Tales From The Lost World

Venom (1)

You made me a monster: Venom's story, part 1

The tiny Sandwing dragonet was playing with a small stuffed snake that her mother had bought for her, enjoying every moment. She jumped up and onto her mother's back, hugging Mamba's neck. The older Sandwing laughed and set her back down. The dragonet, Venom, giggled and pounced on Mamba's talon. They laughed and played all the time while the older male dragon, Apollo, watched and laughed with them. They may not have much money, but the family always had a good time.
Venom was a one-year-old dragonet with a unique pattern on her back. A trail of black scales went down her back in a pattern like that of an adder. Her eyes shown with hope and childish innocence, like most dragonets.
They lived in the Scorpion Den, a place of violence and deception. All that Venom was taught while growing up was to avoid other dragons and keep your head down. She went to a small, poorly funded school that taught her everything about the world. She had a certain obsession with science, she was very intrigued by the idea of discovering the unknown. Her life wasn't perfect, but she liked it the way she did.
Mamba would always wait by the door and hug Venom whenever she left for school, saying her farewells and then returning back inside. Apollo worked all day, but Mamba didn't have a job. She was Venom's caretaker, always making sure that she got what she needed. Mamba couldn't be more proud of her daughter, and Venom loved her parents more than anything else.
As Venom grew up, she became wary that one day her mother might not show up at the door. And that scared her, more than death. She didn't want to lose anyone.
Mamba never spoke well of her family, especially her sister. Venom never knew why, but her mother always spoke quietly whenever she mentioned Cobra. The dragonet didn't know why Cobra was a subject that she wasn't supposed to know about, but whenever her aunt's name was brought up, she would listen as hard as she could to pick up any clues.
She knew that she had cousins, but she didn't care. She just wanted her parents, no one else could ever replace them.
But on that fateful day, many years ago, Venom had never felt more alone.
She had just finished school and ran back home to see her mother, when she heard noise in the house. She came inside and heard the commotion in the next room. Running in, her eyes widened as she saw a flash. She was splattered by the blood of her own mother, who fell to the ground next to Venom, her throat slit neatly across. The other Sandwing in the room looked at Venom, shushed her, and vanished out the window.
Venom saw her, and knew who that was. Cobra. Mamba's sister. Not only cruel enough to be a murderer, but cruel enough to kill her own sister.
Venom cried for hours. Days, even. Never leaving her mother's side, even when Apollo tried to move her. He eventually gave up and had to wait until Venom fell asleep. Apollo sighed and looked at Mamba one more time, before setting her body on fire and hugging the sleeping form of Venom close.
After that day, Venom never trusted anyone. Not even her own father. Just as Mamba had taught her, she stayed away from all other dragons and kept doing her own thing.
Over the years, she watched dragons starve and die in the streets, giving her a realization of how twisted this world was.
Her father constantly tried to get her to talk with others and socialize, because then she might meet someone that she could talk to comfortably and let out those bottled up feelings. She just growled at him.
"Please, Venom, listen... I know that you're angry about your mother, but you have to move on-"
"NO! You don't understand! The only thing that keeps me going is the fact that one day I'll be able to kill Cobra for what she did to me!"
"If you kill Cobra, you're no better than her!"
"I don't care if I'm better or worse than her! I just want her to pay for what she's done!"
Apollo growled. "I'm not going to raise a murderer."
Venom hissed softly, "Then you don't have to." She turned and slammed the door in his face, but Apollo stopped the door before it closed.
"Venom... please, I didn't mean-"
She swung around and slashed her talon at him violently to tell him to back off, but she underestimated how strong she was as her claws ripped across his throat.
"No, no, no, not again, no..." she looked at the blood on her talons and felt the same feeling of shock as she did all those years ago, after her mother's death. Instead of crying, this time she just turned and flew off. She flew off as fast as she could and didn't look back.
She landed at an oasis after flying for some time, washing the blood off of her talon. She saw a structure not too far away and decided to investigate. She was curious what she could find in the real world, because she hadn't left the Scorpion Den much in her life.
The building looked like some sort of old warehouse, completely abandoned. She decided to make it her new home, and she started fixing it up.
After a few months of improvement, she finally completed the last project on the building. It now was a suitable living place, with all of her needs stored away in the old building. She even had an entire room for scientific experiments. She started working with chemistry, mixing this and that together to find what she could make.
The chemistry projects came to make her wonder if she could make dragonbite viper venom even more toxic, or if there was a possibility of being able to stop it. In order to test either one of those questions, however, she needed a dragonbite viper to get the venom. She searched for weeks, and eventually found a large female viper that she carefully stored away in a pouch. She flew back to her lab and started doing tests on the venom.
Not too long after she had captured the snake, it laid an egg. Vebom was surprised, but also worried, because she was afraid that the tiny viper would be able to squeeze out of the cage she had. Not knowing what to do, she kept the egg separate from the mother and kept doing her experiments.
By the time she let the older snake go, the egg still hadn't hatched. She decided to keep it, in case it needed food or something else to keep it alive before she let it go.
So, that's how Venom ended up raising one of the most dangerous snakes in the world. She named him Carl and raised him until he was old enough to live out in the desert by himself, but he didn't leave. Instead, he stayed with Venom, becoming the Sandwing's only friend and helping her however he could.
The two lived together for many years, developing experiments and furnishing their home. Carl got his own little snake bed. Venom installed a better front door that could withstand a sandstorm. She also was able to buy better lab equipment with the earnings she had made from selling her chemical weapons and other tools.
One day, an experiment gone wrong exploded in her face. Some of the chemical went into her mouth, and the rest hit her on the side of the face. This event caused her to wear a mask to cover her horrific features. Also, the chemicals she inhaled gave her severe lung problems, and she has coughing fits a lot.
Her work continued for a long time after that, her life not coming into contact with any big changes.
That is, until she met Taipan.

Venom after her unfortunate chemical disaster. Thanks to Cheeply for drawing this for me, I really appreciate it.