#DailyLines #MasterRaymond #Luck I was rubbing my hands together, hard and fast. The snake hadn’t gone away; it was sitting in the shadow of a big rock, half-coiled and wary. One move too quick, and it would dart under the rock and be gone. I squatted, slow as I could, and even slower, reached out a hand, low down. My palms were throbbing with heat. A snake’s blood runs cold, and they love heat. That’s why you find them sunning themselves on rocks and in open places. The snake’s little tongue flickered in and out, fast, and then slow. He wasn’t sure—but he could feel the heat of my hand. Without any sense of hesitation, he suddenly glided to me and I felt the gentle weight of him on my palm. I knew better than to grab him, and I looked at Gorman and grinned at him. He glowered at me, but Pullo and Tiran came over, moving slowly so as not to alarm the snake. He was a small snake, no longer than my forearm, and beautiful. Gray like a dove, with a little green stripe. I lifted my fingers a little, and he wound himself through them, coiling his tail around my wrist for steadiness. Now I could stand up, and I did. The snake lifted his head, tongue tasting the air between us, and he for sure looked at me now. “What will you ask for?” Tiran said behind me, low-voiced. I could feel the laugh on his breath, warm on my bare shoulder. “Hair on your balls?” He was laughing, but it wasn’t a joke. When the sun hung all night in the sky, others would come to the Summer Place. Other families, and trading would be done. Our family ran to sons, and that was good, of course. But it meant that we needed to get at least four, especially if any of our women had died giving birth. Still…it wasn’t every day a snake looked you in the face, let alone came to you. Perhaps I should ask to talk to my father. That idea made a warm spot in my chest. I hadn’t met him in the dream-world for more than a year, not since the pig-feast when we all got drunk on elderflower wine and Ubert fell in the river. And there were things I would like to know, not just man-things—Pullo would tell me those, if I asked; he was a son of my father, four years older than me. He needed a woman, too; he hadn’t got one at the last Gathering. That thought decided me. I brought the snake carefully to my face, hoping that he wouldn’t bite my nose, and whispered, “Bring me a woman,” too low for the others to hear. “A good one, please,” I added as afterthought. The snake rose suddenly, startling me, and glided up my cheek and into my hair. I could feel the movement of his belly scales, gripping and sliding, and smiled hugely at the lovely feel of it on my scalp, so delicate, so sure, as though he was saying things to me through my skin. Then he came down my neck and I caught him on the back of my hand before he could slip and fall, and set him down on the top of the rock. He coiled for an instant, taking his bearings, and then disappeared over the edge in a motion as graceful as falling water. Ubert and the other men had come down to see what was keeping us, but had stopped a little way above when they saw the snake speaking to me. Mika nodded to me, smiling. He was my father’s brother, and liked me. The others were smiling, too, though. They were pleased that I’d been lucky; it made the family lucky, too. “Huh,” said Gorman, under his breath. “Can we go now?”
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 09:26:04 +0000
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