A Snake's Life

by Kenneth Arant

  I circled around behind it. My heat sense allowed me to find it in the darkness, while it remained oblivious. "It's a deer... good. Maybe it will take a little longer to digest." It appeared to be eating something and was sufficiently distracted for me to sneak up on it.

  I lifted my head off the ground and raised it until I was looking down on the deer. "Thanks for the meal." I struck. My massive size and strength meant I no longer needed to squeeze it to death. Instead, I bit into its back and threw it into a tree. It slammed into the tough bark with a sickening *Crack!* as the bones in its back were reduced to splinters.

  It somehow managed to survive the impact and was now whimpering in pain. Its body was wracked with tremors as its eyes stared into mine. "Don't worry, little deer. This won't take long," I assured it. I gently lifted it by the neck... then bit down until I could no longer feel it twitching. I leaned my head back and swallowed it whole.

  Once the deer was safely inside my stomach, I moved over to the thing it had been eating and swallowed it as well. It wasn't that big, and since it had apparently been dead for a while before I arrived, it’d lost most of its residual heat.

  I didn't know what I had just eaten, but I figured it didn't really matter. With the hunger pains in my stomach pushing me on, meat was meat. And If the deer could eat it, so could I.

  I moved on after that and stopped again a few minutes later when I found myself back where I’d started. The hole was exactly where I’d left it, but the traces of my first kill had been cleared away as if they were never there to begin with. Only an old blood stain remained, dyeing the green grass a sickly copper color.

  However, that wasn’t the deer I was looking for. The big deer and its miniature accomplice were gone... Or was the deer I’d just eaten its accomplice? If so, good. The little tattletale deserved it. If not, then I still owed a deer a good thrashing.

  “I don’t think they’d go too far. Vicious they may be, but they haven’t given me the impression that they’re incredibly intelligent—Hmm?" The smell of meat, bloody meat to be specific, caught my attention. And it was close.

  I followed my nose while periodically using my heat sense to search for any signs of living, or recently deceased, creatures. After a few minutes of searching I found the source of the smell. Several deer were surrounding a group of smaller heat signatures... and it looked like a battle was underway.

  One of the larger heat signatures yelled in a strange language that sounded... wrong, somehow. The smaller source quickly turned and blasted the deer with a wave of dark blue flames. Another deer charged into the fray and stabbed its horns through one of the larger sources and carried it in my direction.

  Another heat source yelled, its voice seeming to carry a sense of... sorrow?

  "Oh, free delivery. Normally I’d have to pay extra for that service." I waited until the deer was close before I struck. I attacked its head to prevent it from alerting the others, and quickly crushed it in my jaw. I swallowed both it and the other signature a few seconds later, then went back to watching the battle. Though the other signature had a metallic taste to it, it wasn't bad.

  The other large heat source bellowed before charging at a couple of deer. It somehow managed to kill one deer before the other stabbed it in the back. The smaller signatures were quickly overwhelmed by the remaining deer without the two larger signatures to defend their backs.

  "Oh well, more food for me." As the deer were feasting on their hard-won meal, I slowly took them out. One. By. One. I would move up to a deer's hind legs and then sneak around and attack its head. After I had it between my teeth, I would quickly jerk my head to the side. *Snap!* and its neck would break. Then I’d gently set it back down and move on to the next deer. I killed three of the five deer before I was discovered and though one of them managed to get away, the other was going into my little stockpile.

  "Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it’ll bring the big deer to me like the others did and save me the trouble of hunting it down myself."

  I ate every one of the bodies lying on the ground, then settled in to wait. If the escapee didn't bring the big deer to me by the time I was done with my nap, I would continue my search and hunt it down myself. My stomach was pretty full, after all. Aside from the five deer and the four other signatures I had eaten, I also needed to wait for the first deer and its meal to digest.

  I went to sleep not long after settling in and only awoke when I heard the sound of a pop-up appearing. I opened my eyes and saw it floating before me.

