Slither slither. Good day. Have good hunt, eat many deer, belly full. Go home now. Other waiting there. Maybe mate, maybe not. Make strong children. Mate yes, children good.

 

    Strange things near cave. Two-legs? Shiny ones. They make much noise, strange. Not hungry, no attack, let food pass even though two-legs tasty. This food dangerous, hide while they go.

“Hey Tusky, can you believe how easy that was? You had no need for that sword after all!”

“Hey, better safe than sorry. First time I wanted hand-me-downs.”

“Whatcha gonna do with your reward money?”

“You mean aside from drinking?”

Much barking.

“I’m gonna need a drink after haulin’ this hunk of junk.” Two-leg making noise slapped something with paws. Smell like Other. Strange, Other much bigger than piece of wood thing on. Different two-leg behind make noise.

“Quit whining, at least the flies are not on your end.”

 

    Two-legs go, enter cave. Many comfort, cave nice. Nest deep inside where cosiest. Go slow, smell for two-leg. Find many children sleep in red water. Two-leg scent all the way back to nest. They go deep. Get to nest, Other there. Strange smell though. Blood. Not blood of Other food. Head missing. Other still. Something wrong.

 

    Suddenly something more wrong. Thinking becomes strange. There be something unusual about what feel. I raised my head and flicked the air, trying to sense what was wrong. There was no smell out of the ordinary but the scent of blood. His blood. Other? Hus...band? Husband?!

 

    Memories once viewed through a veil of… stupidity? Had I always been that stupid? Why wasn’t I now? No matter! Memories once viewed through a veil of stupidity flashed through my mind. A wrapped lump of something that smelled like Husband earlier. A lump the size and shape of the head he was missing now. All those children I’d passed earlier in the puddles. Those were puddles of blood. They’d been murdered. They killed them all!

 

    I wasn’t sure if the hiss I let out was one of rage or of grief, but it filled the cavern, reverberating off the walls like his loss did through my empty heart. It came loud, unnaturally so, but I cared naught. The noise brought many of my nearby children to investigate. Their howls and trills joined with mine to lament the death of my husband. Their father.

 

    The thought of following the two-legs came to me, nipped viciously at my thoughts. Yet those same people had already killed my husband, could I let my children lose their mother and father on the same day? I swallowed my anger but barely, and only for their sake.

 

    A year passed. My mental wounds did not heal, but festered like gangrenous sores. When the first of my children came to me with reports of more shiny two-legs I was struck with a wave of emotions. Fear, nervousness, blinding rage. Happiness. Perhaps they would be the same bastards that killed my husband. If they came to me, aware and prepared, could I not strike them down?

 

    A plan formed. First, none of my children could come to harm. I had them cover their tracks and hide in the deepest reaches of my caverns. The humans had found their way to my husband before with a difficult path to follow, but let them find me now. Let them come to me. Second, I laid a trap. There were many loose stones scattered about, I had enough of them to cover the floor thrice over gathered and used the strange new power I’d discovered since the Lifting of the Veil to suspend them from the ceiling. They floated there like a second roof, their upper tips glowing a green that looked not at all unnatural from below. I moved through the chamber examining my work, then when I found it satisfactory hid in a far corner.

 

    The two-legs came later than expected. They were noisy; clearly audible for minutes before I could see them. When they finally did arrive they marked themselves with orbs of light as well. Ah, so they had trouble seeing here? I could use that to my advantage. They wandered into the middle of my nest slowly, cautiously, chattering in that way only two-legs did all the while. I let them poke around until they were where I wanted them, then sprung the trap.

 

    It was all too easy; like letting out a held breath. All at once thousands of rocks, tons upon tons of stone rained death from everywhere in the room save my sheltered vantage point. I saw the powerful one’s bubble of protection extend around it and one more, prayed that the other I watched buried would die. Then there were the last two. Both of them flitted amongst the falling stone like leaves in the wind. The male—I thought that was what a two-leg male looked like—cleared the last teeth of the trap, but the female was caught at the last second. It was a pity I couldn’t hear the snap or her first scream of pain as her leg was smashed to a pulp.

