Many thousands of years ago, when the Earth was almost just as old, but humanity had just been born, a young woman wandered around the wild, searching for something to eat. The recent hunting and foraging expeditions had not been very successful and her siblings and mother were starving. She had found only a few edible berries and roots in her usual route, so she ventured further into the forest. Even with the sun shining brightly above the treetops, the wild was difficult to navigate and soon she was lost in the eternal twilight of the woods. She sat on a rock to rest and a few moments later, out of nowhere, a big snake appeared and calmly approached her. Or something resembling a snake, rather.
The creature inhabiting the ophidian body was not native of the three-dimensional world it was exploring. An ancient transdimensional parasite, it had seen many things and possessed many bodies during its long life, slowly accumulating knowledge and developing a basic understanding of Earth’s inhabitants. This one, it had never met. The strange female biped had a more complex and stronger aura, much more difficult to infect or control than any other primate it had found before. But, while it perfectly understood her initial fright response when she saw the reptile and the origin of the rumbling noise of her stomach, the curiosity the individual displayed once she recovered from the surprise was quite unusual.
She inspected the long scaled animal, immediately noticing something different in its behaviour. Most animals attacked or avoided humans, especially those with no fur. This one was studying her, watching her through the slitted pupils of its two golden eyes. This was no snake, she understood. It was something else.
The creature wanted to know more about this new species, hoping to someday maybe prey on her kind. It knew of trees with hidden fruits, safe to eat, and decided to guide the woman to one of them. It came closer to the primate, smelling her with its forked tongue and letting her pat its surprisingly smooth head. They have established a link of trust, if a frail one. Slowly, it made her understand what it wanted and guided her to the food. It slithered up the tree, chose a ripe piece of fruit and make it fall to the floor.
She picked the juicy half-crushed morsel, briefly studied it and quickly and ravenously devoured it. Her new friend had given her a gift and she gratefully gesticulated to thank it before climbing the tree and collecting as much fruit as she could carry. She went away, grunting happily. Feeling reinvigorated and lucky, she soon found her way back to her family’s abode.. A few days later she came back, looking for more fruit and carrying a piece of meat for the snake.
They continued helping each other. The creature wearing the serpentine body needed no food but understood the gesture. The woman enjoyed the silent company of the reptile and their shared secret food sources. Then, one day, another human appeared. A male had been following the woman, hoping to find the fruit trees to share the admiration of his peer. They were about the same age, but the man was taller and stronger. The serpent fled and they argued, softly growling at first but gradually turning more noisy and violent. He ended up striking the female until she agreed to share the secret with him. She climbed the tree and offered him a handful of fruits, the most ripe she could find, which he promptly ate, rejoicing after his victory.
She finished picking up fruit while he watched from the ground, looking a bit more relaxed and much more happy. When she climbed down the tree, he immediately tried to hug and grope the woman. They struggled while the snake observed the scene from afar. The male’s playful grappling soon turned into a chokehold and, when she managed to escape from it, into a brawl. He managed to clobber her in the jaw, she tripped with a root and hit her temple with a stone, losing conscience. The male, inebriated by the fermented juices and extremely horny, quickly seized the opportunity to satisfy his urges. Then, without waiting for her to wake up, the man went back to his people with the fruit.
The serpent approached the fallen woman and protected her from possible predators. It could feel her life fading but unexpectedly worried about her well-being. A few hours later, she woke up, confused and weakened. It felt the cold body of her friend lying next to her. It was looking at her with its mesmerising golden eyes. She understood somehow that she had almost no time left. The woman briefly felt relief, knowing she was not alone, but anger and sadness overcame her as soon as she recalled the man’s attack. She didn’t want to die but she wanted something else even more. Payback. Revenge. Justice.
The creature, able to interpret the modulations of her aura, understood that desire and decided to do that for her. However, it needed to take over her body. She realised this, feeling the true nature of the parasite touch her very essence. She didn’t fight the sensation and submitted to the parasite. The creature’s aura slowly enveloped hers, assimilating it and finally leaving behind its reptilian body. It took until the next dawn for it to acclimate to and repair the woman’s body. When it got up her eyes, previously dark brown, had bright golden irises. The woman picked up the serpent’s body, enough meat to feed her and her family for a few days, and returned to her home.
The parasite fulfilled its end of the deal a few days later and kept on living in the body on its former friend. It grew smarter than ever before, although it knew not whether the change came from the capabilities of its host’s brain or the benefits of absorbing her soul and retaining most of her life experience. It learned about the peculiar needs and dreams of man, their animal, social and intellectual urges, and how to exploit them to gain access to their spiritual essence. With time, other members of the creature’s brethren acquired this knowledge, adapting their alien lifecycle to humanity’s ever-expanding society, preying on desperation and sinful temptation. Through merciless guile or faithful compliance of their agreements, they became the demons, genies, hags and goblins of folklore, and found new ways to extend and improve their undying existence.
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