Wooden Glass.

"Kine?"

The young man grunted, shoving the inquisitive child away.

"KINE!" The child, of indistinct gender, barked at the man. His eyes were shadowed, but the child could see them open and lock onto him.

"Lee'me 'lone." Kine growled, shutting his eyes. He pulled his hat down over his face, the knit fabric covering his eyes.

The child turned back to an older villager, a guilty look on her face.

"Kine is potent! When he gets up, he'll kill the snakes, mister. I promise!"

Kine lifted his head, sniffing the air.

"Whatchuwant." The young man, in a simple tunic, boots, and stained jeans, fixed his obstructed stare on the old man.

"No new folks have come to our village. Shepards usually cross the forest in the Summer. We sent people to search the forest for lost sheep, or goods that may have been lost."

"What was the cause? Thieves?" Kine lowered his head. "Find the nerve to handle them. There are plenty of men in your neighboring towns. Form a group and hunt them."

"A Serpent. A great serpent with a human face. Easily a hundred feet long!"

Kine raised his hat from his eyes, sitting up on his knees.

"That's certainly a possibility."

"...You believe me? Even those who saw the remains had trouble believing the tale."

Kine yawned, and reached for the long, wooden rod behind him.

"They've moved here from the center of the Great Forest. It's probably a small one, that got bullied out of its territory. They like sheep, but they'll eat humans when they can. Did it go after the men you sent to scout?"

"No. They found blood, and bones, and trails that led to a small lake."

Kine smiled. "It's been eating well. It will be bloated. Sleepy." Kine lifted his staff, and shouldered it. One end was thick and blunt, wound with a small band of spring steel. The other end was sharpened to a fine point, like a mighty, thin needle.

The child smiled, having 'solved' the situation in her own way. Kine ruffled her pink hair, and lifted his staff, walking. "I'll kill it before it wakes, hopefully."

"We'll know you died if you don't come back, young man." The old man gave Kine a grave smile.

"You'll know I won when I come home with the creature's tongue." Kine draped a hooded shawl over his shoulders, and began his walk out of town.

It all happened so fast.

His sheep disappearing in a strange, black and grey blur.

His staff shattering against the monster's face as it rocketed past him.

Then Shia made the fatal mistake of looking the creature in the eye.

To be true, it wasn't even hungry. It stared down at him, with the deathly black spheres, set deep in its hellish, pale face. Its lips pursed, a whispering sigh escaping its thin, happy, bloody maw.

It shaved the young shepherd's arm off for sport.

Kine knelt down, and shut the eyes of the armless corpse. He'd managed to crawl a good distance before succumbing to his wounds.

He felt a strange kinship with dead bodies.

"If I'd come out here sooner, you'd be alive, sib. I apologize." Kine bowed his head.

Standing, he continued towards the lake.

It wasn't a far hike. He moved as quietly as he could, taking off his boots. His feet curled around roots, and avoided prodding, snapping twigs. No man could have heard him coming. He held his stick with both arms, draping across his back, his eyes narrow with focus and preparation.

He trodded lightly, coming to the murky waters.

Ripples.

"..."

Kine watched the water shift.

The Serpent was awake. Wide awake. It wound around itself.

Coiling to strike. Kine could see it. His mind's faulty wiring was a blessing. He could see motion in a different way, colors echoing up to greet him at any presence.

There was no color here. No magics at play. Just the grey hue of natural danger.

The creature rose slowly, its hair black as night, covered in water, came up first as it rose straight up, like a murderous totem.

Its skin was skin was deathly pale, its cheekbones drawn high in a terrible mockery of nobility. It began to sway back an forth, its mouth puckered as though it intended to plant a grim kiss on Kine's cheek.

Its scales were matte black, bristling with anticipation. Each one was as sharp as a crocodile's tooth, moving of their own accord, absorbing moisture and light as the creature swayed.

There was no doubt that its eyes were fixed on Kine. Those eyes, black against the pallor of its unaturally human face, locked on him in hideous glee.

"You're bigger than I hoped." Kine growled, clutching his rod. "I hate that."

The creature swayed, as Kine moved slower than a tortoise. His feet balanced his low center of gravity as he circled the Serpent. He wanted it to have to calculate before it struck.

"I should have just worn my boots. Sneaking up was pointless."

Locked in that stare, the two prepared to share each-other's bloody affections. The Serpent viewed him as food, not a death threat.

Kine wouldn't have it any other way.

With blinding speed, it came.

Kine lifted his rod as fast as the Serpent could strike.

He was immediately swept off his feet. He'd been stricken on center, and his feet were planted on the serpent's face. His staff's point was buried deep in between the creature's eyes.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSS

The creature thrashed, but Kine held fast. If he fell into that water, he'd be shredded alive by the creature's scales. Its powerful muscles would pulverize him.

Its horrible hiss pierced Kine's ears. To the creature, possessed of only slightly subhuman intellect, the battle wasn't funny anymore. Now it was life or death.

It hurled its face down, as Kine leaped aside, rolling away, his arm bruised by the root of a tree.

Dismayed, he saw the creature writing in pain, with his staff buried deep in its face.

Kine seized his boots, and forced them on, as he paced below the creature, his arms up and open.

The Serpent focused on him, swaying violently, its expression different from before. Its once pursed lips were open, like a strange, comical look of surprise. Its eyes, filled with hate and malace, glinted silver and black as it swayed its head, trying to soothe the pain of Kine's staff.

