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Post by Tiamat on May 9, 2018 10:22:04 GMT -6
Wes gazed into a still pocket of water with a solemn expression, eyes locked on his reflection below. Over half of his twenty-foot length stretched out on a thick branch hanging over the stream, allowing liberal patches of sunlight to warm his scales. “All right, listen up! You are descended from a proud and noble line of hypnotic pythons. It is literally in your blood -- well, your eyes.” He chuckled. “You can do this! You are cunning. You are compelling. You are irresistible! You will hypnotize a human of your very own someday, you just… haven’t gotten your chance yet. The right moment. The right human. They do have strong wills, after all, it’s not like you can just slither up and hypnotize anyone you like at the drop of a hat! Not, not yet, anyway -- and that’s fine! That’s fine. You just gotta work up to it, is all. Get in some practice.”
The mottled brown python nodded to himself. “Yes, practice. Find the right human first... a nice tired, drained, lost little human… mmm, yes, that would make a very nice start. A very nice start indeed.” He smiled.
(yumthegreat)
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Post by yooom on May 9, 2018 11:52:42 GMT -6
Not far from where Wes gazed into his own reflection, a human was making her way between thick tree trunks and over tangled vines towards the small pool. She was rather short, with dark, brown eyes that moved to look at each slight movement, the rustle of each leaf in the wind, cautious to a fault. Although she eyed everything that moved, her expression was far from nervous. There was a cool confidence about her, as she strode calmly through the trees, a cloak made of deer pelt that hung from her shoulders down to around her knees. She kept her arms under her cloak, her scarred hands clutching the pelt cloak tightly.
Bheka was rather unique amongst the jungle’s creatures. Certainly, simply being a human who had lived as long as he had, some twenty six rains, amongst the jungle’s beasts made her extraordinary, but Bheka had had an advantage on the rest of the jungle’s life; when she had been a baby, she had been tended to by the jungle’s mightiest hunter, a tigress. She had raised Bheka for years, longer than any tiger cub should have been raised, before casting her out into the jungle alone, some fifteen rains ago. Since then she had done everything she could to live up to her mother’s expectations, and had become a great predator like her.
But now was not the time for hunting. The sun hung at its highest, making the jungle shine in an array of greens and browns, and Bheka wanted only water. She was in an unfamiliar part of the jungle, miles from her home den, but she was certain that water had to be close.
A moment later, she found herself by the stream. On the opposite banks, she noted the python, quite a large one, at that, staring down into the water, mumbling something she couldn’t quite hear over the sound of water. Sitting down across from him, without offering the snake so much as a word, she bent down to the stream, and began to drink.
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Post by Tiamat on May 9, 2018 17:06:07 GMT -6
Movement caught his eye. Wes looked up to see nothing less than a real, live human settling down on the other side of the stream, almost directly across from him. She seemed to dismiss him as a threat, leaning over to put her mouth to the water and drink. Wes's head slowly rose into the air, his mouth agape in surprise. A human! Here! Right here, practically next to him, and she didn't care at all about his presence. What an excellent first building block to trust. "Trussst," he repeated out loud, practicing his soothing hiss.
He -- he had to get over there immediately and introduce himself. Grab her attention before she wandered off again, poor thing, for surely she was lost. He scanned the far side of the creek, but there wasn't another branch growing close enough for him to comfortably reach. Not unless he wanted to climb this tree higher first, and who knows where the woman might run off to if he took the time for that! Maybe he could reach that branch from here after all...
Gathering himself up, he inched up across the gap, head swaying side to side as his body slid forward across the branch. It wasn't that far. He could make it. He could almost brush the bark with his chin, his neck just kept dipping down towards the water. Wes gave himself one last push, straining up -- and with a yelp crashed down into the stream as the last third of his body lost its grip on the first tree. Just like that he was submerged, though at least the slow-moving water meant he wasn't carried too far before he thrashed himself ashore. Flicking water from his nose and tail, he hurried back to where the woman was and cleared his throat, doing his best to ignore the fact that he was now dripping wet.
"Ah, hello... there..." From this angle he could see her clothes, which weren't so much the austere, unfamiliar garments he'd heard most humans wore. No, that was unmistakably a pelt of some kind. That was... no, she couldn't be living in the jungle. Only one woman lived in the jungle, and she'd never ventured into his cosy little portion of trees. He gathered himself up, head rising to put them at an equal eye level, and flashed her his best disarming grin. It was very good -- he practiced it in the water sometimes. "I haven't seen you around here before. Who might you be?"
