THE ALPHA’S DESTINY 2 (Fulfilling The Prophecy) - Chapter 56: Chapter 56

???'s POV
"Echidna! That's impossible!" Isis gasped. She couldn't understand why such a powerful mythical being would be lurking in the backwoods of Serpents Valley. "Are you sure it's the ECHIDNA?"
"Yes, she showed up here a little over two centuries ago. She said she was placed here by her master," Gaylord explained.
"Her master? Echidna serves no one but herself unless she's serving a lover. She is known to worship her lovers," Isis scoffed.
"Echidna! I remember you taught me about her aunt Jules. It's the half-woman, half-snake, and she eats women and takes the form of the one she eats then she finds unfortunate men to lay with, so she can lay her eggs," Hazel recited.
"Yes. She's a very devious creature," Julia added.
"Gaylord, look!" One of the centaurs pointed to the peak of the Snake Eyes Mountain.
"What's that?" Zander asked as he saw two flashing yellow lights.
"She's awake!" Gaylord gulped. "She's been sleeping for almost a century. The stones atop the mountain glow yellow when she's awake."
"Look, Alpha Zander, I cannot accompany you to the Ghostly Plains. If she finds you here she'll kill us to get to them. She's been starving since she ate all our women a hundred years ago. Her body got weak, and she fell into hibernation," Gaylord told them.
"So you are telling us that Echidna ate all the female centaurs?" Carson asked.
"Yes bold one, she did, then she took their forms and seduced some of us but for some reason, she hadn't laid any eggs. She gives birth to two-headed snakes when she mates," Gaylord explained and Carson shivered.
"I wonder what woke her up after all this time?" Another centaur pondered.
"Isn't it obvious, she smells the three of them," Gaylord pointed at Hazel, Isis and Julia. "She's hungry, and she hadn't had a meal in a long time. She'll be coming for them."
"Over my dead body!" Zander growled.
"Be careful what you wish for Alpha Zander. Echidna is a very fierce warrior," Gaylord grinned. Zander still didn't trust him.
"So what's the plan, Alpha?" Carson wanted to know.
"Is there a way to avoid her? If we could travel around her, then we wouldn't have to face her," Zander contemplated.
"There's a problem with that Alpha Zander, she's blocking the path to the Ghostly Plains, that's the only entrance to that place," Gaylord said.
"What about going the way we came?" James asked.
"James that would be stupid, remember we don't have virgin vampire pure-blood to open the door," Carson sneered.
"About that mutt," Dimitri raised a vial. "I took some from my sister before she left, just in case. We all know she won't be a virgin much longer."
"Smart move Dimitri," Zander praised. "But I don't think going back will solve anything, we need to fix Hazel's powers, so we can find Zoey."
"Yeah, worst-case scenario we send some of us back the way we came and the rest of us continues forward," James spoke.
"But who would we send back. All of us are in this to save Luna and Zoey," Declan announced and the others agreed.
"So I guess that's settled then. We are going to fight Echidna," Dimitri sighed.
"No, we are going to kill her," Zander stated boldly and Gaylord's grin widened. Julia was trying to read his thoughts but all she heard was him humming a tune. Was he blocking her out on purpose? She didn't say anything to the others.
She didn't trust these centaurs one bit.
Gaylord drew a map of Echidna's location and the eight of them set off on their journey.
"We should be there in a few hours," Isis said as she studied the map.
"Those centaurs were creepy as fuck," Carson confessed.
"I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that," Declan added.
"Maybe we should give Echidna a chance to explain herself, maybe she'll even grant us safe passage, and we don't have to fight her," Zander declared.
"Wait! Alpha are you serious?" Carson cocked an eyebrow at him. "I mean, you are never the voice of reason."
"You're right - that wasn't my thought, that's Hazel's."
"But I'm right," Hazel suggested. "I think Echidna will have a lot to say."
The friends travelled until they got to a stream.
Zander immediately knew something was off. "Nobody, move!"
"What's the matter?" Carson asked as he made a move to step in the stream. Dimitri grabbed him by the collar before he could drop into the nothingness. "FUCKKK!" Carson yelped. "That's not a fucking stream."
"No, it's an opening to the abyss," Zander muttered. "This is just a mirage to trick people who try to cross it."
"What a fucked up trick," Declan whistled as he dropped a tiny stone into the stream. The stream opened up revealing the dark depths of the abyss.
"How do we cross it?" Hazel asked.
"I could just fly us over," Dimitri suggested.
"Or I could do this," Isis snapped her fingers and the stream disappeared. They all looked on in shock. "What? This was kiddy's trick, not strong magic at all."
"WHO GOES THERE!" A rough feminine voice bellowed.
The green mist divided like a curtain uncovering the largest tree they have ever seen. Its trunk looked hard and withered, but this tree was strange-looking, its upper body took the shape of a woman, it even had a stone-like face, with a mouth, nose and eyes that were closed. The lower part had two twisted thick branches that stretched in the opposite direction from each other, the branches seemed to go on for miles.
“Who said that?" Zander's head snapped from side to side, trying to catch the person who spoke earlier, but he saw nothing. "Was I the only one who heard that?" He asked the others, but they all said they heard it too.
"What a strange-looking tree," Dimitri zoned in closer to it.
"It not only looks strange bloodsucker, but it's also the fucking ugliest tree I've ever seen," Carson ran up closer too, and he ran a hand over the exterior of the trunk. "Eew!" He snatched his hand away from it. He sniffed his hand. "It smells nasty, like a - like a -" He tried to get the right words.
"A serpent," Dimitri finished for him.
"Yeah, how'd you know that that's what I wanted to say?" Carson asked as he studied Dimitri's face.