Kimi Fujioka crouched behind a tropical bush, watching her quarry, a Pomaikaian wild chicken, blissfully go about it’s day without knowledge that the jungle girl wanted her for lunch. Hunting had become second nature for Kimi, who’d washed ashore on Ka'āina i hoʻopōmaikaʻiʻia e Maui, or The Land Blessed by Maui, or just Pōmaikaʻi, Blessed Land, previously code-named Greystoke Island, four years ago, when she was 16. Now she's 20. The teachings of the famous Huli (Julie) and Kainak had made her more than ready to take on the large tropical island’s jungle fauna. Even the chickens. Hey, sometimes she just wanted something simple. It’s a lot easier than chasing down a Pomaikaian deer. Those things can get to the size of a horse.

She shifted in her crouch, her muscles tightening and loosening, ready to pounce like a cat. But she held a sling in her hand and a leiomano in the other. She wasn’t taking chances, because these little cluckers can get pretty fast, and their talons were a force to be reckoned with. She had scars from bad experiences with the Teo tribe’s chickens. Not even a good cup of ‘awa could ease that pain.

Although she had her sights on her prey, another predator would soon have her in their sights, but not for any malicious reasons; just to play.

Kimi licked her lips in anticipation. Chickens are stupid, and this one is no exception. The clicker didn’t know she was there, so she had her right where she wanted him. Raising her sling, she put a rock in it and began to swing it around. The chicken still didn’t see her. Once the sling was swinging at top velocity, she released the sling. The rock flew through the air and struck the chicken’s head, killing her instantly. Hunting instincts temporarily left, and she jumped out of the brush, shouting a victory cry. Pumping her toned arms, she jumped out from behind the brush and ran over to get the chicken, unaware that she’d accidentally given her position away to a snake.

Snakes usually don't get bored, but Kaa did. Of course, it's fair to say Kaa isn't like most snakes, who are just animals. And while Kaa is just an animal too, the curse of sentience is that you get bored at some point.

Curled up on a branch high above his jungle home, the massive hypnotic python tried to sleep, but couldn't. It's contradictory, but Kaa was finding out the hard way that there was such a thing as being so bored, you can't sleep. Normally, he didn't have this issue. Despite being sentient, he still did what animals do, go out and eat. But the problem was, he wasn't hungry. What he really wanted to do was hypnotize something, anything, and play with them like a toy. Unfortunately, he couldn't smell a living creature around to catch and hypnotize, so he was out of luck.

Or so he thought.

The sound of a squawk jolted him awake. The massive python made famous by Rudyard Kipling’s novel The Jungle Book, and infamous by the 1967 animated adaptation by Walt Disney Studios, blinked the sleep out of his eyes.

Kaa wasn’t ready for the jungle girl to come to him. He was used to coming to her. So as soon as she smelt her scent, catching a whiff of it in the air, her perked up, assuming that she was unaware of his presence. No matter, he grinned, unwinding himself from his coil pile, wrapping around the tree trunk and descending to a lower branch, hoping to see, then catch her.

Still, he’d found the cure for his boredom.

Kimi patiently waited for the meat to finish cooking, but didn’t try to hurry it up. Chicken was one of the first dishes she learned to cook from Kainak. He did most of the cooking with Julie, like a good Pomaikaian man. She didn’t have a mate at the moment, which meant that she had to cook for herself. But now she was fairly good at it. It wouldn’t be long before she had a nice, hot, rotisserie-style chicken as she turned the spit above the fire. As she did that, she could feel the heat.

Kimi was okay with heat. Melbourne got hot--very hot, actually--especially in the summer months, and she thanked her lucky stars that prepared her for the tropical heat and humidity of the island of Pomaika'i... even if she never expected to be there, but she's there now. She was born in Melbourne, orphaned at a young age, put into foster care with a family who abused her. But now she lived her dream best care-free life as a jungle girl on Pomaika’i.

