Adder had devoured any and all food that was set in front of him, and it wasn't before long that he had unknowingly eaten Nira out of house and home.
And as he was savoring the last bit of bear stew, Nira passed him an embroidered crest.
Adder was shocked she could even find it, taking the cloth bearing the crest with care.
The emblem depicted a purple serpent with a crimson dagger piercing through the serpent's head, it was the crest of the serpens family.
"Im going to need to change that."
Adder said trying to lighten the mood that in his opinion had suddenly turned serious.
"The Basilisk, the king of all serpents and the true king of Maltune."
"Unoposed in both land and water, its thousand year reign ended with the basilisk's imprisonment by the founder of your family, Kael Serpens.
Adder nodded as Nira continued talking.
"What I have heard is that the mighty serpent was imprisoned by a weak and forgotten boy, the last of his family."
"But what I see before me is a boy who bears the air of my people's…
Nira shuddered.
"Long departed guardian."
Adder looked for Nira to continue, and she did.
…
The swamps of Lerna, a marshland filled with monstrous predators and titan sized herbivores.
But for the people who had no other place to go, a saviour would appear from the least likely of places.
A mighty serpent that for some reason started to protect the struggling people of Lerna.
And as the Lernean people grew in number they gave their guardian a name, the Hydra.
Meaning the immortal serpent, the Hydra had been named after him being seemingly impossible to kill.
For when the hydra entered a near dying state, its head and neck would split into two and with this bizarre act the serpent would become stronger.
The lerneans had entered a golden age, their prosperity being solely granted by the Hydra's protection.
The Lerneans treated the Hydra as their god, adorning themselves, clothes, art and even their buildings with the imagery of serpents.
A few of these believers would even gain the guardians attention and with it, his blessing.
Named the Serpent's boon, with it the person would gain an unique magic affinity only seen with it.
Venom, with it one could cast magic that would slowly but steadily wear their foes down as they continued fighting.
People who were bestowed this mighty boon were called the Furies, known to fight with their deity side by side.
With the greatest known as Alecto the prophet, the first fury and it was spoken that she held the strongest connection with the Hydra.
But nothing lasts forever with the prosperity of the Lerneans, came the jealousy of their neighbors.
Raids started happening from all sides, all of them demanding either the servitude of the Hydra or the Immortal serpent's death.
Of course the Hydra would face every invasion head on with the Furies by his side.
Instead of heading their losses, the seven tribes that surrounded the Lernean marshes raged at their failures.
Even though combined in their cause, dwarfing them in number having over ten times more people.
It did not matter all it truly did was feed that undying snake, and when it seemed that lerna would clench victory from the jaws of defeat.
Something came to those damnable tribes with an offer, the thing would give them a weapon that would be able to slay the Hydra true.
For this mighty weapon they would only need to bow to the true monster and its seven masters, and victory would be all theirs.
The identity of this mysterious guest was of a herald of the Seraphim, every kinsman of all seven tribes enchanted by its promises of victory and power bent their knee to the Seraphim and rose with the flaming sword Heraflame standing where the herald once stood.
The blazing weapon was bestowed to the greatest warrior of all seven tribes, Aclides the Serpent's bane.
Tales of him strangling two serpents while still being only babe, served as excellent propaganda for the tribesmen.
His fame would be proven deserved for slaying two of the seemingly invincible Furies, and with Heraflame in hand he and the rest of the surviving army of the seven tribes would march under a new name.
The Angel's Chosen.
…
"Nira?"
Nira shuddered at the memories of the burning of Lerna, she was the youngest of the Furies, an honor even she was shocked to have received.
The final battle started at the fifth year anniversary of the start of the whole war, Nira had become a Fury during the first skirmish and it seemed she would finally see the end of this needless war.
The ten remaining Furies stood side by side with their guardian, both the Hydra and Alecto seemingly knew this would be the last battle.
The two of them lead the charge, only for all of them to be met with the golden fire of Heraflame.
