Submission (#1690) Approved

Staring bite down, Daere watched as his partner chatted with scooter, who was making exaggerated hand movements as they excitedly explained something to bite.

Butter came bounding over to Daere, tail wagging behind them happily.

“DAERE!!! Youll never believe what happened-“ they began, fiddling with their claws as they began recanting their life altering encounter with a fossil terra up in the Tundra.

“You saw a what????” Daere was startled, scooter and bite had gone silent.

“Yeah!!!! They were HUGE!!! They towered over me and I was only about as big as their hand!! They were a big snake Terra with an eye hovering over their head and a crown and-“ as butter described the Terra they saw everyone was still in shock.

Their little Christmas dinner had just became much more special- as their little friend had discovered something so incredibly rare and mysterious. Fossil Terras are very rare and mysterious, they’re rarely perceived and the fact that butter had seen one??? Was unbelievable!!

“Well I don’t know how to feel about that.” Bite muttered, coming up behind butter with scooter following after him, tail tucked between his legs.

“That sounds so scary!!! Where did you see them?? What were they like?? Did they say anything?!” scooter asked nervously, hiding behind bite.

“Let’s go see them!! I’ll take you back to where I saw them!!” Butter cheered, earning nervous looks from the others.

Soft yaps came from howl and growl as they circled around Daere and nuzzled their favorite bird terra.

After reluctantly deciding to follow butter, the four of them left the house to find this mysterious fossil terra butter apparently found.

“This isn’t a good idea.” Bite hissed to Daere once they got to the tundra.

Daere chuckled, “we have you to protect us don’t we? My sweet little wolf.” He crooned, brushing a clawed hand through bites fur in the wrong direction, knowing that would fluster his beloved.

“Look! There they are!!” All of them froze when butter pointed at a massive, really sharp bone tipped tail. It was HUGE.

All of them were horrified, this terra was fucking MASSIVE. The size of its hand was bigger than they were tall, it had to be at least 80 feet tall.

“Oh sweet mother of all might…..” daere whispered, all of them realized that the terra wasn’t breathing per say, and they eye above its head was closed.

“Let’s get out of here before it wakes up!!” scooter hissed, terrified.

Suddenly, the forest went silent. All of them froze as the eye opened above the Terras head.

It stared them down blankly, blinking slowly as the Terra raised its massive head, they then noticed the ring glittering in the visor and felt utter dread at the realization they just had.

Thinking back to a story their old wizard friend had told them about their partner they’d loved till the day they’d died-

“You’re……” daere began softly.

“Zeus.” Bite finished in disbelief.

The Terra didn’t speak a word, merely closing its eye again and ignoring them, they realized with dread that this poor soul, wasn’t who they used to be.

“Oh god…. What do we do? We have to tell Mal!” Butter whimpered, looking up at the big fossil terra.

“What can we tell him?? He thinks his lover is *dead* butter!!!!” Bite hissed back.

Daere walked up to the sleeping fossil and gently laid his hand on the cold skin of the snake like male.

He realized the Terra wasn’t even breathing.

“What happened to you?” Daere whispered, melancholy settling over the group like a python sinking it’s fangs into its prey.

Zeus said nothing once more, and the little group mourned for the loss of the soul of the one who their friend had loved for eons and longed to meet once more in the afterlife, praying that Zeus would truly find peace one day.