Like Huli, her physical build was slender, athletic, toned and slightly curvy, and covered in sweat today. Her skin had gotten tanned from those years on Pōmaikaʻi, and dotted with a few scars here and there she'd gotten in various incidents; fights with animals, men and even shaving nicks. Her dark hair wasn't wild and messy, like Huli's could be, but straight and stringy, hanging down to her shoulder blades like a Japanese ghost (her birth parents were Japanese, emigrated to Australia). Her face was also slender, and she wore a standard-issue Jungle Girl outfit.

The chicken was done before long. She removed the chicken from the spit and started working on the meat. First she ate the legs and wings, then she went to the breasts and thighs. The chicken was good and hot, the right temperature to kill bacteria and other things. Most importantly, it tasted good, like chicken.

It took a few minutes, but she finished the chicken and felt full. The bones were strewn about on the jungle floor around her, and the fire had been doused. Now was the perfect time for Kaa to come get her.

When she finished, she sat back against the trunk of the tree, thinking about when she should get back into the heat and humidity. When she'd left her nest earlier in the day, it was uncharacteristically chilly, almost making her wear something over the standard-issue jungle girl bikini and loincloth she wore 24/7, but she decided against it, and was relieved that the temperatures quickly shot up to the usual hot temps. The wildlife in the island's jungles came to life (ha) quickly, and she had her first meal of the day, the wild jungle chicken that she killed and ate on a roasted spit. Her day was going okay. It was going to take a different direction in a few moments, the second she left the tree. And she suspected that it was going to change the moment she did, because that's how things often started. She just didn't know how it was going to change.

Things happened fast enough that Kimi couldn't process what was going on until she felt the familiar sensation of sepentine scales wrap around her ankle. She still yelped.

"GAH! OI!"

She stood up, her mostly-bare skin glistening with a thin layer of sweat. She didn't care if she got a little grimy, a trait she got from her famous mentors. Her kinda-messy hair swept up and into her face while she unwrapped the serpentine tail from her ankle. Kimi almost had a heart attack, even though she was far too young and fit to have one. However, once she found herself face-to-face with Kaa, she sighed in relief. "Kaa, don't scare me like that, mate!" she huffed.

“Oh, I’m sssssso ssssssorry, Kimi,” the famous snake replied. “Here, let me help you.” He lowered his tail to the ground, quickly wrapping it around her midsection, pinning her arms to the side. She relaxed in his grip as she let him lift her up into the trees, where he deposited her onto a branch. Her trip lasted only about a minute before she was deposited feet first onto a branch, and face-to-face with Kaa, whose eyes were still normal.

“G’day,” she said.

"It'sssss been ssssso long ssssssinccccce I've lasssssst sssseen you," he said, wrapping his tail around her left wrist, coiling it up. "It'ssssss jusssssst a miracle I've gotten sssssome company. I’ve misssssssed your charm.”

"I've missed yours," she said as she watched him move around her. When he was finally in place, she reached out and scratched his head, like she was scratching a dog behind the ears. She was his guest, but she was also showing him that she was comfortable and on equal footing with him. Kimi liked the sensation of the coils against her skin, but she didn’t quite appreciate how he was already trying to hypnotize her. In that moment, a little doubt that would come into play later crept into her thoughts. But right now, she simply smirked and kept her eyes looking away from him. “Easy, big guy,” she said.

“Ssssssorry, I wassssss jussssst exccccited,” he said. He wasn’t bothered that she was trying to avoid eye contact. He knew that, if he played his cards right, she would allow him to hypnotize her, like he’d done many times before. And she enjoyed every second of it every time. In the mean time, he gently squeezed his tail around her waist.

She gave a pleasured grunt at the feeling of his coils rippling around her waist. Yes, it felt good. She even let him turn her head towards him. And she was relieved to see that he wasn’t hypnotizing her yet. “Okay,” she said. “You want me to pose or something?” Just for fun, she posed with her hand in front of her face while giving off an intense stare. Then she pointed at the air dramatically. All this while Kaa had his tail around her midriff.

