Snake monarchs were rare. Only a few gods had made any, and surprisingly their bloodlines ended abruptly. They were one of the few types that seemed to always give birth to non-human vessels, and rarely if never giving birth to another monarch. My assumption for the reasoning of this was the eggs. As odd as it sounded, since you'd think a method of birth a step beyond mammalian, it made sense to me. It felt like to me most monarchs that used eggs as a birthing method always birthed more humanoid creatures than not.

Which was why my finding this one with its brood of monarch children was as shocking as it were.

Holding open the thing's giant maw, I closed my eyes as its tongue lashed out at me. It was razor sharp, and it coiled and slapped around my face and head. I felt the tiny little knife-like edges of the tongue slice and dice into me with as much ease as it would a stick of butter.

It hurt, and then it stung as its venomous saliva got into the fresh wounds.

My left eye got sliced open, and I flinched just enough from the pain to make a mistake. My left arm buckled, and within half a heartbeat the snake had taken the opportunity with joy. I felt massive teeth sink into my sides as the jaw snapped closed, and then I was violently shaken every which way as it crushed me.

Bones broke. Flesh was torn. The thing's venom stung, and I even felt it getting pumped into my sides from its fangs. The shaking was so wild I had no sense of up and down, and then before I knew it I was weightless.

I heard my own voice say something, but wasn't sure what had been said. Before I could remember, my world went quiet.

And stayed quiet for an unknown amount of time.

Then I opened my eyes.

Coughing, I groaned at the heavy body attached to my head. It felt solid, unmovable, as if I'd become stone. Could I even move a finger or a toe…? Didn't feel like it.

I wonder if my back had broken, or if this was the thing's venom paralyzing me…

Slobbering as I coughed some more, I heard distant trees break and crack. The snake was either running away with haste, or was charging at me. I couldn't really tell. I could feel the heavy movement beneath me, but I was still dizzy. Disorientated.

By my parents this thing was tough. And its venom was actually working on me, which was just fascinating. For it to be so potent on me, where even gods themselves failed to do so with similar abilities, was telling. It was too bad I couldn't capture it and stockpile its venom. I bet it'd be very potent against other monarchs. Who had made this thing? I wonder if I've killed them yet or not.

Hope I had, because if their monarch was this tough I really didn't want to know how strong they were…

Some movement returned to my left arm. The one that had buckled and broken. It had broken first, so had healed first. I got it over my heavy feeling body and with a clenched fist hit the ground near me. I pushed off the ground, and regretted doing it. My whole body was numb, so all I had done was push me over onto my back.

Groaning, I took in a deep breath and wondered if this was going to be a real drawn out process. I still heard thrashing nearby, trees breaking and whatnot. I wonder what it was doing. Usually by now they either ran off or continued to attack me.

How long had it been since it had tossed me away…? Had to have been longer than not, since I think I had blacked out there for a moment…

Some more feeling returned, and I got my left leg to shift in the grass. As it slowly stopped being numb I felt the pain that followed. A bone was broken, and sticking out of my shin. I could feel it wiggling out of the hole as it healed and repaired itself now.

Just great. This was why I needed help. I was basically immortal, but it wasn't like I was perfect. I needed people to distract them, to give me time to heal or just outright attack without being targeted…

"My fault…" I groaned through clenched teeth. I was alone now, by my own doing.

I had abandoned my armies. My nations.

Abandoned them before they had a chance to abandon me.

The thought of all those who had once served me, their faces and names, made me grow hot. Angry. Spiteful.

Which only made me even angrier, because I hated those feelings.

I was hating people who had made a choice. Who had utilized the free-will I had granted them. Given them through great effort, and even greater sacrifice.

They had that right. And for me to hate them for it just made me a hypocrite. A sickening and…

"Get up mommy!"

My eyes flinched at the shout. My heart, healing from toxins, thumped in a weird way at the sound of a child's cry.

A loud hiss followed, and I recognized the sound of it. That was a hiss of utter agony. Of pain.

Had… had I hurt her? Before she had tossed me aside? I must have. That explained the thrashing sounds. She was injured. And maybe even badly, based off the child's cry… That meant the monarch was weakened. It was debilitated. Perfectly ready for me to get up and finish the job.

