Contrary to popular belief, basilisks weren't very long-lived creatures. Their average lifespan was more or less that of a human being, ranging from seventy to one hundred years. The reason why it was born the myth that they could live for thousands of years was that they had a loophole: thanks to their power to absorb life force, they could convert that energy into additional years to add to their normal life span. However, it was not a simple process: it took completely drying out an entire living being to gain even just one more month of life. However, there was a further possibility: if instead of directly converting this energy into years of life, someone kept it in their body for a very long time, and slowly accumulated it with at least a thousand victims, then this energy changed and with it changed also the body of the basilisk, making they ascend to the rank of greater basilisk, a much stronger being whose life span was around five hundred years.
The one who had been called Inspector for a year now, a title she had cunningly stolen from that pathetic woman who sat on the throne of the city before her, had worked incessantly for years to reach the rank of greater basilisk. She had absorbed the life force of everything she had found, acting secretly so that the pathetic excuse of a brother she had been unlucky enough to have and her miserable wife didn't notice anything. Those two stupid basilisks had always been a burden to her, with their stupid ideals of living peacefully with humans; the only useful thing they had ever done was produce her a granddaughter, who had been very useful to her in furthering her purpose. Vee had been the perfect pawn for her, a silly little girl who earned bread for both of them while she secretly found some victims and drained them piece by piece. Thanks to the fact that Vee worked for her and provided her with something to eat, she, her dear auntie, didn't have to waste even a drop of the precious energy she stored inside her body. And so in the end she had finally broken that limit that she had had to work so hard to overcome, and had ascended to the higher stage of greater basilisk. The transformation hadn't been painless or easy, and in fact it had been like drinking molten iron for three consecutive days, and it had taken several weeks for her to recover; her brain had also been partially damaged and part of her memories had been destroyed, preventing her from remembering the faces of her parents, the name of her miserable brother or his wife or even her own name. The only name she still remembered was Vee's, and only because she had told her after she had recovered; her niece hadn't even been able to tell her what her original name was, since she had always just called her 'aunt', but it didn't matter anyway. Once she gained her new powers, she decided it was time to aim for something bigger than a life on the streets, and so she assumed the identity of the Inspector and took command of the city. She was now the Inspector and she had no reason to look for another name.
A life of comfort and luxury, that's all a basilisk should have ever had: they, the superior species, had to be served and revered by humans, certainly not feared them. And now the Inspector had taken it upon herself: first of all she had captured that miserable woman who bore that name before her and had replaced her; she would have eliminated her immediately, but she had preferred to keep her alive since she needed to perfectly learn the names of all potentially problematic people, and unfortunately loosening her tongue had been very hard even after months. However, she was starting to think that her concern was unfounded: after a year it was now clear that she had total control over everything and everyone. After becoming the Inspector she had used her powers of greater basilisk to eliminate all her opponents and she had surrounded herself with devious and evil individuals who were ready to obey her every order like faithful lapdogs. No one in the town dared challenge his authority anymore.
Now, after a year, she believed she was ready to move on to phase two of her plan: a life of luxury was comforting, but she wanted more. Now that everything was under her total control she wanted to turn that entire town into her personal food reserve. Thousands of humans ready to be drained by her, as it always should have been: so she could slowly begin her journey towards the next rank, the royal basilisk, and obtain an even longer life and even greater power.
Everything was going well for the Inspector, in short... if it hadn't been for her, the niece who should have served her faithfully, and who instead had backed out as soon as the time had come to get her hands dirty. It was her fault, the Inspector knew it: she should have disciplined Vee better. She had been too good, too kind to her: she might not have remembered it due to the damage to her brain, but she was pretty sure she had only hit that little girl a couple of times in her life. She should have done it more often, so that she understood who was in charge. Unfortunately after her rebellion she couldn't afford to waste time teaching the importance of obeying, since she had to carry out his own plans; so for the moment she had limited herself to locking Vee in a cell. She would go get her when the whole town was finally her food supply, and then she would discipline her niece properly; after all, Vee could still be useful to her, there was no point in getting rid of her so quickly.
