Completed [Flashback] [Solo] Lights out

[Bethsyliss]

Day 80 of Winter, 512 AV. Peering into the hand mirror that had once belonged to her mother Vvesebeth, whose beauty was legendary among the Dhani, Bethsyliss caught a flicker of golden light in her left eyebrow. My mother had the same golden ssstreak above her left eye, she remembered wistfully, a flash of memories passing through her mind like lightning. It used to ssshine more brightly when she took care of me as a hatchling. I would look right into her eyesss, and that golden streak would glow with the promissse of warmth like the sssun on my face. Day 1 of Summer, 422 AV. I was six yearsss into my life. Ssspring had jussst broken into sssummer on on the sssands of Eyktol, and the sssun brushed its warm heat on the sssoft desert above the nessst. Sssummer is by far every Dhani’s favorite time of the year, because the practice of basssking in the sssun is at its peak. Basking in the sssun is what one would call our national passstime, one which I did not particularly disssapprove of. Sssnakelings as young as I, however, were rarely allowed out of the nessst. As sssoon as my mother was done brushing her hair and looking at herself in her hand mirror, correcting any imperfections on sssight, I sssnuck out of the nest to the sssurface. I have never been in the habit of following rulesss. Snakes don’t really have desiresss, but we Dhani aren’t regular snakesss. Our cold blood makes us mossstly immune to thingsss like moral behaviour, and our lives – at least as sssnakes – are driven by two things: finding pleasure and avoiding pain. Ssso I was, enjoying the loving rays of the morning sssummer sssun a ways from the other vipers, when I heard a terrible scream. It came from the nest. Very ssshortly after a metal bell sssounded the alarm. All around me the vipers who were purring in the sun immediately began ssshifting into Dhani form. All those shapes ssshimmering on the sssurface of the rolling dunes made the ground itssself look like it was moulting into sssomething hideous. It was a dreadful sssight, one which I remember to thisss day even; to creaturesss of the earth, nothing is more disssturbing than the thought of the land giving way to ssswallow everything on the sssurface. I did not yet know how to shift into that half-human, half-ssserpent form, for I was only a young sssnakeling, ssso, sssensing danger for the firssst time in my life and experiencing that first anxiety that every dangerous sssituation now inevitably reminds me of, I darted under a flat rock and burrowed into the sssoft sand, my eyes barely sticking out, and sssilently observed while my blood russshed through my body. Ordersss were being sssharply hisssed in the warm sssummer air, but I was unable to make out anything they sssaid. Vipers poured out of the nessst, some carrying bows and arrowsss, others with daggers ssstrapped to their backs and sssides. Weaponsss were distributed among the Dhani as they entered into position, bowmen ssstaying behind, near the entrance of the nessst, and those wielding the sssharp daggers of our race ssslithering in the front. All nervousssly awaited the arrival of the danger announced by the ssstern alarm. "I sssee them coming!" one voice cackled. "Where?" another ssshouted, ssstartled. "There! Sssomething is moving under the sssand over there!" the firssst responded. In the direction he pointed to, the desert ssseemed to be moving in discreet waves. "Conssstrictorsss!" a firm voice isssued. "Brothersss, prepare your weaponsss. We will drive our foul cousinsss all the way back to their ssstinking jungles of Falyndar for tressspassing into viper territory! Ssslay them all!" I inssstantly recognised the voice that had heralded this call to battle. It was my father’sss. I sssquinted hard and made out his ssslender sssilhouette at the very front, half-raised, with his hood flaring in a hostile ssstance. Never had I ssseen him thus. Little did I know that never I was to sssee him thus again.

[Bethsyliss]

