The Vespidian

Arc 11 Blood Moon

Chapter 6

Well, so much for being Subtle.

They, the frogs were quickly trying to surround us. Jumping about on their strong legs and sticking themselves onto all sorts of surfaces. It was honestly impressive how quick these little squirts were. Now that I saw the wide array of different shapes and colors of the frog people I thought that they were cute. Some of them were so itty bitty, even smaller than that one squalling in my hand. Others were rather large like people sized. The colors! They were like a rainbow, and there was even a bright pink one with white stripes that looked particularly cute. What are these adorable things and why can’t I keep them as pets?

Though I had been lost in thoughts since I was not worried about these things, Glitter Kitten had turned into a blur quickly dodging about and smacking the frogs out of mid-air. As for Den Mother, she was covering her face. Their panicked ribbits and squealing noises shifted into Fffft sounds. I felt little impacts all over my body and looked around to see what that was. Sticking out of my carapace in a few spots were these thin needle-like projectiles. None of them had managed to penetrate my thick outer shell.

It took a long moment to put two and two together, seeing the tube-like things in their hands and raised to their croaking mouths. Blowdart guns. Oh? Did that mean they were poisonous? I looked them over again realizing that, they were poison dart frogs. I wonder how potent the poison is? My tongue emerged from my mouth, and I stabbed one of the needles into it. A tingling spread making my tongue numb. After a few seconds, the feeling returned, and I couldn’t tell the difference. Hmm is it strong or not? I couldn’t tell.

Daww even their angry faces looked cute. Especially that pink one, rubbing her back furiously until a big bubble formed from the mucus that coated her. Is that one Bubbles? I never did ask about identifiers, after all, I didn’t think there were very many Scalies, to begin with. She latched onto the mucus blob, which was surprisingly buoyant and then her throat filled, puffing up before she let out a vicious war cry that sounded like a squeak. Yes, truly terrifying. The force from her lungs launched the froggy straight at me. Just before impact, she bounded away letting that bubble whiz towards me.

Den Mother ducked, throwing herself onto the ground to avoid the bubble and it latched onto me. I poked it, and the membrane of slime did not break. Oh? It was more durable than I thought it would be. My claws dug into the frog goo, and I tore it open, the bubble popped oozing down my front. It was surprisingly sticky. I scooped some with my finger spreading it as I smelled it… it had a hmm, what sort of smell even is it? Peanut butter? Does it taste like peanut butter? I licked my fingers letting that thick slimy substance tantalize my tongue. It also stuck to the roof of my mouth making me chew and attack it to dislodge it. I could tell that it was poisonous, due to my whole mouth going numb and searing for about ten seconds. However, that didn’t stop it from tasting like a nut once my taste buds regenerated.

My eyes locked onto that pink frog that was hanging from the branch above us, lathering itself up again as another big bubble formed. I, I wanted her. I jumped, closing the distance between us in a heartbeat. The frog squealed as it reacted much faster than I would have thought that it would. Bounding left as my hands grappled onto the bubble that she had attached to where she was. It popped in a moment coating me and the branch, but I was much stronger than the adhesive, and it didn’t even slow me down.

I started to hunt that frog as it leaped from branch to branch, mid-air flicking her legs to make little bubbles in an attempt to stop me as I gained on her. I could smell her fear as she started screaming and croaking as I drew closer and closer with each thunderous beat of my wings. I felt a little thud against my carapace, and I let one of my eyes roam to that spot. There was another frog latched onto me with its tongue. It flailed about trying to get a grip on me.

It was a bright blue frog with black stripes. My hand grasped the tongue, and I pulled it. There was a moment of resistance, and then nothing. I stopped, looking down to find a tongue dangling from my hand with no attached frog. I stared and then looked back to see a frog flailing through the air before it exploded on the concrete wall. Oh! Did I do that? I must have used too much strength. But, but that was barely anything. That was like a flick. So… so weak. I should have known they were fragile. They were very squishy and cuddly after all.

