Kayla was a stealthy leopard, creeping towards its prey. Morning-quiet and well-trained, she was experienced in years of sneaking up on murders of crows to drive them from the garden; she knew how to walk in the woods without cracking twigs like gunshots, and how to take revenge on prank-happy older brothers just when they thought they were safe. Even if her target hadn't been asleep, Taryn never stood a chance.

She tiptoed past the door to the common area, slunk around Odie's floor-trap of a suitcase, and averted a stubbed toe catastrophe by stepping wide over the discarded schoolbooks that littered the Salem's girl's dormitory. In front of her was her goal - the one bed in the dorm still with its curtains drawn, large and still after everyone'd gone to breakfast. Tayrn would be hungry if she slept through it. Compassionate, cheerful, and usually quite thoughtful, Kayla would have brought her back something, only she thought with Taryn's half-giant appetite she might want more than Kayla could carry.

And it didn't take much of an excuse, really, to delight in something as silly as this - Kayla was a little homesick and so she drew close to her friends, taking comfort in the easy playful things they could do together to take her mind off her home. She liked to cuddle and cling, liked the anchor of warm physical contact. Though Taryn wasn't quite close enough to enjoy a cuddle-session she was at least familiar enough with Kayla that a childish, gangly-limbed leap into her bed wouldn't be too surprising, once she stopped flailing and realized who it was. Of course, if Taryn was actually sick and that was the reason she was still sleeping, Kayla would commandeer a whole basket of food, anything and everything the girl could possibly want, out of sheer guilt. So Kayla really hoped she wasn't sick.

She paused beside the bed, its four posts each as big around as her thigh. Already grinning from ear to ear, she whipped the curtain open.

Morning. Ugh.

Taryn groaned, dragging a stray pillow over her head. The thick curtains did their job well, blocking out both light and sound, but there was a single tiny sliver falling right into her eye and she wasn’t yet conscious enough to drag it closed herself.

Beside her, Nagendra gave a tired sigh and curled further into the nest of blankets at her side. His long body[1] stretched longer than hers now and, at its thickest, it was at least as big around as their tremendous bedposts. It’d get crowded soon, but for now they were nearly comfortable, each taking half the massive mattress, gangly limbs and massive body entertwined.

It wasn’t like Taryn to sleep in, normally. She wasn’t a morning person by any stretch, but she could usually be expected to get up for breakfast. But this week – featuring her second run-in with angry acromantula in as many weeks, not to mention the detention that adventure earned her – took a lot out of her. She deserved, as their British hosts would say, a ‘lie-in.’

She wasn’t expecting the curtains to open . Nagendra wasn’t either. That proved, quickly, to be the important bit.

A split second after the light poured in, the startled snake reared up, snarling like a live power line. That was all the warning he gave before he lunged, fangs barred, at the figure framed by sunlight, the attacker, his ene–

“Naggie, NO!”

Taryn’s startled reflexes kicked in within seconds of regaining consciousness. She grabbed her pet around the middle, dragging him back like a rope in mid-lunge. Slick scales slid from her grasp, but managed to kill his momentum enough to reign in his attack.

“No, bad Naggie! Bad snake! Who the frickin…crap.” Still struggling with a massive armful of twisting, wriggling horned snake, Taryn stared at Kayla with wide eyes, finally registering what had very nearly happened. “Kay. Oh crap. Oh man. You okay? He didn’t get’cha, did he? He’s harmless, I swear!”

1.	Current size: 10.75 ft (3.2766 m) long | Current Weight: 39.6 lbs (17.96 kg)

The breath Kayla had been holding whistled out of her in a surprised shriek as something big, scaly, and moving like a locomotive leapt at her. Leapt at her face. She half-sprang, half-fell backwards into the pile of books she'd so cleverly avoided before. They caught her heel, she threw out her arms, and overbalanced.

She landed on her butt on the floor with a yelp but could do nothing afterwards than freeze in place, eyes wide and breathing shallow, her mind utterly blank. It took her a minute to realize that she hadn't been followed to the floor, and that Taryn was now peering down at her from the bed with both arms wrapped around the wonderfully-named face-leaping Naggie.

"Aha," Kayla said blankly. "Ahaha. Taryn? Is that - " She sucked in a breath, didn't finish, as her whole body shivered once and then slumped in relief. Several things went through her head, all of them inane and pretty easy to figure out. Is that yours? How long has it been here? I'm really sorry I opened your curtains. In the end she just let herself fall backwards, the stack of books pressing uncomfortable into the dip of her spine. Her head hit the carpeted floor with a thud. Is that a snake in your bed, or are you just happy to see me? Kayla threw an arm over her face and started to laugh.

"Er..." With her arms full of wiggling, hissing horned serpent, Taryn stared down at her laughing roommate in bewilderment. Naggie was still in defense-mode, so she decided to deal with him first, twisting around to dump him onto the bed behind her. "Nagendra, no. Stay. Kay's a friend."

