Deep beneath the roots of the forest, the Fire Python waited.
The chamber it claimed as its nest was immense — a cavern of molten light, its walls glowing red and orange with eternal heat. The air shimmered with distortion, heavy with the stench of sulfur and burned herbs. Bones — hundreds of them — lay scattered across the rocks, white and charred. Some belonged to beasts, others… did not.
At the cavern's center coiled the serpent — a monstrous creature the size of a temple tower, its scales crimson and black, flickering with embers. Each breath it took sent waves of heat rolling across the ground, warping the air itself.
Its golden eyes, slit like blades, glared toward the tunnel entrance.
It had been waiting for hours.
"Late," it hissed, voice low and thunderous. "They're late again."
A tongue of flame escaped its mouth, curling into the air like smoke.
