Living as a snake, as it turns out, is not all it's cracked up to be. Sure, there are perks - you never have to worry about losing your keys or forgetting to put on pants. But let me tell you, the downsides are pretty significant. Like, say, the whole 'slowly losing your mind and humanity' thing. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's slither back to the beginning.
The first few days as a snake were... interesting, to say the least. Have you ever tried to coordinate two heads and about thirty feet of muscle? It's like trying to give a piggy back at home all at the same time. Oh, and you're hungry. Always hungry.
"Okay, Aell," I hissed to myself, my forked tongues flicking out nervously. "You can do this. Front head, back head, body. It's just like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time. Except, you know, as a massive snake."
My first attempts at movement were less than graceful. I tied myself in knots more times than I care to admit. But slowly, painfully slowly, I started to get the hang of it. It was like my body remembered how to be a snake, even if my mind was still catching up.
And then there was the hunger. Oh gods, the hunger. It gnawed at me constantly, a primal urge that grew stronger with each passing day. At first, I tried to resist it. I was Aell Truman, after all, not some mindless beast. But as the days wore on, that resolve began to crumble.
It was about a week into my new scaly life when I encountered my first prey - a wild boar. In my human form, I would have been careful of the beast. But as a snake? It looked like a walking, grunting buffet.
My body moved before my mind could catch up. One moment I was watching the boar from the undergrowth, the next I was coiled around it, squeezing with strength I didn't know I possessed.
The boar squealed and thrashed, but it was no match for my new serpentine form.
"Sorry, I need to eat too," I tried to say, but it came out as a series of hisses. And the truth was, I wasn't really sorry. Not anymore. The hunger was too strong, the thrill of the hunt too exhilarating.
I unhinged my jaws - both of them - and began to swallow the boar whole. It should have been disgusting. It should have horrified me. Instead, it felt... right. Natural. Like this was what I was meant to do all along.
As the weeks passed, hunting became easier. My movements grew more fluid, more instinctual. I no longer had to think about how to move my body - it just happened. I could slither silently through the underbrush, climb trees with ease, and strike with lightning speed.
But with each successful hunt, with each meal, I could feel something changing inside me. It wasn't just my body adapting to its new form. It was my mind. My thoughts, once a constant stream of words and ideas, began to simplify. To focus on the essentials. Warm. Cold. Hungry. Safe. Danger.
I tried to hold onto my humanity. I would hiss my name to myself, try to recall memories of my life before. But it was like trying to hold water in cupped hands. The more I tried to grasp it, the more it slipped away.
"Aell," I would hiss. "Aell Truman. Human. Not snake. Aell."
But as the months wore on, even that became harder. The name 'Aell' became just another sound, no more meaningful than the rustle of leaves or the scurrying of small prey.
Time lost all meaning. There was only the hunt, the feed, the rest. The cycle of survival that consumed my days and nights. I grew larger, stronger. The forest that had once seemed so vast became my territory, every tree and rock familiar.
I encountered other predators - wolves, bears, even the occasional human hunter. But none were a match for me. I was the apex predator now, no matter who I met, I would kill and consume.
And still, the hunger remained. Not just for food, but for something else. Something I couldn't quite remember, couldn't quite name. It drove me to hunt more, to explore farther. But no matter how much I ate, no matter how far I roamed, I was never satisfied.
As the seasons changed, my thoughts became simpler still. The last vestiges of human consciousness faded, replaced by pure instinct. I no longer thought in words, but in sensations.
The warmth of sunlight on my scales. The vibrations of prey moving through the forest. The satisfaction of a successful hunt.
I had become the snake, in body and mind. Aell Truman was gone, lost in the coils of this new, powerful form.
And then, just as suddenly as it had begun, it ended.
The change came without warning. One moment I was basking in the warmth of the sun, my two heads alert for any sign of prey. The next, there was pain - blinding, all-consuming pain that felt like my body was being torn apart and reassembled.
I thrashed and hissed, my long body writhing on the forest floor. The world spun, colors blurring and shifting. And then, darkness.
When I opened my eyes again, everything had changed. The world looked... different. Smaller, somehow. And I could see my hands. Actual human hands, not the smooth, scaled coils I had grown accustomed to.
I blinked, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. I was back in my human body my lost arm now back in it's place, lying on the forest floor. But something was... off. My vision was still split, as if I was seeing from two sets of eyes.
And my body felt different - stronger, more alert.
As I pushed myself up, I became aware of something else. I was covered in blood. It coated my skin, matted my hair, stained my tattered clothes. For a moment, panic gripped me. What had happened? Where was I?
And then I saw him. Tommy. My best friend, my brother, lying motionless just a few feet away. The sight of him hit me like a physical blow, memories flooding back. The snake attack. Tommy being swallowed. My desperate, grief-fueled battle.
But how? How could Tommy still be here, looking exactly as he had when... when it happened? It felt like a year had passed, a lifetime lived in scales and hunger. Yet the scene before me was unchanged, as if frozen in time.
I stood up, my movements clumsy at first, though with each step I took I regained more of my balance, more of my control. My body felt different - stronger, more agile. But that wasn't the most drastic change, I still saw split, I could still feel the temperature in the air, I could still see every minuscule movement of everything around me.
Without a word, without even really thinking about it, I walked over to Tommy's body. I should have felt something - grief, horror, regret. But there was nothing. Just a cool, detached awareness. I reached down and picked him up, his weight insignificant to my new strength.
As I stood there, holding the lifeless body of my best friend, I became aware of something else. A hunger. Not the all-consuming, primal hunger of the snake, but something... different. It was there however scratching the back of my mind.
"W-well," I said, my voice stuttering from disuse, "time to go home."
And as I stood there, my dead best friend in my arms and the taste of the giant snake still
lingering in my mouth, I couldn't help but wonder: what happens next?