The blazing sun scorched the earth, and not even the dense Sa Mei Su Mu could keep out the waves of heat.
It was the hottest time of day.
Famu hid his body in the murky swamp, quietly watching for prey on the shore.
The sweltering weather had lasted for days. In such conditions, animals would take the risk even though they knew the swamp was dangerous. They had to drink, and this swamp was the only source of water nearby. Famu was its sole master.
Other predators had once lived in the swamp, but as Famu grew, they had either known better than to leave or become nourishment for his growth.
His thick, powerful body lay coiled in the mud. The monster carefully controlled his breathing, with only half his head above the surface. His pitch-black scales almost blended into the mud. He was enormous, yet not a single ripple spread from where he lay.
Flies buzzed low over the water, flapping their wings. They noticed the strange head above the surface and probably mistook it for a piece of dead wood. Flies and mosquitoes occasionally landed on the tip of Famu's snout. They reeked of rotting corpses, mixed with the smell of animal dung. Famu hated them. Normally, he would have submerged without hesitation, but not now. He was starving, desperate for a large animal on shore to come to him.
As for what came, Famu didn't care in the least. As far as he was concerned, anything was edible.
He had none of the restraint one might expect from a former terrifying upright ape.
He was now a Typhon, an apex predator of the Samei Rainforest, a kind of snake of unimaginable size. By Famu's estimate, he had already surpassed the maximum size of modern anacondas and was approaching that of the Paleocene Titanoboa. Strictly speaking, however, Famu, the tyrant of this swamp, was still a juvenile Typhon.
He couldn't help wondering just how enormous a Typhon really was.
He was far removed from humanity, but he wasn't a pure beast either. He retained human reason and intelligence. When Famu hunted, he would soak quietly in the mud and deliberately recall things from his human life, such as the first time he ate candy or took a trip. These helped stimulate his memory, bringing the recollections obscured by the swamp and rainforest back to life.
Famu liked to think about them so he wouldn't truly forget.
And so he waited in silence.
The sun slowly sank westward until the entire cloud layer turned fiery red. The sea of clouds burned in the distance, while the shadows of the Sa Mei Su Mu on the shore stretched to the edge of the swamp, like a fierce beast baring its fangs to tear into the earth.
The temperature gradually dropped, but Famu remained motionless, lying in wait. His vision grew dimmer, but he began to pick up the body heat of animals. As night fell and the air cooled, their body heat would become brilliant flowers in Famu's eyes.
The heat of flowing blood was the source of his hunger.
Famu waited and waited.
He had already waited several days. A little more time was nothing.
At last, an incomparably brilliant, enormous flower bloomed before his eyes.
Famu's eyes lit up. If a Typhon's eyes could glow, he thought, his would surely be sparkling.
It was a Long-snouted Tapir.
A truly first-rate prey animal.
It had an endearingly plump body and thick, coarse gray hide. Its entire body looked like plates of armor stuck together. That structure helped the Long-snouted Tapir effectively fend off the rainforest's predators. Thanks to their outstanding defenses, Long-snouted Tapirs were also a large family in the Samei Rainforest. Carrying a generous layer of fat, the tapir swaggered up to the water and dipped its long snout into the swamp to drink. Ripples spread across the water.
Famu sank beneath the surface and slowly approached.
The black current hid beneath the mud. In the darkness, only insects chirped.
This Long-snouted Tapir probably didn't live near the swamp. Otherwise, it wouldn't have drunk so contentedly, forgetting how dangerous the ruler of this swamp was. In its limited brain, this water meant nothing more than an end to its thirst.
It sucked and greedily swallowed the foul-smelling, murky water, its fat body rising and falling rhythmically with each breath. Beneath its coarse gray hide, the blood pumping through its body burned a dazzling crimson in Famu's vision.
How beautiful.
This was a spark full of fat and energy.
Just like a little cake fresh from a baker's oven.
Thank you for the rainforest's gift, Famu thought.
The Long-snouted Tapir drinking like this was hardly any different from delivering itself right to his mouth.
After a long, bitter wait, good fortune had finally come.
The silt at the bottom of the water stirred slightly. His body, as heavy as cast iron, raised not a single bubble. Muscles contracted and rippled rhythmically beneath his scales, turning him into a steel cable on a winch.
Ten meters, five meters, three meters...
The mud churned up by the Long-snouted Tapir's short, stout legs was right in front of him.
Famu grinned savagely.
Hey, fat boy.
He even greeted it in his mind.
The water exploded.
A crashing wave slammed into the Long-snouted Tapir's face. In that instant, a bloody prelude unfolded in the deathly still swamp.
Black scales burst from the water, carrying a wave of mud weighing hundreds of pounds. Before the Long-snouted Tapir could even let out a terrified cry, Famu's massive jaws, lined with sharp, backward-curving teeth, clamped around its throat. He heaved, using his weight to throw it off balance in an instant.
Then his thick black body surged up and coiled around the Long-snouted Tapir, clasping it in his embrace.
"Crack! Crack! Crack!"
Famu listened to the beautiful melody in his embrace.
The sound of breaking bones brought the tune to its climax.
His body was like a set of locked gears.
This was the kiss of the rainforest's death god.
This was the most passionate embrace.
The Long-snouted Tapir would struggle to breathe, as any animal being constricted would, but Famu would squeeze harder. Struggling would hasten its death. The Typhon's muscles squeezed the air from its chest bit by bit. Its ribs collapsed under the pressure, and its organs ruptured. From beginning to end, the hide armor that had let it roam the rainforest was utterly useless.
The strong, powerful heartbeat stopped, and the blazing flower blooming in Famu's vision withered with it.
The savage land never forgave the weak. Here, territory was divided through bloody violence.
Famu had learned that lesson long ago, even though he was still only a juvenile Typhon.
His muscles worked and his jaws pushed repeatedly, sending the Long-snouted Tapir down into his belly. Heat spread from his stomach and flowed through his body, so comfortable that even his scales trembled slightly.
After eating, the Black Typhon grew heavier still, his swollen belly proclaiming the victory of the hunt.
The Black Typhon raised his head high.
He emitted a low, rumbling sound.
It was the roar of a Typhon, and it could travel far through the air alone.
He scanned the dense forest beyond the swamp and spotted the occasional living flame flickering there. They were other animals. They had long been thirsty, but only began to stir after Famu had eaten.
Famu couldn't be bothered with them.
His black body lowered, its scales like cast iron in the moonlight. Famu wound his way through the mud, turned, and returned to the depths of the swamp.
The ripples on the swamp gradually subsided, burying all traces of bloodshed and struggle.
This monster with human memories flowing through him seemed to have adapted to the laws of the wild rainforest better than anything else.
He was such a young yet skilled Hunter.