Or at least that's what she thought, until the day before she received the news that Vee had escaped together with a girl made of wood and a guy who, according to the guards, fought like a demon. The Inspector had been furious: had her stupid niece thought she had made friends? Ridiculous. A basilisk was no friend of humans, or of any other creature. They killed, consumed and conquered, that was the way of their people. However, now she absolutely had to find her: Vee was the only one who knew her secret, and also the only one who could potentially ruin her plans! So she had unleashed all her soldiers around the town to find her. However, what she didn't expect was that there had been no need to find her at all: she had announced her presence herself. "My lady" the Warden Wrath, her faithful lieutenant, had rushed to tell her. "In the central square there are a couple of kids who have climbed onto a roof, and one of them is the one you ordered us to find. She keeps saying she wants to talk to you and that she is your niece"
The Inspector was taken aback by those words; she hadn't expected Vee to even take the initiative to challenge her publicly. She had thought that her niece would just try to escape like she always had. "Why haven't you caught them yet?"
The Warden Wrath scratched his head in embarrassment. "Um... we're trying, but the other escapee, the wooden girl, stops the guards from going up to the roof. She kicks everyone who tries to get close, and apparently they're very hard. And some have even mentioned the presence of a cricket and a spider..."
The Inspector was livid. "Are you telling me you're getting kicked around by a puppet, a cricket and a spider!?"
"In the position they are in, it's easy for them to push us away. If we try to use the ladders, they just push them away. And if we try to climb up... either the puppet kicks us, or the cricket jumps on us and grabs us punching us, making us fall. And that damned spider does nothing but go around and use magic tricks to deceive us and make us slip..." the Warden Wrath tried to explain himself. "We tried to threaten them with arrows, but the puppet almost dared us to do so, saying that she is made of very hard wood and that not even a knife could inflict a serious wound on her..."
The Inspector slapped her face. He already knew that her guards were a bunch of idiots, but she thought there was a limit to idiocy anyway. "I understand. As usual, if you want something to happen, you have to do it on your own" she said, walking briskly out of her building.
Meanwhile, Luz, Vee, Gus and Willow stood on the roof watching as the at least one hundred guards below them were getting up in pain. A large crowd of people had already gathered in the square, and many were laughing at seeing the kids who continued to make fun of the soldiers. "Tsk! Is that all you are able to do?" Luz teased them.
"Luz, please shut your mouth" Gus muttered with barely the strength to stand. For the last ten minutes he had been running from one side of the roof to the other pretending to be literally anything, from a tile to a piece of gutter, with the sole aim of letting the guards come up touch him and jump on them, causing them to fall into a panic. It had worked at first, but by now he felt completely drained.
Willow wasn't far behind either: she'd punched practically anyone she came across, aiming mostly at the eyes or fingers, and now she no longer even had the energy to get up in the air. "I'll pass out in a little time"
Luz let out a sigh. "Me too. I bluffed a little while ago, I'm almost at my limit" she admitted. Although pushing away ladders or kicking guards was an easy task to say, in reality it was quite tiring; by now she felt every corner of her wooden body ache. "If your aunt doesn't show up here soon, I hope Hunter decides to come down and help us out, or we might not be able to resist..."
"Don't worry, he's already doing it" Vee said rubbing her sore mouth. "I've been sensing magic being used all around us for the past five minutes, right at the points where large groups of guards suddenly fall to the ground stunned. He's secretly supporting us from his position". Her gaze suddenly became hard. "And we don't need to hold out any longer anyway. She's here"
Luz looked up and saw that a woman had appeared in the distance, followed by the Warden Wrath and several other soldiers. The woman was of average height and had pale, haggard skin and a decidedly thin build; she wore a gray robe with several golden barricades and had two small glasses on her nose. She had her black hair tied in a bun and had lively gray eyes, and an evil smile was painted on her face. Upon her arrival, the citizens stepped aside and trembled in fear. "Is that your aunt?" Luz asked Vee.
The basilisk nodded slightly and her hands tightened. "Yes"
"Dear niece!" the Inspector exclaimed as soon as she was close enough; her voice was rather sweet, but it contained a note of malice that made everyone present's skin crawl. "What are you doing? Stop acting like this, you know it doesn't suit you. It's because of this attitude of yours that I always had to keep you locked up! Come down, and let's go back to the palace now..."
