Requiem of Earth

Chapter 1: Snake Out of Hell

Author: I'm a bit surprised that I got this up, but I'm happy. This is pretty much a new version of Curse of the Snake Demons... and alternate version of it if you will. Things will have definitely changed but I'll keep some things in and have little easter eggs too =3

Disclaimer: I do not own or claim ownership to any of the characters from the film 'Rango' and only have ownership to my own characters and plotline.

The crunch of fallen flowers went beneath the crushing force of brown hiking shoes while the owner was making her way towards her Jeep Wrangler. The car itself was a green color and was the 2008 model that had dirt caked onto the tires as well as around the rim of the doors and bumpers. It was clear it had been a while since the vehicle had been washed and did a lot of activity in the mud.

As she went into the car she sat herself in the black leather seating that looked worn form excessive use and was a bit faded in color. Looking up she closed the door and looked to her rearview mirror, spying on the various teeth that were hanging from it.

Before she was able to put her keys into the ignition slot a jungle-like theme started to ring through the car from the beat-up vintage canvas hiking bag. It caused the human female to sigh before clipping it open and rummaging around for the source of the sound. Eventually she got out a Jeep A9 Ultra Rugged flip phone that had the same color as the Jeep and had a miniature earth attached as a charm. On the screen in the front it lit up with the capital letters of 'MICHELLE' and the time showing itself.

"Yes?"

"Evelyn! You have to get home this instant! That thing is flying in the house again!" a woman screeched from the other end. She sounded frustrated and scared, something that the female was not unfamiliar with and actually expected this sort of reaction when she called suddenly. Along with that common occurrence, she also knew exactly what it was that was freaking her out.

"I get you mom, I'm on my way" she assured her before hanging up the phone, putting on her seat belt and then turning her car on to speed her way out of the campus parking lot. It wasn't going to take all that long to get home, about fifteen minutes at the most, but Evelyn knew her mother the best and the woman would want her to get home faster than humanly possible. It made the woman give inhuman expectations, almost like a child who was asked for anything they wanted and asked for the most impossible things imaginable. But despite her mother's eventual temper tantrum the woman still tried her best to get home quickly and deal with what she had to at home.

"Jesus Christ Evelyn, you should have been here ten minutes ago! This thing won't leave the house!" her mother screamed, clearly upset and bitter. She was pointing to a small creature flapping about in almost a fit of panic, going into various rooms and chirping as much as it could as if it wanted to make a ruckus.

"Mom you know that it takes fifteen minutes to get here from school" she said to her, frowning and obviously being annoyed at her mother's attitude.

"I don't care! I called you so you'd get your ass over here and get rid of the damn thing flapping in the house, I can't have peace and quiet with it chirping like mad!" she cried. If Evelyn was a child, she'd be scared of how her mother was acting, but now, as a twenty year old, she found no intimidation whatsoever. She was about done with her mother's crap, especially towards the animals that seemed to always plague their home.

"It doesn't matter, I have no control over traffic"

"I don't give a fuck about traffic, I care about getting that thing out of here!" she screamed, causing the animal to screech and fly into Evelyn's room. It seemed her yelling frightened it more, which wasn't uncommon since her mother yelled a lot due to the stress of losing her husband eight years ago. Evelyn, who was often called Lyn for short, was only twelve at the time and even though she missed her father a lot, she kept on with his work taking care and studying animals for a living.

Not saying another word to her mother, Lyn walked into her room where the bird had landed on her desk. She walked over to the desk that was connected to a shorter L-shaped counter and had green and brown cabinets attached to the bottom. She walked towards it slowly, trying her best not to startle it while looking intently at it. The only thing notable she saw was a badge she couldn't quite make out and a bag tried around its waist by a belt. Though she had seen this same bird, which was a Lincoln Sparrow, sometimes looking out her window or traveling around her room. Lyn had tried to talk to it before, but it only remained silent, which she found odd.

