Enter VenenumTS: 40-3 Summer, 482 A.V.It was the hot season. I recall the heat vividly. The heat warmed me and made me active. It made me hunger. I was younger then, and careless. I did live though, and through it all became something better. It’s not saying much compared to savages, but my brothers and sisters know well what it means. We are few and proud, perhaps too proud. I was very proud then, and almost regret that pride.
The day, like all of the others, was typical. The light that filled Zinrah was complementary to the heat of the pools. I had been soaking and enjoying myself. I propped myself against the edge of the spring and let myself float. I was resting, eyes shut. I felt him before he reached the pool, and continued to feel him as the ripples of the water lapped against my skin.
”Saxani...” The male Dhani had hissed to me. The way he said my name, it could be no other.
It was Salazar, a suitor.
”What brings one as fine as you to these springs?” His embraced me with his claws, and I felt the prickle of his nails against my sides. He had always been that kind of Dhani.
I began to coil myself around him, and so politely began to correct him, ”It’s Sashisaxani,” as I began to tense around his abdomen. I felt him dig in, but still he tried to play me with his looks and words.
”Forgive me, Sashisaxani. I was hesitant to say so. One so beau-hrr-beautiful as yourself hardly belongs compared to the age of your mother.” Salazar was strong, but wasted his breath on words.
“Are you saying I should not be as beautiful as my mother? I assure you, Salazar,” and I leaned into him close and said,”you’d be lucky to even have her. Heh-heh...” I laughed again and let him loose. “You snake charmer you, you try too much. Come here.” I let go of the rocky earth and let my palms go over his scaly skin, oo. Oh, they just slid right down those full arms, an uhh, the warmth of the bath. I dug into his back, and knew the blood would be running soon. I meant to bite him gently too, but such forms do no permit such pleasures. He groaned.
”I could take you, right here. Why shouldn’t I?“Do you doubt yourself, Salazar?” My intentions were all but questioning. I had been very, very picky for my own sake over the last years. He did have potential of course.
”Never, my beauty, my queen...” His flattery continued to spout from this sharp tongue.
“Yours?”
”If you wish it, Sashisaxani.”“I don’t.” I let go and returned to him. His coy look said it all. I had denied him before, but he was lucky. It wasn’t a rejection. I pulled his hands closer and let him enjoy my company a while longer.
...
A rushing from the main chamber alarmed me. I saw another go right past, suitor, and saw nothing of us. His eyes had been on mine for days now, and he did not speak of it? He could have taken Salazar at any time. Another... I heard a scuffle, some humanoid shouting, and a cry - a cry for help! Salazar and I moved at once in alarm. The pact, would they have violated the pact?
I felt my contractions down my body as I rushed through the water to the edge and flowed right into the earth. Salazar was behind me. No wonder I doubted him.
We came to the end of the chamber, and there we saw others rushing toward the western tunnel. They were going out into the ruins. The thought struck me at once, Myrians in the ruins, and I rushed to join them smiling.
Those of us who followed the path toward the shuffling noises were lead quickly through the tunnel to the surface. A mother’s screams of blood murder crossed the ruins at a Myrian party, either hunters or scouts. They would not live regardless. The suspicions were true, the Myrians had been dangerously close, but this was strange. A snakeling had been fighting one of the savages when I first caught sight. His bite missed and a spear fell into him swiftly. Others joined and the young one was carried off, spears and arrows in him. His might-be-mother took off faster than I could imagine for him, and the heads of the Myrians who befell him. She was foolish. There must have been a trap. Something was wrong with this, and I’d not have it. The supervisor in charge had his fill of arrows and was lucky to make it back. We saw the blood of another, or perhaps two, on the blocks, fresh. An ambush and a trap? The rushing mother would find vengeance or death out in the jungle. My heart went out to her. They were too far from my reach to have followed her course of action.
Salazar reached me some time after, and questioned my observations. I stood him up and searched for the other who had left me alone with Salazar. This would not have happened if Salazar was on guard. I bade him, the other, to comfort me, and as twilight reached us and the light of the glowstones took over and faded, he did.
...
Hassar.
He was younger than I, and had a surprising strength in his vigor, despite a seeming difference of only a decade. He had spent the night with my company, and then left for his own duty. His curiosity of the Myrian party exceeded my own. In all their offenses, I felt no personal scars.