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Post by yooom on May 9, 2018 20:03:17 GMT -6
Even as she drank, head low to the water’s edge, her tongue lapping up water, Bheka was still able to keep an eye on the snake on the opposite side of the stream. She watched him as he stared at her in what seemed complete shock. Of couse, after spending several years as the jungle’s only resident human, Bheka had come to get used to the stares, the curious gazes from birds and monkeys from the treetops, even the regal elephants spared her a curious glance when they passed her, though a snake of Wes' side was rather unusual.
What she did not expect was for the snake in question to abruptly plunge itself into the stream. His sheer size seemed to be all that prevented him from washing downstream, but, after a few moments of struggling, it made his way up onto the beach, dripping water onto the rock she’d situated herself on. Her eyes winced slightly, as she inched slightly away from the creature as it spluttered. As it grew closer, beginning to talk to her, Bheka stopped drinking, turning to rise up onto her feet, staring down at Wes coldly. He was strange, almost shy, which did, admittedly, take her a little off guard. Although he appeared nervous, he bared its teeth at her, an unmistakable sign of aggression, and she eyed it coldly. As he asked for her identity, she drew herself a little taller, pulling the pelt close to her skin. “I am new to these parts, but this jungle has been my home my entire life, serpent. I am Bheka, daughter of Durga the tigress. I wish you no harm. By what name may I call you?”
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Post by Tiamat on May 10, 2018 0:10:07 GMT -6
His smile dwindled under Bheka's cold stare. Well, this wasn't going well. Not at all. But... maybe he could still salvage the situation? "You are!" He exclaimed, fixing an expression of delight on his face as he lied through his teeth. "I thought you were, I said to myself, 'Wes, that must be Bheka, daughter of -- Durga, you say? -- Durga the tigress,' but I've never seen you around here before, so I thought, you know, I'd better come over and introduce myself, just in case you're not Bheka and were instead a lost, lonely human alone in the unfamiliar jungle, because -- because then I could help, of course. That's what I wanted to do, to help. I could lend a friendly ear, a comforting tail..." Ripples ran down his body as he spoke, waiting several feet before shaking his coils from side to side to get rid of the excess water. There went most of the warmth he'd soaked in on his favorite sunning branch.
"...but you are Bheka, so you're not lost at all!" Wes smiled at her again, close-mouthed this time. Humans were supposed to like smiles, he'd heard, but then, Bheka wasn't a typical human. She was more of a tiger, really, and not someone to be crossed. He swallowed. Maybe this was a bad idea, but it wasn't like humans came strolling through the jungle every day! When else would he get his shot at one? "I mean, you're new to the area, so maybe you'd like a guide, perhapsss?" He looked up at her, hopeful, and regretted that he'd lost his vantage point from the tree. That would have put them on much more even footing -- so to speak. Sure, he could raise his head up to match her standing height, but that was uncomfortable for him, and often appeared threatening since it could easily have preceded a lunge. "Oh! Ah, I wish you no harm either, of course... very nice reassurance, that... and you can call me Wes. Because that, uh, that is my name."
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Post by yooom on May 10, 2018 15:19:09 GMT -6
Caught in her stare, Wes seemed to freeze up, seeming more nervous as he stuttered to find something to say to her. It seemed quite clear that, for the moment, he posed no threat to her. Moreover, it seemed almost as if he was trembling in front of her. Her defensive posture lessened slightly, and she sat down before him, attempting to appear a little less dangerous to him, so that the two were more less at eye level. After all, this was his part of the jungle, and she was the one travelling through it. Had their roles been swapped, and some large snake had stumbled unknowingly across her den, she doubted she would be nearly as welcoming.
“It is true, this particular part of the woods are foreign to me,” Bheka admitted, looking away from the snake slightly to stare above Wes, at the vast trees that stretched skywards, their vast branches criss-crossing in a maze that was beyond the ground dwellers like herself. “But I do not consider myself lost. I know how to get from here back to my den, so, I am quite aware of myself.” She turned to him, blinking slowly at him. “But I am glad for your company, Wes.” Continuing to appear more relaxed with his presence, Bheka leaned against a nearby tree, though her hands were still at the hems of her pelt cloak, ready to make a move if need be.
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Post by Tiamat on May 10, 2018 16:31:28 GMT -6
Nothing could have shocked him more than when the fearsome jungle woman not only relaxed, but sat down beside him. Wes tried not to light up in excitement, though he couldn't fully suppress his pleased expression. Oh yes, he could definitely salvage this situation. Maybe Bheka wouldn't be such a challenging target to start with after all. And if he could hypnotize her... why, he could hypnotize anyone!
