The Snake Charmer

V

Waking up, I felt something stroking my hair on my head as I laid there. Not knowing what was going on, I sat up, finding nothing holding me down thankfully, to find that sitting right in front of me was a man sitting in the same royal blue coils as I, and he was laying there beside me stroking my hair. Startled by the surprise, I fell off of the coils and onto the hard floor, barely missing a nearby, coiled up python that was now sitting there hissing at me for startling it.

I quickly got onto my feet and finding the opportunity I ran for the door, ignoring the fact that the big snake was likely following after me. I ran through the door and didn't bother to lock it behind me as I ran up the stairs, past the kitchen and to my bedroom where I threw myself onto my bed and threw one of the pillows over my head as I screamed into it. I just wanted to wake up and find that all that had happened was merely just a bad dream, that I had dreamed of the big snake showing up at the zoo and that I still had my job. Wishing I had merely just dreamed up the idea of getting nearly raped at work.

I laid there for what felt like hours, but as I did I heard the sound of doors opening and closing down the hall. Someone was looking for me, but I didn't care if they found me or not, I just wished that I wasn't here anymore. I wanted to leave all of this behind and not come back.

I heard the door to my room open up, but I refused to get up. I laid there, listening for any sign of that giant snake approaching me, but the last thing I expected was to feel a sudden hand on my back. I jumped at the sudden touch, accidentally knocking the pillow onto the floor in the process. I looked up to find a man looking at me, with blue eyes as blue as can be, with short dark brown hair, muscular arms and a 6 pack on his chest. When it came to his torso he had connected to him the tail of a snake, lots of royal blue scales that were the same color as his eyes. Now I understood how he was able to escape, he was some sort of shifter. He had the same human half as the man that was in my basement and he had the tail of the large snake from the zoo. So he must have shifted at the zoo in order to escape.

Realizing I had been staring at his eyes for a while, I shook my head and simply laid back down on the bed, with my back facing him. "Just leave me alone. You made it clear yesterday you weren't going to answer any questions." I cried as I laid there on my bed. What I didn't expect though was his strong arms to pick me up off the bed and set me down against his chest. He set me down on his lap, or the base of where his tail met with his torso. I sat there unsure of what was going on, but he merely held me against his chest, with his arms wrapped around me.

"I will answer your questions now if you're interested." A deep voice spoke, as his chest rumbled against me. I looked up at him and saw his blue eyes looking down at me. I didn't want to believe anything that was still going on, but for some reason those blue eyes were so calming that I found I couldn't be mad. "Who are you and why are you in my home?"

"My name is Caspen, and I am here because I wanted to make sure you were safe and away from harm. You are in danger since I grew to care and protect you back at the zoo."

"Why were you even at the zoo in the first place? If you are able to shift your appearance like I have seen, surely you could have escaped being captured and taken away from your home in the first place."

"I was going to escape, until I found you coming into my cage. I will admit I didn't like you at first, but after I saw Shade willingly defend you, you left me a little curious about why he would do such a thing." Caspen explained.

"Why did you make all my snakes hate me? They have been acting weird before you came, but after you arrived, they seem to hate me." I asked as I looked up at him.

"They don't hate you, they are just defensive because of me being here. Where I come from, I am their King, and as their King I must return home before my disappearance leads to a war." Caspen replied.

"A war? What do you mean you are their king? Are you even a snake to begin with? So far, if I am correct, you are a shapeshifter and you seem to continue to take different shapes since you have entered my home." I stated as I continued to look up at him.

"I am not able to tell you." Caspen replied while he avoided looking down at me.

"You're not able to tell me or you don't want to tell me?" I asked as I sat there.

"I wish to tell you, but there are rules that even I as a king am required to follow." Caspen answered as he looked down at me.

I thoght about what he had just said and merely sighed. There was no way I could simply force him to tell me, not when he was able to be so much bigger than me. He could hurt me worse than I could possibly even hope to hurt him. Not even realizing that I had been shedding any tears, I felt him have a thumb rub tears away from my eyes. Looking up at him, I felt him tighten his hold on me, squeezing me in what felt like a hug. As I sat there I felt my arms resting on his chest, making me suddenly feel awkward with how he held me so close. Pushing myself back, away from his chest, I rested my arms around my chest as I looked down at his scales. "Why, if you are a king, did you come to my home if you should be finding your way back home to your people?"

I looked up at him, waiting for him to answer, but he seemed to be a little hesitant at first, like he knew that was the question he didn't want to answer. "I desire of you to come with me." He replied. I didn't know what I was expecting him to say, but that was most definitely not it. I thought that he was maybe wanting to eat me or something. At first I was very confused, but the more I thought about it, the angrier I got. He followed me home just to ask me to travel with him. To leave behind my own means of life to merely live in his own world. How could he merely ask me of such a thing? No, he wasn't asking me, he was telling me. I pushed myself out of his arms and took a few steps away from him as I looked at him. He looked like he was annoyed that I was backing away from him as he started to slither closer to me, but I just kept backing away from him until I found myself up against one of the walls in my bedroom.

"You aren't even asking me. Why? Why must I come with you and leave my own life behind?" I asked as he slithered up to me and cornered me against the wall.

"Why must you live in a caged life? Do you truly want to be by yourself where people want to treat you like a slave?" Caspen asked. "You were being abused where they caged all those animals. They treated you only for your skills. You weren't being respected."

"I don't plan to be going there anymore, though. I told them I wasn't coming back after being injured and nearly having my virginity taken away from me." I cried as I looked away from him.

"If you come with me I will protect you from people like Jareth." Caspen replied. "You can come with me where you can have a new start to your story."

"You can't promise total safety though." I stated more than asked.

"Everywhere there are dangers in life, but that doesn't mean all are able to be preventable. It is just the ways of making life a little more interesting, or in your case, eventful." He spoke as he looked down at me.

"Let me go get something to eat and think this over, I don't want to decide on this with my mind still unclear from earlier." I moaned as I tried to walk around him, but as I did, he grabbed my arm instantly, trying to stop me from walking away. As I turned and looked up at him, he seemed like he wanted to say something, but merely sighed and shook his head in response. He let go of my arm, as I walked over his large tail and out the doorway of my room.