A Snake's Path (A Snake's Life Book 2)

by Kenneth Arant

  They immediately tried to run, but before they could get more than a foot from where they landed, he waved his hand again and a round of sickening snaps rang out, a heartbeat before the three men collapsed to the ground, wailing in pain.

  He crouched over them and asked, "Did the Greeks send you?"

  The three men remained silent.

  "You will answer my question before you die."

  "Master, I think they are ninjas," Findral spoke up. The snake-man just stared at her. "Assassins that worship those of the Shinto pantheon?" she hedged.

  He just snorted at that and pulled the mask off of the closest man. "More like nonjas," he said in a derisive tone directed at the three men. Then, he threw Findral a reproachful look and said, "And I'm aware of what they are, Findral."

  "Then, why—"

  "I thought I told you never to call me 'master.'"

  "Oh. Right. Sorry."

  Torga just sighed and lifted the first man's head so he could look into his eyes with his own glowing bright orange ones as he allowed his anger to show itself again.

  "Did you use poison?"

  "N—No."

  Torga's eyes narrowed in suspicion and suddenly the man's left eye seemingly evaporated into black mist. "You're already on my shit-list, so lying to me isn't helping your case."

  "Heh, I knew I was already a dead man as soon as we were caught. Why should I bother telling you a damn thing?"

  "Simple. Because I can make things so much worse for you.”

  "I can find out for sure," Reina interrupted.

  Torga let go of the man's head, finally noticing that Reina was standing there. He soaked in her appearance, spending a particularly long time on her body suit—

  “Are those—guns?” he asked while pointing at the mana launchers on her hip. “Sorry, that was rude. Do I know you?" Torga asked as he reached behind him and tightened the towel.

  "Your name?" he asked again, this time in a more polite tone.

  "Reina. I'm a friend of Ayla's."

  “Interesting...” he muttered.

  Reina once again averted her eyes from the heavily muscled torso of the man claiming to be Ayla's father. No, down girl! You're happily married and he's searching for his wife. You don't have time to be drooling over him, so focus! she berated herself.

  However, now that she’d gotten a closer look at his scales, she found that she really wanted to touch them. Are they as rough as they look or are they soft like a snake's? She had to shake the thought from her mind, so she could focus on the task at hand.

  "There appears to be some form of mild anesthetic in her blood stream. Not enough to fully paralyze her, but enough to make it difficult for her to move. I'm also detecting traces of dendrotoxin in her system. My guess is the anesthetic was used to hide the symptoms of the toxin. Very clever. "

  "Can you remove it?"

  "I can flush out her system, but we'll need somewhere quiet so I can focus, and she'll need plenty of fluids afterward."

  "Right." He scooped Ayla into his arms and began floating a few inches off the ground, which made his already tall form tower over Reina even more. "Findral, find the others and tell them what has happened. I want them to report to Ayla's room in no less than ten minutes."

  "Understood." Findral nodded and took to the skies.

  Then he held out his hand for Reina to take. "You coming?"

  "You know, normally, I'd make a guy buy me dinner before I went home with him." She reached out and grasped his hand, which caused her body to slowly lift off the ground until she was able to look into his bright orange eyes.

  "I'll be sure to make it up to you later."

  The three of them smoothly lifted into the air and went into the hole Torga had made earlier.

  Hours later, after an exhausting use of her magic to flush out Ayla's system and ensuring the girl would live to see the sun rise again, Reina awoke to find herself in an ornate bed with plush pillows and incredibly soft sheets. When the smell of a spinach omelet, raspberry jam covered toast, and coffee hit her nose she leaped from the bed and practically devoured every morsel. It was her favorite breakfast meal, after all.

  A soft knock on the door alerted Reina that she had company, so she hurried over to the door while taking that last bite of toast with her. When she opened the door and saw Ayla's dad standing there wearing a baggy white shirt and black trousers she almost choked on the toast.

  Torga just smiled at her.

  "Good morning."

  "Oh, um—Morning."

