Caudle sat on the couch, playing a random game on his DS. He wasn't even really paying attention to what he was doing, he was mostly just distracting himself and passing the time.
  The little machine beeped and booped, singing his praises as his score slowly rose. It was one of those retro games; lives, score counters and enemies swarming everywhere. HIs little ship spun about through the pixelated simulation of space as he sank a bit further into the couch. He was on his last life now, but he was getting a higher score than he'd even gotten before. That was a pleasant surprise.
  Dentia and Yuki were both out of the apartment for the day. Yuki was pulling a double shift at the perfume shop, and Dentia was doing much the same at the coffee shop down the street. Caudle would have been working as well, but his series of odd jobs around town seemed to have ebbed to the point of not being terribly reliable. There had been no nibbles today, and thus he sat around purposeless.
  There were worse things he supposed. Just the other day he'd been asked to plow the park of snow. The mayor of their little town was a notorious cheapskate so Caudle got a lot of jobs from her. Though the job was obviously something that should have taken four people at the very minimum, he'd managed it by himself for half the price, even if it had been at the cost of very nearly every joint in his body.
  In a way he was kind of glad today was a slow day anything else might have caused him to snap in half like a brittle cracker, which wasn't an appealing idea to him by any stretch.
  Still, there was something disconcerting about an empty day. He felt uneasy and fidgety in his bit of laziness. He was used to at least having some kind of work, someone around with whom to share the day, be it Dentia, Yuki, or the various people who just milled about his more public job hirings. It was rather strange to just have....nothing.
  His ship shattered into a million pixilated pieces as his lack of attention finally caught up to him. He grumbled under his breath, the failure music ringing in his ears as the game went back to the start menu.
  He let the device flop onto his chest as he stared out at nothing in particular. Boring was one way to describe the way this day was going, mind numbing was another. He shifted on the couch blearily. It wasn't even noon yet. Nobody would be back home until at least five o'clock.
  It was going to be a long day.
  Caudle picked up the DS from his chest, eyeing the start button with a feeling somewhere between challenge and resignation. His thump lifted to press it and start another game, but before his finger touched anything, there was a knock at the door.
  He was in such a state of zen-like boredom that he yelped as the sound hit his ears. His DS went clattering to the floor, bouncing under the coffee table. The mongoose was momentarily thankful for the durability of 'Nintendium' as he peeked under it to see the game was still functioning.
  The game was left where it sat as he looked towards the door. They didn't get visitors terribly often. All of them were transfers from other towns, so not much family in the area to speak of, and they were also all quite poor, so they didn't get much in the way of packages either. Yuki or Dentia wouldn't have bothered with knocking, so who could that be?
  He smoothed out his hoodie and jeans, checking his face in the mirror before he went over to check the door. Just because he wasn't expecting anyone didn't mean he shouldn't look presentable for whoever happened to be there.
  Caudle gave himself a little full body shake, trying to get a bit of the lethargy from his bones as he stepped towards the door. This apartment didn't provide eyeholes, their landlord was too much of a notorious miser for such frills as that.
  Caudle opened the door slightly, peeking out just in case there was something untoward out there, but he was greeted with...a box.
  It was a big box, more of a crate really, made of rather smooth looking wood. It was as tall as he was, and quite wide as well. It was stamped 'Expedited' and had stamps from several countries the mongoose didn't recognize.
  A quick glance down the hall to the left, then right didn't reveal any delivery person. This had to be a wrong address, there was no way in the wide wide world that anyone who lived here would order something so massive. What could have possibly been inside? Caudle had seen flatscreen boxes, he'd even helped deliver a few when the local delivery service was understaffed, they were tall, but they weren't this wide.
  He wracked his brain trying to think of what could have possibly been in the massive package, but he came up totally empty. He gave a huff to no one in particular.
  "Mistake...must be a mistake..." he muttered. After mulling over what he should do, he decided that it would be wrong to open such a thing, and thought it would be best to simply leave it in the hall. It was probably meant for some neighbor, surely they would be looking for it, and might find it shortly. That made sense. And if it did belong to one of the girls they'd see it when they came home and confirm his thought process.
  He walked back into his apartment and began to close a door when the box began to move.
  Caudle was so surprised he tripped over his own feet falling backwards with a grunt as he hit the ground. The box didn't move smoothly, it moved with a sharp jerk as though something inside were banging against the wooden walls.
