You turn your head back to the lamia and ask what she meant—an idea on how to prove you can look out for yourself? What did she have in mind?
“Oh, it’s very simple,” she says, leaning forward. You turn further to the lamia as you notice a flickering light coming from her. It takes you a moment to realize it’s her eyes—they’ve lit up in different colors, sharply standing out in the dark night.
“If you’ll give me your attention for a moment . . .” Swirling rings of soft colors pulsate from her eyes like a small light show. She turns you with her scaly tail so you’re directly facing her, and you lean forward to look closer and attend her warm words, your mouth dropping agape in wonder and heaviness.
“The first thing you have to do . . .” You almost fall forward from leaning too far, but the lamia props you up with her soft tail, which you hug with one arm. The edge of your vision blurs as you stare, the beautiful hues of her eyes bleeding into the dim world around you.
“Is look into my eyes.”
That sounds simple enough: you’re already doing it and don’t really want to do anything else right now. Her radiant eyes are practically captivating. You wonder if you were sleepier than you thought, but that probably doesn’t matter. You just need to look into her vividly swirling eyes right now.
The lamia moves closer until her pretty face is right before you, her long hair falling in waves before her. She narrows her eyes as her smile deepens and she whispers, “Now that you’ve looked into my eyes, all you have to do to prove you can look out for yourself is to resist my spell and look away.” Her face brightens as if telling a joke. “Simple! Just look away, right now, and you’ll prove that you can look out for yourself.”
Aw man, that sounds hard. Time for another one of these branches. Are you gonna:
-11a Look away from the lamia and prove you can look out for yourself (unfinished)
-11b Keep looking at the lamia; her eyes are just too pretty to look away from yet
Duth Olec's Cuckoo Cosmos 