  ꝏꝏꝏꝏꝏꝏ

  You have eaten the following race for the first time.

  Wood Elf: Tier 3

  You have eaten the following race for the first time.

  Dark Elf: Tier 3

  You have eaten the following race for the first time.

  Human: Tier 3

  ꝏꝏꝏꝏꝏꝏ

  "Hmm... so that's what they were." I strangely didn’t feel any guilt about eating them. After all, they weren’t my wife. They weren’t my friends. For all intents and purposes, they were just... meat. I wasn’t sure if I was more disturbed by that thought, or by the fact that I’d managed to think it without feeling any remorse.

  “What’s happening to me?” I wondered as I dismissed the pop-up and began looking around. I didn't see any sign of the large deer. "I'll hang out a while longer. Maybe it'll show up eventually." I lay back down and began to wait.

  A long time passed before I noticed two heat sources coming my way. A small heat signature was leading a much larger signature. "Ah... and that's the dinner I ordered." I moved out of the way to let them pass and circled to their backs before they could spot me. The big deer stood protectively in front of the small one while it searched the area, presumably for me.

  "An appetizer before the main course, eh?" I grabbed the little deer by the head and jerked my head to the side, snapping its neck and throwing it away. The big deer must’ve heard the impact of the smaller deer hitting the ground because it turned its head in my direction—and I struck as soon as I could. I bit down and coiled my body around its midsection. It tried to thrash back and forth, but I was bigger now, stronger. It wasn’t going to throw me around anymore.

  After about a minute of its struggling against me, the big deer changed strategies. It stumbled over to a nearby tree and began slamming itself into it.

  I groaned under the repeated impacts. I had to release my hold on its neck after the fourth time my head was slammed into the tree, but I quickly sunk my teeth into the side of its head. I jerked it around and smashed it into the tree, breaking off one of its antlers in the process. It recoiled at the pain and let out a reverberating scream that shook my bones.

  “Not so fun, is it?” I mentally snarled.

  The deer made to slam me into the tree again, but I quickly jerked its head back around and drove it into the tree instead. It desperately tried to make me release its face, but I held on. I switched directions at that point and began pulling its head towards the ground. A few seconds later I had the deer on the ground and pinned beneath my body. It struggled for a few more minutes, whimpering, and moaning all the while... then its struggles ceased, and it lay still.

  "Glad that's finally over," I sighed. I uncoiled myself from the deer and repositioned my head at its back legs. "Time to eat." I slowly worked my way up its body and swallowed the giant deer whole, though I had to snap off its other antler against a tree so I could close my mouth around its head. Then, I moved over to the little deer and ate it too.

  "I should probably get out of here. I don't want anything to interrupt my meal being digested." I slowly moved deeper into the forest in search of a place to rest until I was hungry again. My stomach was weighing me down as several thousand pounds of Alpha venison was dissolving.

  Chapter 7

  I KEPT HEADING DEEPER into the forest for who knows how long before finally growing too tired to move and deciding to sleep wherever I stopped.

  After waking the next morning (o
r was it night? I didn’t know or care anymore...), I continued to move through the forest.

  “Everything looks the same,” I grumbled. “I was hoping to see some form of civilization by now, but all I've seen since coming to this world are these damnable trees."

  Of course, the humans and elves that I'd eaten the previous day had to come from somewhere, right? "Speaking of... I have seen one other thing. Maybe it's time I head in that direction?" I was thinking about the giant cylinder I'd seen the other night.

  “Now, if I could only remember which way that was...” I decided to do the first thing that came to mind and use my new height to my advantage. I doubted I could see over the trees, though there was no harm in trying. I used a tree as a support while I raised my head up as high as I could.

  “Oh, wow. I have gotten bigger—" *Crack!* I accidentally put too much weight on the tree, and it started to break. "Shit... Shit... Shit!" The tree finally snapped, and it collapsed, taking me along for the ride.

  "That... hurt," I groaned. Luckily, the tree didn't land on me, but my head did bounce off the trunk a few times.

