Chapter Two: Upon Him It Came

As these thoughts ran through his mind he smiled, in the fading light, with the confidence of a man, who, even at the cute and tender age of twenty-three, knows what he is doing.
He rolled over on to his back and watched the flickering spasms of the dying fire. He drank in the still night, its peace more underlined than disturbed snoring of dogs and men. He was thinking idly about a hot bath and clean shirt and pants to match, when suddenly he saw it, silhouetted darkly somewhere between him and the fire: a thin swaying swag-full band of death, a snake.
He should have moved, rolled away, but he was paralysed by its hypnotic menace and sexy velvet-like skin. In the half light he could not estimate clearly the distance between them, but he was sure it could not be more than three feet, after all he had just two. He watched, with mingled fascination and terror, the liquid, almost gentle rhythm as the creature swung in its ghastly dance, forked tongue flickering in unison with the flames. It dropped its head and he could no longer see it. He thought it had glided off, but his sigh of relief was cut to a strangled gasp as he felt it slipping over his feet and worse still, moving firmly but leisurely towards his head, with a strong ripple of muscle.

Author's Note

Please review..

Reviews

[Joshua]

Very good work, you have a talent for prose. The way that the scene ends just before the snake strikes leaves quite a bit to the imagination, and this sort of sudden ending to a scene is a technique that never fails to impress me. the way in which you describe the snake's dance, and the snake itself ("a thin swaying swag-full band of death") is very well placed. There's a lot going on here. Nice work.

[asterix]

another masterpiece, im going on to read chapter three.