Chapter 113
At the sight of the approaching beam, which, with a direct hit, could easily destroy his barrier and leave serious wounds, Severus did not even move and only calmly watched how with every moment, the beam came closer and closer, but at the last moment the beam, abruptly changed direction and flew into the wall, breaking through it.
"Why didn't you dodge?" the half-serpent-half-dragon asked, grinning, looming over the wizard.
"Why should I do this when your attack had no intention, not only to kill, but even to hit me," Severus replied with a smile, shifting his gaze to the shining crystal, which was identical to the one from the "outer" part of the "Magic Forest", "By the way, I wanted to ask, do you know why this crystal is standing here?"
"It was an ancestor's order to guard it."
"So I was thinking in the right direction." a heavy sigh escaped the lips of Snape, and then he looked at the snake, " I understand that we have a deal?"
"No, even for the sake of my son, I won't let you touch our sacred source," the monster answered with a chuckle, but at the same time it was in no hurry to attack, nevertheless, it also really wanted its child back.
"I just want to look at the skeleton, your memories will do, too," a white ball appeared in Snape's hand, which he extended to the magical creature, "After all, I myself do not burn with the desire to bathe in blood."
The half-serpent-half-dragon stared at the artefact suspiciously, and then looked up at the man again.
"Is that all you want in return for my son?"
"No, this will not be enough, I also want your knowledge of this forest, access to your treasury and the right to pick up any three items."
"Aren't you asking too much?" squinting unkindly, the monster growled, exposing its fangs.
"So your son isn't even worth this much?" Severus asked him with a mocking voice, which made the monster's growl more menacing, and a blood-red aura began to surround its body again, but Severus continues "You're one worthless father, or maybe you don't love him at all?"
"SHUT UP!"
"Do you want to measure my strength?" Narrowing his gaze, Severus touched the hilt of the sword, the runes on which shone brightly, and his body was enveloped in a dark, oppressive aura that was almost equal to the monster.
But after a few seconds, the magical creature calmed down, realising that this battle would not lead to anything good, but on the contrary, in addition to the snakes outside, the sacred source with the crystal, which he is obliged to protect, as the King of all snakes, will also suffer, yes and after that, he will definitely never see his son again.
Severus also understood all this, so he started this "performance" only to intimidate the monster and show his strength, because it was not a civilised world where everything could be solved only with words, but a wild jungle where it was all about strength.
"I accept your terms." The ball flew out of Snape's hand and hovered in front of the half-snake-half-dragon, who first decided to study it, before touching the unknown artefact and after a minute not noticing anything strange, the monster squeezed it between his claws and gradually, the colour of the ball began to become cloudy, acquiring darker shades of grey until finally the serpent threw it back, "Take it."
"Thank you," quickly examining the memories and making sure that this is exactly what he demanded, Severus squeezed it and broke it, and the gray mist escaping from the ball entered his head, he only froze for a moment, and then sealed the knowledge so that later he could calmly absorb them.
Then he looked up at the gloomy monster, and said "But we didn't conclude a contract," and a red parchment appeared in the Snape's hand, nevertheless, it's one thing to use A4 sheets with simple "Masters", but monsters of this level are completely different, if it were not for the material core, then today Snape would have had to run with his tail between his legs.
Quickly throwing conditions, Severus cut his finger and dripped blood on the parchment, and after that the contract floated in front of the gloomy muzzle of the creature.
Though the monster doubted that Severus would be able to influence it at all, still, the serpent read it completely, and only after that did it follow the example of Snape.
And to its surprise, as soon as the parchment burned, the monster felt a strange aura that swept through its entire body and froze in the centre of its chest.
"How is that possible…? My body completely neutralises any magical effects and even the like. Can it be that this is magic from the time when our ancestor lived?"
"Well, thank you for your cooperation," looking at the astonished muzzle of the magical creature with a smile, a box appeared in Snape's hand and pointing his hand to his right, towards an empty place, in the next moment a huge snake with wings appeared right there, which, compared to half-serpent-half-dragon was three times less.
"Take it," the cargo was delivered in integrity and safety.
The "cargo" itself looked very "happy", especially at the sight of the giant, who stared at it unblinkingly.
