The Return of the Beast Princess

Chapter 1 - Eruption

Going through the vast grassland is an easy feat for the handsome half snake beast. His long straight hair dances with the wind as he slithers his way through the tall grass.

It hasn't rained and it's almost the end of the dry season. The whole grassland is turning from green to brown. Trees can be seen but you can count them with your fingers. They are almost out of leaves so there's not a lot of shade you can go for protection from the scorching sun.

It was midday and the sun is up high. Dumu is regretting already why he went here. He hates the hot weather. As a snake beastman, he likes cool and damp places. He loves water. That's one reason why he keeps coming back to the mermen's territory. The mermaids are such a pain in the neck though. They keep on seducing him to join their tribe. The promise of mating and bearing his children is always what they bargain for.

Dumu has been travelling alone around the beast world since he was abandoned when he was a young snake. He has to go through life and death to survive. Hunting and fighting is all he knows all his life.

He pursued to get stronger so no one can ever bully him. He hates being weak for he have experienced losing many times that got him almost killed. Because in the beast man's world, only the strong lives, the weak dies.

He is now a five-starred beast. The more stars a beast gets, the stronger he is. And when you get to have five, you'll have a higher chance to awaken a link with a certain element. It's innate but will stay dormant not unless you upgrade to a five-starred beast. His element is water.

And now, he wanders around and meets other beast men in small tribes or along the way from time to time. He only wants to sell excess loot that he gets from hunting for items that meets his liking. He likes to collect shiny and unique things.

But they are either afraid of him, or want to make him join them. For a five star beast man is a rare blessing to have in a tribe. Other tribes would be afraid to attack yours if you have a lot of stronger beast men. That's why females try to seduce him and wants to bear his children. So they can have strong offspring that can make their tribes powerful in other tribe's eyes.

Having a female to mate is hard to find for females are not so many. They are too weak and need the protection of the males. That's why females have many male mates for bearing children are their priority to avoid extinction.

And because of this, males tend to care for females a lot. It reached to a point when they are treated as slaves, always on the females beck and call. They are spoiled too much. Making most of the females arrogant and proud. For if not for them, the beast men will cease to exist.

And that's the reason why Dumu avoids females. He would rather wander and enjoy his single life looking for adventures than mating with these kind of females. If he ever finds a female as strong as he is, maybe, just maybe, he'll change his mind.

"Ah, why do I have to listen to what that witch doctor told me about my dream."

He stopped under the shade of a tall tree and looks at the angry mountain that is still far from where he is. He have always dreamt of a female with red long wavy hair standing at the peak of the mountain while it is spitting fire and burning rocks. He cannot see how she looks like because a mere blur is what he can only see but he knows deep inside that the female is a beauty. And before he wakes up, he will hear a male voice telling him that she's coming.

The last tribe that he went to has an old male witch doctor. He told him about his dream out of small talk while bargaining some herbs he picked up on the way. The old witch doctor urged him to go to the forsaken grassland for this is the place where the forsaken mountain was at. It's called forsaken for no beast man would stay to live in that area. The mountain is always angry. It spits fire, burning rocks and burning water that kills everything it hits. And it is territory for the savage giants.

"The beast god has favored you greatly for showing you your future mate in your dreams. You have to go and find her since the beast god told you that she is coming."

All beast men are superstitious. If they cannot explain something beyond their comprehension, they believe that the beast god is the reason behind it. So out of curiosity, and just to brag at the old witch doctor that what he said isn't true, he went and now he is here.

Dumu sighed before turning around.

"I should not have listened. I will just continue to... wha-what is that...."

The ground begins to shake like crazy making it hard for him to stand straight. He leaned on the tree but it was shaking so hard that it seems like it's bending to fall down on him. He quickly whipped the tree away using his long black tail.

He looks around in fear. This is his first time experiencing the ground shaking. He only heard of it from old beast men from other tribes that the last time this happened is before the beast god and the ancients disappeared.

He slithers fast to the direction where he came from, avoiding the cracks that the ground is making. He was so afraid and doesn't know what to do. Then suddenly, he heard the sky roaring so loud. It went dark all of a sudden and the roars became louder and it won't stop.

Dumu covered his ears as he look back and his eyes widen in fear when he saw the angry mountain spitting burning big rocks while burning water runs down towards the land as it crack in the middle.

Almighty beast god please forgive me if I have not been a good beast man. Please have mercy on me...

He slithers away as fast as he can while avoiding the burning rocks that has been spit by the angry mountain towards him. He looks at the direction where he came from and looks back at the mountain. He covers his whole body with water mist to cool himself from the hot breath the burning rocks and water is releasing.

AAAARRRRRKKKKK!!!

An ear splitting cry of a bird pierced the whole sky and what Dumu's eye caught is a very large burning crystal that seems to fly out of the mouth of the cracked angry mountain. He looks at it curiously for the other burning rocks are not as shiny and not as big as the others that were spit out.

His eyes went wide with excitement. He slithers towards the direction where the burning red crystal is heading towards. He laughs breathlessly as he follows quickly where the crystal is headed.

"The beast god really favors me! He is giving me a fire crystal that big! I can not even think of how many things I can exchange it with at the Kingdom of Byakko! Hahahahaha!"