You slide down the side of the cliff, falling with the rocks and dust until you finally tumble over a ledge and land flat on your back ten feet down.

Your friend Jay smacks the ground next to you.

You check to see he’s not hurt, then you whack him in the chest.

“Jerk!” you say. He shrugs.

“Huh! I guess that ledge doesn’t hold two people.”

Typical of Jay to take you hiking in the Benem hillside without a map or supplies, then running you straight off a ledge. At least you landed on soft, level ground. You look up, realizing that you’re in the corner of a large, well-groomed garden, presumably part of the fancy manor houses they had up in the hills.

“C’mon, let’s just say we slipped and we need a ride back to Benem.” You say, marching down the garden path.

“Sounds good to me!” Jay says. “Damn! This person must be loaded! Keep your eyes open for any bling that no one would miss.”

“You behave yourself!” you scold. “You’re going to make a bad situation even worse.”

You round a corner and come to a pristine fountain dotted with lily pads. A wide opening, bordered by thick hedges, sports exotic plants and marble statues.

“I told you these people were loaded,” Jay says, elbowing you in the side.

“Well, who do we have here?” A silky voice drifts over to you from the far side of the fountain. There, lounging on a silk divan, is a stunning gorgon woman, being fanned and shaded by two pretty girls while a masseuse kneads the gorgon’s shoulders, his buff arms flexing as he works. The gorgon shocks you with her beauty; rich dark skin melding into a long, sinuous tail of scarlet scales that run down the divan into a neat bundle of coils. She sips tea from a small porcelain cup.

“It’s not every day I get two unexpected guests,” the sultry snake woman says, her golden eyes piercing yours.

“Oh!” you stammer. “Is this your garden?”

The gorgon’s laugh sounds like an ethereal windchime. “Heavens no! This gorgeous property belongs to the Endrickson family. I’m just here on a quick weekend getaway. That’s just one of the benefits of having a lover with deep pockets.”

The gorgon stretches luxuriously, giving you both a stunning view of her snaky body. “I take it you two must be lost?”

“Not anymore!” Jay says, his eyes lighting up as he leers at her. “I think I’ve found exactly what I was looking for!”

“Uh, we’d really appreciate a ride back into town. We had a small accident hiking,” you say, nervously.

The gorgon glances at you, then shoots daggers at Jay.

“Very well. I am a generous Mistress. I’ll have one of the chauffeurs escort you back.”

“Whatever you say, tuts!” Jay blurts out. The snake woman snaps her head at him.

“Tuts?” She says, her eyes flashing murder.

Tragically, Jay doesn’t notice.

“Or maybe just smoking hot babe? Hey, how’d you like to see my python?”

You feel the air turn a few degrees colder. The gorgon doesn’t speak, she just lifts herself up on her tail, her face a dark storm cloud of fury, and slithers straight towards Jay.

“So,” she says, throwing her face in front of his. “You are one of those sorry excuses of a man who thinks they can barge in on a lady’s garden time and start treating her like your plaything.”

Jay stammers, intimidated by her proximity.

“Look me in the eye, young man!” she snaps. Jay looks up, his face a strange mixture of fear and excitement. You notice the snake’s tail slowly coiling around Jay’s body.

“Look at you,” she hisses, holding his gaze. “You try to act so tough, so entitled. But when it comes down to it, you just freeze, like a deer in the headlights. You just think with one body part, don’t you, and it’s clearly not your smartest part either.”

As she talks, she swings her body back and forth. Jay’s head follows along, his cocky attitude draining from his eyes. She has him up to his shoulders in her coils, but he barely seems to notice. You watch as the snake woman’s shiny scales flex and squeeze.

“Yes, you only have one thing on your mind, don’t you? To get hard and stiff, hmm? Well, I’ll make you a deal. Do you want to get hard and stiff, you spineless worm?”

Jay tries to talk, but his breath gets squeezed out of his lungs. He can only make a few whimpering squeaks.

“Is that a yes? Very well. I’ll show you hard!”

The gorgon’s tail clenches like a giant fist. You watch as Jay’s eyes bug out, his face nearly turning purple. He keeps trying to gasp for air, but can only make desperate gurgling noises. The gorgon smiles wickely at him and keeps putting on more pressure with her muscular tail.

At last, Jay’s eyes roll back in his head and his body goes limp. The gorgon chuckles and relaxes her tail, sending her prey tumbling to the ground, unconscious.

