Hero for Hire by C. B. Pratt

he’d obeyed, he might have survived, though without his good looks.
    Instead, he drew breath to scream again as the pain hit him. Some of the venom went in with the air. The pus-colored froth turned red, then black, spreading tendrils to wrap around and consume his flesh.
    With a hiss like the rising steam from the poisonous waters of Lake Aegina, the snake uncoiled, segment after segment flowing past above me. It unhinged its jaws in mid-spring and swallowed Yanni whole before the boy’s body had time to do more than sag.
    “Yum!” it said, whipping around to face me. “You’re a big second course, Monkey, but I can always save half of you for breakfast!”
    I fought the urge to turn, to look to see whether the fat, bald guy had genuinely transformed. I knew he now stood before me, balancing on his tail, weaving back and forth to keep me hypnotized and unsure. There was no need to confirm it but I found it surprisingly difficult not to do so. Evil had not yet departed from this island.
    The girl moaned, coming awake. Her eyelids flickered and she opened them sleepily, trying to focus on what she saw. When she realized there was a sixteen-foot-long snake not three rods away, she bit her lip til it bled, knowing that any further screaming would be useless. She looked at me, but I didn’t dare even nod at her. I had to keep the beast’s attention on me.
    I raised the sword and it laughed, ripples running up and down the long body. The girl started to crawl away but the tail came around, knocking the props from under her. “I mustn’t forget dessert!” the snake declared.
    It bent over her. “Such a fresh morsel...how can I bear to wait?”  The long tongue, forked and dripping, flickered through the air above her. “Mmmm, the smell of fear! So delicious, like the best cheese!”
    “You’ll love me, then,” I said loudly. “I’m turning to jelly.”
    The head twisted toward me, the body following, coil upon coil. Though it was very definitely a snake, there remained some vestige of the man he’d been in the eyes. The pupils were not entirely elongated and there was more of an eyebrow than is usual in reptiles. Not that I’ve spent a lot of time studying them.
    What was completely reptilian was the thing’s speed. It could twist and change direction without a pause and cover the ground faster than a running horse. The ground was too open to give me cover by leading it through trees and we were a long time away from the comfort of concealing night. It was going to be a stand-up fight but I couldn’t match his reaction time.
    “Don’t run away,” it said. “It makes the thighs tough.”
    “Hera knows I’m sorry about that. Nothing worse than tough thighs,” I said. “What were you before? A cook in a Carthaginian whore-house?”
    “I was a snake, sunning myself on the rocks in the southern sun. I devoured all that came, insects, mice, my own children. I grew. I continue to grow.”
    It snapped at me. I jumped aside and stumbled on the loose stones piled near the fire. It laughed. “Men came to slay me. I devoured them too and found I knew all that they had known. I wanted to see this world of men.”
    “Do you know any cats?”
“Cats? Cats? I have eaten them; what of it?”
    “Just curious.” So far, I hadn’t swung the sword, merely holding it in front of me to keep off the great head. I knew I was only going to get one chance. If I missed, I was going on the bill of fare.
    This sword was heavy, ill-made, and I could see that the edge was much too dull for my liking. There was no time to drop it and draw my own. I couldn’t leave myself open against a foe that moved so fast it almost seemed to be in two places at the same time.
    “How did you come to be walking around in human guise?” I asked both to gain a few minutes and because I really wanted to know.
    “Eurytos has been given the power to change creatures like myself into humans, for a time. He came before me, bearing such