Outcast

We both grin at each other, before heading back to the Crimson Flame tribe. When we arrive, Lord Tohil is waiting for is.

He slithers over to meet us, nodding in deference to Valoris, and the branch head. Before turning towards me and saying.

"Valoris, we brought the survivors of the experiments, four of them were your tribe members, two of them however from what we understand were born within the Bloodyfang clan.

They both were heavily experimented on and tortured. One of them who calls himself Vasuki, he was leading the survivors away from the base. According to him, he was in the mines like you were, taken to be experimented on over two years ago"

Trying, and failing not to get my hopes up. I tell Lord Tohil that I would like to meet him. He slithers to a large cave, with Gorm, and myself following close behind.

Inside the cave is a 14ft long dull back serpent with thin blood-red stripes. Along with him is a small kobold of similar coloring hiding behind him.

The serpent stares at me hard for a long minute, his golden eyes glaring at me while I search his face.

"Snake? is that you?" I ask.

He looks shocked for a second before asking.

"Who are you? the only people who called me that were in the mines of the Bloodyfang clan"

"All clear?" I say.

It was what we would ask the other to check in with them, the mines were a very dangerous, depressing place. That was our way of letting each other know it would be okay.

"All clear" he answers instantly, his face lighting up, and slithering forward.

"You're alive!" he says excitedly.

"That's what I should say to you!" I say back as we inspect each other, marveling at each other's changes.

Before Vasuki, when I knew him as Snake, was deformed, with asymmetrical bone structure, thin scales, his movements odd, and clearly painful for him.

Now, he instead of a mixture of a serpent, and dragon features, he has turned completely serpent. With strong overlapping scales, long thin red fangs, and a hood similar to a cobra's.

"What did they do to you?" I ask.

"They wanted to see if they could take a mutant like me, merge the bloodlines together into a completely new original one. For me, it turned me into a completely new kind of serpentkin, though I still kept Selena's bloodline powers"

Amazed, I turn to Lord Tohil and ask.

"Did we get the research on what they did to him?"

"We believe so, though there appears to be some information missing" he answers, as excited by this as I am.

It's clear he understands how important this information could be just as I do. Most beastkin run into the same problem at some point. They got the limit of their bloodline shackles, the limits of cultivation their bloodline can take them.

After that, the only way forward is by collecting divinity from countless places, and beasts and absorbing it making it your own, which is extremely difficult. Or you can find the originator of an complete divinity, and take it as yours.

Each comes with their own risks and benefits. With this research, we could make completely new bloodlines for ourselves, with us as the originators. All we would have to do is collect enough divinity power, our bloodline would absorb it naturally making it part of our power.

Turning back to Vasuki, I notice the small kobold hiding behind him. She is staring at Lord Tohil, and myself with fearful eyes.

"Who is that behind you?" I ask

"This is my sister Manasa when they found out what they had done to me worked, they wanted to see what would happen if they did the same thing to someone related to me.

Luckily for us, you showed up before they did, I used the distraction to break free and escape with the others" he says while staring tenderly at his little sister.

"What do you plan to do now?" I ask, as an idea forms.

"I have no idea honestly, Manasa wants to stay with me, and not go back to the Bloodyfang. And I'm not sure where to go from here" admits Vasuki.

Smiling, I turn towards Gorm, who is just outside the cave, and ask.

"What do you think?"

He studies them both before saying.

"Are you interested in joining the Crimson Flame tribe?"

The two siblings look stunned, Vasuki turns towards me.

"You are part of this tribe?" he asks.

"I am, you will not be mistreated with them I promise"

Satisfied, he turns toward Lord Gorm, bows his head, and says.

"We would be honored to join the tribe. May we know your name Lordship?"

"Gorm, just call me Gorm. Valoris can show you around, I will introduce you to Lord Mezal later"

Inviting the siblings to follow me, I take them to a cave close to mine.

"Go sleep, tomorrow you and I get to go do something that'going to feel great," I say while smiling.

"Oh? and what is that?" he asks, smiling while he does.

"Tomorrow, we get to finish off the Bloodyfang"