The Viper

The night was dark, chill with the bitter cold of winter. The sky was overcast, with the occasional lightning bolt searing the sky; it would not be long before a harsh storm would rage across the land. Everyone knew to stay indoors; everyone, except for one man.

He was robed in a deep, green hue, his features obscured by the hood, protecting his face against the elements. His hands were raised, placed perpendicular to his body while he chanted in a strange tongue. In front of him, a sinister magic circle glowed. The bite of winter was fierce that night, yet the man felt nothing, kept warm by the magic of his work.

As the spell continued, the man's chants grew faster and more furious. The intensity of the light coming from the circle increased, until it was near blinding to look at. The spell neared its end, and the wizard raised both hands high above his head. With a final command that came out as a shout, he brought both hands down sharply.

The light of the magic circle expanded to fill the area, and as it died, a dark shadow slowly coalesced in the center of circle. The wizard stared intently at it, his eyes unblinking, as the creature he had summoned rapidly took shape. Its body was long and slender, ending in what looked like a triple-pronged fin, while two powerful wings beat steadily at its side. Colours began to show, and the beast took on a dark green shade much like what its summoner wore, streaked with lighter shades of poisonous green. As it unlidded its four eyes, Kazam began to laugh.

"I have done it! I have summoned a Netherdrake!"


The Viper opened his eyes to a strange sight. He had been hunting for his clan, deep in the luminous caverns of the Nether Reaches, when he had suddenly been enveloped in a bright light. It had blinded him, and allowed his prey to escape; when he could see again, he was in a completely different place. He was high up above the ground, at a dizzying height he had never experienced before. There was... something, standing on two legs in front of him, something that he had never seen in his long lifetime.

"Where... issss thissss?" The Viper hissed the question, its confusion and alarm evident.

The Thing in front of him stared, goggle-eyed. "It speaks! Simply remarkable!"

"Ansssswer my question!" Stupid Thing. The figure in front of him coughed, and drew itself up to its full (but unimpressive) height.

"I am Kazam, wizard and conjurer supreme, and you are my summoned familiar! We now stand - or, er, at least I stand, you're flying, of course - in my tower, and you shall obey my every command, for I am your master and you are my familiar. Do you understand?" The last three words were spoken slowly and he attempted to make some form of exaggerated gestures, as if the Viper was too stupid to understand it. He whipped his tail angrily, affronted.

"Do not underesssstimate me, fool!" The Thing named Kazam looked alarmed at the anger in his voice, and took a quick step back. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" Irritated, the Viper cut the Thing off. "I did not assssk about that! Where am I? Thissss is not the Nether Reachessss!"

"Oh, no, of course not. This is the World! Well, it's a world, obviously, but that's not what I meant..." the Thing began to launch into a long ramble about the World and its mechanics, and the Viper could hardly be bothered to listen to it any longer. It pondered its situation. This was obviously not the Nether Reaches, nor the caves which the Netherdrakes called home. In fact, this place seemed like a completely different world from where the Viper had been just a few minutes ago. And to be able to summon him from across such a distance, the Thing in front of him must be a being of considerable power. Being able to work some lesser magics himself, the Viper had a healthy respect for the arcane and those who wielded it. Caution, he decided, was the necessary course of action here.

"...and that's where you are, Netherdrake. Bound to me by my enchantments, in the World." The Thing concluded its speech. The Viper was insulted. "And you are the one who ssssummoned me? You, seek to ensssslave me? I am a Lord of the Nether Reachessss! Know your placccce!" Forgetting what he had decided before, the Viper lunged for the Thing, only to cry out in agony. Beneath him, a magic circle flared, binding him to its boundaries. The Thing had stumbled backward, but when it saw that the Viper was unable to deal him bodily harm, he began to laugh.

"No, you should know your place! I am your master now!"

The Viper ceased its struggles. Clearly, the power this... 'wizard' wielded was considerable; there would be no escaping it. He lidded his eyes and bowed its deference. "Assss you say... masssster." As the wizard began to crow in success, the Viper seethed inside. He would follow and obey... for now. When he had learned the secrets of the wizard's power, there would be hell to pay.


The days passed, and the Viper stayed in the wizard's captivity. Most of the time, the Netherdrake spent its time locked up in a cage, walled with bars of a strange metal. The cage itself was small, barely large enough for the Viper. He was unable to flap his wings, and the amount of movement he had available limited at best. On the floor of the cage was the same magic circle that had confined him when he first appeared in this World; clearly, this Kazam did not trust him any more than during their first meeting.

There were days when the wizard studied him intensely, simply looking and marvelling at him. Then there were days when the wizard would call some of his friends, and those were the days that Viper came to dread. The Things brought instruments, sharp metallic tools that they used to poke and prod painfully at his flesh. Once, they had attempted to slice open his skin in order to find out what was underneath; at the first touch of his corrosive skin, the blade hissed and cracked.

