This an entry for a write to adopt by @Typhooneanimates !!! I’m entering for Gentle Swirls. So, um, hope this isn’t too terrible! The little snakelets were playing at who could stand taller, the goal was to stretch up as high as one could. They had come up with a set of rules: you had to be in snake form, you could not jump, you had to be stable and still for at least 6 seconds, you had to say ‘tall tree’ during your six seconds of straightness (this was to prove that you were stable enough to talk), and by no means whatsoever, were you allowed to distract the other players. They had spent a long time on these rules, and Gentle Swirls had noticed that Sharp Spin had begun to get restless. Fortunately they had managed to start before anything happened that would have caused Mother to come and tell them to ‘stop whatever they were doing and take a nap.’ It was Sandy Clouds’ tern, and without a moments hesitation she jumped up (as well as snakes can) and landed with her tail end curved underneath her to support her. “Tall tre-” she began, but was cut of by Bright Bush, “No! You’re not allowed to jump, you have to pull yourself up with your own strength.” “Fine.” Sandy Clouds replied, then dropped down and started again, this time following the rules, managing to get fairly high up. Tornado Dust quickly slithered over with the stick they had got their mother to mark and stuck it in the ground next to Sandy Clouds to use as the measuring stick. “You’re taller than Sharp Spin by almost three notches!” Exclaimed Bright Bush, “tall tree” said Sandy Clouds. “Good job!” Gentle Swirls said, impressed. It was his tern now, and he slithered over. He used so much energy to hold himself up that he nearly forgot to say ‘tall tree.’ “Tall tree!” He blurted out, and fell to the ground. “Good job!” Came Tornado Dust’s small voice, Gentle Swirls pulled himself up from the sand, leaving behind a small snake-head-shaped dint. “Who won?” Sharp Spin asked Tornado Dust and Bright Bush. “Um... Sandy Clouds In first place, followed by Sharp Spin, Gentle Swirls, me, and Tornado Dust In size order from tallest to smallest!” Bright Bush lay down, proud of her little rhyme. “Yay!” Called out the snakelets, proud of however tall they were. “My little snakelets,” their mother called, “time for bed!” “Awwwwwwwwwwwww...” cried all the snakelets, except for Tornado Dust. The Mother-snake waved her tail, Tornado Dust noticed and followed the others back to the nest-pit. Tornado Dust’s hearing wasn’t that good, but that was fine. “All snakes are worth the same.” As their mother said. Bedtime. Probably the hardest part of the day, Gentle Swirls reflected. He liked to just think about thoughts for a bit, then slither along a bit, and go to bed. Unfortunately it wasn’t that easy, as everybody had different was they wanted to do things. Sharp Spin, the first hatched, would curl into a ball, uncurl, stretch out as long as possible, then curl back up and snore, then go to sleep. Tornado Dust, second hatched, would stretch out, then bend around a bit and rest her head on her body. This was so she could see if someone was trying to get her attention. Bright Bush, third hatched, preferred to sleep in her small-human form. Most animals had the ability to change their form. They had their true form (their ‘animal’ form), and their false form (their ‘human’ form.) Within these forms they had ‘subforms’, were they could change the size. For example a mouse could change into a mouse or a human form, but that can also change the size of their forms, for example a very small human, or a fairly large mouse. Anyway, Bright Bush sleeped In her small-human form. Sandy Clouds, fifth hatched (Gentle Swirls was forth hatched), could never decide anything, and would change every one in a while to different forms. But, finally, they were asleep. Gentle Swirls woke up and yawned. He could hear voices on the other side of the bush that bordered the nest-pit. He slithered over and went under the bush, there he saw his siblings looking at Sandy Clouds. “What’s going on?” Gentle Swirls asked. Sandy Clouds seemed to be half way between forms, she looked like some sort of large snake with short, scaled limbs. “Look at me!” She said, “I have a another form!” “That doesn’t count as a form,” Bright Bush said, “you can’t even move.” Sure enough, as is the problem with mixed-forms, Sandy Clouds couldn’t move more than a wiggle. Suddenly she changed bake to snake form. “I was just starting to have fun!” She complained, “that’s what happens with mixed-forms, remember? Mother told us all about it,” Gentle Swirls said, and then looked up. He was sure he had saw something, but he wasn’t sure what. “Let’s go back to the nest,” Tornado Dust said, seemingly having seen it as well, and slithered as quickly as possible back to the nest-pit. The rest of the snakelets followed, except for Gentle Swirls. He had seen it, in the sky. It was a hawk. +++
This is continued from the above, there’s a limit to how much you can put up there. :p His mother had told him about this. Most animals were fine, just some more animals to meet, but some were not. It wasn’t really a whole type of animal, but just individuals that could be evil. There were some, his mother had told him, that were bad as one could be. They did lots of bad things, but she wasn’t going to tell him about most of them, because then he would never go to sleep, but one thing they did was eat other animals. These days there was fake meat available, because all animals were intelligent, but they did not eat it. They ate other animals for fun. This was what his mother said, and she said if you ever saw a animal acting suspiciously, run back to mother, because they might be fine, but they might not be. He slithered as fast as he could back to the nest-pit. “Everybody, in the bush!” He called, but at that moment his mother saw the hawk. She gathered her snakelets to her in one sweep of her tail and rushed over to the bush and ushered her children underneath. It was a small bush and she had to get the snakelets in one at a time, but then the hawk dived down. In a moment he lunged at Gentle Swirls. His talons grabbed him tightly. Gentle Swirls couldn’t think of what to do, his breath was squeezed out of him, but he curled up tightly in to a ball, the hawk didn’t seem to except that, and in the moment of confusion his mother bit the hawk. Hard. The hawk screeched and tore a gash in Gentle Swirls back before letting go, and all Gentle Swirls could manage through the pain was to get out of the way. What happened next was a hazy blur through the mask of pain. Gentle Swirls saw the hawk lunge at the bush, and he came out with something in his beak. It was Sandy Clouds! The hawk threw the small snake up in the air and she screamed as he caught her in his beak. His mother was in her full-size human form, and she lunged to pin the hawk down, but he flew out of the way. He landed a snake-length away from them, and Gentle Swirls mother ran as fast as she could over to him, but before she could reach him he flapped his wings and flew up a couple of flaps, then dived down, then the hawk plunged his beak into the ground, snakelet and all. Sandy Clouds screaming had stopped, now she just wimped. He lifted his head up, and in one swift movement bit down. Gentle Swirls mother screamed. His sister had stopped even whimpering. She was terribly battered up. Sandy Clouds was dead. The hawk flew away with the too-young snake in his beak. It was then that Gentle Swirls blacked out. I’m so sorry but I’m gonna stop there, I’ll probably add more in the future! Now for the credits! I wrote this for a WTA (write to adopt) by @Typhooneanimates the art is not by me, but by Typhoonanimates again! They are amazing, check them out! The Animal and human form idea was inspired by ‘A Snake Falls to Earth’ by Darcie Little Badger (an amazing book!) Probably inspired a bit be the Guardians of Ga’hoole series. (An amazing series of books!) Ball pythons mothers technicality usually leave their young to fend for themselves once they hatch, but you know this world is different, so mine didn’t. There’s probably some other inaccuracies, but I don’t really care that much! I’ve also probably made some spelling mistakes. :D
