The Viper
By Cyrus Cowan
There once was a young maiden who was wondering through a forest near her home. She was picking raspberries and humming to herself, while constantly blowing her long, blonde hair out of her eyes. However, she was so distracted, she began getting farther and farther away from the rest of the women. Quite suddenly, she came face to face with a green tree viper hanging from a bow just above her. She looked into it's yellow, reptilian eyes... and smiled.
"Hello Viper, how are you today?" asked the girl. The Viper was taken aback. Usually, a human would run away screaming or just stand there in shocked silence until he dealt the final blow. But this strange little child just smiled at him like he was a well known friend.
"I am a little hungry today," replied the Viper with his deep, musical tone, thinking that this would scare her.
But again the girl just smiled and said, "Well then, you should take some of my raspberries. They are perfectly ripe, and quite juicy. Try some, would you?"
The Viper was thoroughly perplexed, so much so that it dropped from the tree and landed on the leafy forest floor. He looked up into the girl's friendly eyes, and he too smiled, accepting the fact that she was a friend, and not dinner.
He took the girl's offer of raspberries, though he hadn't eaten anything but meat in his entire life. He tried hard to chew, but he had no teeth to break it down, so he just did what he did with all his food and swallowed it whole. It was surprisingly good! The girl sat down with him, and they had a nice snack.
When they had finished, the Viper said goodbye and slithered away, but not after looking back at the blond-haired maiden behind him. The girl visited the Viper every fifth day, and they played together in the forest.
Years past, and the little girl grew to become a beautiful woman. One day, she and the Viper were sitting together on a log. The girl was clothed in a lavender dress with little while flower patterns on the fringe, and a pink ribbon tied back her long, blond hair into a ponytail. The Viper hadn't changed much, but his skin was now not so green, and his eyes not so bright.
Out of the blue, the girl asked the Viper a very puzzling question.
“Hey Viper, would you like to come live with me in my house?”
The Viper didn't reply at first. He loved the forest as a son would her mother, and he had never traveled outside it's emerald borders. He remembered the big humans with their metal weapons, but he loved the girl so much that it overcame his fear. He accepted her offer, as long as he had no connection with other humans as much as it could be helped. So he slithered onto her neck, and she strode back to her house outside the woods.
When they came to the large structure of wood and earth, he gazed at the high, angled building, and thought sadly that there was no place on it to swing. When he stepped into the barren house, he noticed that there were no growing things to take care of. And when she set him down on the bed she had made for him, he realized that the stone floor would be very rough on his skin as he slithered.
“Well,” asked the girl expectantly, “is it to your liking?”
“It is perfect my child,” the Viper replied, “as long as you are here.”
The girl had moved away from her parents, and as yet was not engaged to any man, though many wished her to be. So she was alone in that house, and the Viper had no contact with the population outside. He had become an herbivore for his lady's sake, so he ate what she ate, and both were happy together for a while.
It was not to last.
When the girl left to buy food for them, she used to be gone for no more than a short while. But as of late, she had been increasingly tardy, and the more the girl was gone, the more the Viper couldn't stand living there in that house. Finally, one day, the Viper confronted her about it.
“Why are you going out at the rising of the sun, and coming back as it sets? I am your friend, my child. Tell me.”
The girl looked at the Viper, and she no longer had the smiling, caring face she once did. You see, a little while back, the girl had met a man in the market, and she had grown rather fond of him. She went to the market as early as she could to see him, and stayed as late as she dared. The man had told her things about the world, for she had not been out of her village in many a day.
Word had gotten out that the girl had a viper in her house, and she was keeping it as a pet. The man knew that the girl would not leave the Viper for anything, he told her that vipers were dangerous and brutal. He had told her everything bad about the Viper, and she grew increasingly wary.
And now, she was standing face to face with a dangerous predatory beast, with poison that could kill her in an instant. She backed away with increasing anxiety.
“Why do you act as though you were afraid?” asked the Viper, rather surprised. “Why are you leaving me so lonesome?”
“I don't know you!” she cried as she raced out the door toward the market. She didn't come back that day, nor the next. The Viper waited, and waited, and waited, but the girl did not return.
The girl went to live with the man, and they loved each other and got married. She lived as happily as she could, but she could never forget her childhood, and guilt hung over her like a dark cloud.
It was eventually discovered that the man she had fallen in love with was her cousin, and she had to get away from all the turmoil. So she went back to her house, shrouded in a dark-purple hood and cloak. She opened the door, and looked in nervously. There the Viper was, coiled in the rotting bed she had made for him so long ago.
“I am here Viper,” she called to him, “I have come back to you, my beloved friend.”
The Viper looked up at her, and she gasped in fear. His eyes were filled with the predator's gaze, a terrible stare that told it's prey death was near at hand.
“I am no longer your Viper!” he hissed at her, “You betrayed my love, and I will not stand to be broken again!” He lunged and bit her on her calf. She screamed and ran out the door, shaking the wretched Viper off and crying as she went. Before she was out of earshot, she cried, “You vile, evil creature!”
She flung open the doors of her husband's house, or cousin's house rather, and fainted there and then on the door step. She was brought to a bed and her uncle was sent for to get some medicine. She never knew what happened to the Viper, but the Viper had been injured when the girl had flung him off her leg. So with what strength he had left, he used his body to turn the wheel of the city's gate. He was utterly mad with the sorrow and hurt he had suffered. So, with his final breath, he watched as the armies of the enemy marched in to enact suffering on the whole kingdom. And he said, “There is nothing more vile or evil... than betrayal.”