Still, the knife had done its work; a gash opened and green, thick blood welled from the cut. The Viper had opened his mouth then, hissing angrily and spitting a gob of acidic saliva at the culprit. The projectile had been nowhere near its mark, but when it struck a wooden table, the furniture had dissolved in mere seconds. The Things had shouted in alarm and panic then, and the Viper was left alone for the rest of that day. The Things never tried to cut him after that.

The wizard, the Viper quickly discovered, had a mean, sadistic streak to him, despite his daft appearance. He would test his spells on the Netherdrake, immobile and easy target that he was, regardless of what the spells did to him. The Viper endured days of magical torture as the wizard tossed fireballs and lightning bolts his way. Sometimes, the wizard sought to break his mind, invading the Viper's consciousness and attempting to sift through his memories. He learned to evade the wizard's rough swipes at his mind, and after several unsuccessfully attempts at searching for his thoughts, the wizard eventually came to believe that the Netherdrake was a mindless creature of no intellect.

It was not long before the Viper realized that the wizard was not quite as 'supreme' as he had claimed to be during their first encounter. The magical attacks did not sting all that much, most of it being absorbed by his thick, protective skin, and his mental assaults were feeble and weak. He eventually learned from a conversation between the wizard and one of his friends that the magic circle that bound him was something that he had spent years researching, and was not even something he could reproduce alone. The Viper's anger intensified. It was the ultimate insult as a Lord, being held by a lowly being of such pathetic competency! It was infuriating.

The Viper decided that enough was enough. Whatever cantrips this 'wizard' was capable of were clearly not worth his time, and it was high time for him to leave the daft fool. Little did the Thing know that the magic circle below him had long since lost much of its potency, and it would not be long before the Viper would be able to break free of his cage.


It was, once again, a dark and cold night. Kazam sat at his makeshift table (his previous one had been destroyed in an unfortunate accident involving his Netherdrake), and perused the parchment he held intently. It was a report of the remarkable tenacity of his Netherdrake; no matter what spells he had casted on the beast, it had shrugged it off, seemingly without harm. Even his most powerful of spells, the Fireball, the one which had won him the Wizard of the Year award in his town hadn't so much as singed the skin of his familiar.

Flap.

Of course, this only meant that he had acquired an extremely powerful familiar. Yes, its very presence had elevated his position and standing amongst his peers by quite a considerable margin. They had thought him daft and weak. Him! Daft and weak! Kazam snorted. Now they saw his power!

Flap.

Perhaps, once he had successfully tamed the beast, he could even become a Royal Mage in the city. That was the highest achievement anyone could hope for; what else could a mage hope to attain, but to serve the king under the Archmage himself? Kazam shivered in delight. It should not be difficult. The Netherdrake was powerful, but it had no mind; the mage was certain of it. He had spent many long hours searching for its mind, looking for a way to control it, but it had proven to be mindless, a being of power but low intellect. It would be easy to sway it to his cause.

Flap. Flap. Flap.

"What is that irritating sound?" Irritably, Kazam set down his reading glasses and his parchment. How could anyone possibly concentrate when there was this weird, flapping sound behind him? It was almost as if-

Kazam stopped cold as he heard the hissing voice that should not have been there.

"Greetingssss, masssster."


The Viper was almost as surprised as his 'Master' was when it shot to its feet with a cry of shock. Certainly he had made enough noise when he had melted the bars of his cage, slithered his way out from under the collapsed roof (which was a double insult, slithering about as if he was a newly hatched eggling!) and made his way to the Thing's lair. Surely it must have heard him as he spat the gobs of saliva that had dissolved the doors that had stood between him, or as he flapped his giant wings to hover right behind it. But it still feigned surprise when he had confronted it. Why was that?

The only reason that the Viper could think of was that his 'Master' wanted to lower his guard with an act. Did it perhaps have some trap of some sort, or a spell it had never shown the Netherdrake before? But even as these thoughts of caution emerged, the Thing tripped over its own chair and scrabbled away on its hands and knees. The Viper's estimate of it dropped as he watched the ungainly sight.

"S-stay away! How did you get out? That cage was supposed to be i-impetrenable!" The words came tumbling out of the Thing's mouth as it scrambled to its feet. The Viper hissed.

"You have long held me prissssoner, fool. Ever since you kept me in that prisssson, I have been obsssserving you, waiting for my chancccce. Surely you musssst have seen thissss day coming!"

The 'wizard' shook his head fiercely. "No, it's not possible. You couldn't have broken out. This isn't happening. You're not smart enough for that!"

The Viper roared in fury. "Not ssssmart enough? Not ssssmart enough?! You have inssssulted me for the lasssst time! Now, you pay!" The Viper lunged, the predator leaping for its prey. The Thing shouted in horror, and began slinging balls of fire repeatedly at the Viper's body as it backed away. The Viper ignored them, the magical flames dealing next to no damage to his body, until a lucky shot struck him in the face and exploded. It did no true damage, but it did blind him. The Viper roared again, halting his deadly advance. When the smoke cleared, the Thing was running for the doorway.

