The Serpent and the Shoemaker

"'Listen,' like that hypnosis-trick you used before?" he replied testily, recalling how she had put him to sleep.

"No, no more charmed speech, just normal talking, I promise," she assured him hastily.

Van was still a bit annoyed. "I don't see how this can be considered normal. And you seem to have been making a lot of promises lately."

"And I intend to keep them," Serafina replied. "Besides, my charm voice doesn't work as well if you're expecting and resisting it."

"Good to know," Van said with just a bit of exasperation as he calmed enough to take note of how worried Serafina sounded. "Look, I'll say it again, I want to see you. You really think I'd come all the way down here just to run away?"

"Well... no, but-"

"Then it's time you tried trusting me like I trusted you. Let me loose, let me see you. Please Serafina, you don't have to be afraid," he told her soothingly.

For a moment all was silent. "... you're right," she finally said, appearing to regain some confidence. "It's really quite shameful of me to act like this, I'm proud of what I am. So here goes..."

His bonds came undone quite strangely, like he was being unwrapped rather than untied. The fleshy, cool impression he had of them was reinforced as they glided over his skin. His eyes freed seconds before his body was, he tried to get his bearings while his eyes adjusted to the low light level of his surroundings. He was facing away from where his bonds were unwrapping and so the first thing he saw was that he was laying on the floor of a large cavern, a small stream running in front of the entrance. The air felt pleasantly cool and moist compared to the heat outside. A few feet away lay his pack of supplies, including the pepper powder, while his knife had been taken from his pants and placed with his pack.

He also now realized he was still fully clothed, which actually surprised him a bit given how much Serafina liked to grope him. Rolling over and looking up, he squinted at beams of light that holes in the cavern ceiling let in. Rubbing his eyes, he finally looked to where his abductor/love interest had moved herself near one of the light rays. In those seconds he poured his attention on every detail he could make out as he finally laid eyes on his mystery lover.

She still wore her cloak, but it was open in the front now and her hood was down, revealing her face. And what a face it was. Her eyes were the most obvious, each a crimson red with a wide vertical slit for a pupil. As she turned away nervously, looking more toward the sunlight, he noted how her pupils thinned into finer slits. Clearly she had good night vision. But that was a minor observation compared to everything else.

Her hair was a light violet and done up in a long ponytail that she had let hang over the front of her shoulder. In addition to looking very smooth and silky her hair appeared long enough, if undone from the ponytail, to extend down the full length of her back. Her skin appeared unblemished and creamy in color, smooth in texture. Her ears were pointed much like an elf's and the ears of a number of other mamono types and from them hung a pair of golden earrings. Overall her face gave off a mature, sultry feel with a hint of softness in her features.

Drawing his gaze to her upper body he took in her build, she was thin but not overly so, a obviously substantial bust supported and partially hidden by a brassiere-like wrapping of cloth colored to match her red eyes.

Her waist narrowed an attractive degree, though it was far from stick-thin, before splaying smoothly at her hips where she wore a short sarong wrap colored the same crimson as her top.

In the seconds it took him to take this in he got up from his hands and knees and stepped toward her, his eyes widening at what he saw below the short skirt of the sarong. For what above the wrap was pale creamy skin, below became a row of broad, darker but still creamy belly scales, small brick red scales forming to each side of the belly scales to cover the rest of her lower body.

Her quite substantial lower body.

For below her waist stretched what appeared to be at least sixteen feet of serpentine form, her reddish scales shimmering where the light from the ceiling openings hit them. In response to his astonished stare and perhaps on defensive reflex, she meekly began drawing her lower body into a tight coil, as if in a attempt to make it less noticeable.

'A snake woman... but I see no snakes in her hair... that would make her a lamia... Serafina is... a lamia...'

He knelt back down on one knee, never taking his eyes off her. Dozens of questions ran through Van's mind, not the least of which being how when he saw her earlier she had legs. However, the uncertainty, even fear, in her eyes made him soon realize there was something more important he needed to say.

"By the gods..." he smiled at her, "you're even more beautiful than I'd imagined."