“Issss ssssomething wrong?” asked Kaa.

“Yare, yare daze,” she grumbled. Obviously snakes don’t watch TV. “No, just posing.”

Kimi couldn't think of any more poses to do, so she stopped. Eventually, Kaa's massaging stopped being effective and she removed his coils. "Well, I should be going," she said, turning to leave. But she was held back by Kaa’s coil. Knowing how this usually worked, Kimi turned to Kaa and asked, "Do we really have to do this every time?”

“Why are you sssssso concccccerned, Kimi?” he asked, also concerned. “That’sssss never sssssseemed to happen.”

"Never seemed to happen," she mimiced sarcastically. He'd gotten the drop on her before. Never seemed to give a crap about it even then. "You don't have to lie to yourself. I see that grin!”

Kaa wanted her to stay so he could work his magic on her. “You’re funny,” he answered. “But guilty as charged. I can’t put my coilssssss over your eyesss-oopssss!” He covered her eyes with his tail.

Kimi growled, tore the snake's tail off her head, kept her eyes closed and covered up his eyes just to be safe. "Do you really have to do this every single time?" she asked.

“Yesss! Yesss, we do!” he chuckled.

"But do you REALLY have to?" Kimi asked. She was bluffing, and doing a good job of it, even if she had to go a little meta. "It's always the same. You meet a subject, the subject resists, but you hypnotize them anyway. Don't you ever get tired of it?”

“Nope!”

"But you don't have to!" she said soothingly. She may have been bluffing at first, but now she was serious... at least in her mind. "Tell me, why DO you feel like you need to hypnotize every human who comes your way?”

Kaa used his neck to “shrug”. “Becausssse I want to. And I can.”

“Then good luck with it right now, because it’s not going to work.”

“Really? You think you can ressssssissssssst my wonderful hypnosssssssisssssss?” She opened her mouth to reply. Nothing came out, and she closed her mouth. “I thought ssssso.” Teasing her, he slipped the tip of his tail around her ankle. She untied it, but grabbed her wrist. “What do you exsssspect me to do?”

“Well, I suppose there’s lots of things for a snake to do besides hypnotize and play with humans,” she said. “Like for example, I know you used to wrestle Kainak without hypnotizing him often.”

"Yesssssss, I did."

"But don't you get tired--"

"It beatsssss sssssitting in any old tree all day, ssssso no, I don't get tired of it. Jussssst like you don't get tired of being hypnotized," he hissed, his tail curling around her midriff to further anchor her to his hammock. "Another sssssatisssfied jungle dweller is a satisfied snake in my eyessssss.”

“What makes you think that?” she asked half-incredulously at his assertion that she didn’t tire of hypnosis.

“You dessssserve a good hypnossssissss sssssessssssssion,” he replied. He lifted her up onto the branch, but firmly wrapped his tail around her left arm.

She scoffed. She unwrapped his tail from her person. But she didn't get up to leave, and thus she miscalculated, because she didn't conceive that Kaa would mention that she hadn't left yet.

“Then why haven’t you left?” he asked.

She wanted to answer him with a snide, snarky comment. But she didn't. Instead, her expression changed. She could feel her heart pounding, and she didn't resist when he shackled her wrists together. She didn't see his eyes changing colors, but that wasn't the point. The point was, he figured out that she did in fact, want to be hypnotized in this moment.

"I don't know," she said. "Maybe I just like your company.”

"Of courssssssssssssse you do," he replied, moving his face closer to hers, "And that'sssssssssss not all you enjoy."

Kimi looked away again. "Not that I know anything about seduction, but I don't think that's how it works. No, I totally don't want to be seduced!" Yare yare daze, why did I say that aloud? 

“Assssssss I sssssssaid,” he said, lowering his voice, “You dessseeeeeeerve a good hypnosssssssisssssss sesssssissssooooonnnn.

