New Meetings

Stealthy, silent, and quickly. That was how the hunter worked. Silently he slithered through the grass, a  lithe string of scales and flesh. Yellow eyes remained ahead, never straying from his intended path. A rustle made him stop. The grass had shifted slightly indicating movement. He wasn't alone.

Immediately he figured he had been spotted, his position given away. His blue scales made it hard to blend in within the grass, but he knew that was a poor excuse. Color didn't matter to an adder. That was  what he was taught and he obeyed it. Irregardless, he had to gather his wits. His tongue darted out; the scent remained. Now wasn't the time to pride himself, the hunt must continue.

He slithered slowly along taking extra caution to track his “meal”. It was close. Something small, but enough of a morsel for him. Once again he stopped; he was close. Now was a better time if any.

“Jussssst like mother taught you.” His words lowered to a whisper.

With a hiss he raised! Fangs bared, dripping with poison and ready to snap shut against an unsuspecting mammal. A mouse? A vole? Or even a rat? To his dismay it was neither of the three. Indeed it was something tiny, but it wasn’t full grown. Before him lay a baby. How could he tell? Well Weasel's weren't that small.

Before him was a baby weasel. It's fur was a tannish brown, very light with a slight ruffle of hair atop its head. The creature stood wide eyed as the reptile raised above it. Said reptile kept his fangs out, ready to strike, but he didn't move immediately. A good hunter didn't pause. By now it should be within his gut, falling to the process of digestion. A bulge that would shrink until it fell to another process: a process that was best left unsaid.

Indecisive as he may have felt, it only furthered once he heard a sound. It was a sound he had heard before, but nothing like this.

“Ahahaha!” The weasel giggled in a girlish jingle. At least he now could identify “it” as a “her” or a “she”. “You look funny with your mouth open like that!”

“Uh?” He muttered before shutting his maw. “Oh my.” He ran his tongue across his lips for some odd reason.

“Wow! Your tongue is all skinny. Not like mine.” The she weasel stuck out her tongue for emphasis.

The adder didn't know what else to say but, “I ssssuposssse it issssss.”

“And how come you talk funny?” The weasel asked.

The adder cocked his head in confusion. “Funny? What do you mean?”

Another giggle escaped the child, “Like thisssssssssssssssss.”

He had forgotten how his kind tended to draw out a certain letter in his speech. To others it certainly did seem strange.

“I sssssssupossssssse sssssso.” He chuckled just as the she-weasel. “Anyway, what are you doing here little one?”

“Explorin.” The child answered, “What about you?”

The snake slithered out his tongue hoping for the scent of something else. “Hunting.” He answered, and sadly he found no further scents.

“Oh so you're hungry?”

The child was sharp he gave her that much. But he had to know something. “You aren't afraid of me are you?”

Snakes weren't known for being the kind of animal one would want to run into.

“Why should I?” the child crossed her arms. “I'm not scared of anything!”

Bold as the child wanted to appear, the snake could tell a front when he saw or heard one. Something else his mother taught him. Young as the weasel was, she still had yet to learn true fear it would seem.

“So? What's your name?” The weasel spontaneously asked.

The question itself took him by surprise but he felt it rude not to answer. “Sssssssssinuous..........The Second.” He answered.

“The second?” The child looked befuddled. “Are there two of you?”

The question itself was innocent. “No no, Sinuous was my father's name.”

Eyes widened in understanding as the child finally got it. “Oooohhh. Well My name's Scamper! It's nice to meet you Sinny!”

“Sinny?”

“Yeah! That's your nickname. Sinny Winny!” Scamper resorted to another set of chortles.

Sinuous or Sinny Winny chuckled at it too. Odd for a snake to do so, but he wasn't like any other snakes. His mother had made that quite clear, ever since he was small.

“I ssssuposssse it is.” He responded to the child's joy. “But where'sssssss your mother little one.” He asked.

Scamper opened her mouth, body leaping nearly leaping with excitement, but fell. “I don't have a mum.” She responded. “She died when I was really little.”

Sympathy fell before the snake. “I'm ssssso sssssssorry.” He nearly reached out towards the child but then recoiled his tail just as the child leapt again.

“But I've got my Dad! And my Grandma and Grandpa are the best!”

The child wasn't an orphan. That much was good.

“Do you have a mother Sinny?” Scamper asked innocently.

His mother. “Why yesssss I do.” He answered.

“What's she like?”

How to describe his mother. That was not something that could done so easily. “Sssssshe'sssss complicated to sssssay the leasssst.”

Scamper cocked her head. “What's that mean? Is she nice? Is she mean?”

Once again, that wasn't such an easy thing to say. “A bit of both actually.”

“That's gotta be confusing.” Scamper let out a giggle. “Nice n mean!”

That was his mother in a nut shell. She had her good moments, and she had her bad moments.

“What about your daddy?”

Then came the hard question. It was sudden but it was there. “My father? He died before I wassss born.”

The child's happy demeanor fell immediately. “Awwww! That's so sad! I'm so sorry!” The child's face was full of sympathy. Sinuous had seen it all too often before. The boy without a father. Only one other he knew held that title.His mother spoke sparingly of his father, save for when he asked. He supposed it was too painful for her. All he really knew was he looked rather close to his father. It seemed he and the child had some things in common.

“Scamper!” A far off voice called. Scamper stood at alert, head and tail up.

“Sorry Sinny, but I gotta go home now.” The young weasel darted off the way she came but stopped momentarily. “It was nice meeting you Sinny Winny!” And then she was gone.

Sinuous II stood there motionless for a few moments. Then, he grinned and waved his tail. “You too Sssscamper.”

And so the young snake slithered off to find a new meal. But it wasn't an empty hunt. Oh no. After all, it looked like he caught a new friend.