Serafina let out a held breath and closed her eyes with a relieved sigh. "If you weren't such an awful liar I might think you were just saying that... but I can't deny it anymore." Her succulent lips turned up in a pleased grin, "Now I know, even having never seen me, your feelings for me really were real. To think, things would work out like this... it's already more than I had ever hoped for..." she seemed to say to herself in wonderment as she turned fully back to him. With her bright smile he noted another feature, short but sharp white fangs.

They both chuckled in sudden awkwardness, and for a time continued to take each other in, till Van felt the need to break the silence. He stood up and took a few steps toward her, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, unsure of himself again. "Although I am a little surprised, I've never heard or read about lamia courting sleeping men."

"We are usually more direct," she replied, the spark in her eyes showing the full return of her confidence. "I saw you first when you came to that little town, I tasted your scent on the wind and followed the wagon you were on all the way there." As she spoke she brought a finger to her lips and licked it as she reminisced on the arousing scent that had first attracted her to him. "I wanted to seduce you next time you left but it turned out you had settled there so I had to change tactics. If I could sneak into the town at night and use my voice on you, I could get you to trust me and eventually leave the town."

Her expression turned thoughtful. "That was my original plan... but then as time went by and we got to know each other better, I started to worry more and more about how you would react to really seeing me. Usually we move so fast to claim a man that there's no time to worry about things like that. My kin would certainly laugh at how much time I took, but you were the first man I ever found that I could be sure about being compatible with, so I didn't want anything to go wrong, sometimes being forceful can ruin things."

Van blinked. "Wait, what do you mean by 'compatible'?"

"A lamia can tell a lot from a man's scent," she stated silkily, her seductive mood now returning as she slowly slithered closer to him, her body gliding over the cavern floor with seemingly no effort. "We don't just use our noses, our tongues pick up a lot more: your age, your health, your arousal... but more than that we can pick up on the makeup of your body. Every human body is different, just as every mamono is different. It's a part of most mamono's instincts to pick up on that and be attracted to a man whose own body is best suited to having children with them."

They now stood but a foot apart, the lamia breaking Van's gaze as she looked to the side, for a moment unsure of how to continue. "But that's not the only thing. I mean it's not all about the body, it's about the mind too and how the way a man thinks and feels changes the way his scent tastes. Since we often can't court men the way humans do, it's useful for figuring out how good someone could be as a potential mate. A lot of men taste good, some better than others, and some don't taste good at all, but when a lamia finds a man whose scent makes her heart race and her whole body feel warm, that's love at first taste, that's what a wise lamia seeks in a mate. That's what you were for me Van."

"Love at first taste... wow," Van repeated, only for his paranoid side to kick in. "Uh, but then what happens if you find someone later who tastes even better?"

She brought her face up to his and held his hands. "That won't happen. Once a lamia has bonded with a mate no man but her husband will taste so good. Our own bodies will adapt to him as his adapts to us. We give our heart and body up to our husband, it's why it is such a horrible trauma for a lamia if her mate ever willfully betrays her. For her there will never be another man, so to lose his loyalty... the feeling is as if a part of her own body were being severed. It's maddening," she said emotionally.

Van now grasped her hands and stared into her eyes. "Serafina I would never willfully betray you or hurt you." He added the willful part as she did, since in a world with powerful seduction magic one didn't always have a choice.

She brought his left hand up to her cheek and closed her eyes, basking in his touch. "Yes, I know that now."

Opening her eyes, she gave him a new, heated look. "Which also means, my sweet Van, that I can finally stop holding myself back. So if you have a question you'd really like to ask then ask it fast."

For a moment Van was taken aback at how her tail end was beginning to quiver with excitement and the sheer amount of desire he could see in her eyes.

Questions?

He blinked and shook his head to clear it.

Yes! That's right! Questions! He had many questions!

...didn't he?

The alluring woman rubbing up against him certainly made it hard to think of any offhand and so he blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "M-m-my dreams! Ho-how-" he sputtered.

"You want to know how I did it, right?" she asked coyly, swaying her body about in a sensuous dance, arms raised over her head to draw attention to the rest of her as she slid against him at intervals.