“Are you excccccited to play?”

“A little bit,” she said. She was putting it mildly.

“Do you trusssssssst me, Kimi?” he asked, softly, gently.

“Absolutely—WHAAA!”

Kaa literally swept her off her feet. Using his tail, he twisted her around and around, but keeping her safe from dropping. He knew she was annoyed, but he could see that she meant what she said. She was letting him play with her before the show started. It would be hard to believe how, why, and that someone had befriended the infamous Kaa the snake. But then again, very few people actually met the real Kaa the snake, not the Disney version. Oh sure, he loved hypnotizing and playing with humans. But eating them was out of the question.

Finally, with her straddling his tail, he lifted the end of it up, stopping her from sliding off. Finally catching her breath, she sat forward, placing her arm on his tail, chin in another hand, giving him the stink-eye. He then deposited her back on the branch, but this time she was straddling it. Then he wrapped part of his tail around her midsection so he could hold her in place, cupping her chin with the tip of the tail to keep her head still. Moving close, with a smile, he began using the hypnotic, colored rings in his eyes.

Kimi sat bewildered on the branch, not sure what was going on, until she looked up and saw a pair of spiraling eyes. “Both eyessssss, if you’d pleeeeeaaaaaaasssse,” he said, pushing his face into hers, wearing a smile that would last the whole hypnosis session and for hours to come. “Let’sssss have ssssome fun!”

Kaa’s hypnotic spirals filled Kimi’s vision, and they immediately reflected in her eyes, slack jawed. Her stomach first felt tight with excitement that this show was finally getting on the road, before the familiar pleasant warm sensation filled her chest. Her arms dropped limply to her sides and she bent forward so she could get a better look at his eyes, which were swinging this way and that. She followed his eyes diligently and obediently. She couldn’t look away now, like they magically locked her gaze with his. And to be honest, she didn’t want to look away, either.

“Yessssss, thank you for looking into my eyesssssssss,” he said. He removed his tail from around her, then lowered the tip and wrapped it around her midsection. Simultaneously, he circled and swung his head from side to side to keep her eyes focused. Now that she was firmly being hypnotized, she resisted just a little bit. It was a technique she used to draw out the induction and so she could enjoy it a little more. At the speed Kaa’s rings were going, it could take a few minutes for her to fall under. And she would be under a deeper spell.

Kimi followed his movements, not missing a single one. She was completely enthralled by his eyes, focused entirely on them. Her body loosened and she slumped forward a little bit until she felt his soft, smooth scales on her skin. So she straightened herself out on reflex. She was on autopilot, resisting just to drag out the hypnosis and enjoy it a little longer. The euphoric feelings of relaxation began to spread, starting from the warmth in her chest.

She was legitimately in no danger. In this (real-ish?) world, Kaa’s hypnosis was a reward, not a bad thing.

“Yessssssssssss, it feelssssssssss ssssssssssso goooooood,” he hissed. His tail continued slowly rising up her body. It had started in her lap, now covering her midsection, below her chest. He gently squeezed her, a reminder that he was in control, not just leading along. Kaa’s soft hypnotic eyes soothed her mind, his soft voice dripped like warm honey and his soft scales/coils wrapping her were like a cozy blanket. Yet,

“K-Kaa,” she stammered.

“Yee-esssssss?” he asked.

“Is-is-is...”

“Issssss what?”

“Is this the best you can do?” She grinned.

Kaa chuckled. “A challenge, eh?”

Kaa's hissing seeped into her mind. Her head and eyelids drooped a little bit, but she fought to keep them open and up. She wanted to keep going until she was under his spell. His squeezing tail on her skin was inviting her to give in, as well. But she kept going, enjoying this hypnosis and every minute of it.

"You need a good resssssst..." Kimi's eyes almost closed, her head dropping down. She was feeling woozy, like she was drunk, only that it felt a thousand times better, like she really could forget all her troubles and just give in. However, clarity fought back, making her lift her head and eyes back up, making sweet eye contact again.

