“Be careful! There’s 15 gallons of chocolate sauce in there.”
You watch the blue slime tail lift the barrel up the shelf.
“That’s a lot of choco sauce,” Ageul says. “I guess you need it at an ice cream parlor.”
“Are you sure your slime can grip the barrel?” you ask.
“Don’t worry,” Ageul says from atop the shelves, “I absorbed a lot of water first so I’m real sticky. I probably couldn’t drop it if I tried.”
“Well, good,” you say. She places the barrel on the shelf. “Wait, can you let go of it, then?”
“Uh…”
Ageul pulls her tail away from the barrel but it sticks to her.
“Okay, wait, I got it, just let me–” She grabs the barrel and pulls it away from her tail, but she just sticks to it more. “Wait, no, let me try–” She groans as she pulls away from the barrel–you hear a crack–
Your vision turns brown. The barrel breaks as Ageul pulls her tail off it, spilling all the chocolate sauce out and right on top of you.
Ageul yelps and slithers down the shelf, apologizing repeatedly. You wave her quiet.
“It’s okay.” You sigh. “We have more. But…”
You look at your clothes. You look at your skin. “I’m going to need a long shower to clean all this off. I don’t know if I’ll ever get it out of my clothes.”
Ageul stares at you. She smiles and leans close. “Oh, let me make it up to you, I can help you with that.”
“No, it’s fine,” you say, “I’ll just have to–” You lose the rest of your sentence as you feel something drip along your face. You glance to the side and see Ageul’s tail sliding over your face.
“Oh, it’s no trouble at all,” Ageul says, smile wide.
Doesn’t she tend to get touchy-feely after she absorbs a lot of liquid? You try to pull away but her tail sticks to you.
“No, really, I, uh.” You already feel a growing, sleepy dizziness in your head. You step away and your leg buckles, but Ageul’s soft, gooey tail props you up.
“Just take a seat,” she says, slithering behind you and pulling you back onto a wet seat–a wet, sticky seat. Her tail, no doubt, thick as a log. You can’t stand up and your legs are bound to your seat, her tail wrapping them up. She holds your arms down in a hug.
You shut your eyes and let the drowsy slime effects take over. You’re not going anywhere now, you might as well enjoy it and let Ageul clean the chocolate sauce off. You were soaked before, but now as her bulbous goo tail surrounds your body you feel like you’re floating in slime.
Floating in a heavy pool of slime, squishing, rubbing, sliding, squeezing, washing away all the grime.
Actually you still feel pretty sticky.
“Wow, this stuff really is hard to wash off,” Ageul says. Her voice sounds far away, like in a dream, but you can tell she sounds troubled.
You feel her gooey hands rub your arms, rub your clothes, but she still sounds doubtful.
“Oh, I have an idea!”
You lift your eyes open, her fluid tail surrounding your vision. She seems to be digging a crevice in a particularly big part of her tail.
You feel yourself rise in her goo, sinking against her coiled tail around you, until you settle back facing the ceiling, and Ageul slips her tail out from around you, letting you sink and settle down into her tail under you.
Into her tail…
Your sleepy eyes pop open. “What?”
“Don’t worry,” Ageul says, waving her palms, “I saw this on the internet, I’m sure it will work.”
You feel her slime wash over you, not as a twisting hug like before but as a flood. You don’t feel like you’re floating in slime now; you feel like you’re sinking in slime.
You try to sit up and get out of her tail, but you’re stuck immobile to her. Ageul’s tail closes over you, obscuring your vision, the outside world only slightly visible through the warping blue. All sounds but Ageul’s squishing slime are muffled, and even those senses soon dull.
Slime coats your entire body, seeping into every crevice, your thoughts more scattered than before. A passing thought wonders how you’re breathing, slime dripping down your mouth, but you seem to breathe fine. You feel little discomfort. Ageul’s slime tail is cool… soft…
Her distressing swampy taste is the only thing holding you awake, but even that melts into a chocolately feeling as your senses dull.
You feel as if you’re drifting down a stream, slime passing by and carrying away all your worries, all your cares, all your thoughts far away…
Your vision goes dark, even the slime disappearing from view, and you sink into a sweet, luxurious, sleepy end…
You open your eyes and sit up. You’re on the floor, dry and clean. Not one speck of chocolate sauce remains on you, nor is any slime residue.
“I told you I’d clean you up,” Ageul said. You turn around; her hair and tail are now the deep brown of the chocolate that drenched you.
She grins, leaning on the counter. “That was delicious, like stuffing a big chocolate bunny in me.” She pets your head; you blush, and she giggles. “With a creamy center.”
The trees rustle as a gentle breeze passes by, the sky glowing over the jade colors of the trees in a fiery display of warm sunset colors. The lake shimmers in the low evening light as fireflies begin to blink in the dark.
This jungle you’re traveling through really is beautiful.
You’ve seen remarkable foliage, majestic cliffs, towering trees, and every evening the sun shines through the leaves in amazing patterns. You’re almost sad your journey through it is almost over.
You skip a rock along the lake and chuckle.
“I wish I could live here, really.”
