“My next trick may be a little scary. Will we still have any volunteers?” Fewer hands rose this time, and most of them were boys. The last hand to rise, quite slowly and hesitantly, belonged to a black-haired girl, looking to be about seven. “You there, young lady! Please, come up to the front.” Spectra motioned to the girl. She pointed to herself, with a quizzical look on her face. Spectra just nodded, and motioned for her to come forward again.
The girl stood up, and walked onto the stage. “Now then, young lady, what is your name?”
“Penny.” She said quietly.
“That’s a good name, it suits you well,” Spectra said. “Now then, Penny, if you are alright with my asking, what is it you are most afraid of?”
Penny answered without a hint of hesitation. “Snakes! They’re creepy, gross, slimy, and they never stop staring. And they’re poisonous too!”
“Yes, I can see why you would be scared of them.” The magician nodded. “Would you like a little help to find them less scary?”
“I guess.”
“Well then, it’s a good thing I picked you to help me with my next trick!” He produced a flute from the large sleeves of his bathrobe. “Now then, young lady, would you please stand beside that basket?” He said, pointing his flute toward a lidded basket that Katie was pretty certain hadn’t been on stage a moment ago. Not that she should have been surprised. After that first trick, sneaking a basket on stage while people were paying attention to the volunteer coming onstage would be child’s play.
Penny nodded, looking at the basket as the sorcerer began to play the flute. The lid on the basket stirred slightly as he played, before rising up, lifted by the head of a brown snake, swaying to the rhythm of of the music. Penny gasped and stepped back, the children on the stage watching with baited breath. The melody slowed down, and the snake sank back into the basket.
“Normally,” Spectra said, halting his music, “you would be quite right to be cautious. That is a copperhead, and it has a poisonous bite. But don’t worry, my wondrous tricks will keep it calm. Please, reach out to it, I promise it won’t hurt you. Though, needless to say to those in the audience, please, don’t try this at home, wherever that may be when this is done.”
Spectra resumed playing his flute, and the snake rose from the basket once again. Penny shivered a little as she looked at the snake’s unblinking eyes. She reached out halfway, then quickly pulled back. She looked to the audience, and held it out again. The snake flicked its tongue out at her, and she pulled her hand back again, looking back at the magician. Spectra kept playing, but gently directed her back to the trick at hand. Penny sighed and held out her left arm a third time, her heart pounding as the snake moved closer to it, before resting its head on her palm. The audience gasped, getting tense as they watched.
Penny was pretty surprised to find it didn’t feel slimy, instead, its scales felt smooth to the touch. Her breathing began to slow down to a more normal rate. She knew she was touching a dangerous animal, that she should probably just run back into the audience before it poisoned her. And yet, even after saying she had found them creepy and gross not even ten minutes ago, something about the snake just seemed so… familiar. The way its body moved reminded her of… something. She couldn’t put a finger on what.
The copperhead began to slither around her arm, coiling so that it wouldn’t fall off. And as it moved, she could see that any spot it touched, her skin began to grow little light-brown scales, just like those on the snake itself. If Penny was disturbed by this, she didn’t let it show. She simply watched the snake slither up her arm, her shirt’s sleeve disappearing wherever the snake made contact, revealing more brown scales underneath. Any spots it missed on her arm were filled in as it moved over her shoulders.
Penny had an odd thought in the back of her mind, that having a snake around her neck was a bad idea, but she quickly dismissed it. Sure, maybe it would be a bad idea if it were a constrictor, but she, of all people, should know that copperheads were just venomous. And this one in particular, she knew she wouldn’t harm her, even if she couldn’t quite remember why, yet. As the copperhead gently coiled around her neck, her neck began to grow longer, and more flexible, reaching six inches. A mix of light and dark brown scales appeared on the back and sides of her neck, in a splotchy pattern, with lighter, wider ventral scales appearing on the front. The Copperhead then uncoiled from around her neck, and slithered up and down her right arm, covering it in those smooth scales as well.
Continuing to move with Spectra’s song, the snake slithered around Penny’s torso. Her shirt slowly passed out of existence under its touch, not that Penny really seemed to care. Humans usually looked so funny in those sheets of cloth, but she didn’t see a point to them. Though some of the more colorful and flowing ones did look nice when they were dancing. Underneath, a large golden necklace could be seen around her neck, and her smooth, scaled form became visible, ventral scales lined up nicely over her chest (which, as a reptile, now lacked nipples) and belly, while light brown scales covered her back, with a pattern of darker brown splotches mixing in. She thought it looked quite nice on her, really, and it she wouldn’t want to hide it.
The snake then moved around Penny’s legs, pulling them together. The little naga gave a sigh of relief as the foreign feeling of two stiff, gangly appendages vanished, as the two join together into a single, flexible, scaly tail that began to extend quite some length behind her. She didn’t know where that weird feeling had been coming from at first, but she was happy her little friend Copper was able to help sooth it.
Speaking of, she then felt Copper slithering around her again, traveling up toward her head, keeping up with Spectra’s song. It was always a bit tricky to stop herself giggling during this last part of the act, but she had been through it enough that she could usually contain herself now. Copper curled gently around her head, her hair vanishing as scales covered her skin. Her head started to flatten out a little, her nose flattening, and stretching out with her jaws, as her skull took a slightly triangular shape.
Most of her teeth shrank away to nothing, only two top teeth at the front of her mouth remaining. She felt familiar hinges under these teeth as they grew longer and thinner, becoming hollow, allowing her to fill them with venom. Not that she ever needed to. Like Rosewood, she was a respected part of the troupe, not some prop, or animal left to hunt for itself. And even if the audience could get a little over-excited sometimes, she never needed to use her fangs to defend herself from rowdy children. She flicked out her tongue a few times, not noticing it becoming thinner and more sensitive to the tastes in the air with each flick, nor noticing it splitting in two at the tip.
Copper passed over Penny’s eyes. When he was no longer obstructing them, the children could see Penny’s eyes, just as brown, pupils just as narrow, as they ever had been. She blinked a couple times, confirming she still had eyelids, unlike her pet. Speaking of, Copper finished the act by wrapping himself around the top of her head, his head raised at the front, looking something like an Egyptian crown. Penny smiled, and took a bow, copper keeping a tight grip on her to avoid falling off.
The children in the audience clapped, amazed at Spectra’s snake charming skills, and the incredibly detail of the snake-person costume. The way her tail slithered about behind her made it look so real. “I see all of you appreciate Penny and Copper’s performance!” Spectra said. “Be sure to thank them, Penny.”
“Thank you all, very much,” Penny said. “I look forward to working with all of you again!” She picked up her basket, moving it to the side of the stage, beside Rosewood. She then curled up inside it, setting Copper in her “lap” as she waited for the next act.