Shanai sighed in exasperation. She’d been walking for what seemed like hours, and was no nearer to finding her friend. After seeing Rina sneak into the jungle, her friend had followed after, borrowing a lit torch from one of the permanent houses along the village path. But despite her attempts to keep up, Shanai had seen no sign of Rina amongst the dense undergrowth. She paused and looked around, her hastily-tied blonde braid swishing about to settle over her right shoulder. She desperately regretted not bringing a phone along, and though her feet were used to trotting along rocks and beach sand, the roots and fallen branches that littered the jungle floor were a different story entirely.

“@#%*” she cursed, hopping on one foot, and massaging her bruised big toe after yet another unfortunate encounter.

“Rina, whenever I find you, you’d better have one hell of a good explanation why you ran off here in the middle of the damn night.” Shanai muttered under her breath.

“Excussssssse Mee…” came a strange voice from the trees above her.

Nearly tripping over herself in surprise, Shanai whipped her head around, trying to locate its source.

“Who’s that – who’s out there?”

Sibilant laughter, like the air being let out of a football, sounded to her right.

“I wass jusssst about to asssk the ssame thing…”

Shanai turned and found herself face to face with the most curious creature she’d ever seen. It had a spade-shaped serpentine head, large, round yellow eyes, and wore an expression of lackadaisical amusement. Her eyes widened as she tracked a long, scaled body that stretched into the darkness beyond her torchlight.

“S-S-Snake, big…big Snaaaaake!!” She screamed in shock, stumbling backward until her back collided with a large tree-trunk. She kept her eyes on the serpent, one hand holding the torch between them like a weapon.

Kaa eyed the fire with suspicion, then affected a gesture with the coils below his neck that almost seemed…a shrug?

“Now, now, there’sss no need for that. Thisss is my home after all. And asss I wass about to ssay, I can ssseeee that you are one of thossse humansss that live beyond thiss jungle…”

Kaa fought to keep a straight face as he watched the strange woman’s expression of shock and obvious fear give way to complete bewilderment in the torchlight.

“Wha-I….You…” was all the dumbfounded woman could get out.

“Yessss, little one?” Kaa tilted his head as if to say: spit it out, already.

Recovering slightly, Shanai pointed an incredulous finger at the strange snake.

“You can TALK??!”

Kaa brought his tail to his snout in frustration.

“You don’t misss a thing, do you?”

Shanai’s breathing started to normalize, her heart racing less as the immediate threat seemed to dissipate. Perhaps it was the casual tone of the snake, or the absurdity of her entire situation, but she let loose a chuckle, then another, and soon enough, a full-bodied laugh.

"Okay, okay,” she finally managed to get out, clutching her side. “Either talking snakes exist, or I’m officially losing my mind.”

Both seem just as likely at this point, she added privately.

“Oh, I can assssure you, I am in fact quite real.” Kaa replied, a mischievous glint appearing in his eyes. “And I can sssee for sssertain that you are…lossst.”

Kaa’s tail slowly lowered from the canopy behind Shanai, and settled itself onto her shoulders. The woman gave a sudden yelp, turned around and was momentarily distracted while Kaa slithered closer to her, eyes beginning to swirl with hypnotic colors.

“Asss for your mind…I could sssee to it that you never need to ussse it again…”

Hearing the hiss much closer behind her, Shanai swung back around, torch bared, and was met with a sudden visual assault of bright colors. She gasped, eyes locked onto Kaa’s, widening in utter confusion. As the serpent’s words registered in her mind, Shanai opened her mouth to retort, but the only reply that made it to her lips was a soft-spoken “what’re you….”

Her attention focused on the pattern of colorful rings before her. Something about them was oddly…compelling? Shanai was reminded of something…comfortable – but what? She was suddenly seized by an inexplicable desire to figure it out, focused on how they pulsed: from a bright light shade of blue, to a golden yellow, to a pale purple, before repeating…the woman leaned forward, brow furrowed.

“Yesss….that’ss right, little one…jussst ssstare and relaxsssss…” Kaa hovered just out of range of the fire, delighted to see the effect his eyes were already having.

