Arcadia-Awakening

It's the middle of the night. I can hear something rustling around. I can't move, after passing out earlier one of my captors bound me with a length of rope. The rustling grows louder as A soft voice is quietly singing to herself. The words sound... Mixed, almost like a fusion of Gaelic and Scandinavian.

Opening my eyes I see a pale skinned woman scrubbing the floor where I made a mess of myself. She seems content... almost like she enjoys cleaning. Her eyes dull for a moment, irritated that I am watching. She crawls over and I try in vain to wiggle away. No good, they hog-tied me. I am going nowhere.

She gazes into my eyes for a moment and then tries several languages until I respond to a slightly accented English. "You should be asleep. I work better when I have no audience. Look into my eyes, human."

Still tense, I am wary about trusting anything I see for now. The pale woman mutters to herself "Tá sé an t-ádh ar do shon sin ní dóigh liom pionós a ghearradh baoise ..." she smiles at my nervous laugh.

"Why should I? Are you going to take them?"

"Fool. It is simple courtesy to make eye contact when engaged in dialogue."

I look into her eyes. Nothing happens. I am not captivated by the seaweed green orbs in any way. I breathe a sigh of relief. "What do you do here? How big is this place?"

"It is a single floor brick and mortar home, several hundred square feet per room with minimal furnishings. All the better for the Mistress to slide and wind across. As for myself, I am in her employ as a servant of all trades."

"You're a... maid? And who is the "Mistress"? the crazy bitch with the wild hai-" Smack. Ouch. My face is numbing from the chill of her soft hand.
  
"Speak not of the mistress in such a vulgar fashion. As to the prior, yes 'Maid' seems to fit. My mistress is madame Calypsos cousin, Vermina."

"Alright. Now, where am I?"

"That is talk for in the early morning. Not the dead of night. Now hold still while I clean you."

"Okay, I guess we can talk in the... Wait. Clean me?"

"Yes. You are on the floor. I am cleaning the floor. Do not move."

Before I can say anything she resumes her soft melody and scrubs the floor around me, and then proceeds to scrub every bit of exposed flesh. Her clammy hand clamps over my mouth as I cry out in pain, she is scrubbing my dislocated arm, and it hurts like a bitch. She whispers "Almost finished."

Her hand smells like a riverbed,  my arm feels like it's going to fall off, and I cannot stop my heart from racing. this whole experience is very surreal... Almost like a delusional fantasy. I'll wake up any minute now and- POP. She just slammed my shoulder back into place. All that escapes my lips is a whimper.

"Keep that up, and you very well may end up dinner for one of the townsfolk. Be strong, harden your heart. Life is going to be difficult here." With that she produces a knife from her emerald dress and stabs a small lizard that was slowly crawling towards my head. "Basilisk lizard. The bite is what alters the flesh. More of a nuisance than a threat. Tasty though."

She curls up in the corner next to me, munching on her prize. I hazard a bit of conversation. "I thought basilisks were large reptilian beasts who turned people into stone with their gaze..."

She tilts her head. "No wonder humans don't last long on this side. You are thinking of the cockatrice. And yes, they are here. Your neighbor is one. Lost his wife recently, so he does not come outside all to often."

"So what, everything I was told was false as a child is true? The Loch Ness Monster, the yowie, and Chupacabra are all real?"

"No. A great many of us are firmly ingrained in human history and literature. The examples you gave were false. However, a prime figure you may know lives within our little village here. She has gone by many names, Elaine, Niniane, Nivian, Nyneve, Evienne and a host of others. For now she has decided to use one of her old stand-bys, Vivian. She runs this towns affairs, and unlike most of the community she does not live in a fashion similar to humans,preferring to live in the small lake the town was built around."

"Those names do sound familiar, I think I read them in a book somewhere... Wait... The Lady of the Lake lives here! She's REAL?!? My God... My perspective of reality has just been tossed out the window..." I exaggerate my reaction, though there is truth to my words.

"You seem at ease now, earlier you were raving like a lunatic... Why is that?" She offers me the lizard's tail.

"No thanks. To be honest, you are the closet thing to human I have seen so far. I haven't even left this room! "

She chuckles, a soft pleasant sound. "I am no more human than they are. Would you care to see?"

"I'd rather not, sorry... I don't think I could handle it."

"'Tis fine. Now that you are calmed, will you go to sleep?" She stands up and reaches over a sleeping Cally, who hasn't moved at all during the time I spoke with the maid. Deftly she snatches a silken pillow and tosses it to me. "Sleep, I have work to finish."

"Thank you... Could you at least tell me you name?"

She stops for a moment to think. "Ceana. Much easier for you to say than my true name. Now sleep." With that said, she returns to her duties. I feel strangely at ease, and drift into peaceful silence.




"Wake up ape." Vermina tugs on the ropes binding me, and then unties them. "I said wake up!"