"Oh, of course, of course, naturally you're not lost. Not lost at all. How can you be? You're Bheka!" He perked up again when she spoke in favor of his company, practically preening under the positive words. It occurred to him that Bheka would be much easier to sway if she were tired, and he knew the perfect place to help free her of some of that energy and alertness. "Sssay," he began, "if you're new to these parts, then you don't know about the truffle grounds! They're a bit of a distance--" Though not as far as they might've been if he could lead her around in circles for a few miles. He didn't dare try that with such an experienced resident, however. She'd surely catch on at once and force him to act. "-- but more than worth it in the end. Have you ever tried a truffle before? I don't sssee what the big fuss is about, personally, clumps of dirts really... but the boars seem to go wild for them, so that's -- that's something, isn't it? Worth a look, maybe?" The snake scrambled to recover when he realized he wasn't really selling the idea by describing his disinterest in the things.
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Post by yooom on May 10, 2018 16:45:46 GMT -6
Bheka smiled slightly as Wes buttered her up with his compliments. He certainly made for good company, and had gotten much less frightened of her. It was nice to have someone to chat to, tigers were a solitary people, and there were few who were particularly interested in talking with a tiger, even if it looked like human. That this particular snake seemed so adamant to talk to her she found oddly refreshing.
Bheka had never heard of truffles, nor was she particularly interested in eating “clumps of dirt” but, at the mention of boar, she perked up a bit. “You say you know an area where boar feed?” she asked curiously. One of her fingers traced across a rather deep score that ran from her calf up to her knee. She had been younger, and perhaps a little bolder, when she had tried to take on her first boar, and had paid the price for it. That being said, he had been delicious, a meal made all the tastier for its cost. Boar were a curious group, far less jumpy than deer or any of the other creatures Bheka tended to go for, but they made for it by their aggressive nature, made all the worse by their jagged tusks at just the right level to upset her footing. That this snake, whom she’d written off as a bird eater in her mind, knew where boars tended to go, was surprising itself. “Truly, I did not expect you would try such dangerous game.” she said to him, rising. “Certainly, let us examine these grounds.” Bheka was a little surprised that Wes would give away such a lucrative secret to her seemingly on a whim, but she was hardly about to stop him from revealing such a prime hunting ground to her.
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Post by Tiamat on May 12, 2018 22:29:03 GMT -6
Wes nodded with enthusiasm, eager to keep Bheka receptive to his presence. "Oh yes, yes. Lots of boar, they love the place. It'd almost be too easy, except, well, you know boar. Highly aggressive and far too easily offended, if you ask me." Boar were quite a challenge, it was true, but up on the truffle grounds they were often so distracted hunting for the treats that he had a much better chance of pinning one down long enough for his hypnosis to kick in and subdue it. His head rose higher with her compliment and rocked from side to side in a smug manner. "Well, that's me, Bheka, I'm a snake of many talents."
She stood, and Wes shivered in anticipation. His gaze flicked up to the treetops. "I don't sssuppose you'd consider giving me a boost?" The wry smile he offered her suggested he didn't expect her to agree, and indeed, he was already advancing up the nearest trunk, gradually wrapping himself around the bark to aid his ascent into the canopy. As he climbed, he chattered away. "It shouldn't surprise me that you are more interested in the boar than their food, really. You are clearly a woman of discerning taste. I would be pleased to share a hunt with you." Now settling himself among the branches, he peered down through the leaves at Bheka to observe her response. "It'ss this way. Come on!" Taking off, he checked frequently to make sure Bheka stayed with him as he set a pace that would push her into either a swift walk or a slow trot to keep up. It would be an easy pace to maintain on relatively level ground, but much more difficult as the land sloped up and up before finally leveling off in the secluded little valley. Wes would have an easy time of it in the trees, but he hoped that navigating the rocky, vegetation-thick terrain would help tire Bheka out.
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Post by yooom on May 14, 2018 11:24:01 GMT -6
As he spoke of the sheer number of boar, Bheka began to feel slightly uneasy. Boar were dangerous alone, in large groups they were not worth the risk in hunting them, much too dangerous even for the largest and most powerful tigers of the jungle. Of course, Wes was larger than any tiger she’d ever seen, and she was pretty sure that he was exaggerating regarding exactly how many boar they would be dealing with.