 

    With bated breath I waited to see which of the two-legs remained. There would at least be the three to kill later, but I wanted to know for sure how many were left. Two of the two-legs, the powerful one and the second shiniest one, had not been touched at all and ran to each other. Lovers, perhaps? My intuition said yes. Hmm… The shiniest sprung up from beneath the myriad stones like a fish from a stream and the three of them headed to the downed female.

 

    Not a single one died? Blast! Then I would still need to take care of things myself. I was prepared for that as well, but the two-leg that escaped, the one in black, still worried me. He’d moved beyond the limits of my vision even with the additional light provided. The tactic worried me, so I advanced slowly, wary of falling into a trap myself as the two-legs chattered and tended to the wounded. Nothing came, so I moved near the edge of the light and summoned several fangs while still trying to remain wary.

 

     The shiniest one held up a curved object and all of my fangs of light slammed into it to no effect. I let out a low hiss of frustration inaudible over the two-legs jabbering and moved in closer. This would have to get messy.

 

     The less shiny one broke away from the others with a weapon held high and one of those lights above to mark him for me. My blood boiled. He came to destroy my children and myself with that sliver of metal. Let him try, and let him taste my fangs! I would kill all of them!

 

I gathered my aura of protection around myself, and darted forward to attack. They were persistent, but weak; only the one with the power was a threat, and she spent so much time protecting the others she could not attack. Still, the fight was a stalemate, a frustratingly long affair that I had wanted to end quickly. The missing one made his appearance in the form of a spine launched into my mouth, but even that helped them little until it came again.

 

     An inexplicable feeling of wrongness as if the world itself had been perverted into a mockery of itself swept past me. The two-legs felt it too, and all of them paused in their actions as well as I. This was no Lifting of the Veil; my wits were not sharpened, nor did I gain some new sense of self, yet the feeling was the same. This time it was my body that twisted.

 

     The cave and my attackers suddenly ballooned in size as the scales near my head receded into delicate pink skin, the type I took joy in sinking my fangs into. I felt so vulnerable, but even as that feeling manifested it got worse. I could feel ribs shrinking back and twisting, two parts of my body narrowing such that my head was distinct from the rest of my body and I had two separate sets of ribs. The second rib cage developed two sacks of fat as I watched, and my head… was that fur? My mighty jaw, too, stretched and shrank as the upper part of my spine developed a crick such that my chin was no longer in line with my body. Then there were the forelegs. Muscles, sinews and bones I never had before grew as if from nowhere, like parasites clamped onto my spine. So foreign and unfamiliar, yet they moved at my will as if I’d had them my entire life, right down to the weak little claws. What what was all this? I could at least remove the spine from my mouth, but this body… it was so disgusting and weak. What was with these paws?

 

     Two of the two-legs took advantage of my confusion and rushed forward, aided after a moment by the sneaky one in black. That attack I felt, from all sides. My power had grown no weaker, but three angles was more than I could defend. My foreleg blocked the shiniest one, but the sneaky bastard and the one behind me both brute forced their way through the strongest protection I could bring against them with their weapons of metal and, like the fangs of a wolf, rent my body.

 

     No! This would not be my end! I would never feel the sun on my back or the wind on my flesh. All of the children waiting for me, so many more yet to be… ah, I couldn’t make any more children, could I? Still, I didn’t want to die. I couldn’t die.

“Get back!” The one with power yelled. All of the two-legs sprang back at once moments before the earth shifted beneath the last remaining part of my body that I still knew. I wouldn’t die. I wouldn’t!

 

    I managed a slight shift to the side as the ground tented upwards into a spike. It wasn’t much, but because of it an impaling blow became a titanic hand that lifted me into the air then sent me plummeting back down. I could scarcely breathe as I laid in agony on the rocky ground, but still I laughed to myself. Did they think that would be enough? After torturing me and everything I loved so did they think that a few stab wounds would take me to death’s embrace? This wasn’t enough, not by a hundredth.