“Resssisssst a liiiiittle moooore,” he cooed. When she heard him suggesting that she resist, she widened her eyes as much as she could, but got a harder burst of hypnosis. That wasn't enough to make her surrender, though. Those eyes... so pretty! she thought.

Kaa had paused around her midsection, careful to wrap her chest. While her midsection skin felt nice on his scales, he couldn’t keep it there. Carefully, he loosened his tail as he wrapped the tail around her chest, then squeezed to tighten his grip.

She didn’t notice his tail climbing up her torso, she was still enthralled by his eyes. Her resistance kept slipping, she was getting closer to that blissful mindlessness of his spell. As she relaxed, his tail crept up to her shoulders, giving her a gentle squeeze, making her head pop up again—it had dropped, again.

"Try to keep your head up," he said.

"I... I'm trying," she replied. "You're great at this."

He chuckled. "Plenty of exssssperienccccce, dahling," he said.

"I couldn't... ask for... a better hypnotist," she said, grinning for a moment.

Her head bounced around as his head also bounced, loving what she was seeing. Her thoughts were vanishing, except for one: "Give in", but she didn't. She still wanted to keep the hypnosis going as long as she could. Despite that, she struggled to keep her eyes open, to keep from giving in. Then she remembered she was totally coiled up, comfortably immobile, and his tail around her neck, ready to squeeze. The colors... the colors... They were all she wanted to see right now...

“Yessssssssss, you’re doing amazing,” he whispered, circling her neck with his tail, ready to finish coiling.

"You're.... not done... are you?"

"No, but not until you're ready," he replied.

"Ready... when I'm ready..." She had meant to say, "I'll be ready when I'm ready," but she couldn't finish it. Her mind was blissfully clouded, and that meant she was about to fall. She opened her eyes wide open and leaned forward, forcing herself to stay awake to gaze into Kaa’s eyes. She was almost there! She willed herself to continue staring, even as it felt like she should give up.

Then, she felt the tail tighten around her neck. She gulped in surprise, she received one last burst of hypnosis and resistance ceased. She was now under Kaa’s spell.

Kaa examined his handiwork with a satisfied grin. All in a day’s work. A blank, wide-eyed stare into nothing and a goofy ear-to-ear grin. Inside, her mind was blissfully blank, like a just-as-blank canvas for Kaa to work on. She was wrapped up in a veritable coccoon of coils from her chin to her waist and knees, but not helpless, just immobilized. That would eventually change, of course.

She was ready for Kaa’s first instructions.

“Can you hear me?” he asked.

“Yes, Kaa,” she said, as enthusiastically as she could with a dreamy monotone.

“What do you want to do, Kimi?” he asked.

“I want to hang out for a while, then you can play with me.”

Kaa chuckled. “We can do that later,” he said. “Firsssst, let’ssssss play.”

Kaa gently lifted her off the branch, wrapped his tail down to her knees, gently wiggled her from side to side, and placed her feet back on the branch. He loosened his coil cocoon and lifted his tail off her. She slumped forward. Liquidly moving his tail, he gently stroked her chin. He had so many ideas, but like a kid with a new toy, he couldn’t just pick one.

He lifted an arm. She didn’t resist. He spun her around, and she moved with him, like she was dancing. A human behavior that he never tired of.

He let go, and she leaned forward. With quick reflexes, he placed the tip of his tail on her forehead. She stopped immediately. Chuckling, he remembered some of the things he could do with her. After gently nudging her back onto her feet, he used his tail to scoop her up. She laid on his tail on her stomach. Then he moved her away from the branch.

“Ssssstraighten up, pleassssse,” he said as he gently tossed her in the air. She did as he commanded, and he caught her again, this time on her back. “Loosssssen.” Her body went slack and he slid her down his tail until she reached the tip. Then he balanced her entire body on the tip of his tail, gently nudging her until she straightened out, flat and stiff like a board. He kept her in that position for a few minutes, impressed with the effect his hypnosis had on the human body.

