The lizard seemed displeased with his new nestmates.

I couldn't have cared less.

Half a dozen cave spiders wove their glittering webs over the entrance of the cave, only the soothing press of my mana keeping them from staking territorial claims with their particular brand of cannibalism. I had shaped these with as much mana as I could shove into them before they began to reject it, enriching their venom until they could take down prey far larger than themselves, a last defense if their webs failed. As a final touch, I took the ruddy hue of their banded legs and blended it over their entire bodies, brightened to a gleaming red like little scuttling jewels in the dark.

I wouldn't ever find them beautiful, lacking the scales and wings where I found true perfection, but they were far less horrific to look at. It would do for now.

Precious few creatures had come to investigate my trap, only more buzzing insects I had no interest in beyond the spark of mana I got from their deaths as my spiders feasted. The lizard had tucked himself against the base of my column, watching the new additions with his lanturn-like eyes.

I wanted more.

Dragons never settled and I was no different—to kill the bastard outside, I would need far more than mere cave spiders and mushrooms, no matter how much venom I could fill them with. My memories clashed with the guiding hand of my instincts, wanting to force the lizard to carry me out into the wider cave to scrape and tear any creatures in my path. The overwhelming fear I was shaped from stayed my hand.

My pool of mana was almost half full, the runes over my core gleaming once again, before something new arrived.

One of my spiders, newly formed and yet unthreatened by life, had spun its web by the base of the algae to scoop up as many scurrying bugs as it could manage. An efficient strategy, as shown by the many flecks of mana I'd absorbed from its escapades, but its position put it at risk.

The pros outweighed the cons right up until an arrow-shaped head shot from the darkness and plucked it clean from its web.

All my many points of awareness zeroed in.

The snake snapped down the spider, thin fangs compressing its carapace to disappear smoothly down its throat. It was a gorgeous thing, dark grey with black diamonds crawling over its spine, eyes pale and flashing. Raising its head, I saw its underbelly was pure white, free of dust and grime.

I could have purred.

Hello beauty, I crooned, filling my ambient mana with soothing thoughts of protection and food. With any luck, I could trick it inside to be fully separated from the outside world, able to drop rocks a plenty over its pretty head without the rest of the cave system noticing. It slithered closer.

The lizard raised his head at the change in mana, tongue flashing; I saw the moment he noticed the snake. His tail lashed as he rose to all fours.

The snake's grey tongue met the air. It hissed but didn't retreat, coiling opposite of the fungal garden, at least five feet long—beating the lizard in size, but where it was slender, he was strong. In a fight between the two, there would be no clean victories.

And, most infuriating of all, I couldn't control either one.

I covered the lizard in pressing strands of mana, urging him to slow down, to plan out a manner of attack. He ignored me with the same ease he'd ignored all of my previous orders. Some predator had entered his nest, no matter the new roommates, and he wouldn't allow it to stand.

The godsdamned idiot was going to get himself killed and leave me without any power beyond a few crawling spiders. I threw more of my ambient mana over his back, enough his tail lashed, but he stayed focused on the snake.

My one consolation was the bare knowledge I had of other reptiles—the snake was a constrictor, not venomous. The brief glance at its fangs had been enough to confirm that. But my lizard wasn't either; his strength came from his claws and fangs.

Two things that scales were built to protect against.

The lizard stalked forward until his nose brushed against my row of mushrooms, eyes narrowed. From my bare sense of my creatures' minds, I could feel the moment that every spider near the algae abruptly decided they had places to be and scattered back up to their webs. The snake hissed, tail lashing, and reared–

What I'd taken for a white underbelly exploded in light; fucking bioluminescence. As if it needed any other advantage. The lizard reeled back, cave-adjusted eyes blinded and smarting; an easy target.

Like an arrow, the snake shot through the fungus. It sank its fangs into the meat of the lizard's shoulder—or tried to, at least. I had a smug little moment as it bounced off his defensive scales but that was only its attempt to secure its position, not a proper attack; in seconds, it wound its way around the lizard's midsection, threading between his sprawling limbs.

I watched its grip constrict with the kind of fear I hadn't felt in a very long time.

My mana surged to life. Thrashing, the lizard bit and tore at what length of the snake he could reach, but while he ripped scales loose and drew streaks of blood it only squeezed tighter. I shoved power heedlessly between the two, enough the mushrooms between them shuddered and grew, but I couldn't do anything. Gods, he was going to die and I couldn't–

With a hiss, the lizard gave one last full-body tremble and went limp.

I bellowed, and not a thing heard me.

The snake cautiously untucked its head from its protected position, still coiled tightly. Another moment passed and it seemed to accept it had won the battle, tongue flicking out. It either ignored or didn't feel the weight of my furious glare, jaw extending as it slithered forward.

The lizard abruptly twisted and slammed his fangs over the back of its arrow-shaped head.

It shrieked, spasming—he bit harder and flung them both into a death roll, crashing through the mushrooms as they spun deeper into the nest. The snake exploded in another burst of light, sending my spiders shrinking into their webs, but the lizard ignored sight and dug his teeth past its scales.

Much like he had only moments before, the snake's struggles slowed. Its tail whipped heedlessly at the ground, fangs tearing at the air but unable to attack him with the grip he had behind its head, blood spilling from under its scales. The lizard managed a hiss through his very full mouth.If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

I fretted overhead, mana reaching and grasping, as seconds stretched to minutes. The snake barely twitched but the lizard wouldn't risk his own trick rebounding on him, fangs grinding deeper.

Until finally, it slumped over dead.

A burst of mana exploded out of it, the majority trickling back to my core alongside the slippery, flitting mess of a soul; but a not insubstantial amount entered the lizard's jaws, flowing alongside his channels like quicksilver. He blinked and finally let it slip out of his mouth, scarlet streaking over his blue-grey scales.

I didn't have to ask him not to eat it. He spared a second to glare at the corpse, shaking off the worst of the blood, and glanced back at me with what would almost be called smug intelligence; I didn't know what else to label his primitive trap as. He'd tricked the snake. Certainly he hadn't been that smart—as low as my threshold was when my only other companions were spiders—when I first encountered him. My mana seemed to be increasing his intelligence.

Gods knew it couldn't have been anything else.

He retreated to his corner as I poured soothing mana over him, worming what healing influences I could muster into the odd wheeze of his breath and cracked teeth. He ignored me but did curl up, tail over his nose.

Then I sat back and really considered the snake in the middle of my room.

Beautiful, yes. Dangerous, yes.

At my heart, I was a deeply petty being, but even with its irritable actions I wanted it.

I shifted my points of awareness forward, tracing over its scales—fully a constrictor, deeply camouflaged for dark stone, lacking the hooded eyes of a creature that occasionally went into sunlight. Prodding at the memories from its soul I could see endless waiting, keen little eyes poised to see the faintest movement deep under the mountain; that alongside the bioluminescence cinched it for me. It was an ambush predator, relying on blinding its opponent from the shadows and constricting them before they could react—in a normal situation, it never would have gone after my lizard, at least not while he was awake.

But it hadn't been a normal situation. All living things craved mana, no matter their level of sapiance, and I was an endless fountain. It had wanted to feast.

With the best equivalent of a sigh as I could muster, I dissolved its corpse into motes of pale light and examined its core.

Luminous Constrictor (Common)

Living in the shadows, they hide and wait for their chosen prey to draw closer. By releasing a flash of bioluminescence from the scales beneath their throat, they stun the creature and can freely constrict it. Though they lack a venomous bite, they are powerfully built and extraordinarily quick, allowing them to bring down prey many times their size.