Chapter 30

Clay

Clay walked through the large building avoiding being close to any of the snakes. Glory seemed to see this and rolled her eyes. "They're in glass cages. They can't get to you."

Clay didn't listen to her. He still felt some discomfort from his dragon bite viper wound from over two years ago.

Sunny walked close to him on his left side. "Don't listen to her. I find it scary too." her warm scales added to the heat he felt being in a dessert. Sunny and Quibli seemed to be the only ones enjoying the heat.

Clay nodded at Sunny. "Thanks Sunny."

"Oh you're awake." Blur smiled at the group.

Only Clay, Sunny, Glory and Moon were up. It was still quite early. Moon had opted into staying in with her clawmates until they woke up.

"Yes. We thought we'd have a look around." Glory eyed the glass cages.

"Oh. I can give you the tour if you'd like." he waved a talon around.

Before Clay or Glory could answer Sunny did. "That would be awesome."

Clay sighed internally. He really didn't want to wander around all the snakes but he didn't want to say no to Sunny either. He would just have to handle being around them for the time being.

Blur started by listing off what species they had in the facility. "We have the Dwarf Vipers, Green Vipers, Maroon Vipers, Sand Vipers. There's also the Hawk Vipers, Spiral Vipers, Spectacled Viper and the Ring Viper. Those are all we have. I have some Death Dragonbite Viper eggs incubating. No clue if they're viable yet. And a shipment of a pair of Jungle Vipers should be coming within the week."

"So why do you study them? The Vipers I mean." Clay asked, eyeing a red snake.

"Well there are many reasons. But the main one was to save the tribes. The most deaths recorded before I started this were from Dragonbite vipers. Now it's only from Death Dragonbite vipers and war related deaths." Blur fiddled with a key for a moment. "We do have some other species of reptiles. Some are non venomous."

"Like what?" Sunny asked.

"We have a few Boas and some pythons. An anaconda. We focus on Dragonbite Vipers mostly. Those we took in after they had no homes." He set his talon down.

"Anyway." He said after a moment. "This is our breeding room. I have the incubators in the room next door to make it easier to carry the eggs. So far for this season It's just Green Vipers and a rare gene of red Dwarf Vipers. I'm hoping to get more of this gene."

Clay took a peek inside to see two small red snakes on either side of the enclosure. One was in the foliage at the top while the other was in some kind of box at the bottom. In another there was a pair of Green snakes entwined around each other. Clay moved on towards the egg room. He could see a bundle of eggs on a rack. They were ivory white and oblong.

"Over here is where I keep some dead specimens to study and examine." Blur pointed to a shelf. Clay could see multiple skeletons of snakes as well as jars with some kind of liquid with snakes inside.

"Whoa." Clay tapped one.

"I can actively view they're venom glands and fangs by doing this." Blur nodded at them.

"So strange." Clay tilted his head.

"This is the main part of the facility. Most of the species are out here, along with the hybrid." Blur pointed a wing to the largest enclosure. "Over there is the lab." he pointed to the other side.

Clay had to admit to himself it was a rather large and impressive building. He also had to admit he felt pretty safe when the snakes were in their glass enclosures. His stomach let out a loud grumble.

Glory gave him a sarcastic look. "Hungry already?"

Clay gave a toothy grin. "You know me."

"We should have some food back in the sleeping quarters." Sunny replied.

"Don't worry about it." Blur spoke up. "We've got a bunch of extra food here. Follow me."

Clay followed closely behind him at the thought of food. He hoped it wasn't anything bad. He'd had desert food before. But that was in the Kingdom of Sand. He didn't know if it was different here or not.

Blur led them to another large room filled with tables carved from sandstone. Blur went behind a counter and pulled out a large sack of fruit. Fruit. He also pulled out a smaller sack with some kind of scorpion sticking out of it.

"This is a cactus fruit." He held a fruit up. "The outside isn't edible but the inside," he peeled the green outside away to reveal a bright pink inside. "Is amazing."

He handed it over to Clay. "Try it."

Clay took it into his talons. He gave a skeptical look and took a bite of the small fruit. His mouth exploded in flavor. It was sour yet sweet and extremely juicy. "It's good." he said with a mouth full.

"These are giant scorpions." Blur pulled out the bug. It was frozen in place and just as big as his talon. "They have a meaty flavor and a crunchy exterior."

Clay swallowed the fruit. He lifted up a scorpion. A shiver ran down his spine as he looked at it. It looked just like the ones in the Kingdom of sand, but bigger. It had that yellow sand top with a darker yellow on its underside. Its pincers were open like it was about to pinch an unsuspecting dragon. Its tail however was gone. Where you would find the poisonous tail packed with venom was nothing but a stub.

"Where's the tail?" Clay asked.

"The tail is not safe to eat so we remove it before roasting them. We have to be very careful when harvesting them as well. We have the antivenom for it but it will still put you in the hospital for a few weeks." Blur responded.

Clay took a tentative bite. Blur was right. The flavor was meaty and the exterior was cracking with each bite. The taste was alright. It tasted like any normal meat.

"Might I ask, what happened to your leg?" Blur peaked at the scarred bite mark.

Clay shifted on his talons. "I was bitten by a dragon bite viper."

"Interesting. It's not like any I've seen. How old is the injury? What species bit you? How far did the venom spread?" Blur asked a million questions.

"It happened a few years ago when we ended the war. There were two of them but only one got me. And we only have one species on our continent. It kinda looks like the hybrid one you have but more black." Clay thought about it.

"Wait. A Death Dragonbite Viper? No one has ever survived a bit from them before. How did you survive?" Blur raced along, his voice fast.

"Uhh. Well Peril burned the venom out of my leg." Clay answered. He didn't understand how someone could be fascinated with all this.

"Burn? What do you mean? How did she burn it out?" he stepped back with a questioning look.

"Peril is a fire scale. She can burn anything with just a touch. I have fire proof scales. She was able to burn out the venom before it reached anything else." Clay explained.

Blur quickly pulled out a scroll and started scribbling down everything Clay had said. "Burn the venom," he said quietly. His talons tapped against the ground as something clicked in his brain. He soon bolted out of the room. "Nox. Nox!"

"Well. Head back to the others?" Glory asked.

"Yeah," Clay nodded. He grabbed a few more fruits and some scorpions to bring back for the others to try. They traveled down the hall Blur had shown them. They passed through the main room where the hybrid was. It watched with its black eyes as they passed.

Soon they came to the breeding and egg rooms. They passed them and ended up in the sleeping quarter hall. He handed half of what he grabbed to Glory and Sunny and set off for The Jade winglets room.
He lighty rapped at the door with a talon before opening it. Standing before his eyes were Qibli, Kinkajou, Winter, and Turtle. They were standing in a circle around a small black body, shiving and her eyes glued shut. It was Moon. Her talons were trembling and her breath was ragged.

He dropped the food running to their sides. "What happened?"

"It's a vision. She was going to head to the other room when it came." Qibli managed out. He had a gentle talon on Moon.

Clay had never seen her have a vision before. He had heard what happened when she had the vision of Darkstalker. He wondered if this was the same.

Moon's eyes shot open. Her talons were still shaking. "No!" she called out.

"Hey it's just us. You're ok." Qibli helped her stand. "What did you see?"

"It's Alistair. He's going to do something." She looked towards Clay. "Something horrible.