deck-of-dragons:

Stretch had nicknamed
the lamia ‘Slim’ as a misnomer, it was far too large to ever be close to what could
be considered slim. Its upper half was that of a skeleton monster, its lower
half was a long burnt-orange snake. One of its sharp fangs were missing, with a
small crack running up from where it had been. It bore other scars too; it had
seen its share of battles and presumably won more often than not. Which made it
even worse as far as Stretch was concerned.

Blueberry
had suggested he name after he’d told him about it and how it followed him
every time he had to walk through the woods – presumably its territory – for
whatever reason even though he’d said in no uncertain terms that he didn’t like
it – he didn’t like snakes in general, giant half snakes were even worse.

Moving
away was unfortunately not an option, he didn’t have the money to afford a new
place and he hadn’t been living here long. He could move back in with Blueberry
but would rather not, they’d spent their whole lives living in the same house, he needed some independence. He
would’ve moved in with Fell but Fell had left to attend a faraway fancy cooking
college and wouldn’t be back anytime soon. Meaning Stretch was forced to put up
with the damn snake by himself, he wasn’t a child he could handle it. Next time
he caught it following him he’d charge at it and hopefully scare it off and
then he wouldn’t have to worry about it sneaking into his house and eating him
while he slept anymore.

One
evening after a car trip to the grocery store he went out of his way to take a
while to bring everything inside from his car. As expected it wasn’t long
before Slim appeared in the tree-line, watching him. He kept an eye on it as he
finished putting the groceries in the house. It had never made any move to
attack him but that might be because it was waiting for the prefect chance to
strike. Its eyes certainly never seemed to leave him so that had to be it.

After
the groceries had been put away Stretch went back outside. Slim was still there
and still watching. It was now or never. He’d grabbed a broom from the kitchen,
he didn’t want to hurt it so he wouldn’t use magic on it unless he had to, he
just wanted to assert his dominance and scare it off. He could do it, ever since
he’d moved in here he’d been killing all the spiders he’d found all by himself
with the very broom he held in his hands now.

He
crept closer, watching the lamia as intently as it watched him. It didn’t move,
if it wasn’t for the bright magic making up its bone and white bones he
probably wouldn’t have ever been able to spot it watching him.

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