  Whatever was in there , it was alive!
  It lurched forwards again, the top of it barely clearing the top of the door as Caudle scooted back on his arms and legs like a crab, his brain trying to process what was happening. Another lurch brought it into the apartment proper. It was rocking back and forth quickly now, whatever was inside was very large to have the strength to move such a big crate with ease. Caudle imagined he’d have trouble moving it himself even if he’d had a hand truck on standby.
  His back hit the couch as he blindly stumbled backwards. The front of the crate was beginning to come loose, he could hear it groaning with every thump from within. His mind ran the gauntlet of horrible things that could be inside. Maybe the old sheep lady across the hall had seen a special on keeping feral arctic wolves as pets, or perhaps the chameleon man two doors down had decided that massive spiders were the hot new thing. Caudle wished desperately that he’d simply stayed on the couch and tried to beat his newest high score. Behind him the start menu music of the game chirped rather happily in sharp dissonance with the terrible scenarios scrolling across his brain at mach speed. His sensitive ears could hear that the wood was about to give in. He closed his eyes and prepared for the very worst.
  The crate opened with the sound of wood tearing, and suddenly there was a very heavy, meaty ‘Thump’ as something fell forwards to drape itself atop Caudle’s terrified stomach. He gave a frankly unflattering squeal of terror, scared to open his eyes for several moments.
  Whatever it was, it felt rather like…. a very, very, very thick garden house. Only it had a far heftier weight to it, the kind of weight that let him know it was very much alive, along with how it moved ever so slightly with a kind of breath. It was thicker around than his thigh, and the sheer weight of it kept him from moving much.
  Still, that whole ‘Dying’ thing was not happening as he expected it to.
  “What are you doing?” Asked a rather polite voice. From the slight vibration it sent through his belly, Caudle could tell it was coming from his lap. It was a kind voice, slightly deep, but quite obviously feminine. It was the sort of voice a kind nurse might have, it was rather soothing really.
  More confused than ever, Caudle slowly opened one eye.
  The mongoose found himself face to snout with the largest snake he had ever seen. Her head was bigger than his by a fair amount. Even ignoring the voice, her features were strangely feminine, something he’d never seen on a snake before. The tip of her snout was a pale white that cascaded back along her sides and underbelly, above that was long arc of yellow-ish green, followed by a deep purple, before once again turning to that gentle white. All the colors trailed in long stripes that ran down the whole of her body. Around her eyes were black scales that tapered off in the back. If he didn’t know any better, Caudle would have said they looked a great deal like eyelashes fresh from the saloon.
  “Uh...cowering?” He said lamely, not sure if the snake would answer. Perhaps he’d been hallucinating.
  The snake gave a tilt of her head, the motion felt rather smooth and pleasant against the mongoose’s belly. “And why are you doing that?” She asked in an honestly curious sort of way. “I like to think I don’t look terribly much of a fright.”
  The mongoose blinked. He was horribly out of his depth now. “Uhhh….Well no, it’s not like you look uh...bad or anything...your scales are really rather pretty b-”
  “Thank you,” the snake interrupted with a little smile. Caudle had never seen a snake smile, but she made the expression look rather appealing.
  “Uh...you’re welcome…” He cleared his throat. “But as I was saying, you...kinda made an entrance. And, I’ve never met a talking snake before.”
  The snake blinked, slithering forwards on his belly a little bit, dragging more of her length along his body. She was very heavy, but comfortably so. “Well what kind of snakes have you been hanging out with?”
  Caudle felt very off balance. “Well...admittedly not...uh...Miss….Snake?”
  “Serena,” She bumped her snout against his in a way that seemed almost playful. Her forked tongue flicked his nose lightly. “You may call me Serena.”
  “Alright…” said Caudle, squirming a little bit under her. “Well Serena. I kinda thought you were going to...I don’t know eat me or something.”
  The snake, Serena, tilted her head the opposite way. “Do you want me to?”
  Caudle went from out of his depth, to something approaching the middle of the marianas trench. “Uh...no...I’d imagine most people don’t want to get eaten.”
  Somehow the snake managed to shrug. The logistics of this escaped even Caudle, who was watching it happen. “You’d be surprised.” Serena gave a little chuckle. “I can make very convincing arguments. And I’ve heard that it’s actually rather pleasant.”
