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The Search for the Lost Hoard

Dragons and serpents live for an extremely long time when compared to humans, but even they must eventually die. A dragon will know when it is close to death and will have already decided on a chosen one to be with when death finally claims it. Both dragons and serpents are creatures that are able to pass the memories and experiences of their entire lives on for the benefit of others and will carry out a transference ceremony immediately before it dies. Along with its memories a serpent will also reveal to the chosen one the location of its hoard, bequeathing everything it has to the recipient as a reward for its final service. On rare occasions a serpent would die alone, sometimes through accident, sometimes through design and sometimes by the hand of a human looking to steal the serpent’s treasure. To be alone at the time of one’s death is something a serpent will usually try to avoid at all cost. It is also a time when the knowledge of where a serpent’s hoard is can be lost and then the search for the lost hoard will begin.

Jewelled serpents are hardy creatures having both strength and agility but occasionally they overreach themselves and find that they are in danger and if they cannot extricate themselves they die. Dying alone and in pain they would know that their memories and experiences would be lost forever, no chosen would come to comfort them and perform the transference ceremony, the serpent would be forgotten in time; all that it had lived through and learned would be gone. Very rarely a serpent may decide to take its own life for whatever reason or when its time is near the serpent would avoid other living creatures, refusing to take part in the final ceremony. Serpents are emotional creatures and it may be that during their lifetime they had suffered a traumatic event which they had never truly recovered from. This would be something that a serpent would not wish to be shared as once the memory had been passed on, the recipient would feel just as the serpent had for weeks or even months and no serpent would wish that experience on another creature so chose to die alone. When the news of the serpent’s death reached its nest mates some would mourn and some would start to plan, especially those who thought they had been chosen by the serpent to receive their memories and the treasures it had hidden. Somehow feeling that they had been cheated out of their inheritance; Inej was one such serpent.