“Take him to the Manticore, darlings!” The gorgon calls to her servants. “We’ll see if Hannah can whip him into shape. That will be something to watch later.”

Her attendants rushed to carry Jay by his arms and legs into the manor house. The gorgon turns her soft gaze back to you.

“You seem like the more respectful type,” she says, her demeanor softening. “Would you like a quick tour of the garden before you head off?”

You stare back, completely shocked by what you just witnessed.

“Oh, don’t worry about your friend,” she chides you. “I’m tough, but I’m no killer. He’ll be fine. There’s nothing to fear.”

“Uhm…I think I should go, m-miss…uh…” You struggle.

“Call me Mistress Medusa, silly mouse,” she says, sidewinding closer to you.

Mistress Medusa, you turn the name over in your head.

“Wait, Mistress Medusa?! The notorious crime boss of Benem? That’s you?” you ask, sweat beading on your brow.

“Has my reputation preceded me?” Mistress asks. “Oh, you don’t believe all those nasty rumors those bad actors have been spreading about me, do you? I’m not that bad at all, you know, as long as I’m shown the proper amount of respect.”

She throws her head back to where Jay had been standing.

“So, would you like to see the garden?” she asks.

“Uhh…”

“I know you’ll enjoy it…” Her voice hums with a low, primal resonance. “I helped design it, you know, with the help of my beautiful lover, Hannah. It truly is a work of art. Our little slice of Eden, if you will. And aren’t I just the perfect serpent to tempt you, hmm? So, will you stay and look?”  

You know you shouldn’t. You should politely refuse and get out as fast as possible. But something about the Mistress’s voice makes you feel calm. You inhale the scent of the garden, picking up whiffs of lavender. She seems so nice and inviting. Maybe you can spend a few minutes with her.

“Well…okay,” you give in.

She beckons you with a curl of her fingers. “Follow me.”

You fall in step behind her as she slithers down the garden path. Your eyes are drawn to her pretty, shimmery tail as it weaves back and forth in front of you. It’s so easy for your eyes to follow that lazy, back and forth motion. You feel your body swaying side to side with every step. It’s strangely relaxing and you find your nerves are being soothed by the repetitive, gentle sway of her tail, back and forth…back and forth…

She suddenly stops and twirls around to face you, her body still swaying, her hips drawing your gaze as you let yourself follow the motion…back and forth…

“Eyes up here, little mouse,” she teases, and you look up to see her holding the branch of a sprawling bush, dotted with large, elegant purple flowers.

“There are a variety of delights in our special garden. Take this flower, for instance.”

Mistress snaps off a flower from the bush and holds it in front of your nose. She waves it back and forth, rocking your body as you sniff at the gorgeous flower. The petals are deep purple, dotted with white and yellow near the center. The scent is a pungent mix of lavender and vanilla. It entices your senses and goes straight to your head, making you feel light-headed and giddy.

“Oh! Yes! They’re…they smell really good!” you titter.

“They do, don’t they?” Mistress says with a knowing smile. “They’re known as giggle poppies. I cultivated them myself with the help of my dear friend, Dr. Walter Dalton. They are magnificent as a mood-lifter, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Oh, absolutely!” you say, fighting the urge to chuckle. “It…hee hee…it makes me feel…really nice…hee hee hee!” Everything just seems so funny right now.

“They do, don’t they?” She says, leading you with the motion of the flower. “They really do make people so relaxed and agreeable. They’re a wonderful gift when I have meetings with competing business owners. They get so giggly and happy that they just comply with any proposal I offer. It really speeds up negotiations.”

You just laugh and chuckle along. Every word from her lips is a drop of sunshine in your head. She lets you enjoy the heady aroma a bit more before tucking the flower behind your ear.

“Come, there’s more to see,” she hisses.

You follow along behind her, giggling softly with a big grin on your face. She leads you through a wide arc around the garden and stops in front of a stout tree with smooth, black bark, its branches hanging low with bright red fruit, each the size of an apple.

“This is my special dream fruit tree, another side project I made with Dr. Dalton. We pick bushels of dream fruit every season to take to market. They’re a hot seller.”

She reaches up and plucks a ripe fruit from a branch.

“Have a sample?” she asks.

“Mmm…okay!” you say, still loopy from the giggle poppies. You bite into the crisp, juicy flesh of the fruit. It tastes sweet and crunchy, the flavor somewhere between pear and sour apple. You take another bite, then another, the delicious juice running down your chin.

