literature

The Feathered Serpent

Deviation Actions

Forty-two-Fish's avatar
Published:
909 Views

Literature Text

The Feathered Serpent

Deep in the darkest, unfathomable depths of Topazial Sea, within the ancient submerged ruins known as the Temple of Dreams, a cult-like organization on the outskirts of Rhyzelm'oire. A taurian octopus creature with a human-like upper torso was still- the chlaena's eyes with ovaloid pupils were inscrutable and she did not move, her tentacles splayed out around her, anchoring her to the stone seabed. Her bulbous octopus half slowly bobbed up and down behind, while she rested back on it comfortably. Though it was difficult to tell for anyone inexperienced with her species' behavior, she was sleeping- not only this, but currently in the act of dreaming, a normally extremely strange occurrence and even a sign of insanity for many others of her kind.

Indeed, she was one of the few of her kind, either blessed or cursed, but in her opinion gifted by the Queen of Darkness with the ability to see things others could not. Maybe the future or the past, just for an instant. Something far away that she might never see with her own eyes. To Study things she would never Acquire. Her current in life was much more interesting than those of whose Lairs dreams -and nightmares- did not visit.

The first sensation she was aware of was an unbearably bright panorama that bore little resemblance to the dark world she was used to- in her mind's eye, the massive circle that was the sun above the surface beat down just overhead, scorching her eyes with a blinding light. Shrouded in near-blackness around her physical body, her pupils shrunk to compensate for the perceived excess of light. Averting her eyes from this sight, she saw a vast expanse of what looked like a strange coral reef far below her- no, it wasn't the familiar growing rock formations that grew in her deep sea world. They were land plants. Trees. She was in the world above, overlooking an expansive forest.

Now the chlaena's eyes narrowed into the equivalent of a squint as a distant object moved towards her in the waterless sky- as it approached, she thought it resembled a mermaid a little in how it moved, but this wasn't the ocean where it resided. The creature moved towards her still. Its long, serpentine tail lashed about as it lazily flapped its... Fins? No... Wings! The alien creature came closer still. It was tauric, adorned with feathers. Before it occurred to the chlaena that she might be vulnerable, or that she could not fly or that her current disposition was simply not possible, the unknown creature came directly at her. The tail lashed once more, whipping through the air before colliding with the chlaena, sending the Dreamer abruptly back into consciousness.

"ia!" she gasped in surprise, her tentacles curving inward reflexively before relaxing, uncurling.

Chys'byg'w gave an eerily wide smile, her two rows of fused teeth resembling a curved, dull beak. She pushed off, pumping water through her lower body for propulsion to quickly share with the others in the Guild what she'd just experienced- she'd Dreamed of something fantastic and extremely Desirable to her.

Quetselehcoatleh
---

From one of the highest branches in one of the tall trees overlooking Chidokai forest, in a privileged view of the canopy was an nondescript giant nest. Initially there were four eggs in it, but now there was one. Three had already hatched.

The three corresponding harpy chicks chirped for food, and if one listened intently, a few half-formed curses of impatience could be heard. But, heralded by the sound of giant wings flapping above, the mother returned duly, a sixty-foot tall resplendent harpy with beautiful green plumage and her kinds' signature tail feathers; elegant and long, her pride, only second to these whipper-snappers.

“Calm down you whining lot!” the mother harpy sighed in exasperation. It was so much work keeping all of them fed, she thought, opening one of her her talons to release about a dozen citroise fruit. They wanted something squirmy, not something juicy, though none snuffed their noses at it. Within seconds, the chicks were alternately trying to down the whole fruit at once, others using their talons to tear it into smaller pieces. She knew these fruits would be good for her offspring's eyesight, making them acute hunters when their feathers filled out. The fruit's readiness to eat and close proximity to the nest made it excellent stock food; they sure saved her from even more hunting.

Now she looked over to the other side of the nest, where a single lonely blue egg sat. Since it hadn't hatched in conjunction with the others, she'd thought that it wouldn't hatch at all- and without time to sit on it to be sure, she'd had to go off and hunt for her chicks. But after a day, she'd seen it rock, even though she'd all but abandoned warming it with her body in the daytime hours. She fought her instincts- part of her told her to get rid of it as she couldn't divide her time between a trio of needy chicks and one unhatched egg. Still another part said that if it was still alive, it might break out anyway on its own soon. Each day it sat, and each day she contemplated rolling it out of the nest, but somehow, against all odds, whatever was inside was fighting to stay alive, she sensed. And so she and the egg were at an impasse- now, nearly two weeks later, she still couldn't bring herself to push it out.

Stupid damn egg. -_-

The harpy mother took wing once again. For the moment, her greedy-mouthed crybabies would just have to deal- she was going south to the edge of the Soral Swamp. If she was lucky, she'd find some caecilians easily enough, maybe a fat, juicy water leaper as a treat for herself. Though caecilians, the limbless amphibian-tailed hybrids did exist in Chidokai, and some of her- and her chicks', she'd discovered- favorite food, there was no easy way to get down to where they were. Luckily her speed rivaled her beauty- and, taking wing, she flew directly south, her long, green, iridescent tail feathers trailing majestically behind.

It was then that the egg decided to make a move.