  He leaned in and peaked around the door to see an almost clean plate and the smile on his face grew even larger.

  "Enjoyed your meal, did you?"

  "Yes, you can give my thanks to whoever made it."

  "You're welcome." He shrugged, then motioned towards the door. "Mind if I come in?"

  "Sure, I guess, but what do you mean 'you're welcome'?"

  "I did say I'd make it up to you, didn't I?" he replied with a polite smile down at her.

  "Wait—you cooked it!?"

  "I'll take that as a compliment towards my cooking skills and not an insinuation that you believed I couldn't cook." He laughed as he made his way over to the lone table in the room and sat down.

  "What, pssh, of course, I didn't think that." Of course, that was exactly what she'd thought, but she wasn't going to tell him that. She moved to join him, but before she could sit down, he stood up and pulled a chair next to him out and turned it towards her.

  "Thank you?"

  "Of course," he replied as he easily pushed the chair closer to the table and retook his seat.

  "So... What's up? Did you want me to check on Ayla again?" She asked to fill the awkward silence that followed.

  "No, she’s fine. Thanks.”

  “Oh- of course.”

  “Mind if I ask you a personal question?" He asked without looking at her.

  "After that breakfast? You can ask me anything you want," she joked.

  He grinned at her. "Are you married?"

  The smile she'd been wearing all morning was instantly wiped off her face as a memory of her husband flashed through her mind. The memory was like a bucket of cold water and quickly sobered her up.

  "I am."

  "Do you love him?"

  "That's a stupid question. Of course, I love him."

  "When was the last time you saw him?"

  "That's none of your business, is it?" she said sharply.

  "Please, humor me."

  "Fine!" she yelled. Then, after a brief moment of hesitation, she said, "It's been a while."

  Torga just quietly watched her with those golden-orange colored eyes of his.

  After a full minute of silence, Reina couldn't take it anymore and pushed her chair back so she could stand up. As she was walking over to the bed to grab her gun belt so she could leave, Torga spoke up.

  "Are you a reincarnator?"

  "What?"

  "Were you reincarnated into Yggdrasil?"

  "What if I was?" she snapped. She snatched up her gun belt and fastened it around her waist. But she soon had to take a step back as Torga was standing in front of her.

  "Sarah?"

  Her head jerked up and she glared at him. She drew her pistol and aimed it directly at Torga's face.

  "How the hell do you know that name!?"

  A golden liquid seemed to pool in Torga's eyes as he stared down at her. "It is you," he whispered.

  Reina pulled back the hammer on the gun. "Answer me!"

  Torga slowly reached up and wiped the liquid from his eyes. "I know I look different than you remember, but c'mon, don't you recognize me?"

  "What're you talking about?"

  "Jeez, and to think you used to complain about my memory," Torga said in mock consternation.

  "Again, what the hell are you—you—Huh?"

  The gun fell from her hand as the dots connected themselves. Her eyes widened and she tried to take a step back in surprise, but she tripped over the be
d and fell onto her back.

  Which caused Torga to genuinely smile at her in a way that made her heart skip a beat.

  "I've missed you, Sarah. More than you could ever know."

  "A—A—Albert?"

  "I've gone by Torga for a little over a century now, but yeah, it's me."

  "A century?" she whispered.

  "You've been gone a long time, Sarah."

  "But it's only been ten years!" She climbed to her feet and glared at him.

  "For you, maybe. But for me? Well, you died when I was thirty-six, right?"

  "Yeah."

  "I was eighty-seven when I died."

  Reina collapsed to her knees and unshed tears filled her eyes. "No—No, that's not possible. I wasn't gone that long. It was only for a little while," she whispered to herself. "Please, tell me you're lying? Tell me I didn't miss out on my babies’ lives. Tell me I didn't leave you to raise them alone."

  "Hey, I think I did a great job raising them, thank you very much," he joked.

  She just stared at him.

  "I'm sorry, Sarah."

  "Were they happy?"

  "They missed you, of course. But yeah, they were happy."

