Ok now I get it.

 ok ill try that

I thought it was too abstract as well, but since you've pointed it out I can see the snake more clearly. Maybe getting rid of the dithering on the snake and relying just on pixel clusters would improve readability.

the stars are pretty abstract as well. like stars on a country's flag. smaller, more numerous, and randomly clustered stars would be a big more organic.

edit:

It's a very nice picture and I like the colors but the monster is somewhat undefined. Technically, the picture is really good with a nice palette and good pixelling.

 its a blue one eyed serpent thingy

The pixelling is not bad and your AA certainly is improving but, I wonder if this is too abstract for the challenge and this week's theme :/

 edited...

 the blue thing wrapped around the core is the monster.

I like the core of the planet and the space/stars. How many colors?

Btw, the way i quickly count colors in gimp is use color selection tool (shift+O), then shift+click on a color, count it, shift+click on another... and so on, until you have selected the whole image.

sides of the circle are rather flat. what exactly is the monster, and where is it?