The Burning of the Shadows

Chapter One

"That's the third one this week," Shadowqueen spat angrily. She was large for a rat snake, with shimmering brown in between her black scales. She didn't get up from her rock, Which sat higher than anything else in the sparse clearing, but she turned her head sideways to gaze at the body underneath the shadow of her rock. High above the few snaking heads in the clearing, gray smoke filtered little of the burning summer sun's light from baking the rocky ground.

Lunge could see the unmoving body clearly from his vantage point. most of the snakes were low, with their heads on the ground, and didn't look overly sad or angry, except for what Lunge recognized as the dead snake's Scale Mother and Sibs. The body was obviously not a shed skin, for it still had wide, terrified eyes and a lustre in its scales.  Lunge tried to remember the snake's name- ah, Bite. Not many in Shadow Pit knew Bite very well, except for Bell, who had gone missing a few days earlier and Bite's Scale Family.  Nobody knew who his Clutch Mother was, so he hadn't been allowed to have a mate and hatchlings.

Lunge sat watching the dead snake. Doctors, snakes that knew how to slow rattlesnake venom and heal cuts, were fussing over Bite trying to find what killed him so they knew what to look out for. He stayed this way, watching and waiting, sometimes shifting his position but very rarely. He didn't know what to think or feel- He couldn't grieve because he hadn't known Bite very well. Brook- An odd name for a Shadow- was one of Bite's Sibs and Lunge had spoken to her a few times. She had a clutch in a hollow set into the dirt walls of the Pit, and Lunge had sometimes seen a hatchling slither from the nest. 

An old rat snake, much higher renowned than Lunge, with probably over fifty catches in his life and an ugly wound running down his side sat up from the circle of mourners. He had been dropped from an eagle and was retired from hunting.

"Hear what the doctors have to say!" He yelled gruffly. The doctor nearest to him winced and sat up apprehensively, quivering a little.

"Th.. Thank you, Scuffer. We've been looking at Bite an... and apparently his spine was broken. But he has no injuries on his scales aside from some bruising- he probab... probably was... was..." The small doctor shuddered, like he didn't want to say the next word, and gulped.

"He was probably killed by a Fire; one of the boas that neighbour our pit." This caused an uproar from some of the Shadows nearest. Lunge tilted his head- the only pit he knew of was Whisper, out near the old water tank that had been melted by the recent forest fires.

"Fire has never challenged us! They go their ways, we go ours!" One Shadow said angrily. This was Brook, Lunge observed. 

"Mark," Shadowqueen spoke quietly. Her voice surprised the other snakes, resulting in sudden silence.

"Show them the  stone."