  "Great. I didn't even get the chance to see the giant cylinder." I shook my head to clear it, before moving on. "Alright, new plan. Find something other than a tree to lean against, then try again." Having a tree almost fall on me once was enough, thank you very much.

  "At least I'm not hungry anymore, so I have that going for me." I hadn't felt the hunger pains since consuming the large Alpha Deer. That meant I could focus on exploring the forest instead of eating my way through it.

  Using my new freedom from hunger, I traveled through the forest for a long time and managed to make some real progress... I hoped. I couldn't be one-hundred percent sure, however. Since I still hadn't found something sturdy enough to lean against, I hadn’t managed to get my bearings yet.

  "It would be just my luck if I’ve been heading in the wrong direction this whole time."

  "That's not possible," a female voice said from directly behind my head. The words were accompanied by a bell-like laugh.

  "Huh?" I spun around trying to locate the source of the voice but didn't see anything.

  "Psst. Over here." I heard the voice from my right. I quickly turned in that direction, but again didn't see anything.

  "Where are you?" No matter where I looked, I was alone.

  "Aww, and I was having fun too," the voice groaned. A source of heat suddenly appeared in front of me as someone climbed onto my head and leaned over to look me in the eyes.

  "Hi!" a little girl chirped.

  "Hello...” I trailed off. After being unable to understand a word of what the elves and humans were saying during the battle earlier, I had just assumed that no one would be able to understand what I was saying. “How can you understand me?” I asked.

  "I wouldn't be much of a druid if I couldn't understand animals. You're a bit weird though," she said, a mischievous grin appearing on her face.

  "Am I?"

  "Yeah,” she giggled. “You don’t sound like a serpent. Most serpents tend to roll their S’s and R’s when they speak, but you don’t. Your voice reminds me of an old man I used to know. You're also a lot bigger than most creatures on this planet. What race are you?" she rambled.

  "Er... I'm a Titan Boa. And I probably sound like an old man because I am both old and a male," I lazily replied. I continued moving through the forest after deciding that she wasn't a threat. And she was light enough that even though she was riding on my head, she didn’t bother me.

  "Whoa, you're really a Titan Boa? That’s so cool!"

  "Yes, I'm really a Titan Boa. Now, if you’re quite done asking questions, can I ask a few?

  "Sure. I've got nothing else to do today," she admitted. I felt her readjust her legs into a more comfortable position.

  “Why aren't you afraid of me?"

  "Should I be?"

  "Not at the moment. I had a large dinner, so I’m not really in the mood for pipsqueak."

  "Then no, I'm not scared,” she replied after she stopped laughing. “Besides, I'm a druid. You couldn't hurt me if you tried."

  "Why do you say that?"

  "Druids are nature mages. One of the perks of being a druid is that non-magical animals can't harm me. Of course, since I can't harm them either it works out for both sides."

  "Why can't you harm them?" I asked curiously.

  "Granny says that it's a rule of druid magic,” she sighed. “Should we break that rule, we lose our magic in return."

  "I see..." I nodded my head. I didn’t understand a bit of what she’d just said, but it didn’t really matter. Wasn’t like I could use magic.

  "Got anything else you want to know?" she asked after a few minutes of silence. From the way she was tapping on my head with the heel of her foot, I guessed she wasn’t comfortable with the silence of the forest... which I thought was odd for a druid. If old books and video games had taught me anything, it was that druids loved nature and a quiet forest was right up their alley.

  "How is it impossible to go in the wrong direction?”

  "That's easy,” she said after a moment. “This planet is so small it’s barely larger than some mountains. No matter which direction you go, you'll eventually return to where you started."

  "Wow. So, I’ll always find my way back to that clearing?"

  "Clearing? I mean, I suppose. Though I was referring to the branch."

  "What's the branch?"

  The girl was silent for a few seconds before she started giggling. "Oh, this is going to be good. I can’t wait for you to see it."

