" What do you want from me? "
The boy asked, taking each cautious step back at a time. He was clever enough to understand the relationship between him and the serpent in front of him but he wasn't sure if he aught to believe that disgusting man. 
" I want to take you to new heights my boy. I want to help you achieve a status that would not be possible for you to attain , if you are caught in your bird feathers. 
I am here to teach you the art of slithering disguise and cunning political advantages. "
He smirked again and advanced slowly forward. He could see the boy was giving slowly in. His mesmerizing effect was working. 
He placed his scaly hand over the boy's head and slowly slid it, till he reached his neck. He tapped some points there and then moved slowly back. 
The boy kept looking at him, as if hypnotised. 
His eyes slowly became slanted, they were no longer round and wide. 
His tongue began dividing and he could feel his front teeth, turn into fangs. But strangely, he did not panic. 
He looked at his father and exclaimed like a child. 
" What did you do to me? I feel... I feel so hungry. "
The serpent smiled. He had achieved what he had come for. He was grinning ear to ear. 
" Of course my boy. Your father needs to eat as well. Call some of your subjects immediately. I heard that you birds communicate through whistling. "
The boy nodded obediently. He turned towards the direction of his home and cupped his hands around his mouth and began whistleing. 
" Just call one or two. We don't need a feast in this field. We will take one at a time. "
And in no moment, there could be heard flapping of huge wings and two magnificent being swooped down before turning to their human form. 
" You called your majesty? We can sense a serpent near by? Were you bitten? Are you alright? Let's take you back to the palace... "
And they tried to hold him from either ends. His head was hanging low and his hair was all over his face. When he slowly lifted his head and looked at his subordinates with those reptilian eyes, they let go of him and back off immediately. 
" Who are you? Why do you look like our king? "
They asked with their swords out but it was too late. 
The serpent bit them both at their necks from the back . The poison immediately made them foam at their mouth and they fell on the ground, trembling. 
" Now, my boy. You want to taste them while they still struggle. They don't taste that good when their blood turns cold... "
And the serpent dived at one of them. The boy took note and followed his father's footsteps. 
Within a few minutes, the two of them were dead and gone without any traces. 
" Good job. Now I must be going. Soon, more of your subordinates will be joining. They must not know about us, yet. We will be unable to enjoy our treats together if they understand what is happening here. "
And with that the serpent was gone. And true to wha the said, more birds came in to investigate. 
They had heard their chief's call and were worried when he did not return with two of their representatives. 
The boy did not bother to say anything. He ordered everyone to retire and announced that he was going to get some rest as well. 
Though there began a series of uncanny events, nobody dared to speak up or talk against their own chief. When the incident of missing bird people increased,and everything was being blamed on the wolves, the boy's mother found certain things very irrelevant. 
The wolves always left behind traces of their hunts. These disappreace made it seem more like the victims had vanished in thin air or were gobbled down, whole. 
She was a Priestess after all. It was time she used the powers she had collected from her forefathers and through divination. 
She went to the highest hills and sat down in the cave, inside her protective ring. 
It did not take her long to understand the exact nature of the truth and the horror of it made her cry out aloud and her tears made her choke. 
That was a terrible mistake. She called her own doom. 
The serpent reached her divine cave and the boy was in toe. 
She knew her child was being manupulated and used and she knew that she had very little time to try and rectify some of the wrongs. 
" Ahhhh! My beautiful birdie.... How have I missed you. "
The serpent hissed as he cirlced around the protective ring because he could not cross it. 
" Leave my child and me. Don't you have any shame? How can anyone be so gross and mean. "
She knew her words were useless but all she was doing was buying herself sometime. 
She was threading the beads that she was enchanting with spells as she kept talking with that heinous species, who unfortunately fathered her child. 
" Quit playing my lovely birdie. Come, let me taste you once more. I can still feel your sweet esence on my lips." He touched himself in lewid ways and made indecesnt gestures. 
" Ahh, the way you whimpered under me... the way your body moved at my touch. "
The Priestess felt like blood was coming out of her ear but she kept enduring because she was yet to put together twenty five more beads into the thread. 
Once she was done she threw it at her child, who was looking at her from a distance, with no expression in his eyes. 
She knew that he must have been in the serpent's hypnotic spell and she needed to get him out of that to begin with anything else. 
Once the necklace made of the beads touched the boy, he shook himself back to his senses. 
But it was perhaps too late. 
All he could do was utter the words, 
" Mumma? "
When he saw the serpent coil around his mother's tender body, squeezing her, out of breath. 
