I swung my machete with a sense of elation. This is it! I'm finally here! After getting rejected for a grant, arguing with my friends, then the struggle of crowdfunding the expedition, I was finally doing it. I was going to find the world's largest snake.

 

I had taken a big plane, to a little plane, to a big boat, to a smaller boat, and then had to paddle a canoe to the landing point where tracks had been discovered. No one had ever seen the creature, but surely from the size of the furrows they had discovered it must have been enormous. Sure, my critics said it could've been some kind of caiman or tapir that made the marks, but that didn't make any sense. Anyway, nothing like that could've made a furrow that started and stopped that way, only something that slithered back into a tree. Like a snake! A bigger snake than anyone alive had ever seen! But I was going to see it, and photograph it, and measure it, and it was going to be awesome. It was probably big enough to eat tapirs! This was so exciting.

 

I had gotten up early so I could row in during the cool of the morning, then start my land exploration during the hottest part of the day, when any snakes around would probably be curled up to rest. Didn't want to come upon it when it was hunting! If it was too active, it wouldn't hold still to be measured.

 

Granted, I hadn't planned on how hot it was. I mean, sure, the Amazon jungle, it's going to be hot, but...I felt like I was swimming through soup. I found the shade of a tree to sit down in. Took out my canteen for a drink. Wiped the sweat from under my pith helmet. They sure looked cool, but I wasn't sure the thing was worth it. So hot. Between the exhaustion from rowing and then cutting a path, the heat of the day, and the soothing sounds of the jungle and river, I guess I must've dozed off.

 

*

When my eyes opened, they were staring straight into hers.

 

"Hello, little morsel."

 

I tried to scramble backwards and away, but my back was already up against the tree.

 

"Aww, what's the matter? Don't like what you see?"

 

She backed up, snaking around in a circle in the dirt in front of me. I had originally believed her to be a topless woman, with long, flowing hair and dangling breasts. But beneath the waist, instead of legs, the body of an enormous snake coiled down and around behind her. She was covered in gorgeous, shimmering scales.

 

"No, I...you're amazing! Gorgeous! I just hadn't expected, well, you!"

 

She chuckled, a rich, throaty sound that hinted at forbidden pleasures. "Thank you. What had you expected, then?"

 

"Well, a big snake -- the biggest! But, you know, just an ordinary, uhh..." I trailed off, suddenly realizing, and turned away to dig in my bag for my camera.

 

Before I could blink, the bag was gone, a coil of snake in its place. "Hey! Why did you..."

 

"Fool! Do you think you can kill me, with you tiny human weapons? How dare you even try!" Her torso slithered over the coil, which I now realized was pinning me to the tree, wrapping around and trapping me.

 

"No! I don't want to kill you. You're so beautiful, I have to --"

 

The coil around me loosened a bit, no longer squeezing, but still holding me tight. "Have to what, little human? And look me in the eyes when I'm speaking to you!"

 

I did, and found I couldn't look away.

 

"That's right. Keep staring. Now, tell me the truth: what were you reaching into your bag for?"

 

I felt so strange all of a sudden. I heard my voice saying, "I was getting my camera, so I could take pictures."

 

She smiled, showing strange, reptilian teeth. "Take pictures? For who?"

 

"For the people who funded the expedition! And, well, for all the people who refused to fund the expedition."

 

"They doubted you. They refused you."

 

Her words were so true. They were all that existed in my mind, and her eyes were all I could see.

 

"They didn't want you to come and find me. Didn't want you to be happy."

 

Tears sprung to my eyes. She reached a finger to tenderly wipe them away.

 

"But if you just trust in me, you'll never have to leave this jungle."

 

"I...could stay here? With you?"

 

She smiled. "That's right. Just trust me. Look into my eyes, and trust me."

 

And I did.