For five minutes the stare down between me and the horrid creature continued, A strong scent of rot filled the air and suprised me that something that smells this bad could even exist.
The monster reminded me of the man-eating wendigos which also originate in native american legends just like the thunder birds and red haired goliaths.
The wendigo fell down on all fours and dashed away with supernatural agility as it clearly wanted to avoid confrontation with me and I also didn't bothered to gave chase as wherever it came from it definitely won't return again.
I entered my lair and entered a state of brumation in which my metabolism slows down allowing me to go on for months without food which is a bit different from what mammals would do to hi bernard. My sleep was plagued with nightmares regarding the thunder bird which would dive down from the sky and scoop me up with its colossal talons.
Clearly a deep fear has been engraved in the very core of my being. The wretched wendigo would've also not hesitated to attack me if I were any smaller and it would have been very painful to be torn apart by those elongated talons of his.
[ 10 years later]
Its been half a centuary or you could say 50 years since I was reborn and now I have officially lived as a snake longer than I have been a human.
My length is 15.3 meters along with a whopping width of 1 meter allowing me to reach a man's waist even while laying on the ground. The few strands of hair on my neck has grown into a little mane reaching the top of my head and extending till my upper back with a length of 2 meters, scales are still the same color without any significant difference but they are surely shinnier them before as if made of brass.
My hide is probably thick enough to completed prevent wooden arrow from doing any damage and even if the humans had metal arrows they would still won't be able to peirce my vital organs due to layer of fat and muscle beneath my scaly hide.
I have no idea on how big I would actually get but its clear that my growth would slow down even further from this point on but it won't stop.
My territory has also been expanded as I now tool over the giant Catfish's territory because it got hunted by the tribe of goliaths who also knew of my presence in the river and decided to build a crude shrine from the bones of the dead Catfish to honor me.
Even though I never fully revealed myself to the goliaths but they still show me reverence and sometimes while passing along my territory throw in some fully intact animal carcasses for me to feed upon. Over the past decade I have observed increased goliaths activity near my area and have also managed to make a rough estimation regarding their number.
The tribe of goliaths consists of roughly 48 individuals, with the smallest one being 2 meters tall and the largest one being 7.5 meter tall who's not only the same goliath which knelt to me during the raid on human village but also appears to be their tribal chief.
Today while I was leisurely patrolling my territory I saw a young goliath which was only 1.8 meter tall just like a regular human praying at the crude shrine dedicated to me. She was even smaller then the smaller goliath I had seen but how did I knew it was a goliath?
Well that's because she had the same tribal markings as the rest of the goliaths. She had lush golden-blonde hair, blue sapphire like eyes which were as deep as the ocean, thick eyebrows but here here face was sunken and her body looked starved. It clear that she was an outsider among the goliath tribe who had rejected her but spared her from a gruesome fate of being Cannibalised.
She appears to have been left to fend for herself in the wilderness and facing the threat of starvation she had no option but to pray for a miracle to save her from certain death as she clearly isn't capable to securing food as well as end go inside the stomach of some predator if she satyed in the open. Luckily for her, my scent prevented any unwanted interlopper from entering my territory so she was a bit safe here. She was completely naked except for some almost faded tribal markings which made her bony frame even more visible.
The massacre of the human village didn't fazed me, it didn't bothered me when children and women were stomped on and even devoured alive. But this girl ignited the last bit on compassion I had in my Serpentine heart.
I rose from the river, my monstrous manes head 5 meters above water level with my scales glimmering in the sunlight as if a divine being has arose. The girl posturated herself before me, ready to accept my judgment as I completely dwarfed her. I could eat her right now but she could be the key for me to know more about my environment and the goliath culture.
For 50 years I have spent alone and loneliness has caught up to me since I was a former human. This child infront of me could serve as an excellent pet.
I unhinged my lower jaw and positioned my head near the little girl who started to shiver but didn't ran as she though I was going to eat her. I threw up some fish I had previously injested along with some half digested boar parts.
The little girl's face immediately lit up as she pounced on my leftovers like some rabid animal and she immediately reminded me of my pet german shepherd back on earth.
I went out hunting again before returning to my lair. For the next few months the girl started regaining her vitality as now she wasn't as skinny as before due to me keeping her fed till she was independent. During the entire duration od this ordeal she never left my territory and eventually learned how to forage berried and roots before learning how to make crude wooden spear with sharpened rocks and started hunting little animals but didn't started to far from the shrine.
Other goliaths played her no attention but somtimes stop near her and speak some words which I can only assume were insults.
She kept quiet as she was the smallest among them and would only get beaten if she spoke back. They seem to hate her for being diffrent then the rest due to her hair color. I finally decided to name her Giaia after the primodial earth titan from greek mythology.
Giaia reach the height of 2 meters tall within 2 years as her nutrient requirement was finnaly met after being malnourished for so long. She now had muscular legs and nicely shaped buttocks, medium sized breasts for her size with nicely toned abdominal section. Her arms were no longer like Twigs but had visible muscles not as much as her male counterparts and a face that could rival a fairy from heaven.
One day while I was sun bathing near the shoreline, Giaia walked toward me wearing a leather cloth at her wide waist but with a bare chest holding a spear in hand. She sat besides me stroking my scaly head and brushing my hair with her hand. She spoke nothing and I didn't reacted at all since being stroked on the head felt quite relaxing. From that day onwards it became a little routine of ours to sun bathe like this together every once in a week.