“Look! Over there!”

Selena didn’t look. She crawled along the branch closer to the squirrel. It backed away and shouted the phrase again. She was sure it was a response to danger, but not to warn other squirrels like some thought, but rather to distract dangerous animals so they could escape.

The closer she moved the more the squirrel shouted the phrase. Some of the syllables mixed up or the words came out in the wrong order—a sign the squirrel didn’t understand the words, but only knew how to mimic them.

Of course, even if the squirrels didn’t understand the words they could understand the sound meant danger, but the fact it shouted with no other squirrels around suggested to Selena that it was meant as a distraction, not a warning.

When she was close enough to grab the squirrel it shouted one more time. This time she looked—she thought her theory would hold water if the squirrel took the chance to escape.

She shook her head when she saw a snake watching behind her—coincidence, or did the squirrel really mean to warn her? It was gone when she looked back, and she put that note in the back of her head.

Now she had a snake to study. Every animal on this island mimicked a few human words, and she wanted to learn what evolutionary advantage those words gave them.

“Delicious, delicious,” the snake said. Selena raised her eyebrows. That was quite the word—why would a snake evolve to mimic that word?

It lowered itself from the branches closer to Selena. She shifted to a seat on the branch, watching the snake to see what it would do.

“Look, look, sleep,” the snake said.

More words to analyze. Most animals only had a few. What advantage would those words give it?

Something was happening in the snake’s eyes. Colors pulsed through them—how strange. They were quite pleasing to look at.

“Looook, looook.”

The snake spoke almost melodiously. Maybe it used its words to catch prey. By getting prey to look at it, maybe it could distract it long enough to catch it. Selena looked into the snake’s eyes. They really were pretty. What kind of prey did this snake eat? It was quite big.

“Look, sleep, look, trust.”

There was a new word—trust. What type of prey would be weak to these words? Look, sleep, and trust. Wasn’t there a fourth one? Selena just wanted to focus on those three for now. She looked deeper into the snake’s pretty eyes, unaware of her mouth hanging open. It was getting late. Maybe she should go to sleep soon.

“Look look sleep look trust, sleep sleep trust.”

She really wanted to learn what type of animal the snake preyed on before she left, though. She leaned closer to the snake. Maybe if she pretended to be the snake’s prey she could get an idea of what the snake feeds on.

Just pretend to be the snake’s prey. Pretend to be the type of creature that would follow its words to look, would sleep if it looked too long, and would trust the snake.

To learn what the snake preyed on, she needed to act like prey, to keep looking into the snake’s eyes as it told her to do so, to follow its swaying head in circles. It was easy to pretend to be prey, she was already becoming so sleepy, even more every time the snake said sleep.

“Sleep, sleep, trust.”

Given the snake mimics the word, its prey eventually comes to trust it, so to learn more about the snake’s prey, Selena needed to trust it.

That was easy. The snake was doing what came naturally to it, and it was easy to trust the snake would do that. She just had to trust herself she would do a good job pretending to be prey.

“Sleep, look sleep trust, sleep, look sleep trust.”

So focused on her task, Selena found the world around her falling away. The snake’s eyes were so easy to focus on, so easy to let fill her mind.

She gave a wobbly smile as she felt scales around her, the snake wrapping heavy coils around her body. She was a master actor, so good at pretending to be prey that the snake mistook her for actual prey. She was so close to figuring out what the snake preyed on, what type of creature would be weak to those beautiful words—look, sleep, trust. They echoed in her head and it felt so good to focus on them. All she had to do was focus on them, follow the snake, let it squeeze heavy coils around her hips as it wrapped up her chest and bound her arms just like real prey.

“Sleep delicious, look trust.”

That was the fourth word, delicious. Of course the snake uses its words to catch delicious prey. What was its prey? Selena still wasn’t sure, but she was sure if she just kept spiraling down with the snake everything would become clear.

The hypnotic colors from its eyes filling her vision . . .

Its soft words filling her head. Most of her own thoughts just mimicked the snake’s words. The longer she stared the less her thoughts were anything but mimicking the snake’s words.

Look. Sleep. Trust. Delicious.

Just like a real prey. She’s just like a real prey. Just let the snake wrap her up and she’ll know what the snake’s prey is.

She gulped as the snake squeezed its tail around her neck.

The snake’s prey smiled wide, mind only mimicking the snake’s mimicked words.

Look. Sleep. Trust. Delicious.