When Evelyn was nine she found out that she had developed a beautiful gift: the ability to talk and see animals in their world. So she could talk to every animal as if it were a human and was able to see them wear clothes and accessories along with seeing their towns and cities that other humans were totally blind to. Though, oddly enough, the only sort of creatures that wouldn't talk to her in human speech, or at all, were the birds around her home. No matter how much she tried to talk to them, they were silent, ever since she started to talk to animals, which troubled her.

"Now Mr. Sparrow, I'm sure you're aware that going into my house while my mother is home is not a good idea" she said when she got to it. Lyn outstretched her hand, trying to touch him, but he hopped backwards and away from her, another thing she realized. Why were the birds reluctant to be around her? Why did they refuse to talk in her presence? Such odd behavior for one who could talk to them. "No matter... you must leave or my mother will go drink again" she said before going over to one of her narrow windows and opening it up. The exact moment she did the bird flew out like a bat out of hell into the sky towards Eakin Community Park which was almost literally right behind her backyard.

But she had more important things to do than staring outside, like getting her homework done before it was due in a few days. Might as well do the bulk of it so she didn't have to stress about doing it at the last minute like what most college kids tended to do.

Brown wings with black speckles flapped through the air as it went through the forest of the park humans had built long ago. He was late, something he did not want to be for the person waiting at the large tree in the middle of the woodland. And so he flew as fast as he possibly could to the oldest tree within the park, a very large tree that happened to be in the middle of the whole place.

"You're late, Darsius" said the Sharp-shinned Hawk that was perched high above the Sparrow

"I am sorry Lord Admiel, I had a bit of a run-in with a very noisy human woman " he apologized, bowing before his superior. Admiel didn't look amused, but he seemed to accept the excuse

"If you say so, do you have anything to report?" he asked,

"It is still as normal as it could be milord, I believe there will be no crash in the plans that you have in the soon to come summer " he nodded. He knew that his lord had been waiting for the summer, when his long awaited fiancée would finally come to wed him in a proposal that she made long ago. She was of age now and soon the lord would be as well, making them both perfect for marriage. Though it seemed that Admiel always sent Darsius himself to go spy on her. If it wasn't for the fact he knew that Admiel loved his fiancée more than anything he would have sworn the hawk had a bit of an unhealthy obsession with her. But that was impossible, he had loved her since he was a young juvenile and was loyal only to her in all these years.

"That is good news, and once my fiancée comes to hear of it I'm sure she'll be thrilled as I" he turned around showing his back being comprised of blue-grey feathers that contrasted his red eyes.

"Should I go deliver the message of the engagement date, sire?" Darsius asked

"No, you and everyone else in my domain are to keep silent as I have ordered, only I am to speak with her. And when the time is right I'll tell her and give her the ceremonial drink of acceptance to this proposal" he said. He turned back around and glared down at the Sparrow

"As you wish milord" he bowed, causing Admiel to nod

"Good, now begone with you, I require your presence no longer" he flexed a wing out towards the exit to the large room. Darsius took no time to fly off as his lord ordered while he couldn't help but smile dreamily "I cannot wait for her to be my mate, it will be glorious when my domain finally has two rulers at is should with heirs soon after" he said. "I just do hope that she remembers... though perhaps a reminder may be in order females aren't always the brightest in most cases after all... not that she is stupid... no she's quite as intelligent as any male I've come across..." he went to a small window in the room and looked out to the forest. It was a pondering question that he had been thinking of more as of late. No, he was confident that she would remember, she was the one who made the proposal after all.

The last few days have been a bit dull for Evelyn. Going to the park behind her home wasn't anything new considering she went nearly every day to study the wildlife and for that day it was the same as the week before. The animals were still waking up from the winter and chirping along happily as if there wasn't anything wrong with the world. But still their behaviors were the same and she saw and talked to the same animals every day. So, in hindsight of her lack of progress with the animals near home she took a drive a well ways away to the zoo where she could study other animals.

"Ah Lyn, come to study the animals again?" Asked one of the many zookeepers that had known her extremely well.

