Inviting Night (Illustrated by Peritian)
A group of weary travellers are invited to stay with a snake in the midst of their journey through a strange land.
Inviting Night - by Amethystine, based on a picture of the same name conceived by Zsisron and drawn by Peritian.
A dragon, a bluejay, and a golden retriever.
It was an unlikely travelling party, made up of male specimens of those varying species, but one that existed all the same.
They trekked through the desert upon the backs of two camels, swapping places at regular intervals. One of the trio always needed to walk ahead with the line, leading the front camel along. In this manner, they rested their legs and cooled their feet, which had been near to scorched by the baking sands of the dunes.
In this way, none of them were utterly exhausted, but also, none of them escaped the powerful fatigue that settled over the whole group as they arrived at the small city.
It had risen up from the horizon, out of the endless sea of sand in the distance. It could have been a mirage at first, as the ornate tops of the handful of slender spires shimmered in the haze of the heat. When they were sure of their heading and close enough to be sure of what they saw, there was a short time where their bodies burst with newfound energy, to be so close to their destination.
Such a spurt did not last, though, as the sight of the city did not mean they were close. Their reserves were completely spent by the time they actually came near.. their false hope borne of their homeland of more diverse geography, where sighting something meant it could not be so far.
There was a chill in the air as the canine, the avian and the reptilian strode unsteadily through the huge main gate of the thick city walls. A single gust of wind blew sand in after them as the heavy wooden doors were shut. It was as though the desert itself was blowing them a kind kiss goodnight.. or it was one final insulting attempt to strike them down, depending on who you asked.
In the night, the heat of the day would be stolen away from the land, as it had no where to hide.. save for in the city, in the houses within. They had found room for their camels in a stable, at least, but then needed somewhere for themselves.
They briefly considered talking their way into an inexpensive accommodation with their beasts of burden.. until they escorted the dromedaries into their stalls. The smell, for their sensitive noses, was too much to stay longer than the time it took to settle their charges, let alone a whole night.
They took to the winding, hilly streets of the complex town, certain of their ability to find a place to bed down until the morn. The city felt as though it had once bustled.. but it was as though they had just missed the busy markets and the crowded streets they had expected to see.
Occasionally, they would come across a local, typically a lizard or hardened insect or arachnid, creatures who seemed alien to the travellers, all sharp edges and prickly exteriors.
The residents of the hill-built city seemed especially otherworldly when the travelling group attempted communication, their questions getting rasps of strange sibilance or an unintelligible chitter of clicks and snaps from the (to them) exotic species.
As the evening stretched into the night, the world quickly became darker and colder than the trio found comfortable, the hard stone walls of the apparently unfriendly and inhospitable city closing in on them.
In the hour of their greatest need and deepest desperation, they began to knock on doors with lamp-light leaking from 'round their rough edges. They knocked, then they banged and pounded, beginning to shout for attention, but their cries fell on deaf ears. (Or whatever the locals had. Antennae?)
Soon, though, their salvation slithered out from the shadows. A serpent. The first they had encountered in that region. The lengthy creature was a welcome change from those they had met, in many aspects. He was smooth in body and in personality and he was the kind of creature they knew, having known some serpents in their more verdant homelands.
The most important distinction between the naga and the other denizens of the dense city, though, was that he spoke their language.
Despite the travellers' being total strangers to him, the serpent almost immediately invited them to his abode. He stated the desire of wanting someone from those interesting places far away to talk to, to bring him news of their homes. He had not learned their language to ignore their corner of the world, after all, he had said. The three friends had offered the ophidian money when the reptile had talked of food and drink for them, but he declined.
"Your mere presssence will be payment enough!" he proclaimed, proudly. The bird, the dog and the dragon all quickly agreed that it was too kind of an offer to pass up.. although they really did intend to pay (or repay) the python for his generosity.
Once they arrived at their newfound helpful host's humbling home, a hearty repast was had. They sat on pillows around a low table, and their tired bodies were allowed to settle.. becoming weighed down with tasty food. The python also laid his body out upon the cushions, but ate little.
The exhaustion that had been held at bay by the trio's need to feed themselves rushed into their forms with the removal of that barrier, making them all the more relaxed and ready to converse with the curious constrictor. The warmth of the house and the comfort of their lavish surroundings also helped to ease them further into a state of contentment and complacency.