My mother, Tsalisashi, and her mother before her, kept themselves to the shrine. I knew little of my siblings, or where they lingered. We had loose bonds, my mother and I. We knew what was expected of each other, and left it to that. I would see her today. Mother’s lessons taught me well through the years, and I one day hope to please her like my own mother.
I entered the shrine, and there she stood in all her divinity. Her rocky coils strangled the cavern in their eternal strength. I slithered to the altar, and saw the priestesses preparing.
“
Saxani, my daughter.”
I bow my head, “Mother. What rite are you preparing now?”
“
Of the savages who dared the ruins last day, a fool – least more foolish than the others – fell to the grasp of your brother Dhani. We prepare now to offer his blood to Siku, in prayer and answer to the meaning of these atrocities.”
“What of the mother, or her son?”
Sashi bowed her head in solace, “
My daughter, the youth has been taken from us, all the more reason to demand this savage’s blood. His mother had not returned, Shiatra, and I worry. Her children were nowhere to be found when she chased them into the night, but praise her strength. She will return to us when she comes to reason.”
“May I see him? The savage?”
“
I was waiting for you. Speak to him. He has been quiet... No other could tempt his tongue, but you, my beautiful daughter, I know you will find his weakness. Go to them, the cavern there over. Siku guide you, my child. May you words be venom in his heart.”
Mother kissed my forehead and I left the shrine. The scent of blood in the shrine, a swine’s maybe, leaked into the main chamber even as I slipped away. The circles were being drawn, and the baths filled. It was a ritual of prayer, praise and questioning of our Mother’s wisdom and insight.
The Myrian savage was young. I glanced across the way and saw him down in the dark, damp corner bound at all limbs. He’d go nowhere. He would die here. He didn’t realize it though. His eyes were examining the guards, and the caves. As if we didn’t see him, right in front of us. How ignorantly stupid! I could not approach him like this, and we knew it.
My jaw popped back into place and I sprouted legs. My sister Dhani looked to me and smiled in admiration. She had tried him before, and he was only looking. She was not quite as large as I, but was younger as well. I think we knew he would not withstand us much longer. My final insult before he would go to the chamber was prepared. I was secured my necklace, from my mother – Myrian bones, and pulled back my hair like the savage hunters did. A little war paint and I’d fit in among them, if not for my accent.
“How do I look?”
“
Make him cry with joy, sister. I can hardly resist you myself.”
We both laughed lightly. She envied me, and I knew it. She was still growing all the same. I went to make him talk, the savage.
The scales of my skin finally merged totally and left the smooth, opaque skin humans walked in. I held my head high as I walked in. The guards knew I would come, and were dismissed. They’d really go no further than the tunnel that leads out, but it was dark. The glowstones were few here. The savages liked the light. They were afraid of the dark. They were afraid of what was in the dark.
I cleared my throat, and spoke to him in his native savage tongue, an art practiced after years of hearing their pleas from the altar before Siku drank of their blood. It was a crude and glottal language, phonetic sounds that tempted vomit in comparison to the elegancy of snaketongue.
“Sso... What brings you to our nesst?”
I was slow about it, hunting really. The snake in the brush is invisible given the time. I just needed the Myrian to meet me half way.
“What brings you...to Zinrah? Hmm?” I traced my finder over his scrawny shoulder. The nails lightly scraping over his skin, the tender feeling it produces, is always a wonderful touch. The white lines left on his sun darkened skin were a hint of what they could do, and would do. Not my own, of course.
“What iss you names? You can call me Ssahla. You can join me... What iss you name, brother?” I rested my hand on his shoulder.
The savage looked back up to me with his wild eyes. I figured he’d have bitten me if he were not bound as he was. He was warmer than I. Still, I was there, unblinking. It takes more than quick movements to surprise even the snakelings.
“
Get off of my you filthy snake. You are not my sister.”
This was good. He was talking. It would only take time now. He could say his peace before he was offered up to Siku. First, there were things we wanted to know.
I walked back behind him, gently rubbing over his back. For a young savage, his had many scars. I did as he asked, swept my nails from his skin and back to me. The playful scratch of the tiger cubs broke skin and caused man and child to bleed alike. They were only human in the end. I did just the same, and the air would string against the broken skin. He snarled.
