A Cautionary Tale 10

An oral history. A cautionary tale shared around a village campfire late at night. As rendered by a white-haired old man in the midst of young, black-haired warriors who listen respectfully, even if not convinced of the veracity of the story...

Why we don't go over to that island. Anywhere except to THAT island...

What we saw, when one day we followed another band of hunters, intent on taking revenge against them for the insults they had bestowed upon us, upon our village. We were prepared to fight them, if need be.

The band of men went ashore, their canoes disappearing around a point of land we were hidden behind, so that they were unaware that we were following them.

We made landfall, and easily followed their trail as it went into the jungle interior of the island.

The island was very bountiful, with fruit and game- we could hear the boar rustling in the undergrowth, and the air was thick with fowl.

As we crept cautiously along, we wondered why there was no evidence of people having inhabited this place, given how rich it was with the things we would need to survive, to feed our own.

Sounds ahead made us stop, and we approached silently as we heard the sound of voices.

A clearing became apparent ahead of us, and as we watched from a safe vantage point at jungle's edge, we beheld a most strange sight.

There, in a clearing in the jungle, where grass grew lush, and flowering plants were everywhere, stood the group of warriors from another island that we had been following. There were ten men in all, armed with weapons including blowguns, spears, bows and arrows. They were all looking at something we could not see from our vantage point, and it was apparent that they were unsure what to do. By the way that they were looking up and down, it was apparent that whatever they had encountered was large, tall, and formidable.

The men were on alert, their weapons at the ready, and they crouched down as if ready to attack. Then, surprising to us, they began to move backward, as in retreat. This made the hair on the back of my neck stand up as I felt a shiver of fear run through me. I knew these warriors from seeing the evidence of their incursions in the past- heads of conquered foes severed and impaled on poles to let others know of their fierceness, their skill and merciless nature in battle. That these men now were retreating in fear caused me and my fellows to be sore afraid of what they had encountered, and to shrink back even further within the cover of the jungle, as we watched.

As we watched, the leader of the band stood his ground even as the other men fell back. One does not know whether it is bravery or vanity that causes a man to defy those who threaten. The man, who was big and strong- an obvious leader among men, held his knife at the ready, and motioned for his group to hold, to wait. And he looked up, and he looked down, and he shook his head slowly as if trying to dispel an illusion before him.

Then we caught our first glimpse of what had stopped the hunters in their tracks, and held them transfixed. A graceful, slow movement out from behind the trees that blocked our view now caught our eye, and we beheld a tall warrior woman- a beautiful woman who stood head and shoulders above the lead warrior, as she came into view. She seemed to glide rather than to step through the tall grass as she closed on the stunned warrior, who seemed befuddled at the sight of her. Beyond her height, which was quite exceptional, we couldn't see anything particularly dangerous about her.

It was odd, however, that she approached the raiding party without any obvious armaments about her. She had no armor- indeed she was quite naked insofar as we could make out. Her long hair cascaded over her shoulders and fell fully the length of her back- long, lustrous, and dark. Her chest was adorned with some manner of necklace- blossoms of beautiful flowers like a lei, which adorned her full bosom. She slowly approached the warrior, like one might approach an animal in the effort to not cause it to bolt in fear. She held out her arms to him, as if in invitation, her hands in entreaty to touch.

Then she stopped her advance, a few feet from where they would actually have been able to reach out and touch one another. The leader maintained his wary posture, and held his knife at the ready, even as he seemed to be transfixed by something he saw as he looked at her body- something low enough that we could not see it due to the tall grass that blocked our view.

We struggled to gain a better view, and were about to move to a better vantage point, when movement elsewhere in the clearing caused us to freeze, and with good reason. Out of the jungle, from the tangle of trees and vines that gave complete cover to any who hid from view, there emerged a band of other women creatures, easily as tall as the first woman who now stood opposite the warrior leader. The other men leapt in fear and amazement as they turned to face the new arrivals to the scene.

