The Calling of the Cobra

The Calling of the Cobra

A small snake, becomes a large snake. “You are wasting your talents here.” Principal Harold Honey sits across from a young man with slicked back black hair, his first fuzz of facial hair peaking out from under his nose. “I would like you to consider a transfer to CAMP, your father is an alumni, and I spoke with Headmaster Joyce, he would be willing to give you a chance.” Ulrich shakes his head, “I ain't goin to no private school.” Principal Honey nods, “I understand the hesitation, and I wouldn't expect anything different, but please think about it.” “It didn't do my old man no good.” Ulrich leaves the office and heads out back, to hide under the bleachers and smoke a cigarette, slow drags to slow his mind, to help him think. The East Side is his home, and even if the year just started, he fits in at the high school, with the Cobras. His old man, Theodore Atzetari, went to CAMP, and then went out to adventure, that's where he met Gamron, thats where he wrote his books, and that's where he died. Out there, somewhere in the wild world, maybe at sea, maybe in a cave, no one really knows, certainly not Ulrich. He has his books, his journals, the stories of CAMP, and the stories of adventure. Of a dragon's library, and of a city made of trees in the Feywilde, of a man who could answer any question, deep into the shadowfell. Stories of love, and of loss. Of slaughtered enemies, and fallen friends. Of dreams, and of hopes, of a desire to see Ulrich be more than just another adventurer, out of the grind. It would matter more if their were other options, but right now it looks like adventure, or crime, and that's about it. Ulrich is leaning towards crime. The Cobras have welcomed him in with open arms, and he has quickly proved himself. Gamron has been impressed, and so have the others.
“Hey Banger.” Marybelle has a cigarette hanging from her bright red lips. Her blonde hair is blown back in an attempt to say she doesn't care, but he knows how much time goes into that. Her black leather jacket has the symbol of the Cobras on it's back, and on the frony she wears a patch that indicates her place in the Boys and Girls Club. Ulrich takes a long drag before acknowledging her. “Just Ulrich.” She smiles, “If I'm Scarlet, you're Banger. It's Cobra Code.” Ulrich just rolls his eyes. “You okay, dude?” “Honey wants me to transfer to CAMP, already got it approved and-” “What!? Fuck that!” She grabbed his hand, “You're not honestly considering it, are you?” She squeezes tight, “You'll have to live on campus, you can't.” Ulrich turns towards her and takes her other hand in his. “It won't be anything, It won't change anything.” She shakes her head in disbelief. “You've already made up your mind?” Ulrich pulls hard on his cigarette and then uses his left hand to take it from his mouth and drop it on the ground, putting it out with his black leather boots. “Please.” “Scar...” he takes his other hand back and sticks his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “It doesn't change anything, we can still be together-” “No.” she steps back, drops her own half smoked cigarette “This is it. I'm not dating no preppy.” Ulrich's face contorts, “Fine, if that's how you see it.” He turns away, taking another smoke out from inside his jacket, “Catch you at the club Scarlet.”
Within the month Ulrich was starting classes at CAMP, and had moved into the dorms. His roommate is a young minoan, a man who plays with gears and tools, a teenager named Stellio Copperfield. Stellio and Ulrich hit it off good, and at the end of his first week Stellio brought him to a party in the woods. The Battleball team was hosting, and the wine was flowing. A young elf finds Ulrich at the bar, “Hey... Ulrich, right?” Ulrich was leaning back against it, one leg bent, one straight, and his denim jacket, Cobra patched, hanging open, revealing a shirt from East Side High. “That's right.” He smiles, “You having fun?” She blushes and averts her eyes, unable to match his intense glare. He looks her up and down, and she mutters, “Uh, not a ton.” Ulrich smiles, toothpick in the corner of his mouth. “Lets change that.” He takes her hand and heads into the woods, “Whats your name sweet thing?” “Theodosia.”
Ulrich prospered at CAMP, and he found himself the fighter in a party of budding adventurers. Stellio was their artificer. Bhumi was their cleric. Ares Onasis their Paladin. Nataal Sairoisi their Wizard. Sufentes is their bard. A great party that made lots of trouble. Too much, eventually.
They had a quest, and to complete it, they needed an item, an item that belonged to the Headmaster. They met in the middle of the night and sneaked into the admin building, all was well, until it wasn't. No one could get the lock, so Ulrich kicked in the door. It was loud. Once they had their treasure they heard the security coming. They had no way to escape unseen. “Go out the back, I'll run towards them, distract them.” Stellio shakes his head, “You'll be expelled.” Ulrich nods, “I know.” and he takes off, Stellio steps forward to chase him but Sufentes grabs Stellio's arm and pulls him towards their escape.