"ENOUGH!" Vee screamed trembling. "Stop acting! This story has gone on too long! You may have my same blood, but I won't let you continue this madness!". Shee took a deep breath, then she pointed her finger at her. "Hear me, all of you! That's not the mistress of the town who ruled you wisely a year ago! She's a basilisk!"
A wave of dismay passed through the entire square, and both the citizens and the guards widened their eyes; even the Warden Wrath looked shocked. "What... what does that mean?"
If she could, the Inspector would have jumped onto the roof and twisted her niece's neck. Had she perhaps lost her mind? Vee had just declared herself to be her own blood: if she were exposed, her niece would be too! Humans may have been a little slow on the uptake, but even they would have understood that the 'same blood' of a basilisk could only be another basilisk! "What nonsense are you talking about, dear niece? Do you want to get into trouble by telling such falsehoods? Do you know that..."
She was clearly trying to warn her in a subtle way, but Vee didn't pick up on the signs, or if she did, she didn't listen to them: "Think about it! Until a year ago the Inspector was a good person who protected this city from crime, and then suddenly has reduced this country to poverty! You don't really think that this change is due to a bump on the head or something, do you? Why don't you try asking yourself why she has white spots on her hands?"
The Inspector was quick and quickly hid her hands in her pockets to prevent the stains from being seen. Damn, due to the tension and surprise she had lost concentration for a moment. But although she was quick to hide the evidence, many people began to look at her with suspicion and even the guards began to have doubts. Also, was it her impression or were there fewer soldiers than before?
Vee looked at the soldiers next to the Inspector: "Enough! You don't have to obey her, she is not your master and deep down you know it!" she exclaimed. "Do you want proof? Why don't you try sticking a needle into her clothes? Or try taking off her glasses?"
The Inspector gritted her teeth: the clothes she was wearing were part of her transformation, so they were technically part of her skin. If someone had tried to take them away from her, it would have been no different than letting herself be flayed. "Now I'm tired! Guards, bring that little girl here immediately...!"
"Not so fast!" To the surprise of the Inspector, the Warden Wrath, the guards and all the citizens who were observing the scene (and of which there were many by now), a large number of armed people appeared from every direction and pointed their weapons at the soldiers. Only then the Inspector understood why there were so few guards in the square: most of them had been stunned by those guys secretly taking advantage of the confusion created by Vee! "And who are you!?"
"They are the resistance!" Luz said speaking for the first time. "These are the ones who got tired of your tyrannical rule and had the courage to stand up to you! And now it's time to throw in the towel!"
"And what would you want to do, rebel?" the Inspector let out a sadistic laugh. "Fools! I am the master of this town, as were all my ancestors! This place is my birthright!"
"IT IS NOT TRUE!" Vee screamed so loudly that she could be heard throughout the town. There were tears in her eyes and she was shaking so badly that she could be seen from across the square, but despite this her gaze possessed an unparalleled determination. "You are not the Inspector! And now I will prove it to you!" and her body stirred as if it were made of water.
An expression of horror was painted on the Inspector's face, and more white spots appeared on her forehead, although due to her pale skin they were almost unrecognizable. "What are you doing, you crazy idiot!?"
"Vee! What's on your mind?" Luz screamed back. That wasn't the plan! But it was too late: Vee completely abandoned her human form and returned to her true basilisk form.
The entire square was paralyzed for an instant; no one seemed to have the ability to move anymore. Vee clearly felt fear grip her heart like a vise, and she felt the urge to run away, but she steeled herself and shouted: "I'm a basilisk, and so is she! That's my aunt! That's not the Inspector! None of you are required to obey her!"
"Vee..." Luz didn't know what to say; she didn't expect that in order to reveal the truth Vee would end up revealing her true nature. She felt a little afraid: so far everyone who had known that she was a basilisk hadn't reacted too badly, the worst one had been Hunter who had only made a few nasty comments, but what would happen now that the whole town knew of her secret? She admired her new sister's courage, but perhaps this time she had gone too far. Fearing that someone would start shooting arrows, she stood next to her, ready to shield her with her wooden body in case of such an eventuality.
The Inspector was struck by utter terror; now the spots on her face were evident even with her pale skin and claws could br seen under her gloves. "You... monster! Kill her! Kill that... now!"