Kine climbed the tree beside the river as the Serpent watched him. He whimpered as it reared back to strike.

Its attack was paused, as it violently shook its head, the pain of Kine's staff harrying him.

"I got lucky." Kine noted the fact with grim satisfaction. He leaped from the tree, reestablishing a foothold on the beast's face.

It was a true battle of David and Goliath. Its face alone outweighted Kine by nearly a hundred pounds. But Kine prevailed, his boots scraping at the monsters lips. His hands wound around his staff as he pulled. He only managed to budge it by inches.

The beast lifted its head, and Kine felt it inhale.

It was going to dive. If Kine remained on this dubious foothold, the creature would shred and drown and crush him. Its advantage was the murky water.

Kine wrapped his hand around its eye.

The creature exhaled, screaming.

KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSS

Kine pushed his hand in. It was like shoving a wet pillow. The eye sunk deeper and deeper into the socket. He yanked his staff free with one final tug, as pressure shifted in the Serpent's head, its brow furrowing in pain and rage.

Kine lifted his staff, blunt end up.

The creature dove, as Kine swung down.

In a mighty splash, the two entered the water, bubbles rising.

For a moment, all was quiet. Birdsong returned. Nothing happened for seconds on end.

Battles like this often ended in the world moving on. Birds returned, chirping. Living their lives with no regard for the clash of nature and skill.

Soon, the water rippled.

The creature jetted from the water, but halted, hissing and whimpering in pain, its face scratched and its forehead dented.

Kine rose, his arm dripping blood. He'd taken a scale to the arm, but soon, he would be the victor.

Kine lifted his staff like a bat, and swung the blunt end into the creature's face. He swung again, and again, blood spraying him as he beat the creature.

Crack

Kine smiled, as the creature's tail stopped moving. Its eyes leaked bloody tears.

"That's what it's like. To have your life taken away against YOUR will." Kine sat, crossing his legs.

Krasssss...

Kine stood, raising his spear, his teeth bared at the threat.

Another.

But this one was small. No bigger than Kine's leg. Its face was small and round, its eyes silver. It crawled forward, black, curly hair bobbing as it approached.

Kine looked down at it, then looked to its Genetor. The creature was a parent.

Kine scooped up the creature. It hissed at first, then, like a cat, curled its tiny, strange body up as Kine carried it off.

Kine set the creature on the ground in front of the villagers, who recoiled in horror.

"Yes, THIS is what was murdering your commuters." Kine raised his eyebrow in grim amusement, as the creature curled around his ankles.

One particular villager raised a knife, but Kine pointed his staff.

"NO. Fool. Listen." Kine knelt to the creature's height, petting it on the head. "The one that murdered those people was wild. It was a parent, driven from its territory. It knew nothing of humans, and hunted them. THIS ONE is a clean slate."

"So?" A villager growled. "Break its skull and be done with it!"

"If I kill this one, another Serpent will arrive in that lake within a year or two. Maybe months. This one is the solution. Raise it as you would a dog, and it will be docile. It will attack wildlife, but with enough care and experience, it will leave your people be. You need only feet it, and keep it in a tub, and when it's ready, it will leave for a bigger home."

"And then what?" A younger villager wandered.

"Then it will keep bad Serpents away." Kine yawned, exhausted from his prior duel. "I swear, have NONE of you done this before? Fools."

A portly man stepped forward, and knelt to the creature's height. The creature sniffed with its narrow, witchlike nose, then flicked its tongue on his hand.

"Cute." The man smiled. "I will keep it. I have enough foot to spare for the Snake." He tickled its chin, and stroked its black hair.

"Be nice to it. If it doesn't like you, it will remember you when it's a hundred feet long." Kine smiled, and went on his way.

He did, however, feel a slight tickle of doubt.

He'd never seen a Serpent this far from the Great Woods. Never one of that size.

Something pushed the creature out.

And others, creatures of the great woods, may come.

Wait... How is a snake with a human face cute? That's just creepy mang.

Manny wrote:Wait... How is a snake with a human face cute? That's just creepy mang.

They're cute when they're little.

Bad John wrote:

Manny wrote:Wait... How is a snake with a human face cute? That's just creepy mang.

They're cute when they're little.

Does it have a human face when it's little?

Manny wrote:

Bad John wrote:

Manny wrote:Wait... How is a snake with a human face cute? That's just creepy mang.

They're cute when they're little.

Does it have a human face when it's little?

Yep. But it's a cute face.

It's a little disurbing, but they get REALLY scary as adults. Honestly, as I wrote the encounters with the one that Kine killed, I got serious chills.

Just imagining a slightly subhuman, sharp featured, black eyed and black haired face on the body of a slowly moving snake, and it's all focused on YOU.

Not to mention the fact that the head is the size of a small truck, and the body is about as long as a fuckin' Catholic Mass.

Zoinks, I say. Zoinks indeed.

Bad John wrote:
Zoinks, I say. Zoinks indeed.

Link to how Shaggy might react.

Bad John wrote:

Manny wrote:

Bad John wrote:

Manny wrote:Wait... How is a snake with a human face cute? That's just creepy mang.

They're cute when they're little.

Does it have a human face when it's little?

Yep. But it's a cute face.

It's a little disurbing

Actually it's VERY disturbing. A baby face on a snake?

*shivers*