“You cannot ssay I do not look like one though.” I gave him my back. “I have sspent the yearss...watching them. They wear their hair like thiss, and have necklacess ssimilar to this.” I jingled the bones in front of him. He would not look up again; he wouldn’t look at me. “They do wear...a bit more than I do.”
Walk back around him, a shark round minnows, and took the wet blood from his back. I applied it like the paint his sisters did, around my eyes and forehead.
“They wear the blood of their enemiess like thiss. It iss for strength, yess? ...yess?” He wouldn’t answer me still.
I kneeled before the savage and gently reached for him. Gentle was the key word, gentle. This was a gentle boy we were dealing with. The blood on my palm, his blood, smeared his hair and cheeked as I rubbed down to his neck. My nailed were fanned out from his skin, but he must have known they were there. I ran my hand down his neck, then back under his chin. He swallowed, and I felt the delicacy of his neck bulge out against my hand. I lifted his face to mine, and still he looked down, or away, or closed his eyes. I spoke sweetly to him, my voice already sounding so fragile...
“Tell me,
brother, tell Ssahla all your problems.” I was insistent. He could not resist me. No man, Dhani or savage, would resist me...
He looked up to me with sorrowful eyes and spat in my breasts. He saw the end that awaited him. It was no secret among the savage Myrians what we’d do to them. We knew well enough what they did to us. The young snakeling...unmerciful. Now was not a time for speaking.
I slopped up the spit from my bosom and flung it back on his body. Grabbing his hair, pulling it back, I spit in his eyes, and then slashed his cheek with my nails. He cried out like a babe.
I’d be back before the ceremony. I’d make him squeal. They needed him whole for the sacrifice, not unscathed.
I grabbed his hair again and pulled up with superior strength, lifting him in the bindings from the floor, his knees not touching.
“No not worry, little ssavage, for soon you shall join your bortherss and ssisterss...” I ran my free hand down the bone necklace. He understood me and his eyes flooded with tears. I dropped him back to the hard stone floor and took my leave.
“
My beads.”
“He will not talk.”
“
My beads, Saxani, in your hair, they are mine.”
What beads she meant I didn’t know. Maybe something from before. They were beads, girl, you could get them from the river beds. I walked off, but she grabbed my shoulder and stopped me.
I turned to her and hit her square in the chest. She backed off gasping for air and I shifted as a Dhani, unhesitating to reprimand her mistake. Her stupid beads fell out anyway.
She had regained her breathing before I was upon her. I grappled with her. She was not as strong as I. I bit her and began to coil around, and soon had her chest in my grasp. She cried out and I began crushing her. I wrapped my arms around her neck as she tried to foolishly peel my tail off her. I had a good hold on her, some head lock, before we were both stopped and told to take it to the wrestling pits. I unhanded her. She backed off. I moved forward and hissed, fangs bared like knives. I had more important things to do anyway. Stupid savages, stupid snakelings. Just the stupid ones, the weak ones, they did not deserve life.
...
The altar was under finishing touches, fine details to the seal. I laid myself before Siku’s face that stared onto the altar and chamber alike. The eyes, even in stone, were invoking of malevolence. I came to pray to Siku, to praise her, and thank her for her mercy as Mother, to welcome her to us, and to reward us. I was not the only one, the only Dhani who looked to Siku for guidance through life. I prayed Siku would carve my path through the lowest levels of the swamps and jungle, a path that I might one day realize and deepen with my own actions, and my daughters’ after me.
I’ve always believed Siku was my mother more than Sashi. My mother always looks to me in expectance for me to do as I will, to follow in the ways of all the women. To perhaps one day become Queen of my own nest, to succeed my mother. Only in rare occasion have I ever joined my mother in meetings with the others. I always coiled myself tight to rise tall above others.
Siku is the one who birthed me though, and the rest of us. My mother was merely a vessel for Siku’s will. I worship Siku, not my mother. Mother is kind to us, and protects us in treaty. The Grandmother, Caiyha, is just as honourable to me.
...
Hassar.
He had been released from the patrols. I took him to the springs. I loved this one in particular. My preference was unquestioned, which I loved of Hassar. He was obedient compared to the others, especially Salazar.
“
I can come tonight. I will see you there.”
“I’m glad. I’ll be with my mother, but I will find you after. You shouldn’t try to come any closer than the other women.”
