Skales x Pythor: My Loyal Number Two

Chapter 17: The visit and the escape

Skales' plan hadn't quite gone as he had hoped, and had instead landed him right in prison. There, his only hope was waiting for the others to rescue him, though it seemed less likely by the day. But as he sat in his own misery, a strange voice called out to him, and he couldn't help but listen.

"I won't lie, you are a sorry sight indeed, old chum."

The voice had come out of nowhere and so suddenly that Skales didn't even register it at first. Only a few moments later, as he realized he wasn't so far gone as to hear voices, did it alarm him.

"Who'sss there?" He asked quietly at first, just in case he had finally gone mad. But even as no reply came, he felt something close by. Like the presence of predatory eyes fixed on him.

In the end, he stood up from the cell's bed, as his body began to tense up.

"Isss anyone there?" He asked once more, still with no answer.

Moving over to the cell door and clambering to the metal bars, he looked into the empty hallway. Skales kept replaying what he had heard, trying to figure out if it had even been real. He found the voice strangely familiar. And hearing it filled him with a sudden longing. He kept peeking out, his frustration slowly growing.

"I sssaid, isss anyone-!"

As he spoke, he had by chance looked upwards. There, hanging over him from the other side of the door, a pair of floating, reddish eyes peered from the darkness. Staring at him like bloody daggers, he couldn't help but shriek and fall to the floor in shock. He crawled backward and prayed that the bars would keep out whatever monster had come to visit him. But as he did, a low chuckle filled the hallway. It sounded rough, like two stones being pushed against each other. Then, before his eyes, the presence revealed itself.

Slowly, the scales turned from invisible to visible and formed the figure of a Serpentine with a signature long neck. It took a moment for Skales to realize who it was, with good reason. But when he did, his voice croaked and cracked as he said the name he thought belonged to a dead snake.

"P-Pythor?"

"The one and only." The Anacondrai commented, spreading out his arms as if allowing Skales to bask in his return. "Missed me?"

Skales couldn't answer. He was too fixated on the sight before him. What he saw wasn't the purple Anacondrai he knew. Instead, Pythor's scales had turned to a bleached white. Even his black and yellow markings along his front and head had turned purple, like his colors had been inverted. He noticed, to his horror, several places where the scales had seemingly melted and conjoined into patches that looked like burned skin. And for a reason he couldn't understand, he was most put off by Pythor's eyes. What had been a magenta color, both mysterious and alluring, had turned to a bright, sickly red. It looked like the result of pouring acid into one's eyes. And further than that, they just didn't seem like Pythor's. Skales kept looking, trying to find something familiar. But there wasn't. His reason and logic told him it was Pythor before him, and yet all his senses wanted to deny it.

"Or is it really you, Skales? My senses are not what they used to be. My eyesight especially seems to be in rather poor condition."

With those words, Pythor grabbed the bars of the cell door and leaned closer, focusing one eye on Skales.

"How about you get closer? Let me get a good look at you, my dear number two."

With those words, he invited the Hypnobrai to approach. With hesitation, Skales picked himself up from the floor and slithered closer. A feeling deep in his gut told him something was wrong, but he couldn't afford to listen. He had to know.