The air smelled terrible. That was the first thing that registered in Ulrich's mind as he slithered along the jungle floor towards the village, his kill hanging over his shoulder. Any thoughts of simply returning to his hut to gut, clean and cook his kill, a boar, fled from his mind at the sight that greeted him. What had once been a large happy village full of all sizes of Lamia from playful children to gossiping Elders was now dead silent. The once healthy and beautiful gardens were trampled down into the dirt, where large sturdy huts once were now lay smoldering ruins. The bad smell from earlier though… that originated from the bodies laying all around, staining the floors and ruins red from the blood that had once flowed through their bodies.
What was left of Ulrich's lunch and breakfast left and joined the congealing blood on the floor as he collapsed his scaled tail wrapping around him as he gagged and shivered with disbelief. Who had done this? Why? Tears spilled down his cheeks as he gazed upon the bodies of his fellow villagers, who were practically family to him. He stood trying not to think of the gore that stuck to his brightly colored scales, he needed to see, to pray that someone, anyone was still alive.
Slowly he gathered the bodies together into a pile working without pause, his body on autopilot. It was as he was doing this that he heard it. He strained his ears his heart pounding. A cry! Hope filled his being as he abandoned his task moving as fast as he could to the source of the sound.
He paused before a nearly intact hut only the door having been blasted off. At another soft cry filled his ears he entered it and stared at the two bodies in the center of the room. He knew both very well. The body on the floor was that of Sangue's, his brother in all but blood. It wrenched his heart to see those once lively eyes now glazed over in death. No! Ulrich shook his head, now was not the time to mourn, he could do that later.
He looked at the second body, this one significantly smaller and most importantly, it was moving! The young child, Anton, was crying into his deceased father's body begging him to wake up.
Ulrich slithered foreword hesitantly, "Anton..?" the young child's head snapped up looking around the room frantically as if he couldn't see Ulrich. The elder Lamia frowned at this and moved again making noise, as soon as he did this Anton's eyes locked onto him and he couldn't contain his gasp of shock and despair. The young lad's eyes had been the color of the treetops but now… now they were glazed over with a film of white showing that he no longer could see. "U-Ulrich..? D-Daddy wo-won't move Ulrich..!" Sobs, louder this time racked Anton's body as he clung to the cool body. "Oh Anton.." Ulrich darted foreword and pulled the boy into his arms and away from the body. The now blind Lamia clung to the man who was as close to him as his own father had been.
They stayed like that for a while, Ulrich sitting on the floor letting Anton sob into his bare chest as he hissed sweet lullabies in the Mother-tongue to try and calm his new charge down. Eventually it worked and Anton dozed off into a restless sleep. It was only then that Ulrich moved taking the boy to his own hut which had also sustained minimal damage in the massacre.
The older Lamia lay in his nest the younger curled against him soft whimpers occasionally escaping him as his dreams gave him no relief from what had transpired earlier. As he watched Ulrich swore, no matter what, nobody and no thing would ever harm Anton. This is what he swore as he too drifted off into slumber knowing that in the morning, he had to gather the rest of the bodies to burn so that they may be put to rest.
A/N: I hope you have enjoyed this! Constructive criticism is welcome along with an Betas~ Thank you~! Until next time yah?