You feel a sudden chill in the air. The light seems to darken, but you shrug it off until you see a twisting shadow on the lake like a slithering tail. You turn to where the shadow seems to come from but see nothing. When you turn around you jump back, face-to-face with a naga.
She gives you a cool smile, her striking red eyes hard to look away from. They pull you in and look right through you. She hangs in the air, her deep magenta tail suspending her from a tree.
“The lake is beautiful this time of night, isn’t it?” She looks out across the lake.
You follow her gaze across the lake. The nagas are friendly in this part of the jungle, you’re told.
“It is,” you say. “I’m glad I visited on my way out.”
You gasp as cool scales slide over your shoulders, the naga’s tail resting over you with a tiny squeeze.
“You’re not leaving?” she says.
You peer at her. You can’t tell if that was a question or a statement. You inhale and tense up, though her tail loosens you.
“I’ve been traveling through,” you say. “I’m heading out of the jungle.”
“But not tonight, I imagine,” she says.
She drifts closer, her long dark hair swaying to her tail. You glance down; only a maroon tube top and fabric tied around her waist covers her slim figure. With her bearing she gave the impression, “I do what I want, and you’re along for the ride.”
She lifts a hand to you, her long lavender nails raised. “Let me take you up the tree to spend the night with company, hmm?”
You blink, staring into her red eyes. Once again you can’t tell if that was an offer or a command.
Given her demeanor you’re not sure it matters.
“Sure, that sounds nice,” you say. “Thank you.” Even if she has untoward plans, you’ve traveled through the jungle long enough and fought enough fearsome creatures that you could deal with any tricks she deals.
“Excellent.” Her tail slithers further into loops around you.
With a loop under your arms, around your waist, and under your hips to form a seat, she lifts you high into the tree, higher than you expected. The lake looks like a puddle down below.
Once she sits you on a tree branch you sit up, but she holds you down in her coiling tail.
“Now then.” She reclines against the tree trunk, watching you. “I grant wishes to people here in the jungle, and I understand you have a wish.”
“You what?” What did she mean grant wishes? You try to stand out of her coils but she slithers further around you.
“I’m a witch.”
As if to prove her point she waves her hand, creating a sparkling smoke trail.
“Any wish you might desire, I can grant, for a price. And I understand you wish to live here in the jungle.”
You shake your head, still struggling against her hold. “That was just an offhand remark!”
The naga grins. “Offhand remarks are often a sign of what we really want.” Her face disappears behind the smoke, but her eyes are visible behind it as a glow. “I can just see by your demeanor you truly do want to live in the jungle.”
“No!” You glare at her.
Your glare softens to a stare as you look at her glowing eyes, drawing you in from behind the smoke. She spins her hand, creating a shimmering trail that you follow, your head bobbing in a circle.
“I don’t want to live here,” you say, though your voice sounds flat and far away.
“I would certainly visit again, but…”
“Of course you do. You’re visiting now,” she says. “But an extended stay sounds nice. As long as you like. As long as I like.”
“As long as you… I mean, what?” You want to shake your head, but you’re transfixed to the swirling circle.
It’s hard to refocus your thoughts as you rotate your head to follow. You listen to her words.
“The dark, clear nights, the fresh air and clean water, the untold beauty of what you see and who you meet… You would be a fool to choose not to live here. But you’re not a fool.”
You feel her tail wrap around you, scales slithering over your bare skin where she had left open space before. Wait, are your clothes gone? You can’t tell, you just feel her tail coiling all up your body, holding you tightly in place. The jungle is dark, glowing red like her eyes
“You’re a discerning customer.”
A weight on your shoulders pushes you into the scaly cocoon, and you feel another weight on your head. The naga appears above you, upside-down, hoving over your head as she stares into your eyes with bright, glowing red eyes.
“You want to live in the jungle?”
Once more you can’t tell if this is a question or a command, but as you stare into her glowing eyes everything sounds like a command.
“I do…n’t… I want to live in the jungle?”
Your question wavered into agreement. You don’t know anymore.
“I will grant your wish.”
The world around you warps, the red glow of her eyes shimmering around you. Everywhere you look you see her red glow. Her tail slides around your neck, slithering out further, the thick coil massaging your shoulders and leaving only your arms free.
“And you will give me something in exchange.”
You can’t think straight anymore. You feel her eyes push into your mind, combing through your thoughts, pulling something out. You can’t tell what, and the more of it you lose the more you can’t remember ever having it.
“I will grant your wish to live in the jungle,” she says, “and you will give me your free will in return.”
Yes, say thoughts in your mind, you wished to live in the jungle. Now you shall, you will live in the jungle with the naga who granted your wish.
She extends a hand to you. “And to seal the deal, we shall shake on it.”
Never pulling your gaze from her eyes, you lift a free hand to hers. As you graze her fingers she slips the end of her tail around your hand and wraps up your arm, shaking your hand with her tail.
With the deal set, you hear a snap in your mind, and all thoughts of your own blank out.
Your wish is granted. You now live in the jungle.
The naga strokes her fingers along your blank face.
You now live in the jungle as her mindless servant…
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