A Snake's Life Page 8

  “Whoops!” My action pissed off the other two sharks, but I opened my ‘eyes’ and the two quickly turned gray, then sunk to the floor. I quickly closed my eyes, after seeing the two sharks’ demise.

  “Well… That certainly works.” I consumed the two petrified sharks, then the other half of the first one. Before I started looking for something to test my venom on. A few minutes later, I found a large shark with three eyes on each side of its head swimming around.

  I swam up to it, and while it was facing away from me, I quickly coiled around it. Surprisingly, it started yelling at me.

  “Unhand me, foul serpent!” It struggled.

  “Oh ho, you can speak?” It’s struggling increased.

  “Of course, I can speak! What, did you think I was some mindless fish!?”

  “Honestly… yes.” It stopped struggling momentarily, before fiercely attacking the water in front of it.

  “Well, I never! How dare you, a simple Serpent, ever believe that I, The great Jagno, was but a simple fish! The nerve of you!” I didn’t hear what else was said because I tuned it out after it called me a simple serpent.

  “It certainly is talkative…” I bit into its back and injected what I believed to be a small amount of venom.

  “Ouch! What are you doing!? I say, Unhand me foul beast! The nerve of you serpents these days. Why, I remember a time when sharks ruled the seas, and you serpents were but an inch long.” It continued to ramble on… and on….. and on.

  “Do you ever shut up!?” I screamed.

  “Oh, so you think to intimidate me, do you? Well, it won’t happen today. Nay, it shall never happen! I am Jagno, a shark king, and I refused to be bullied by a neanderthalic snake with an oedipus complex!”

  *Sigh* “Great, out of every shark in the ocean. I grabbed the one with a thesaurus on hand.” I bit the shark again, and this time, I pumped a lot more venom into it.

  “Oh sure, trying to silence me for speaking out, are you? Well, it… won’t……work….” The shark finally stopped talking after pumping about thirty percent of my venom into it.

  *Sigh* “I’d like to thank the God that brought me here, for allowing me to rid the ocean of this annoying creature. And to the being that made it… Fuck you.” I swallowed it and made my way back ‘home’. After arriving, I coiled into a ball, covered my head with my tail. And prayed that I could sleep off the headache, ‘Jagno’ had given me.

  * * *

  I woke up the next day, and I was headache free. Though I had a few pop-ups to go through. Most of them were normal animals. It was the last one, that had me curious.

  You have eaten the following race for the first time. Charming Shark: Tier 4

  “… Someone, somewhere, has a sick sense of humor.”

  Chapter 15

  I spent the remainder of my day, searching the coral reef for anything that could be useful. Sadly, I didn’t find anything besides food, so I decided to leave the reef in search of civilization. After all, that island couldn’t be the only thing on this planet… could it?

  So, I spent the night planning my trip and watching the stars. Unlike my first night on Rualea, this planet wasn’t always shrouded in darkness, so I could enjoy the sights as often as I wanted.

  And Iorus was a beautiful planet indeed. Despite my feelings on the island, and my ‘cousin’. I was thoroughly enjoying myself here. The ocean was crystal clear without a sign of pollution, and the silver moonlight bouncing off the waves was… incredibly beautiful.

  That was another difference between Rualea and Iorus, the nighttime sky was completely different. Iorus, having only one moon, was a stark contrast to Rualea’s dual moons.

  The moon was gigantic, and easily occupied most of the night sky. And it’s light, while not being as bright as the sun, still enabled me to see for miles in every direction.

  *Sigh* “I should get some sleep before sunrise. I have a long day ahead of me…”

  * * *

  Early the next morning, I set out on my ‘journey’. After stopping for a quick bite to eat, of course. And a shark was only too happy to provide me with a decent meal… Though I’m sure they would have been adamant that they tasted better than ‘decent’. But, as I don’t like talking with my mouth full, I couldn’t ask them.

