Hey everyone. This story was written for Magical and Mundane Literature: Jack of Kinrowan assignment. I wrote for Task 2 which was write about a close relationship between a person and a creature. This is the first time I'm actually doing a story between a person and creature. Especially considering I'm doing this story from the basilisk's point of view. I hope you all enjoy The Basilisk's Story.
He wakes up to a deep penetrating darkness. That is all he sees. He knows he's enclosed in something but he doesn't know what he's enclosed in. Trying to get comfortable he wriggles his tail end and hears a cracking sound. But he's unable to get comfortable. So he wriggles around some more. The cracking sound prevades his senses again and then a voice.
"It's cracking," the human sounds excited about this and the poor creature wonders why.
Wriggling around again because now that someone's noticed his shell is cracking he might as well escape the confines he's in. Pieces of the shell fall past him and the light is almost blinding to his eyes. He almost wishes that he hadn't begun to crack open his shelter.
"Come on, little guy," the voice floats out of the bright light. It's the human from before. He's frightened by the human but the human doesn't seem to be frightened by him and he wonders why. "You can do it. Just a little bit farther."
So, of course, he listens to the human and wriggles a little bit more causing the rest of his shell to fall away. The world isn't what he thought it would be outside his little shelter. The surface he's on is cold and a bit scratchy.
"I'm sorry if you're cold," the human, what he will later learn is a boy, tells him. "I'm hiding you underground so that no one will find you and take you away from me. Alright?"
He wonders why the human is asking if he's alright with this. He doesn't know if it should be alright or not. The human would know better after all the human was older than he was. With him being born today and the human obviously born before than.
"I'm Tom Riddle," the human introduces himself to him. "I guess I should give you a name. Shouldn't I? Don't want to have to just keep calling Snake. Now do we?" The human, Tom Riddle, starts to walk around the room. He walks around the room so much the basilisk gets nervous. "I think I'll call you Salazar. Just like my ancestor."
Salazar, he thinks over the name Tom Riddle suggested. He thinks he likes it.
"I have to go now," Tom tells him as he puts his hand gently on Salazar's smooth scales. "I will be later to feed you. I promise."
With that said the boy is gone. Salazar as he is now called looks around his new, more freer, home. It looks like it could be comfortable but all these statues of the same face are starting scare Salazar more than he can say.
It is hours later when the boy returns with something small for his dinner. Salazar snaps the tiny furry thing up in his jaws and he wishes that Tom Riddle had brought more of these tiny white things with him.
"I didn't know what you would want to eat," Tom Riddles tells Salazar as he strokes the smooth scales on his side. "But I think there are plenty of mice that come down here. You can hunt them whenever you want. And I will bring special treats every now and then too. I think you're really going to like living here.
So they continue in this way for years and years. At least five or so Salazar thinks. Then one day Tom Riddle comes down to his home and he seems upset about something. He doesn't tell Salazar what but he promises Riddle promises him that soon he'd be able to have bigger prey. Something that will fill his belly. Salazar feels excited for the first time as Tom Riddle releases him into the school proper.
Salazar encounters his first human that isn't Tom Riddle after a few weeks of being let loose by his friend. But the girl, as he later learns this human is called, isn't out in the open. He hears her crying as does Tom Riddle. Tom goes to close the secret entrance to Salazar's home but the girl's voice comes suddenly.
"This is the girl's room," the voice calls out. "Get out of here."
The door opens and Salazar and the girl are looking each other in the eye. The girl falls to the ground and doesn't move causing Tom Riddle to look between her and Salazar. Salazar doesn't know what to do. But Tom Riddle does.
"Go back to the Chamber, Salazar," Riddle tells him gently. "It's not your fault."
Salazar knows it is his fault. The girl looked him right in the eyes and then she stopped moving. The guilt built up in him as he slithered back to his home. Little did he know that would be the last time he would be allowed out of his home for a long time.
I hope you all enjoyed The Basilisk's Story.