The first attack was on the Hydra itself, cleaving the immortal serpent in half before the Furies could even blink.
The Hydra squirmed as the fire blazed on its flesh, the golden flames covering the regrown heads.
The Angel's chose, then started chanting about the story about their deal and how tonight Lerna would fall.
Sophia the wise, the second chosen of the immortal serpent, was the first to die.
Her proud form was almost instantly devoured by that damnable fire.
Seconds after Sophia's death the Hydra slammed into the invaders, the colossal serpent's heads still splitting the current number standing at four.
But the immortal serpent's attack was more like a death flail than the army breaking attacks of the previous battles.
"Nira?"
Four of the nine remaining Furies, wanting an end to this bizarre sorcery, tried to end the Serpents' bane.
Only for all four of them to disappear in a flash of golden fire, Aclides smiling as he watched the death of all Lerna happening solely thanks to his own two hands.
The Hydra now bore six heads, the most that even the people of Lerna had ever bared witness to, its size and power ballooned as it then charged at its own executioner.
But Alecto stopped the remaining furies from joining their guardian in what would be the last skirmish.
Instead the elder would order them to retreat, her eyes instantly removing the idea from the other furie's minds.
The Furies hesitantly fell back, the swamp flora still alight in golden light.
When they returned to Lerna, Alecto immediately ordered the four to lead the people of Lerna to forever leave their home.
Nira had to personally break doors to safe houses and wake up her people to the reality that all hope was lost.
"Nira?"
Nira and the four other Furies lead the half awake Lerneans to the shores.
They voyaged into the endless ocean using every boat they had, and when they were a mile off the beach.
When it happened Alecto immediately lost all her strength and fell to her knees, while Alecto's reaction was the most extreme out of the five remaining Furies.
Each of them felt the death of the Hydra, through the serpent's mark they felt the very death of Lerna's guardian.
With the Immortal serpents passing the boon disappeared with it.
And to make things worse, Due to the Serpent mark losing its power Alecto too was slowly dying.
Alecto's final moments were spent giving the few Furies left their final orders.
Melina, Thera, and Iris, shared the same mission, to protect the remaining Lerneans.
But for the youngest Nira, she had a completely different mission.
Alecto gestured for Nira to come closer, but she was barely twenty four Nira was not ready to see the one who raised her to.
But Nira moved closer to her adoptive mother, placing her hand on Alecto's head just like she did to Nira when she was younger.
Alecto's voice was barely a whisper, but to Nira the words were the only thing she remembered hearing that night.
"Nira!"
…
Adder started shaking the mysterious woman after she stopped talking for almost thirty minutes.
Nira had become completely silent after speaking about the seven tribes.
Obviously Lerna had been defeated, but as Nira was finally regaining her sense of reality, Adder decided it was not his place to push for answers.
Instead Adder changed the course of the conversation.
"What does Lerna want or need from me?"
He said looking Nira straight in the eyes, worried for Nira's and her people's well being.
Nira gazed into Adder's eyes, but it wasn't because of the color or anything like that.
It was because she understood those eyes even though they were the eyes of a serpent, Nira could easily read the worry in them.
Something only known to the people of Lerna experienced from their guardian.
The image of the Hydra instantly came to mind, his mighty frame wrapped around the oldest tree in the marsh.
That once lied in the exact middle of the swamp, and in the center of their tribe.
Turquoise scales that shimmered like jewels when touched by the sun's rays, and those golden eyes.
Eyes that no other serpent possessed, among every serpent she encountered during her twenty year odyssey.
The anger of an unjust death, the joy of a new life that freshly entered the world, and that stalwart look the Hydra bore as he did his final charge.
The fury sighed as she rubbed her temples, before she smiled at the boy.
Despite whatever feeling she tried to instill on her face, Adder recognized the complete sorrow in her face.
"We need you Adder, we need you."
Nira said as she put her hand atop of Adder's head.