Eye to Eye

At the hole where he went in
Red-Eye called to Wrinkle-Skin.
Hear what little Red-Eye saith:
"Nag, come up and dance with death!"

Eye to eye and head to head,
(Keep the measure, Nag.)
This shall end when one is dead;
(At thy pleasure, Nag.)
Turn for turn and twist for twist-
(Run and hide thee, Nag.)
Hah! The hooded Death has missed!
(Woe betide thee, Nag!)

Rudyard Kipling, "The Jungle-Book"


Water! Water was the main factor!
Ashara had thought long time about her first encounter with Sucuriju, and there was one thing, that played always an important role: Water!
Jennifer Langley was killed by Sucuriju at the little lake near the hotel, a few meters away from the bank!
Naomi Carleton: They found her clothes on the riverbank... Surely she took a little swimming... and encountered the green terror in the water.
Christine Van Dyke: Her last minutes are unknown, but she surely went along the old path at the river... So Sucuriju must get she out of the water or near the water too.
Li Song the same: The beast hunted she down in the water. Li was a damn good swimmer, but she encountered a far better swimmer...
Samantha Walker: Pulled out of the boat, into the water and into her doom!
Water was the key! All victims met her doom in the water or near the water! The range of this beast was not so big as all the people thought: Only the river, and maybe hundred meters, perhaps less, away from the riverbanks. In the water he ruled the top of the food-chain, a crocodile and even a shark was a clumsy creature compared with Sucuriju in the water... but on land... on land he was not so mobile and quick.
She must only find a way to lure the beast away from the river...!
And what had lead the serpent to his victims? All of them were young, fashioned woman who weared the newest stylish clothes, the newest hair-styles, and expensive fragrances.
Fashioned clothes, shoes, hairstyles...? Unimportant for a hungry reptile that only wants fresh meat...! No... but... smell!
This was the second key: Parfume!
This monster had learned: Parfume=Women=Food... Chanel No. 5... an invention to dinner for Sucuriju!


Sucurju had smelled it: Prey!
There was no doubt... as he layed in the reeds, he smelled it. A faint fragrance blowing from the landside touched his nostrils. He lifted his head, the flickering tongue catched the molecules... The typical smell of a damsel. Food! After so many months finally food again!

He slithered to the land and followed the trace. Unfortunately the luring smell cames from far away from the river. But he had hunted down some damsels on land already and he will track down this victim too.
The hungry serpent knewed too, that damsels normally moved trough the jungle-areas with less plants on the ground. And so he choosed a thicket near a path to lurking on the prey that somewhere moved around in the jungle. Surely another poor girl from the hotel that gone astray and did not find the way back home. And surely she will pass Sucurijus ambush sometimes too. The giant serpent had all the time in the world, he can lurking for hours or days, even weeks if necessary.
He was hungry, very hungry, and so even now he started to produce a plenty amount of saliva and drooled, as he imagined, how he will hook his needlesharp rows of teeth into the warm and soft flesh... how he will drag the poor girl from his feet and pull she into his mercyless coils...
And then he will squeeze the life out of his prey... slowly but surely, he will smell and enjoy the sweat and fear... he will feel the last urinating and the convulsive wriggling and gasping...the breaking ribs... and then he will send the next woman on a slow travel through his long, scaly body...
And the good time, that will follow: Laying lazy around somewhere in the reeds on the riverbank and lets doing his metabolism the job of digestion, enjoying the big swell of his body that will disappear in a few days when the digestive juices does it's work...

This time Ashara was armed only with two sacred bronze-daggers. This two ancient weapons contained a very strong magic of her tribe. They were very old... no one knows, how old, but since generations there were took over from one generation to the next. And only the best hunters get the honour to inherit them. Ashara was the first woman who was worthy to take them.
In Asharas culture they were used to fight lions, leopards and crocodiles, and since generations too, the worthy hunter with this weapons turned always out as the winner in a fight.
Ashara had never used or even need them before. But Sucuriju, this giant snake-god, made here bad feelings, and she need all the magical power of her gods and so this two divine daggers would fight for the first time ever in the hands of a woman and on a strange continent too.
The whole night she had prayed to her gods and hat sharpened, polished and cleaned the sacred daggers... and some kilometers away, the natives of the jungle had prayed for Sucuriju, to give the god of the river power and swiftness in his fight against this strange witch...!

In the early morning Ashara weared an expensive parfume and strolled through the jungle and acted like a young woman, who did not find the way home. But all the time she observed the surroundings, especially the dark thickets... and as she went along a broader path that looked safe, she saw it... or she saw only a very faint glimpse of something, that did not fit to a thicket. Every other person would surely oversaw it and would running into her doom. But Ashara's trained hunter's eye saw it. She went a little bit slower, but approached still to the point, where the green terror lurked for her...

Sucuriju had bend the upper part of his body to a lying S-shape to shot three meters of his body in less than a half second out of the thicket when his victim came into his range. The rest of his body was prepared too, coiled up in three large, waiting coils. He had detected Ashara too, smelled the parfume, and he waited, that she came closer... he followed the movings of his meal slowly with his head, aiming already on Asharas legs... in one of the legs he will sink his fangs and jerking his prey from the feet and pull it into his waiting coils.
It was the strange woman again. But this time she moved, she smelled, she acted like food... and she cames slowly closer. Sucuriju saw two strange devices in her hands, but he was extremely hungry now, and he would surprise his prey and stopping any possible weak and futile resistance very quickly.

Ashara was prepared for a fight. Prepared to jump, to dodge, to turn, to kick, and to strike with her razorsharp daggers. She had te odds on her side. Sucuriju expected a careless victim, something easy to surprise and to kill.... he would get his surprise!