Seeing the war crime that I had committed the frogs all at once fled. Croaking, screaming and wailing as they went in all directions, though most dived down towards the base of the tree. At this point, the frogs were nothing more than cute little animals to me. They were harmless. And that is exactly why I felt bad for obliterating that one. I hope they don’t hold that against me.

I returned to the platform where Glitter Kitten and Den Mother were. Both had blood on their claws, and the bodies of several of the frogs strewn about the place. They had killed roughly ten if all these pieces added up, but could be more due to bodies falling off the tree. It was now that I realized I had lost my original froggy at some point in the confusion.

“There were more of them than last time,” Glitter Kitten heaved a sigh.

“Good work Vesper! You killed Croaker like it was nothing,” smiled Den Mother looking rather malicious. There was some obvious hate going on there.

I stared at her then looked at Glitter Kitten before pointing to the splatter on the wall, “That was Croaker?”

“Nyeah! Good job that fucker has been a pain in our ass for years.”

“THAT?!” I emphasized as I pointed back at the wall harder.

Both of them nodded happily smiling, “Yeah he was the fourth strongest, or maybe third next to Bubbles they are about as strong as one another. You almost got Bubbles too, but she got away.”

My mind was having problems wrapping around this. How were those frogs strong? I wiped the frog slime off of my face, and it slopped onto the floor. Both Glitter Kitten and Den Mother took several significant steps away from it. Ah… the poison. That made sense, they were agile but fragile. Glass canons? Ah more like a damage over time sort of type. The poison made up for their lacking strength. Was I like their natural predator or something?

“Hey Glitter Kitten, how strong is their poison?”

She rubbed her chin a little, “Well in Bubbles’ case if you get bubbled, usually you die after a few minutes of choking of frog slime. As for the darts, well one or two will make you start throwing up, pissing, and shitting blood for a week, any more than that and you die of dysentery.”

Oh… am I really going to be ok?

“How fast do the symptoms usually show up?” I asked, starting to get a little concerned after recalling my peanut butter incident.

“It starts with a tingle. Then it spreads into a burning sensation. Then you feel nauseous, and you get the runs. It takes about an hour or so for all of the nasty stuff to set in unless you get hit in an artery or something, then it only takes a couple of minutes.”

“I see,” I said vaguely, “What would happen if somebody ate it, or rather got a good amount in their mouth and swallowed?”

They looked at one another, “You would be dead right? Vesper are you poisoned?!”

I shrugged a little, “Maybe? Likely not though I do have Rank 7 regeneration, so my body just kinda shrugs off stuff like radiation. I think I am immune though. This stuff is surprisingly pretty tasty.”

Both of them turned green as I licked my fingers clean. It really did taste like nuts as an after taste. Is it walnut perhaps? Cashew perhaps? Maybe Pistachio? Hmm, this warrants more testing. I would have to taste Bubbles more to figure out this culinary secret. All this did was increase my interest in that adorable little frog. I am definitely going to take her home. Ah, I will need to make sure that I am very gentle when capturing her. Don’t wanna squash the froggy.

“Oh I was wondering, do these guys know how to talk?” I asked.

Den Mother nodded, “Yeah they do.”

“Eh? They do? How come all I heard was croaking?”

“Well the frogs don’t really talk too much to outsiders, they only talk when necessary. They got those croaks, so they speak their own language,” said Glitter Kitten.

“I see. Was it bad that they got away?” I asked staring over the sides and listening to the squalling of the frogs far below as they were making very loud and angry squeaks.

Glitter Kitten shook her head, “Well, we were screwed on the sneak attack the moment that little bastard squealed so, not really. If anything they are scaring the shit out of the rest of the Scalies telling them about what you did to Croaker.”

I nodded, “That should get Slither’s attention don’t you think?”

“It should. She could run from this, but we are in her home so I would think that she would stand her ground in this case.”

“That would make things simpler,” I agreed.

