The snakes head

5.    The snakes head.

I use my fire magic to heat up water in the bathtub, it is a bit luxurious to use actual water and not magic to wash myself, but I like the feel of the normal water.

I take off my clothes and get into the bath, the warm water envelops my body. It really does feel good, I take a bath every day, but I still do not get tired of it.

The situation with the new orphan needs to be handled soon or she will starve, I could just make her eat but keeping her alive when she doesn’t want to live won’t solve anything.

She might even start hating it and try to end her own life, if I kept her alive long enough she should get better at some point but there is no guarantee and it is not a way you should live.

I get out of the bath and dry myself with a towel and get dressed in a new set of black clothes. I go to the kitchen and start eating a green apple, the fresh bitter taste envelops my mouth as I bite into it.

I finish my apple and head out of the house, I better head to the snake before it causes a scene.

I walk all the way back to the gate and see that the head has already been hauled inside the city walls, Sarah is there next to the head.

There is also a large group of people that has gathered there, thankfully I came before the crowd became too huge. I go through the group of people to where Sarah is.

“Hey, what took you so long? Things have been getting pretty hectic around here.”

“We had a long talk with the guild master. If you want, you can go home, and rest and I will take care of things here.”

“No, I will stay with you I was pretty useless out there, so I want to help.”

“There won’t be much to do honestly, I will just take a few parts of it and then take it to the guild.”

“I can stay at the guild while they are examining the head and calculating how much money they are going to give us for it. I am sure you have more important things to do than wait around the guild.”

“I will count on you then.”

Sarah looks at me happily and nods.

“Hey guard.” I say to the nearby guard.

“What is it vampire?”

His tone and the way he looks at me tells me how much he loathes me, but I just ignore it.

“Thank you for hauling the head here, here is something for your efforts.”

I give the guard one silver piece.

“Just take it away quickly it is causing a scene.”

“I will take it away as quickly as I can.” I say with a smile.

The guard leaves and I walk to the snake head that is on top of the wooden cart, I open its mouth with my left hand and with my right I break grab the fang and break it from the stem.

I do the same thing with the other fang and then I coat my right hand with quickly revolving air magic and slowly dig through the snakes’ mouth to the poison gland until I reach it.

The poison starts dropping down and I use wind magic to catch the poison. I wish I had remembered to take a vial with me, well I can get one from the adventurers’ guild.

I push the cart with my left hand while I am manipulating the wind magic with my right one. Everyone was watching us with a shocked expression as we walked to the adventurers’ guild and Sarah didn’t say anything the whole time.

She must have wanted to let me concentrate on the spell, I rarely see her quiet after all. We go inside the guild and I head to the left side of the guild to get the vial.

“I will come by after to give you your share of the spoils all right?”

I look at Sarah and nod before turning and walking to the other side. The person at the counter is a lizard woman but her attitude is usually normal toward me compared to the other lizard people I do not quite remember her name though.

 I walk toward her and when she notices me she is noticeably shaken, I get a bit hurt thinking that all this time she must have just put up a front and has been afraid of me.

“Please sir do not hurt me.”

She says, and I wonder what has happened to cause this.

 “Of course, I am not going to hurt you, can you get me a vial, so I can store this poison and walk home with more ease.”

“Poison? So, you are not doing some kind of magic attack that would kill me instantly? You really should pay attention on how you portray yourself.”

She looks at me angrily as she tells me all of this. Does me holding a bubble of poison with air magic really look that menacing?

“Sorry.”

“Just take your vial and go.”

She hands me a glass vial under the counter and I put the poison in it before I leave. I wave goodbye to her and exit the guild.

I go to the small shop to buy some food for the orphans and get the same things I got last time. I get to the orphans and some of the run to greet me with smiles.

I distribute the food and go to talk with Anna and Emma, who are eating a piece of bread.

“How has things been going with the new girl?”

“She nom nom nom hasn’t reacted at all nom nom.” Anna said while

stuffing her face with bread.

 “We talked to her for a long time, but she just sat there.”

“Thank you for that, I am sure it helps even if there is no progress yet.”

“What have you been doing lately uncle Leo?”

“Have you made any nom nom swords?”

“Not since the black one I had with me yesterday, we went out to do some guild missions with Sarah today.”

“Did you hunt some monsters? How many did you slay?”

“I wasn’t counting we killed a few wolves and then a big snake.”

“Snake!?” Someone shouts from behind me.

The fox girl has stood up and with widened eyes she approaches quickly.

“Wasn’t the snake dead already? No, I am sure that the snake was killed by big brother Rode. Hey what do you mean you killed a big snake?!”

She grabbed on to my shirt and screamed at me, the other orphans all turned to watch, even the three bat people slowly turned to look.

“There was another big snake that attacked us, the guild master even asked me to go look into the reason why the big snakes are coming this way as this is not their habitat.”

“More of those things?”  She said as all the strength left from her grip.  

She fell on her knees and started crying. Anna and Emma went to her and hugged her as she cried.

“You do not have to worry about the snakes, I will take care of them.”

Again, she gets up with her teary eyes wide and grabs my shirt.

“you´re going to take care of them? Where were you when the giant snake was slaughtering all my kin? Where were you when my family was eaten right in front of my eyes? Where were you?!”

I put my hand on top of her head, but she grabbed my hand a bit into it as hard as she could. The longer teeth pierce into my skin and it starts to bleed.

I let her bite my hand and I put my other hand on her head and start patting her.

She soon starts crying as she is biting my hand and we stay like that for a while. She soon starts releasing her bite and then she collapses on the ground unconscious.

My blood is rich in nutrients and mana, so it is no wonder she would pass out after drinking it. It will help her recuperate from these days where she ate nothing.

I carry her into one of the empty mattresses and put a blanket over her. I say goodbye to the orphans and tell Anna and Emma to keep taking care of her.

I notice that my hand is still bleeding so I lick the bite wound and the blood stops flowing out of my hand. Hmm I should probably check up on her tomorrow before I leave to examine the snake problem.

I could make another sword tonight too just to try out somethings. I could relax some too, today was a bit action packed day after all.

Chapter four. Chapter six.