"Is everyone out of the apartment?" Shouted a firefighter, scanning the clearing for some sort of accountability. He hated leaving scenes like this too early. His fellow public servicemen rushed past him. Giving in and shaking his head at the silence, the man left himself. As he barely got out, the building came down at the entrance. It was now more smoke and sparse fires, but moments ago it was much worse.
Inside the building, there were residents, but not the ones you would think. A couple of them were huddled together, both children. The older of the two reptile-like creatures made sure his younger brother was as close to his person in a hug as possible. With the mother elsewhere, they felt helpless. Their scales were glowing dimly in the smoky fires nearby.
Speaking of such, suddenly they were greeted with an overhead view of their maternal figure. They gave soft and scared cries of delight, since they were too unnerved to come out from their area when they noticed help in the first place. The younger held out his little clawed hands for his maternal figure to hold him now. Accepting the silent request for attention, Skales allowed his babied child the chance for smothered worries. His red eyes looked over the other boy as he got up, "What were you doing up here? You should have went back into the basement instead of stay up where you could have gotten hurt."
The drawn-out hissing sounds in some of the words soothed his young mind. He had missed his mother for the short time the Hypnobrai leader had been gone to steal them meats and berries from the nearby market. "Sorry Mother, we just wanted to see what was going on."
Coughing from his sibling made this worse, and before they said more Skales nodded to a more hidden escape route. They practically all slithered or padded over the broken place in the older ground floor and began to find shadows to follow along. The Serpentine trio looked among each other, until finally the oldest put down the squirming toddler equivalent in his arms. Skales sighed and made sure the coast was clear before continuing down the path they were headed, "...Just as long as you're alright. I'll deal with your antics in due time."
No matter how oldest of the young ones looked at this, there wasn't any venom in the words. That relieved him, but brought about a question, "Why are we running from the other Serpentine?"
"I want you two to have a healthy growing environment. Eventually I'll figure something out, but give it time." After their mortal enemy, fire, came about, the Hypnobrai would need to figure all of this madness out the best he could.
The farther they got, the more the worry of where to go came about theirs heads. Even the smallest snake-like boy began to feel the situation's urgency, beginning to whimper as he looked around his form. Nothing but abandoned-looking streets were around, and he quickly grasped his mother's hand, their talon fingernails nearly scratched at one another's hands.
Skales sighed and took his other child's hand as well, for safety purposes. And also because the fact of it was that he had no clue where in the city he could go. Not back to the Serpentine, since he was both frightened and ashamed of his fellow races. The evil had fallen and so did his hopeful spirit. Unable to handle the risk of police finding him or his children, he fled.
His original partner, Slithraa had been rather kindly to him, besides their usual bickering. Then when Skales had gotten impregnated it had made the original leader proud all those years back. There were complications in the birthing process so a fellow Hypnobrai warrior handed off his knife to allow for the baby to actually get out. Unlike normal snakes, Serpentine babies had a much weaker egg around their bodies until they have the chance to meet the real world. Since the species was entirely male, it was both intriguing and odd to find out about.
After Slithraa lost interest in his lover and new child, Skales had to accept such a thing and move on with his life. Serpentine children had to stay in cool and isolated areas up to an older age of what appeared to be teenage years. Of course they were sociable with whoever did dare visit them. The fact of was that with all the winding energy, it was bound to make them loopy. But since these two children in particular are able to be out and about because they switched locations so often, they were more calmed.
This also made him think of his younger child's paternal figure, wherever he could be... Pythor clearly gave his son his markings, eyes, and slightly purple scales. It was obvious that Hypnobrai had the dominant genes because of how the humanoid looked overall.
Skales stopped a moment to look around, scanning the upcoming area, "Sayre, make sure your brother is near you at all times. I'm going to look for a place to stay for tonight, alright?" The shadows enveloped the leader as he slithered off curiously, not wanting to make his children wander aimlessly with him. They always complained, but they've also proven to be crafty at escaping and hiding their existence in certain situations.
Sayre sighed as he watched his little brother switch between feet, not liking how the gravel felt on his bare feet. He too silently wished he was more snake-like in features at the moment, because the tough skin would help him. It had been some time since he had seen his father- or rather, the Serpentine he wished was his father. Despite the odd snake making him uncomfortable at first, he ended up being a great guy in his own way. Before the species had been locked up he and Skales met and a little later Claude showed up.
They were the most recent children, but that was alright. Most of the clans had many members, some of which had an overpopulation. Unlike Pythor, whose tribe ended up dying out because they stopped breeding altogether, and were a very violent social group.
A sudden shade overcame the boys, causing an outcry of fear. Being a mother with a heightened sense of hearing for his children in particular, Skales came back to where he left his offspring. Ready to attack whoever was going after his children, he stopped halfway through the swing when actually looked through the darkness. That was unexpected... "P-Pythor? But... I... You..."
Said male let a lazy smile grace his grip as he broke through the confused boys to get at his partner. They hadn't seen each other since he had gotten eaten by the Great Devourer. They didn't bother much with introductions, running their noses sweetly across each other. With a soft purring voice, Pythor explained slightly, "I guess while it appeared that I had indeed died, that it turned out destroying the Great Devourer I got to keep living." The little group of Serpentine were in a huddle now, trying to get cozy with their parentals fiercely. A slight chill from a wind caused the purple humanoid to back off for a moment, "Come on, I know the Serpentine are dying to see their leader again."
Whatever had gotten into Pythor was alright with the blue-skinned male as he followed after his found lover and the kids who were eager for a true home once again. After all this resorting to uncomfortable situations, it was nice to be able to calm down with those he truly cared for.