  Caudle blinked, he was doing that a lot today. This was not a normal day. “Heard? From who! I don’t think there’s a yelp for this.”
  Serena giggled. “You’re funny, I like that. In anycase, I only eat for keeps when I have to. I let friends back out after a while. You’d be surprised at the requests I get. I have heard that it’s really rather warm, and slick.” Her tongue tickled his nose again. “Tight, and comfy...gentle waves as my throat draws you in closer…” Her voice washed over his fur. He hadn’t noticed her eyes before, they were a deep pink the middle, which faded to purple at the outer fringes, the thin irises of a serpent in the middle. It was a rather calming thing to look at. He felt...odd...Suddenly all that sounded...Quite appealing.
  The mongoose stiffened, then shook his head to clear it. Nono, that was nonsense, this was all crazy. “Uh...well, while that sounds...nice…” Was he lying when he said that? He couldn’t tell. “I have other stuff to do besides getting eaten today.”
  “Like what?” The snake asked. Just how she managed to sound honestly curious in every question she posed was a mystery, but she seemed genuinely interested.
  Caudle’s thought process ground to a halt as his brain failed to supply anything he actually had to do. He searched for something within the confines of his mind as Serena stared on with interest.He said the first thing that came to mind.
  “I haven’t made lunch yet.”
  It was Serena’s turn to blink. “Oh! You poor thing.” She slithered forwards and nuzzled his cheek. Caudle couldn’t help but notice how cool and smooth her scaled cheek was. “Eating is important.” She pulled back and gave him a little wink. “I should know.”
  For some reason Caudle’s cheeks heated up slightly when she did that. She rather seemed to like laying atop his chest, but the large slithered to the side, dragging her girthy form off of him. Caudle got a bit shakily to his feet. As he did he saw the inside of the crate. Serena was sprawled out into the living room, draped over various items. There was easily about twenty feet of serpent coiled about the entrance to the apartment. There was still yet more of her coiled up inside the crate.He watched for a moment as her richly colored scales shifted about, her body slowly oozing out to ladle itself comfortably about the living space. A particularly thick section bumped lightly against the door, swinging it closed with a gentle click.
  “Sorry about that, didn’t mean to leave the door open. It was letting in a draft.” She gave a little shudder, the wave of it traveled down the length of her coils. He watched as it arced down across her long body. He hadn’t considered that it was more or less midwinter and that had to have been hard on someone cold blooded. No wonder she’d been rather content to lay on his chest.
  So. He was standing against the side of the couch in the middle of the day with a broken crate from which a giant snake was making itself comfortable in his apartment, concerned about his lunch habits. Today was not a normal day.
  “Uh...don’t worry about it.” He put one foot unsteadily in front of the other, walking towards the kitchen. He looked over his shoulder to find that Serena was slithering at shoulder height behind him, traveling in gentle undulations across the floorboards.
  “You don’t mind if I watch do you? I do rather like to watch people cook.”
  “Oh...well I suppose not,” Caudle said, still rather off balance.
Serena smiled. “Oh Good, what are you going to make?”
“Eggs I suppose.” He went to the fridge opening it and reaching for the styrofoam carton in
question, along with a bit of cheese and a few spices from a nearby cupboard. If today insisted on being weird, then maybe if he just continued to act normal, things would just even out.
“I like eggs, a good lunch, I approve.” Serena watched as Caudle grabbed a pan, setting it on the stove and waiting for it to heat up before cracking the eggs. As he did he felt a familiar scaley weight drape itself over his shoulders. Serena’s head slithered over his right one into view, as more of her body slowly poured down over his front, her deep purple eyes looking into his for a moment. “I hope you don’t mind if I stay a little close as well. It’s rather cold…” As she spoke her head looped downwards and circled once around his waist, the rest of her body spooling around his legs.
Caudle’s cheek heated up again as he felt her coils cinch lightly around his body. The lengths of her form draped around him were incredibly thick. He suddenly found it a bit hard to move, and somewhere the part of his brain that had survived for several million years told him that there was something very wrong with the current scenario, but somehow the comfortable pressure soothed it into silence. He wanted to tell her no, but it was rather cold, even with their heater repaired, and her face looked so earnest and friendly that he found he really couldn’t.
