The smell of blood guides me as I run towards my prey. For the moments between each splatter of blood my mind regains some of its sanity and I wonder about the wounded and the dead, about the coming hardships of the surviving ones, but each drop of blood brings the scent back to memory like a flash of light and pushes the worries away. Memories distort and voices become just buzzing in the back of my head. Only one thing stays in my mind, the hunt. The thrill of the coming fight, the avenging of the fallen and the flavor of the preys blood on my lips.
I come at the edge of some forest far from camp and the Forbidden Woods. Pity, had the Serpent chosen to run there, we could have kept the hunt going for months. The sun was setting when the Serpent made its attack, but now crescent moon hangs high in the sky. Doesn't matter, I see as in midday's sun. As I step over the edge between the forest and plains surrounding it, I realize that the prey has stopped somewhere mile a head. Beyond the range of my sight, but I hear neither rustling of its movement nor smell fresh blood dripping. I bare my fangs with smile.
Before I venture further in, I begin to throw away my burdening clothes. Boots just slow me down and give sound to my steps and without them the socks don't help so they have to go too. My jerkin and doublet work neither as armor or allow me to move freely. Silken shirt won't help either. Gloves just hide my weapons. With nothing but my pants, now torn shorter to allow me move as I want I resume the hunt. As I move my form becomes more crouched than before.
Stepping carefully from bare stones to sand to green, but not wet, spots of grass to avoid rusting of branches, leaves and other plants and the splashing sounds, I make my way close to the sleeping snake. When It comes to my sight with nothing in between us I grab the largest stone I find near the are, nearly three feet across, small boulder size of a man crouching down. I lift it with ease and step little closer as prepare myself to throw it. With carefully calculated arch it comes down on the Serpents body and my smile deepens. But my smile fades from my face as the "Serpent's" body completely flattens under the boulder, twitching its head up high, showing me that there are no eyes in its sockets. Nothing but the skin, shed there to confuse me is the thought going through my head as my instinct tells me to jump forward. As I come crashing down on the forest floors I see the Serpent's head sunken to the spot of earth I was standing on.
I stand to the face the Serpent as it raises its head. No wounds and no splatters of blood of men or its own decorate its now completely unblemished skin. So it heals fast and seeing that it left the battered, blood soaked corpse as trap it has intelligence comparable to the Wolf. Smile returns to my face as thrill of the coming fight causes my heart beat faster than ever before.
The serpent strikes forward and I jump to the right, next to its skin. My choice is proven right as the Serpent changes the course of its strike, flowing to me faster than before. I simply pull the shed skin over as a veil and slip away as it tries to locate me. Now standing up straight I slowly walk backwards, keeping an sturdy oak tree on my near right. The serpent does another dash towards me and I jump backwards with full strength and it responds by speeding up to its maximum speed. As the Serpent does exactly as I wished, my jumps midway point brings me right next to the oak tree and I kick it with full strength, changing course to left. A trick I could never do with my human reflexes or strength. With the sudden shift in place the Serpent overshoots me by far, allowing me to get up on my feet and dash towards its tail.
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The tail rises to meet me in the Serpent's attempt to stop whatever I'm doing, but I slip under it almost like sliding on the wet grass, grabbing the Serpent side with my claws. It is covered with fresh mucus from the shedding, but my nails rip deep into it and I gain hold, so I begin my advance towards its head. Advancing one hand at the time, slamming my feet in the loosened ground for traction, the Serpent begins to squirm. Trashing around the Serpent tears off some of my nails from the stems and nearly escapes from my grip, but I manage to hold it down long enough for it to change its tactic. The Serpent instead comes towards me without trashing and begins to coil around me, reversing our position.
The crushing attempt does me no harm, my body tougher than steel, but it manages to restrict one of my hands and the squeezing makes breathing harder and harder as this goes on. When I decide to hold my breath on moments whim, the Serpent brings its head close to confirm the kill. I use the opportunity to grab the upper "lip" of the Serpent with my free left hand and begin to squeeze it in return. My breathing now labored thanks to the Serpent and head hazy from breath holding, I truly don't know what I expected to happen, but I manage to crush the front of the Serpent's skull. It convulses from the pain for a moment that I use that to push my hand further towards it brain and manage to grip the nest hard part of its skull.
The Serpent knows now what I'm trying and concentrates on crushing me while trying to pull its head free, but I dig my remaining nails into its head and hold on. While my consciousness begins to fade after this goes on for some time and my grip loosens bit by bit, I still persevere to hold on to the both for long enough that in my final moments of clarity I feel something pushing out of the Serpents head. Its eyeball, now hanging out of its socket, guides me to extend my finger in the socket and push it deeper and deeper, till the Serpent stops squeezing me.
Crawling out from under the Serpent's carcass proves easy thanks to the slippery mucus, but my lungs burn with every breath and every push and pull sends needles down my throat. While I try to rise standing my breathing becomes wheezing and my brain blackouts long enough for me to fall down on the ground. There I lie, nest to the dead Serpent and as I watch in now smashed head and drooping eyeball, I feel both satisfaction and hunger. I extend my arm and grab the eyeball from the stem of the nerve and pluck it. Bringing it over my face, hanging between my thumb and index finger and gently swaying, I drop it in my mouth and bite. It bursts like a ripe fruit and its taste wakes me to the point I can begin my feast.