******
The sacrifice of the Great Serpent
He could see his mother whither away in front of him. 
He could see that she was dying yet, he could still hear her voice. 
" My precious little boy... "
She spoke into his ears and he looked around, trying to find her with his eyes. 
" I don't have much time left , my child. Listen to me well. I am going to leave a very heavy burden on your tender shoulder. Much heavier than leading our clan. This will be your decision. But this decision will alter the course of the present world. So choose it well. "
And then the rest of her voice echoed inside his soul. 
It made him tremble. It made him hate his own self over and over again. 
In front of him was the one that was controlling him by the thread, the one who was responsible for bringing him to life. 
Yet, he was the main enemy. The one that could ruin his soul and cause him to cause a great catastrophe. 
He knew the time was tender for his bird tribe with the wolves patrolling their borders and sneaking in and out with every given opportunity. It was the time they needed him the most but he was given some other responsibility. Something much bigger. Something for her entire living realm. 
He had to subdue his biological father and he had to subdue himself. 
Subdueing his father was no big deal. But how was one to subdue oneself? 
He was under the hypnotic spell of the serpent. That creature would be able to control him even from the underworld, from the comfort of his grave. 
He immediately sprinted off and began running from the gigantic load of his burden. 
He had no idea where he was headed. 
He must have flown for hours at a stretch. At one point, all he could see was water and water, without any landscape. There were waters of all hues, marking their individual borders. The Land of the Lakes. But he didn't know the name. 
He kept going on and on. Not that he was being chased. And then something very strange happened. He lost the power in his wings. He fell straight. 
He srruggled to keep afloat, taking in a lot of water as he did so. He was drowing, he was gulping and vomiting, all at once. 
And then something wonderful happened. 
A branch with leaves of rainbow hue bowed towards him from nowhere and he grabbed it for his dear life and it pulled him up, quickly. 
The boy was panting real bad and it took him sometime to notice the magnificence of the place he was in. 
It was a place out of all places, with floating platforms and ethereal tones. 
He could hardly take all of it in when suddenly the tree that was holding him, sucked him in. 
He was about to bang on the trunk in protest when suddenly he heard something whispering. 
At first it felt eerie,very eerie and the it turned into a very familiar melodious tune. 
He listened. He took in everything that it told. He smiled. It was a sad smile. 
" I understand it now... "
He made a courteous bow and left the place immediately. 
As soon as he was back, the serpent crawled at him from the behind. 
" My boy.... I misssssssssed you sssoooo much. " He hissed. 
The boy smiled back to the serpent's astonishment. 
And before he could do anything else, the boy grabbed him into a bear hug and began imploding from within. 
" What.... What are you doing.... Boy... This is madness.... Let me go..... I will leave you alone..... Let me go..... You know you will not survive this right..... Why are you suicidal?...... Let me go you son of a b*tch........ "
But before he could carry on with his abusive rant, their skins started peeling off. 
It was painful. It was like being burnt from his very core. 
But he bared it all. He bared it with a beautiful patience and it shook the very foundation of the land of the souls. 
The thin line, marking the divide between the living and the dead, was incapable of deciding where the soul of the boy was to be kept. 
It wasn't his time yet to be taken to the underworld and he was not in the state to be returned tot he living world. 
The Guardians made an anonymous decision to let him rest , burried underground , marking the border between the two worlds. Because if he was to be awakened, the hypnotic rhythm he was entrapped in would rise as well. It would be letting one hell loose. 
He was honoured at the living totem because of his great sacrifice. 
But not many knew about that. It was a silenct act of kindness. 
The bird tribe lost its integrity after their leaders vanished one after the other. 
The attack from the wolves increased as well, forcing them to leave their home land, one bird at a time. 
They lost friends and families and were reduced to being mere refugees here and there. 
It was a terrible task to get any proper employment and they were just doing a little better than those mortals, who used to live along side the immortal shifters. 
Boshu was perhaps the only one who was able to find a strong hold. 
He had influential friends and he was literally married to a wolf princess. 
He was living the life of envy. 
He was living the life his ancestors dreamed of. 
However, it was never to be forgotten that the life that the immortals were living was because the Great Serpent had willingly chained his own demons. He had given his life, his dreams ,his everything up, so the rest of the world could function. So the rest of creation could carry on with their mundane affairs. 
He never wished to be awakened now did he want to be kept as a living totem, burried deep, deep under the ocean between the border of the living and the dead.