"Yea, it's been a little dull at home so I came here for a change of pace and scenery" she told the employee. "Anything on the menu today? Anything interesting for me to see?" she asked a bit casually, half expecting they did and half to not have anything.

"Actually..." he said with a sly smile "We got something you might actually really love. A Western Diamondback Rattlesnake straight from the Mojave Desert!" he exclaimed, causing instant excitement in Lyn.

"Really?! Oooooh Danny you KNOW I love my snakes!" she said, practically hoping up and down with joy. As much as she love virtually every animal on Earth snakes were her favorite since they could be so dangerous and graceful at the same time, in both killing and moving around. "Please let me see him, Pleeeeease!" she begged, sparkles shimmering in her deep green eyes.

"Alright alright Lyn... just remember you're only looking at him, he's in pretty bad shape and out vet is still out of town" he told her. The human grinned widely as she snuck away with Danny into the back of one of the facilities so that they would be able to get to the clinic that the snake was in at the back of the Exhibit Building to the right in the park.

"I have to say... It's odd that you all have a Western Diamondback, I mean you guys don't usually house them right?" she asked as she walked with him.

"Yea I know. To tell you the truth, he was supposed to go to the Louisville Zoo in Kentucky, but a mistake in the paperwork caused him to be here. We would treat him here but, as I've told you, our doctor is out right now on vacation and will take a few days for her to get here" he mentioned. It seemed like wrong stuff on the documentation for shipping seemed to happen often at this zoo. Hell one time Evelyn remembered them ordering an Asiatic Black Bear but, instead, they got a Polar Bear and it nearly died from being put in the wrong habitat. That big fiasco would have tarnished the zoo's reputation if it wasn't kept in the shadows with bribes and the like. Only reason Evelyn knew anything about it was because Danny was freaking out over it at the time and was constantly talking to her for advice.

"I see... so is he going to get moved?"

"Its unsure for now, we don't have a place for him here but we can't move him without being treated and for that he needs a place to stay in," Danny sighed at the thought. Lyn was sure it was rough for him, I mean this was a tight situation on his hands since most responsibility was shirked onto him for the most part.

"Well I'll take a look at him an try to help you out Danny" Lyn smiled sincerely as a relieved smile appeared on his as they made their way into the backroom where a wooden box with holes in the top was sitting on the middle table. "He in there?" she asked

"Yea... last time I saw him he was knocked out from the injuries but I don't know about him right now"

"Open the box" she quickly said as she stared intently at it

"You're not serious are you? A venomous snake is sitting in there! You don't know if he's awake yet!" he told her. She stared at the box with an unwavering look of intensity

"Even if he was awake if he's as injured as you claim then he won't be that much of a threat, now open the box" she said again, this time a bit sternly. It caused Danny to sigh, knowing that even though she hadn't really worked as a professional zoo staff Lyn knew more about animals than anyone else. She always took it upon herself to look up about animal facts and then test them out in the wild like her father once did. To be frank Danny would put his safety in her hands than any of the other staff she as that good.

So, against his better judgment, Danny opened the box hesitantly and backed away as fast as he could. When there was nothing to be heard he peered at the box before cautiously looking into the box only to see- nothing. "There's... nothing there..." he said, utterly surprised "Th-there's nothing there! Oh shit its gone!" he started yelling. It made Lyn unamused before slapping his face

"Don't panic you idiot, that's the worst thing you can do in a situation like this!" she said to him. He touched his red cheek, eyes on the brink of watering from the sting, causing her to snort at his childish reaction to such a thing. Even before he opened the box she had noticed a hole near one of the corners and suspected that it had slithered out. She could even seen the red stains from the rip and on the table that would mean blood was spilt. "If you're going to cry like a baby then I suggest you leave the room before you get yourself bit" she told him. When saying that it didn't take a second long before running out of the room as Lyn went to her thighs at the holsters that were attached to them.

