When the beast snaps

The king Cobra hadn’t been around when the volcano exploded. That had been before his arrival. So when he had been informed of this the creature had grown curious. After all what better for him to explore the effects the volcano had. What better than to go straight to the source. While he would’ve brought a friend along usually the lone snake didn’t entirely know a lot of creatures in the lands. A king Cobra wasn’t exactly on a wolf’s mind when thinking about a travel buddy. He slithered around the edges of the Volcano then - letting the soot scoot underneath his stomach muscles as he let his tongue out to get a good source of smell. This was the sweet spot of the day… night.

Koby enjoyed the night because he could see very clearly unlike during the day. The late night had silence - cool air from the fall falling over his scales as he shivered a little. A cold blooded creature like him had a hard time generating his own heat. However - he could feel the heat from the volcano still. The small fumes of smoke coming out of the top. Koby let the tip of his tail twitch, he moved himself off the ground to get a better look of the land. He had to be careful there was still black warm tar oozing around. The effects of a recently blown volcano. It was rather disturbing to him - that even after all this time there was danger here.

”Poor fellasss.” he stated looking at a few of the carcass of prey animals. Squirrels and mice that had died but hadn’t been eaten by the heat. The snake moved on - scaling the outside of the mountain. He had been to nearby lands and seen how the growth was already starting back but the closer you got to this place he could see how it was going to take a lot more than a few weeks for it to heal even at all. Looking up he saw that the mountain was more climbable now at least for him. He had no appendages to grab hold of anything - so his strong stomach muscles helped him. It did benefit if there were trees to climb but only charred and singed trunks sat on the outside edge.

The Cobra decided he should take a look farther up the mountain from here. If he was higher up he’d be able to see more across the land in the dark as well. As his body slithered up one of the slopes he made sure to avoid the oozing black bubbling masses. They were faint so he hardly had to worry as long as he avoided touching them. The magma was beginning to harden making interesting rocks that were forming. Koby had seen a few before in his travels as he hummed softly to the interesting environment that he found himself in. The navigator was drawn by curiosity and by the bold assumption that he would not be harmed during this venture.

It didn’t matter, Boreas had been kind to him thus far and as far as he was concerned he was a lucky snake. Though obviously luckier than the body he had found sprawled out in front of him. A wolf. Bones were sticking out from the ribs it seemed and his interest pushed him forward. The wolf had obviously passed from a flying piece of debris on its head. Though most of the fur and the body was surprisingly intact. This being was also… huge! Bigger than any wolf he had ever seen. He wondered to himself if there were more like it as Boreas was a strange new land but the strong oxygen here would explain the large wolves. If it was all bones he would have been tempted to try to read them and find out the kind of life the wolf lived. However, this was not the case and he would have to continue on his way.

Koby made his way up the mountain. Getting closer to the top the hotter it got - giving him more energy from the surprise of it. He found himself on a portion of the volcano that was a very.. Very large ledge. It was covered in ash and rocks - there looked like there used to be a small cave here. Once upon a time he did suppose that this place could have supported a pack of wolves. If they owned one of the neighboring lands they could use it for food and the volcano for protection. Now though this place was simply not livable. It would not be for some time and while this was sad Koby was glad he was able to explore it in the state that it was in.

”Perhaps I should start going down.” the sun would be coming up soon, in another hour or so. The snake knew that with the morning others would be likely to come explore. The king Cobra stayed put for a moment on the ledge, looking out to the bottom of the volcano. It was easy for him to see in the dark and the serenity of the cool air mixed with the heat of the volcano was surprisingly nice.