My father was a handsssome man. From the spot where I was hiding, he gleamed in the sssunlight the way I'm told the knights from Sssyliras do. I gaped at him in total admiration. This was the man that had won my mother'sss heart, and that was the reason I was alive. Ssseeing him at the head of the Dhani defenders, I had never felt such deep pride and gratitude toward the man to whom I owed my existence. This feeling has sssurvived only in my memory up to thisss day. "They’ve ssstopped moving!" one sssoldier in the front yelled, a note of relief in his voice. The wavelike movement of the sssands in the dissstance had indeed ssstopped. "No. They’re coming. Ready yourssselves," father resssponded in a tone that clearly indicated the matter was not open to dissscussion. I could not help but admire the aura of command sssurrounding my father. It ssseemed to prevail upon the will of all the vipers in his presence. Suddenly the head of a Dhani jerked towards the ground as sssomething caught his eye. "There!" he cried. A sssplit sssecond later, a huge sssnake, at least three times as big as its viper victim, sssprung from the sssand right before him and knocked him on its back with tremendous force as he hisssed in ssshock. Then the whole area was ssswarmed by these masssive ssserpents as they popped out of the ground. "Ssstab their heads! Drop your bows and ssstab them with your arrows!" father ssshouted to the ssstartled vipers. As he commanded, the sssoldiers in the back grabbed their pointed arrows and ssslided forward with extreme velocity to meet the conssstrictor ambush. The viper that had been asssaulted was now entombed in the huge conssstrictor’s body while his life was being sssqueezed out of him. Father sssprung toward him, unsssheathed his dagger, and cleanly tore along the conssstrictor’s length from head to end. The constrictor releasssed his deadly grasssp and withered to the ground, hisssing in agony. The constrictors managed to knock quite a few vipers unconssscious with their firssst ssstrike, and an undessscribable feeling of terror sssunk in my belly. Regular sssnakes don’t know fear, I thought, and we Dhani are flawed creatures, tainted by our humanoid composition. But, after the effect of sssurprise the constrictors caused had sssubsided, they were not able to land very many sssuccesssful hits. Vipers are deceptively ssswift, essspecially in Dhani form, and father and his sssoldiers artfully dodged the behemoth reptiles’ powerful blows. But sssoon, the vipers ssstarted to be outnumbered. Constrictors endlesssly emerged from the desert ground and there was no way the vipers, tiny in comparison, could handle them. "Fall back!" father yelled. "Retreat to the nessst!" The vipers sssprinted back to the entrance of the nest right passst the rock under which I was hiding. I knew perfectly well that I should make a run for it, but I was paralysed by an overwhelming fear. At the end of the line of retreating sssoldiers, my father rapidly approached the spot where I was lying. "Father!" I hisssed in dissstresss. He sssstopped his charge at my rock. "Sylisss! Get out of here!" "Father, I can’t. I can’t move. Help me." He pulled my tiny body out of the sssand covering it while I coiled around his arm. He ssstarted to bolt back to the nessst, when, sssuddenly, the shadow of a giant covered the small rock. A conssstrictor had ssstealthily creeped up on my father. "Well," he said in the manner of sssnakes. His ssspeech was harssshly accented. "What do we have here?" His face contorted into a sssinister grin. "An adult and a young sssnakeling? We really couldn’t have hoped for anything better." Two other constrictors ssslowly emerged from the ground and surrounded us againssst the rock. "Don’t move. It will be easier for us all that way." No later than a sssecond after, father, protecting the arm around which I was coiled, attempted to ssspring past the constrictors. At his landing point, he was met by the lasssh of the tail of one of the conssstrictors. It knocked him on his back while the constrictors begun to curl their tails around him in that deadly grip. "Sylisss! Run!" father breathed. "No! I’m not leaving you." "There’s no other way! Go!" "I sssaid I’m ssstaying with you!" Father hisssed a curse under his breath. Then he did sssomething which sssaved my life. To this day, I ssstill wisssh he hadn’t. He cooped me up into his slender hands and hurled me toward the nessst. "Sylisss, now is your only chance! Hurry to the nessst!" I took one final glance at my father as I ssshot through the ssstill air, landed on my belly on the sssand, and darted to sssafety. I resent myself for that. In the dissstance, I heard my father cry as the conssstrictors took him away. His cry is inssscribed forever in my memory as the sssound of unbearable, irreperable loss.

[Bethsyliss]