Before long, the meal was naught but a memory and the master of the house announced it was time for libation, which would end the evening of entertaining his company. The serpent snapped his fingers, turning his head to call out with a firm, commanding, yet inarticulate noise, obviously meant as a beckoning to some lowly servant.
Instantly, with a rustling of scales and a rush of silks, a small, green-scaled snake-boy emerged from some dark corner of the constrictor's abode. He was clad in appropriately 'airy' clothing, suitable for the desert dwelling. They were made from diaphanous and sheer material, a multitude of silks that showed off his lean, lanky, legged body. Even though he possessed legs, it was clear he was a snake, due to the shape of his head and the contours of his tail.. and torso, which was somehow more showed off by the garments than it was concealed.
Coming up to an unoccupied side of the long table, he bowed silently despite looking full of questions and wonder at the three 'exotic foreigners', he quelled his rasping breath as he composed himself before his master. The lengthy naga nodded subtly to the light-weight and legged creature before speaking a single word in their native, sibilant tongue. The comparatively tiny reptile rushed off to fulfil his employer's (or perhaps owner's) wishes, even before the second syllable had left the lamia's lips. More than ever before, it was clear to the three companions, despite the snake's inability to actually do so, the python _definitely_ wore the pants in the household. As if there had ever been any doubt.
The same scurrying noises were heard, with the addition of the tinkle of glass on glass, as the little underling returned with a tray of four glass goblets and a fat, oblong shaped bottle. The thin neck of the vessel was so pronounced from the circular, fluid-filled bottom, that it reminded a few of the fellows of the python's form, his torso's slender shape rising above his collection of closely curled up coils.
After the boy poured and passed the potent potables to the python so that he could present each in turn to his guests, the naga dismissed him with a soft, "Sss'tanhhssst, Sssanhhesstss," to which the servant beamed before bowing out of the room.
Wasting no time, the reptile raised his glass on high and made a toast to his guests' health, to their safety during the rest of their travels and to their continued good fortune.. then drank nearly his whole goblet-full in one greedy gulp.
In the moment after the naga's small speech and sizable swig, there was a moment where everything was still. The three companions all sensed the tiniest flicker of unease. Was their situation too good to be true? No one spoke up to question it, but if one had, the other two may well have also voiced their concerns. None of them rose, thinking it rude. Rather, they were occupied with their suspicion that the big swig of wine after the toast was a tradition, and they were being unwittingly insulting.. so they hastened to take their own hearty swallows.
The snake smiled slyly, slithering smoothly to spread out and sit with a sibilant sigh on the far side of the room, resting his pythonic self on a plenteous pile of puffy pillows. It was a happy sigh, as though brought on by a job well done, or the end of a hardship. Still seated at the table, the trio watched, oddly nonplussed at their host's shift in demeanour. For a few moments, the thoughts within the heads of the travellers were chaotic. They wondered why they felt so drowsy, but that was offset with assurances from more reasonable thoughts on how long and how hard their trek had been, and how well they had been fed.. not to mention the possibility of the wine going straight to their heads.
They fretted over the idea that their host was not as he appeared, and wrestled with the notion that they had offended the ophidian. Slowly but surely, the idea of having slighted the serpent seemed more and more unthinkable, regardless of whether he was as he seemed or not. With such mounting concern over the naga's opinion of them, each of them became increasingly fixated on him. They saw how he loosened the formerly tightly fastened front of his formal attire, displaying his smooth scutes within.. which only caused one's eye to trail down along the rest of the supple looking serpent-belly, taking in the entirety of his exotic, elongated form.
They looked and looked, drinking in his form with an unquenchable thirst, trying to see more of him, yearning for him to move.. they strained their ears, attempting to hear the sound of his scales on the silken cushions, or the rasp of his breath. Their thoughts turned to the last tangible utterance the python had produced, thinking of his content little sigh.. which made them think of his emotions, his wants and needs.. and they began to become obsessed with making him happy. They wanted nothing but perfection for the flawless, flexible, flowing creature they saw before them. They wondered if they should follow him, or ask him what he wanted, but he seemed content to have them remain where they were, and to have them be silent. They became too fearful of displeasing the serpent, that they would do nothing until told to.
The naga watched his witless wanderers as the wine worked its wonders with their will. He smiled at them while he witnessed the battle raging behind their rapidly emptying eyes. It had only been seconds since he had slid over and seated his serpentine self on the pillows, but he could tell they were already under his thrall. In the past, it had taken longer, but that was before he had learned the proper conditions into which his 'guests' should be placed; tired and weary, comfortable and well-fed.