 

     I willed strength into my arms, power into my being. The two-legs saw my weakness and charged. I’d repay it back to them all, but first… I raised my hand. But first... I needed them to FUCKING! GET! AWAY! A twitch of my new claws I barely registered focused my energy into something useful as I slammed my paw into the ground. A wave of force burst forth and slammed into the attacking two-legs as if my wrath had been made material.

 

     I reared myself and shakily took in my surroundings. The shiny two-leg was the closest. Fine, then he would be first! The bitch mate of the less shiny two-leg drew herself together and aimed a wave of fangs of light in my direction. The claws on my good leg twitched in response to my will and a gesture bought the shiny bastard toward me to act as a shield of flesh. Her attack was weak, or perhaps she’d pulled it at the last second, but I would not. He made to defend himself, but not even the wall of metal he raised could save him from me. I summoned part of a fang of light into the base of my good paw and, with a scream born as much of pain as of fury, pulled it down with my injured leg. This form truly was weak, but I was coming to understand it now far more than I had before. I targeted the soft area under his head, and I thrust.

 

     There was a sucking sound as I pulled my hand away and banished the fang. Not nearly enough reward, but knowing one more two-leg was dead satisfied me. I was beginning to feel my wounds once more though, something would need to be done and soon. I felt so tired…

 

     The less shiny two-leg bellowed at the loss of his packmate and ran towards me again. The weariness in my bones faded as I looked upon him, replaced by rage. I HADN’T TOLD HIM TO COME! Another quick motion of claws, then a clap. This time my rage manifested as a dizzying thunderclap and flash of lightning. All of the two-legs fell, though I knew not for how long.

 

     Before this latest burst of energy faded I turned to healing myself. My spirit was yet strong, but my flesh was weakening. I’d never done it before, but I turned my mind to stopping my lifeblood from spilling to the ground. Yes, what did it mean to repair the flesh? I traced my feelings into the air, trying to channel my power through that thought. I touched the resulting circle to my side. It burned immensely, but I grit my teeth and endured it, revelling in the lack of pain that came after. Reaching my back was a clumsier affair, but I treated it as well before turning to the first sounds of motion from the two-legs.

 

     The one in black. It was dark in the cave with the woman down, but I could still make him out, crawling low. Cowardly bastard. I traced a simple shape, and several fangs of light materialized around him. He dodged many, but I had no intention of stopping until he was dead. Finally one caught him in a hind leg and he fell. He looked around wildly for any chance of help.

“Pillar! Wal—”

His cry was cut short as three more fangs plunged into his chest. Hmph.

 

    The cavern lit up again as the woman found her feet and sent out probing orbs of light. Ah, yes, I had plans for that one. Her death would be personal, but first I needed to get closer. She was one I could not simply slither up and annihilate; she would skewer me. I would need to simply appear. Appear… I focused on the thought and drew more patterns in the air with my tail, imagining, imagining. There.

 

    My ears popped, there was a whoosh of air around me and I was behind her. Auras of protection clashed as I pried into her sole vestige of defence. It cracked as the one inside it cowered before me. I scrabbled for something to say. Venomous, hateful words.

“Infertile bitch!” I cried, surging forward. She was weak. All too easily I batted away her forelegs with my own and ducked forward to sink my teeth into soft flesh. I may have been made to look as I did, but I had not lost my bite.

 

    I pulled back and we stared at each other, even as her mate came barreling toward her. The fear, the shock in her eyes was delightful. Yet still I had a two-leg to kill; I could watch her die later. One full swing of my paw sent her flying, and the lights she cast sputtered away. Still in a particularly wicked mood I slithered away into the darkness as the last male finally came near enough to do anything.

 

    Despair. Anguish. It was evident in his every movement as he flailed at nothing. Ah, this show I had time to savor. The female called out to him and he dropped his weapon. Still the good mate to the end, hmm? Something bitter bubbled up from the pits of my stomach. The metal thing clattered to the ground, and on silent scales I glided over to pick it up. Death by his own wicked tool would be poetic, no?