Day 2 of Summer, 422 AV. I ssscarcely ssslept the night following my father's disappearance. That night, I had a sssingle dream. I was in a room not unlike that of the Queen'sss apartmentsss in our nessst. It was damp and mosssy, and a few insssects roamed around the room among ferns and mussshroomsss. I was sssomehow at the same time in sssnake form, in Dhani form and in human form -- a beautiful woman with dark ssskin and sssulfurous black curls with incandescent, golden eyesss, and a golden ssstreak on my left eyebrow, the same as my mother. Beside me stood a figure that I didn't recognissse though I knew it to be a rattler. In front of us, sssleeping in her bed, was a huge, emerald coloured conssstrictor in snake form, coiled in interminable knotsss, her tongue flickering as she ssslumbered. I turned around, and a ssshimmering figure vaguely the ssshape of a sssnake peered intently at me through glasssy, green eyesss. I knew ssshe was my goddesss Sssiku. She issued one firm command: "Ssslay them all!" and vanissshed with a puff of white sssmoke. The rattler and I then proceeded to the beautiful constrictor sssleeping in her bed. One on each end, we ripped her body open itsss full length. Then the rattler and I coiled up around each other, interlocking our bodiesss into one another, producing a ssstrong hisssing sssound as our ssscales rubbed againssst each other. I don't remember what the next thing was, but afterwardsss there was only me, and I had a rattle on the end of my tail. Constrictorsss poured in the room where we had killed what was presumably their queen, and I devoured every one of them in sssingle bites. The dead queen behind me was wailing noisily as I ssslew her children one by one. Then I woke up. It was early in the morning, and my mother was sssobbing noisily in her bed. "Vengeance will be met, mother," I said to her in the manner of snakes. The words came out of my mouth without me really controlling what I was sssaying, and my voice seemed to me to be the voice of another. "Vengeance will be met, I ssswear it upon the life of me." A faint flicker of a sssmile crossed her face in-between two hiccups of tearsss. "Make them sssuffer, my child," she answered, her voice quivering with an insssatiable rage. "Make them sssuffer as they are making me sssuffer." Ssscouts had been posted overnight around the entrance to the nest. As they regularly reported their sssightings, there was a lot of running back and forth throughout the underground tunnelsss of the nessst. No constrictors had been ssspotted since the assault the day before. I sssecretly wished they would capture one so I could personally torture him. It was the firssst time I felt such an urge. Later that morning, I learned that an urgency council was called in a private room. My mother was to attend. Ssstealthily, I crept towards the door where the meeting was held and ssstrained my ears to hear what was being said. "What you are proposing is quite out of the question, Hsssaani," the queen said. "But, my queen -- with all due ressspect, this act cannot go unaddresssed," the man she called Hsaani anssswered in a ssslippery voice. "We must take immediate action, lessst the constrictors recommence their dreadful deedsss." "You dare quessstion the authority of your queen?" a second man said, his voice rising many octavesss. "Ysthrusss, that's enough." My queen, I was merely --" "I know what you were doing, and I want you to ssstop it," her voice cackled like a whip. "Yes, my queen. Forgive my rassshnesss." "Now, Hsaani. I'm quite aware that we need to do sssomething, but we can't jussst mount a campaign against our cousinsss without knowing exactly what we're dealing with." "They attacked us, my queen. This meansss war." "No, it doesssn't, fool. How do you know this isn't an independent faction? Nothing tellsss you this is Snham'sss doing. We can't even be sure she's aware of what happened yesssterday." "There aren't any independent Dhani factions, my queen." "One wouldn't know, would one?" There was an uneasy moment of sssilence before the queen spoke again. "Then there's the isssue of abducting Zvwardi. Why do you suppose they did that? I don't mean to be insensssitive, Vvesebeth, but we need to fully understand the purpose of their capturing your lover." "Capturing, my queen?" mother said. "They have killed Zvwardi." The spiteful bitterness in her voice was unbearable to me, and the way she spat out the words was like poison to my ears. "No, Beth. No Dhani relishesss in fast murders. Even if it's only for the sake of torturing him for their own pleasure, he is being kept alive. I'm sssorry, Beth." Mother let out a high-pitched hisss of anger and burst into wails. She ssstormed out of the room, nearly swinging the door off its hinges. "What in Sssiku's name are you doing here, Syliss?" she accused, her eyes shot with red. "Come back at once."

[Bethsyliss]

