User blog:Umrag the Destroyer/The Eye of the Snake

Please read "Pearls of Lutra" before reading this. Thank you.

Prologue
A stoat cheerfully walked along through the shrubbery, picking berries here and there. The vermin on Samptera were starting to learn a peacful life. They farmed, used their weapons to collect firewood, and were friends with all the woodland inhabitants. However, it would not last. He fell with an agonized cry from a blow to his neck. He looked up, and gasped in terror as cold and reptilian eyes stared into his. "Zo, how'z it going, Dreg?" He gulped in fear. He remembered this monitor lizard only too well. "C-c-captain Zarg, p-please don't hurt me!" The monitor's claws sank into his neck, and he laughed cruelly at the stoat's screams. "You have all gone too zoft. However, I will repair thiz. Look!" The paw wrenched the poor creature, causing him to look forward. There were hundreds of eggs on the ground, shaking and rattling. The stoat shook with horror. Zarg leaned closer to him, and malovently whispered, "What? Didn't think that monitor lizardz mated, did you? Oh, look, they're about to burzt!" Even as he was talking, the eggs began to pop. Hundreds of little monitors began crawling towards them. "Thoze Redwallerz will remeber uz, oh yez!"

==***==

A young otter shook in fear, listening to the footsteps on the stairs. He was muscular, with cords of sinew stretched tight on his body. He wore a light green tunic and a kilt, made of some kind of soft material. Someone lightly pushed open the door. It was a wildcat. Her golden fur matched her elegant body, her graceful movements. She wore a dress, and had a sword handy. Her claws were stained with blood. Otter blood. He shuddered and shrank as she approached him. The wildcat stood in front of him, smiling lightly. "Take off your tunic, young one." He did so, knowing what would happen to him if he didn't. "Now turn around." He did. She stroked between his shoulder blades, not bothering to sheat her claws. "You'll do just fine. This time, with you, I think we'll win the Tournament. Unless you have any problems with that?" His neck was arched with agony, and blood and sweat trickled down his back. He managed to shake his head. "Good. Come, my pet." The otter dumbly followed, scared witless. He scarsely had time to catch a glimpse of a familiar form with a pool of blood around it before he was gone.