"Uh... uh huh, yeah," he nodded, feeling tongue-tied as she lowered her arms and had her fingers trail, trace and feel him up.

She gave him a seductive smile and began to circle him as she spoke, making eye contact and adding a husky or even hissing lilt to her words seemingly whenever it would be most effective at arousing him.

"Well... I'd watch and wait until I was sure you were asleep before sneaking in, these ears aren't just for show you know," she noted, moving her ears down and up in emphasis. "Then I'd pick that rusty lock on your door..."

Van suppressed the urge to gulp nervously as she demonstrated how she picked the lock, lengthening the nails on one of her hands into long claws that he thought looked even more suited to slicing the flesh of enemies. Such thoughts were banished though as she returned her hand to normal and reached out to caress his cheek tenderly, albeit the look in her eyes was more hungry than sweet.

"I'd use the magic in my voice to lull you into a special sleep, then slip in and wrap myself alllll around you."

She embraced him, her eyes and voice mesmerizing, before turning to speak softly in his ear.

"I'd hold you like this, kiss you and suck on your neck until you moaned for me, the taste of your blood always made me feel so hot."

"M-my blood?" Van stammered under her close attentions. "But I never felt-"

"You wouldn't have," she interrupted with a finger to his lips. "A bite like mine feels good and heals fast, and I never took enough blood to effect your body."

She moved her lips to the side of his face. "Then I'd whisper into your ear just like this to enchant your dreams and unleash your desires. I'd arouse your body by rubbing it all over with mine, and I'd tell you all about me and how I felt, while you spoke to me in your sleep. I was touched how you bared your soul to me, and a part of me wanted to continue like that forever, I was so afraid of you rejecting me once you knew the truth. But at the same time, I couldn't keep withholding my desire for you, masturbating to our dream trysts just wasn't enough. I wanted you body and soul, aware of what I was and able to give you all my passionssss."

"I- I want that too," he panted, his heart already beating like mad. "I want to pleasure you too, as much as I can."

"You really mean that?"

"Yes, I do."

"It's not that simple though."

"What do you mean?"

"Normally, when we first seduce a man, the sex is... casual you might say. It brings great pleasure, but for us it's entirely too..." she paused as if searching for a proper word, "fast, to truly give a release. It's not the man's fault, our bodies just require much longer and greater stimulation than others, more than most men can hope to give on their own."

Van was puzzled, "then, what should I do?"

"You do nothing," she sniffed his neck and placed a kiss there, "except relax and let me prepare you."

"Prepare me?" he repeated, a bit of doubt in his voice. It was well known that making love with a monster girl could be as exhausting as it was pleasurable, and fit or not he couldn't help wonder if his body could take it. Then again he had said he wanted to do everything he could to pleasure her and he still meant it. He shook his head, "no, never mind, forget I asked..."

Serafina cupped his face with her hands and smiled at him in a adoring but still heated manner. "Don't be so nervous Van, you might feel overwhelmed at first, but in the end... mmm... I'll make sure it's your new favorite pastime. But for the moment, let's just start with a kissss, you would like that, wouldn't you?" she asked coyly, her lips but an inch away from his.

"Y-yes, yes I would..." Van's breaths had sped to pants as her fingers massaged his cheeks and jaw.

"Good boy," Her gaze turned sexier still, "my saliva will help loosen you up, among other things..."

"Your- your sal-mmn!?-" His dazed question was cute off as she pulled him into a long and passionate kiss, her supple lips and flexible jaw keeping him off balance more than long enough for her tongue to slither in and coat his mouth with her juices.

His muffled sounds of confusion soon turned to pleasured moans as she continued to kiss him for some time, her arms' grip on him fierce and passionate. Van became aware of a number of things during this time. For one Serafina could indeed open her mouth wider than a normal human, albeit not comparable to a real snake. And while her tongue did not seem to be forked, it was much longer, thinner, and stronger than his own, letting it do all kinds of wonderful things in his mouth.

