"Your scent... reminds me of someone."
Mina turned in a slow circle, stepping back as well to put distance between her and the venomously sweet voice. A long, scaly tail swivelled around the ground, thicker than her own body, and flared up into a set of hips, complete with a cleft nestled deep into a v-shape of scales. The skin had its own share of natural armour, running along the sides to frame the Monster's belly. They stretched around her generous bust and up her neck.
From the voice, Mina expected something twisted. Nothing like the gorgeous, exotic features smiling down at her. Sharp canines peeked over the Monster's bottom lip. A thin tongue darted out from between them and the grin stretched.
"Who?" Mina asked.
"I didn't get their name. Very rude of them, don't you agree? Perhaps you are more alike than I thought..." Disdain and anger rumbled the creature's serpentine voice, tail rising.
"I'm Mina."
"Ah, at least you have manners. I am Tiffany."
Mina swallowed a giggle, "Nice to meet you, Tiffany." The snake lowered down, levelling their faces. Few scales marked her face, splashed across her cheeks like freckles that shone like gems in the sunlight. A perfect predator. One that could hide and attract as necessary. Mina took another step back.
"Tell me, what brings you around here? Surely the townsfolk mentioned my presence?" Tiffany leaned forward, closing the gaps Mina tried making.
"They did. I actually wanted to talk with you."
"Doesn't seem that way. Those who want to talk don't normally back away. Makes them look like prey," Tiffany chuckled and suddenly darted in, their noses grazed each other. Mina jumped back. She kept Tiffany in full view, not even blinking. A rock tripped her landing. Her tails helped balance her, but she stumbled back, until a large shape steadied her. Familiar scents, mixed with that metallic venom crinkled her nose.
Mina didn't have a chance to figure it out, as Tiffany slithered over. She backed away, stepping over the mass, then dared to glance down. Ice seared her veins, the air became an Arctic inferno in her lungs, and her eyes fixed on the body of Jackson. Just a horse, she thought, desperate to maintain control.
Yes, it was a horse. One that had kept her company across the months away from home, a gift from Samuel, the whole reason for her quest. Lumps around bite marks disfigured his head, matched by Tiffany's aroma, and venom caked his mane. Her vision coalesced on the snake, the landscape reduced to grey, and she lowered into a feral crouch. Tiffany stopped in her pursuit, eyes wide. A sign of fear. Mina took the opening, leaping at the Monster, claws extended and aimed for the throat.
"The other one attacked me too, but she at least had a brain," Tiffany sighed and swirled around, tail coming high and smacked into Mina's side. Faster than her mind could process, she grabbed it and swung up, using the mass as a springboard to hasten her approach. Tiffany grinned, "Marvellous instincts."
Mina's claws struck the serpent's throat, but slid off with the painfully shrill sound of nails on a chalkboard. Her own eyes widened in shock, a cry strained her throat, ears screaming at the sound, just as Tiffany bit into her shoulder. Warm numbness blossomed throughout her body from the wound. She kicked herself away and landed in a heap, breaths laboured as the venom worked. The removal of her clothes almost didn't register.
"My, but you are different. She had progressed further, though I suppose different physiologies and all that. You have a different air about you too, something pleasant," Tiffany giggled, "I must have you."
"What're you..." Mina's tongue went numb, turning the question to an unintelligible noise. Rungs of Tiffany's body coiled around her legs, rising up her body and squeezing tightly, though her muscles wouldn't respond anyway. Despite the sun, the scales were cool on her body, or she was burning up from the venom. She looked up with the little strength remaining, her chest tightened. All she saw was a bottomless hole, framed by teeth and lips, that descended upon her. A tongue lapped at her cheek.
"Ooh, I almost wish I could devour you properly, but you could be just what I need. Don't worry, I'll let you out soon enough," Tiffany said, voice sinister from her stretched out maw.
The lips clasped around Mina's shoulders, coils slacking in time with their progress. Goosebumps pimpled across her flesh, body incapable of any motion beyond shallow breaths, feeling the slimy hole adhere to her skin and replace the tail. Darkness enshrouded her, a clammy heat and strange odour clogged her lungs. As her feet were swallowed, Tiffany lifted her head up and used gravity to finish Mina's slimy journey.
There was nothing to be seen. Her eyes adjusted fast, but were surrounded only by pulsating red-pink walls, coated in moisture that rubbed onto her skin. Whatever Tiffany was doing constantly jostled her. Mina focused on her fingers, a faint sense of touch returned to them, and took the chance to plan her escape. It seemed simple; once Tiffany let her out, she'd make a run for it.
What came next posed the biggest problem. Jules had mentioned the snake was necessary. The obvious path was to wait for her to sleep, then milk her cum, without waking the snake as well. It didn't seem likely to work. From just meeting Tiffany, she didn't seem the type to allow such a thing. For all her cocky pride, she was always in command.
"Welcome to your new home," Tiffany said, voice reverberating throughout the walls, that then closed around Mina and pushed her up. Light flowed into the dank abyss. No, it was too soon, she thought. Feeling had just returned to her wrists. She dug her claws into the Monster's oesophagus, but failed to leave even a small cut. Stone floors broke her fall amidst a shower of Tiffany's spit.
"Incredible," the snake noted as she lifted Mina like a rag doll, "Not only is my poison wearing off already, but you aren't burned at all. I expected at least a little degradation after an hour inside me, like the other one, yet here you are. Remarkable."
An hour? The other one? Mina glowered at the Monster, before she was thrown into an enclosure of glass, steel and rock. She laid on her side, incapable of moving her head more than an inch. There were other cages opposite hers, built into what looked to be a cave wall. Each housed several women, all either clawing at the glass front, or pleasuring one another with all the ferocity of a Monster. One was pregnant.
"Yes, I took them a while ago. The ripest females of their village, yet none show signs of bearing my young. I'm currently waiting on one to give birth. You must understand my thinking, right? Hmm, maybe not you, but your Chimaera sibling must."
"Sibling?" Mina heard from her side, but she couldn't move enough to confirm who spoke, "I'm nothing like her."
"True. You reek of death, Chimaera, whereas she is rife with vitality. Still, I would be remiss not to see you two breed. After that, I will test my own seed on you. Until then, I have other work to be done."
Chimaera? Feeling returned to her limbs, prickling with pins and needles, and she turned around to face the other, knowing only one person it could be. No matter how they parted ways, fate had them bound in its silk, like a spider and its prey, forever doomed to meet. Li was, indeed, the other 'Chimaera'. Unlike Mina, she was bound to the floor with iron chains. And she was erect to Mina's surprise.
Tiffany slithered away, a crude grin on her elegant face. Did she expect them to have so little control that they couldn't resist each other? Mina chuckled under her breath, rubbing her arms to ease the tingling, and stood with a hand braced on a wall. Whatever reasons Li had, she had stolen from her, effectively stranding her in an unknown land to die. Now they were both prisoner and test subject to a deranged Monster.
Mina went to the furthest corner and slumped down. There had to be a way out. Once she had that, she'd focus on avenging Jackson. A cold swept over her at the thought of killing the snake woman, something that was sentient, conversing and unnecessary for survival stood on a whole other scale from hunting prey. But she needed to. For revenge and to escape.
"You can't do it," Li said, "People's scents change when they intend to kill. Their bodies react without thinking. You had that scent, then instantly lost it. Your conviction is weak."
"Maybe you're right," Mina glared at the so-called chimaera, "But she still has to pay for Jackson."
