"You should have just walked on by. Then this wouldn't be happening to you."
I struggled to breathe, encased from head to toe in thick coils that curled around me and bore me up from the ground. Smooth, flexible scales squeezed me tighter and tighter, and I could barely hear the monster speaking past these things she had trapped me inside.
I hadn't gotten a good look at her. All I remembered was hearing something like the crumbling of rocks that echoed all around the jagged cavern, and I had stood up in a haste from the side of the spring. Instinct had told me that someone or something had made that sound - I wasn't alone, and I didn't trust the newcomer to be friendly. But before I could make my retreat from the spring and make a run for the passageway just outside, I saw something larg
