I knew I’m “the strange one” in this family, what I did not expect, was the attention it gave me. It seems when I fought, my siblings would curiously watch. It makes me suspect I was the last one to eat my meals, and that some of them might have already gone on hunts with mother. Still, they are snakes, after eating they lay around digesting food. It shouldn’t be surprising an unusual fight would get stuck in their mind, and then, like a kid watching cartoons, (“like I did as a kid”) they would try to mimic the fighting moves. I wondered if it would be called “Shredding venom bite” on their status, or the name would eventually be lost, and become generic “Advanced Snake Bite”. It’s a pity I can’t scope other people…. (“work on it?”) Maybe I should try doing showy practice outside some time? Or… try to go outside to hunt?

No. Not yet. (“coward”) (“reasonable”).

It would be stupid to risk your life in the ocean, when you can’t hold your ground in the kiddie pool. Let’s first try spending at least a bit of time outside this shell.

Her children were growing. They would soon shed, and then, it would be time to part. Instincts tell her that’s how it should be, but something in her fights against it. She was getting more and more confused recently, her instincts fighting against something, but she wasn’t sure what that something was, which made her even more irritated.

And then something unusual happened- her weird son took his head out of his egg. Occasionally snakelings would get attached to their egg, and spend the first weeks of their life around them, hiding in the shells when scared, but it’s the first time one of hers spent all their time with their head hidden inside it.

After getting out, he looked around, most likely searching for them. His movements were weirdly stiff, compared to everyone else, but as long as he could hunt that didn’t matter. “Sssss” - She raised her head slightly, to encourage him in joining the family in their sunbathing, outside their tree-nest. All of them lying on the rocks next to the lakeshore.

He came to them. She expected him, to just lie down somewhere, and enjoy the warmth. He went to the tallest boulder, and tried climbing it. He fell. “SssssSsss” - he slithered in anger, and went instead to a rock around the center of our group. Good. Safe place.

But then, instead of lying down, and enjoying his time, he tried making a loud noise. Due to his size however, it mostly managed to amuse her. The clash of skill with “something” started up again. While she was trying to deal with the annoyance, her child started… fighting? She couldn’t see anything that needed to be attacked. It then started dodging. She double checked with her senses, but nothing was there.

It then booped one of his siblings with its tail. They weren’t happy about it and started making more of a commotion. Now, everyone was paying attention. Seemingly satisfied, the child once again did his weird dance of dodging and attacking. And again. And again. And then, quickly ran away to his shell, leaving a confused family of snakes behind.

I repeated my martial art prowess show for the next few days. At the beginning I was mostly ignored, but at some point, while occasionally peeking from my shell, I would see my siblings mimicking my moves to each other. Of course the brilliance of Drunken Snout would exceed linguistic and racial barriers.

There was something else that interested me even more however. My biggest sister, her eyes started becoming noticeably milkier and milkier. It seems her shedding time has come.

Reisinling

I’ve slipped quite a bit on the average chapter size. It makes it easier to write, as completing 3 smaller tasks is easier than 1 big one, but it makes it harder to keep in mind the big picture. Maybe I should go and rewrite/fix up some chapters after the end of this arc.. Will try to keep chapters above 1500 words from now on. Gamification makes me an addict trying to game the system.

Also, yey for 70 readers in a week! If I keep this pace up, I will become the most popular author on this site in… 400 days. See you in a year I guess? :D