The plant was one that had 1 stem but 2 violet flowerheads, a rather average looking flower to be honest but even so, for some reason, the snake could feel a sense of danger from it.
Despite that, the snake still decided to eat it. Even if this 'thing' could fight, could it outmatch his speed? Hmph!
He had eaten loads of things filled with energy that made him stronger and bigger so although this 'thing' seemed different, it should be the same.
With a cold glint of anticipation in his eyes, he opened wide and swiftly devoured the flower in one gulp.
With arrogance filling his heart, he thought something along the lines of
'This thing no fight, no run, weak!'
The snake had actually thought the 'thing' would fight back since it had felt a sense of danger, but there was no resistance at all. 'Maybe scared? Hahaha-'
That was the last thought he had before he started to rapidly lose vitality, shocking him greatly. It writhed and hissed but nothing stopped the horrendous pains that wracked it's body and soon he passed out.
Eridel managed to notice him because he was in the process of creating poisonous plants and herbs, but who knew that literally minutes after he was done, there would already be a tester.
As his first tester, Eridel decided to be generous and save the snake's life. Causing it to wake up immediately but run back to the main territory in fear.
Unfortunately for the following testers, Eridel ignored them. Poisons were meant to kill and if he saved all of the victims then what was the point of creating it in the first place? Soon, they would all develop instincts to stay away from poison anyway.
Now Eridel was seeing the Snake develop the same properties of the poisonous flower. It must have thought that it was the strongest thing in existence for it to influence it's psyche like that.
2 heads… purple poison… I'm sorry, young one.
But it seemed that because of this encounter, the snake might evolve into becoming a hydra?
Speaking of snakes, Drako had a small race evolution too.
Lily and Jörma didn't have one because from birth, they already had their bloodline. They could now only improve it. The 2 of them only got bigger and more impactive auras. Jörma got more of the former and Lily got more of the latter.
However, Drako didn't have a bloodline, he just had a perfect affinity with the Laws of Fire. So he was more than welcome to get one now. But the result…
Drako… he actually developed a pair of antlers on his forehead…
If that did not expose not only the fear, but the hidden reverence that he had for the Elk, Eridel didn't know what else did.
All the other snakes were just terrified of Dodo, they didn't dare to have thoughts of being like him.
Thinking about it, it wasn't too surprising. Drako seemed to have a prideful personality that hoped to be the most dazzling and powerful. So it was not a big surprise that the most amazing thing that he ever saw (Dodo) influenced his evolution.
Besides that, there was another evolution that got Eridel excited. It was actually… A Phoenix!
It was a result of awe inspiring coincidences that even stunned Eridel. One that cemented his decision to let things progress naturally unless otherwise needed.
There was an alpha chicken. A nice, plump, grain-eating chicken.
The chicken was cool, he had subordinates that ran around doing errands for him and he had all the females he could ever want, life was bliss and everyone wanted to be like him.
But one day, everything changed when the fire nation att- COUGH! Everything changed when the Laws of Destruction erupted.
Being a weak race, most of his flock had died very swiftly. As an alpha, he was more resilient and strong but he was dying too. However, he was smart
When he was thinking of how to survive, the memory of a miraculous lake that he used to live close to surfaced in his mind.
It wasn't so great when he was living there. Amazing water but that was it. But when massive changes occurred in that area, he fled with his flock.
Finding out how trash other sources of water were in comparison, he decided to return one month later. When he and his flock returned to the lake… they were flabbergasted! Essence, so much essence!
But before he could even get excited, a massive hoove blocked his vision. He remembered how he had stumbled back and even fell on his bum, resulting in him seeing the owner of that hoove…
He still shivered even now just thinking about it. But that wasn't the point. The water! If he could absorb some of the essence in that water, he and his flock could survive!
With haste, he made his way as fast as possible with his remaining 5 flock members at his tail.
10 minutes later he rushed into the clearing, the lake in vision, but 2 more of his brothers had died, causing him grief. The only ones left were the 2 strong women that he doted on the most, hoping to make strong children with (essentially his wives), and his last brother.
When he saw the lake he was ecstatic, he could instinctively tell that if he got into the lake he and his flock would survive. Although he could see the behemoth-like Elk and some other green coloured animal resting in the water, that only confirmed his suspicions.
Filled with happiness he urged his flock to run the last distance which was roughly 30 metres. He couldn't care less about the Elk, if he stayed away, he would die anyway. At least, if he got in that lake, he could have a chance of survival.
But when they were 20 metres away, lightning struck, nothing quite special, lighting had been striking everywhere ever since this whole thing began so he was used to it by now. But the problem was where the lightning struck. A tree that was in front of them was blasted and it was immediately lit on fire and started to fall.
That in itself wasn't much of a problem, even if they couldn't fly, they were still birds, they were quite fast when they wanted to be.
However, his brother, who was blinded by desperation and even dared to run in front of him, didn't notice.