So yeah, to reiterate, you’d be fine striking out in the jungle by yourself. You’re smart, strong, capable, you could make it on your own. What would it take to prove this to everybody? You snap a twig off the tree, because you’re so grumpy you’re willing to hurt a poor defenseless tree to distract yourself, apparently.
While you’re ruminating over your position a figure emerges from the leaves above. You don’t notice them yet, so stop reading here. I’ll tell you when you can resume reading.
This figure’s upper body appears to be human, with long hair flowing down in waves and smooth, radiant skin. Past her slender body, however, are scaly hips leading to a thick snake tail hanging from a branch above. She smiles at you, looking you over with—well, her eyes, but her gaze could say any number of things—curiosity, hunger, lust—maybe even all three. She looks over at Bagheera for a moment to see if he’s asleep and then moves back straight to you as if nothing else could hold her interest now.
Okay, you can start reading again.
“Say, now,” says the lamia. “What have we here?”
At her voice you glance up. A lamia? You had no idea, you couldn’t have foreseen this in any way! Ordinarily you might be curious to meet a lamia—you’ve only heard vague stories of them—but tonight you’re in too sour of a mood. You just shake your head at her and turn away. She giggles and slips closer, sliding right next to you until she’s at the edge of your vision.
“Why, it’s a human,” the lamia says, grinning as if your ignoring her is the funniest thing in the world. You just sigh and turn back away again. You’re going to be pestered all night by her, aren’t you? Right on cue the lamia slides back directly in your field of view.
“Now, now,” she says as if your avoidance is a joke. “Let me look at you.” She holds your chin in a soft hand. You push her away but limply as your attention is grabbed by her attractive eyes, pulsating rings of color flowing through them. The colors are stunning, more beautiful and vivid than anything you’ve ever seen, and they grab your mind in a charm. The hold falls when you push her away and you look down and blink away thoughts of pretty colors.
What were you just looking at?
“Aw, come on,” the lamia says with a pleading whine as she slithers low and back into your vision with those splendid colors. “Please let me look at you.” This time your arms fall to your sides as you stare into the lamia’s rhythmically hypnotic eyes. The colors overflow in your sight and fill your head, so easy to follow the steady ringed rhythm. The lamia giggles with a smirking grin.
“Thank you,” she says, “you’re so cute, I love looking at you. Please, look into my eyes, won’t you? Please follow me . . .” She rises before you and your head lifts to follow, never breaking the sight of her beautiful eyes, your mouth dropping agape as you look up.
“Oh, you look so sleepy,” the lamia says. She rotates her head, and you follow, at first in a slow, lolling arc. You do feel much sleepier than before, deepened by your attempts to keep up with her swaying, which only becomes harder as you grow sleepier. “You should rest. Yes, please, go to sleep, please, go to sleep.” This beautiful lamia sings a sweet melody, kindly asking you to do something for your own benefit. How could you possibly say no? How could you possibly think to say no? How could you possibly think . . .?
“Please,” she sings, “go to sleep, please, let me hypnotize you.” She giggles and sways your head in a lazy back-and-forth arc. “Yes,” she says, her sweet voice becoming sugary and sticky, “please let me hypnotize you into a sweet, sinking sleep.” Your eyes droop; you’re so very sleepy. “Yes, to help you get to sleep, please do as I say.” She holds your chin in her hand for a moment. “Please obey me. Pleeease?”
How could you say no?
It’s all you want right now.
“That’s right, my pretty pet”—the lamia releases your chin and drags your head in a rotation again—“you so very want to simply look only at me right now.” As she sways your head you feel scales slide around you, starting over your legs and around your thighs. “You want to look at me, but you also want to go to sleeeep.” Between her warm words and the soft, squeezing muscles climbing around you and growing thick and heavy you grow sleepier, eyes so weighty. She wraps your arms tight in her tail, not that you can even think to move them anyway.
“You want to go to sleep,” she sings, “you want to relax so deep, you want to stare and follow my eyes and you want to be absolutely hypnotized.” It feels so stimulatingly relaxing what’s happening to you, like a spa for your body and mind, so soft and cuddly, your head full of colorful mist lifting you lightly into bliss, a growing, rising, slithering hug sinking you into a sleep so snug. You find your thoughts agreeing with the lamia’s words wholeheartedly. She leans closer, her smile wide, still swaying your head as she holds your body in place.
“You want me to hypnotize you,” she says, her voice lowering. “You want to let me fill your head with these wonderful colors and draw you into a dozing dream. You want to lose yourself in my eyes, you want to lose yourself in my thick, encompassing, scaly embrace.” Your mouth cracks into a smile as she squeezes her tail around your upper body, your back and thighs already squished in coils thick as your waist. She comes so close, her face brushing yours.
“You want to obey me,” she says. The jungle is gone, Bagheera is gone, you forget the wolves and the human village and everything as the night is filled with her hypnotic colors. Her eyes alternatively narrow and widen, and a desire to open your eyes wide clashes with the heavy desire to let them sink.
“So you will keep looking at me.”
She squeezes her tail around your neck and holds your face with in the scales, and she runs her hands through your hair and pets you, her heavy coils hugging your whole body in a tight squeeze.
“You will let me look at you,” the lamia says, grinning at your captured state. “You will look at me, only at me, you will think only of me, see only me; you will let me do as I wish, yes, and you will do as I say. Only as I say.” She gives you a peck on the lips as your mind, sparkling fresh from her hypnotic colors, sinks into rapture. “You will obey me.”
Yes. You will obey her. There is no other thought in your mind. Your only desires are hers.
“You will obey me, you will sleep with me, you will lose yourself, you will lose your mind to me . . . You already have.”
It’s hard to say when exactly you lost yourself to her, but chances are it was as soon as you saw her. Or as soon as she saw you. Now her obedient thrall, she whisks you away from the tree and deeper into the forest, never to be seen again . . . until you go back and try another path. However long that is, is up to you, if you’d like to keep her company a little while . . .
Duth Olec's Cuckoo Cosmos 