As pretty as the lamia’s eyes are, you want to prove you can look out for yourself. You muster all your willpower and . . .
You keep looking.
Yeah, here’s the thing about these branching timelines, sometimes no matter how much it branches it all just keeps merging back into one. The pull is too strong. You try with all your will but even as she suggests you look away your sight is locked on the lamia. For a moment you panic, worried you can’t look away at all, but her eyes look so pretty that worry fizzles away. It’s okay that it’s so attracting; you simply don’t want to look away, and you really have no reason to. It feels so relaxing to just sink into the colors rippling out from her eyes into the world.
That said, you did want to look away, so I’m not going to leave you hanging. Let’s see what I can do. Just hang on as long as you can.
Easier said than done, I know. For every passing moment you look into the lamia’s eyes your thoughts drift further away. The dark jungle fades into the hypnotic colors, all you can think about, all you want to think about. The lamia chuckles and you giggle in response. She’s so nice, it’s so nice she’s happy. She has your mind in her power, and just a few moments more and—
You spin around, your heavy limbs swaying about. The lamia—
She’s gone? At first you just notice a stream breakage, as if you’d gulped from a cup you unexpectedly found empty. With the colors so heavily swirling in the dark jungle you just notice this emptiness of light at first, but your thoughts bubble that the lamia is no longer in your vision. Your thoughts press through the colors as if through molasses, too slow to bring you awake, and you stand staring at nothing until some furry pressure shakes you. Through your numb hearing you hear your name, and after a furry paw taps your face the night jungle returns into view and you blink the colors from your eyes. Bagheera sits in the tree looking at you, his face turned down in concern.
You hear Baloo down below threatening to tie the lamia up with her own tail if she ever tries to take you again. Bagheera tells you that they realized you were gone and saw you up in the tree under threat by that lamia.
Wait, under threat? Wasn’t she trying to help you prove you could look out for yourself or something?
-31a Hey, that’s right. She was trying to help you more than your other friends had been.
-31b Actually, you didn’t trust her from the beginning. You know she had some ulterior motive.
Duth Olec's Cuckoo Cosmos 