Naggie hissed in annoyance, poking his head out from under the coil of his own body. "Don't you give me that look," Taryn scolded, tapping his nose like a disobedient dog. "Stay. Put."

She swung out of bed and yanked the curtains half-closed behind her. Nagendra's golden eyes caught the light, seeming to glow in the curtains' shade, following her every move. Taryn ignored him, reaching down to pick Kayla off the floor. "Kay? You all right? You didn't hit yer head 'r anything, did'ja?"

Given that she'd been asleep thirty seconds earlier, Taryn looked a fright. Half her ponytail fell from its tie into a mess of bedhead, her nightshirt hung haphazardly off one shoulder, and her eyes hadn't quite adjusted to the light yet. Still, she was more worried over Kayla, setting the other girl on her feet and checking her over worriedly. "Jeez, Kay, Ah'm sorry, he doesn't usually...You just scared him, that's all. Please, please don't freak out."

Kayla let Taryn lever her up (not that it was very difficult for the stronger, taller Taryn). She giggled helplessly, hiccuped, bit down on her lip.

" 'M not going to freak out," she said, slumping bonelessly against Taryn as she fussed and checked Kayla over for injuries. "I was just surprised. It's kind of - it's kinda early for something trying to eat my face, you know? My fault, though, I shouldn't have scared him like that." She didn't lean closer to the bed - no, she liked being right here next to the sturdy Taryn, who even with the bedhead and dazed just-woken look made her feel safe - but she did look up, seeking out the yellow glint of snake eyes in the shadowed inner bed.

"I'm sorry, Naggie. That was very rude," she told the snake earnestly, no different from how she talked to cat or dog or giant intelligent spider. Kayla tended to scold and praise and talk to animals like they were little people themselves, albeit often very silly ones. Anyways, there was a good chance that any pet of Taryn's was magical or somehow just special, and though Kayla was no Parselmouth it might understand her a bit anyways. Animals understood intention, at the very least. And Kayla wanted the giant snake to like her, especially if she was going to be living in a dorm with it for the rest of the year. She didn't want it to label her a threat, an enemy, someone to hiss and snap at when she got too close. The idea of tattling on Taryn, or demanding that the snake get sent away, never occurred to her for a moment.

Nagendra lifted his head from the folds of his own body and regarded Kayla impassively, used to being addressed as though he understood the human-speak. His long body rippled into a more relaxed pose as the tension released, his tail sliding out from between the sheets. His tongue flicked out with a slight hiss, as though to accept the girl's apology.

Taryn beamed, half with pride and half with relief. Her roommates were the best. Anyone else would probably freak out at the sight of a large snake in their friend's bed, and to be fair Kayla had freaked a little, justifiably. But the fact that she was willing to speak to Naggie like a sensible creature -- which he was -- made all the difference.

"There now, ya see?" she said to snake, reaching into the darkness to scratch his scaly chin. "No harm done. But you can't go 'round snapping at people, hun, it's not good. You'll get in trouble. Now c'mere and say hi the right way." Nagendra slid forward until he was within Kayla's arm reach, sitting peacefully in the gap between the curtains.

Taryn turned back to Kayla. "Nagendra's his full name, but he answers to Naggie too. Think he'll let'cha touch him if you want. Just watch out for that mark 'tween his horns, the diamond -- it's a touchy spot for horned serpents. Real sensitive. Also, I'd, uh. I'd like it if you didn't tell anybody, you know? He ain't really...I could get in big trouble." Rescuing the egg for conservation purposes was one thing. Carrying a Class A Non-Tradeable over country lines and lettin' it hatch was another.

The snake stared at her as though it could indeed understand her apology, its long body relaxing. Kayla shivered again. She had never been the type to be frightened by snakes, spiders, lizards, insects - she was a nature girl through and through, and it was hard to spend any time outdoors if she let herself be bothered by all the critters. But anything, blown up big enough, plucked uncomfortably at the animal instincts deep in her hindbrain. She couldn't help but be a little nervous - not enough to keep her from being fascinated at the same time. Kayla reached out a tentative hand for Naggie's cool scales, trailing light fingers over his back far away from the sensitive spot betwixt his horns.

She smiled like a child as he allowed it, biting her lip a moment later to swallow the instant flush of glee.

"I won't tell," she said softly, still transfixed by the dry silk of the serpant's back. She glanced up at Taryn, something a little like worry flickering through her eyes. Of course she wouldn't tell; Taryn was her friend. But what if he leapt at someone else, and someone had gotten hurt? "You really can't," she told Nagendra, in lieu of asking Taryn whether he really understood. "It's... dangerous." She didn't clarify as to whether she meant for other people or for the snake. Both, really. There'd be no hiding Naggie should there be an accident, and Kayla would now be saddled with the guilt of prior knowledge if someone did get hurt.