He looked down upon her. She still had the same expression, and the rings pulsing in her eyes. Because she was a willing participant, she was deep under his spell.

Then he dropped her. Purposefully.

She twisted her body in the air, like a cat, reached and grabbed a vine, then swung back to the branch, effortlessly landing in a bestial crouch. Kaa “clapped” with his tail on the branch, and she bowed.

“Amazing!” he said. “You are quite the jungle girl!”

“Thank you,” she said.

“Now, come here.” He beckoned her with his tail, and she eagerly walked towards him. He placed the tail on the end of the branch, and she stepped onto his tail. Like many things, he never tired of having his subjects walk along his body. Something about the bare human foot giving him a little massage. (He tried to lick a human foot once; Kainak’s. When he stopped violently gagging [thanks to that Kahuna’s spell preventing him from eating humans], he remarked how awful human soles tasted. Where the hell had his feet been!?).

Kimi’s “technique”, honed by jungle life (and previous hypnosis sessions) kept her perfectly balanced, even as he shifted his body around, mostly so he could watch her. He smiled; she was still smiling, rings pulsing in her eyes as she was contently blissfully hypnotized.

“You’re doing ssssssso wellllllll,” he mused.

He bucked his body, making her fall backwards, landing on his back. Then she pushed herself up, standing ramrod straight. He lifted her up back to the branch, and she stepped off his body without prompts.

“You’re sssssssssssooooooo goood at thisssssss,” he said. “Are you having fun?”

“Not as much as I should be,” she replied.

“Then let’ssssss change that,” he said. He wrapped his tail around her midsection until he had her in the same conical cocoon. Then he lifted her, coiled down to her knees, and held her parallel to the branch for reference.

Loosening his coils, he sent her spinning downwards, making her shriek as his tail unravelled. Then, he grabbed her midsection, and pulled her back up. She was laughing uproariously when she returned. “AGAIN!” she shouted.

So, he obeyed her request and did the same yo-yo thing a couple of more times. He was genuinely happy for her. She was born in a place called “Australia”. Her parents died when she was young and she lived with an abusive foster family until meeting Kainak and Hulie. Now she lived her dream, carefree life in the jungle. And being honored with having a carefree hypnotic moment with Kaa.

He got tired of the yo-yo thing, and pulled her up. Placing her back on the branch, he uncoiled her. “Dancccccce, pleasssssse,” he said.

Her right foot swept in front while she raised her arms to the side. They swept to the front and she began what was called a “hula”, a dance the natives performed. It involved the hands, hips and feet. He watched in rapt attention. Her movements kept his eyes fixed on her. She was acting out a routine she had learned among the Teo tribe that told a tale about some great event a long time ago. She not only was enjoying herself, but she was also good at it. He was impressed. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. Now, he certainly didn’t find her appealing in… that way… but he couldn’t deny she was beautiful by human standards, and her hip movements were hypnotic.

He chuckled to himself again. He saw, in memory’s view, a far-off distant day, when he hypnotized the Bandar-Log with his own “dance”. Oh, those were the days.

He broke out of his thoughts when she shouted. While he was waxing nostalgic, she had switch to a war dance. The natives called it a “haka”.

“Kaaaa, mate, ka mate, ka ooora, ka ooora!” She bellowed.

“That’sssss enough now,” he said. She obeyed his suggestion, standing ramrod straight again. He, uh, snaked part of his tail around her arms and legs. He lifted her right leg up to test something. Wordlessly, and obediently, she lifted her leg. He moved her arms and legs like she was a toy until she was bent forward on her hands and feet like a quadroped. Then he let her go. "You're an ape," he said, "Act like one!"