"I ssstated earlier that the wine would end the evening of me entertaining my company.. for now, you will be entertaining me deep into the night," said the snake, before pointing at the dragon and speaking again without leaving time for a reply or a retort, which he knew would not be forthcoming, "You, dragon, walk over to me.."
As the largest of the three travellers moved over to the snake, he held up his hand in a huff. "Wait, ssstop! Cursssesss.. I alwaysss forget to make them finish their glasssesss.. I get ssso excited to tessst them," he sighs, peering across at the canine and the bluejay, continuing to ponder to himself, "To lassst all night.. they need more than a sssip.." He looked up to see the dragon frozen in mid-step. The snake looked lustfully over the well toned male almost looming over him. "Mmm, no. I want you here.. all of you, sssit with me, I have a better idea."
The snake called for his actual servant, and made the snakeboy bring the wine again. After he had it, the serpent curled his form around the winged reptile while still clutching the bottle.. his coils kneading the strong, immobile frame under the dragon's clothes, hissing in satisfaction at the feel of his newest toy. "Drink from meee.." he rasped, then took a swig from the bottle and pressed his snout to the statuesque scalie, kissing and giving him a large snout-full of the liquor.
Satisfied that the big boy would continue to be controllable, the naga drew up his tail behind the dragon's back and leaned over the broad shoulders to reach out to his own vent.. the slit in his scales near the end of his long body that housed his hemipenes. He stuck the spout of the wine bottle into his slit and poured, shivering at the chill of the liquid in his private spaces. Still holding his upper parts around the dragon, he extended his tail to the avian and the retriever.. winding it around them to hold them closer together, then lifting it up to their faces, commanding them to "Drink from meee.." just as he'd done with the dragon.
Both beak and muzzle delved into his sensitive reptilian recesses to suck and lick and generally gulp down as much of the wine they could.. as well as any other fluids they might encounter, the serpent had not been specific. The naga himself squirmed and hissed in giddy pleasure.. both at the power he held, as well as the novelty of his inventive method of wine transference. In between buzzes of bliss from the bottom end of his body, he murmured about needing to make that a more permanent part of his evenings, before telling the trio of enthralled foreigners to strip while still doing as they had been told.
"You will all enjoy thisss, regardlesss of your prior preferencesss.." the python purred, pulling on the pair still suckling upon his vent while he caressed the drake's recently bared chest. The snake had dabbled in declaring that his dummy-like slaves would detest the actions he made them perform, having considered it a greater thrill of power over his pets. It hadn't lasted, though. He found things much more enjoyable without the groans of resistance distracting him. Lacking a command toward pleasure or otherwise, his thralls had always been silent, appearing indifferent throughout their duties.. but they were really just without will, even to whine or to whoop. So why not allow them some bliss.. based on bamboozlement or not?
The snake shifted himself and pulled a red leather collar from under the pile of pillows, returning to secure it around the dragon's neck. He also commanded the duo to cease their suckling, as they had all but completely dried out his vent, save for the saliva they left behind on his now throbbingly erect twin members. Declaring that the dog and the bluejay should have fun with one another, he slid his tail lower, aiming to wipe his pythonic poles clean on the birds downy nether-regions.. or something _else_ viable in that vicinity.
~*((Art by Peritian. To visit (and praise) her posting of this picture (and view it full-size!), go here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2834206/ ))*~
Another happy sigh escaped the naga's lips as the order for his slaves to enjoy themselves came to fruition and he was treated to a new selection of flesh to grope as he switched between watching the smaller pair of males at his tail and making his draconic perch perform whatever tricks he liked.. especially heating himself up with his ubiquitous internal dragonfire, giving the snake something to soak up in the long cold night of the desert.
~
They would continue for the rest of the night, switching and shifting about into whatever configuration of positions the python pleased.. never tiring in their wakeful, slumbering state while the nocturnal naga will eventually grow tired after the pre-dawn light leaks into the lust-filled air of the room. He will send them to their beds, only to make them awake less than an hour later, once his snakeboy servant cleans up all evidence of their 'extra-conscious' activities. Though refreshed of mind, their bodies will ache.. but such minor pains of body are to be expected in the middle of a long journey, are they not?
The End
Special thanks to the other participants in the picture, who partly inspired the tale.
The bluejay belongs to Zsisron, the dragon is Zenon and Azuma is the dog. Also, thanks to Scaurus/S'kei for inspiring the bipedal Snakeboy