"Now snake, where are you?" she asked as she cautiously looked around, getting off the metal rods of her tonfas and putting the longer ends together and locking them in the matching insertion groves that were made especially to lock them together to make a staff that could extend longer by pushing one of the buttons found on both of the tonfas. "You have to be in this room, even if you have some sort of weapon on you you're still too injured to get that far" she went to the box and lifted it up to see a blood trail from it. "Well now I know the general idea as to where you went" she mentioned as she followed the trial to a bottom of shelves over to the side.

The moment her feet clicked near the shelf she heard the rotating of something metal before the clicking of something was being made by shaking. Evelyn had an idea of what the sound was and narrowed her eyes to the dark space under the shelves. "Don't think that your gun will do anything to me, I'm a grown human after all so shooting me won't do much, besides I'm sure you're near out of bullets trying to fend off on whatever caused your wounds. So come here so I can help you out" she mentioned. To be frank what she was saying was speculations, something that she was only guessing from what she observed and the scenarios that could happen.

Then there was a his and louder rattling, which started to get on Evelyn's nerves "Alright asshole have it your way then" she said with a snort. She slammed her staff down before crouching down and shoving it under the shelves. There was hissing and finally a deep cursing from the animal under it; so he could talk, well that was relief. That was when she tried to move him from under it, which was surprisingly a struggle since he felt heavier than she expected. But thankfully she was able to drag him out, though a stream of blood came right behind him, which wasn't good at all.

"Ugh DAMMIT" he cursed out loud before hissing and actually striking for her. Lyn was able to jump backwards with her staff out in a defensive position "Humans don't know how to mind their own business!" he said with teeth bared.

"Hey I'm trying to help you out buddy! You're injured and I came in to help you out so there's no room for you to complain" she yelled at him. She should have figured the snake would be hot tempered, especially since he would obviously be angry from being taken from home.

"And how the hell should I trust you?!"

"Because I'm the only one who can communicate with you in this place and can really help you" she told him.

"I'll take my chances on my own!" he hissed and lunged at her, only to gasp sharply from the pain, something that would be his downfall.

"Well too bad, you have no choice" she said before getting on the ground with him and grabbing him by the head like she was supposed to in order to keep herself from getting bitten. His body struggled a bit as she used all her might to keep from losing grip on his head and keeping the metal tail from whipping her in the face. "Dammit stop struggling and let me help!" she cried before she managed to lift him off and onto the table while still holding onto him.

"Damn...human...let me GO" he shouted with more painful grunts while Lyn held him down as much as she could without hurting him.

"I WILL if you will stop struggling. I may not be the person you'd want to help you out but you have to admit that you don't have many other choices and I'm the only human who can understand what it is you want or need better than anyone else. So you better settle your ass down or else I'm going to have to knock you unconscious again!" she shouted back.

"Just cause yer top of the- ack -food chain don't mean you can do what ya want!" he shouted, struggling despite the wounds getting worse on his body.

"You're right, it doesn't... but that doesn't mean I can just sit by and let you bleed to death because you refused my help" she replied to his statement, her voice softening. "Despite how I'm holding you it's to keep yourself safe because you keep squirming, if you relaxed then I'd let you go and we can talk this out"

"I don't need talk, I'm fine on my own" he hissed, still squirming and causing her to feel his blood seep onto her hands. It caused Lyn to frown because she knew that that wasn't going to be true for long especially with how he was making constant movement. She snorted before moving them both a little so she could reach one of the cloths that were stored in one of the cupboards.

"Well If you're not going to calm yourself down, I'm going to make you" she told him.

"Wha?" he was about to ask before she put the cloth around his face and over his eyes and waiting. At first he thrashed more but it didn't take long after for his muscles started to relax even if it wasn't his own volition to do so. "Dammit..."

"Okay... you're calm now" she said as she held him down a bit "Now when I remove the cloth, will you PLEASE be civil about this? You're doing to pass out if you spill any more blood from moving around too much"

"And why should I trust you?" he asked bitterly, not liking that he wasn't the one in power at the moment.