“N-no...that’s fine…” He held a hand over the pan to see how hot it was getting. “Just be
careful, wouldn’t want to get too warm on accident.” He chuckled awkwardly
Serena shared his chuckle. “Indeed we wouldn’t, Caudle.” Her tongue flicked his reddening cheek lightly, all her coils tightened at once in an all around snuggly manner.
Caudle tried not to read too much into that comment as he set about making eggs. Serena’s coils allowed him a surprising range of movement, despite being as thick as they
were, she moved them obligingly to let him reach for things and manipulate the various utensils around the kitchen. They were constantly shifting, and even through his hoodie he could feel their scales running smoothly over him as she shifted. Serena moved almost as though she were made of silk, and he found himself somewhat lulled by the company. He had been rather lonely with the girl’s gone for the day, perhaps this package hadn’t been a terribly bad interruption
The coils around his shoulders grew a bit as they shifted, to the point where they brushed his cheeks ever so slightly, her bare scales against his fur felt even nicer than they did through his hoodie. His hands shook slightly as he sprinkled some cheese over the eggs, dumping on a bit more than he’d intended.
“Oops.” Serena frowned. “I’m sorry that was my fault.”
Caudle snapped out of his slight lull for a moment. “W-wha? O-Oh no, no trouble. I like a
lot of cheese.”
The snake giggled. “Ahh, you have good taste…” As she said the S in that last word her tongue flicked against his temple, the sound came with a light giggle as her coils all shifted as one to circle him tightly once again.
The mongoose gave another shudder. The eggs were almost done, that was good.
As they slowly began to turn colors to the healthy yellow he liked, he felt Serena’s tongue
again, this time flicking lightly against his round dish-like ear. The sensation tingled down his body lightly. Her tongue was rather thick, which wasn’t surprising considering the size of her head, it was about as big around as three of the mongoose’s fingers put together. He noticed just how slick it was with saliva as it tickled against the sensitive insides of his ear. “Caudle?” She asked in an almost playful tone.
“Y-yes?” He asked. He felt a bit strange, a bit...fuzzy. The eggs were done. He reached for a plate, but found that the tip of Serena’s tail had already fetched one. In a daze he lifted the pan and spooned them onto it, turning off the heat as Serena sat the plate on the counter.
“Are you sure I can’t eat you?”
The mongoose’s eyes wided. “W-what?...N-no...of course not…”
Her serpentine lips were brushing his ear now with every word, her gentle breath washing
over it as her tongue flicked slightly deeper than before, that breath cooling the bit of saliva it left behind. “Well why not? I did say I would let you back out, and I promise you it’s very nice…” Her coils cinched around him again. They were changing now. Shifting. Her tail, done with the plate was circling him as her other, more haphazard coils fell away. He looked down to see it coming around again and again, the flowing pattern of her softly colored scales pouring around him, it was almost like looking at a graceful ballet of shades. The tide was rising, already her coils were up to his knees, her neck still draped over his shoulder, her lips soothingly cooing in his ear. “Think of it like a hug, a hug all over, the most intimate hug there is. We are friends, aren’t we? I’m your friend?” She nuzzled his ear gently before slithering across his cheek, her large head forcing his own to tilt to the side just lightly as she came around, her large purple and pink eyes staring deeply into his. He found it harder to concentrate then.
  “Y-yes...friends…” He said idly, his cheeks were quite red now.
  “And friends like to hold each other, don’t they?” Her scales snugly tightened around his waist, he wanted to glance down again, but he couldn’t look away from her eyes, all he had was the sensation of those pearl white scales, lined with those delirious colors, slowly kneading against him, above his belly button now. His hands were pinned. When had that happened?...It didn’t matter, it felt so nice. “So why don’t you just let me hold you a little? It won’t be long, I promise, and we’ll be better friends…”
  “B-better friends?” He asked… That made sense, wasn’t a friend that you hugged a better friend than the one you gave a handshake? He did like Serena. She was so nice, and her eyes were so pretty. He wanted to be better friends with her. “That sounds nice…”
  Serena nodded, and Caudle found himself nodding with her. “It does sound nice, doesn’t it Caudle?” She chuckled, giving the tip of his nose the lightest of kisses as her coils rose up over his shoulders, the tip of her tail gently caressing the slope of his neck now. It was tender, cool touch. “I don’t want to do it unless you want me to though. So you have to give me permissssssssion…” That last S was a drawn out slow noise. It seemed to slither over his body, like her scales did. The sound was deep and beautiful, like her eyes were. He felt like he could fall into that noise. It was very hard to concentrate on anything else.