  "Thank God." Right there, in front of the husband she'd been searching for, she broke down and cried about the life that had been taken from her.

  Torga moved around to the side of the bed, sat down, and leaned against the headboard, then pulled her onto his chest.

  "It's alright, let it out."

  His words made her cry even harder. She spent the rest of the morning crying into Torga's chest and only stopped when she'd exhausted herself and just laid on top of him to watch the clouds outside of the window.

  "So—" she sniffled. "What happens now? Are you going to just leave me here to go find your wife or can I come with you?"

  "You know," Torga said after a moment of silence, "for a doctor, you can be really stupid sometimes."

  "That's mean. I just wanted to know if—"

  Torga pulled her onto his lap and kissed her as deeply and passionately as he could without hurting her. And he didn't let up until Reina was gasping for air.

  "You were the one I've been looking for, you dummy. I've waited for damn near two centuries for you to be in my arms again and I'll be damned if I let you go that easily."

  "Oh—" she panted.

  "Now, if you'd told me earlier that you no longer loved me? Well, I probably wouldn't have said anything and just would've stood back and let you live your life. But now that you've told me? I'm not leaving your side for anything."

  He picked her up and sat her on his lap.

  "In fact, you'll be lucky if you can walk after I'm done with you."

  "What do you—" She felt something poke her in the butt and her eyes widened in surprise. "Ohh, so that's what you meant," she finished with a sultry smile as she leaned in to kiss him again.

  Epilogue

  SOMEWHERE OUTSIDE OF Yggdrasil's branches, a ball of white flame the size of a star floated. With only empty space surrounding it, it was a wonder it managed to exist at all, let alone grow to such proportions. But this was no ordinary flame, oh no. These flames were the remains of a goddess of life.

  Her body and followers destroyed by the one she called brother. This goddess laid dormant while her body healed. At least, that was her original plan. At some point during the healing process, her mind also began to heal from the scars of the past.

  Without the pressures of being a goddess weighing on her, she was finally able to grieve for all that she'd lost, and in peace. But with the peace of mind her isolation granted her, also came the guilt of her actions.

  The murder of innocents, the betrayals of those she considered friends, and the way she treated her brother. The guilt of these actions slammed into her damaged mind with the weight of a black hole.

  "So, the princess finally decided to pull her head out of her ass. Eh?"

  A swirling mass of gray light began to form in front of the flame. From this light, a skeletal hand holding a long black cane emerged. Immediately after, a tall skeleton in a red tuxedo stepped out.

  "Amaar—what do you want?" A tired feminine voice echoed from within the flame.

  The skeleton's teeth twitched upwards and his pitch-black eyes showed a clear sign of humor within them.

  "What? Can't an old skeleton come see his favorite pigeon without cause?" he asked with false hurt in his voice.

  A deep sigh drifted out of the flame. "Amaar, I'm in no mood for your games. Just tell me what you want, then be gone."

  Amaar reached up and pulled his top hat off. "Hmm—No." He slicked back his hair and twirled his mustache, then placed the top hat back on his head.

  "You've been on your high horse for a bit too long, and this just so happens to be the best time to knock you the fuck off." Amaar slammed the cane into the gray light he was standing on. This caused a dome of gray to expand and cover the entirety of the star-sized flame.

  "What're you doing?" the feminine voice yelled. The shock of being enclosed within Amaar's power blew away any trace of exhaustion from her voice.

  "What I should've done when I first noticed your fall from grace, and were it not for my sister—your patron's request, I would have." The gray sphere began to rapidly shrink, causing the flame to shrink with it."

  "No! I've learned my lesson. It won't happen again!" the voice shrilled.

  "Oh, I'm aware," Amaar said in a dull monotone.

  "Then why do this?"

  A skeletal hand reached up and pulled the top hat down over Amaar's forehead, casting an ominous shadow over his already intimidating eyes as a faint red light shined within them.

  "Because, my dear. Regardless of your current emotional or mental state, you made one Very. Big. Mistake."