We made our way down the tree. The spiraling path took wound round and round the trunk much like a coiled serpent. The farther down we got, the thicker the vines became. We were unopposed clear down to the ground level where the roots of the great tree formed an umbrella or perhaps a skirt like formation to create a sizeable hollow dome under the entire tree. The entrance to this room was to our side, a gaping maw of twisted vines.

We were certainly not alone down here. The frogs were peeking out of the foul waters that surrounded the roots of the tree. Other than the tree and the areas it created, this whole building was flooded. The deep dark waters likely held abominable horrors.

My eyes peered all around assessing what we were up against. I didn’t see even a scale of this so-called snake. I did, however, notice the wakes of water moving in our direction. Glitter Kitten and Den Mother tensed up seeing the same. From the murky depth emerged five crocodile people, much like the frogs in terms of being more animal than people. However, unlike the cuddly little froggers, these things were large, ugly and smelled terrible.

The largest of them more or less looked like some lizard man, well crocodile man in this case. He had big scaled muscles. The head was elongated almost entirely identical to the animal itself. He had big yellow eyes that slit with black. A few old scars were dotting him here and there, one particularly deep on his snout itself that left the mouth slightly open and missing a few teeth to create a gap. He was tall, about eight foot, but that was nothing to me.

He pointed at us, “Heh, if it isn’t the pussycat. What brings you warm bloods here?”

Den Mother cracked her knuckles eyeing him, “We came here to deal with you Scalies once and for all.”

“Cold Bloods. We are the Cold Bloods you stupid mammals, can’t even remember our name.”

“Who cares?” growled Glitter Kitten, “We are paying you fucks back for all of our people you have eaten.”

“We not scared of you cat,” he chuckled.

Hearing a new voice enter the conversation my eyes honed in on the pink frog mostly submerged in the water, “Not the cat you idiot that big fucking thing! It is a monster; it killed Croaker like he was a fly.”

“Shut it Bubs; I got bones to settle with these bitches.”

The frog sunk into the water so that only her piercing eyes were sticking out. Bubbles started forming as she seemed to be angrily blowing out under the surface. I wiggled my fingers at her, and she dived under the water fleeing. Acha, I must have spooked her.

Slightly displeased I stared down at the dwarfed man croc. Unlike the frogs I had no intention of being kind to ugly things like these, “Oi Cock Doc or whatever the fuck your name is, get your leader out here. I want to get this over with quickly.”

He snapped his teeth snarling, “Fuck you, you… what are you?”

“I am the Vespidian. Slither! Get out here before I squish this puny little man of yours,” I said looking around the room.

“Sssssssoooo rude. Whatsss have we here?” Hissed a voice that seemed to come from every direction at once, “Disssssturbing my Sssssleep.”

I could hear the scales shifting, but I couldn’t quite pinpoint the exact location due to how sounds echoed in this place. Glitter Kitten and Den Mother were ready to pounce at the slightest movement. She must be invisible. She said she had been sleeping so that means that she most likely just came from that room to our side or she might not have even left it and is looking out at us.

“Slither, show yourself. I want to see what everybody is going on and on about the big bad snake,” I goaded her.

There was silence for a little bit; she had even stopped moving. I paced a little looking around with my arms crossed. The scraping of scales soon resumed as I assumed she was getting to a good spot to attack us.

“Isss that sssso? Come to Feassst your eyesss upon me?” Said Slither as my antennae picked up on a new scent nearby. It wasn’t like any of the other creatures in here which meant that it had to be her.

It was a sickly sweet sort of smell like an overly ripe fruit. I turned, letting my antennae sniff the snake out. The trail led to the side of the tree. It moved up it, and I figured out within a few seconds that she must be scaling up the tree for a better spot.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” I said my eyes following a depression in the moss on the tree that moved.

“I asssume the hardway issss fighting?” Slither asked as she rounded the tree once more and stopped above us, “I hasss no busssinesssss with whatever you are. I hassss never eaten nor sssseen one like you before. Sssso why have you come to my home and killed my friendsssss?”