Most of all she tasted wonderful, a spicy and sweet mix he'd never experienced before. A pleasing, giddy feeling passed through him in waves, all his worried thoughts drifting away with it. Perhaps it was only her saliva making him think so, but she seemed incredible at this, every touch of her lips simultaneously easing and exciting him till all he could think about was to focus all his attention on their joined mouths. He felt no sign of her sharp teeth, but then it was his mouth that was mostly being entered, her lips sucking on his at times, massaging at others.

Her saliva certainly did relax him, quite literally many of his muscles soon became languid. He couldn't get his arms to work very easily, and basically flailed them in clumsy attempts to embrace her back, and the movements of his mouth and tongue were so unsure that she easily dominated and guided them. His knees felt weak, but that didn't matter because she was holding him... and he was floating, so happy... he could do this forever...

"W... wow..."

The sound of his own dazed voice brought him back to reality, where he found Serafina had released him from the kiss, still holding him up and looking at him with a slight blush and a look that reminded him of a woman fawning over a pet or baby.

"Oh you were so cute just now Van..." she cooed. "I love making you moan and stutter like that... and it seems you get even harder from my kisses when you're awake," she noted, eying his tented pants with a wry smirk.

Nose to nose she stared deep into his eyes, Van transfixed by their reptilian beauty. "I bet like this I could get you to do anything I wanted."

"Uh huh," was all Van managed to grunt, straining to not blink so he could continue to stare into those eyes. He was sure he could see the occasional spark of magic in them, and while not truly hypnotized he had no desire to look away.

"I like your eyes too," she whispered and kissed him on the nose. "They were always shut when I came to see you before."

"Well... now you can look into them whenever... whenever you want..." Van trailed off, still in a dreamy daze.

"Yesss, but it's your taste I can't get enough of!" She engulfed him in another lengthy kiss.

"Your mouth..." he muttered unsteadily once she released him again. "I'm feeling a bit... a bit strange." Strange but good that is.

"Don't worry," she assured him. "It may not be a super aphrodisiac like alraune nectar, but my saliva can still do all kinds of things and the mixture changes depending on what I want."

"Then... this feeling is... your venom?"

"Sort of, but not nearly so potent. I do have a special venom, but you won't be experiencing that until later. I have to get you ready for it. What you're feeling now is just something to ease your mind and body. You see, I need most of you to be relaxed for the things to come."

"Most of me?" he repeated.

Her eyes were mischievous as she lightly stroked his hardened member through his pants with the end of tail.

"Most of you."

She stared deeply in his eyes again. "Now, Van... I'm about to move things up a level. Prepare yourself... I'm going to show you pleasure beyond anything you felt in those dreams."

"There you go warning me again..." Van stated as he realized something. She had been so forceful getting him in here that he was surprised she hadn't simply started ripping his clothes off. It seemed she really had only wanted to make sure he would listen to her and not run away. "You never really wanted to force me, did you?"

"Silly boy. Lamia don't force..."

She slid a finger tantalizingly across his chest, her other hand releasing the long ponytail and letting her full, splendid locks cascade over her back with a shake of her head.

"...we seduce."

She then slithered past him and looked over her shoulder, eying him hotly as she loosened her cloak and used her tail to lay it spread out on a smooth patch of stone floor, a beam of light illuminating her through a crack in the sealing.

"And for a lamia, there is no arousal quite like being with a man willing to surrender to the tender mercies of her coilssss. But know thisss my pet... once she has you there, she won't let go easily, not until she's been satisssfied.."

She continued to accentuate her words with deft, suggestive movements of her hips and upper body, the tip of her tail smoothly loosening the simple ties that bound her top and loincloth to her.

Van was pretty sure he stopped breathing for a moment when she turned back around, her clothes sliding off of her upper body as she did so and revealing the full opulent splendor of her ripe breasts, her nipples already hardened in expectation. The slight blush she wore with her confident expression seemed to make her all the more attractive. He eyed her up and then down to where her tail was finishing removing and placing the loincloth aside, the merging point of woman and reptile now in view. The afternoon light, now dimming a bit in the cavern, made him want to see her closer, in more detail, but he was too stupefied to move.