I strained to look behind and around us as we cowered in the thick cover of the jungle, fearing that we might too be surrounded, but I could find nothing to tell my senses that we had been detected. We watched as the newly arrived warrior women surrounded the raiding party, moving slowly and carefully as to block any avenue of retreat until they fully encircled the group of men, who regarded them warily but made no effort to engage the women with their weapons. Instead, they stood crouching, and when we could see anything of their eyes, it was apparent that they were filled with fear. This was something we could not understand, as the women seemed to carry no weapons- nothing more fearsome than the arms that they extended toward the men in an obvious invitation to nothing more dire than an embrace as of affection.

The men looked to their leader for direction, but he was fixed upon the first creature who offered her embrace. Her companions, all as beautiful as she, seemed to be waiting for something to happen, as they stood and regarded the men with warm expressions and beguiling smiles.

Then I noticed something- something about the one woman I could actually see below the waist as the grass permitted me to see at one point. And what I saw filled me instantly with wonder, and fear. The woman creature that I could see was unlike any woman I had ever seen in all my life. Like the leader, she was beautiful as any maiden I had ever watched as they bathed near the waterfall or reclined on the rocks to dry themselves in the warm sunlight. I loved to spy on the women of our band as they did womanly things, admiring their form, their grace of movement, the laughing dance of their eyes as they teased one another and tossed their long, luxurious hair this way and that.

I knew that women could be cruel, could be mean and hurtful, having endured the discipline of my own mother when I misbehaved. But still I was fascinated with the comeliness, the beauty, the loveliness of the other sex. But now what I saw before me caused great knots of fear to tangle in my gut. The woman creature I could now see fully was only half woman. From her head to her abdomen she was as lovely as any feminine creature, fair of head and hair, a neck that was divine as it gave way to slender shoulders and a lovely chest. Her curves were graceful as they fell from her chest to her hips, but then it all changed into something that I could never imagine in my darkest dreams.

Where waist and hips ought to give way to legs, her body took the form of a serpent. And by moving my head ever so carefully I could see that her body continued in that snake-like form for many feet behind her. In fact, she was poised on that portion of her body that was so like a serpent, perfectly balanced and obviously quite at ease with such a state of being.

I looked in amazement at her, and then adjusted my position to get a better view of her companions, quickly ascertaining that they were of the same form as she- the upper body of a woman and the lower body and tail of a snake. And like the leader, she was naked save for flowers draped around her neck and in her hair. So casual the manner of all the women, they were quite unafraid of the men who now made fearful, menacing gestures with their weapons. The women just smiled, and waited.

There were as many of these strange creatures, by my count, as there were men, and other than the barely discernable mutterings of the men as they formed their defensive circle, there was no other sound to distract from the drama playing out before us in the afternoon stillness.

Nowhere in our lore was there any hint of the wonder we now beheld. All we could do was watch and wonder what would be the outcome of this strange encounter. As it was, we had not long to wait.

The seeming leader of the women creatures, still holding out her arms in entreaty to the leader of the warriors who stood stock still before her, began to advance once again upon the man. Alerted from the daze he seemed to have fallen into, he raised his knife in defense, and instantly the battle was joined as the two of them came together in a furious struggle for control of the weapon.

But where he was obviously quite skilled in the way of the knife, slashing this way and that as she parried him with her arms and feinting with her body, she quickly brought into play a weapon that he had no counter for- her snake-like lower torso and tail. With amazing quickness, she wrapped her body around his legs and waist, and he- stunned momentarily, was soon disarmed of his knife as his attention was drawn to what was happening to his lower body.

He cried out in surprise, and the other men cringed and reacted in fear as they huddled closer together and could only watch as the creature secured her hold on their leader. The swiftness of her initial attack slowed now, as her body coiled, again and again, around the man who struggled valiantly to shed the offending body that so overwhelmed him and stole his freedom. But no move he could make would postpone the inevitable, the assured outcome evident in a few moments' time, when he was wrapped from neck to foot in a luxurious mass of coils.

