~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Story ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5000 years ago, in the ancient sand kingdoms of Tabeth, lived a lone female black jackal named Niefertti. She led a normal life as a tailor, making clothing for Pharaohs and priests. Her work was renown, her ability to work with both the smoothest silk in the lands and the best gold available made for the best clothing. Unfortunately for her however, during her mid thirties, a sudden plague wrought her village. This plague infected all, and caused mass death, but curiously, she wasn’t affected by the plague. The people of her village would pray to the sun god to save them from this awful sickness, but there would be no help. As many died around Niefertti, priests from around the land arrived into the village to offer sacred prayers. During a solar eclipse, they found the girl amongst the dying and dead, untouched by the plague.

Seeing her healthy, standing amidst the dead and a solar eclipse, they accused her of causing the plague, working with the enemy of the sun god, a vile serpent who seeks to make endless nights. She of course, attempted to dispute this claim, but it would be rejected by all. She was sentenced to undergo the serpent’s curse, a ritual meant for the crimes of mass murder in the name of the serpent god.

They took her to the ritual catacombs, and began wrapping her tightly in mummification bandages, while she was alive. Squirming, trying to escape this terrible fate, she could only watch as her body disappeared into the wrappings, and soon, her head would join. She would be placed into a very large sarcophagus, along with many highly venomous black snakes. As they sealed the sarcophagus shut, the snake’s slithered over her body. Muffled screams were heard, pleading to let her go. But no one would listen. The priests there chanted their curse onto the sarcophagus, making sure that the person inside suffered the curse of their deeds. Once their ritual was complete, they sealed the entrance to the tomb with warnings about keeping the door shut for eternity. The snake’s inside the sarcophagus repeatedly bit the girl, sending venom through her body, but she wouldn’t die, just suffered in the agony of it, until her body shut down, and she entered a deep coma.

~~~~ 5000 years after entombment ~~~~

It was so quiet in the halls leading into the tombs, that the snow leopard could distinctively hear her own claws clicking against the stone. With her flashlight in hand, she continued to make her way deeper into the halls, wondering what secrets lie here. She had heard rumours that there was an ancient cursed tomb around these parts, which only made the leopards curiosity grow further. Her pink eyes scanned the area around her, looking at the ancient hieroglyphics writings on the wall. She could understand a few of the symbols, but many were unknown to her. She hadn’t studied ancient hieroglyphs too much, which she sort of regrets now. She’d love to know what they said.

Eventually, she found it. The sealed tomb. Glee washed over her face, and she excitingly examined the tomb’s door. The handles were wrapped with ancient rope, tied tightly together. Whoever was in here wasn’t getting out. Text was on the wall, but the only symbol the snow leopard could decipher was “Enter”. She didn’t think anything of it, and pulled out her trusty utility knife, and cut the rope to the tomb. The heavy doors were a struggle for the smaller leopard, but she managed to pull them open after a bit. Shining her flashlight, she was in awe at this tomb. Never before had she been in such a pristine looking tomb. Torches hung on the wall, and to her surprise, they still had the smell of oil on them. She pulled out her matchbox, and lit up the torches, providing much needed light throughout the entire tomb. Finally, she could thoroughly examine the area. And beautiful treasures lay within. Ancient looking clothing, still intact and easily wearable, golden jewellery, and a golden staff, a modified version of the moon god’s symbol lay on top of a long, golden rod.

“Wow, this person must have been very wealthy!” the leopard said in excitement. The center of the room held a rather large sarcophagus, way bigger than needed for a standard sized humanoid creature. The snow leopard was highly curious as to who or what was inside. Ancient ropes with paper seals held the sarcophagus closed. The snow leopard shrugged it off as ancient wellness papers, and began cutting the ropes. Once she was done, she grabbed the edge of the stone lid, and began pushing. With great effort, the snow leopard managed to push it off, exposing the one inside to the air of the living. To her great surprise, there was no decomposed mummy in there, but a beautiful looking lamia lady. Her upper body was that of a black jackal. Her eyes were closed, but had a golden marking around them in her fur pattern. Most of her body was covered in ancient looking wrappings, but the leopard could see bits of black fur poking out. Her most striking feature was her very long, black scale tail. It has markings on it similar to the modified moon’s symbol. She was very striking to witness. The snow leopard was in awe that she looked like she was just recently placed in there.

