Sunflower

A palimino Arabian mare walked through the ruins, her hooves making a small clicking sound on the stone floor.

There was nobody here, and really nothing at all to do. Sunflower lost track of Bayten a while ago. Her brother probably went off to claim a land or something.

The mare stopped once she reached a large temple, which had most of the roof still on it. She walked over in the shade and lay down, waiting for something to happen...

*Rattle*

Suddenly there came an insistant, loud rattling noise from neaby. Very nearby. Another rattle sounded, and then another. It seemed that the noise was coming from a hundered different sources as it began to echo about the ancient temple...!

Sunflower

The mare heard the rattle. What could it be? Rattlesnakes? Or maybe the whole temple was coming down on top of her!

The mare whinnied and cantered out of that temple, but stayed in the next room to see what would happen...

*Rattlesnakes*

You have stumbled upon a rattle snake den site! Beneath the temple was a large chamber, and this is where over one hundererd of these poisonous vipers hibernate for the winter. For some reason or another, the huge congregation has remained longer than they should have.

In the next room, where you are, there are dozens of them. Three, uncluding a very large female, are only inches from your hooves; but it would have been very hard to notice them because they blended in so well with the mossy, marbled stones of the temple. One wrong step, and you could be struck...

Sunflower

The mare heard the rattles, but did not see anything. She warily stepped back a few paces to see what would happen...

*Rattle Snakes*

Sunflower stepped too near one of the snakes. The serpent struck then and her large fangs grazed over the mare's skin, leaving a small trace of venom to enter her bloodstream. "Get out!" the snake hissed angrily, coiling her neck back in an 'S' and shaking her tail vigorously, "You'll trample one of us!"

The venom will cause your leg to swell painfully, but that is about the only symptom. Within a few days, the swelling should go away. But there will be an open wound on her lower hind leg where the venom had destroyed the tissue around the bite wound. This too will heal a few days afterwards, so long as it doesn't get infected...

Sunflower

The mare screeched a whinny when she was bitten. Without further ado, Sunflower galloped out of the Ruins, never to come back...