And what a luxurious mass it was. Not at all what I was used to in those snakes I had encountered in life- all the ones I had stalked and killed and taken back to our village to be skinned and roasted and eaten. Those creatures were scaly and somehow vulgar, with evil ways about them as we saw them capture and surround their jungle prey, holding them still as they swallowed them whole, defenseless animals with limbs still twitching as their bodies surrendered to the all-encompassing maw. No, these coils were soft, and lush, and seemed even from a distance as we viewed them to be a comfortable place to be held, indeed.

But the man struggled nonetheless, twisting and turning as best he could, while she just remained poised above him as he lay, prone on the ground before her. He looked defiantly up at her, as he panted to regain his breath after such a struggle. And then he saw something that made his eyes grow wide with fear, his mouth to fall open, and caused him to shake his head and to struggle even harder to free himself.

The course of their conflict had caused them to be turned such that her back was to us, and we could not see what he was seeing, not immediately anyway. As we watched, they turned again, and soon we could see the cause of his horror.

What I had not noticed during my first view of the warrior women, was how their bodies transitioned from that of a woman to their snake half. At the point where a woman's abdomen would normally give way to midriff, then buttocks, groin, and thighs and to legs, there was a barely perceptible cleft which we had not noticed before. We now saw a parting of this cleft, and the emergence of a tube-like thing that slowly issued forth. On and on it came, as the trapped man recoiled from its approach, first toward his face as he jerked away in fright, and then to wander lower and lower down his enlaced torso.

Of course, he was powerless to do anything to thwart whatever purpose the probing tendril intended. The woman creature gently stroked the man's hair, caressed his cheek and seemed to be soothing him with what we heard so faintly as the sort of cooing a mother might use to settle a restless child. And as we watched, she began to release the man's legs and lower body from their bondage, all the while ensuring that his upper body and arms remained firmly within her control. Only his head, his fear-stricken face could be seen, as his eyes remained locked on hers, and his demeanor more defiant than ever.

Our attention was drawn back to the tendril, the probing tube that wandered casually over the warrior's body, searching for something. The fleshy appendage was moist, as one would expect it to be as it emerged from the depths of the woman creature's body, and everywhere it came into contact with the man's body, brushed his skin, it left a hint of moisture.

It was at this point that I first thought that I caught a hint of something on the breeze that came to us from across the clearing where the two parties of combatants now stood. Captivated as I was by the drama unfolding between the leader of the men and the first warrior woman, I did not give it much thought. It was a soft, rather sweet fragrance that touched my nose. It reminded me of the fragrant flowers that at times gave off quite a heady aroma, sure to attract the insects that would ensure the cross-pollination necessary to sustain their reproduction. But there was something more, it seemed, borne along with the gentle perfume that reached our noses. It was an undercurrent, something that seemed to subtly excite the more erotic sensibility in me. I glanced at my fellows, and saw that they too were attentively taking in the scent, sniffing and turning this way and that to best get it impressed upon their senses.

I shook off the distraction, and returned my focus to the man held captive. The two of them were locked eye to eye, and she was intently gazing at him as the probe that issued from her body found at last what it had apparently been seeking- the man's cock.

During the struggle between them, the feeling of her soft flesh moving about him had evidently been sufficient to arouse him, and now that he was freed of her coils to above his waist, his manhood stood full and proud even as he struggled for what he must have figured was his very life. He was reasonably well endowed, and the staff stood at attention and pointed right at her as though if it were a spear he could have launched it with full effect to disable her. The gently probing tendril nuzzled the hair of the man's groin, detected the member and moving gradually upward until it reached the tip, it ever so slightly seemed to pause, then to kiss the round head of the penis, and then gently and inexorably it moved to cover, to surround, and to completely encompass the man's sex organ.

The effect on the man, of course, was immediate and dramatic. All movement in struggle stopped instantly. His legs which, having been freed, had been thrashing about and were now resting with knees bent and feet flat on the ground as in the effort to prize his body upward, now slowly extended back out and where he had arched his back to fight for his freedom, he settled back to the ground and a gentle gasp and moan escaped his lips as he closed his eyes. It was as if he was in quiet meditation as the tendril moved further and further down his length until he was completely captured within its moist embrace.