Stray words floated into Shani’s head, strange single-word suggestions and feelings that were not her own. She struggled to brush them aside, wondering why it was so hard to make her mouth form the words.

“Re-relax? No, I have to…I’m looking for-” she managed to stammer out, before-

“Sssshhhh…” Kaa interrupted, his tail tip slithering around and up to press itself suddenly against her lips. To Shanai’s own surprise, her first thought of pushing the tail away in revulsion fought against an inexplicable urge to do just as the snake said. She flushed in embarrassment and assertion as she struggled to will her free hand towards the tail…why did her arms feel so heavy?

“Sssomeone?” the serpent was continuing. “I’d ssay you have sssuccssseeded, in that cassse…you’ve found Kaa.” His tail pulled away from her, as if mocking the futile effort she’d been making to grab at it.

“K-k..Kaa?” Shanai stuttered, her attention focused back on the dazzling display before her. The colors seemed to invite her to relax, to let go of the tension she was carrying in her shoulders. Both arms began to lower, her grip on the torch starting to loosen.

“That’sss right, my dear…and what, might I asssk, iss your name?”

Something strange was happening, Shanai was sure of it. She just couldn’t put her finger on what, exactly, it was. But this snake, ‘Kaa’ seemed friendly and polite enough, and so she found herself answering, “Sha…Sshanai…”

“Ssshanai….sssssuch a lovely name on my tongue…” the serpent hissed back, inching closer to further enhance his hypnotic stare.

“Ye-yeah…love..ly…” Shanai gaped, her own wide eyes taking in more and more of the intoxicating colors, as her pupils shrank down to pinpricks, and were soon filling with the same pulsing pattern. The dark jungle faded away in the background, the colors taking up more and more space as she kept her attention on their steady beat of blue, then yellow, then purple, then blue…

Kaa grinned to see how quickly she was falling under his spell. Now he deftly wrapped his tail around the slipping torch and dropped it harmlessly onto a pile of dirt, leaving his eyes the only source of light in the clearing. He reared up and began to bob his head back and forth like a pendulum, delighted as his captivated prey helplessly followed along.

Oh yess, he thought. Ssoon this ssilly human shall be mine…

“Yess, Ssshanai….and now that you’ve found me, you can ressst…you can…Ssssleeep…”

Shanai’s own head swam in a sea of muddled thoughts. She had been looking for someone, hadn’t she? Was it…was it Kaa? She couldn’t be sure, but the colors were reassuring her, telling her to trust the serpent. It was so late, and she did feel so exhausted…could she really…rest here? The woman swayed unsteadily on bare feet.

“Pleaaassse, go to sssleeeep…” crooned Kaa. His tail snaked back around and began to wind its way around Shanai’s exposed torso, taking care to bind both her arms carefully and snugly, yet gently enough not to alert her.

A warm, comfortable feeling started to envelope Shanai’s sleepy mind, her swaying dizziness suddenly replaced by a firm embrace that she couldn’t help but feel safe in. Whatever she had been doing before, it didn’t matter now. She’d found Kaa, and his eyes, and his words, and she felt so relaxed...A dreamy smile played on the blonde’s lips as her eyelids blinked heavily.

“Ssssleeeeep, Ssshaaanai….you’ll be sssaafe and ssssound with me…”

The coils had reached up over her shoulders now, the tail starting to wind around her throat…

“Ssleeep…s-s-ssafe...” Shanai struggled to get the words out. Forming her own thoughts was becoming too difficult…it was much easier to follow the sibilant suggestions that Kaa was offering her. The enticing colors danced in front of her, slipping under eyelids that had grown so heavy…

“..Wi-with…youu-ULK!” Her speech cut off as the devilish tail yanked tight, eyes spiraling madly with color. In the back of her mind, an echoing PING sounded, and the last of Shanai’s conscious thoughts drifted away. She beamed a wide, mindless smile, encased from waist to neck in Kaa’s coils.

