As she shifted in her seat, Polly then remembered something and raised the microphone that she had been offered. It actually felt a bit big in her pawlike hands, but the managers at the Claw Coliseum had stated that a lot of this equipment had often been specially made for larger Animalians in mind and had been told that she was "big." Polly knew that she was on the larger side for a Polar Bear Animalian after getting her second dose, but she didn't quite think that the microphone that had been made for Brett Horne, the Styracosaurus Dinotopian were a bit big for her. But she could grip it, she then paused for a moment and then spoke into the microphone.
"Before we turn things over to the official announcers for the first event, there are some last points to note," Polly spoke, "for despite the claim on there only being "two" genders, it must be remembered that there are Animalians that are true hermaphrodites and are fully capable of siring and carrying children... and within Animalia, some of our contestants are both mothers and fathers at the same time in Iphis and Ianthe and their mates, Typhoon and Waterlily."
"That's right," Lexia nodded, "all of the herm candidates would have their own "pageant" which will have their own balance that fits all that they can do. And note that sexual acts or displays are not permitted in any of the pageants, male, female, or hermaphrodite. And we'd want to make sure that we get no repetition of someone bouncing out of their clothes."
"And with that last reminder, we move onto the Trial of Smarts," Teddy ended that segment...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Fang was very much in awe of things as they were set up. Some of it was being outside Heiya Island and meeting a multitude of other Snake Animalians. Some of it was also just being there with Muxing and Li-Wei and it was always something that sat as an amazing thing to hir. Shi really didn't expect to win, granted there were fewer hermaphroditic Snake Animalians than there were males and females, so, shi did give her a bit of an edge in that she was competing against a smaller pool of contestants than Muxing would be competing against among the female Snake Animalians and Li-Wei would have against the male Snake Animalians. But then, Iphis, Ianthe, Waterlily, and Typhoon had been Snake Animalians longer and thus would surely know more. In looking over the crowd, shi also noted spots where some of the children of the Snake Animalians that had mates were in the stands.
They had babysitters, and Teela was there looking after Harold and Kirana's little ones. Fang could hear all of them cheering for their parents. A little way away from them sat what was pretty much an army of young Anaconda Animalians who were being looked after by some of the friends Iphis and Ianthe had made as part of the body-building circuit. Fang felt an inward sense of happiness for those that had their loved ones and respective families, and that also raised in hir the hope for that as well, though shi felt that some of hir relations with Li-Wei and Muxing would be a bit different. For Li was interested in Muxing, but while Wei was understanding of Li's interested and was friendly with Muxing, Wei's interest wasn't the same as Li's. It reflected an emotional bond and further confirmed that two headed Snake Animalians did not have the same thoughts. Which brought about dates and discussions before Fang's conversion to become as shi was now, but it was still different from what many expected and could be complicated in the future with regards to the family the three of them would surely have. Though, for the moment, that wasn't going to be the focus for most of those in the contest.
And the "Trail of Smarts" was being set up to very much be like some kind of game show like Jeopardy. Fang could look up and see some of the computerized big screens that listed out all the contestants in the Year of the Snake competition and this also included a photo of each contestant to the left of where their name was written. To the right was a column labeled "points" and Fang guessed that the trial would have multiple questions of varying difficulties and different points for each difficulty. That shi could also tell as a large projection board was brought out and set up in front of the stage. Things were quiet as they went through this work and Fang guessed that the main showing producers were either on commercial or were giving basic rundowns on the contestants to buy time for those doing the work to set things up to do that work. That work then included Doctor Stein and Judy coming out to be the official "hosts" for the present round.
"Okay, as I'm sure you have read in the pamphlets that have set up the Year of the Snake contest, this trial will work on your knowledge of snakes," Doctor Stein announced as a couple of technicians came forward handed buzzers to each contestant, "and that the trail will work like a game show where the buzzers you're issued will be used buzz in for the answer, and the team at the tables that will be keeping track of the scores will be able to note who was first."
"Points will be awarded for every correct answer and will be deducted for every incorrect answer," Judy answered, "and note that the questions are not going to be species specific. There may be questions that may relate to specific species, but the categories will not focus on specific species."
"This will be to test your knowledge on snakes in general," Doctor Stein pointed out, "as those of you who were uplifted snakes will understand your species, and its habits with a sort of instinctive knowledge and those of you who are converted Humans will have studied the species of snake you've become to suit existing regulations for conversion and so that you would understand and anticipate many of the related instincts that would come with that species. This can let us see how well a viper may understand an anaconda and how well a krait may understand a cobra."
"Some other questions may also tie into snake adjacent questions," Judy finished, "such as its impact on culture, for good or fill ill, and what snakes have inspired among Human cultures. This can range from stories to team mascots to emblems. And all the questions will scale in difficulty from one point to ten points."
Fang then watched the category topics then appeared on the projector screen. Running across the screen from left to right were: 1) Anatomy and Locomotion, 2) Anatomy and Feeding, 3) Anatomy and Defense, 4) Evolution/Natural History of Snakes, 5) Of Snakes and Man, Interactions, 6) Of Snakes and Man, Cultural Stories, and 7) Of Snakes and Man, Symbols and Images. Fang gulped a little bit at this, as while did do a fair amount of reading on the Chinese Tree Viper before going through with hir conversion, there were a few things she had, at best, only skimmed over. The fact that the snake, like many vipers, gave birth to live young rather than laying eggs was one of those things. Muxing had stated that for these vipers, the pregnancy wasn't like a mammal. The female snake would have the eggs within and the young would hatch from the egg before being born. It was a surprise then and a reminder that perhaps she should have studied more, and it did make for some good study sessions with Muxing and Li-Wei. Though, the more they read on these things, the more Fang also felt there was the chance for hir to have missed something. And that wouldn't work out as well, given that shi knew that Muxing and Mizu, the Common Watersnake Animalian had the physical edge over Fang in the other categories.