“Doesn’t that taste good? It does have some curious side effects, though. It tends to make people a little dreamy and ditzy. Sometimes it can make people feel very suggestible as well. I bet you must be feeling suggestible, aren’t you?”

“Yes…” you say. That feels exactly right. “I am feeling suggestible…”

“And you probably want to eat a little more, don’t you?” she says, picking another large fruit from the tree.

“Yes. I’d like some more, please.” You’d love another bite of that delicious fruit.

Mistress hands you another, and you bite into the soft, crisp skin.

“All this walking and wandering around,” she muses. “You must be feeling tired, like you need to sit down. Is that right?”

Your legs feel like jelly. You suddenly feel like your whole body is completely exhausted.

“Yes…I’m just…really tired…” Speaking feels like such a chore to you now.

A bright red coil loops around you, forming a small bench.

“Just sit down then, honey,” Mistress coos.

Your legs fold all on their own, and your body sits down on her thick, strong tail. Another coil loops around you, holding your body upright for you.

“It’s such a pleasant, relaxing day, isn’t it?” Mistress says, pressing her torso into your side, her words dripping into your ears. “You feel so happy, so content to just sit here and relax with me. Letting your cares and worries just sink down into the ground. So happy and relaxed, giggly and sleepy, drowsy and suggestible.”

With the tip of her tail, she holds up another dream fruit.

“Have another bite, little mouse,” she softly orders.

“Yes…” Your eyelids are heavy, your muscles melting under her coils. She has your legs and waist completely wrapped in her scales now, her coils gently pulsing and massaging your aching thighs. You take another bite of fruit, your head floating in the gentle tide of her words.

“Sooo relaxed…so happy…so compliant and agreeable…you want to get more comfortable, don’t you?”

“Yes. I want to get more comfortable.” The words appear in your head like someone is typing them.

“You want to feel the warm sun on your skin. You should take off your shirt. That would feel sssssoooo nniiicceeee,” she sings in your ear.

Yes. That would feel nice. Your hands reach for the bottom of your shirt and pull everything off, your bare chest absorbing the warm sun, the soft breeze gently caressing your soft skin.

Mistress looks you over, smiling appreciatively. You blush and melt under her gaze.

“There, isn’t that better? Oh, no need to be bashful. We’re friends, aren’t we? You feel completely at ease being exposed around me.”

“…completely…at ease…” the words roll off your tongue and stick in your brain.

“In fact, you’d feel a lot more at ease if you were just free and naked, wouldn’t you?”

You hesitate. Should you really be walking around completely naked in front of someone you just met?

“Don’t worry, this is a private garden. There’s nobody here except us. And after all, I’m not wearing anything either!”

That is true. The radiant snake woman before you isn’t wearing clothes aside from her jewelry and shimmering snake tail. Your thumbs fiddle with your waistband under her coils. The juice from the dream fruit is going to your head, intoxicating you and opening your mind wide to Mistress’s suggestions.

Why not? You don’t get to walk around naked outdoors every day.

Mistress loosens her coils and lets you shimmy out of your denim shorts. You slip off your shoes and feel your feet touch the cool, soft grass. You smile from ear to ear, enchanted by the fresh air all over every inch of your nude body.

Mistress raises her tail and dangles it above your head. You look up and gaze at it, like a puppy watching a bone. Your eyes cross as she gently lowers her scarlet tail to lightly tap you on your forehead. You slink forward, feeling an irresistible pull towards the earth, but the tail pressing against your head stops you from falling. It pushes you up and spins you around in a dizzying circle, giving the Mistress a full wrap-around view of your body.

“Mmmm…you are a juicy specimen, aren’t you? Don’t you just love showing me your beautiful body?”

“Yess…it feels…wonderful…” you say, ready to fall off your feet if it weren’t for her delicate tail holding you, guiding you. The giggle poppies and dream fruit have you in a delightful daze, just happy to be in the presence of such a wonderful, caring gorgon like Mistress.

“Come,” Mistress commands. Her tail flicks you back to standing and you wobble uneasily on your feet. “I have one last thing to show you, and I think you’ll rather like it.”

You follow Mistress’s glittering scales as she leads you to a great tree with a wide trunk and sprawling branches. Thick green vines, smooth as glass, twirl around the eaves of the tree. Some parts of the vines seem to be wrapped up in bunches, but you can’t concentrate enough to see what they are. Mistress’s gentle, swinging gait and the soft rattle of her scales keep you too distracted.

