Snake Patroller#

As seasons turn, from slumber it parts, Hidden in green, a hunter with arts. Small in shape, it devours the grand, Or strikes a pain no cure can stand.

In the kingdom of Hhami, a small city stood against the mountainside, its lush grasses and dense forests a haven for serpents, much to the townsfolk's constant dismay.

There lived in this city a snake hunter, masterful in his craft, who had freed the people from many a serpent's threat, earning a fair share of silver in the process. He boasted not of his wealth; instead, he often dispensed porridge to the needy and prayed for all. So revered was he that the magistrate awarded him a dwelling for all his family to live within the town walls.

One day, a ragged monk, seemingly delusional, came begging at his door. The snake hunter's kind-hearted wife offered clothes and food, but the monk, unsatisfied, demanded liquor. The crowd scorned his impudence, their complaints growing loud until the snake hunter's return. He silenced the clamor and instructed his wife to bring the monk a gourd of spirits.

Touched by the gesture, the monk warned, "A serpent guai lurks in your home. Ignore it not, or your family shall perish." The snake hunter scoffed at such mad ramblings and dismissed him promptly. Yet, his wife heeded the monk's words and urged her husband to search for the guai. He, however, brushed aside her concerns.

In her persistence, the wife fetched the mad monk once more to banish the evil. Indeed, with raw meat and an iron hook, the monk drew from their home a massive serpent, taller than a man, clearly a creature of power. "Four limbs it sprouts, and venom deadly," the monk declared. "A mere touch is death." With those words, he slew the serpent guai for the woman.

Strangely thence, the town remained untouched by further snake scourges, as if by the mad monk's hand, peace was restored.