Willar had indicated that Inej may become his chosen when the time came for him to die and the two had spent many an hour discussing how this might happen. Nothing had been confirmed or promised and others had been spoken to and were also prospective chosen. Willar needed to ensure that his chosen was compatible and was sympathetic in nature. If the two were not suited then the transference may not be successful. It took many months to decide if a candidate was the right one and this could be a very stressful time for both the serpent and the possible chosen one. There was a need for the two to spend long periods of time together talking and bonding and often these meetings ended in one or the other leaving after some argument or another. But this conflict was necessary to ensure that the right serpent was chosen. Inej was sure that he would be the one that Willar chose, they had had many meetings and although they had a few heated debates none resulted in discord between them, each respected the others views and opinions and they always parted on friendly terms. When Willar left on a journey to obtain an item of value and did not return for many days some worried he would not return, others merely thought he had gone further afield than usual and would return in due course. After three weeks word came back that Willar had been killed by a group of humans who thought to kill him and take his hoard. However they had not found so much as a single gem stone and had to content themselves with the gems adhering to Willar’s body. Once the news reached Inej he became agitated and went immediately to the elders of the nest asking if they had been told where Willar’s hoard could be found. When told that the secret location of his hoard upon his death had been lost forever Inej fled the village almost immediately only stopping long enough to gather a few things he would need for a long journey. When talking with Willar, Inej had learned that he had often visited a lonely outcropping at the edge of a valley some distance away and had also frequented a shroom village beyond which were several unoccupied shrooms. Inej thought that this would be the best place to start his search. He set out with haste leaving a message that he would be gone some while. He travelled through the next day and night stopping only long enough to eat and drink. Speeding along trails and paths avoiding settled areas where he could and skirting around villages so that he did not encounter other serpents or dragons. On the third day he finally reached the outcropping where he soon found many caves which would have been suitable for a serpent’s lair. He searched each thoroughly squeezing through entrances which would have been impossible for dragons with their rounder bodies and wings to have entered; All of them ideal places for a serpent to have hidden its treasure. After almost two days of crawling through every cave and fissure he could find he knew that Willar’s hoard could not be here. The only places left to search were far too narrow for him to enter and as Willar had been an older and much larger serpent he knew that he would not have been able to enter them. After finally giving up the search here, Inej rested before moving on to the shroom village beyond the outcropping. He travelled lesser used pathways avoiding the people he knew lived nearby until he finally came to a clearing in the forest a half a day’s travel from the village. Here were several unoccupied shrooms growing without the need to adapt themselves to suit an occupant. They grew tall and straight with no doors or windows and would continue to do so unless one of the villagers came to claim it. They would need to seek a connection with the shroom and make a request that it transform to house them. But this clearing of shrooms had not yet been touched by human habitation and was wild and untended. Of the fifty or so shrooms stood in the clearing, some were young and were not large enough to house even a single inhabitant; others could have housed a whole family. Where was Inej to start? He looked at some of the smaller shrooms and searched around their bases looking for a hole or an entrance but found nothing. He then started on the larger shrooms. Surely there must be something here, if Inej could not find the entrance to the place where he was sure Willar had placed his hoard then he didn’t know where else to search and he would have to return to his nest without the treasure. Inej felt that if he returned empty handed he would have lost his standing there and would be seen as a failure; he could not let this happen. Inej searched and searched but could find nothing. He dug around the base of each shroom in turn, looking for anything which might indicate a hidden entrance but nothing was to be found. After a whole day spent grubbing in the earth and finding nothing Inej rested, by now he was exhausted, travelling for days and then carrying out his searches had taken its toll. There were now only half a dozen shrooms left to look at. He was beginning to think he would not find Willar’s hoard and was curled around the base of a shroom wondering where he could go if he failed to find anything. He fell into a restless sleep and woke late the following morning. The sun had risen above the trees and shone down on the clearing and on Inej who sparkled with a myriad of colours. He stretched and unwound from the base of the shroom and raised himself high off the ground, trying to work out the kinks in his long body. As he did so he looked upwards and noticed a strange hole in the underside of the shrooms cap. At first he thought it was a deformity in the gills but raising himself up and by twining himself around the stem he could see that there appeared to be a hole in the cap. Stretching further and further Inej raised himself high enough so that he could dip his head into the hole; carefully he pushed his way inside the shrooms cap and as he did so he realised that this was a tunnel entrance, disappearing down the full length of the stem. Slowly and carefully he slid into the hole, gripping tightly with his coils as he went further and further down. After what seemed like forever he reached the bottom which opened out into a large chamber deep under the shroom. Inej slid and slithered into the chamber and took a look around. There were three tunnels leading out of the chamber. Inej approached the first and sniffed. All he could smell was damp earth and small insects, going to the second entrance he again breathed deeply and this time he thought he caught a faint metallic tang in the air. His first instinct was to race along the tunnel to see if this was where Willar’s hoard was concealed. But knowing sometimes serpents laid traps to protect their hoards he resisted the urge and approached the third tunnel. This one smelled of death and decay, something had crawled in here and had not crawled out. He made his way back to the second tunnel and very slowly and carefully he slid inside. Using all of his senses he advanced very carefully, the metallic smell grew stronger, Inej now recognised the smell, it was he was certain, the smell of gold.

He started to move forward a little faster sure that he had found Willar’s hoard but still took care to search for any traps which may catch him unawares. As he rounded a third bend in the tunnel it widened out into a large cavern and he saw before him several large heaps of golden artefacts, gems and priceless object d’art. Inej stopped and stared, admiring the shining piles, smiling widely; it was finally his as it should have been. He moved forward almost in a trance, swaying to and fro as he went. He approached the first pile, gently moving aside some of the items to see what was underneath, more objects each more beautiful than the last came to light. Inej was almost hypnotised by the piles of gold and gems and he moved to the second pile, looking at some of the wonderful gems heaped before him. He started to roll slowly over them, beginning to secrete the sticky substance which would cause them to adhere to his body. As he rolled he imagined how he would look with the added gems, some very rare, he couldn’t wait to get back to the nest to show off his additions. Inej rolled deeper into the pile pushing against the mound of gems but as he did so there was a strange clicking sound, which got louder and louder. Inej raised his head and looked about him, he could see nothing untoward. He continued to roll in the gems and again the clicking noise started up, this time getting faster as well as louder. Inej stopped his rolling and raised himself up above the top of the pile, as he did so a high pitched whistle sounded and a huge pendulum swung down and across the cave, Inej turned just a second too late and the blade on the pendulum neatly beheaded him. His body slumped across the gems he had been rolling in, the only sound now was the clatter of gems as they bounced and rolled across the floor of the cave. Through his greed and impatience Inej would never now benefit from the wealth of Willar’s hoard and his bones would lie as warning to others who came seeking that which did not belong to them.

The Search

for

The Lost Hoard