Blood of The Serpent

Chapter 1

 "Are you sure about this?"

The dark silhouette of trees and bushes surrounded them on every side. The moon was high in the sky, full and bright, casting shadows all around them. Insects could be heard buzzing in the deep forest and the wind howled all around them, rustling the trees. The occasional firefly would pass within their vision, creating a small flicker of light in the darkness.

"Of course I am, Yoru," said Haru. "They say it can only be found in the forest during a full moon, just like tonight."

Haru and Yoru were searching for a cryptid, an unidentified mysterious animal. Local rumours claimed to have seen a reptilian, humanoid creature by a pond deep within the forest. Haru suspected it might be a Kappa, a river imp well known in Japanese folklore.

Of course, Yoru didn't think they were actually going to find anything. "We're just wasting our time," he said, sighing in exasperation. They had to walk around a low hanging branch. "What if we get attacked by a bear or something?"

"Yoru, Yoru, Yoru..." Haru said, almost perfectly imitating his sigh. "You're always so quick to write off the supernatural. Kappa's have been a part of our folklore for centuries, you know."

"Yeah and no-one has ever found evidence of their existence." Haru had always believed in aliens, cryptids, vampires, and other supernatural phenomenon, but not him. He had stopped believing in that stuff a long time ago.

"That's why we're here." Haru smiled, holding up his camera. It was a sleek, metal digital thing he had bought only two months ago. "Once we find the Kappa, we're going to take some pictures. Maybe we can even video tape it."

"Yeah, whatever," Yoru said, ducking under another branch. They walked in silence a while, hearing nothing but the leaves crunching beneath their feet and the cicadas filling the forest with noise.

Haru decided to speak. "Why didn't you invite Aiko again?" She was a childhood friend of theirs and, like Haru, she believed in the supernatural. Both of them liked having her around, but Yoru didn't want her coming with them. It was in the middle of the night and he knew that all sorts of animals lurked in the forests around Ebetsu.

Eventually, they came upon a pond deep within the forest. "This is where people claimed to have seen it," Haru said. He crouched down, placing his hand in the murky liquid. "Tell me if you see anything."

Yoru rolled my eyes. He knew he wasn't going to find anything, but he walked around the pond all the same. He glanced around, at the dark waters of the pond and at the black veil of the forest around him.

It's then that he saw something. A blur passing in front of his vision, so fast that he wasn't sure it had really been there.

"Did you see that?" he yelled, just loud enough to reach Haru across the water. Even he wasn't sure if he had actually seen anything. No animal could move that quickly, so he decided it must have been his imagination.

Haru quickly bounded around on the shore to where his friend stood. "Did you find one?"

"No, nevermind," he said, shaking his head. "It must have been my imagination."

Then he saw it again. A blur passed by in front of them. It was so fast he couldn't even begin to make out its shape, but whatever it was, it was big. Haru gasped. "Holy shit, did you see that?! Did you freaking see that?! There was something there! Kappa, it must be the Kappa!"

Just then, the big creature came to a stop behind Yoru, gripping his arms so hard it felt like they were going to break. It was humanoid in shape, but the similarities ended there. The monster was a big gray reptilian thing with red slitted eyes and long, black claws. It had the young man gripped so hard he couldn't move a muscle.

Haru dropped his camera, eyes bugging out of his head as his mouth dropped wide open. "Th-that's not a Kappa..."

Haru stood frozen like a deer in headlights as the monster opened its mouth, revealing long, sharp teeth oozing poison. It bit onto his neck, causing me to cry out in pain. Whatever it was, it wanted one thing and one thing only: his blood. Yoru grew weaker and weaker as it kept sucking on his open wound, draining him of his blood. It gripped him tighter and his bones snapped, causing him to cry out in pain.

Coming back to his senses, Haru reached down and picked up a nearby branch. "Get away, you monster!" he yelled, swinging the stick at its head. The monster kept sucking on his friends blood, not so much as glancing at the young man trying to pummel it with a branch. 

"You just couldn't help stopping for a snack, could you?" Before any of them could blink, a woman had appeared. Her hair was long and brown and her eyes - a deep, jade green - seemed to sparkle in the moonlight. Her black jeans were worn and ripped in a few places and her shirt, a tight, tan tank top, was low cut and in much the same condition. Around her neck hung a steel chain, the pendant itself hidden under her shirt. "You're going to regret that."

The monster let go, but the woman moved past the young man so fast they could have sworn the air distorted. Yoru stumbled backwards, falling onto the ground with a painful thud.

The mysterious woman held the monster in place with her hand, which had transformed into something inhuman - something gray and reptilian, with long black claws protruding out of her five fingers. "This is goodbye," she said, right before ripping its head clean off of its body. The creature hit the ground with a thud, its head rolling across the ground.

What little blood Yoru had left was leaking out of his body, making him weaker by the minute. He was barely able to keep his eyes open. The woman turned into a blur as she moved away from the creature, right in front of Haru.

He stumbled backwards, but she held his gaze with her eyes. "You are going to leave this forest right away," she said, never once breaking her gaze. "Run as if your life depends on it."

"Y-yes. Yes I will." He turned away from the woman and without even looking back - without so much as glancing at his friend - he ran away from the scene. The last thing either of them heard of him was some leaves crunching as he disappeared into the forest.

The woman moved in front of Yoru at hyper speed. As she looked down at him, he knew this was the end. Even if she didn't kill him, he had lost a lot of blood, much more than any person could afford to lose. The young man knew he'd die some day, but why did it have to be now? Why like this? He had to wonder why he couldn't die normally, in some way that didn't involve monsters and a woman with super powers.

"Lucky for you, I'm feeling merciful tonight," said the woman. With her long, sharp teeth she bit into her wrist, releasing a flow of crimson blood. "I will permit you to stay in this world a while longer."

She pressed the open wound against his mouth. Hot blood flowed down his throat, burning as it went down. He had expected blood to have a metallic taste like this, but what was with the strange burning? It was like acid reflux in his throat.

"You'll be seeing me again," she said. His vision began to grow dimmer and dimmer, then his world went black as he slipped off into an unconscious void.