Odds are I'd heal faster. I was already getting control over my limbs back. I'd only need a handful of minutes before I was able to get back on my feet, and would be able to walk over there and finish the job.

But instead of being happy over such a thing, I found myself feeling something different.

Something wrong.

"Get it together, Vim," I growled at myself, but not because I was allowing an opportunity to pass me by.

"Mommy!" another child-like voice cried out. One with a slightly higher tone. A different child.

I spat at myself as I rolled to my knees and hands. I was nearly ready to get back up. Not fully healed, and still afflicted by the venom, but not enough to cripple me no longer.

Get up Vim. Stop feeling for them.

They were children. But they were monarchs.

They were your enemies.

"Runnnss!" a louder, deeper, voice hissed. The monarch. The mother.

She sounded as broken as I felt.

Little hissing cries came, and I clenched my eyes since I recognized the sounds. Knew them well.

I didn't need to see them. I didn't need to stand up. I knew what I'd find just beyond the trees.

A mother surrounded by her children, weeping as she begged them to flee. To abandon her and survive.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

And they, like all children, wouldn't do it.

"Get up!" I shouted at myself angrily, since I knew I could. I could feel it.

I was healed. Yet I still hadn't stood.

Because deep down I didn't want to.

Still, I stood.

No pity, Vim. You know what pity brings. Held the carcasses of those who suffered from such a disgusting mistake. Burnt entire cities of corpses that always followed moments of weakness.

Coughing up some weird tasting bile, I blamed it on the venom… but knew it wasn't.

I sickened myself, sometimes.

On wobbly legs I stepped forward… and struggled up a small hill, pushing aside bushes and small trees as I headed for the sounds. The hissing drew me forward, to a small clearing.

Or well, a newly made one. The huge white snake had curled up in a ball, and the sounds of the earlier thrashing became clear. She had knocked over all the trees around her, and was now coiling around herself as if in great pain.

What had I done… I wonder? I had been broken. She had me in her maw, and I had been the one getting hurt I had thought? Had I broke something during the thrashing?

"Mommy…!" one of the smaller snakes noticed me. They were tiny little things when compared to their mother, but still as big as me. They all had the same white scales and red eyes and tongue. In all truth they looked beautiful, especially here in a world of green and brown.

They should go to the north. Though thanks to their size, and being monarchs, they likely didn't struggle to hunt or protect themselves… their white scales would fare far better in the snow covered lands than these wet grasslands here.

"Wait…!" the mother coughed a word, but I couldn't see her face or head. It was somewhere in the middle of her coiled up body.

And a big body it was. Even coiled up as she was, she was still bigger than even Miss Beak. She wasn't the biggest monarch I'd ever seen, but she was up there. I wonder how long she was from head to tail, a part of me wanted to say she was easily a thousand feet or more.

"Stay back!" one of the smaller snakes reared up upon my approach. It hissed, but looked like it was half a moment from darting away in fear.

I ignored its warning as I glanced around at the other children. There were five of them, as far as I knew, and all but two of them were on the mother's body. A few looked like they were trying to squirm their way into the coiling mass, but the mother had curled up too tightly for them to do so.

"Runs, childrens!" the mother roared from within her coil. The children all flinched and looked at her, but not a one moved.

Really… what had I done? She sounded hurt. Really hurt. But I didn't see any obvious wounds upon her massive body.

This was going to be difficult. The thing's scales were some of the strongest I'd ever dealt with. Too strong for me to get through with just my body. I should have brought my spear.

Her heart was in her head. Between her eyes. It was why I had been willing to risk stepping foot into her mouth. I had planned to dig at it from within. That hadn't been the smartest move on my part, I guess…

"Stop!"

The one who had reared up charged forward. The snake was longer than me, but thin. Thinner than even my waist. But I knew better than to discount its speed or strength, what with it still being a monarch.

I held my ground as it slithered straight at me. It shot out to bite me once near enough, but I just backhanded the thing before it could.

The blow had been hard, but I knew it'd not kill it. Unlike its mother the thing's heart was in the center of its body. The other snakes cried out in shocked hisses as their sibling fell to the ground nearby, rolling away and going still.

Glancing at the snake I'd just smacked away, I wondered if maybe I had killed it. It wasn't moving anymore.

"Stop!"

I returned my full focus to the mother as it finally revealed its head.