Mistress finally stops and turns to you.

“Now, my sleepy, little mouse. We’ve spent some time together and have gotten to know each other. Maybe you’d like to stay a little longer? After all, you didn’t have anywhere important to be, did you?”

“No, Mistress. I don’t have anywhere important to be,” you say, gazing into her eyes. Her head is swaying back and forth again…back and forth…

“And you’re just having such a lovely, relaxing afternoon here with me…” She crawls closer, her long, tapered fingers entwining in your hair. “…in my garden.”

“Y-yes…” you squeak. You’re melting under her touch. Her eyes are pulsing with power, almost shimmering with golden spirals.

“You want to stay here with me, don’t you?”

“Yes, Mistress. I want to stay here with you.” You can’t think of anything better. You can barely think at all.

Mistress’s hand slinks down under your chin and lifts your face with a single finger.

“Goooood…Now look at this.”

Mistress raises herself on her tail almost fifteen feet in the air, making you feel like a small, helpless rabbit. She uses her arms to untangle a large mass of vines from the tree and lowers herself back down with the green stalk draped over her shoulders.

“This is a very special feature of my garden. It’s known as serpen vine. Touch it.”

You reach out and run your hand over the coil of serpen vine. It feels smooth yet textured. Just like the scales of a snake.

“It…it feels like you, Mistress,” you say in disbelief. Mistress smiles, her eyes radiating heat.

“Very good, silly mouse. These vines are a natural mimic, able to reproduce the sensations and actions of a snake’s coils. The botanists tell me it’s to scare off would-be predators, but I believe it has just as much to do with attracting prey. Don’t they just feel too good to resist when I drape them around you like this?”

Mistress circles you with the long vine. The coils immediately begin to shrink, holding you snugly around your ankles and thighs. Mistress continues to weave the vine around your body, wrapping up your arms next to your sides until you are completely cocooned in a ball of gently squeezing coils. She stops just under your neck and stands back to gaze at you. The slight constriction makes you light-headed and you feel your head bobble unsteadily on your neck, a big lopsided grin on your face. With the barest push of her fingers, Mistress taps you on the forehead and you topple backward. The vines tense and catch you, holding you sideways in a ball of hanging coils. Mistress slithers around to your head.

“Mmm…that’s good, my little mouse.” She says as she gently runs her fingers over your face, her long nails lightly scratching your cheeks. “You must feel so wonderful, tightly wrapped in these coils, swaying with every breeze. It should be so easy to drift away into a nice, deep, sleeeeeeeppp…”

You gaze up and see her looking over your face, her eyes swirling with every color you can think of. You can feel what’s left of your mind get sucked into her eyes that swirl around and around…and around…

“Soooo sleeeepy…sooo drowsy…drifting away into a sweet, sexy dream…trapped in my coils and reliving your wildest, wettest, most amazing dream again and again as you just sleeeeep safe in my coilssss…”

Your eyelids are fluttering. You feel your body flood with arousal and deep exhaustion. Your brain is lost in a sea of sleepy pleasure as Mistress continues to caress your face and toy with your hair. You can smell her lavender scent wafting from her body, and hear her beautiful, resonant voice lulling you.

You roll your eyes back, trying with all your might to stop from sliding down into velvet slumber. The vines pulse and squeeze while Mistress playfully swings you side to side, rocking you like a baby.

“That’s right, little mouse. Asleep in your most beautiful dream, so happy, so sexy, until I have need of you. Now, one little bite to send you off to dreamland.”

Mistress leans her body over your neck, her fangs reaching out for you.

You feel a quick prick of pain followed by a wave of euphoria pumping through your veins.

Your eyes shut, and your whole body goes slack.

Mistress smiles and laughs to herself. Another sweet thrall for her army of enchanted playthings. Her hypnotic venom will be sure to keep you calm and happy, forever under her silky spell. She pulls on the long end of the vine just right, and the cocoon of vines lifts you up into the eaves of the tree.

You drift easily with the passing breeze, lost in your own private paradise of erotic visions that ignite your passion and relax your body. Around you are more people, men and women, seduced into the vines by Mistress’s beguiling words. They sway lazily in their own nests of vines, eyes half open, their mouths stretched into unworldly smiles of ecstasy. You, and all the others, will wait here, trapped in a prison of unending pleasure, until the Mistress returns and needs a new servant to do her bidding.