“
You are all I would need. I can wait.”
I was hesitant to ask. I didn’t entirely want to spoil the moment, but I wondered the more. “Did you find Shiatra, the mother? I know her son would not have made it far...”
“
We have seen nothing yet. There seem to be some stupid savages among their numbers. Their elders are still in the trees, waiting for the moments to strike. They have not moved, and we see them at night. We managed to bring back some boar, when they caught the savage boy. They are blind in the night.”
“I am glad, again.” I looked at his eyes, but was taken away. This time Salazar was passing us off, but he stopped and came back. He saw us, Hassar with I, and fumed with anger. I spun Hassar quickly from Salazar’s fang and grabbed Salazar by the throat. He was wild, and did not wish to hurt me. I would not be insulted like this, not at all. I brought him up from the water with relative ease and crashed his body into the opposite wall. Hassar grabbed Salazar’s arm before I could do anything. His claw was ready to rake my face.
“
I offer you everything and this is how you repay me.”
“Then they are mine to keep and I owe you nothing. I never said I wanted such things.”
“
And for this boy! I should – ”
Hassar grabbed Salazar’s face shut.
“
I will show you a boy. Come, I will wrestle you, and you will be made a milkdrinker. We will feed you mice after.”
“
Your rhetoric is laughable, boy, but I accept. I will teach you well too, Saxani.”
Hassar and I had released him, but Salazar tempted me again. I slashed his face as he had intended. “Sashisaxani to you!” He would not disrespect my name. Hassar need not intervene this time. Salazar came for me but I brought him back around again. Again the wall, my body around his chest, he stopped before I had reason to break his chest.
“
We wrestle then?” Salazar was already panting from a quarrel with me. I knew he stood no chance against Hassar. I looked to Hassar and he reassured me.
Hassar would fight for my honor, to ensure Salazar understood he would not own me, ever. The hour was still high, but sinking quickly into the west. I had a meeting to attend soon after this. I wanted to see it though.
In the training gallery, brother and sister alike were at work. To see us enter must have been an oddity because elders were even drawn to the movement. Salazar was never known as a fighter, and Hassar was a prime hunter. To see me there was confirmation their conflict was about me.
I kissed Hassar on his crown, and his lips, and chest... Salazar was seething with rage once more. They entered a ring, marked off by the rocks, and stood apart. They looked to me, Hassar smirking, Salazar’s face painted with misery.
“Begin.”
They turned back to each other. Each one locked his eyes on the other’s. They kept their tails tight together, preparing to lunge out for the other man. I looked at Hassar with the utmost approval. He was molded for this. Salazar would be crushed in Hassar’s grasp, and I would laugh. They grappled, each clenching the other around the neck, arm, or shoulder. I almost leaped forward from the first impact of their colossal bodies. The elders tried to pull back the attention of the snakelings from the battle between the relatively monolithic forms. Some girls left the chamber, not amused by my attention.
Salazar was desperate. His movements were aimed at positioning Hassar for that perfect bite. He was ignorant of the art. He didn’t see how Hassar was wearing him down. I think Salazar’s shoulder was still sore, from when I bit him. Salazar slipped past, failing his bite, and Hassar grabbed hold of his neck and began to coil. I smiled as Hassar looked up to me, still grinning the whole while.
Salaza was held helpless in Hassar’s grasp. Hassar paused though. He was looking at me. I bowed my head and felt my fangs in my lips. My smile was so tightly wound with joy from the pain Hassar could inflict. Hassar’s grin grew out to a smile as well, and he wrapped Salazar’s head.
“
Enough.” The word was sounded and Hassar released Salazar immediately, and with apparent reluctance. He was giving me an abysmal look, and I aimlessly wondered why before it struck me. She struck me, mother, across the cheek. “
The savage Myrians surround our tunnel with bows, spear, swords and more; a mother and her child are missing in the jungle; a sacrifice in Siku’s name is in preparation, and you are here wasting the strength of men for your own sake? How selfish of you. You, boys – yes, boys, you fight like boys, little savage boys playing with each others’ hands – you should be hunting. We need – ”
I would not tolerate the remarks of my mother, against I or my Hassar. I lunged at her. I was succeeding her now if it would be enough to silence her. She rotated right around her waist, and rung my throat with her hands. I felt numbness, and pain. I couldn’t breathe. I needed, I needed to get out. I reached for her throat, to stop her, but couldn’t find her. Tsalisashi wrapped herself around me in a fantastic form and speed I never knew her capable of. My arms and body were in her coils, and her hands were free around my neck and face. I felt her palms against my cheeks, her nails in my scalp.