“A boost?” Bheka asked quizzically, but the huge snake seemed to already be on the move, his body easily sliding upwards into the branches. She watched his body move with some fascination. For a creature as clumsy as he had been on land, he took to the treetops like a fish to water, easily slithering up into the very lowest of the network of branches that stretched up into the heavens. With one final remark he took off, and Bheka followed, dashing across the river and into the forest on the opposite bank. She marvelled in the way that Wes was able to move from one tree to the next, urging her onwards, as she made her way around rocks and thick, brambled bushes, one eye always on Wes’ movements. It was a difficult path for her, and it suddenly seemed to make a lot of sense as to why her kind never went into these parts of the jungle; the ground was simply not easily passed through. No wonder the boar came through here, with their tougher hides they were able to pass through these woods without even feeling the brambles. Making a mental note to skin the next boar she caught and use it as a sort of armor to protect her arms and legs from the thorns, she continued to follow Wes on this strange and circuitous path to these “truffle grounds.”
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Post by Tiamat on May 15, 2018 17:55:50 GMT -6
The python kept up his deceptively casual pace, making sure to glance back and offer frequent encouragement whenever Bheka had to forge her way through a particularly dense thicket. All according to plan. Oh, he could tie himself in knots with his delight! "Almost there! Not too far now. Can you see the slope leveling off up ahead? Well, uh, maybe you can't, being down there and all, but that's it up ahead. That's the place! Come on!" He put on an extra burst of speed, darting along over a familiar route of branches. The bark was worn smooth in places by the frequent passage of his scales. Wes's tongue flicked out, tasting the air. There were boar, all right: at least five or six, he thought, judging by the strength of the smell. He shivered in glee. Now for step two.
Wes dropped his head down through the leaves after making sure he wouldn't pop up right next to Bheka unannounced. He wanted her tired, maybe focused, not startled out of her skin. "They're here, all right! There's almost always one or two sssnuffling about. I think I've sspotted one a little ways off by itsself. In fact, I'm sure of it! Why don't you cssircle around behind it, and I'll sssee if I can't dissstract it, hmm? I'm very good at it. Or, I will be. I'm getting there. It'sss not as easy as it lookss, you know -- or, um. Yes. Ssshall we?" A little sheepish, he pointed his nose in the right direction. The soft hissing that slipped into his speech was only partly planned. He was just so excited! He'd come up with such the clever plan to see if he could captivate Bheka. If all went well, he might have his very own hypnotized human before dark!
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Post by yooom on May 16, 2018 1:33:17 GMT -6
Of course the snake could go faster. Rather abruptly, Wes started speeding up, practically whizzing through the treetops, and Bheka, taking care not to run into a tree or hit a stone, followed. Her style of hunting was mostly ambushes, and no creature had dared try to go after her for about five years, so, this kind of long distance running was enough to have her out o breath quite quickly. She stood, leaning heavily against a tree, breathing heavily, before turning to Wes.
Smell was something of a sore spot for Bheka. Although she’d spent years honing her hunting abilities, she had the sense of smell of a pathetic human, which simply did not compare to those of her mother, or the rest of the jungle’s creatures. Watching Wes easily sense his prey while looking at her, especially after that run he’d forced her into, was enough to start to annoy Bheka.
“Ssh!” She hissed at him, before leaning forwards, just barely within the cover the tree provided from the clearing beyond, listening carefully. She could hear movement, quite a lot of it, something that seemed a rather wider creature, almost definitely a boar, if not several. Pulling her pelt cloak close to her body, she took a deep breath, readying herself for the hunt, before freezing, a thought coming to her head. Convenient for the snake, she supposed, to have her hunting the creature, catching it, all on the ground, while he was perfectly safe from its gouging tusks up in the treetops. Once the creature was dead, would she be able to defend her part of the kill from him? She wasn’t even particularly hungry at the moment, no, best to leave any hunting off for the time being, get out of here knowing where the place was. “I don’t think I quite need to hunt anything just at the moment,” she replied, quietly, so as not to ward off the boar, in case he cared to try to hunt them himself. She gestured with an arm. “By all means, if you’d care to hunt, feel free.” Bheka was, admittedly, a little curious to see how as bulksy a creature as Wes was able to hunt himself.
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Post by Tiamat on May 20, 2018 17:00:13 GMT -6
He barely stopped himself from crying out, "But you can't!" Wes shifted in agitation, his coils bunching in on themselves within the concealing branches overhead. What had changed? Bheka had been so agreeable earlier. He'd thought things were going well! He opened his mouth.