In its entire life, it has seen its father only twice: the first, at birth, the second, six months later, and up to a year only its mother took care of it, therefore, when the snake saw this monster, who was a "monster" even by its standards, and heard the words of that sadist(Severus) , the snake immediately thought that they were going to eat him.
But still, finding the strength to look away, he saw a bloody pool, and above it, a crystal and it almost immediately remembered this place, and after looking up at the huge creature again and looking closer, he saw a pair of wings and small horns, and almost immediately realized where and in front of whom it was standing.
"K-King…?" the serpent(small) asked with a tremor in his voice.
"Don't you remember me?" from the monster's words, he trembled like an aspen leaf. "I-I'm sorry, I… I…"
"I see… Klauth, " the serpent froze and stared at the giant in amazement, not understanding how he could know his real name, but the next phrase made him freeze with bulging eyes, "I am your father."
From this directness, even Severus could not resist hitting his forehead.
"My father…?" after a while, having come to his senses, stupidly batting his eyes, the former thunderstorm of the "outer" part of the "Magic Jungle" decided to ask again, because he himself was a little "embarrassed", and he thought that he had simply misheard.
"Yes."
The snake, with a strange look, looked at Severus, who only silently shrugged his shoulders in response, and after looking again at the huge mon… Father, the snake simply did not know how to react to this news, he seemed to be glad to meet a relative, but he was also confused.
And for the next few minutes there was deathly silence in the cave, the King of Snakes silently looked at his son, who, in turn, at him, and Severus watched all this and digested the information received from the half-snake-half-dragon. 'A dragon of the seventh rank, and these creatures were almost as strong as the "Archmages" at their peak and thanks to their skin, they could fight with the "Great Archmages", I did not even think that such monsters could exist in this world…'
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The meeting between father and son turned out to be somehow awkward, not one of them was in a hurry to say anything, and even if they exchanged words, then on completely different topics, almost not related to "relations".
Also, from the memories of the King of Snakes, which he apparently accidentally left in the ball, according to their customs, up to a year, only mothers were engaged in children, and then fathers were also involved in education, therefore it is not surprising that such a tense mood hung in the air.
This, of course, began to annoy Snape a little, so by coughing several times, he attracted their attention. "Please, continue your "communication" after I am gone, I'm kind of in a hurry."
"You'd probably like to see your mother, right?" the half-serpent-half-dragon asked awkwardly, with a nervous laugh, and then he pointed with his tail towards the exit, "As you leave this room, there will be a large passage on the left, go to the very end, I'm sure you will recognize it right away."
"Yes… I'll go then…" Feeling exactly the same as his father, the serpent nodded and turned around, headed towards the exit, occasionally looking back until he finally disappeared from sight.
And after that, the giant breathed a sigh of relief and sank to the ground, mentally squeezed dry, this meeting turned out to be too "heavy".
"He grew up to be a worthy son, in just seventeen years, to overcome the first stage of evolution, when it took others more than fifty, and even surpassed me ... maybe in the future the first dragon will really appear since the time of our ancestor ..." the Snake king, could not help but be proud of his son, like any other parents who saw the success of their children, but he regretted only one thing, that he was not able to see all this with his own eyes.
"Human, I thank you." lowering its head , it said in a much more "friendly" tone,"I will let you take anything from my treasury… " and then quickly added, " …but don't be impudent!"
"Thank you, but I'm not interested in gold and other trinkets, and artifacts, but only books, so I won't even touch the first two," hearing his words, the monster breathed a sigh of relief, after all, books...It's been a long time since he last read them and he does not even have any interest in them any more and there were not many of them, therefore, even if a person wants them all, he will give them away without any problems, nevertheless, the half-serpent-half-dragon, like his other relatives, simply adored gold and jewelry , he was fascinated by their brilliance and beauty, so he really did not want to part with them, for him, it was like tearing off a piece from himself.
"Then follow me and don't touch anything!" turning around, he waved his tail towards the empty wall and in the next moment a hole appeared on it leading down, into which the magical creature headed, and Severus followed him…
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I know you guys have seen the snake being called "it" in some place and then "he" in some, actually it is really annoying, sometimes it doesn't suit the sentence and ruins the flow. Whereas sometimes, he doesn't suit the sentence and even I get confused many times about whom am I referring to when I am using "He" is it Severus? The small serpent? The half-dragon half-serpent?
That's why all this change in "It" and "He"