  I traveled from sunrise that morning, until sunset that night when I sank to the bottom and buried myself in the sand to better hide from anything that might like a midnight ‘snack’. And I would set out again the following morning.

  I did discover something on this trip. And that was, I didn’t get hungry nearly as often if I ate a lot of meat, instead of eating random things like sand, coral, or stone. If I ate something like a shark, I actually stayed full longer… Though, maybe that had to do with the tier of the creature I was eating. I did stay full for awhile after eating a large alpha deer, so maybe the higher tiers took longer to digest?

  “Hmm… I’ll have to test that out, at some point.” That experiment would have to wait until I could gather a similar amount of different tiered creatures. And eat them over the course of a few days.

  I journeyed this way for several weeks, without seeing any sign of civilization. The only thing I did find was my ‘cousin’ again… And she wasn’t happy to see me.

  “Get back here you worm!” She yelled upon seeing me quickly swimming away.

  “No thanks! You seem to be in a bad mood, so I’ll just go!” I swam into a cave that she was too large to fit inside and ate my way out of the back while she continued to scream at me.

  “I swear it. One day, I’ll have you inside me again!” … Yeah, not something you want to hear your ‘cousin’ saying.

  “Can you please, not phrase it that way!!” She didn’t seem to get it because her response was to loudly yell out.

  “Why!? Does it make you uncomfortable that I want you inside me!?”

  “Incredibly so!” Of course, then she decided to be very vocal about her desires. It even included a song about wanting me in her mouth… Luckily, I had long ago mastered the ‘ignore everything’ skill. So, I focused on eating my way through the stone wall and escaped as soon as I was able.

  After making my escape, I didn’t stop swimming for several days, as I was desperately trying to put as much distance between us as possible.

  Another week passed by without much excitement until I eventually came across something… Interesting. While chasing down a fleeing shark, I came across the remains of a sunken city.

  What this city was before its fall, or how long it’d been down here, I had no idea. But it was a medium sized city, with stone walls and gardens scattered throughout it…

  “Actually… this looks a lot like the islands city. Are the two related?” I guessed they probably were related in some way, and I’d actually believed for a short time that it was the island city. And only one thing kept me calm. While the cities did look very similar, one thing was missing from this one. And that was, none of the buildings were skyscrapers.

  In the island city, some of the buildings were so tall, they literally scraped the clouds as they drifted by. And as the tallest building in this city was only a few stories tall, I was sure that this was a separate city.

  That didn’t mean I stuck around to investigate. I’d learned my lesson on the island, and I wasn’t going inside until I was damn sure, I wouldn’t get trapped. So, I swam around it and continued on my way.

  * * *

  After almost two months of swimming through this ocean and not once seeing any sign of sentient life… I’d almost given up hope. I did wind up changing my goal from ‘finding civilization’ to ‘find the Giant’ as I was ready to leave this place and continue on my journey to the roots.

  However, just when I’d stopped trying to find anyone, I actually found someone… Well, they found me.

  I’d been sleeping near the ocean floor when I felt something poke me. Thinking it was an attack, I quickly opened my eyes and had opened my mouth to attack, when I realized what i
t was… A child. Or, more specifically, it was two children. A boy and a girl, both appeared to be in their early teens and it had been the boy to poke me.

  “What do you want, child?” They seemed surprised that I could talk, but the boy resolutely pointed to the surface and motioned for me to follow him.

  Deciding to humor the child, I swam out of my makeshift hiding place and followed them to the surface. Upon breaking the surface of the water, the two climbed aboard a ship that was about half my length.

  I poked my head out of the water and observed the ship for a few seconds before raising myself onto it. After clearing the side, a woman walked up to greet me.

  “Greetings, great serpent. My name is Lena, and I request your aid.” She bowed her head, and the two children copied her, though the boy seemed reluctant to do so.

  I watched them for a minute while glancing around the ship. But, aside from a large black object at the back of the boat, it was completely bare.

