The Enemy Below

The monkeys scattered with cries of--"Kaa! It is Kaa! Run! Run!"
(Rudyard Kipling, "The Jungle Book")

There was a time, when Sucuriju did not ruled the top of the food-chain, when no human had to fear him, when even he must be cautious not to get killed by larger predators like crocodiles.
This was the time, countless years ago, when he was very young and only about 2 meters long. He had survived by following the simple rules to avoid any other animal that is larger than him and to thread any smaller animal as possible prey.
But this was the time too, when he started to thread the little monkeys of the forest with a new danger.
The monkeys lived usally high up in the trees, and even that the monkeys knewed the danger of large snakes, because one of the smaller monkeys get sometimes killed and eaten by a larger Boa Constrictor too, Sucuriju started to turn out as a new danger for the monkey families when he figured out that the monkeys are suitable food for him.

First he started to prey on the little, unexperienced babies who played often in the water when the monkeys came to drink in the river or the little creeks, and the monkeys get more and more cautious.
Later he started to strike out of the little waterholes, where no crocodile lived in, too, and turned this last safe water supplies for the monkeys sometimes in a deadly trap too.
And the monkeys get more and more cautious as they realized that this danger was more omnipresent than the lurking crocodiles or the dreadful Boa Constrictors... This new danger was able to lurking in the water but on land too, even in the branches of the trees appeared the young Sucuriju sometimes to hunt down a monkey... Than he seperated and drove one monkey into the thin tree-branches who reaching over the river, and when the victim realized, that it can escape only with a jump into the water, Sucuriju followed him by let himself falling into the water too and he finished his deadly work there... or he seized the monkey out of the twigs, holding the shocked prey with its fangs or a coil, shaking and pulling, and sooner or later the poor creature losts its hold and felt together with Sucuriju down into the water where the hungry serpents coils brought it to an end.

But all this hunting-tactics he learned only later... Now he was only 2 meters long, and this was his first hunt on monkeys. He had often observed this creatures and wondered, if one of the smaller ones would be a good meal. The smaller one get carried by the bigger one on the backs, but near the water they are often dismount their mothers to take a cool drink of water too.

And now he laid coiled up in the middle of the little creek, observed the monkey family that came to drink and play... and he especially observed the little monkeys, who played carefree in the water. No one of the monkeys had saw him yet... but one of the little monkeys must had saw something interesting in the water, and curious he stepped into the water and came closer... watching with big eyes on this big thing that he had discovered in the water.

Sucuriju wasn't sure yet... shall he try it? He was hungry and this little thing looked like good food. Would the big ones attack him when he catch the little one?
He lifted his head a little bit out of the water... the curious baby monkey hesitated, but then curiosity won. He reached with his long, black hand out, to touch Sucurijus head...
Sucrijus forked tongue flickered out... and with this tongue he smelled and tasted at the same time the monkey... the smell and taste of food.
The baby monkey touched the serpents head, felt the odd scales of this green thing and the monkeys head was now only about 10 centimeters away from Sucurijus head.
The little monkeys big round brown eyes looked directly into the slits of Sucurijus amber colored eyes...

Sucurijus meal came so willingly to him...

And in the next second, the little monkey uttered a loud scream... Sucuriju had seized his little head with his fangs, sunk his teeth into the little fur, in the flesh, partially down to the skull.. he felt the crunching of his teeth on the monkeys skull.
Carefully he pulled the wriggling and trembling monkey a few feet deeper into the river. The other monkeys started to scream too, to jumping around, pointing with his hands on Sucuriju. One of the monkeys even tried to enter the water, maybe to rescue the little one, but he hesitated, staring with fear on that, what happened next.

The little monkey was totally shocked and did not screaming anymore. Quiet wimpering and trembling he fumbled with his little hands on Sucurijus neck... trying to get free.
Curious Sucuriju pulled him a little bit further into the water. He felt dainty hands around his neck, who tried to strangle him and to get free.
The snake was a little bit staggered about the little guys weak tries to strangle him... He would teach him now, what strangling mean! Slowly he started, to wind his tail around the warm, small body... First one coil, slowly increasing the pressure... the little vicitms trembling and wriggling increased, as it felt the scaly, deadly grip writhering around its body.

