As she rose, the snakes hissed loudly.
Rena pulled hard - "Magnus you need to hold tight if I drop you they're going to get even more irritated".
"I can't", Magnus whimpered.
Rena struggled, her feet slipping in the dirt. Despite the morning chill, a sweat broke across Rena's forehead.
"Nearly...There", Rena struggled, seeing Magnus's head pop over the edge of the hole.
"AHH!", Magnus screamed out, two fangs sank deep into the ball of her bloody foot.
"HOLD TIGHT!", Rena gave a large tug, heaving Magnus over the edge.
Rena collapsed, breathing heavily, watching Magnus vomit on the path.
Attached to her heel, the rattlesnake wriggled trying desperately to loosen its fangs from her foot.
Rena pulled herself to her feet. Tentatively, she approached the snake and wrapped her fingers around its neck and lifted it off. Tightening her grip, she slammed it nose-first into a rock off the side off of the path, killing it.
Turning back to face Magnus, she noticed Magnus had lost consciousness. Rena crouched on the pathway next to Magnus, with the snake occupying her left hand, she used two fingers on her right hand to feel for a pulse. The pulse in Magnus's neck was weaker than usual. Leaning over, she placed her head on Magnus's chest, her heart was beating quicker than her pulse - she was losing blood, fast.
Rena placed the dead snake on the ground, before straining to hiff Magnus onto her shoulders. When Magnus was securely hoisted over her neck, Rena picked the snake back up and began the trek back to Pa.

An hour and a half later, Rena stumbled through the back gates of Pa, the sun had dispersed the morning frost.
Riwai approached her as she struggled up the main strip running through the township.
He reached out with both arms - "Here, you've done enough", he said kindly, receiving Magnus from Rena's shoulders.
"She's been bitten, and broken her ankle", Rena explained, her shoulders feeling brilliant relief.
"Go ahead and get Ngeru, have him prep the bay for her", Riwai grunted a little, holding Magnus like a baby.
Rena jogged up the strip, past Thatcher and Magnus's whare, and completely out of sight as she entered a small hut almost parallel to the main hall.
Riwai walked, trying to ascertain how many bites Magnus had covered her body.
After half a hundred or so paces, he entered the healing bay and placed her on a small flax stretcher on the right-hand side of the room.
Her breathing was shallow, and her skin pallid. Sweat covered Magnus from head to toe, and she had become incredibly gaunt.
Ngeru wasn't much older than Magnus, but standing over her inspecting her ankle, he looked wiser, perhaps owing to the seriousness of his job. He was drabbed in nothing more than a red and black feathered skirt wrapped around his waist.
Ngeru tittered, his soft face growing concerned the longer he gazed at the bone sticking out of her ankle. Waving Rena over, Ngeru gestured for Rena to take off Magnus's robe so he could fully grasp the nature of her bites.
Speaking in Maori, Rena asked the men to face the wall. Once they'd turned, Rena pulled Magnus's robes into two strips. With Magnus fully exposed, Rena pulled two strips of fabric from the torn robes. Softly, she lay them across Magnus, careful not to cover any bites.
"Ok", Rena nodded, and Ngeru and Riwai turned to Magnus on the stretcher.
"Is it venomous?", Riwai looked to the snake and then back to Rena, allowing Ngeru to do what he needed to do in peace. Rena walked over to Riwai on the far side of the room, both looking down at the snake on the table lining the wall.
"He doesn't seem to think so", Rena answered, before watching Ngeru work.
"What were you doing?", Riwai looked Rena up and down suspiciously.
"We were having a bath", Rena responded, her eyes still latched on Magnus.
"Together?", Riwai asked again.
"Yes", Rena snapped, "Are you alright with that?", her voice tense.
"I'm not, no", Riwai answered coolly, "You're setting yourself up for failure".
"Oh, how's that?", Rena quipped turning her head to face Riwai, crossing her tattooed arms across her chest.
Riwai towered over her, though Rena didn't cow.
"Because she's not from here. You're going to fall in love, she'll eventually leave and you'll end up getting sad and being a useless second in command", Riwai whispered.
Rena rolled her eyes.
She watched Ngeru apply honey to Magnus's bites, before rolling her over slightly to do the same thing to the wounds on her back.