The Snake Charmer

I

Many people fear the many creepy, harmful, and dangerous creatures in the world? Why is it that they fear such wonderful creatures? Just because they are dangerous? Just because there are some that can easily be able to kill you in mere moments? Snakes, spiders, scorpions, sharks, so many fear them because of their dangers, but none ever bother to take in the beauty of these natural creatures, that they just like humans are trying to live their own lives and survive.

I was merely headed home from just visiting the zoo. I was a huge fan of animals, many people loved the basic ones, such as the giraffe, the zebra, the lion, I mean don't get me wrong, the lion is cool. I mean, it after all is the king of the jungle, but if you ask me, they should just call it the king of the plains, seeing as the lion doesn't even live in a jungle.

My favorite were the snakes, how they had such beautiful scales, that sometimes even glimmered underneath the light. One of my favorite things about snakes was how they easily could shed their scales and after they did, their colors or patterns would change ever so faintly. It was like magic, just like how a simple caterpillar egg would eventually over time evolve to become a beautiful butterfly, or how a tadpole would turn into a frog. The true magical wonders of nature around you.

She was one of the richest herpetologists that they had, or for younger people who don't know what that is, a scientist that studies snakes. Another thing that she found to be cool about snakes was how there were so many different types of snake venoms that the deadly snakes could carry, where some have venom that will attack the blood cells, there are other types that cause your body to bleed rapidly, or some even thin out your blood to the point it is useless, some even had venom that would go and attack your organs, like your skin, or your heart. Did you know that the biggest organ in your body was actually your skin. It is actually also one of your most important, and yet snakes could cause a wound that would make where they bite rot or worse.

Not only did I visit zoos to tend to their snakes, I also went home to my own reptiles, such as my king snakes and my boas. I loved the big snakes, I had several beautiful pythons as well that were located in my basement that I made into my own little terrarium. It was sometimes hard to get out of my basement and escape up to my bedroom because some of the snakes are incredibly clingy. I have never understood why, even at the zoo, some of the snakes seem to be incredibly clingy. Including the venomous ones, like the king cobras that can get to about 20 feet, like the malaysian king cobra.

After a long day of work today with someone having accidentally left one of the cobra cages open, I ended up having to chase through the units today, looking for the darn thing, to find that it had been hanging out near the lockers, to be specific my locker where I kept my phone and other things when working.

I ended up easily being able to grab it by its tail and without it even fighting me, I dragged it by the end of its tail to its cage, but after getting it locked up, I may have given it a small treat, such as a miniature snake that was a baby python that we had in the storage for feeding the other, smaller venomous snakes. Normally the cobras only get the larger rats or birds, but king cobras love to hunt their smaller species for a meal normally.

Heading downstairs, after getting into my own storage room where I kept some rats, I unlocked my serpent terrarium, which I had to keep locked due to how some of my constrictors knew how to get the doors open along with having to cover up the rooms vents to where the snakes couldn't squeeze into them. Some people choose to sleep with their pythons at night, but it is highly recommended to lock them up when you're not aware, because they tend to get antsy and at the same time you highly risk damaging their delicate bones that are not nearly as strong as our own bones.

As soon as I approached the door, I could hear someone was on the other side of the door, hitting it a little, alerting me to be careful when walking in. As soon as I opened the door to the terrarium I found a python falling onto me from the sudden gesture and coiling around my neck. Most people would be startled by such an action, but not me when you are used to how jumpy Clyde usually was. He was also one of the several clingy snakes that I tend to have in my home. I sat down in the middle of the room after closing the door behind me, after making sure none of the snakes escaped, I started tossing rats to the several constrictors, the bigger rats usually went to the boas and the pythons, while the king snakes got smaller ones that were easier for them to swallow.

As I made sure that all of the food I brought with me was spread out, including the birds, I sat there studying the scales of the snakes around me. I had a python that had golden coloring with spots that were white and brown, Rosa, while I had a black king snake nearby that was speckled with yellow and white spots, Shade. I also had several others, but some of them weren't named due to none of the names suiting the snake's patterns or personality. The thing usually is thought that snakes can be highly unpredictable, unlike a cat or a dog.

As I sat there lost in thought, I was startled by a sudden forked tongue in my ear, as my attention was drawn to one of my pythons. It was Jewel, one of my reddish brown pythons with white spots, and hints of black. She truly lived up to her name with that reddish color on her scales.

"I should probably head to bed, huh? It's getting late, tomorrow they have some new exhibit they want me to look at. Not that it should be a big deal. It's just another snake." I told her, as I studied her scales, man did I have no idea how wrong I would be. I stood up, with Clyde still clinging to me around my waist, squeezing a little tightly, but not to the point that it was uncomfortable. "I gotta go, Clyde. You know the drill." I told him as I grabbed his tail and started to unwrap him, only for his tail to instantly coil around my wrist. This was not normal behavior for them. Usually they are a lot more chill when I leave, but as I looked at my feet, I saw the same speckled king snake coiling up my leg.

"What is wrong with you guys?" I cried out, usually they are very sluggish after their meal, but this was not normal. I pulled Clyde off me a little bit stronger, but he just tightened his hold on me. I sighed, before I went ahead and sat back down on the floor, and the second I did, all of the snakes in my big basement, which would range to about 20 to 30 different snakes in the room, about ten of each type of snake. They slithered toward me at full speed before I found Jewel, who was one of my biggest and also heaviest pythons, jumped onto my chest, sending me falling back to the point I was laying on the floor.

This was not snake behavior at all, snakes don't just attack anything in groups, no. This was all of my snakes, that I found myself lying on the floor with my heaviest pythons laying on my chest or my legs, while the boas and the king snakes coiled on or next to me, to the point I was surrounded by all of them, including another big python coiled up behind my head, with me having to lift my head to make sure I didn't crush them, until a few of their coils slithered onto my forehead and due to their weight forced me to the point that I had my head laying on top of my python like he was a pillow.

"For crying out loud, what is going on?" I cried, just to find one of my black king snakes slithering around my neck, before its head laid over my lips, while it stared at me in my eyes, like it was telling me to shut up. With one hand that was still free, I stroked Jewel who was on my upper chest, before I found her partially coiling around my head, and laying her head on the back of my head, as though she was returning the affection.

I couldn't just scream for help, I lived by myself, and the walls were too thick for me to merely have my neighbors hear me, especially since I was in the basement. I stared up at the ceiling where I had a couple lights over the room, above the several trees I planted into the room to make it look as real as possible. As the automatic lights shut off, I found myself unexpectedly falling into a slumber in the coils of all my snakes, just hoping that they wouldn't choke me when I woke up and that I would still be able to go to work.