It had terrorised cities. The creature had been the scourge of the sewers, snatching people from the streets then vanishing in an instant. The newspaper called it the Beast, but the people just called it Serpent. How many humans had it eaten and killed? Hundreds, maybe thousands. And now it struggled, trapped in a cave of its own making as the floodwaters swelled. The air dried up. Oxygen leeched from its body as it convulsed in its last moments of breath. As it all faded to blackness, it wriggled, trying to reach the surface.

Its eyes shut for the last time.

The King of Serpents welcomed another of his children home.