Glancing over to Muxing and Li-Wei and getting a smile and a thumbs' up from them, Fang took a deep breath and said to herself, "here we go..."
"The first question is from category one for one point," Doctor Stein spoke, "list the basic ways in which all snakes move."
This generated a series of beeps as the various contestants pressed on the button. Fang also thought shi heard someone in the audience say "slither," and could barely suppress a giggle at the line. A glance up to the scoreboard gave her a clue as to who had managed to press the button first, as that contestant's name was illuminated on the scoreboard with a green light. Fang could see it wasn't her and that it wasn't Muxing, either. Though, with an easy first question, the real test was going to be more on reaction time rather than the actual knowledge. The first one to press the button proved to be "Bazooka," a male Red Spitting Cobra. Fang heard a chorus of "daddy" rise out from one of the sections of the stands where children of some of the contestants were seated.
"The basic movements for snakes are," Bazooka began, "the first is the typical motion that most associate with the slithering of snakes... the serpentine motion of using the sides to push against things like dirt, grass, or rocks that may allow the snake to push against them. The snake's body would essentially look like it's going into an "S" type shape as it repeats in this motion. The second is a variation of the first... but evolved for movement over slippery or hot surfaces to maximize the friction for movement and minimize body exposure to surfaces that may be hot to touch. This is done by partially raising parts of the body in the course of this motion so that the snake moves on one side as it moves, and how the Sidewinder in the US got its name and thus had the name given to that motion... sidewinding. The third is more comparable to the compressing and expansion of instruments like the accordion or concertina. The snake pulls its body closed at a point and then pushes forward from that point before squeezing itself up again at the new point. I think the name of the motion is even called "the concertina." The fourth is more a straightforward motion, in which the snake lifts up segments of this belly scales and then moves them forward, as if to pull the snake in a straight line... and often requires a lot of rib strength as well... Rectilinear, I believe is the name for the motion. The last motion... is one that may not be as controlled as the snake has ended up on a slick surface and is trying to escape quickly across that surface. Thus, it would push at any point that can provide something to push against and sliding over that lose surface. Thus... "slide pushing." And just about all of these motions could play into movement over land, through the water, and for some species, even through the air in gliding."
"A bit detailed... but correct," Judy answered, "one point to Bazooka."
And the tournament progressed from there and generated some sense of competition among those competing and some sense of awe among those in the audience. Fang found hirself more in awe by some of the crowd's responses to some of the information that came out in the answers, like how the King Cobra, despite its common name was NOT a true Cobra, which made many things that were noted as Cobra-like in the King Cobra a case of convergent evolution. Fang was even able to get one question right that related to points on the evolution of snakes that carried the fact that snakes were not the only terrestrial vertebrates to manage to move around without legs and that this was shared with legless lizards. With some of the differences between mundane snakes and legless lizards would be that the latter would have external ear openings and eyelids that a mundane snake lacked. More detailed studies would show that a legless lizard would also have a longer tail and a notched tongue rather than a snake's forked tongue.
Some of the cultural impact questions had some rather heavy American influences, be it the reference to the Arizona Diamondbacks or the Gadsden Flag. Though there were questions that related to other myths and legends that came from other parts of the world, with Fang, Muxing, Li-Wei, and even Mizu did best with some of the questions on cultural impacts that related to things like the story of the White Snake and how that tale actually evolved over time with various retellings. There were also some other questions that came as rather surprising. One question on the lethality of snakes to humans, many assumed that that these answers would relate to the various venomous species around the world, and it was noted that many of these venomous species did produce a lot of Human deaths when someone was bitten. But the point was also made that many of these snakes were deadly more due to the areas not having great medical care and not having access to anti-venom. Thus, a person in Australia could be bitten by a snake with extremely toxic venom but still survive because anti-venom would be administered before the venom could take lethal effect. In contrast, a large constrictor was actually far more dangerous to Humans in that a large python or anaconda could grasp and kill a Human far more quickly than it would take the venom of even the deadliest of snakes and once coiled, the Human wouldn't have the strength to break the snake's grip. Slick actually explained this in his answer...
"It is not so much the lethality of the bite," Slick said, "the bite from a Burmese Python may be less deadly than the bite of an Inland Taipan, but a big Python can wrestle with struggling prey more than a smaller Taipan could. Many venomous species bite and release their prey to let the venom kill the animal and leave the snake in safety. And why some venomous species that do not release their prey use venoms that effect the nervous system of the target, so that it cannot or will not struggle. Pythons, Boas, Anacondas, and other constrictors will often be in close proximity to what they're wanting to eat... or wanting to defend themselves from. And in that, they have the muscle power to kill and kill quickly to avoid unnecessary injury."
While Fang didn't win this trial, shi actually found it to be the most informative. A part of hir even thought that there was actually some wisdom in the learning side of things that came with this particular trial.