James watched in utter shock as a creature that should not have been able to evolve in this world came into Ook's view.
James, as a Race Spirit, and not a World God, did not have sight over all of the world, and instead could only see through the eyes of his own race. From the original seed of life, as new mutations caused different species to evolve, he changed his race, pushing it closer towards the current Jerry. And by doing this, he gave up the vision from the other creatures that evolved on different paths of evolution.
And now, for the first time, he was stunned to see such a large creature evolving in conditions that did not allow for it.
…
It had been only a few hours since the hunting group had left the riverbank. The sky was still blue and kind, and the winds had not yet turned cold. Ook led the way through the thick grass and tall trees, his sharp eyes following the deep drag marks across the earth, where the creature of the night had slithered.
Every few steps, the hunters stopped and pressed their bald heads to the ground, feeling the faint tremor that came and went like the pulse of the land itself. Ook raised his hand and the others froze, waiting. The air felt strange, heavy, and full of a silence that no birds dared to break.
Then they saw it. The creature was unlike any they had seen before. Its body stretched far beyond what their eyes could follow, black and grey scales glistening like wet stone under the dim light of the clouds. Its head was wide, its eyes like pools of cold fire, and its tongue split the air with a hiss that made the ground itself shudder.
Ook's breath slowed as he studied it, and for a brief moment, the revelation of what stood before him pressed upon his mind; this was no beast of flesh and blood as the others, but a monster born from the darkness itself.
"Hunt," Ook whispered.
"Hunt!" came the echo from the others.
The hunters spread out as they had done countless times before, surrounding their prey in a loose crescent. Took was the first to rush forward, his heavy legs pounding the ground, his stone spear raised high above his head.
"Strike!" he cried, but the word had barely left his mouth before the creature's head lashed out. It was so fast that the air cracked, and Took was gone; his body crushed, his bones turned to dust beneath the coiling weight.
The others screamed, "Kill! Kill!" and threw their spears, but the weapons shattered uselessly against the beast's scales.
One spear broke in half and flew back, piercing the chest of its wielder. Blood sprayed, hot and dark, and the forest began to echo with cries of rage and pain. Ook lunged forward, driving his stone blade into the creature's neck, but it only scraped off a thin layer of grey dust.
The serpent twisted its body, flinging two hunters into the air, their bodies landing far behind with the sound of breaking branches and silence thereafter.
Ook shouted, "Hold! Hold the line!" but no one heard him. The air was full of screams and the thunder of the serpent's tail smashing against the ground. One after another, his people fell; crushed, bitten, torn apart. The sound of snapping bones and wet cries filled the once-holy silence of the forest. The ground drank deep of the blood of the Jerries, and the smell of iron and soil rose thick enough to choke.
Ook turned, only to see the last of his hunters, a youngling barely grown, stab his spear into the creature's mouth. The serpent opened its jaws, swallowing the boy whole, the scream cut short as if it had been stolen away by the night itself.
Ook felt his heart tear apart within his chest. The beast struck him next. Its tail slammed into his ribs, and he was thrown across the clearing. He felt the air leave his body, his lungs crushed, and when he tried to breathe, the taste of his own blood filled his throat. The world became dim, and the sound of the serpent's hiss became distant. He could no longer move his legs.
'So this is how it ends,' he thought, staring at the flickering light above the trees. Images came rushing through his mind; his mate's gentle smile, the sound of her laughter, the warmth of her hand on his chest, the way her eyes shone when she spoke of their unborn youngling. He saw the river, the village, the children running around the fire, and the way the setting sun turned everything golden.
He wanted to go back. He wanted to see her one last time, to tell her that he had done his best, that he had fought for their future, for the safety of all their kind.
But then came anger. Deep, burning, endless anger. The image of his people broken and crushed beneath this scaled abomination tore through his heart, and a sound rose from his throat; low at first, then louder, until it became a roar that seemed to shake the air itself. His eyes, dim from fading life, flared red like burning coals.
His body, though broken, began to move once more. With his bare hands, he seized the serpent's snout as it leaned close to finish him. His fingers dug into the cracks between its scales, tearing them apart with a strength born not of flesh, but of wrath and sorrow. He pulled himself closer, his teeth sinking into the beast's flesh. The taste of it was foul, metallic, burning like fire, but he tore through it, ripping a chunk of its hide free before the creature recoiled in rage and pain.
Blood sprayed across the ground, hissing as it touched his skin. He spat the flesh aside, breathing raggedly, his eyes still glowing faintly red as he glared at the creature towering above him.
"I burn, like the burning sun, like God made us, and I'll burn you with me!" he gurgled through the blood filling his throat and lungs.
The serpent hissed once more, and darkness closed around him. When the winds came again to the forest that night, they carried with them the scent of blood and ash. The clearing was silent. Only one thing moved; the serpent, retreating into the shadows of the trees, bleeding from a wound on its neck that no stone weapon had ever been able to make.
And among the fallen, Ook lay still, his hand clutching a broken piece of scale, his face turned toward the rising moon, and a satisfied expression on his face.