 

    It was an evil thing for the weak. Cold metal and sharp edges, reach beyond the short forelegs of the wielder. It had been cleaned thoroughly, often, but the blood of so many was still soaked into it. To me it was as if the entire thing dripped with it, wafted from every cranny. So many lives claimed by this, so many children. There was one more more familiar scent there though, exceedingly close to home. A scent I loved before any of the others. Hus...band?

 

    The bastard impotent motherfucking baby killing SON OF A BITCH! He’d… with this thing. THIS THING! He’d done it. Taken the light of my life and destroyed the one who’d never leave my nest. Rage burned so hotly within me I felt cold and the paw holding the sword fell limp at my side. The two-leg turned at the sound, screaming every way but at me.

“Come! Stop hiding and show yourself!” he pivoted toward the sound of a stone shifting under me. “Coward! Let there be but a candle so that I may—” Light? He wanted light? Then let him fucking have it. I summoned a single dim orb and glared into his eyes from mere inches away. I would kill him, slice him into a thousand pieces while he yet lived and make him eat the bits. But first, I wanted to hear him say it.

“This sword reeks of my husband’s blood,” I hissed.

“Aye, it was the blade that killed him,” the rat bastard sneered. “I only wish it was my hand guiding it, monster.”

 

    Something deep within me broke. I thought I’d felt hatred before, anger without compare, but I was wrong. This was loathing. Sheer, unbridled, unthinking loathing. Power crackled from my fingertips as his words washed over me. I tossed him with the same ability that turned his packmate into my shield. Left, right, left, then up. The very ground drew him back down before me so I could pin him and pummel that ARROGANT, MURDEROUS FACE!

“I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you! I’LL KILL YOU I’LL KILL YOU I’LLKILLYOUI’LLKILLYOUI’LLKILLYOUI’LLKILLYOUI’LLKILLYOU! DIE!” The words streamed from my mouth, each one accompanied by a vicious blow with all my soul behind it.

 

    His eyes closed and still I punched.

“Die! Die! Die…” My paws… my knuckles bled. Each strike grew weaker as the anger flowing through me was overtaken by sorrow. One more hit, then and he would be finished. I raised my paw high and tried to think of a suitable use of power.

“Mother?”

I whirled. There, tail glowing bright, stood one of my children, a juvenile. Dull orange scales that once covered her entire body receded to cover little more than her hind and forelegs, brown skin took its place. She looked even more like the two-legs than I now did, yet I still recognized her as one of my own.

“What is it?” I demanded. “I told you to stay away until I called for you.” I should have known this one would be troublesome. I should have sent her into the deeper tunnels; had she come much earlier she might have been hurt.

“It was quiet,” she whined, tail thrashing in badly concealed excitement. “What are you doing?”

I looked from her back to my clenched paw, then lowered it.

“I am… killing a two-leg.” Ah. That described her now too, didn’t it?

“Are you going to eat that one?”

“I… no.” I had spent so much energy, used so much power, yet these two-legs that should’ve sounded delicious held my interest no more than a blade of grass. Except for the living male beneath me, that was. Something was there, something foreign. I hungered, yet it was not my stomach that ached. “Do you want to, dear?”

“No. What happened to me? To us?”

“Something strange. I do not know what. For now though, let us take these two. I have plans for them.” The female I would watch die slowly and the male I would question. What had he meant when he said he only wished his hand had guided the metal? Once I found out he too would die slowly, but perhaps—no, certainly—not as mercifully as the woman.

 

     I reached down and grabbed the male by the fur, then turned to drag him deeper into the caves when there came a moan.

“Mother, there is another alive over there. Should I grab her too?” The one that had been crushed by the trap yet lived? Her injuries were grave.

“Leave her, she will die soon enough.”