“You hurt my friend and have been giving her and her people trouble, so I came to collect you,” I replied staring up at her approximate location.

“Hurtsss who? Whatsss do you ssspeak of?” she questioned.

“Glitter Kitten, you broke her hand, and you broke Thumper’s leg,” I replied.

Her voice sounded confused more than anything, “I know not of thisssss. Liessss the Cat issss lying! I can’t even touch her. How could I possssssibly break her hand?”

“Don’t listen to her Vesper; she is just a slippery snake you can’t trust her,” snarled Glitter Kitten looking around still since she had not detected the snake’s whereabouts yet.

This was bugging me. The snake actually sounded surprised. It even smelled differently; it was scared. I looked to Glitter Kitten’s paw that was very much broken. She smelled nervous, which made sense considering we were likely seconds from a fight. Who was lying? I mean there are much easier ways to get me to come down here and help take out Slither than to break her own hand. Why would Glitter Kitten lie about that? Well, it doesn’t matter. I came for a snake, and I am going home with a snake and a frog.

“If you are not going to come out, then Glitter Kitten, Den Mother kill that ugly thing to show her we mean business,” I said pointing at Croc Roc.

He and the rest of them got into a fighting stance. Glitter Kitten made the first move striking like lighting. Her hit raked against his tough hide and made sparks fly as she retreated again. Den Mother charged in and locked up the croc man wrestling as she started to overpower him.

Slither finally made her move. If one had blinked, they would have missed the massive serpent materialize out of thin air. She had lush turquoise scales with black and orange patterns in stripes along her sides. Her underbelly scales were almost a metallic blue color. The upper body was that of an overly large woman connected to the rest at the hips. She was well proportioned getting thinner around the stomach but excellent and ample at the hips and chest. She had no skin as far as I could tell it was all scales. Her face though humanoid was very snake like. No hair to speak of or ears for that matter. Instead, there was loose skin extending from the sides and back of her head. It was folded out in a vast hood that covered clean down onto her back past her shoulders.

I gazed up at her as our eyes locked. Her serpent pupils were a deep glowing amethyst. Her mouth twisted into a sneering smile as her long tongue flit out tasting the air. She began to move, shifting side to side, almost dancing in place. It was a fluid, rhythmic motion that sent shivers through her tight muscles.

If I had not been warned, well she might have gotten me with that. However, what attracted me even more than her face was her amble body. My eyes washed over the serpent scales following them as they coiled around the tree twice fully. It was a sizable body and one that I could hardly wait to stuff full of my brood. I licked my lips hungrily assessing her.

But I was getting ahead of myself; I needed to beat her into submission first. I sighed, clearing away my lust and let my eyes close for a moment before they concentrated in on her once more. This time I was focused on her movements rather than assessing her value.

I approached her, acting as though I had fallen to her rippling body. I reached for her, fully intending to drag the snake down. She sensed something was amiss and retreated from my claws, slithering away up the tree higher. She hissed down at me her fangs unfurling from the roof of her mouth as spurts of the venom sprayed out towards me.

I dodged the attack, rolling to one side. I had lost track of her for a moment, and the snake had vanished again. My antenna quivered smelling and straining to hear where she was. I was starting to see why she was an annoying creature to deal with.

Abruptly a hiss sounded from my side as more venom spurt at me from a different angle. It splashed against my hardened carapace but dripped away harmlessly. I turned charging toward where that had come from. The sound of scales slithering and sliding filled my head.

I strained my eyes and detected the subtle movement of the moss on the tree being depress and lunged for it. My claws felt something substantial, and I grappled it. Torquoise scales flickered into reality as her lengthy tail lay before me.

I had caught the snake by the tail, but as I soon learned cornered animals are much more willing to strike.

Slither had reared up menacingly hissing as her upper body snapped forward. It was faster than I was expecting and one of her fangs stabbed into one of my tentacles as they lept up to defend me.

A numbness spread up from the bite point, and the tentacles went limp. I had not thought that her venom would be this strong.