  "See what?"

  "Nuh-uh, I'm not saying," she said coyly.

  "Tell me."

  "Nope. It’s a surprise."

  "I hate surprises," I grumbled.

  "Don't be that way,” she laughed. “I'm sure you'll like this surprise."

  "That’s not likely to happen. I really hate surprises."

  I heard, rather than felt, her slap the back of my head. "Don't be an old grouch. Just sit back and enjoy the ride."

  "Says the one riding on my head."

  "Yeah, yeah. Whatever." She flippantly waved her hand in my face.

  "Damn annoying brat."

  "So, what's your name?"

  "Torga, my name is Torga. What's yours?"

  "Pleased ta meet ya, Torga! I'm Ayla Ulafaren."

  "Likewise, brat."

  "Ya know, we should probably hurry if we're going to make it before nightfall."

  That stopped me in my tracks. "What do you mean 'nightfall'? It's always dark, so how can there be a nightfall?"

  “We have night and day, silly,” she said in the kind of voice you would use for a particularly dim-witted child. “You're just not looking in the right direction."

  "Forgive my ignorance. I assumed you had to look up to see the sky,” I grumbled.

  "Yes, but on this world, you're not looking for the sky. You're looking for those." She pointed towards a tree that had a large Obsidian Beetle eating through it.

  "The... Beetle?"

  "Yep. The Obsidian Beetle is only active during daylight hours and they sleep at night. While a race known as the Alpha Deer are the opposite. They only come out at night... unless they're hunting something."

  “Oh? What happens then?”

  "Well, the deer are a vindictive bunch. They'll hunt down anything that smells of their kind’s blood."

  "Is that so?"

  "Yep," she immediately agreed.

  "Mm."

  We traveled in silence for a little while before she started asking questions again.

  "Say, you wouldn’t happened to have killed any of the deer, would you?"

  "Why?"

  "Oh, no reason. I was just wondering why we were being followed by deer for the past twenty minutes."

  "What?" I snapped my head around and saw well over ten deer following behind us in a half-circle formation.

  "What're they doing?" I asked as I slowly rotated my body aroun
d to face them. I didn’t want to provoke them into attacking before I was ready.

  "I'm not sure. I think they're waiting on something," she replied quietly. I felt her hunker down and a pair of slender arms fastened themselves to my neck.

  "Damnit!" I felt the trembling ground long before I saw what was causing it. I quickly raised my head into the trees and threw Ayla off onto a branch. "Stay there," I ordered.

  "What's happening?" She leaned off the branch to get my attention.

  I glanced at her before focusing on the large deer that was charging at me. "I think this one might know my last meal."

  "You ate an Alpha Deer!?"

  "I've eaten several of them,” I replied with a snort of amusement. “I was referring to the big Alpha Deer I had for dinner last night."

  "Oh... that'll do it. Alpha Deer mate for life, so you probably ate its partner.”

  The deer was only a few tens of feet away when I heard what she said. "Well then, I'll just have to reunite them." Right before the deer reached me it ducked its head, showing me its two small, needle-like horns. Unlike its mate's giant, dull horns, these appeared to be quite sharp. I moved my head out of the way as it charged by. I bit into its leg and yanked it backward, causing the charging deer to lose its balance and slide to a stop. I wrapped my tail around the base of a tree, bit into the deer’s spine, and quickly jerked my head to the side. The large deer was lifted off the ground and I used the tree to get enough momentum to sling it away from me.

  "Whoa! You're strong," I heard Ayla cheer. I chose to ignore her in favor of focusing on the deer that was climbing to its feet.

  "Wait—hey, there's a small one behind you!"

  I looked back in time to see a deer with thin horns ram into my side. The sharp horns pierced through my scales without effort. "Ow! You annoying little shit." I closed my jaws around its neck and yanked it away from my body. I slammed it into the tree I’d wrapped my tail around and grunted in satisfaction as its body crumpled like a Styrofoam cup against the hard bark of the tree.