The other monkeys ran screaming to and fro on the bank, they had no idea what the shall do in this situation... and so they screamed and ran, pointing on Sucuriju... some of the more couragaous monkeys started to throw twigs on the serpent... but Sucuriju ignored this tries to distract him off his prey.

Slowly, very slowly, Sucuriju pulled his trembling victim deeper into his realm, winding slowly a further squeezing coil around the chest of the fluffy creature... he didn't do it so slowly to torture his victim... he did it simply so slowly to testing out the strenght and resistance of this new kind of prey.
There was not much resistance in the monkeys little body. The former curiosity of the monkey was now completely turned into panic and fear... Sucuriju smelt its sweet odor of desperation.
The serpent turned his head a little bit from one side to the other and so the monkeys head in his fangs too. He did not heared the horrified squeals of the little creature, but he felt the vibrations of it. The trembling little hands around the serpents neck increased its pressure... but it was a ridiculous try of the little monkey to escape his fate.

Sucuriju had tested out the strenght and resistance of this new prey now... it was time, to bring it to an end... with a jerk he pulled the monkey under water and in a few splashing rollovers he enlaced the furry body completely... now Sucuriju increased his pressure too...

The other monkeys on the bank watched horriefied of that, what they saw coming up to the surface again from time to time... the tail of the baby monkey, whipping to and fro, a wriggling leg, the green, scaly coils, winded tight around the little guy...

For Sucuriju it was easy to squeeze the life out of this weak, fluffy creature. He increased the power of his embracing and in a few seconds the weak resistance was overpowered... a last convulsive wriggling... and it was over. Under water he swam away, holding his prey firmly in his coils.

For the monkeys and for Sucuriju it was a new beginning... for the first one a new enemy was born, for the latter one, a new source of food did become available.
And when the serpent grew, he started to hunt on the juvenile monkeys too, followed by the adults... and at last he was able to jerk even the strongest male monkeys into his coils... and so Sucuriju became the eternal enemy for the monkey-families... the one, who lurk in the dark, the one, who strike when no one expect it, the one who is always hungry. Sucuriju become everything that the monkeys feared in the jungle, for none of them knew the limits of his power, none of them could look him in the face, and none had ever come alive out of his hug.

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The inspiration for this little flash-back in Sucurijus life work is easy to figure out... yes, "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling again. I mean the original book here, not the Disney-movie! In the original book Kaa, the Rock Python, was a true and helpful friend of Mowgli and not disparaged to a harmless running gag. The original Kaa was a terror for the monkeys in the indian jungle... and so it was Sucuriju too on the other side of the earth in the amazon jungle. But Sucurijus hunting-method was less poetic... he did not perform some hypnotic dance... he simply lurked in the waters
And it was not his last kill in this area. The little creek were he hunted down the monkey dried out a few years later... but after heavy rains part of the old creek get temporarely filled with water again... And so Ashara found her cruel end at the same place countless years later.
And the second inspiration is the title "The Enemy Below". This is the title of a classic war-movie starring Robert Mitchum and Curd Jürgens, where a US-destroyer hunts a german U-Boat in WW-II... or the U-Boat hunts the destroyer... the roles of the hunter and the hunted changed repeatedly in the movie.
My Sucuriju-series is only exaggerated fantasy in the style of the classic adventure- monster-movies and -stories... but this work is a exception! It is the most realistic in the series, because my third inspiration based on real film-footage that showing how giant snakes (Boa Constrictor, Burmese Python and a young Anaconda in the trees) hunting down little monkeys.
Update June 4, 2011: Just found the video who give me the most inspiration again: [link]


Technical side:
The DOF-settings of DAZ-Studio did not produced a satisfying effect this time, so i rendered the work without the DOF-seetings and added a blurring in the remote and very close areas of the picture to simulate a DOF later with Paint Shop Pro X.
Waterworks was done as usual... guess, slowly i learning it
The whole thing was originally planned as a new "cliffhanger" without mature content... but it took far too much time in creating and rendering, because i used the most figures at once at this time: Nine monkeys and one damn hungry anaconda

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Work 19 of the Sucuriju-series