Chapter 331 - The Great Horned Serpent (2/2)
Dozens more of hooded figures appear all wearing the same old orange Greek mask as one of them says, ”I must congratulate you on destroying one of my dolls,” the wizard said. ”But I am many and we are all one.” The hooded figures surge forward as the Great Serpent slams the marsh with her tail causing one body to be smushed and another wizard to be impaled into a tree right through the chest.
Swirling magic gathered around her as the orange masks fell to reveal the dying faces of men and women. But still, the figures keep on coming and coming until the Great Horned Serpent is overwhelmed.
Weak and bleeding the Great Horned Serpent draws herself up proudly. ”I will not even leave a single scrap for your puppets use, Abomination,” the Great Horned Serpent growled as the blue gem on her forehead began to fiercely glow.
Suddenly there was an explosion that could be heard for miles as the area was entirely blasted into smithereens. Not a single masked figure was left standing in the end except for one. The one who had been watching all along from the distance, the puppeteer.
This masked figure unlike the rest had a white, stone, rather stern mask that of Zeus. The eyeholes were dark gapes as the masked wizard strides over to the blast sit. ”Foolish creature,” the wizard said as he stopped at the edge of the crater.
”I would have been merciful and let you live. But given that you just caused your own death, I have no choice, but to believe your words that you have indeed destroyed your egg. A pity really, but this will only be a small setback in the grand scheme of things.”
The masked figure turns away as he sniffs and apparated away. Not long after the members of the ministry of magic hurriedly arrive but all they find is a singular blast site. None of the Auror's knew what to make of the scene as there was nothing found at the blast site. They quickly wrote the incident off as a freakish, rare occurrence and rushed back to the wizarding grounds. There were still plenty of party-goers out in the open and they all needed to be carefully watched.
Back in the Prince tent, Rowan had carefully placed the egg and horn gifted into her enchanted travel bag. But using her world mapscape map she watched the figures arrive to surround the dot on her map that read as the Great Horned Serpent. One by one the dots all went out including the dot of the Great Horned Serpent.
A bit of a sad feeling wells up inside of Rowan. The Great Horned Serpent was the first snake that she'd actually enjoyed talking too. And she'd have liked to ask the serpent more questions but that was impossible now.
Just about to pull away from the map in her mind, Rowan sees a single dot remaining. The dot didn't have a name but rather read as Hydra. Why on earth didn't the real person's name show? Or is it because that's how they viewed themselves as?
Pondering the sudden ramifications, she wonders if her mapscape can be tricked by Polyjuice or a state of mind. In that case, maybe, the map wasn't to be trusted as much as she originally thought. With that disturbing thought in mind, Rowan didn't get much sleep the rest of the night. But she wasn't the only one. For a certain Hydra was plotting his next course.