  I looked back at the three of them, and though the two females were still bowed to me, the boy was glaring at me. Looking at the top of his head, I noticed a small pair of dog ears poking out of his wild dark hair.

  “Dog ears?” It was the woman to respond.

  “My son, Solon. He and his father are of the Warg race.” I glanced back to the daughter.

  “And yet, neither you nor your daughter, are the same?” I was honestly confused. The two of them appeared to be elves of some kind.

  “No, we are of the High Elf race.”

  “I see…You can stop bowing.” The two raised their heads.

  “Thank you, great serpent.”

  “Torga.”

  “Pardon?” She tilted her head in confusion.

  “My name, it’s Torga. If you desire to talk with me, at least use my name.”

  “Understood.” She nodded.

  “So, You’re druids then?” She nodded.

  “Yes. My daughter and I are druids.” I’d been watching the boy since the conversation began, and he didn’t appear to be following along.

  “But, not the boy?” The little girl answered.

  “No, Solon is following in father’s footsteps and becoming a warrior.” I nodded.

  “I see… So, what is your name?” The little girl pointed to herself.

  *Sigh* “Yes child, you.” She blushed in embarrassment and the mother stared at me.

  “I’m Hali.” I nodded and looked back to the mother when a large shadow passed over me. I looked up and saw a giant wolf like creature standing just behind Lena.

  The beast was easily twenty feet tall and probably thirty feet long. It had bright yellow eyes, and pitch black fur that seemed to suck in the light. And if that wasn’t surprising enough, it could talk.

  “I’m Fenris, and I’m the one in need of help.” It sat down on its haunches and stared at me. Shaking off my surprise, I responded.

  “What do you want, and what do I get in return?” The beast seemed to consider the question for a minute.

  “I’ll help you evolve one time, and in exchange… You help us get to the portal, so we can go home.” I tilted my head to one side and thought over the offer. Before a question struck me.

  “Wait… Don’t you live here?” It quickly shook its head.

  *Scoff* “No one ‘lives’ on this planet, snake. It’s a prison colony, and only those rejected by the gods are sent here.”

  *Sigh* “Of course, it is…” I nodded.

  “Alright, I’ll help you.” I didn’t tell them, I was heading there anyway, as I didn’t want ‘Fenris’ to recall his offer to help me evolve.So, I climbed off of the boat and swam alongside it as we headed for our destination…

  Chapter 16

  I had been traveling together with Fenris, Lena, and her children for about a week when I could no longer contain my curiosity.

  But, as I didn’t want to ask in front of the children. I waited until nightfall after they had fallen asleep.

  “Hey, Lena?” She looked over the edge of the boat.

  “Hmm?” She tilted her head.

  “Mind if I ask you a personal question?”

  “… Uh… Sure? I guess that would be fine.” She shrugged and motioned for me to come aboard.

  I rose my head out of the water and sat it on the edge.

  Lena had made her way over to Fenris and sat down beside him. Then she leaned against him, pulled a blanket over her legs, and started watching me. Fenris also opened one eye to watch me, as he’d been doing anytime I was around Lena or the kids.

  *Yawn* “Ask your question, snake.” Fenris said after a few seconds. I nodded my head and began speaking.

  “I was just curious.” *snort* Fenris interrupted me.

  “Get on with it.” I glared at the beast, but nevertheless, I complied.

  “Where is your husband?” My question confused both of them.

  “I’m sorry?” Lena asked with a tilt of her head.

  *Growl* “What’re you asking, Snake!” Fenris snarled.

  “As I said. I’m curious as to where the father is?” Fenris pushed Lena off of his side, then stood up and advanced on me.

  “I’m right here, you ignorant worm!” He advanced until he was nose to nose with me, but I didn’t pay him any mind as I was focused on his words.

  “Wait… You’re the father!?”

  “Of course, I am! Who else would be the father of a half-warg, but a Warg!?” I looked at him in total confusion.

