Squirrelified

Chapter Seven:

Mel had fallen asleep on top of a snake den. Mother Snake, an Eastern Indigo Snake (pictured on the left), was trying to come out to get insects for her newly hatched babies. Melody felt a nudging in her side that woke her up. Mother Snake was about to bite her when Mel rolled away. Mother Snake shot out of her hole and landed right in front of Mel. Mother Snake’s teeth were glistening in the afternoon light about to sink into Mel’s left ankle. Mel shrieked then cried, “Stop! I’m a friend of the squirrels!”

“Whoss a friend of the squirrelss?” hissed Mother Snake. Her voice was like reeds brushing together on a hot day, wind whistling through the trees and growly like a purring cat. .

“I am.I’m looking for my husband. I’m lost in these woods. He should be with lots of men. Looking for me.” She explained. “Since you live underground did you hear any loud pounding footsteps?”

“Yesss, I did hear themss.” Mother Snake admitted.

“Where?” Mel asked her voice quivering with excitement.

“Urmmss… Maybe one half miless that wayss.” She pointed south with her tail.

“That’s the way I was headed!” Mel exclaimed like a little girl over a new china doll.

“Calm yourssself. They will come to you. They’ll be heress in about 20 minutesss.”

Mel spent the next 18 minutes sharing the story of her adventure in great detail to Mother Snake. The last two minutes she was pacing and Mother Snake was feeding her young ones. Some bushes were starting to rustle menacingly. Then a man burst through.

Alex calmly strode towards the bottom of the hill. Reaching a thicket he paused letting the others catch up. Alfred didn’t wait, he plunged into the thicket and Alex was right at his heels. 

Alex got stuck. His shirt had gotten caught on a thorn tree.

Alfred burst through just to see a woman with black hair and then a 9 foot long snake lunged at him from the opposite side knocking him to the ground. He landed on an angry Mel.

“Get off me you clumsy oaf! Back off! Who are you? Well? Mother Snake?! Will you please get this man off of me?”

*HISSS*

“OUCH!! For Pete’s Sake I’m from the rescue party!”

“What rescue party?”

“The rescue party that your husband organized!”

“Alex?”

“Yes!”

“Where?”

“He’s on the other side of the thicket. Now get this massive snake off of me.”

Alex burst through the thicket, to find Mel standing over Alfred who was lying on the ground with an eastern indigo snake on his chest ready to plunge her teeth into his neck veins. Alfred had never before seen a snake of these proportions so he assumed that she was poisonous.

“ALEX!!” Mel cried and ran over flung her arms around his neck and hugged him as hard as she could. Alex returned the hug with a kiss. Mel started crying. It’s now 4:37pm. Schmitty had gone around the thicket and the scene that awaited him was at the very least, strange. He pulled out his gun and pointed it at Mother Snake.

“NO!” shouted Mel, “Put the gun away! I don’t know who you are but she’s an endangered species! It’s against the law!”

“And you are a law enforcer, aren’t you, Sheriff Schmitty.” Alex added.

Jason, Joseph, James, Brad and Kabit came through single file. Brad, being an expert on snakes strode over and picked Mother Snake up. Alfred became vertical again. Brad was amazed at how gentle Mother Snake was. He could tell just from looking that she’d had eggs a little while ago. He could also tell that she was non-poisonous. From what they heard, her name was Mother Snake.

“Well Mother Snake, where’s your hole? How many babies ya got?” Brad murmured to himself.

“In that pocket over there, and I have SSSEVEN babiesss.” She replied.

Brad was so shocked he dropped her. Quick as lightning she darted over and into the hole.

“Did you--Did I—” then he fainted.

When he woke up an hour later the camp had been set up and he was sitting in a collapsible chair covered in a blanket, next to the fire. The camp seemed deserted except for him. “Guys, where are you?!” He shouted.

 No one answered.

He tried again; Mother Snake slithered out and said “Quiet! The babiesss are sssleeping!!”

“But where is the rest of the crew?” His voice sounded high pitched and he was as tense as a spring.

 “I thinkss they’re charting the ssshortest way back to your camp; ssso they can start cutting by tomorrow afternoon.”  

“We can’t cut down the forest! You’re an endangered species. That would be killing more of your habitats. You only have ten left. How many of your kind of snake are in the forest?”

“About 15 bluesss; not counting my babiesss.”

“But, counting your babies there are 22 snakes in here.I need to talk to the NESO*; which way to camp?”

“Well, they are looking for it in the opposite direction. But you can run there in 30 minutes if you keep going in that direction.” She pointed.

He left so quickly she almost missed him. She slithered back down her hole. Inside the hole there were four rooms. One held her babies, another one, a kitchen and the third was her guest bedroom. The fourth was her living room. Her baby room had seven neat coils of snake in a circular pattern that she could wrap herself around with ease. Her kitchen had a hot coal in it for cooking an occasional rat. Hanging along the wall were three different sharp rocks for cutting things. In the Guest bedroom there was a comfy bed of leaves covered in moss and beautiful carvings in the walls. The living room had leaf couches with moss pillows on a moss carpet the Carvings in this room were so intimate and lovingly made you could actually imagine the country sides carved into the walls were real.