Gregor stopped, breathing out deeply as his eyes fluttered opened. He waited there behind the tree for a few minutes, waiting to hear some sort of rallying cry or shouted warning, but nothing reached his ears but the gentle rustle of bodied moving along the ground and the moaning of dying men. Soon even the moans stopped, and Gregor poked his head out from behind the tree and slowly stood up.

He picked his way among the bodies and the snakes, who parted before him instinctualy to let him through. There were more bodies than he expected, though some were already being slowly devoured by some of the larger constrictors. He hadn't expected them to attack so viciously. He must have let some of his anger seep through into them. "Sorry." He said to the bodies. "You couldn't have, well..."

[i]Small riding boots thumped against the far door as the body swung slowly back and forth. He had been dressed for a countryside ride today, one of the many hard military activities of their father that Gregor had never taken too. Now the boys white coat was stained red with blood dripping down from where the cord around his neck had dug into his skin. His once bright face was pale blue. His hands and feet were bound. Gregor felt his notes slip out of his grasp, a sudden gust of wind carrying the loose papers deeper into the house.[/i]

He shook off the memory, placing a hand against his pale forehead. "You couldn't have know what you were doing when you did it." He stooped down to one of the men, reaching out for his waterskin. "If I had a proper fetish I could have been a little more precise," he said, ripping it from the mans belt. With his other hand he grabbed up one of the dead snakes, head cleanly severed. He uncorked the water skin and gripped the stump of the snakes neck over it, letting the blood trickle and drip down into the skin. He put his thumb over the hole and shook vigorously. "But that takes time to make. Too much time than I've had lately. And remember, you came at me." He tipped the skin to his mouth and drained the whole thing in one go. He lowered the skin feeling like a real man again. "So you can't complain about how this turned out!"

He stood suddenly and whirled at the rest of them. "That goes for all of you!"

The corpses offered him no reply.

He moved among them, taking what he needed. A few more water skins. A few pouchfulls of assorted fruits and dried meats some loving wife or mother had given them this morning, which were immediately consumed. A sharp stone knife and then, after thinking about it, a second sharp stone knife. A leather bag. A long black snake, to go in the leather bag along with the shackle. A proper belt to hang it all one.

Satisfied, he started making his way after the group at his own pace.