A latent melody

Adam reached to take a scale, turning it in his hands and watching the way it caught the light. Beautiful, he had to admit; he still was not sure if he was deserving of the gift but he did not argue, simply nodded and placed it carefully in his satchel.

"Thank you." He said with a smile to the snake.

ADAM

So what's the point of robbery when nothing is worth taking?
It's kind of tough to tell a scruff the big mistake he's making

Indeed the creature was beyond pain. Where there might have been blood or revealed tissue beneath, instead as its scales were pried apart there was only the whimsical burst of ethereal dew and pollen, opalescent in the blossoming light.

One day your watch too will end. Each of you. Make sure you know what it is you guard. What it is worth dying for. No judgement, no accusation. The group before the creature were fractured in their interests; two decidedly on opposite sides, one firmly on one side of the line, and one somewhere in no-man's land.

So saying, the creature dipped its massive head. Rather than slithering off into the dawn's light, it simply breezed away, the ethereal particles of its ghostly form releasing themselves from each other like so much pollen on the wind.