ORIGIN - To capture a predator, you can't remain the prey

The great serpent slithered across the mossed covered ground, his tongue flicking in and out. The taste of prey coated the ground like a well traveled path. Though it was only a cycle since he last ate, a good snack was welcome every now and then, and cave rats were his favorite.

He had been tracking a pack of Echoing Gray rats through Pisces ever since he entered not to long ago, and had followed them to the Ponds. By the freshness of their scent, he could tell they were not far away. It wasn't long before he spotted them, gnawing on the bones of a fallen cave deer. It wasn't a huge pack, there were only three, but they were smart and aggressive. Even one Echoing Gray could prove itself deadly to a Gembound small enough. Septiezal knew this all too well.

His muddy scales hid him from their glaring red eyes as he crept towards them, ever so slightly. Too busy on cracking into marrow, the Grays made a fatal mistake. None of them noticed the strange shape slowly flowing towards them. Septiezal slid out his tongue and aimed his head at the one closest to him.

His target spun its head around, locking eyes with the serpent. It shrieked an alarm but Septiezal cut it off with one quick strike and buried it within his crushing coils. The Grays packmates screeched in surprise, bolting away a few paces, but they would not abandon their comrade. They circled the massive serpent, shrieking and hissing at him with malice in their eyes. Septiezal squeezed his prey tighter, feeling its lungs struggle and falter as it let out a pathetic squeak. He freed his teeth from the rat's fur and snapped his head towards the other Grays, issuing them a harsh hiss of his own.

His ember eyes glinted with horrible delight. They seemed were hesitant to attacked a huge serpent such as he with their low numbers.

"Listen"
Thoughts...

tags: @Desire
notes:

Desire was happy to have made it through that awful tunnel. It had been cold, and icy, and slippery, and - ugh! All terrible things! What fortitude it had taken to make it through, though she hated every moment. Now she was in Pisces, she presumed, anyway, and instead of being frozen this place was...wet. And loud. Water crashed over the rocks and sprayed, spilled, spread - everywhere. Her tiny form was at great risk of sliding into a puddle and never sliding out, and she fear the great noise of the water itself.

Eventually she came upon even bigger puddles, muddy and full of brown water. She paused by one and looked in. Tiny, shimmery creatures fled as she drew her alabaster head just barely over the water, casting a shadow that the little things feared. Perhaps they are things to eat, she wondered, but they were so fast, and they lived in water. She had absolutly no intention of venturing into the gargantuan puddle, and so she slithered away, absently looking for more fish - they were shiny, anyway, and their movements were entertaining when they were not sitting still just beneath the surface. It was then that she heard a commotion.

There was splashing, and squealing, and something gave a shriek. Fear bubbled up between her lungs and into her throat; Desire slid behind whatever rocks she could find as she progressed towards the sounds. Then, she saw it - two gray creatures faced off against - mud? She squinted and flicked out her tongue. Something else - there! A winding creature, a gray thing crushed between its coils, hissed at the shrieking gray things that were left. Desire tried to make sense of the thing before her, looking like mud made living, but she could find neither legs nor abdomen, just head and tail...

"A snake?" she breathed, excitement rendering her voice a bit louder than was safe - it had been safer to not speak at all - but she did not notice, for it was such a beauty to have found someone just like herself.

@Septiezal

The great serpent mouth gapped open as he arched his head back. Red hot bile gurgled up through the great serpent's throat, glowing brighter at it rose higher. Like a cobra, the lava-like substance spewed from his mouth, splattering on one of the rat's hindquarters. The gray gave a bloodcurdling shriek of pain as the bile burned into its hair and skin. They wasted no time making a hasty retreat as they scurried off into the foliage.

Septiezal gave a triumphant hiss, then settled back down, and released the crushed gray from his coils. It was ironic to him, the very things that threatened his life as a snakelet, he now hunted.

He flicked his tongue over his rat snack, feeling its warmth slowly ebb away. Septiezal cracked his jaws open an was just about to wrap them around his rat when a flash of white caught his eye. The serpent whipped his head towards the movement with a hiss. However, his hostility was misplaced, it was only a young snake.

Septiezal soften his stance and gave her friendly, serpentine smile. It wasn't every day he met a fellow limbless like himself, yet alone a gemling.

"Hello, young one," He said. "What'ss your name?"

"Listen"
Thoughts...

tags: @Desire
notes:

Desire flinched as the snake spewed liquid hot and the rat screeched, companions fleeing with it. Her muscles tightened and she backed away, fear creeping through the curiosity that had allowed for her approach. She watched as the captured rat slid from the stranger's coils, lifeless and crushed. In a split second, the snake was looking towards her - no, at her, and hissing. She froze, body taut even as he smiled and spoke kindly.

Desire stared at him, conflicted by awe and fear of his predatory display and the prospect of companionship. Shyly she stuck her head out from between the rocks and spoke. "H-hello...My name's Desire." She was amazed by his incredible size and strength, and felt nigh unworthy of speaking to him. "What's yours?"

@Septiezal

Septiezal could taste some fear on the snakelet. He must have frightened her, as she seemed tense looking at him. Immediately, he felt guilty for being too hasty. However, she did not flee, and stuck her head out from the rocks and timidly told him her name.

"Desssire is it?"cSeptiezal tested the word with a flick of his tongue. "Sorry for hissing at you, Desire,"He apologized gently before continuing. "You can call me Septiezal."

There was something about this shy little python that reminded him of his youth. It took him back to a time were he was that small, and frightened of everything around him. He would cower in the face of danger, much like she was doing now. Septiezal understood her fear. The caves were not safe for a little, vemonless snake. He lowered his head to the ground and slid his tongue out once more. She seemed awed as well as unsure. Septiezal sure he would have been too if he came across a large serpent. "Be at ease, child." He sighed, sliding his head away from her, and towards his kill. "You are in no danger from me."

"Listen"
Thoughts...

tags: @Desire
notes:

Desire stretched out a little further, fear ebbing away slightly as he spoke. The stranger was friendly, at least, though his previous actions rendered him monstrously powerful and incredible to behold. "Septiezal," she tried, though all words unfamiliar were rendered awkward. He tried to ease her anxiety, it seemed, but he was so big and strong. Her great ruby eyes watched him, wide, caught between awe and fear. She was so small, so weak, she would cower at the sight of a member of her own kind... Was she even worth looking at, to him?

She glanced past Septiezal, looking beyond at a mess of cooling red-hot bile and carcasses. She could only create plants, of course, but here he was setting rats on fire. If she could so something like that... she needn't fear her own kind, nevermind a food-creature, a rat that could not speak... After a good few moments of staring, Desire spoke to him, but her gaze was fixated on the aftermath of the hunter. "How did you do that?"

@Septiezal