“Mother, I am so sorry. I meant no offense to you.”
“
You offend more than I in this manner. You offend these men, and even great Siku in this selfishness. Was it not you who told me how much you felt for Shiatra the night she went out from the nest? Have you lied to me?” She was twisting my limbs, and now pressed on my skull. I felt the blood in my eyes. I saw the one from last night, the one who fought with me for her stupid beads. That wicked little...
“Yes, mother, yes it was me. I am so sorry. Please, please stop.”
“
I will stop, but you will learn. After tonight’s ritual, you will earn forgivingness...”
She released me and I fell to the hard ground. She turned to Hassar and Salazar. The trainings had been interrupted, but only a moment.
“
Let this serve as a lesson to you all... Children of Siku, we are children together. What you learn and do here is not for yourself, but for us all. To quarrel like starving wild beasts, as these two do now, lusty for my daughter’s love, is a disgrace. Go, now, and make yourselves useful.” I saw her turn abruptly to Hassar and Salazar and say, “
Pray Siku hears our prayers over this barbaric brawling of yours. Go pray she does so, on your own time. You will patrol the tunnels. I’m sure neither of your mothers will regret my word after hearing about this. It is both distasteful and dishonoring... Neither of you are worthy of my daughter if this is how you seek to woo her. It seems none of you are worthy of her...” With her final aside, my mother and Queen left the training gallery. Hassar helped me up before running off to the patrols. Salazar didn’t even look at me.
...
I was sent to bring the Myrian – as I was so formally corrected after the scene – to the shrine. Everything was in place, and the whole of Zinrah was in waiting. I was joined by those sisters of the Queens and priestesses who were not already touched by the Mother, our goddess, Siku. We had our own paints, ready to mark the Myrian. Myrian, savage, I suppose the terms were interchangeable.
He was quivering when we came in, the chanting from the shrine echoing throughout all Zinrah, a faint sound that escaped the tunnels into the night. We went to work at once. The eldest daughter, versed in the patterns that would mark his body, began to mark him in the thick, black sap that dripped and slipped down from the Myrian’s forehead onto his nose and the floor. He started to cry as the substance fell from his burning body like the drop of blood. Soon, he would be bleeding from all ends.
I had a red variation to trace and fill on his body as well. My sisters and I rolled over one another in preparation of the vessel’s body. I was by his side, at work. I dug my nails in with each stroke, and his blood leaked with the red paint. No one could tell, not even with his cries. Even I would just figure him scared.
I took the moment time I spent near his ear with great patience and care. There was a message to be delivered.
I whispered into his ear with crude Myrian words, “You will join your brotherss and ssisterss soon enough...”
He was bargaining for his life, naively, “
Please! Please! Anything, I’ll do anything, just let me go! Help! Myri, save me! Help! Please, please, please... I don’t want to die like this. Please!”
“Shh, shh...Hussh little baby... Tell me why you are here, and all will be forgiven...”
I leaned in a little close to work on the details, and he whispered to me, “
W-we were just outside the ruins. W-we wanted t-to pick off the little ones. That’s all, just the little ones. We’re beyond the trees, camped off the g-ground. We were just scouting the t-tunnels. Please, we didn’t k-know the big one would come after u-us. Please let me go...”
I pulled his face back to see mine and gave him a reassuring nod. I forgave him.
My sisters and I were ready soon after. The Myrian was lifted on the structure of wood and rope, tightly bound at the extremities. He was unclothed to further his pain, and to purify the worth he had to Siku. Nothing would keep Mother from her prey.
“
Let me go! Let me go! She said you’d let me go!” the Myrian carried on. He was wild about it, and then asked me why they had not let him go. The girls all smirked and laughed at once.
“I said I’d forgive you, and I did.” I turned my head back forward, chin tall on my neck and rejoined the procession. His screams were a descant harmonizing with the chants of Zinrah. We joined in and entered the Shrine of Siku.
***
Human form cast: Patricia Velásquez; snake form cast: the anaconda; Dhani: WIP.