 

    We found two small branch caves that functioned well as cells. The caves were damp that far back, but the glowing moss growing in the area made it easier to see detail. Several of my daughters—I thought I’d birthed many more males… or at least some, for that matter—stripped him of his coverings and left a large rock in front of the man’s cave as a door. It would do while he was still injured and I wouldn’t let him live long enough to recover. The woman’s escape barely needed to be be considered, but she drew my interest. Namely, she wasn’t dying the way I expected her to. She was struggling to breathe and sweating, yes, but I would’ve expected her to stop moving, not twitch erratically and moan like she was. More, there was this growing sense of… sameness I couldn’t describe. Had my venom weakened? Perhaps that too was another result of whatever change had occurred here.

“Mother, the male is awake.” The adolescent salamander—I’d begun referring to her as Dawn because of the way her tail’s light waxed on the cave walls as she ran toward me—notified me, her tail swishing in anticipation.

“I see. I would advise you not to get excited though, young one. This one is mine.”

“Awww…” Dawn drummed her claws on the hero’s weapon she’d claimed for her own at her waist. “Then can I fight the next one?”

“Time will tell, little one,” I smiled after roughing up her fur, “now lead on.”

 

    My good mood soured as three of my children, more girls, moved the barrier from the male’s cell. Fully expecting a fight I gathered my aura of protection around me and prepared one more power just in case. Peering into the deeper darkness of the inner cave I saw no one. That was his game? How dull.

As soon as I slithered past the threshold the two-leg leapt at me from an alcove on my right. Without even turning my head to look at him I unleashed my readied power, tossed him against the far wall and pinned his body spread-eagle against the rough stone. He glared at me with piercing gray eyes after I used my power to make a light, brighter this time and fairly white, so that he might see me. Without cue the portal behind me ground shut.

“Two-leg.” The word was practically a hiss as it passed my lips. “No, that will not do. What do I call you?”

With no warning at all the filthy creature drew in a breath before pursing his lips and hitting me in the cheek with bloody spittle. “Human.”

“Human…” I repeated the words contemptuously as I wiped his pink saliva from my face. As suddenly as he’d spat I clenched my paw and struck him in the jaw, knocking his head into the wall as a bonus. “I see you wish me to make you linger longer.”

“Only long enough for me to end you.”

“Spare me the bravado, human. You are without your shells or your weapon, defenseless and in my grasp. What remains of your pathetic life is allowed only by my good grace, so do not test me and speak.”

“That sounds like reason not to speak to me, snake.”

 

     A thin smile formed on my lips as I cast a flame upon my hand. Without breaking eye contact with the human I took my burning hand and grasped his thigh. Muscle writhed under my fingers as the smell of burning flesh assaulted my nose. The human struggled and failed not to scream as the heat began to char his skin.

“Is that reason enough to speak?”

The male managed a forced smile after I slowly, gleefully slid my hand away over his seared flesh. “You have no sense of humor.”

 

     There was a defiance in his eyes I did not like at all, yet I had no idea how to remove it. My life had been spent doing two things: mating and efficiently killing. What I needed to do… what I wanted to do here was a foreign concept.

“For you? No. Enough pleasantries; you came here to kill me. Why?”

“Why?” He scoffed in a way that made my blood boil. “What reason does a man need to kill a monster?”

What reason indeed. It occurred to me that I should be the one asking questions, yet what he’d asked was so perplexing I let it distract me.

“I would suspect hunger, yet there is far easier prey to be found. Protection, then? Were you nesting nearby?”

“Nes—are you serious?”

 

     There was that smirk again. I hadn’t had lips myself for more than a few hours yet the little I knew about them made the expression infuriating. At the same time there was something… attractive about that twist of his lip, that glint in those steel gray eyes that made me feel… angry. That was it. Whatever that feeling was I twisted it into hate. More hate I could use.

“Answer me!” A sharp smack followed my shout as my fist connected with his nose. The human shook his head and found my eyes once again.

“You call that a punch?” Rat bastard! I’d made some effort to keep control of myself before, but I’d had it with that smug! Fucking! Face! Over and over again I hammered my fist into his face. I didn’t stop until one choice blow made something crack and a stream of blood gushed freely from his nose. He felt that one, alright. I checked my breathing and lowered my hand as the liquid dripped past his chin.