"O-oh, um, well, yes, that's -- that's fine. Perfectly fine. I just thought... I mean, why come all this way if you're not going to hunt? But yes, that's um, your choice, of course, if you don't want to hunt then you don't want to hunt. More for me, right?" He offered her a grin before remembering that she hadn't responded too well to that the first time and snapped his jaw shut. "Right, well, uh -- come! You can watch the master at work instead, that being me, and, uh, maybe -- maybe just circle a little ways around the boar I target? You'll get the best view from behind it, and that way if it gets mad and charges me you won't be in the way. Its way, I mean, not -- not mine, of course, you wouldn't be in my way, that's not... what I meant. In case you were wondering."
Nodding in encouragement, he waited hopefully for her to say yes.
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Post by yooom on May 21, 2018 22:46:24 GMT -6
At Bheka’s refusal to join the hunt Wes seemed to jump, his body twisting in a strange way above Bheka as she watched, perplexed. Judging by his bizarre reaction, and the way he stammered when he tried to speak to her a few moments later, he did seem truly distressed about her not wishing to join him in the hunt. Perhaps she had figured out his plan to either use her for distraction or to simply steal what would have been her part of the kill. Then again, he seemed more worried than he should have been, if that had been his plan. She frowned slightly. Was this odd serpent even capable of making a kill by himself? Perhaps that was why he’d requested she help him, he truly needed her assistance. From what she’d seen of the somewhat clumsy snake, she could not imagine him actually making a kill.
Bheka sensed that she had offended the snake, and she once again dipped her head in a kind of formal bow. This was still his territory, even if she intended to use it for her own later, and he was still to be respected within it. Ignoring his ramblings, she replied. “Very well, I will watch you hunt from there,” she said, gesturing to a space in the trees a little ways away. “I will watch the way you hunt with much interest,” she promised. She was curious to see if such a blundering creature would be able to bring down such dangerous prey. Nodding to him slightly, she rose, pulling her pelt close to herself to keep it from making a noise against the branches they were behind, and made her way over to watch the hunt.
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Post by Tiamat on May 22, 2018 20:22:44 GMT -6
"Great! That's -- that's good. That's very good. Yes, see that you do." Once Bheka turned away, Wes stopped nodding like he was trying to create a breeze with his snout. Sliding back up into the canopy, he set off to examine the lone boar he'd pointed out and get an idea of what he had to work with.
The boar was a somewhat smaller-than-average female, not quite big enough or strong enough to compete with the other pigs snuffling around the truffle-rich earth in the center of the wooded valley. Wes watched her nose about for several minutes as he waited for the right opportunity. He also wanted to make sure Bheka was securely in place and watching closely for him. Finally he let out a low hiss to test the sow's jumpiness. One of her ears flicked towards him, but she continued to root about for those tasty, tasty treats her kind loved so much. Encouraged, Wes lowered his head a foot or so through the leaves, keeping high enough to avoid spooking the animal.
"Ssso, what'ss all this sssniffing and sshuffling about for?" The sow gave him a sidelong glance, and then, as he'd hoped, she reluctantly began to explain. Wes kept up his hissing speech and let his neck sway gently back and forth as if moved by the wind. The sow kept half an eye on him, but most of her attention remained on the earth she was turning over with her powerful nose. That was fine. It wasn't her attention he wanted anyway.
Still, he eventually had to ask. "Ssssay, iss there a chance you might posssibly asssisst me with ssomething, my ssweet sssow?" Wes focused hard, his head falling still as he concentrated on his eyes. Spiral, spiral, come on now, any second... The pig glanced up at him and blinked.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"I wonder if you could tell me if it'sss working?" He thought it was -- the fact that her head had now lifted to face him directly was a promising sign. "Yesss, that's it. Jussst look at me now." Remembering to bob, he started swinging his head back and forth, ponderously slow. The sow followed along. Promising, promising, but now...
Keeping his eyes locked on the pig, Wes let his tail slink down through the leaves to give a "come hither" gesture. He couldn't look up, couldn't give the game away, but this was it. Was Bheka tired enough to fall prey to his hypnotic stare, even from such a distance? He honestly had no idea if it would work, but this, he thought, was his best chance to capture the jungle woman: pretend it wasn't her he was after at all. Wes was so intent on not looking at the foliage where Bheka's scent had remained the past several minutes that he didn't notice at all when the sow's eyes broke into beautiful, answering rainbow spirals as she fell under his control.
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