Chapter 13
The Foreigners again!
The Four were very joyful to have Snippet, the “little piece of a white cushion”. The evening was spent in the “hole”, playing with Snippet.
The “hole”, as the Four called it, was in fact, a natural dry well. It had rocky walls, and the roof, except the little hole through which Sumit had fallen in, was also a slab of rock.
But the thing that surprised the Marvelous Four was that someone had put a wooden round table in the middle of this dry well, and that there were four stools around it. It was just as if it was specially put there for the Marvelous Four.
There was also a cupboard fixed to one of the walls, and opening it they found in it, a couple of steel blade daggers, a curious map, and an empty wooden box, which was about the size of a shoebox.
Though these things were not the possessions of the Four; the four took possession of it, as they noticed that all of the things mentioned above (the cupboard and its contents as well as the table and chairs) were covered with a thick layer of dust, indicating that these things were decades old and that no one would claim these things most probably.
Priya and Katrina cleaned up the “hole”, using some broken branches as brooms; and the Four decided this “hole” shall be their home hereafter. They collected some moss and bracken and with this they made a rough bed. Snippet slept with them; and in the morning, they took some of the food from the sack for breakfast.
The Four had christened the “hole” as “the Secret Lairs”, but soon they unintentionally modified this to simply “the Lairs”, and that name stayed.
Having nothing to do, the Four went out for a walk, and Snippet followed behind them; when got tired, he ran up Sumit’s legs and disappeared into his shirt.
At this time, Harshit, Sumit and Katrina discovered a gift of Priya which was very uncommon. The gift was that all animals loved Priya, and she loved them in turn. Snippet loved Priya too, but for him, Sumit seemed best.
The Four (excluding Priya, who already knew it before) found this gift of Priya when they were taking this morning walk. They had not walked long, when Priya suddenly dropped on her one knee, and picked something out of a bush. It was a snake!
Priya took it lovingly, caressing its coils and speaking in a soft, calm, passive voice. Katrina gave a shriek and hid behind Sumit. The boys were a little afraid though they didn’t show it.
The snake was very fascinating to look at. It’s “coat” was a shiny blue one with green streaks across it here and there, making it look very beautiful. Its eyes were bright red, and when it looked at you with those red piercing eyes, you could almost feel them going through your own eyes and it seem as if it was reading your thoughts. Its, mouth curved, so it seemed it was grinning at you. It forked red tongue flicked out now and then. It was almost four feet and was one and a half inch thick at its thickest part. It looked very striking, with its, blue shiny coat and equally shiny green streaks. A wide green streak almost covered its head, making the head look green, but for the nose which was blue, and a portion on its head, which included one of its red eyes, which was also blue.
This beautiful snake coiled itself around Priya neck, and looked at her eyes for some minutes. The boys were afraid it would bite, but it didn’t because of Priya’s curious talent, which attracts all animals. Priya saw the boys’ fears and got hold of the snake’s neck, and the snake let her do it like a lamb. But Priya closed her hand around the snake’s neck a little hard, which made the snake open its mouth, displaying a horrible set of sharp fangs. Priya with her other hand’s thumb, touched the sharp end-point of one of the terrible teeth, and judge it sharpness. She looked at the others and smiled. “Don’t worry,” she said, “this snake’s harmless; it’s not poisonous. This snake lives on frogs and lizards and such like. It doesn’t carry poison in its fangs.” Priya stood up and started walking with the snake around her neck. The boys exchanged glances. Was Priya going to keep that snake?
Priya kept well behind the others, thinking that the others would feel uncomfortable if they saw the snake. Katrina at once shot ahead, to be as far from the snake as possible. They had walked about half-an-hour more, when Priya stooped on one knee to pick out a thorn which had gone through her bare legs. She told the others to move on saying that she would catch up with them soon. The other three disappeared around a corner as Priya got up after taking out the thorn. Suddenly she stopped and stood still. She was listening. What was that? A couple of voices discussing something! Evidently the voices belonged to men. Suddenly Priya recognized the voices! It was Bill and Pip! The foreigners!
Priya looked back and saw that the men were coming the same way that the Four had come from. From the men’s talk she gathered that the men hadn’t spotted the Four yet, but were looking for them fearing that the Four would tell the police. Priya suddenly jumped to her feet and started running. The snake looked at Priya surprised at this sudden sprint. But it was too late! The men had seen Priya!
Priya ran ahead and the men followed yelling and shouting. She came up to the other three Marvels, and explained the situation hurriedly. The Four hid behind bushes and trees, and the men came.
They looked around perplexed, but decided to search around a bit. They suddenly spotted Priya and jumped on her! Now what could the Four do?