  “But… But… How!?” The beast had the nerve to smirk at me.

  “Well, when a mommy warg and a daddy warg, love each other very much~” I quickly cut him off.

  “I’m not interested in the specifics, Mutt!” I moved my head around him to look at Lena.

  “Could you explain this to me?” She sighed but decided to tell me, anyway.

  “As a druid, I am… unique.”

  “How so?”

  *Sigh* “What do you know of druid bonds?” I shook my head.

  “Not much.”

  “Well, when a druid forms a bond with an animal. They acquire some of the animal’s traits, and the animal gains some of their’s, in return.” I nodded.

  “I’m understanding, so far. Continue.”

  “That’s surprising…” Fenris muttered, which earned him a smack on the side from Lena.

  “Anyway, the longer a bond lasts. The stronger it becomes, until… eventually… No separation exists.” I think she could tell that she had lost me at that point.

  “By that I mean, that they can share the others form… for a brief period, anyway.” I slowly nodded to show my understanding.

  “So, you can turn into a wolf and he into an elf?” She gave me a half shrug.

  “Yes. Though a difference does remain.”

  “Such as?”

  “I can’t get rid of my ears and tail, and she can’t get any larger than a warg pup.”

  *Sigh* She covered her face for a few seconds.

  “Yes, that.”

  “I… See.” I nodded.

  “I’ll let you get some sleep, now…. Thanks for answering my question.” I slightly bowed my head and retreated from the boat.

  “Annoying worm.” I heard Fenris mutter. So, I moved to the other side of the boat and slowly climbed back on, then I slammed my head into his side. The impact knocked him overboard and earned me a glare from Lena.

  “What, aren’t I supposed to be annoying?” She shook her head and slightly smiled at me.

  “Yes, I suppose he did deserve that… Though, try not to do it again. It’s cold and he’s no good to me wet.”

  “I’m somehow imagining him thinking the opposite of you…” I could hear the wood of the ship creaking, so I glanced down at Lena and saw she was glaring at me.

  “Perverted snake!” She yelled, then a plank of wood shot up and hit me on the nose.

  *Chuckle* I retreated off the boat, swam to the other side, and threw Fenris back onto the ship.

  “Damn snake!�
� I didn’t look, but I did get to hear Lena’s next words before I submerged myself.

  “Don’t come over here until you dry off… you smell like wet dog.”

  “But Lena~” I heard Fenris whine…And I honestly couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face.

  * * *

  The next morning, we continued on our journey. After having gorged myself, while they slept. I was good to go for a little while, so we started moving after the children had woken.

  And everything was going fine… Until I heard.

  “Where are you, Worm!?” I lifted the ship onto my back and quickly swam in the opposite direction.

  *Screams!* The ship’s passengers had almost fallen into the water because of my abrupt action.

  “What the hell are you doing, Snake!?” I ensured the boat wouldn’t fall off before I took a quick peek behind me…. When I didn’t see anything, I slowed down and dropped the ship back into the water.

  *Sigh* I looked up and saw Fenris, Lena, and the children staring at me.

  “I heard the Leviathan coming.” Fenris and Lena’s eyes widened, but the children seemed confused.

  “Did… Did we get away?” Lena whispered. And Fenris began prowling the ship while staring in the direction we came from.

  “I believe so.” I nodded. Though Lena still looked incredibly troubled, and Fenris was still prowling the ship. The two of them seemed to relax a little.

  “That… That’s good.” She dropped to her knees and pulled the children into a hug.

  “Mom?” Hali asked.

  “Mom, what’s wrong!?” Solon yelled. She smiled down at the two of them.

  “Nothing, nothing at all…” She squeezed them tighter.

  The sight of her with them caused a severe pain to stab into my chest. And Sarah was superimposed over her in my mind.

  “Sarah….” The thought of her worrying over our children, the way Lena was… Caused something in my mind to snap.