It was then, that the snow leopard noticed that the body she had found began twitching, and eventually, her eyes opened up. Emerald green eyes revealed themselves as the lady within began waking up. This made the snow leopard jump backwards. She wasn’t expecting the one inside to be alive, let alone in the state she was. The leopard watched in awe as the lady sat up, looking around, and rubbing her head as if she had a major headache. The jackal lamia looked shocked as they saw their snake tail, but no sounds were emitted from her voice.

“Um… hello, miss?” the leopard said. The jackal lady’s ears perked up, showing their long size, and then her head looked at the leopard. Initially fumbling to get out of the sarcophagus, she eventually managed to figure out how her snake tail worked, and would stand beside the leopard.

“Wow, you are beautiful!” the leopard said, examining the lady “My name is Leandre! What’s yours?”

The serpent lady attempted to speak, but she seemed surprise she couldn’t produce a sound. A few more attempts later, the lady crossed her arms, thinking what to do about the situation

“Lost your ability to speak? That’s no good.” The leopard started, and would give her a smile. “Why were you in there?”.. The leopard realized that her question was probably not gonna be answered, as the serpent lady couldn’t speak. The serpent looked around for a bit, before pointing at the far wall. On it, a painting depicting a Jackal lady standing amidst the dead, a dark sun in the skies. She looked back to Leandre, and then motioned her hand as if that wasn’t the truth.

“you were falsely accused of something?” Leandre said, to which the lady nodded.

“Wait, you can understand me?” The snake lady nodded her head to the leopards question. “How can you understand me?” that question was met with a small shrug of unknown from the snake lady. She was able to understand the leopard speaking, but didn’t known why.

“Well, in any case, let’s get those old wrappings off your body. Let’s get you into those clothing in here!” Leandre said. The snake lady smiled, and began taking off the wrappings. They reacted oddly to the lady’s touch though, as if by magic, they floated and disappeared. Shocked by this, the lady looked at her hands, and seemed to understand that the wrappings were controlled by her, and she could also conjure up more. Leandre watched as the serpent lady experimented with her powers a bit more, in awe at this.

With a small grin, the lady used the wrappings to wrap up Leandre’s body, binding her tightly, before catching her with her tail tip as the leopard fell from suddenly being bound up. With a few more coils, the serpent lady brought the leopard to her, and hugged her tightly. Leandre’s moment of worry subsided when she felt that the hug was genuinely one of thankfulness, and figured she was being playful with the whole wrapping part. After she broke the hug off, the lady freed Leandre, who giggled.

“Thought you were going to eat me or something!” Leandre giggled. The snake lady smiled, probably s would giggle if she could have produced a sound also. The now naked lady slithered her way to the clothing, and would tilt her head upon seeing them. She motioned at the clothing, then made sewing motions, then pointed to herself.

“You made those?” Leandre asked, to which the lady nodded happily. “Wow, you are talented!” The snake lady put on the clothing, which wonderfully fit her. She grabbed the staff too, and nodded to Leandre.

“what will you do now?” The leopard asked. The lady didn’t know, she looked down, sad.

“Hey, don’t worry! Come home with me! Or at least, I’ll ask Xyler if he has room for you to stay in his apartment, mine’s only a single room” she giggled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~ End Story ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Such a lovely commission. My new half snake character, Cleo, an Egyptian themed Jackal Naga Lady.

The artwork was drawn by the wonderful  DranixParemoon

Leandre, who was mentioned in the story, belongs to my great friend  SnowLeandre :3