The Swan Has Horns

33

He woke up to the sound of nails being rapped against a surface. The annoying sound forcing his eyes open, and his hurting body upwards into a sitting position. His neck felt on fire, and his throat burnt, but he figured it was because of the biting it had suffered through. He had a mind to snap at whoever was making that noise, but his words were caught up in the back of his throat.

"Very rarely do we get visitors." The nail scraping stopped, the voice of a female basically purring into his ear. Their voice was all around, loud enough for him to hear, though quiet enough to the point it sounded more of a whisper than anything, "rarely do I get visitors." they giggled, and the soft feeling of something smooth, and hot ran over the side of his face. That was disgusting, the feeling left him feeling cold, all nasty from the saliva that lingered behind after the little lick, "do tell me little human why you have been dropped into my lap." Well their body actually considering they weren't human to begin with, the body was scaly, real snake like, though smooth at the same time. The feeling of raking their fingers through, left them feeling pleased in a real weird way.

"Lap?" Charlie though could only cough out what he wanted to say, the words barely recognizable, though whatever held the voice of a woman didn't seem to have a problem deciphering it.

"Yes, fool. My lap, why have you fallen into my lap? Do you wish to die? Do you wish to gain a power greater than God?" They hissed, prattling on in his ear as they listed all the reason he could've possibility chosen to fall right into their plate, "Godspeed child, I'm not very patient, and your starting to smell quite tantalizing." They jostled him just a little, Charlie snapping out his stupor to look around the oddly dark like atmosphere.

"I-I don't even know where I am, I don't even know who you are!" He tried standing at this point, legs wobbling, and arms failing as he tried balancing himself upwards, "you licked me which is quite disgusting, and now you're threatening to eat me?" He could've died, for what he thinks would be a second time when the scaly beast laughed at him. The movement jostled him even more, and turned his stomach inside out.

"LIES! Humans are selfish creatures that think nothing but of themselves. I should finish you off for sprouting such nonsense. I sense your desire, I sense what you truly wish, and I can give that all to you, for the exchange of something important to you." He was dropped onto the floor, a breath of relief flooding his system the second he was met with the cold hard ground that he was used to. It wasn't anything like outside, but the cold, damp feeling of wet dirt was similar enough.

As much as he wanted to deny the scaly beast, in some aspect it was right. He did have something he wished greatly for, but he wasn't religious enough to believe that some heavenly beast of some sort could fix it for him. His wishes ranged from starting his life over from scratch, fixing the things that he wished could've gone better, and his wishes got simpler from there. To be happy, to be proud of where he's at in life.

"I see you thinking, I see you raking through that tiny brain of yours to find what you wish." They prattled on, giggles, and hisses whispering themselves into his ear like a gentle hymn. He really wanted a second chance at life, really bad, but he wasn't a complete fool. He knew that there was a strong possibility that his son wouldn't be there with him, his daughter, hell his daughter in laws, and granddaughter would cease to exist. He knew all that and it scared him to even think about it.

"I-I" He had a chance to restart, for the price of something special, probably his soul if he was being honest, but he had a chance, "I-I."