One lopsided, with the left half of its lower jaw dangling down lifelessly.

Ah. I had broken half its head somehow. Maybe I had kicked or something as it had tried to chew on me?

No matter. Its head was revealed now. And with that broken jaw it'd not be able to stop me from clawing its heart out, even if I had to do it piece by piece.

"Please! Wait!" It shouted at me as I stepped forward.

"Mommy!" the smaller snakes cried out, slithering up her body and onto her now that she had an opening to do so. I watched as they all hurried into the mother's coil, disappearing into the mass as if for safety.

The monarch looked down, and nearly missed a step as I saw utter fear on her face.

Even as a snake, a giant one, you could see the motherly love. It was so obvious it hurt.

It hurt almost enough to stop me.

Almost.

"No…" I whispered as I steeled myself. This was not the first time I'd have to kill a monarch while their children cried out. I've done it before. I'll likely one day have to do it again.

"Wait…! Wait!" The monarch's broken jaw didn't stop it from speaking as I neared, as it started to curl up into a coil once more. Not to protect its head though, but instead the children now hidden within her wrap.

"I think not," I said.

"The Blue One…!"

I stopped just a few feet from her.

A glop of saliva fell from its broken mouth as it breathed in, sounding almost like an inverted hiss, and it shivered. "The Blue One…" the monarch said again, sounding defeated as it did. The thing's huge head lowered and slumped, and I watched as its whole body that had been curled up tightly went limp.

It had just given up.

"What about them?" I asked, apprehensive.

This was the first time a monarch had ever brought them up before. Was this one of their creations…?

Instead of answering me the monarch began to cry. It started to tremble as it wept, sounding a little silly as it did thanks to its broken jaw.

"I'm so sorry…" it hissed.

"You're going to be if you don't explain!" I shouted as I stepped closer.

The huge head simply nodded, and I heard the little snakes within her coil cry out. I ignored them as the great monarch took in a deep breath.

"Spare them. I beg you," the monarch then said.

My whole body went cold as I bit back a quick response. Spare them! As if I was the monster and not they!?

"Mommy…!"

I flinched and turned, and found the snake I had smacked earlier had woke back up. They were still on the ground, trying to slither back towards their mother. They did so weakly, and in a way that told me I had likely maimed it.

"Please…! Spare them! My god is dead… our orders no more. They don't… they…" the mother snake started speaking quickly, likely panicking because I had turned and focused on her child.

I ignored it as it wiggled past me, heading for its mother. The thing didn't even have enough strength to climb up its mother and into safety.

"You better start talking. Fast," I threatened it as it lifted a part of its body, to give the broken young snake a way to slither into its embrace.

"First your word, Godlsayer. Your word," she said.

My word…?

I shifted as I considered what it was asking of me.

To spare its children. In return for… what?

"What do I get for agreeing?" I asked.

"I'll tell you… no! I'll take you. To her. To the Blue One," the snake offered.

I rolled a shoulder, only to keep myself from outright agreeing without hesitation. I nearly had.

This snake knew where the Blue One was…? "You said I've already killed your creator?" I asked it.

The snake nodded so quickly its broken jaw made weird sounds as it dangled wildly from the movement.

"And… you'll show me where they are," I verified.

"Yes. If you spare them. Please. They've done nothing, Godslayer. No crime. No sin. Spare eating small birds and rats," she said.

I didn't doubt that. But that would change. Eventually.

Monarchs of their size, of their intelligence and strength, couldn't hide from the world for long. Even if they vowed, and did all they could to fulfill that vow, to never harm people in any way... it would not matter. Eventually they'll be seen. Rumors will spread. Then the curious will search them out. And they'll be forced to kill to defend themselves. Then after enough hunters were slain, armies would be gathered to hunt the beasts in the forests. And pretty much no army in today's era could slay these things without countless sacrifices.

And that is to say the least that they don't eventually grow a liking to the flesh of people, or their cries as they were killed. Many did.

But…

Staring up at the monarch, I wondered if its venom was still bothering me. It shouldn't be, but I still felt… dizzy. Weak, even.

"To never harm, kill or eat a non-human or human, unless your lives depend on it. Can you agree to that…?" I asked.

"Yessss…"

Taking a deep breath, I shivered as I prayed I wasn't making a mistake… as I nodded.

"Then take me to her."

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