“Talk!”

 

     Fists clenched and unclenched under my power’s hold, one of the few parts he could yet move. The male’s teeth grated before he spoke too. What was this? A warrior’s vexation? Anger at this sheer helplessness? It seemed my crude technique could not make him fear me, but perhaps there was another way to drive a stake into his heart.

“I did it to make sure you didn’t pop out any more of your abominations.”

“You already killed my mate!” Keeping the hand I propelled forward to grasp his neck from squeezing until his windpipe crushed took more willpower than I’d ever known I had. “How could I possibly birth any more children, you imbecile?! No, that is not it either.”

“Not me.” He choked out past my grip.

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“Say it again!” I demanded, wrapping those fingersjust a little tighter around his neck and shaking like I wanted his head to pop off.

“I was not the man that killed the other echidna.” Though he likely wished he were.

“Then when you said—”

“Aye. I should have done the job myself instead of letting another take care of things with my blade.” His eyes seemed to say ‘I would have done the job properly and killed you both,’ but the comment went unsaid. Perhaps we were making progress. Control crept back to me as his realization that he had none gnawed at his mind.

“And my husband’s head? What became of it?”

“His skull is quite the trophy in our town square. They cleaned the head like all the rest, sold the venom and hide, but everything else? Burned or buried.”

 

    Trophy? The image of my husband’s head being paraded around like a wolf playing keep away with a meaty bone filled my mind. Kills were meant to be brought down and eaten or saved for later, not shown off. This idea that anyone would even come up with displaying it was barbaric. Would he be gawked at? Played upon? Would other humans point at his skull and say ‘I want to kill something that big’ just for the sake of doing it? That was appalling, yet it wouldn’t have been any better if they held a festival to celebrate his death whilst eating his body.

 

And they called us the monsters?

 

     He was proud of it, too. Look at him, still jeering, the bastard. So many of my children must have been killed just so his kind could brag about it or for sport. Disgusting. My babies couldn’t live in peace with creatures like that around. We’d have to kill all of them before they killed us. Not for fun, not to say we did, but so we could live.

 

“You look troubled, serpent. Is something on your mind?”

“Murder.”

 

    A long, drawn out slaughter. Destroying his whole hive might bring some small comfort, some small measure of safety for me and mine, but not enough. Ah yes. How would he react, I wondered, if faced with the heads of his friends and family paraded about on sticks? That would be something worth seeing. He would be allowed to live until I could show him that. Until then though, I would make him learn fear.

 

     I countered his weakening sneer with one of my own. Without uttering a word I released the power holding him against the wall. The human dropped to the ground and looked up at me dumbstruck before slowly standing.

“Why?” He asked as he stretched out his limbs, without looking away for a second.

“I want you to fight me.”

“My sword.” The statement came cautiously, as if he was poking at a trap. If only he knew.

“Oh? You said you only needed a light before. There is plenty now, did you change your mind?”

His lips pulled back in a snarl. There was an expression I was familiar with, one I’d never tire of seeing. Another one I could match, as well. “Come.”

 

    So he did. The attack was fast and hard, but with my aura of protection it was still little more than a blow from a child. I let a kick and several punches slide harmlessly off of me before I threw a punch of my own. Through whatever power he used his flesh was hard and heavy, but mine was yet harder. I caught him off guard with one, then sent him ducking under two more.

“You are weak, human! Beat me! Take my skull and lay it in your square!” His only answer was a bellow and a foolish charge.

 

     I lowered myself, taking his momentum with my shoulder, only to force myself up underneath him and send him sprawling. The human scrambled to regain his feet, but I was far faster. In a heartbeat I’d rushed over and pinned his body beneath me, the full brunt of my body weight more than enough to immobilize his feet. For reasons even I didn’t understand I wrapped my tail around his legs and squeezed. The lowly bastard screamed and shifted his attention to freeing himself.

