Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:54:30 GMT
A piercing pain shoots through his shoulder. Suddenly he is awake. He sits up and grabs his shoulder, wincing at the throbbing pain. He's momentarily disoriented as he looks around, and then he remembers - the crawl across the sand, the dark area of stone, the snake. He sees the snake, still wrapped around the tilted white post, still looking at him.
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:54:41 GMT
He reaches up and feels his shoulder, where it hurts. It feels slightly wet. He pulls his fingers away and looks at them - blood. He feels his shoulder again - his shirt has what feels like two holes in it - two puncture holes - they match up with the two aching spots of pain on his shoulder. He had been bitten. By the snake.
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:54:47 GMT
"It'll feel better in a minute." He looks up - it's the snake talking. He hadn't dreamed it. Suddenly he notices - he's not dizzy any more. And more importantly, he's not thirsty any more - at all!
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:54:54 GMT
"Have I died? Is this the afterlife? Why are you biting me in the afterlife?"
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:55:01 GMT
"Sorry about that, but I had to bite you," says the snake. "That's the way I work. It all comes through the bite. Think of it as natural medicine."
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:55:08 GMT
"You bit me to help me? Why aren't I thirsty any more? Did you give me a drink before you bit me? How did I drink enough while unconscious to not be thirsty any more? I haven't had a drink for over two days. Well, except for the windshield wiper fluid... hold it, how in the world does a snake talk? Are you real? Are you some sort of Disney animation?"
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:55:17 GMT
"No," says the snake, "I'm real. As real as you or anyone is, anyway. I didn't give you a drink. I bit you. That's how it works - it's what I do. I bite. I don't have hands to give you a drink, even if I had water just sitting around here."
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:55:27 GMT
The man sat stunned for a minute. Here he was, sitting in the middle of the desert on some strange stone that should be hot but wasn't, talking to a snake that could talk back and had just bitten him. And he felt better. Not great - he was still starving and exhausted, but much better - he was no longer thirsty. He had started to sweat again, but only slightly. He felt hot, in this sun, but it was starting to get lower in the sky, and the cool stone beneath him was a relief he could notice now that he was no longer dying of thirst.
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:55:34 GMT
"I might suggest that we take care of that methanol you now have in your system with the next request," continued the snake. "I can guess why you drank it, but I'm not sure how much you drank, or how much methanol was left in the wiper fluid. That stuff is nasty. It'll make you go blind in a day or two, if you drank enough of it."
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:55:44 GMT
"Ummm, n-next request?" said the man. He put his hand back on his hurting shoulder and backed away from the snake a little.
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:55:52 GMT
"That's the way it works. If you like, that is," explained the snake. "You get three requests. Call them wishes, if you wish." The snake grinned at his own joke, and the man drew back a little further from the show of fangs.
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:56:00 GMT
"But there are rules," the snake continued. "The first request is free. The second requires an agreement of secrecy. The third requires the binding of responsibility." The snake looks at the man seriously.
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:56:11 GMT
"By the way," the snake says suddenly, "my name is Nathan. Old Nathan, Samuel used to call me. He gave me the name. Before that, most of the Bound used to just call me 'Snake'. But that got old, and Samuel wouldn't stand for it. He said that anything that could talk needed a name. He was big into names. You can call me Nate, if you wish." Again, the snake grinned. "Sorry if I don't offer to shake, but I think you can understand - my shake sounds somewhat threatening." The snake give his rattle a little shake.
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:56:19 GMT
"Umm, my name is Jack," said the man, trying to absorb all of this. "Jack Samson."
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:56:27 GMT
"Can I ask you a question?" Jack says suddenly. "What happened to the poison...umm, in your bite. Why aren't I dying now? How did you do that? What do you mean by that's how you work?"
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:56:39 GMT
"That's more than one question," grins Nate. "But I'll still try to answer all of them. First, yes, you can ask me a question." The snake's grin gets wider. "Second, the poison is in you. It changed you. You now no longer need to drink. That's what you asked for. Or, well, technically, you asked to not be thirsty any more - but 'any more' is such a vague term. I decided to make it permanent - now, as long as you live, you shouldn't need to drink much at all. Your body will conserve water very efficiently. You should be able to get enough just from the food you eat - much like a creature of the desert. You've been changed.
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:56:54 GMT
"For the third question," Nate continues, "you are still dying. Besides the effects of that methanol in your system, you're a man - and men are mortal. In your current state, I give you no more than about another 50 years. Assuming you get out of this desert, alive, that is." Nate seemed vastly amused at his own humor, and continued his wide grin.
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:57:02 GMT
"As for the fourth question," Nate said, looking more serious as far as Jack could tell, as Jack was just now working on his ability to read talking-snake emotions from snake facial features, "first you have to agree to make a second request and become bound by the secrecy, or I can't tell you."
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:57:09 GMT
"Wait," joked Jack, "isn't this where you say you could tell me, but you'd have to kill me?"
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:57:22 GMT
"I thought that was implied." Nate continued to look serious.
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:57:30 GMT
"Ummm...yeah." Jack leaned back a little as he remembered again that he was talking to a fifteen foot poisonous reptile with a reputation for having a nasty temper. "So, what is this 'Bound by Secrecy' stuff, and can you really stop the effects of the methanol?" Jack thought for a second. "And, what do you mean methanol, anyway? I thought these days they use ethanol in wiper fluid, and just denature it?"
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:57:36 GMT
"They may, I don't really know," said Nate. "I haven't gotten out in a while. Maybe they do. All I know is that I smell methanol on your breath and on that bottle in your pocket. And the blue color of the liquid when you pulled it out to drink some let me guess that it was wiper fluid. I assume that they still color wiper fluid blue?"
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:57:43 GMT
"Yeah, they do," said Jack.
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:57:55 GMT
"I figured," replied Nate. "As for being bound by secrecy - with the fulfillment of your next request, you will be bound to say nothing about me, this place, or any of the information I will tell you after that, when you decide to go back out to your kind. You won't be allowed to talk about me, write about me, use sign language, charades, or even act in a way that will lead someone to guess correctly about me. You'll be bound to secrecy. Of course, I'll also ask you to promise not to give me away, and as I'm guessing that you're a man of your word, you'll never test the binding anyway, so you won't notice." Nate said the last part with utter confidence.
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Santa Shikiba
Headmaster
Your glower power is no match for my flower power.
Posts: 971
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Post by Santa Shikiba on Sept 3, 2018 0:58:03 GMT
Jack, who had always prided himself on being a man of his word, felt a little nervous at this. "Ummm, hey, Nate, who are you? How did you know that? Are you, umm, omniscient, or something?"
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