You shiver and shake your drowsiness away. The last thing you remember, you started staring at the lamia—at night—and now it’s morning—and she’s wrapped all around you like you’re a pillow, her head nestled against your cheek. You push out against her coils and discover her grip is loose—at least until you try to stand, at which point she squeezes tight and nestles closer to you with a moan and sigh.
With her hefty body holding down your legs and gripping your arms, you’re unable to push her off. You shout for her to wake up, which just elicits more groggy moans. After enough shouting she grabs your face and looks into your eyes.
“Oh, we don’t have to get up yet,” she moans. “Let’s go back to sleep, it’s too early.”
You stare at her color-pulsing eyes, though they sag as if she might shut them at any moment. The memory of last night surfaces and you shout and clench your eyes shut.
“No! Stop that!” You shake in her grip. “Let me go!”
The lamia groans and lays back on the branch.
“Fiiine.”
She loosens her coils and slithers her tail off your shoulders. You murmur and hold your breath as her scales slide around your face, her scent trailing away. The way her scaly tail slides under your chin and brushes your skin, you suspect she’s flirting with you.
Her thick trunk coils remain piled around you, but once she slides off your shoulders you can stand and stretch. You’re stiff from the still sleep and feel like you need a massage. You look at the lamia’s tail and wonder if she gives massages—although that’s how you got stiff in the first place, wasn’t it?
You look up and flinch—the lamia’s face is next to yours with a wide smirk.
“So, what do you want for breakfast? I know a great papaya tree just south of here.”
You blink.
“What?”
The lamia holds your arm.
“Come on, you can’t skip out on breakfast.”
You shake her off your arm and step away over her coils.
“You can’t just—what did you do to me last night?”
“I just helped you get to sleep, that’s all.” Her smile doesn’t change.
“No, that’s not all,” you say. “You—You did something. Without asking permission!”
“Would you accept if I offered it now?” the lamia asks.
“Yes.” You slap your hand over your mouth and blush. The lamia giggles, and you cover your face. Why did you say that?
Because it’s true, isn’t it?
But she—But you—You can’t trust her, you think.
Yet all she did was snuggle with you for the night. Here you are, next morning, perfectly fine and being offered a breakfast date.
Wait, is it a date?
You peer out from under your hand at the smiling lamia. She sighs and takes your hand.
“Come on, breakfast and a walk will clear your head.”
She offers her tail to lower you to the ground, but you wave her off. You’ll follow, you say, you just want a moment alone. She nods and slithers to the ground. You wonder how long she’d wait before checking if you bailed.
You peek around the tree to the one Bagheera climbed last night. You see him on a branch, quiet and still, paws over his head. He looks asleep.
He’d probably be able to find you if he really wanted to. Your human scent isn’t common in the jungle. That said, the lamia’s sweet, rich scent might overpower yours. You shiver and try to ignore how your heart flips when you think about breathing her in close.
You climb down and follow her to the papaya tree.
You talk over breakfast. The lamia says she meant no harm but just wanted someone to snuggle with. She gets cold at night, and it would be nice to have someone to spend the days with. For your part, you want to stay in the jungle, and this lamia wants you to stay in the jungle. It seems you both want the same thing.
Add to it the way her flirting scratches your itches—how she holds your chin in smooth fingers as she curls her tail over your shoulders, or flashes a few hypnotic colors to buzz your brain until you lose balance and stumble into the tight grasp of her arms or tail—and you start to think you could come to love spending quality time with her.
You settle in quite nicely together for a few days. You have fun in the trees—sometimes when she binds you in her coils, but now she only fully hypnotizes you when you give consent—and you snuggle together to sleep at night. Life feels good.
Several days later . . .
(To be continued)
Duth Olec's Cuckoo Cosmos 