"It Can't Rain All the Time"

By Jagwarknight

This story takes place between "The Treaty" and "Well, It Could Be Worse."

It was raining hard outside Snake Mountain. It had been less than 24 hours since King Hiss and Evil-Lynn had agreed to a pact of non aggression with the Horde and since then; the forces of good had fallen like flies...

However, things weren't exactly peaceful in it...

"Isss he insssane?!?!"

Rattlor sighed as he rubbed his temples. For the past few hours, he had been listing to the ranting and ravings of Kobra Khan about the just recently signed treaty of non aggression between the Snake men/Evil Warriors and the Horde, Not that the general wasn't thinking the same thing...

"Will you jussst ssshut up!? I have enough of a headache asss it isss without your whining" Rattlor snapped.

Khan just stared at him with a look of annoyance before speaking again. "Look, I may hate your gutsss and sssuch, but YOU of people ssshould know of how dangerousss thisss isss! I mean, Hordak isss going to wait for even the sssmallessst reassson to attack usss and we'll be caught off and... are you even LISSSTING TO ME?!?!" Khan yelled.

In truth, Rattlor's mind had drifted elsewhere as Khan was ranting. His thoughts going back to the time of He-Ro... before Khan's yell snapped him back to reality. "Hm? What were you sssaying?" The General asked. Khan sighed and shook his head at the older snake man.

"Thisss isss the third time you ssspaced out sssince we won." Khan said. "And it'sss ssstarting to worry everyone, well, barring Hisss, but good luck getting him to tell usss anything..." Rattlor sighed and looked at Khan, dreading this moment, but he knew Khan wouldn't leave him alone about this...

"I... had a mate once... her name wasss Draca."

It was the fourth year since the war with He-Ro and the Elders had started and the toll was starting to drain the general's body and spirit. He had no doubts that they would win, but, the mounting losses and the consent fights were starting to chip away his iron hard will...

"May I offer you a drink general?" A voice said. Rattlor turned to see a snake woman with ebony black scales that were offset by her dark yellow eyes. She was holding a tray with some water glasses but Rattlor was ignoring the drinks in favor of the woman holding it...

"Sssir?" the woman asked, which snapped the General from his daze. He nodded before speaking.

"Yess... and prehapsss a little company asss well."

"It wasss love at firssst sssight for me, ssshe wasss one of the mossst beautiful women I ever had ssseen." Rattlor said and looked to see, that for once, he had Khan's full attention.

"Wait, you mean that, besssidesss Vipera, there were Sssnake women?" Khan asked... and winched when the general shot the younger snake a dark look.

"I will get to that in a moment." He said with vemon in his voice."But yesss, there were sssnake women... and I did make love to many of them but..."

It had been a great victory for the armies of the snake men that day. The invading armies of Grayskull had been pushed back with little to no losses on the Snake side. Hiss had declared this day to be one of celebration and allowed the breeding stock to mingle with the warriors as a party was held in the great hall of Serpentos.

Rattlor fidgeted underneath his armor, feeling uncomfortable in both it and the party. Truthfully he felt that this was a waste of time as He-Ro and the Elders would launch a counter attack with little to no delay... Shaking his head, The General decided to spend his free time on something else besides worrying about what would happen tomorrow, for tonight, he was on a different mission, one that would decide the fate of his personal life forever.

Rattlor had spotted his target mingling with the other generals a bit, mainly severing them and their 'dates' drinks. Calling up his courage, He walked over to Draca and spoke. "Are you busssy at the moment?" Draca blinked in surprise and mearly shook her headbefore he pulled her away from the festivities. Tung Lashor, Sqquueezee and Snake face all looked at each other for a moment before they said as one...

"He'sss going for it."

"Going for what?" The voice of King Hiss said as he and his mate for the evening walked towards the three. Tung chuckled before speaking,

"I think we may have a wedding on hand."

The night sky was clear as Rattlor led Draca out of the grand hall and into one of the few untouched areas of grasslands that were nearby. Draca was quiet for the most part but once they stopped, she spoke.

"Mind telling me what thisss isss all about?" She said as she watched Rattlor's movements. The Snake man froze suddenly and took in a deep breath of air; mentally chasting himself for freezing up like this, he could fight 20 men single handily, stare death in the eye twenty times over and yet he freezes up at a mear question? getting scared to ask a WOMAN a question? hardly the reputation of one of Hiss' generals. But still...