It seems I had gotten a little too cocky, after so easily dealing with the frogs. It took only a moment for me to regret my foolishness. Overconfidence leads to downfalls after all.

Everything seemed to freeze. My muscles seized up, stiff as I stood like a statue unable to move as she stayed a fair distance away not trusting that her venom had worked. She eyed me observing carefully before she slowly began to approach. Her tongue flicking out as she got within arms distance. She swayed side to side as she moved, crawling down the tree fully and circled me.

She settled her upper half behind me and seemed to be rather pleased with herself as I didn’t move my head to follow her movement. This was what proved to her that I was paralyzed. Her coils wrapped around my legs and then my chest eagerly throwing her weight into each loop getting tighter and tighter as she squeezed me.

A tingling had spread through me. It was the sort of feeling when your arm had fallen asleep. The blood flowing back in and feeling beginning to return. It seemed that her venom was already burning off. My finger twitched, and her rolls of scales shuddered, sensing movement. She tightened even more, and her mouth opened, licking my neck before sinking her fangs into it.

A searing spread as she started pumping venom into my veins. Her mouth moved, digging her teeth in deeper, but there was no pain. Everything had gone numb. In fact, the heat was starting to feel very nice. I almost felt sleepy. My eyes lazily drifting about. Satisfied that she had given me enough her fangs worked a few more times before she pulled off of my neck letting her long forked tongue trace my face.

“Got full of yoursssselve. You will fill me for monthsssss,” she snickered a little behind me.

Her mouth gaped as she loomed over my head. I watched it shift from side to side dislodging, and her warm wet maw had stretched to the point that she might very well be able to swallow me as much as that aroused me, being eaten like that was not exactly what I had planned. Sub might like it, but now was not a good time to indulge in her fantasies. My sluggish mind started to move a little faster than the wading through malaises that it had been stuck in since she bit me. Though I was very much at her mercy for the moment, she had however forgotten that we were not alone.

Seeing her chance, Glitter Kitten attacked.

“YOU ARE NOT EATING MY FRIEND TOO YOU BITCH!” Screamed the enraged pussycat.

Slither didn’t see the cat until it was much too late. Claws raked through her beautiful scales, and the snake screamed, attempting to uncoil from me. Glitter Kitten did not relent attacking the snake, biting and clawing at her like a frenzied animal. Blood specked out as Slither shuddered all of her scales making a screeching noise. She twisted bucking the ferocious feline off for a moment before the cat had latched onto her back. Slither tilted her head back; her mouth gaped as venom sprayed out into a mist that blanketed the area.

Though Glitter Kitten was fast, she was down a limb at the moment. Feeling the full effect of not being able to push herself away with both of her hands, she took a direct hit of the mist. Her body froze up, and she flopped over unable to move.

“Ssssstupid cat. Never sssshould have sssstoped moving.” Said the snake rubbing the wound and her face shivering as she stared at the blood.

While her attention was on Glitter Kitten, the feeling had begun to return to my body. At first a tingling. Then a slight burning sensation, but as my fingers moved, it became more comfortable and easier to move. My immune system seemed to have improved dramatically as a result of getting a full dose. My eyes blinked properly, and I sat up. Glitter Kitten was coiled up. Slither's mouth gaped over the cat as she seemed to be contemplating eating her now or later.

My arms pushed and I rose up still a little wobbly, but now I was not playing games. I was not experimenting or testing anything. I tackled her, wrestling the snake and she thrashed wildly trying to escape. Due to my weakened muscles, she damned near managed to buck me off. My abdomen shoved at her and she twisted in such a way that a human would have snapped in half. Her fangs bit at my carapace, but unfortunately for her, my abdomen was in her mouth now. My stinger shoved, harpooning the back of her throat and she got a taste of my medicine. Her body locked up and she writhed in pain as my venom coursed through her.

“Oh don’t worry.” I said, my hands wrapping around her face, I could see the terror in her eyes, “I will keep you nice and full for the rest of your life.”