Kashigami's Child

The creature was a near copy of its parent, only a touch smaller. Even so, it towered over any human as an enormous serpent. Dark blue stripes ran across its pale blue hide, white hair trailed along its flanks, and its eyes glowed yellow.

This snake was a savage, blood-hungry hunter. The moment it caught sight of Mont Blanc Noland, it lunged to devour him. Kalgara took the beast's appearance as divine retribution for Noland having killed Kashigami, but nothing suggests the snake acted on any such motive. More likely it simply stumbled upon Noland and saw easy prey in a man pinned helplessly in the earth.

Hatched to Kashigami on Jaya, the serpent grew over what was probably decades or centuries and in time produced an offspring of its own. Roughly 419 years before the present, it was prowling the forest when it came upon Noland trapped in the ground and moved in for the kill. The Shandia warrior Kalgara drove a spear straight through the top of its skull, ending it on the spot. Because the Shandia held the snake sacred, slaying it amounted to the dire offense of killing a god, yet Kalgara accepted the risk, trusting Noland to cure the Tree Fever ravaging his village. Noland kept that promise, no one in the tribe ever punished Kalgara, and not long after the dead snake's own child took to Noland and the Shandia, who named it Nola.