Coils of a Snake Pt Two
Written by: Maria-Griffon
 
Tessa and Jason � Me
 
To be home in the dark warmth of her burrow was the goal, to be with her family and feasting on the fallen fruits from the towering giants that stood tall and proud. The trees to which were the very foundation of the grand forest. Though, as Tessa made the trails towards such a home, she was soon distraught with the realisation that not only was the dark becoming too thick to peer through and pierce with her mammalian eyes, raised water levels from the earlier rains had all but made the ground impassable. Oh, she could swim, but there were said to be water dwellers that would not hesitate to snatch up a warm blooded creature for a nice dinner. What to do? Her mind muttered such a question over and over as though it were a magical mantra. Her eyes darted around and a smile formed upon her face. Of course! That would work. In a dash she wrapped her small arms around the side-laid form of a dipped green leaf and began to pull it over to the lips of the water, knowing the current would be strong and pull her down - she'd be able to drift inwards and leap to the other side! All she needed now was a paddle, and that could be obtained with the sharp ended stick-twig that she felt would be able to hold in the mud beneath the surface. Seated with the oar in her pink hands, the mouse pushed off and was immediately caught in the medium current. It was a tad faster than she expected, but not overly so. In fact, it was a near relaxing sensation, to drift and rest. Soothing. For a moment her eyes closed to the melody, until a splash awoke her. What had it been? Was it a fish? Or was it something dangerous? Glancing along the bank ahead she began to work towards it, gritting her tiny teeth with tail beneath her, impatiently waiting to straighten out on the land once more. Steadied, back limbs tensed, she made a leap for it when the leaf spiralled near the other side, landing on her tummy with a quiet 'oof' spoken. Taking no note of the mud that washed into her white underfur, Tessa scampered through a small log and breathed a deep breath of relief. With what light remained she was able to discern the shapes that formed burrows into the sides of small trees still sprouting and into the little cliff-faces. The ground in this area basically was a little valley, often unhindered by rising waters due to the shift of the landscape. Well, there had been one time but that was history. Overjoyed, she bounded towards them on all fours, heading to the nearest one and looking down inside. It was...unusually dark and cold. "J-J?" She called down, hearing an emptied echo in response. Something did not feel right with this scenario. Then again, perhaps her good friend had yet to return from his mother, who had moved to another clan. Yes. That made sense. Traversing more of the grounds she peered down into her own burrow and was about to enter when something caught her attention. The dirt. It was facing and crumbling the wrong way. Something had forced itself inside. Something that would have to have a tubular shape with deceptive mass - and only one creature she knew would be capable of such a feat. "S...s..." She stumbled back and held her hands against one of the small rocks scattered around.
 
No. It was not possible! It could not be so! Heart a thunder beneath her shifting fur as the small wind caught it; Tessa leapt down and ran, checking each burrow even though the sun descended lower and lower and the moon arose, highlighting her fur as it shimmered in a near ghostlike manner. All of them - gone. She could smell none of their scent, could hear none of their voices. Oh she had never felt more alone. Her mind did drift back to the snake that struck a conversation with her, and the horrible roundness mid-length. Had her imagination, the leaped to silent conclusion, been right? A voice from the darkness startled her, her tear-shed eyes looking to the familiar shape. Speak of the devil, was what went through her mind.
 
"Tessa?" Jason questioned, peering from the blades of silver blended grass and slithering out, noticing her hunched figure nearby. Oh dear. He immediately knew that something was wrong, so very wrong. "Are you..." She cut him off before he could finish his sentence.
 
"Go away you...you horrible monster!" Tessa snapped with clawed hands clenched, her voice both twisted with agony and hatred, rage and sorrow. "You....cold hearted, black blooded snake!" A screech that made him recoil, though confusion was painted across his unseen features. Why the lash? Sure, they'd had a minor problem previous but what brought his on? Rustling, the sound of scales gliding over the ground as he made his approach, coiling around her. It was not firm, but it sought to show comfort - clearly she was experiencing some form of trauma. Though he felt he knew the answer - why would a lone mouse be weeping in the middle of her clan's grounds rather than be beneath the ground with them? Clearly one that no longer seemed to have a home to return to. Perhaps he should have told her? Though, he had a hunch she'd not have believed him.
 
"Ssh, ssh," he hissed, cooed, finding that her face was buried into the scarlet scales that made his chest, able to feel the warm salt twist and turn in patterns before it fell to the ground with an inaudible thud. She whispered words that he did not at first hear, but Jason did not like the pleading tone that was beneath them. "What was that?" The red belly questioned, awaiting her answer.
 
Tessa looked up, holding onto a scale with her hands like one might an arm or a neck, the fur of her face drenched and matted down. "...I said.....just do me a favour and finish the job...you clearly didn't show any mercy to the others...why bother with me?" A broken wreck. No fire to burn in her soul. No radiating sun to fuel her joy and happiness. She was as hollowed as a tree with an infestation of termites.
 