  He did want to give her permission, why not? Serena was his friend, and he wanted to be better friends with her. She was so kind, so gentle. Her scales had claimed his neck now, they were growing thicker, his cheeks were pressed upwards as his muzzle was gently pushed to gaze up at her, her gaze lifting above him to stare down. He was a dash of brownish orange fur in a sea of white and beautiful colored stripes, a smattering a color against those all encompassing eyes.
  “I want you too….I give you permission…” He said. It was kind of hard to talk now, the gentle kneading of her scales across his body made him feel so loose, so relaxed. It was almost like he wasn’t solid anymore, completely malleable to the whims of her body. It was nice.
  Serena smiled, the expression filled him with a soft euphoria, tickling up from his belly until it spilled out into a dopy smile of his own, gently pooling across his face.
  “Good, you will enjoy this, and so will I…Thank you Caudle.” Her smile grew wider, until he realized her mouth was opening. The white of her snout parted by a line of pink that grew in size, yawning open wide until he could see the slick insides of her mouth, her thick tongue slipping out of those confines to lather over his nose with a warm breath.
  The mongoose gave a little coo at the sensation. The winter cold was chased away by that gentle breath and that caring tongue, He felt her moving forwards, all of her coils oozing along with her movement, across his body in gentle turns and arcs. There was moment more where he could see the kitchen, see the door in the crate, and then the world was Serena.
  Her mouth slipped over his ears, pinning them back against his head as her snout overtook his muzzle, his nose pressed for a moment into her soft palate as his chin was cradled by her tongue, the forked ends tickling against his throat.
  He was brought deeper, the noise of the outside world replaced with the wet, warm sounds of her maw as his nose began to press against the tightness of her throat. The whole of his head entered her mouth. From the outside, for a moment, there was nothing but Serena, her jaw stretched oddly wide above her own coils, before the topmost began to recede to allow her access to his body. Her tongue lathered itself wetly against his cheeks, tasting him as she gave a gentle murmur. The sound vibrated around the whole of his being as he began to enter her throat more steadily. It undulated around his head, helping to bring him deeper, kneading him warmly.
  Serena’s jaw stretched wider still to take in his shoulders, the wetness of her mouth was pervasive, slicking him down to make his passage easier. Her throat began to bulge slightly with his outline, the whole of his head now in her throat. His ears were filled with the steady rhythm of her swallows. At the edge of it he could hear her heartbeat.
  Her throat muscles began doing more of the work, every slow rhythmic undulation brought him deeper, every second was an inch, slowly slipping down across his shoulders, then his elbows, and his forearms. He wiggled every now and again, more out of habit than anything. In reality it did feel as nice as she promised, like a warm slick blanket accepting him into its embrace, her embrace.
  Her throat accepted his stomach now, his legs still outside her warm, slick maw. Serena shifted then. Caudle felt his feet leave the ground, going from vertical, to horizontal, to upside down, with gravity aiding Serena's efforts. It was all natural now. She didn’t have to try, every heartbeat, every slow cascade of pressure from her throat drew him deeper. His thighs vanished into that wet tunnel next, then his knees, until finally all that was left were his feet, wiggling slightly outside her maw.
  He could feel her smile around them, another murmur vibrating all around his body. She seemed to enjoy that part for just a moment longer, before another swallow brought them into her warm confines. Her jaws closed slowly over his feet, and Caudle was gone. Her throat bulged hugely around him, her already massive body very visibly distended was he was continually kneaded deeper and deeper, a continual stimulation all over. There was no cold winter inside that scaled belly, there was only the warmth of her body and the sounds of her natural rhythms.
  Serna gave a sigh of pleasure, then slowly slithered back into the living room. Caudle felt her slow movements back and forth across the floor, until she reached the couch. She folded her massive body onto it as much as she could, the massive bulge that contained her charge placed lovingly atop the center cushion. She smiled at it, before settling amongst her coils, nuzzling against it warmly with a coo of affection. “Enjoy your time with me, Caudle. I’m sure you will enjoy it just as much as I am.” She murmured, closing her eyes, and letting herself feel the warmth from within.
 
 
End