 

     He pushed at my coils and squirmed to pull himself loose, a feeling that drove me wild. Only this time, instead of my appetite, something else within me grew. This was no feeling I was familiar with, but visions of mating filled my mind. With this… thing? No! I shook the thought from my head and pounded into his exposed chin. Finally those preoccupied hands came up to block me, but the motion was dazed. I took hold of his wrists and pinned them to the ground. Still he struggled. I wanted to hit him more and more and more! With both hands full and my tail otherwise occupied there was little I could hurt him with save my fangs, and I didn’t want to kill him yet.

 

“Curse you!” the human screamed as he struggled within my grasp.

“Yes,” I hissed. “Hate me. Fear me, you bastard!” A burst of inspiration came upon me and I slammed my forehead into his nose. Again he cried out, eyes watery nose freshly bloodied. His struggles ceased, save the one to curl in on himself.

 

    Look at him! So pitiful! Mate. Weak and disgusting! To think that a creature this insignificant had the gall to kill my mate and then come back for me! Rape.To think that this passed for a male among his species! Semen. Oh, but he was a male, wasn’t he? Chiseled as if of rock, nothing like this smooth female form of mine. I… I wanted him. Power seeped out of me uncontrollably and the human trapped in my grasp gasped. Impregnate. Something hardened beneath me, poking against my belly so close to where I wanted it most.

 

     Focus fled as I ground myself against that pole, desperate to have it inside of me, but not knowing how to get it there or even what I would do once it was. More grinding, different angles. Come on, come on—oh… This was mating? Before it was naught more than a means to an end, a necessary precursor of strong children, but this? This fire burning within me, this pleasure?

“Stop!” the human pleaded. The words barely reached my ears. Even as my mind revolted at the thought of what I was doing my body revelled in it. I thrust myself against the man caught in my coils, each movement causing a low grunt and a wave of pleasure throughout my body.

 

     The hands pinning the human’s weakened under the stimulation and he pulled those free. He didn’t strike me though, now it seemed all he wanted to do was push my hips away. No! We weren’t finished yet! I clumsily grappled his hands away resulting in a tangled mess of limbs and my collapse on top of him. Another foreign impulse struck me and I touched my lips to his. Of its own accord my tongue snaked out to probe his mouth. As soon as it was within reach the filthy human lashed out and bit. On reflex I jerked away and screamed with the taste of blood filling my mouth. Bastard! I got him back though; the human let out a cry of his own when I squeezed my tail until I felt something pop.

 

     Even through that he stayed hard. So wonderfully hard. There was no sound in the cave save his whimpering and my moaning as I pistoned against him. Come on, do it! Release your seed! Make me pregnant! CUM! He finally did. Twitch after twitch of his sturdy penis sent the sperm into my depths. It was a joyous feeling, full and warm like the knowledge of new life inside of me. The sensation sent a shiver up my spine. Maybe I passed out for a moment, maybe I was just so focused on the feeling of being full I blocked out the world for an instant, but I lost myself for a while.

 

     When I was aware of my surroundings again I gently uncoiled the human and slithered back. Without even looking at me again he curled around a swollen ankle and shivered.That was a feeling I understood too well at the moment. What had we just done? And why? Many questions still burgeoning within me, I turned. I needed to leave.

“Move the stone.” At my command the barrier slowly rolled away and I left the cell as soon as there was room. Dawn waited for me outside.

“Mother! That sounded like an incredible fight!”

“Ah, yes.”

“Your mouth is bleeding. Let me—”

“I am fine.”

“But—”

“Have the human seen to, Dawn. Especially his nose.”

“What? Why?”

“Just go. I need to think.”

 

     Truly I did. As my daughters rolled the stone back into place I slithered away with my hand on my belly. I’d had a few questions answered, but raised so many more. Why had I tried to mate with a human? Had I succeeded? Why was my new hunger gone even though I hadn’t eaten? What was I? The world itself seemed a mystery now, nothing I once knew held true, but I would rediscover those truths. In the mean time, however, there was a village to be found.

 

Ghastly as it was, my husband’s skull would be an unmistakable landmark.   

 

 

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