Chapter 58
Chapter 58
With Jenna’s gaze at the beast, she explained further. The creature looked like a dark, scaly half-snake half-woman; it has scaly arms and red, fiery eyes. The Lamia Aegeus has been ascribed serpentine qualities. In ancient legend, Lamia Aegeus was a woman of fantastic beauty until a god cursed her. Her once-glamorous visage was twisted to horrific ugliness to fit her newfound craving for children's blood, but she more or less kept a human form. She was, however, renowned for wearing a skirt of snakeskin that covered her legs. It has a foul odour coming from its mouth, and it has been pointed out that its blood could alter such power to cloak and disguise someone's true visage. Once its blood enters someone's bloodstream, someone could conjure any image of their choosing.
The offspring of the union between the sons of the serpent and the daughter of men were called Lamia. Lamia grew quickly in the womb and weakened the mother’s nutrition to a fatal level. Their incubation period was three months. Though they were humanoid in appearance, they had a slight golden-thick grey tinge to their skin colour and sported an extra digit on both their hands with serpent tales, for a total of twelve fingers and a snake tale.
But there was one other vital characteristic that would prove to be complicated for the breeding concerns of the serpent beast: Lamia was huge, very huge. A mature Lamia could reach heights of six, seven, or even eight cubits tall. The Lamia were monsters. The foetus, therefore, was manifestly enormous and tended to stretch a woman’s womb cavity to its limits. For this reason, a Lamia could not be born in a normal human way. It would have to rip its way out of its mother, killing her in the process. This was all very normal for its kind, since the deceased mother would be the newborn’s first meal. Within three months, the first Lamia was born and celebrated in the valley and villages of serpent-like creatures across the land. These firstborns were called Lamia Uno because they were the purest of the breed. They would become the kings and rulers of the valley. New flocks of women, annually selected, repopulated the harems of the serpent-like creature with vessels worthy of their seed. A generation passed. Lamia multiplied upon the face of the earth and subdued it. But humans have been hunting them, and since then, Lamia's kind has been considered instinctive.
“Goddess me, I thought it was just a myth.” Henry grumbled to himself and widened his eyes.
"Alpha Henry!" Jenna screamed. She suddenly felt scared, pointing to the creature with a look of disdain coming towards them as it hissed. The stiffness in its muscles told Jenna it had been worrying about something else, though.
The alpha suddenly shifted into his wolf.
“No! We can't attack it first. I think it's sizing us up," Jenna said. Henry's wolf nodded in response.
“Lamia's blood has great power, but its skin is as thick as leather and as hard as a stone; we can't outwit it," she knew of no way to regulate her actions other than to be rational. How could they pass through it without making it aware of them?
The creature raised; it had receded from its hibernation, and it had irritation on its numbed body. It was like a million spikes jabbing beneath its thick scales. Its eyelids were rime and heavy, and the palate of its slimy mouth crunched like grains against its poisonous tongue. Then it halted and took an uncertain whiff. A smell made its noise; it was a scent that reeks of a werewolf and a witch. It hissed in their direction, tapping its claw against the frosty ground while trying to stand up with its tail rattled behind it.
Alpha Henry howled and jumped in front of Jenna.
Then it attacked them faster than the frigid wind, and it bit Alpha Henry's neck. Jenna ran away for cover and tried her best to summon a spell to help out the Alpha, but with her trembling limbs, she couldn't summon one.
“Damn it!”
Henry’s wolf thrashed around the clearing as he tried to destroy its clasp on his neck. A heated, painful, and agonising twinge spread out from the spot on his neck where the beast's fangs were. He didn't have an option but to fight back with his paw. As he did, the Lamia stepped back a little, and it roared as mighty as thunder.
Holding the wound on his neck, Alpha Henry could still feel the blood pooling out from his neck as the Lamia Aegeus took a mouthful again when it attacked him the second time. Its rotten mouth screeched, which echoed the mountain's cliff. His wolf wiggled, his paws lifting as he heard its demonic cry.
However, it stopped as the Lamia Aegeus unleashed its teeth away from his now-bleeding neck. The beast strokes its right scaly hand across Henry's paws in anger. "I will kill you slowly, Alpha; I'll watch you happily drain the life out of you. How dare you disturb my slumber?" The beast's breath was horrendous and smelled like a deadly toxic concoction. The Lamia continued to attack him, and he gladly fought back. They tore each other apart, and he punched it harder as it sneered at him.
L“Why a-are y-you a-are l-looking f-for the s-seer zzzz? The c-chosen o-one!” Lamia hissed at him.
Henry’s wolf growled back at Lamia's words; finally, its words penetrated something deep within Alpha Henry, and unexpectedly, he felt his feral wolf snap inside. His head buzzed and his eyes darkened when he bit the Lamia on its arms.
His teeth roughly slice its scaly skin, and warm blood flows into his mouth. The creature gaped at him. Surprised by his unforeseen action. Shockingly, there was something else that surprised Henry, and that was the taste of Lamia Aegeus's blood. It was bitter-rich-minty at the same time as hot-fiery while being smooth and thick like honey. Lamia howled and tilted her head upward.
Alpha Henry had sampled many creatures' blood many times and even tasted his own as he bit the inside of his cheeks from chewing too hard, but he tasted metallic iron—never spicy or sweet, though.
Jenna looked at them in awe. “Alpha?!”
He didn't answer. The wolf frowned as something came to him as he drank the Lamia’s blood; there was a feeling of darkness within him, the warmth flowing through his veins, while his vision blurred. He felt the power within him flourish quickly.
Jenna's bewildered face in the distance was beyond shocked. She was hiding in the rock, trying not to get near the creature while murmuring a spell to let it sleep. A moment passed, maybe more, and the only thought that kept battering through her brain was to help the Alpha. But out of shock, her mind wouldn't even let her feet run towards him.
Then suddenly, the Lamia Aegeus snapped out of its trance and snatched its wrist from his mouth. In that second, it backhanded the wolf across his face. Henry’s head whipped to the side, and the smack echoed around them. A little blood flew from his lips from the split the creature just gave him.
Unexpectedly, Henry shifted into his human form; he stood naked in front of the Lamia.
He stepped back, stunned, as he didn't struggle back. He trudged on towards the beast; now he realises that it was a half-woman, half-snake, as its hidden face earlier was evident to him. It strided back; it was sacred, even agitated, and a look of shock was clear in its eyes. The beast looked alarmed at that moment. Henry reached down with both his trembling hands and pushed it as hard as he could. The creature stumbled, pain obvious in its face, as he reached down, gripping it by the throat and holding it midair.
“How did you know that I was looking for the seer? And what do you mean by the chosen one?" Alpha Henry asked. But he was having difficulty understanding its words as the blackness crept around the edge of his vision.
“I w-was w-waiting for h-her too. Zzzz," the creature answered.
Henry took huge mouthfuls of air into his lungs, while Jenna ran towards him as the creature closed its eyes and suddenly fell asleep. The creature could be heard snoring again, then it vanished.
They stared at the clearing for a long minute. “What the hell happened?” he couldn't even fathom; only the creature was gone; it vanished without a single sound. He glanced up at Jenna while he stood there, keeping most of his weight off his right legs. Once on his feet, he felt it. His heart thumps hard on his chest. The pain was unnatural, almost otherworldly, bringing him to his knees as he shifted into his wolf again and then shifted back to his human form.
“Alpha Henry?” Jenna began to panic. She fears for the Alpha, his face was red and his eyes were bloodshot. He took one step towards her and fell on the icy floor, trembling, not controlling his mind or body. Then Jenna whispered some ancient spells to help him with his pain as Henry succumbed to his consciousness.