King of Serpents: Concord's Dawn

by nobreiner

The Beginning

I groaned, as my sight began to slowly return to me. At first, all I saw was a blinding white light, which slowly dissolved into the image of a dense forest, a thick wall of trees dominating my vision. Beneath me, soft grass tickled my belly, revealing to me that I was lying on my stomach, with my chin resting on the ground as well.

Moaning pitifully, I reached a hand up to clutch at my pounding skull. But, to my shock, nothing happened.

Instinctively I tried again, harder, in an attempt to break whatever resistance was forcing my hand down, until I realized that that wasn’t the issue.

I couldn’t feel my arm. In fact, I couldn’t feel either of my arms. It wasn’t a lack of sensation like my limbs had simply fallen asleep; rather it was a total lack of feeling, weightlessness, like the appendages weren’t even there.

Panicking now, I attempted to move my other extremities, starting with my legs. This too proved fruitless, leaving me flopping around on the grass. I opened my mouth to scream, but only succeeded in producing a terrible rasp. It sounded like a cross between a hiss and some sort of birdcall, like that of an eagle or falcon.

I began thrashing around wildly, desperately twisting to get a better look at my supposedly paralyzed limbs. What I saw caused my jaw to drop even further.

My feeling of my arms being missing rather than numb was right, there was no trace of them at my sides. In their place was a thick, limbless coil of muscle and spine, coated in shining green scales.

I screamed again, this time loud enough to send the birds flying from the trees, not that I noticed; I was too busy dealing with the fact that MY ARMS AND LEGS WERE MISSING!

Oh my god, oh my GOD! What’s going on? I thought fearfully. What’s happened to me? Sadly, no answer appeared to be forthcoming, and I continued flailing around in the hopes that my impression of an epileptic fit would somehow return my limbs to me.

Sadly, but predictably, it didn’t and after a short while I managed to tire myself out. Apparently my lack of endurance had transferred over to this new body of mine.

My excess energy spent, I began to calm down from my previously terrified state and instead began to inspect my new body, in the hopes that I may find I had simply trapped myself in a lizard-skin sleeping bag.

Once again, I was disappointed, as I cast my gaze over my new body. I was long, sinuous, and judging from the angle at which I was inspecting myself, very flexible. I had no limbs, just a stretch of muscle leading down to a tapered tail. Finally, I was covered head to… tail in emerald green scales.

Despite the panic in my head just on the verge of regaining control, I managed to put the pieces together to form a hypothesis: I was a snake. Perhaps not the most brilliant deduction, but I was freaking out here! It’s not every day one wakes up a certified quadriplegic covered in scales! Uh-oh, panic rising again, deep breaths, in and out.

Okay, I’m calm I thought a minute later, as my wits finally began to return to me. Somehow, I had woken up in the middle of a forest, which, given that I lived in the middle of Boston, was definitely worth noting. Second, I was now a snake, a rather large one, judging by the size of these trees surrounding me. Looking at them, and assuming I wasn’t surrounded by a cluster of well-developed saplings, I estimated my length to be about fifteen feet long, and about one-and-a-half foot wide at my thickest.

My little self-examination finished, I returned my attention to my surroundings. The area in which I had awoken was actually a small clearing within a large forest, and what I had thought to be a copse of trees was in reality a thick cluster, surrounding me on all sides. Sunlight leaked in from cracks in the trees’ canopy, bathing the clearing in a soft glow.

So, on top of being a snake in the middle of a forest, I also had no idea where the forest was, let alone where I was within it. The dim light peeking through the leaves wasn’t enough for me to make out the species of the trees, so I couldn’t even make an educated guess based on the types of trees surrounding me.

I sighed, but this only served to produce a low hiss, like escaping steam. I was lost, no doubt about it, and had no idea how I had managed to become so. I thought back to my most recent memories, and in a flash, I remembered.

Okay, so quick intermission here to say, welcome to the story! This is my first submission to Fimfic, and I hope to make it a good one! So some quick notes, I was inspired to write this story after reading Rust and Blackwing’s own stories, which I highly recommend to anyone who is literate. Or knows someone literate to read them to you, because really missing those stories is a shame. Anyway, props to them, and I hope you enjoy the story! Onward to the next chapter!

Comments

[Praetorian]

Great work on the introduction! And the likes' bar is somethin' huh?