“You got expelled!” Principal Honey yelled at his, once again, student. “You had the opportunity of a life time and you get caught breaking into the Headmaster's office?” The Principal of East Side High sits into his chair and puts his head into his hands. “I don't know what to do with you.” He looks up at the young man across from him. “Your father was a good man, I want to see you be the same.”
The summer would come, and so would new adventure. With his CAMP party Ulrich went onto a investigate haunted mansion grounds, and through the summer the party continues to quest. They were inseparable, but suns set, and summers end. Sophomore year was completely different. Ulrich rarely saw anyone from his old party, outside of Stellio, who would often spend time at the Boys and Girls Club in Bliznea. The two remained best friends, though, eventually, this too would die.
Without his friends at CAMP Ulrich got closer to the Cobras. “The snake that can not shed it's skin will not survive.” Gramon urged Ulrich to move on, to grow. Ulrich grew into a brawler. He was the muscle as needed for the Cobras. He grew into a better criminal. He moved sundrop and halfling weed. He grew into a leader, he form his own party. At school Ulrich excelled in History and language. He joined the Battleball team and in his junior year played all the way to the championships. In his senior year he would get caught selling drugs, and would be removed from the team, and barely allowed to graduate. This was enough to give Ulrich even more drive. He was long ago named the Prince Cobra, the leader of the Boys and Girls Club, but as he approached graduation some saw him as the true successor of Gamron.
The summer after, he proved it to everyone else.
A rival gang inched into the East Side, they called themselves the Talons, and they were bold. They asserted themselves down by the docks and began moving in all sorts of contraband, and soon they wanted more. Gamron didn't want to act, he didn't want a war, but Ulrich knew that a war was the only way to have peace. The Cobras' had to strike, or they would get trampled. “Fear” Ulrich told his crew, “is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake.”
The night before the attack Ulrich and Theodosia shared a bed, and she begged him to get out, to quit the war and the gang, and to go straight, “A snake that goes straight doesn't get anywhere.” Ulrich responded.
The Cobras marched to war the next morning. They moved through the streets in small packs and found their targets easily. The Cobras beat down the Talons all the way to the docks. “How do you want to do this?” Their leader leaps down from a balcony, he is a tall wood elf, with a large chest, and tattoos up both his arms. “Didn't think Gamron would have the balls to pull this off.” Ulrich snarls, “He didn't, this is just me.” He gestures out to the Cobras, “and them!” The leader smirks. He is older than Ulrich, perhaps older than Gamron, and he stands with authority. “Lets make this easy, huh? You, me, one on one, winner gets the city.” Ulrich laughs. “You think I'd bring a fucking army if I wasn't going to use it?” The Cobras charge! The gangs meet in combat and the docks become a warzone. The Talons are strong, and their blades sharp, but the Cobras are cunning, and quick. Ulrich goes after the leader, a man he would later learn was named Octavius. “You know you'll have to kill him, right? He won't give up power easily.” Ulrich punches him in the face and says quietly, “Obviously.”
The Cobras win the day and escape as the guards reach the docks, the Talons disperse away from Bliznea. Back at the Snake Pit a group of Cobras praise Ulrich, and Gamron watches. The party goes on into the morning, but as the sun rises Ulrich finds himself with the King Cobra, both smoking, both exhausted. “You did good.” Gamron says plainly. “You gotta lotta loyalty in the nest.” He takes a long drag, the yellow sun shining off his gray skin. “Young and old.”
“You think I'm getting ready to replace you?” Ulrich asks, dropping his cigarette and stomping it out, twisting his foot aggressively.
Gamron exhales and nods, “I do.”
Ulrich nods and sucks his teeth, and then he stabs him, a dagger between the second and third rib, faster than the King Cobra could react. “Because I am.” He whispers into his mentors ear as his life, and his blood, drain from him. The warm liquid stained Ulrichs jeans, and his hands. Stellio steps from the corner with a nod, and together they get rid of the body. In the coming days the leader would be noticed missing. The Cobras tried to find him, but in the end he was assumed AWOL, perhaps, some thought, he knew his time was up. Ulrich is named King Cobra, and he assumed his seat at the head of the Snake Pit.
A snake must shed its skin again and again in order to continue growing.