The King with Six Friends

Eryx

The four new friends trekked through a murky bog. Fortunately for them, this particular path was well-worn. A party of loggers passing through a few days previous had decided to lay down timbers to keep their feet dry. The wooden path still remained for the next travelers to use.

"Eegh!" exclaimed Kindle, fanning away a flock of mosquitoes. His head burst into flames and disposed of the pesky insects. It was quite a sight to see someone walking with their head alight like a bonfire.

Agus had to step lightly to keep from breaking the path. Edge brought up the rear, trying to get Agus to keep up with the rest of them. Zar led them slashing down vines and low-hanging branches with his sword.

A crocodile sunk beneath the mud as they approached; the group was rather noisy. Puffs of sulfuric gas spewed out of the ground, releasing the sickly-sweet scent that permeated throughout the bog.

As they delved deeper into the swamp, an angry hissing came from ahead. A long dark form writhed and twisted around the path. As Zar got closer he saw that it was an enormous serpent coiled in knots around the path. It watched the group approach and reared up menacingly.

"S-s-stay back," the snake threatened, "I bite." Its hood opened and its fangs dripped white venom.

"That looks like it hurts," Zar negotiated, gesturing to the other half of its body. The snake's coils tightened apprehensively. "If I free you, will you let us pass?"

The snake stared at him for a minute, unblinking, before hissing, "Perhaps-s-s."

Zar cautiously knelt down and went to work untangling the slender body from the timber. As he worked, he noticed old scars breaking through the scales like the teeth of a trap. He found a barbed hook impaled in its skin.

After a long time of careful, tedious work, he threaded free the last coil. The serpent reared up over Zar. At its full length, it was over five times as long as a man was tall. Zar's shaky hand hovered over the hilt of his sword.

Then, the snake began to compress, turning into a tall, slender man. He had olive skin and dark, slicked-back hair. His clothes had the oily texture of a reptile.

The man grinned with a half-smile. "Thanks a bunch." He stretched out his back, popping it several times. "I was in quite a bind there."

"If you could turn into a human, you could have untied yourself and been freed. Why didn't you?" Zar asked him.

"See, how painful would it be to untie your legs from a log, all twisted and broken like that?" the man replied, chuckling lightly. "Anyways, I lost a bet. Thought I could knot myself six times and win a little gold."

The man glanced up at Zar with his bottle-green eyes. "I did it, but I got cheated and I couldn't get myself out."

Zar cleared his throat, "We'll be passing through then."

"I hope you don't mind if I tag along," the man said, keeping up with them, "I've been meaning to get out of this swamp for some time now, poachers and all that. My name's Eryx."

"Zar."

Eryx cocked his head, almost like a snake would. "That's a strange name. Vaguely familiar, I think." Zar blanched but tried not to show it; he didn't want the others to know who he used to be.

"Well, Eryx is also a strange name," Zar countered.

Eryx nodded. "Touché."

Eryx the snake Morph used to live with a traveling circus. He played the part of the "man-eating serpent" whom an actor would fight in the center ring.

While on route to another town, the caravan had stopped in the swamp because a wagon was stuck in the mud. Each of the bored circus performers took turns daring one another for money. Eryx was the last to dare and was double-crossed, left behind for dead. He was nearing starvation when the four friends found him.

"I don't mean to be needy," said Eryx, rubbing his stomach, "but would any of you happen to have some food on you?"

"I've got some!" piped up Kindle, looking through his bag. "Not much, though, sorry." He gave Eryx a crumbling biscuit.

"Oh." Eryx hesitantly sniffed it. "Thank you."