Diamond Rock on At Home

Karl Hexenmeister

July 27, 2020 6:38 PM

Diamond Rock by Karl Hexenmeister

Karl had contemplated what to do for weeks. There was no good answer, as Heinrich had already noted. Objectively, there really wasn’t anything he could do. His only say was in how much he would permit Heinrich to get involved, and even that depended on Heinrich listening to him, which Karl would not put a great deal of stock in, truth be told. Heinrich was too like his father in some ways.

That is, had Stefan had a moral center instead of whatever it was Stefan’s center was made of.

Stefan hadn’t always been a bad person. He’d been very smart as a boy, with some of the best plans and ideas. Karl had looked up to him a lot when they were boys. They’d been close.

The problem was that Stefan did not have a lot of empathy. He was very rational, too rational. He solved problems in the most efficient manner possible, without consideration for who might get hurt in the process. Their father had been the same way, but Stefan took it farther. Stefan was cleverer. Stefan didn’t have a box.

Karl had gotten out of Germany when he realized Stefan didn’t have limits. He didn’t want to be around when that came back to bite his brother. He didn't want to be around when Stefan decided the most efficient means to do a thing was to utilize a talent Karl had but Stefan did not.

Had Stefan been here, he’d just kill Mathias Stones, and that would be the end of it. Problem solved; quick, simple, and only the effort of saying two words. By the next time Evelyn and Heinrich left school, they could do whatever they wanted and not have to worry about something they shouldn’t have had to worry about in the first place.

The longer Karl thought about it, the more sense it made.

It was never a good sign when he started agreeing with his brother, so he brought the problem to Sandra. Unfortunately, Sandra was a snake, so Sandra saw nothing wrong with this approach. *He is harming your young? Why is this a question? End the threat. I’d bite him myself, if you want.*

Sandra had the good grace of not being a convicted Dark Wizard and, technically, asking a snake to bite someone was not an Unforgivable use of magic, even if you were a parseltongue. It was deeply frowned upon, and a far from ethical use of his gift, and if anyone ever figured it out, he might do some time for Conspiracy to Commit Murder, but it wasn’t Dark Magic, and it wasn’t even technically murder, if you wanted to split hairs on the topic, because he wasn’t going to actually do anything to Mathias Stones. He’d be no better than those people who had hired Stefan, but with the advantage of not leaving a money trail because all Sandra would want in return was a few fat mice.

People got snake bites all the time. There would be no reason to suspect foul play. Especially if it was a native snake and not Sandra.

*No,* he told her, *I appreciate the offer, but there would be questions raised if he was bit by a boomslang.*

She looked dubious. As dubious as a snake could look, anyway. It was more in the tilt of her head than her expression. *I suppose you could bite him, but I don’t think you have the teeth for it.*

*No, not me,* Karl laughed. *I was thinking Haruna. Western rattler, native to that part of the country.* Well, Haruna herself wasn’t. Haruna had actually been born in Japan by a snake collector over there. But her species was native to Oregon.

Sandra did not look convinced. *Haruna isn’t one to just bite people,* she protested.

*Maybe I can recruit a local one then. A local snake would probably be best anyway.*

By the time he returned to the house, he had convinced himself this was a terrible idea and it would never work. He had left Germany when he was nineteen so he wouldn’t get into this sort of thing.

Despite this, somehow, Karl Hexenmeister found himself hiking along a trail in Oregon, having told Hansel he was going to run some errands and the boy should handle the day’s feedings. Karl was only about a dozen miles from the prison complex where he’d determined Mathias Stones was staying for another two weeks, and coincidentally, some of Haruna’s favorite snacks were stuffed into his pockets.

It wasn’t easy, finding a snake who wasn’t hibernating at this time of year, and harder still to find a rattler, but he did. It had been a mild winter, and it was coming to end. Some of the early risers were starting to get out and about. The first one he’d found, a gopher snake, had helped him find a garter snake, who had in turn told him where he could find the rattler. By then he wasn’t on the trail anymore, but he wasn’t worried about getting lost. Apparition would get him home from wherever he ended up.

He hadn’t spoken to a wild snake in a while. There used to be some on his property in Utah, but they’d long since become part of his ranch. Some of those were even Western Rattlesnakes, as well, but not ones he wanted to encourage to bite humans. Haruna lived in a glass house because that was what she was used to. The others were free ranging and might come across Hilda or Heinrich. (Hansel he was less worried about; nobody would bite Hans any more than they would bite him. Hansel brought them food and was a much more frequent sight around the property. All the snakes knew Hans was Karl’s hatchling.)

*Hello. I am Karl.*

The wild rattler looked perplexed. As much as a snake could look perplexed. He guessed this one had never encountered a Parseltongue before.

*I am Diamond Rock,* the rattler told him after a moment’s pause. *You can speak.*

*Yes,* Karl agreed that he could speak a tongue that Diamond Rock could understand. *I came out here to talk to you.* He hesitated, not quite sure what to say next, how to recruit a stranger to kill for him, or even if that was what he wanted to do.

*To me? Why? What do you want?*

Karl said nothing for another moment, and then he answered, *I want to tell you a story.*

Diamond Rock seemed intrigued. *I do enjoy a good story,* he admitted.

And Karl told him the story Heinrich had told him. About a girl whose father allowed things no father should allow, who did things no father should do, who said things no father should say. Even the snake agreed none of that was the right way to treat one’s own hatchling, and all snakes did to care for their young was make sure nothing ate their eggs. He told about how the humans had put the bad father away in the prison, and here he explained where the prison was and what it looked like, using magic to conjure up an image of the place, and Diamond Rock nodded.

*I know where this is.*

*In thirteen day’s time, this man,* Karl created an image of Mathias, as best as he could recall him from their brief meeting last August, *will leave that place and begin tormenting my hatchling’s mate again.*

Diamond Rock was a clever snake. *You want me to bite him.*

Karl sighed. *I don’t know what I want.*

*You want me to bite him, Diamond Rock repeated. *You brought me mice.*

*I did bring you mice,* Karl admitted and provided them.

Diamond Rock gulped them down one after another. *I will do it.*

*You don’t have to,* Karl said feebly.

Diamond Rock looked carefully at the image of Mathias Stones, examining it from every angle. *Make him life size,* the snake ordered. Karl enlarged it until it was just slightly larger than himself. Diamond Rock studied it some more. *I do not have to,* the snake agreed, *but I want to,* and with that, he slithered into the underbrush and was gone from sight.

Karl apparated to the grocery store so when he returned home, Hansel wouldn’t ask where he’d been.

He felt oddly not guilty at all.

OOC: Idea for this post was approved by Evelyn Stones' author.

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