"They're torturing father, aren't they?" The wordsss choked me as they came out of my throat with a hiss. I searched mother's grief-ssstricken face for a sign of reasssurance. "Oh, it'sss probably not that bad, dear," she lied, looking away so that her tears wouldn't give away her terrible anguisssh. But her whole body was contorted in a way that left no doubt ssshe felt as much pain as I did and perhapsss even more. "You know, the constrictorsss don't do things the way we're used to doing them. Your father'sss probably gone through worssse in his life." We both knew that was not true, but I accepted her wordsss because I needed to believe in them in order to keep my sssanity. "Why are they doing this, mother? Don't they worssship Siku like us?" "Dear, the conssstrictors aren't like the other Dhani. They're arrogant, they're imperiousss, and they think Mizahar would be a better place if there weren't any other snakesss to crawl on its surface." She swallowed a hiccup of sssobs. "Sylisss, whatever they plan on doing with father, it will be all right. I promissse." That was the only promise she made to me ssshe was unable to keep. Some momentsss later, the queen herself came by, followed closely by a bodyguard in Dhani form. "Beth," she purred. "I'm sssorry for earlier. I wanted to personally tell you about what we've decided to do." She gestured vaguely at the man with her. "Ysthrus insisssted on coming," she shrugged. There was a momentary sssilence. "I hate to asssk, Beth, but it's really very important we know. Do you have any clue why they would want to take Zvwardi? Any old grudgesss you might know about?" "The constrictorsss had no more reason to take away my Zvwardi than they did to abduct any of the ressst of us." Mother's tail flickered this way and that as she ssspoke, a sign that every fiber of her ssserpentine being prepared to receive the news the queen bore. The queen's face grew somber. "That'sss what we've been dreading. We think they didn't have a ssspecific target, but captured any Dhani they could lay their filthy ssscales on." Her eyes widened slightly in genuine compassion for mother. "I'm sssorry, Vvesebeth. The conssstrictors have taken Zvwardi in as a slave." "No!" mother cried. "There'sss nothing we can do, Beth." "Go after them! Mount an asssault! Wipe the constrictorsss from the face of Mizahar and give me back my Zvwardi!" Mother's eyes were wide open in insssane rage. I had never seen such anger but I knew it was inextinguishable. "Beth, it'sss over." "No! Sssomeone mussst pay!" Mother leaped toward the queen, her jawsss wide open and her fangs protruding menacingly. Ysthrus quickly interposed himssself between mother and the queen. He drew his dagger in a flasssh of light. Mother hisssed as her jaws, aimed at the queen, met Ysthrus'sss bare neck. Her fangs sunk into his flesssh and I saw his eyes turn wild. I knew mother's potent poison could kill anyone in a matter of ssseconds, but I had never seen it done. Ysthrus let out a gurgling sigh as he ssstruggled for air while mother dug her fangs deeper into the ssside of his neck. She purred, and her body loosened from the tension that had not left her since father had been abducted. "My queen!" Ysthrus gasssped, with his last breath. But he gathered all of his ssstrength, and all of the muscles in his body contracted. He lifted his arm, and slassshed at mother's head twice. She let out a cry a ssscream and recoiled from the man who had just maimed her. The queen watched the ssscene with calm indifference, as if she knew how everything was to turn out. She glanced at her servant writhing on the ground until he stopped convulsssing. "His lassst thought was that he has failed me." She smiled a faint smile of resignation. "He has not. Hisss duty is now fulfilled." Her gaze hardened as he peered at my mother right in her terrified eyesss. "Vvesebeth, you have taken a life and I know you don't need any more. Ysthrusss has dissspensssed your punissshment. From this day onwardsss, you are to look at your face every morning in your beloved mirror and be reminded of the day your lover wasss taken from you." I looked at the face of my mother. A great gasssh ran down her left cheek from eye to chin, and an oblique wound gaped open on the right ssside of her face. I knew she would never recover and the ssscars would mutilate her face forever. I felt her anguisssh and thought that was the most terrible thing that could have ever happened to her. "I refuse my punissshment," ssshe declared. "You can not. Your face is ssscarred and will never retrieve itsss former beauty." "Then my eyesss are no longer fit to gaze upon this damned world," mother sssaid. She picked up Ysthrus's pointed dagger, lifted her head up to the ceiling of the nessst, and stabbed her eyes one after the other without letting out ssso much as a wince. Then she lowered her chin, and two drops of blood trickled from the blind sockets like red crimson tears. A tear ran down Bethsyliss's right cheek as she set aside the hand mirror of which the handle was engraved "Beth", in eternal remembrance of the once beautiful woman who was her mother. *end*

[Colombina]

The XP Wand Is Waved! Hi Syliss! Welcome to your first grade by me. Since you're just startting out, I'm going to give a little more technical/rules based feedback than usual. This is to set up a good ground work for you. Don't be intimidated by it. We all have to find our footing when we start Your writing is good and you've crafted some high drama with the family story. I liked the scene with Syliss's father instructing the others and the descriptions of her mother. A few technical notes. We prefer third person here, but I think your frame narrative (both literal and metaphorical) makes this alright. Just have it be the exception as opposed to the rule. Also, the story you've written has far flung cultural influence. As a single PC you can't start mini wars or establish queens, because then everyone would have competing and different versions. So, avoid things like that in the future without a mod thumbs up. Falyndar to Eyktol isn't a short trip, and there aren't too many Dhani, so I don't know if the interspecies bloodlust is as strong as it may have been Pre-Val. Lastly, since your PC was mostly an observer and wasn't actively telling the story ICly I can't give too much by way of xp Syliss's Loot 2 XP Stealth 1 XP Intelligence 2 XP Observation Lore of Dhani Constrictor Suffocation Methods Lore of Dhani Viper Speed Lore of Dhani Constrictor Camouflage