Roseblood

?Four?

My eyes slowly open to the sound of hissing. Around me are—

Oh. Oh no, Mother Earth help me. I'm surrounded by snakes, and not by the kind like Sey. These are wild and big. And there are lots of them. Some are the size of my finger, others the length of my arm, and there are a few snakes that are actually the size of my body. Blue, green, brown, white, and even silvery transparent scales surround me. And the noises they're making are not something that I would ever want to wake up to again.

In fact, I'm pretty sure that I'm still knocked out. I feel as if I should be screaming, shouting, stomping, anything, but I'm just shocked and incredibly confused. Very, very confused.

"Elang?" I croak. Upon hearing my voice, the group of reptiles all turn and look at me. I thought there were a lot before—stupid me—but now I get how many of these creatures there are. Hundreds of beady eyes stare at me as hundreds of snake tales slither and rattle. These are not glittery little water snakes, either. Full on pythons and boas.

"Where is my friend?" I ask tentatively. I'm not sure if these animals are kind or not, but neither of us have started attacking each other, so there's that. "The hawk?" I try again. "Big and black bird?"

Maybe I should've rephrased that. At the word "bird," chaos unleashes. Some snakes attempt to slither into holes or under rocks, but find that they're to big. Others attempt to slither away, but they move as if they don't know how to control their bodies. And there are even a few who try to hide under me.

I somehow manage to stand amongst the scuffle. There's no hurried heartbeat, no desperate need to get away from here. Just a strong sense of disgust.

My thoughts suddenly turn into jumbled bursts of panic when a cockroach almost wriggles up my pant leg. Mother Earth, of course there are roaches. Where am I that all these animals are together?

"Elang!" I call again. We'll have to do something about this sudden getting separated business. He's scaring me, as I'm no doubt doing to him. But wherever he is, I hope things are going better there than here. Of course, none of this would have ever happened if it weren't for my big, ugly mouth. Both snakes and bugs are prey for birds, though I don't think it would comfort them much if I said that Elang strongly prefers to eat warm blooded animals.

Speaking of warm blooded, I am beyond late for my meeting with potential death. The thought shouldn't shake me more than being pummeled by crazies, but it does. I try to move away from the onslaught of animals—there were so much more than I would've ever thought—but it gets so crowded that it's a struggle to even see the dirt below me.

"Elang! Elang!" I keep shouting until something bites me. I swat it, or try to. There's honestly so much, my head is starting to pound.

Safe! Safe!

I have never been so happy to mentally communicate with an animal before. Though I'm not the only one, apparently. As whatever animal keeps calling out, more and more rattles and the occasional wing calm down. Eventually, they all stop their panic for just a second. It's enough for my mind to clear so that I can understand what the mystery thing is.

Apologiess Rossseblood, for we do not get many good humanss in these parts. The oness that do bring unwanted guests and change usss.

Oh. I feel dumb for not realizing this earlier. According to my dad, experiments on Hortus animals are constructed with every blood type. Except for the Rosebloods, of course. But they don't look any different, so what was tweaked on them?

Who hurt you? Earth, fire, wind, or water? I ask. Looking around, I can't see any specific one that might be talking to me. It's difficult to tell who the leader of them is when they all stand at attention—of sorts—around me.