When his prey was only two meters away, Sucuriju stroke. With wide opened fangs he shot out of the thicket, aiming on Asharas left leg...
And in the next moment Sucuriju sunk his teeth into... nothing! With a ringing snap he closed his jaws... but with no warm, soft flesh in it.
For a fraction of a second he was a little bit confused, and in the same moment he felt something scratching over his neck followed by a faint pain.

Ashara dodged Sucurijus bite. Quick as a flash she jumbed aside and drawed the blade of her dagger over the snakes neck... but the hard scales withstands the blade. Only a thin scratched line and some drops of blood were visible in the massive scales. Now Ashara was surprised too. The strike he had made would almost cut off a reticulated python's head. But it only scratched the scales of this beast...

Sucuriju raised his head to strike again. Now he would try to catch the head of this stubborn prey. With open jaws he stroke forward... and with a ringing snap his jaws closed over... nothing again!

Ashara was prepared. The situation of the first encounter was repeated. With a half opened mouth and slowly balancing to and fro like a giant cobra Sucuriju stood in front of her. And as the serpent tried his next strike, she saw it milliseconds before and dodged!

Sucuriju was baffled. She moved faster than him and she did not run away... again she stared directly back at him without showing any fear! Prey tried always to run away... but this strange woman repeated her weird acting again. And this two shimmering devices, wich he moved slowly in front of his head... what was it? Another kind of trap for him?

Now it was Ashara who did hypnotize the snake! She stared into Sucurijus eyes and she felt uncertainty in this reptile... Ha! It don't dared to strike again! An animal! An stupid animal! Nothing more! It was not a god! Only a dump, big snake!
She moved slowly his blinking daggers in front of the serpents head... and the animals head followed the movements like a cat, who followed the movements of a toy-mouse! All her bad feelings about Sucuriju were wiped away now... it was only a big reptile, only a hunter of careless, weak young girls. And Sucurijus primitive mind can be outwitted like every primitive reptile-mind that can follow only one movement at the time: Distracting his attention with conspicuous movings of one hand... and striking with the other hand.

She moved one dagger away, saw Sucurijus head and eyes following it... and with the second dagger she cames slowly closer to his neck... but without hurting the beast... not now! She repeated the game with the second dagger and Sucurijus head moved like remote controlled to the other side.
Damn, was it easy! She had played this game with snakes already as a child. Ashara enjoyed her triumph. Slowly she danced around the mesmerized serpent, moving her daggers, never resting, never hurrying...
She saw the reptile drooling... "No, no my big scaly friend" she whispered "This time you will not get your easy prey... Now you are the prey!"

Sucuriju was totally confused. On the first encounter, this woman did not move... and now she did not stopping to move this shimmering things in her hands. She smelled like prey, but she acted so weird... and this golden blinking and shimmering things in her hands that she moved slowly to and fro... what the hell was it?

Sucuriju showed Ashara all the time his belly-scales. And Ashara knowed that snakes are most vulnerable at her belly-scales. She decieded to bring it to an end now. With the blinking dagger in her right hand she lured Sucurujus head to the right, then she took a swift step forward, and with the dagger in her left hand, she cut powerful through Sucurijus ventral-scales...

Blood splashed out, the beast bent and whipped to and fro with wide opened jaws... and in the next moment, Ashara was wiped from her feet. She had oversaw, that Sucuriju had brought some coils of his body behind her. So it was a big surprise for both what happened.

Sucuriju felt a sharp pain running through his body and in agony he whipped back... it was a trap again! He must get out of here! Away from this woman!

Ashara fell back and her head hit a stone, and for a few seconds she was unconscious... and as she had shaken off the giddiness, Sucuriju had vanished... but she saw some blood on the ground and on her dagger. The beast was seriously injured! And it was on land, more than 100 meters away from the river! It was as good as dead! Swiftly she starts the pursuit it again.
Ashara take some blood from her dagger with the fingers and tasted it with her tongue... "You are leaky, my friend" she mumbled with a satisfied smiling.
Sucuriju cannot be far away, in a few seconds she would bring it to and end and bring his skin to officer Lopez...!


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Ooouch...! Ashara is really a mean lady! Hurting our scaly friend with bronze-daggers! She hunts for fame and sport, Sucuriju hunts only when he is hungry. Yes, yes, Sucuriju had eaten a few young ladies, but what shall he do? Since countless years this is is hunting-ground and since other prey become scarce, he picked up only some careless damsels as an alternative and healthy nutrition
The fight went on... who will win? Sucuriju get injured and slithered away... Ashara followed him... and our ancient snake-god is far away from the river now. It seems, that Sucuriju had found his master...!
The opening-poem (who gives this work it's title too) was taken from Rudyard Kiplings famous book "The Jungle Book" and here from the story "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi". The situation between Rikki-Tikki and Nagaina is very similar to the fight between Ashara and Sucuriju.
I love Kiplings story... but since i was a child, i always rooted for the cobra couple. Nagaina was always the tragic heroine for me, a brave mother who fight to revenge her husband and for rescue her babies/eggs.

Technical Side:
Most of the post-production in PSP X was done on Sucurijus gaping maw this time. I add a lot of details to made the anatomy more correct. And yes, i know... in reality the snake's teeth are protected by the gum, that slides back only when the snake bites... but please allow me the Hollywood-like showing of the teeth without the protecting-gum over it. I have tried it with the gum... but without it, the tooth-rows looking more dramatic and dangerous... Just like it shall look in a monster-movie too

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Work 15 of the Sucuriju-series