The snake lifted his catch and turned her around, inspecting and idly playing with her strawberry blonde braid. He could see that she was quite the fit and delicious specimen; he shivered to think of the fun he’d have with her tonight. Gently, he ascended into the treetops with his captive cutie.

--

Colors seemed to flow endlessly in a soothing pattern. The world had slipped away, all of Shanai’s cares and concerns melting into bliss as she floated on the softest ocean current. Something scaled glided over her, the mild friction creating a delightful sensation on her bare skin. Something wet briefly flicked across her left nipple, then the right. She felt them both stiffen at once, a sudden electric current of pleasure coursing through her. Shanai felt her face flush and her toes scrunch, legs swinging in the air below her. Now, a hissss filled her ear, echoing into her entire body. Shanai’s eyes shot open, the seductive colors intensifying in speed as she squirmed with pleasure against her scaly bonds.

Kaa took in the sight of this blonde beauty encased in his coils, delighted with his catch. It had been long, far too long, since he’d had a human to play with. It had been simple enough to slip off those strange pieces of fabric that he knew those of the man-village wore. Playing with her mind, however, was a bit more of a complex affair. Setting her down gently on the sturdy branch up above where he’d first caught her, Kaa took in the sight of her: toned, peach-pink legs dangling over either side of her wooden seat, thick coils starting at her waist, winding all the way up snugly to her neck, except for a bare space about her chest that showed off two lovely, bare breasts, nipples stiff from the light breeze and arousing stimulation she’d been receiving. A dreamy smile betrayed the blonde’s depths of entrancement, as did the endless spirals of color pulsing through the eyes that stared back happily at him. The serpent shivered, then, more deliberately shook his coils, loosening those around the woman and letting them fall limp into a loose pile around her. He quickly ducked into the cover of the canopy above as she began to stir.

Shanai blinked a weary eye open, then another. Her head felt…fuzzy, as if she’d been fast asleep only moments before. She shook her head to clear it, motes of light and color fading away at the edges of her vision. Her surroundings were…unfamiliar, and it was oddly breezy?

That’s weird, she thought sluggishly, beginning to look around.

Something thick and warm was piled in heaps around her, like a scaly blanket. Shanai ran her fingers along it, uncomprehending. She shivered as a light gust blew past, then realized suddenly that she was naked.

“The F&@#?! Where are my clothes??” she blurted, her voice echoing in the night air. Suddenly, a hisss from above attracted her attention, and her blood ran cold with sudden realization.

“Ohh crap…” She began to struggle with what she now recognized as thick python coils, as Kaa’s head descended and regarded the woman with amusement.

“Good evening, Ssshanai.” he intoned casually. She stopped short, and turned to stare at the snake incredulously.

“Wait, how do you know my name, and how…how can you talk??”

Kaa was more prepared for the response this time. With ease, he slithered closer to her, eyes beginning to swirl with hypnotic color once more. 

“Sstill confussed I sssee? No matter, jussst look into my eyesss, and all will be clear…”

A strange feeling of Déjà vu washed over Shanai as she felt the length of coils shift around her. Subconsciously, she felt herself drawn towards the serpent’s eyes, her head and eyes moving of their own accord to lock onto his. The dazzling colors flashed before her, demanding all of her attention. A comfortable familiarity began to settle in, and Shanai relaxed back into the luxurious coils that began to encircle her once more, winding up and around her like a warm blanket. She yawned, her thoughts suddenly distant, but for a desire to sleep and an inexplicable trust she felt towards this snake.

“Yess, that’sss better, my ssleeepy Ssshanai…” Kaa cooed, his eyes returning to normal as he finished wrapping her up once again. He’d been playing this little game for a few hours now, jolting the bedazzled blonde to semi-consciousness to ask what she knew, learning about her companion, and Shanai’s feelings for her. Of course, he wasn’t merely learning, but teaching as well. He tightened his coils, nodding in approval as a contented sigh escaped from his prey – she was already starting to feel pleasure at his touch.

“Now,” he started firmly, “Tell me more about thisss friend of yours, Riiina…”

Shanai’s smile widened, a blush stealing into her freckled cheeks.

“Oh-okay, Kaaa…”