"Well, I, er, That isss, um..." Rattlor said, trying desperately to find the right words to say and was once again mentally kicking himself in the butt for acting like a fool. Draca just waited as the general was trying to speaking; finding it a bit cute that she was casusing the mighty general to stammer like a twit...

"We've... been ssseeing each other a lot sssince we firssst met and I... feel that it isss time I found a mate." Rattlor said while judging herreaction...

Khan yawned suddenly, interrupting Rattlor's tale.

"She' sss saysss yesss, you ssslip a ring on her, a big wedding, blah, blah, blah." Khan said as he rolled his eyes. Rattlor stood up suddenly and grabbed Khan by the neck and gave the repton the mother of all death glares. Khan whimpered for a moment before he was tossed back into his seat by Rattlor.

"Your... ssstatement, however blunt, isss correct. We were wedded in the following sssummer of that year and we were sssoon blesssed with a child that we called Dagon..." Rattlor said, which caused Khan to tilt his head in confusion. "And yesss, we can make babiesss, why do you think many of the women were breeding ssstock?" Rattlor said, cutting off Khan's rather obvious question. "But... thingsss changed for the worssst with the horde came... and No, they were not the horde you know of today, At lessst, I think they weren't but..."

"I don't get it." Rattlor said he nursed an arm injury. "There wasss no true purposssse to thisss attack, my King. "They inflicted only minimal damage, they didn't even TRY to reclaim their lost land..." Hiss pondered this for a moment before speaking.

"Prehapsss it wasss a mearly a tessst of our ssstrenght, they have been attacking usss regularly ass of late..." The king of all snakes said before an aid suddenly busted into the room, startling the two slightly.

"My king... General... Gorefoot... outpossst there... attacked while..." the aid got out as he was gasping for breath. Rattlor froze for the span of five seconds... before he suddenly broke into a run, knocking the aid to the ground. His thoughts were racing manicallyas he ran. He had thought he had heard Hiss yell something at him but paid it little heed...

As his mind was only on His wife and son's safety...

Rattlor felt the air had gotten colder as he made his way threw the ruins of the outpost. The General was trying to dispel the growing fear that was filling up in his heart. Dangit, he should of have asked Hiss to let Tung Lashor or Snake face or heck, even Sqquueezzee to lead today's attack but...

He shook his head, there was nothing he could of have done really. The army needed him at that time and that was that... Rattlor tensed up when he saw his home at this outpsot. For some reason, it was left somewhat untouched but that could mean anything. Rattlor took a deep breath to relax himself and made his way there. Gasping the door handle, Rattlor opened the door and looked in... and felt the bile he was holding back suddenly rush up his throat at what he saw.

The room was caked in blood and, there, in the center of it, like a grotesque display was...

"No... No... No..." Rattlor said as he backed away from the sight. His breathing was getting quicker and faster with each pant as he was trying to work this out in his mind. Rattlor felt his legs give out on him before long and started to vomit for almost a hour...

Rattlor suddenly felt a hand touch his shoulder. He looked up to see the face of his King...

Rattlor opened his eyes to see that Khan, much to his surprise, had a rare look of pity on his face. The General almost wanted to chuckle at this site. "Ssstill doesssn't explain why you're ssso complaint with thisss treaty." Khan said while crossing his arms. "If anything... it ssshould of have made you more vocal." Rattlor shook his head again and spoke.

"I have faith that the King knows what he isss doing.We will ssson be rid of the horde and re-claim our rightful place asss rulersss of the planet."

Khan sighed as he heard this and decided not to rehash a long standing arguments he and Rattlor always had. "Fine, but for your sssake, you better be right about thisss. I have no intention to be a flukie for the horde, you know how they treated that clone of Tung Lashor." Khan said as he got up, remembering that brief period of time where Rattlor was spying on the Horde.

Rattlor sighed as Khan left and looked out at the raining sky. He had caught the meaning of Khan's words and heaven knows that he had questioned his king's judgment but yet... All he had left now was his duty to Hiss now. His family was murdered, any friends he had were either dead or left in some void...

Rattlor turned and looked outside a window and stared out towards where the three towers would be, wondering if Khan, for once in his meaning-less life, was right.

Draca... Dagon... I miss you two so much… He thought as he stared out at the rain drenched night.