Devils' Own Steam Punk Mystic Tale 1.1

 A Steampunk/Mystic Tale of Adventure

Book 1

Jimmy Loong

Apr 2014

Tales 1

Part 1

The assassin

1.1.

The call of the night was echoed by the owl, which had left it nesting for the hunt. When it landed, the bird of prey fluffed its feathers when it perched on the upper branch of the oak tree, while its eyes squint hard to find the elusive preys. It spied the mice which had also crawled out of its hiding to search for its daily nutrient. It was a scrawny one, but the owl was not waiting long for its first feed. It went swooping down with speed on its drawn back wings while the talons on its legs protrude out. It was to be a clean kill, but in reality, nothing works as planned. 

The owl descent was interrupted by the sudden upward movement of the ground when another predator struck at the mice. The serpent snatched the prey with its jaw and chomped on the mice’ neck. At that moment, the descending owl had to compensate for the new development. It made a sudden decision and used its talon to grab the serpent by the body and lifted it up. The serpent reacted to the new threat by releasing the mice. It lunged it jaw towards the predator that had grabbed its body, and laid its fang into it. The serpent found its fangs came into contact metallic and pulled back. It tried one more time on another surface, and faced the same surface. It then struggled against the talons but the Owl had sensed the movement. The bird then had increased its hold onto the serpent flesh until the talon tips tore into it.

Soon the owl landed on the top surface over a man made hole in the ground. It dropped its catch on the rough flooring below before it took flight to the skies again. The wounded serpent coiled up and poised it jaws to strike at any new threat.  It unfolded its fangs and used it sensory functions to detect the nearest threat. Once it determined the threat, it would lunge, bite and inject the venom before it folded back its fangs back again. All it will take is a fraction of a second. The human eye cannot follow the strike, it is so swift.

But the movement of the human limbs given its years of conditioning could rival that scaled clad creature by the mere fraction of timing. The extended hand grabbed the lunging serpent by its upper neck just below the jaws and had it slammed back onto the rough surface. The impact shattered the twin fangs in its jaw and crushed the bones to the upper soft tissue of the serpent facial before piercing the ossified braincase. The serpent did not registered any pain it its death, as the sensory glands had shut down by the impact on its brain. The serpent then had its head removed with the tearing of flesh and its main body hung high for the blood to be drunk by its killer. The assassin then peeled the scaled skin as if it was a simple wrap cover, to have its inner flesh consumed with relish. The dead serpent head was discarded to the far end of the manmade hole; adding to the decaying pile that was there. The rule of survival applied then; only the greater predator stayed alive while the preys are all dead or consumed.

The assassin licked at the palm of his hands, picking up the remains there before he pulled himself up. Despite his tall height, the metal grated cover over the hole was double his height for him to reach. He was not looking to reach it but studying the positions of the opening in between the grating. The metal rungs are rusty from the years of neglect and erosion by the elements, but it was still thick to hold a man’s weight. He then reached down to the flooring to pick up the discarded serpent skin. It was still coated with blood and felt smooth in his hands. He stretched it, and tested the tension. He walked towards the shadow corner and drew out the hasty entwined length that he had patiently constructed with the other creatures skins and innards that he deemed suitable. He heaved it in his hands it and then tied the skin from the serpent to the tip. With the skin he had attached a femur bone from a previous offering. He tossed it with the skills he had accumulated from his training. It slipped through on the second try, and then with a twist of his hand, it secured the length over it. He tested it resilience and reckoned he had one slim attempt to get up there. He pulled at it one more time and then leapt up with his body tensed for the climb. It took him a few seconds to make the climb before his fingers latched onto the metal grating. He let off his weight on the length to dangle himself with his fingers.

The assassin flexed his limbs and then pulled his lower body up to pushed his feet through. He was then holding on with his four limbs and made his way slowly to the metal grating gate. His right fingers reached for the latch that held the metal grating gate in place. He slowly moved the latch and then pushed up the grating. Once he had done that, he slowly pushed open the gate upwards, before he moved his right fingers over it. He found a solid hold and then moved his left hand to hold onto the opened grating. He slowly lowered his legs down and hung over the grating gate below. He took a deep intake of air and slowly flexed his biceps to raise himself up with the head to push at the gate. He soon had his vision leveled on the ground above, and paused at that. He did a quick scan on the ground and then exerted himself up. He leveled himself over with the elbows on the hard ground, before he took in his next breath of air. The assassin slowly pulled himself up and used his legs at the final push to get his body over. He stopped and waited for any shouts of alarm or the barking of the dogs, but none was heard.

“I am back.” The assassin smiled and then slipped off towards the dark looming building.