"NO!" The Viper screamed. He would not be denied his vengeance! Beating his wings powerfully, he followed the wizard out of the room, only to see a corner of its robe disappearing round the stairway. The Viper stopped, knowing that the narrow, circling corridor would defeat his need for speed, and only make him an easier target for whatever attacks the wizard could be planning. He pondered his options.


"This isn't happening. This isn't happening. This isn't happening." The words were almost a chant as Kazam sprinted down his tower's stairway. The spell that bound the cursed beast must have worn off, and he couldn't cast the spell again alone. He would seek out his friends, yes, and he would show that monster who was really in charge here. And then it would be sorry!

Blood was pounding in his ears as he reached the foot of the stairwell. Stopping once to catch his breath, he strained his ears for any signs of chase from the drake. Not hearing any, he heaved a sigh of relief. The dumb brute must have been stuck in the staircase so far up, the sounds of the struggles couldn't even reach him. Hah!

Oh, but he had to make haste. The Netherdrake wouldn't stay stuck forever, and he needed to bring his friends here before it escaped. He was confident he could hunt it back down again, but he would rather not go through all that trouble. He started off at a run; so what if he was past sixty? His body was still in prime shape, thank you very much!

Kazam burst out from the tower's front door, setting an unerring course for Kalios' tower. He had not gone five steps, however, when a shrill cry from above froze his blood and his footsteps.


The Viper hovered in the air above when he saw a tiny figure leave the tower at a run. Just as he thought, the Thing was going to find its friends so that they could bind him again. That wasn't happening as far as he was concerned. Folding his wings back, the Viper dove, giving voice to his bloodlust as he went. The Thing had frozen in shock, and as it looked up, the Viper crashed heavily into the ground, pinning the Thing underneath his body. It screamed then, a sweet cry of agony as the corrosive touch of his skin ate and burned away at the Thing's pale flesh.

"Know thissss, little creature. You have crossssed a Lord of the Nether Reachessss, and none have lived to tell the tale!" Opening his jaws wide, the Viper spat the most toxic of poisons he had into the Thing's eyes. The screams that were ripped from the Thing's mouth was nothing like before, but to the Netherdrake it was the music of revenge. To the Viper's dismay, it was not too long before the Thing shuddered and lay still, its face contorted into one of intense pain and disbelief. The Viper held the corpse for a moment longer, hoping it was simply pretending, but then accepted the fact that his prey was dead. With a snort of disgust, the Viper rose clear of the cadaver. It had ended too quickly; he would not make the same mistake, the next time.

The Viper raised his head and looked around him. Lacking the knowledge to return to his world, this place would be his new home. The Viper raised his head to the sky and roared. As his echoes slowly faded away into the night, the Viper flapped his wings and gained altitude.

This World had a new master now.


As the Viper left the tower behind, he constantly scanned the world around him. Everything was new; accustomed to the damp depths of the caverns, he was still new to this world and its secrets. Below him, a pack of animals ranged for their own hunt. One of them saw him, silhoutted against the moon, and lifted its head in a howl. The challenge was unmistakable; the impertinent creature had to be taught a lesson. Sleeking his wings back once again, the Viper plummeted with the shrill cry of the hunt.

He slammed into the animal with such force that it died on impact; the rest of the pack scattered, realizing this was an enemy that they stood no chance against. The Netherdrake began to tear chunks off the creature, tossing the bloody scraps of meat into the air and gulping it down. He lost himself in the savoury taste of eating; this was nothing like what the caverns had to offer him. Yet, in the middle of his feast, the Viper paused.

An image came into his mind, one that struck to depths of the Viper's soul. In the image, the land was blighted and dark, and no creature wandered into the open without casting a fearful, skyward glance first. The land itself acknowledged him as the true master; all that and more, he was promised. But for that to happen, threats had to be eliminated first. There was an entity out there that would see his reign given an end. The stone known as the Radiant Ore had to be destroyed first. He lifted his head once more and let loose his own roar of challenge, then took flight.

The Viper answered the call.


Author's Note: And this chapter goes out to coincidencless, for specially requesting that the Viper's story be told. Truthfully this was a difficult chapter, because according to the biography there really isn't much to tell. Still, I made do with what I had; I hope you readers will forgive the lack of battle scenes in this one.

Thank you for being so supportive of the first chapter in the first place; I would most certainly not have written this one if not for all of you. But I'm still on the fence if I should write more or not. If I get the time and the inspiration, I probably will, but seeing as to how each chapter takes me several hours to write I don't think I'll be able to devote the energies to it. No promises ya.

Hope you enjoyed it!