Lamia's Pet

The Truth

The gentle babbling of the river that ran through Pandora's sanctum was the only sound there was, save for the occasional sleep talk murmur that came from Virgil in the next room. All was peaceful, Peter and Pandora were nestled together warmly as they usually were, though there was a slight deviation.

Within her coils Peter began to stir, being gently nudged awake by her tail squeezing on his legs. Peter groaned and began to sleepily open his eyes, slowly being pulled out of his state somewhere in between awake and asleep. Suddenly the nudge became a sudden crush, Peter huffed as the air was forcefully squeezed out of him, his eyes shot open in surprise. As soon as the sudden constriction came it was gone again. It wasn't a dream, at least, it felt real.

Taking a moment to orientate himself, Peter glanced about, noticing Pandora was not in her usual place beside him, though her coils were still wrapped around him, restraining his arms up to the elbows. It wasn't the first time he'd woken up being unable to move, but it was the first time he'd been jerked awake by what felt like a punch to the gut. In his restricted state there was little he could do to look around, but what he could see was Pandora nestled snuggly opposite Peter. Her front was facing away from Peter, but he could see that her shoulders and back seemed tense, though Peter couldn't swear to it. It was unusual for Pandora to not be nestled against Peter, though she may have simply rolled over in her sleep.

Moments passed with nothing happening, only the sound of water flowing. Peter shook his head. It was probably just a very realistic nightmare or dream that made him feel as if he'd lost all his breath. Though, he could not remember what it was about, not even a little. Brushing it off, he let himself relax, lying his head back down and taking in the unique feeling of warmth that came from Pandora's coils after they'd absorbed his body heat. It was like having a blanket wrapped around his whole lower half. Sleep beckoned, Peter breathed deeply as he took in a large yawn.

Once more there was a sudden increase in pressure, painfully and suddenly. The air forced out of him like a pair of billows, wheezing as the breath evacuated. Just like before the sudden attack went as quickly as it had come, like a massive twitch. At least Peter now knew it wasn't a dream. Taking in a cautious breath he began to wriggle carefully out of Pandora's coils. Despite being asleep, she still held a decent grasp, but he could feel the coils being shrugged loose. After a couple of minutes of continued struggle, Peter managed to get one arm out and then the other. After that it was easy to slide out.

As soon as Peter removed himself Pandora's coils suddenly constricted again, and this time they remained constricted for a few seconds. Had that caught Peter off guard again it would have surely hurt more than a little. What was she doing? Peter crawled over to Pandora to see what was happening.

In her arms was a pillow as large as her body upper body, she was hugging it tightly to herself, holding on for dear life. In synch with her coils she would tighten her grasp on the pillow briefly and her coils would constrict just the same. Looking closer Peter could see her eyes moving rapidly beneath her shut eyelids. She was dreaming! A small groan escaped her and her body twitched. She was either having a very active dream or a particularly bad nightmare.

Peter hesitated to wake her up, not wanting to disturb her sleep and possibly frighten her, but as she continued to groan and twitch, he steeled himself and reached a hand out to her shoulder and gently shook her.

"Pandora..." he whispered, trying to be as gentle as possible as to not scare her awake, but there was no effect.

"Pandora... Pandora!" He repeated, to which she loosened her grip on the pillow and let out a groan that was more akin to a growl, her eyes remained shut, but her features hardened. "Pandora?"