Jason frowned, or at least he would have if given the ability to express eternal emotion. A snake did not exactly have eyebrows after all. So distressed - never had he had someone near him practically plead and beg for death. Unheard of without a doubt! Though he did have one thing to add. "...Tessa... I had nothing to do with this, please, you have to believe me." She didn't have to believe him, he knew that, but he needed to prove to her, needed to show to her somehow, someway that he was innocent. Sure, it was a coincidence that he had come from the same general direction, but his earlier meal had been a bird, not a rodent! A thought lingered that he could regurgitate the proof that lie in his stomach, but that would probably freak her out. And it was quite rude - not to mention discomforting when done without really requiring to. "I don't know who done this," Jason begun, offering a sweet nuzzle to the crest of her head, though was adamant in keeping his jaws closed, "but you can't give up." The aim of his current game and words was to perk her up; give her back her fire, give her back the will to live.
 
"I can't huh?" She riddled, brows furrowed. "Well why not? My family is dead. My friends are dead. What the hell am I supposed to do?"
 
He sighed. This was going nowhere and was not working. There was one thing left to do. "Fine! If you're honestly going to sit here and wish for death then I'll finish you off!" A snapped tone caused her to lift her head with ears splayed back against her skull, but she did flinch, especially when one sound was produced. A snap. A crack. It was easily able to be recognised as unhinged jaws, a final funeral sound when about to be dined upon by a cold hearted reptile. Tessa didn't move; didn't struggle, she stood there as his head moved down over her.
 
"...like it matters. You never cared. I never mattered. You're just like all the rest of them...A killer. A coward and a liar!"
 
The one thing that surprised him was how much her words were taken to heart. It hurt, horribly, and near made him shed tears - that is when he did realise something, something that had confused him. He did care. He did generally want to protect and help her, more than ever now that it seemed she had nowhere to go, no one to look out for her. Home it would be, once he made sure he done this role. That dull gray tongue licked over and sampled her taste, which was oddly mellow and sweet, like a slice of cherry and banana mashed together, and of course that natural rodent tang that made the buds on his tongue dance like a mouth of active firecrackers. At the current time Jason could feel her wriggling around in his mouth - at least the upper half of her small body, until he began to swallow. The first efforts loosened and prepared the throat, which opened into darkness, awaiting her - it was about as wide as her shimmering eyes, and soon the second pulse and ripple of muscles welcomed her into what she was impressed would be a fatal and final dwelling. The stomach of a snake. Reality was biting harsh even when no actual tooth or fang was laid on her body, which was pushed and kneaded down the tube of slickened and convulsing flesh, worked down and down into an unbelievable warmth that tightened and soon prevented any movement on her end. Breath become harder to obtain, and the cold air on her feet had all but vanished as she felt the ground beneath her undulating. No. Not the ground. Clearly the snake was on the move while she still was still being escorted to her destination - squeezed through into a slightly larger chamber to which allowed her to breathe - just. Here in this stomach, where the walls churned and gurgled like an internal symphony, groaned and moaned around her with delight and content, Tessa wept, until she closed her eyes from exhaustion. Stilled and moving no longer. Would she open her eyes again? As far as the female mouse was concerned... It was only a matter of waiting for the dawn, when the snake would find some sun and finish her off. Or the air vanished and she suffocated in silence and sleep.
 
However, Jason had been thinking as he had swallowed her down, able to track her progress down his distended throat with the use of his tail, feeling her each step of the way until he felt her small shape push on through to his belly - this made him thankful he'd near made himself ill pushing actual dinner further down. He'd not wanted her to witness something so gruesome. A taste so delicious and divine, like cookies and cream, mint and fruit. The red belly supposed she'd had a healthy diet to taste so wonderful, but it would do none of them well to linger. Being a common animal he did not possess any special traits, and had to return home before she ran out of air and ended up as a second course. And he did not want that. The first pang of concern was when he had felt her become silent and still, unconscious due to emotional illness and exhaustion, and this caused him to pour on as much speed as he could manage. Through the log, a slither through the river that she had floated down so in a boat that lie caught against moss rocks further down, and he would eventually crawl into a darkened crevice that protected the interior that made his den and lair. Out of the weather, out of the night, Jason used his snout to push together some dried out grass and bark to make a small 'nest' for his new guest, and closed his chocolate-eyes as the bulge of his recent meal began to push back up, his jaws widened and unhinged so that an unconscious Tessa would be out nice and smooth. Granted, she was a tad bruised, and covered in internal bile and acid. Shaking due to the reception to the cold and the fact she was wet and slimed, Tessa lost her colouring, until the so called monster coiled around her and rested his head over her, light and delicate, afraid to crush her. "Don't worry... You'll warm when you awake...my friend." He whispered lovingly, spending a few moments cleaning her, before the embrace of slumber reeled his mind in as well.