Miss M (fuzzyspacekitty) wrote in pup_prompts, @ 2008-08-23 17:59:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | prompt 10 |
Who: A snake. He doesn't have a name yet.
From: The ancient Babylonian tale of Gilgamesh
By: Mandy
Note: Possible new pup. Feedback is love. Tell me whatcha think.
A long time ago in a faraway land, there lived a giant. One day, the giant became king and he terrorized his people, stealing the honor of the country's women and the lives of the country's men. His arrogance and vulgarity brought down the wrath of a goddess upon him and he began to desperately search for immortality. After long travels he found his answer: a plant at the bottom of the ocean floor that could make the old young and grant new life. Braving the trial, he claimed the flower and returned to the surface triumphant. Before he used it, he decided to bathe in a lake, leaving the precious plant on an unguarded rock. It wasn't long before a snake passed by and swallowed the flower. It shed its skin, restoring its youth, and slithered away. When the giant discovered this, he was aghast. He knew he would never find another plant like it, and he was doomed to death, just as the rest of humankind were.
The snake, however, didn't give a rat's ass about Gilgamesh's fate. He didn't even really know what kind of mess he'd gotten himself into. He'd just been slithering along and saw a flower that looked pretty nifty. Smelled good too. Now, he wasn't normally one for eating plants, but he'd never smelled anything like it and he thought he'd give it a try.
He didn't notice right away what had happened. It was early in the season to shed his skin, but he didn't think much of it. It was a while before he realized that his fellow snakes had been getting old and dying while he remained the same age. He didn't have much of an emotional attachment to other snakes, but it wasn't the natural order of things. Eventually he put the pieces together and realized that it must have been that strange plant he'd eaten that had done it. Still, every morning when he woke up, he expected to be old and decrepit, ready to die that afternoon. After the first few centuries, the surprise faded.
For many years the snake kept to his own, adapting to forest and desert environment whenever it felt the need for a change of scenery. Once after he had mated, he stuck around the nest to see if perhaps this immortal trait would be passed on to his offspring. He was scoffed at by other snakes for such strange behavior, but he knew he would be alive long after the assholes died, and that brought him comfort. He remained around after the tiny snakes had hatched and watched them grow up. Eventually they did grow old, and rather than watch them die, he decided to leave and spend a few years in the jungle.
The jungle that he had once known was gone. The underbrush had been replaced with concrete and the trees with buildings. Keeping to the shadows, he explored this strange new world. There were many creatures like the giant, only not so tall. A few of them saw him, then began screaming and running. He was confused by the reaction. These humans were very strange.
The city was dirty, the humans were careless, and the air smelled like what the snake imagined hell's atmosphere must be like. Still, he found himself returning to the strange land when his time in the forests grew boring. One day a human, oblivious to where his feet were taking him, stepped on the snake. The snake was immortal, but not impervious to pain. He managed to slither off to a dark corner of the city to nurse his wounds. He discovered that he could heal in a way that no other snake could. As he was leaving his hole to begin a journey back to the forest, he was caught in a ring filled with netting. He tried to crawl out, but it was no use. The human handling the net was skilled; he was trapped.
He was put in a small box of glass. There were other snakes in similar boxes. There were lights above them, but it wasn't the sun. They were indoors, and there were other animals too. Occasionally a human would stick its face near the glass and make excited exclamations to other humans. Before long, his glass had been lifted and he was being carried somewhere. He was brought inside another sort of room then, and could feel the sensation of movement but he was remaining still. It made him nauseous.
Just when he thought he couldn't suppress the nausea any longer, the car stopped. He was brought inside another place, again with the fake sun. One of the humans was looking into the glass again. He wondered if this was the same human that had stepped on him; all humans looked alike. They didn't have any distinctive markings and he couldn't understand how they were able to tell each other apart.
It was a boring life, and the food was bland. He didn't harbor any ill will toward the human, but he wasn't particularly fond of it either. He'd simply grown accustomed to seeing its face. After a time, he noticed that the human was growing old. Surely the human thought it was strange how long-lived the snake was. The snake suspected the human would die soon, and wondered about his fate. He would rather not be left here to starve. He wouldn't die, but starvation was never pleasant.
Just as he was pondering this, a strange blue-light filled his box. It was not coming from his fake-sun, and it seemed to be sucking him in towards it. The snake tried wrapping around his rock, but the blue light just pulled the rock in with it.
Tumbling out the other side, he fell on his hands and knees. Hands and knees?!
"What the fuck?" he exclaimed.