Chapter 1.1

Chapter 1

She was standing. She could feel her weight pressing the soles of her feet against a solid surface beneath her. She could feel her chest rise and fall with each slow breath. Her heart beat steadily, and the blood rushed through her veins like a smooth ocean tide.

There was something wrapped around her like a heavy blanket. It felt warm and soft, like snakeskin leather. It pulsed alongside her heartbeat, deep and slow. She could hear a hissing sound from somewhere nearby, and a faint breeze lifted the hairs along the side of her face near her ear.

She opened her eyes. The first thing she noticed was a blank light-grey space around her, seemingly devoid of distance or dimension. Her brain trembled at the apparent lack of geometry. Then her focus narrowed and she could see what was wrapped around her so comfortably.

It was a huge snake, each coil easily a foot in diameter. It had a dark gold and black color, each individual scale holding a subtly different pattern and hue than its neighbor. Not a single millimeter of space existed below her shoulders that could be seen through the coils.

The snake's head rested on her shoulder, its tongue flickering with a quiet hiss as it breathed. The pile of its coils around her formed a loose pyramid shape and easily extended a meter from her in every direction at its base. She was reminded of the snake from The Jungle Book, but unlike Mowgli, she didn't feel as if she was about to become dinner. She felt safe and protected. Like this being was an ancestral god of hers instead of a wild beast.

There was a flash of green light and cracks began appearing across the space. The way that the emerging breakdown of its integrity created depth and distance for her perception to lock onto seemed ironic. She watched with trepidation and fascination as the cracks spread until they encompassed the entire world.