The men of the raiding party were completely focused on what was happening to their leader, babbling excitedly among themselves as they watched the drama unfold. As they watched, the man moaned in what sounded like ecstasy as his privates were attended to by the unearthly probe that seemed to be making love to him. They could see what appeared to be pulsing movements by the tendril, seeming rhythmic contractions as though the man was being milked for his essence, and within a few moments he cried out powerfully in the way that a man does as he experiences the throes of orgasm.

All were silent, all eyes on the duo locked together in the midst of the clearing. The men, cringing in fearful fascination, and the warrior women creatures with gentle expression and mirth playing about their faces as the passionate drama before them unfolded.

When the convulsions of his ejaculation were finally at an end, the man was still, barely breathing, eyes closed for the longest time. When finally he opened them again, to focus on the face of his captor, there was a new quality to his gaze. It was a gaze, and not a glare, one with a rather dreamy quality, as if he had just found release in the embrace of the tenderest lover. His eyes seemed again to be locked on hers, and she again stroked his cheek and chin with a soft hand, with the back of her soft hand she took in the feeling of his skin, his beard, his lips.

Watching his face as I was, I think I missed the first piece of what happened next. I only caught it once I saw the man's mouth suddenly fall open and his eyes grow wide as in surprise. It was then that I looked again at the tube surrounding his manhood and I saw the strangest thing. I could swear that I could see a swelling that emerged from the woman's cleft, in the tube, which travelled down its length until it reached the man's cock, and then disappeared, seemingly into the man's groin and body. I was drawn back to this conjoined area because the man suddenly arched his back again, flexed his legs with knees bent, and held that posture for several moments before again settling back to earth and relaxing in her embrace.

As we watched in terror-stricken amazement, this process happened again. Again and again- over and over again it happened every few moments- a pulsing swelling as of something moving from within her, down the length of the soft tube that loved him, and disappearing within him. After the initial pulsing to which he so dramatically reacted, the subsequent pulses elicited only the barest reaction from him, nothing more than a slight quivering of his visible extremities and then stillness.

When the pulses stopped, I could see that his belly- still carefully bound by her coils, was ever so slightly distended, straining at the bonds that held him. He lie still- no other movement save for the slight raising and lowering of her coils about his chest as he breathed lightly. His eyes were open, and still fixed on hers, but even from so considerable a distance as was our vantage point, I thought his gaze to be distant, and unfocused. And she merely watched him, impassive now in her triumph. The pride of her magnificent bosom, her lovely breasts rose and fell at her own breathing as she waited. Now there seemed to be no need to hurry. Idly she looked over at the men who huddled together, and turned her glance to look at each of her fellow warriors in turn.

The odor that I had detected earlier returned now to my conscious mind, and being aware of it, I was struck with a new fear- a vague sense of dread that no matter how becoming, how attractive the sense of ease that this scent inspired within me, there was danger in falling under its spell.

My thoughts about the danger were interrupted as another movement in the clearing brought me back to full attention. As we watched, the woman slowly released the coils she had used to hold the warrior leader immobile as they enlaced his abdomen and chest, shoulders and arms. Now the tail-most part of her luscious snake body slowly unwrapped and slipped from around his body, causing him to shrug and roll slightly this way and that as it released him.

Then she slowly, even reverently, bent down to take him in her arms, pulling him closer to her as he lay, unresisting. He seemed to have no strength left, to be completely relaxed, as she brought him close to the point of her abdomen where the mysterious cleft had issued forth with the tendril which still held his male-ness captive. He seemed to be awake, but distant, and his head fell to the side such that he was looking at his companions. He seemed to rally for the briefest of moments, then to lapse again into a sort of soporific trance. But in that moment, he seemed to look to his men for some manner of salvation, and in finding none, to fall back into a state of mindless, blissful resignation.