Expeditious

She hurries along the brook, past where the Earth turns to fire, and around the tallest mountain giant. She follows every instruction to the letter, hoping the great spirits will follow.

At the place of a thousand snakes, she sees it. The magic knotted root, the medicine her father needs to live. She has flown here, her feet winged by love and fear, but now she needs a real set of wings to finish the job. How will she cross these treacherous beasts?

Your strength will shield you, the shaman had assured her. She glanced at the fangs and glowing red eyes and found herself unable to agree. As one snake crept closer, she rushed backward, bumping into a tree, and knocking her flute to the ground.

She stared at it. Her strength? She was the best musician in her village. Could that...

She snatched the flute just before the snake could wrap his body around it. Without thinking, she began to play the first song her father had ever taught her, a war ballad about one of their ancestors. The snakes all turned to face her, and for a moment she thought she had erred, but soon their heads began to drift lazily toward the forest floor.

When they were all lulled to sleep, she stepped carefully between them toward the root. With one hand still holding her instrument, she pulled the knotted plant off its tree trunk pedestal and slipped it into the pouch slung around her waist. Then she tiptoed once more through the snakes, forcing herself to focus not on their scaly bodies but on the empty patches between them.

She kept playing well after she had escaped their den. Finally, when she felt safe enough to put away the flute, she paused to catch her breath. After a few minutes braced against a boulder, she put away her instrument and adjusted her pouch. Then she ran faster than the wind to save her father.