On command, she began to act like one. She made grunting noises, moved with all four limbs on the branch, then jumped to another one. In her mind, she really was an ape right now, and followed the instincts of one. However, she did not stray far from the branch that acted as the center of activity. A desire to impress Kaa kept her there. And he was indeed impressed, happy that the facade of so-called “civilization” melted away. Knowing that she was happy here in the jungle just made it more enjoyable for both.

He dangled part of his tail, and she jumped to grab it. Effortlessly, she scaled the scales and climbed to a branch where she squatted. “And, ssstop!” Kaa said, shaking out his tail. The silly grin returned to her lips and she stood ramrod straight again. Kaa’s tail ached a little bit. She had tugged a little hard on it.

He reached up and coiled around her midriff twice, pinning her arms to her side. He lifted her off the branch and placed her on his back again. Gently, he made waves with his massive length, but they were gentle, rolling waves that didn’t move her.

He nudged her onto her feet. She walked forward again, and the rolling of the snake’s body continued. She stepped on a rolling wave, and fell backwards. Ever the gentlesnake, he nudged her back onto her feet, allowing her to keep walking. Then she stepped on another roll and fell forward. He continued the rolling of his body like rolling waves. Her eyelids began flickering, like she was about to fall asleep on his body. So he nudged her back onto her feet. She fell forward.

He slipped the tip of his tail around her left ankle and lifted her up. Her right leg fell forward, her arms fell to the side, and her hair also fell. “I sssssssee you’re jusssssst... hanging around,” he joked. “Let me help you with that.”

He let go, and she slipped back onto his body. She stared up at the sky and he slipped his head over her.

“Is something wrong?” She asked. “It kind of feels like you’re rushing to try things on me.”

It felt sudden to him. Taken aback at first, he regathered himself. “I’m sssssssorry if it feelssssss that way,” he said.

“But I’m also having fun,” she said.

“And time fliessssss when you’re having fun,” he added. Still, he had time. Although the spell would eventually wear off, it could take a couple of days depending on whether the subject wanted to stay under it. The Manling and Kainak both spent as long as seven days under his spell. That seemed to be the maximum length.

Which meant he didn’t have to try to do too much right now. Even better, because when he looked out at the horizon, he saw that the sun was getting lower.

He beckoned her to walk towards him again, and she dutifully obeyed. She walked until the end of the branch, where he stopped her, pressing the tip of his tail against her forehead so he could make a path using his body. Then, he removed his tail and let her walk along his length. Gently, he slid his head under her feet and curled himself, with his body like a hamster wheel. With a few rotations, he managed to make her slip onto her back on his back. She immediately relaxed as he loosened his body to make a hammock for her. Without any need for instructions, she closed her eyes and slipped into a relaxed state.

He chuckled. It was probably for the best that he not move her. But, he slid her into a coil cocoon, gently squeezing, and laid her on the branch. She sank further into his coils, her head lowering.

“When you wake up, we’ll have a lot more fun together,” he said softly.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:

They left the tree mere hours after he hypnotized her, and now they hung out by a small spring and waterfall. Kimi sat cross-legged on a rock next to the water. Half of Kaa’s body was raised above her while he regaled her with a story.

“... And assss sssssssoon asssssss she broke my ssssssspell hersssself, she thanked me and ran off into her jungle to live wild and free. And that’ssssss the sssstory of how I ssssssaved Miraya from that sssso-called 'insssssane assssylum. What did you think, Kimi?”

“An amazing story, Kaa!” Kimi replied. Kaa chuckled. She had been glued to his story. Of course, it was easy to be glued to his story if she was still under his spell, like she had been the past two days. Fortunately, she was enjoying herself.

“Why, thank you,” he said. “Oh, universsssssse hopping. Ssssssso many people jussssssst want to meet me. Now, we ssssssshould get back to playing, ourssssssselvessssss. We have sssssssso much time and ssssssssssso much to do.” Gently, he wrapped his coils around her body. Although her expression was still relatively blank, he knew she was excited to play.