I open my eyes in time to see her hovering over my neck, fangs extended. Venom drips onto my chest as I scurry away. She smiles. "Time to eat." I get up and dash out of the room, hearing the sandpaper whispering of her pursuit. It's over quickly. "Dining area is this way." She wipes away the venom that dribbled onto her chin. "Ceana! Go get Cally!"

Out of the corner of my eye I watch as Ceana heads into the room I just exited. Vermina squeezes tightly. I pat her on the shoulder. "By 'time to eat'... you do mean eggs 'n bacon, right? Right?"

She looks lost in thought. Not a good sign from my standpoint. "No."

Crap. I try to make light of it. "I have a question."

She glares my way. "What?"

"You are only partially serpentine, right?"

"Yes. What of it?" She squeezes even tighter
.
"Can you do that thing regular snakes do, ya know, the whole dislocating your jaw to consume larger prey?"

Once more she smiles. "Maybe. Wanna find out?"

Alright Donovan, change the subject quickly! "Do you shed like a normal-Guh!" I feel several vertebrae pop in sequential order as the magnitude of the pressure increases to strangulating levels.

"We are through talking now." She eases up as Cally walks into the room. "Why are you sporting legs this morning Calypso? Is it because of his presence?"

She yawns, and I realize that my panicked mind misjudged the length of those fangs. They are only half an inch long. Still doesn't comfort me all too much. Scratching her stomach after sliding on a cotton shirt she notices me. "So, you really came. And why, pray tell,  are you coiled up like that?"

"He tried to escape. You said he is not here as food," she shudders with revulsion at the thought of why I am here. "but as a warm-blooded one night stand. You do know he can't go back for at least a year right? Anyway, long story short, if he escapes what's going to stop Charles from eating him, hmm? Or what about Swindlin' Tim? And don't get me started on Rose."

I am shaking with fear now. Outside sounds like a madhouse. I try to contribute to the conversation. "What is so bad about Rose?"

"She's a succubus. She get's really turned on around mortals and practically forces herself on them."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"She has trouble stopping. And her tastes are a little... violent. Last mortal came through here thought the same way. Guess what happened?"

"The Horny-Devil sent him out with a bang?" Humor is my crutch. I admit it.

"They had to clean him up with a shovel. She literally tore him to shreds. And there were no cheeky little pun-worthy smiles. The screams woke everybody."

"It's official. Get me outta here! I can't survive here! I'll do anything!"
  
Cally's turn to speak. "I can't take you home just yet. It will take about a year for my pass to be renewed. Then I can take you home. Hey Vee? Can I have him back?"

Vermina grins as Cally shifts back into the massive snake-like monstrosity that will haunt my nightmares for  years to come. And then I am released, only to be wrapped up by another serpentine body." There. Make sure to squeeze him tightly, he needs to smell like you if we are going to run him through town safely today."

Ceana comes out of a hallway with a tray of meats. I even spot a rabbit on the menu. She walks to a corner and sets a collapsible table on the polished oak floor of this barren room, and places the tray upon it.

I take a chunk of what looks like ham and examine it. "Is this, ya know, ham?"
Ceana nods.

I dig in. "It's amazing! Not too dry, not too moist. Pork perfection."

Ceana smiles, " I bought it from a little restaurant across town. I'm not much of a cook."

Vermina snags the rabbit. Though cooked, it still appears to be whole. Rather than swallow it, she places it on a plate and begins cutting. She notices my surprise, and grins maliciously. Dropping her knife she speaks up. "That question you had earlier? Here's your answer."

I give her a quizzical look as I squirm around to free myself from Cally's grip. No such luck. Turning my attention back to Vermina, I patiently wait to see what she meant. She has the rabbit by it's hind legs, lifts it up to her lips, and opens her mouth.  

Her jaw dislocates and drops a few inches while her face seems to... widen. Stuffing the rabbit in, she swallows the damn thing whole. It's less impressive, and more disgusting than I expected. There's a lump in her throat that would suffocate a human, not to mention rupture the flesh itself. It slides down and as it reaches her collarbone, her chest starts popping and expanding, pressing outwards to accommodate the large lagomorph. I start to feel a little queasy when it passed into her gut, and steadily continues through her body. Within moments it passes into her reptilian body, which has more than enough room, and I lose sight of it.

"I think I'm going to be sick..." It was over with in seconds.

Cally scolds her cousin. "That was a bit rude to do in front of a guest. Can't you see he's freaked out enough by the situation?" Staring at my face she notes, "We made a mistake. We were drunk, and careless. Until this is sorted out, stay here with me until it's safe."



The next few minutes are a blur, I am getting a little dizzy, turns out Cally has been steadily crushing my body, and blood flow was severely restricted.

She loosens up, but re adjusts the coils. "Gotta make you smell like one of us. Don't want Charles to get you." This last bit was said playfully, but something tells me to worry about Charles.

She lets me go and tells me to relax for a little while, soon we are going to see a medical professional about my injuries.


I am scared shitless.