  "Tell me and I'll fix it. I swear!" the voice begged.

  "You disturbed my nap with that explosion a few years ago," Amaar said in a completely serious voice.

  "Um—What?"

  The gray sphere immediately shrunk to the size of a marble and flew into Amaar's hand. He held it up to his eye and stared at it for a few seconds while a tiny voice raged from within it.

  "You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

  He rolled the sphere around a few times, then drew back his arm.

  "What do you think, Turkey? Pinball, pool, or bowling?" he asked with a "smile.”

  "None of the above—" the tiny voice started.

  "Pinball it is!" Amaar snapped his arm forward and sent the marble flying at speeds much faster than light.

  The gray sphere protected the planets and stars from the impacts while it bounced back and forth across the known galaxy. Until finally, after two years of bouncing, it slammed into the forehead of a young elf. The impact propelled the elf onto the ground and resulted in a quick, painless death.

  The goddess, who'd long since been knocked unconscious, was sent even further into unconsciousness while the gray sphere pushed her flame into the elf girl’s head.

  "I think it's about time the gods remembered what it was like to be mortal. Don't you, Forna?" Amaar's voice echoed through the girl's body as her soul was pushed out by Forna's.

  Amaar turned to the tiny soul floating next to him and gently pulled it towards his face.

  "I'm sorry you had to suffer through that, my dear," Amaar said sincerely.

  "I won't hurt anymore?" the spirit asked.

  "No, the sickness is gone."

  "Would I have died soon anyway?"

  Amaar nodded his head. "Unfortunately."

  The spirit was quiet for a while, then a tiny giggle escaped from it. "It's alright, I forgive you!" it chirped.

  Amaar smiled at the tiny soul. "Go on, then."

  He pushed the soul into the sky and used his power to guide her into the cycle, the afterlife for the people of Yggdrasil. Minutes after the soul departed Amaar turned his attention back to Forna. “I’ll see you soon, Forna. May you learn from this experience and come out be
tter for it.”

  IT WAS A DARK MOONLIT night and a young elven girl was being chased by a dark figure clad in black robes. She ran through the dark forest wearing nothing but a tunic that had a large blood stain on the front, just below her collarbone.

  "You know you cannot escape me, little bird. Come home willingly and you won't be punished," a venomous voice said to the elf's back.

  "No-No-No-No-No, he's dead! He's been dead for millennia!" the elf frantically thought as she glanced over her shoulder at the figure.

  "Dead?" the dark figure asked, as if it could hear her thoughts. "Did you really believe you and your pet lizard could truly kill me?" The cold voice laughed humorlessly.

  "We did! We killed you!!" she yelled, her eyes widening in fright as she realized the shadow was gaining on her.

  "No," the voice chuckled. "His power may have temporarily destroyed my form, but I am deathless. or did you forget that without his power to keep me from regenerating, nothing can kill me?"

  "No-No-No! It's just a dream! It's just a dream!" the elf yelled as she tripped and landed hard on her face. She quickly flipped onto her back and crawled away from the form that suddenly towered over her.

  "Unfortunately, you are correct little bird. This is a dream, but I am real, and I'm coming for you." The shadow reached out and gently lifted her face to his. "You are mine. You have always been mine, and you will always be mine," the shadow harshly whispered as it roughly smashed its cold lips to hers.

  The elf violently shoved the shadow away, climbed to her feet, and ran away to the sound of cold laughter.

  "And soon you will be back where you belong—by my side." Sixteen glowing red eyes raced after her, gaining on her with every passing second.

  THE ELF GIRL SHOT UP in bed. Her heart was hammering away in her chest and cold sweat covered her body. She sucked in a ragged breath and desperately tried to calm down before she woke her roommates.

  She was lying in a dark three-person tent that she shared with two other elf girls; sisters if she remembered correctly.

  She glanced down at the bedroll she'd been sleeping in and moved to get up, when she accidentally placed her hand in something wet. Is that... blood? the elf girl wondered as she lifted the woolen blanket to her nose and sniffed.