"Because, as I said, I want to help you and treat your wounds" she simply said before adding "And I'm probably the only person here who wants to take you back home when you're ready" she waited for his reaction then. Not many animals or people would say no to an opportune to get back home where they belonged.

"..." he didn't say anything at first, but she felt him slowly exhale breath and seemingly finally fully calmed down enough for her to slowly get off him and remove the cloth. He didn't move and seemed pretty relaxed, abed angry from his expression. Evelyn backed up to give him space to move even though he remained motionless.

"You don't have my trust in the slightest" he said after a while of not talking "As far as I'm concerned yer kind ain't nothin' but ignorant bastards"

"Well I'm not ignorant, I can understand you after all AND I can see your world... but if you really don't trust me that much what will it take for you to do so?" the question went in the back of her mind as she was handling him. She wanted to gain his sense of trust but she wasn't exactly sure how

"How about you let me bite you then and see how you like it for writhing in pain" he said with a hiss. It didn't take Lyn long to respond

"Okay" she agreed, causing him to turn his head at her with a bit of a shocked expression

"Okay? What the hell do ya mean by that?!" he asked, clearly confused.

"I mean in order for you to trust me, I have to show that I trust you right? Well if I like you bite me then it shows I have no fear and will not hide or cower in the face of danger that may present itself while you're being healed" she said to him. It actually made sense, but a human taking his bite? She was sure he had never heard of such a thing before.

"So what" he snorted "You'll just get yer damn treatment or whatever and cure yerself of it"

"I won't" she said sternly "I will let you inject every ounce of your venom an I will not even lift a finger to help myself" she stared at him, waiting for his reaction. The snake turned to her before raising himself up, stretching his neck and body so that he would look her in the eye. She hadn't noticed his eyes before, they were surreal, eyes that burned and flickered like hellfire, something unlike anything else she had ever seen before. In fact if it wasn't for the fact that he spoke to her she probably would have lost herself in them.

"Yer bluffin'" he said, looking her hard in the eyes

"I'm not, I'll bet my life on it" they stared at each other for more than a few minutes, trying to read each other's thoughts without saying anything. All of a sudden the snake's mouth wavered and shifted before he started an uncontrollable laugh erupting from him. The sudden eruption caused Evelyn to blink and pull back slightly from surprise "What the hell are you laughing at?" she asked.

"You must be pretty stupid to say such a thing, there hasn't been nothin' that has withstood my venom and live to tell the tale!" he boasted. Lyn didn't like that since she never did like people with a cocky attitude like he was right now, it meant that they were often downgrading others and underestimating them.

"Then how about I put it to the test then?" she narrowed her green eyes and stared at him intently "A human lasts between six and forty-eight hours from one bite of one of your kind. If you give me ALL of the venom in your current venom glands then I would, theoretically, die possibly less than that" she told him.

"Fine then, but when I'm right I'll be leavin' ya to die after hearing your screams of an agonizing death~" he said with a dark chuckle.

"IF you're right, and if you're wrong you'll let me help you" she crossed her arms "Do we have a deal?" she asked him. He snorted, disapproving that she even suggested that he would be wrong

"Fine by me, just don't be blamin' me fer you doin' somethin' stupid like this and dyin' like the naive human you are" he said. She snorted in reply as she put her arm down on the table and stared intently at him as she gave him a clear shot at her arm. She just hoped that her body was prepared for this big of dosage of venom before... if not she was going to die a painful death.

He reared back, his tail shaking a little as he began readying his striking position and Lyn watched him with a bit of sweat on the side of her head. She knew this was going to hurt and burn like hell and she was going to feel like she was dying... well technically she would when the venom starts to attack her body, but that wasn't the point.

"Before you bite me" she said, her heart quickening in pace "What is your name? I'd like to know the snake that I'm going against in this bet" it was something she felt she needed to know, even if these were to be her last moments on Earth.

"Its Jake. Rattlesnake Jake" he said as he scrunched up his coils "Grim Reaper of the West" was the only thing he added to the title before lunging and finally taking the venomous bite into her lightly tanned arm.