The harpy sisters congregated in the center of the nest; one felt movement just behind her. Turning around on still-awkward talons, she saw the egg moving from side to side. They slowly backed away to the other side of the nest, wary of its sudden movement.

The egg continued to shake and wobble. A single crack appeared where its occupant pushed towards the outside world, then cracks spread across the sky-blue surface of the shell. But then it abruptly stopped, apparently abandoning its campaign for freedom. Whatever was inside was having difficulty piercing the egg. One of the fledgling harpies came near, inspecting the spiderweb-cracked surface. She raised one of her own talons and scratched at the side of the egg curiously. The unhatched occupant stirred at this contact with the world on the other side of the shell. The egg shook violently; a single point pierced through, made by an egg tooth. A movement later and the eggshell gave way, bursting to reveal the fourth hatchling.

Two weeks older than their sister, the more developed hatchlings had fuller feathery down than the newly-hatched one's own; wet and thin, though likewise green plumage. Her sisters were larger as well, being fed well since their own hatching. A chick should be chirping for its mother then, though the other hatchlings would not have been able to help it. But that didn't happen. Instead, the egg's former  occupant was silent in her first confused seconds in the outside world, seeming to be afraid of these strange creatures before her. She flared her small, shaky wings defensively- and hissed.

Hissed.

At first she'd looked no different from her sisters, her top half the only part of her body revealed before she moved away from the eggshells. Seeing her movement, the other, larger chicks became fearful, squawking up a storm as their instincts kicked in. She was slithering.

Instead of the same talons her sisters possessed, her lower half was elongated, covered in light brown scales with blotches of darker brown; the tail went on for a ways before tapering to a point. Without a doubt, her lower half was that of a snake.

Wrapping her tail around herself defensively, the confused hatchling sunk down into her coils like a protective nest of her own, trying to hide from the harpy chicks, her very presence keeping the three of them well on their side of the nest.

---

The harpy mother returned well before a day had passed. She'd caught many of the tauric amphibians, and luckily they were at a size manageable for her chicks. But as she neared the nest, she saw what looked like one of them on a higher branch just at the edge, her wings flapping slowly, testingly. This greatly alarmed the mother- her chicks couldn't possibly fly yet!

She swooped in closer, but as she neared, she was struck with confusion and incomprehension. Glancing to the nest, her chicks- the three of them- were chirping in alarm, while a broken egg lay on one side of the nest, the others crowding the opposite side. She had to be sure- because what she was looking at hanging on that branch wasn't a harpy.

Before she could figure it out, the thing either fell or jumped into open air.

Swearing, the harpy mother dived, catching the little abomination in her talons and carrying her back to the nest, where she dumped her back in unceremoniously. The hatchling slithered to the opposite side of the nest, curling up within her coils and ducking down as if to hide from a predator.

Inside the harpy mother's mouth the captive caecilians squirmed; she'd had to fight the urge to swallow the whole way back. Before she began to feed her eagerly-awaiting chicks, she tried to figure out what this hatchling was- it was an impossible question she just couldn't wrap her mind around: was this a harpy or a naga? Whether it was naga or both, each possibility was impossible. That's just not how that worked...

Whatever the hatchling was, she immediately knew the perpetrator, the begetter of this monstrous creature, this aberration, this... Feathered serpent. The evidence was scratched out all over her daughter's (if she could call her that) scaly, repulsive tail.

Pursing her lips, she dutifully cared for her other chicks, feeding them much like a bird, her prey very much alive as they left the maw of one predator only to be a meal for a smaller version a second later. It was only after the harpy fed her other chicks that she turned her attentions back to the fourth, the mutant hatchling. She approached, and the hatchling was fearful. Maybe that was why she had jumped from the branch, because she was frightened... Well, she might as well feed the damn thing, tenacious little worm she was, the harpy mother thought.

But tomorrow, she'd have to take it somewhere for someone else to deal with. If she didn't have so many hatchlings (two eggs were usually laid), she would have flown her to that gathering of freaks far north, that Schwarzburg place her fellow harpies had mentioned, telling horror stories of many monstrosities, including outcast harpies. But she couldn't afford such a long trip as that, leaving her chicks unprotected for that long was unthinkable- bringing this creature to her father would have to do.
I have a feeling I've got some extensive explaining to do... ^^;

Well, for starters, the harpy mother and chicks are based off of the resplendent quetzal- [link]

The poor little 'mutant hatchling' is based partly off of Quetzalcoatl- [link]

Now, I know that somebody else has a winged naga character called 'Quetzal' (their character was closer to a deity, if I recall), but I've done my homework on this mythologically and on the impracticalities and problems inherent with the design in the thread in the Felarya forum designated for such creatures. I'll just have to ask you to trust me on this. And there is indeed a reason for as to why such a creature came into being, given the scientific formula that “harpy + (anything) = harpy”. It will be verily explained.

Felarya belongs to :iconkarbo:

The SchwarzBurg belongs to :iconiyatehlolita:.

The as-of-yet unnamed hatchling and Chys'byg'w the chlaena Dreamer belong to me.^^
© 2009 - 2024 Forty-two-Fish
Comments2
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
iyatehlolita's avatar
BWUHAHAHA!

Feathered things will take over Felarya!

I can't wait to read more!