But before she could say anything else, the unexpected happened: the Warden Wrath, who until then had remained silent beside her, raised his sword and pointed it at her throat. "What are you doing?" the Inspector hissed.
"My lady, could you please remove your glasses?" the Warden Wrath asked extremely calmly, remembering what Vee had said earlier.
The Inspector gritted her teeth. "Are you rebelling too? Have you forgotten who put you in your position?"
If she fell, the Warden Wrath would fall with her. He had been at her side from the beginning and as a judge he had sent many innocent people to prison: he would certainly have been convicted. And the Warden Wrath knew this, and indeed for an instant his muscles tensed and he seemed reticent; but immediately afterwards he repeated in an even more decisive voice: "My lady, please take off your glasses"
The Inspector was turning livid with anger. It wasn't just the Warden Wrath: the other guards who should have already started fighting against the resistance members had also stood still and were looking at her, and she could clearly sense the hostility in their gazes. But before she could say or do anything, a voice exclaimed, "There's no need of it. The real Inspector is here!"
Everyone turned towards the road that went towards the palace, and saw that Masha had appeared there, helping a woman to walk; a woman who looked in every way identical to the one the Warden Wrath was aiming a weapon at, with the difference that she was decidedly more emaciated and covered in scars, wore only a dirty habit and didn't appear to have washed in a long time, and around her neck, wrists and ankles there were clear signs of chains. But despite the fact that she could barely walk and needed Masha to support her on her feet, she still pointed an accusing finger and shouted: "Catch that impostor!"
And finally no one had any doubts anymore. The Warden Wrath tried to grab the fake Inspector, but he couldn't even touch her: something hit him straight in the sternum and sent him flying away for at least ten meters, and the other guards met the same fate. "You think you're smart, huh? Well, if that's what you want!"
The fake Inspector's body trembled and then stretched and deformed as if it were made of rubber. All the people present, including Masha, instantly lost all the bravado they had had until a few seconds before; Luz couldn't hold back a squeal, and even Vee stepped back trembling. Under their gaze, the fake Inspector transformed into an enormous snake at least six meters long, with gigantic front legs covered in sharp claws and a ridiculously huge mouth covered in razor-like teeth. If they imagined that Luz was a mouse and Vee a quiet country snake, her aunt was more or less the equivalent of an anaconda on steroids. "Do you think you have any power over me!?" the greater basilisk hissed in a much deeper and more terrifying voice than before. "Fools! If I cannot command you, then I will devour you all at once, and then I will move on to the next town and this time everything will go according to plan! Say your last prayers, because now..."
She didn't have time to finish the sentence: a beam of red light hit her right in the eye and made her let out a cry of pain. An instant later Hunter, his golden mask over his face and his staff in his hand, landed in front of her. "Stop your bad guy monologue, I've heard too many of them in my life and they're all the same" he said, then he looked up at her and met her eyes. "I am your opponent"
In case some of you don't understand why the Inspector makes fun of the rebels by claiming that governing the town is her birthright, you must know that in the Middle Ages the nobles were considered by their subjects as true masters by divine will. People took it for granted that it was right to be ruled by the one who was part of a certain family; it is no coincidence that when a king conquered a territory he tended to keep the already existing noble family in command, because otherwise the people could have rebelled since those were not the masters they had served for generations. Therefore, even when the nobles were tyrants, the peasants continued to consider it right that they were still in charge because they had been born in that position and therefore had been placed there by divine will; saying "it's my birthright" had a strong meaning at the time, much more than we, with our modern mentality, can understand. Furthermore, despite what we usually imagine, it was not impossible for a woman to inherit a fief (generally this happened when all the male heirs died or if she remained a widow) and govern it as she pleased, although obviously such women rarely chose to remain unmarried for a long time (keep in mind that the Middle Ages were still an era of continuous wars, especially between the various fiefdoms, and it was therefore important to have a man in command who could command the armies). Therefore the fact that there was an Inspector who governed a town by her birthright wasn't at all unlikely, on the contrary; although obviously there are no documented cases of shape-shifting basilisks taking their place.
I hope you enjoyed this little historical excursus. Thanks for your support and leave kudos! ;-)