Hera POV

I screamed at the top of my lungs as the soldiers ran out followed by an explosion and then a puff of smoke coming out of the cave.

No, the poor mother snake. She sacrificed herself to save me. She left her children behind to protect me.

I wanted to hope that the mother snake had survived but the flakes of flesh coming out of the cave proved that she hadn't left even though I had left the cave. It turned out that she was still waiting for me there even when I had allowed her to ...