It was another fine and sunny day, the most gentle breeze orchestrating a symphony amongst the leafs to join with the chorus of the nearby rushing river. It could be called perfect, but it didn’t reach such status for me until my coils were wrapped around the frail furred limbs of one I would call prey, his momentary struggles making my stomach churn with anticipation even as I licked eager drool from my lips. Soon enough he would tire out and accept that he was to be my meal, to slide down my gullet and meld away within my gut, becoming part of something much greater than himself. It was what they always did, a short burst of instinctive rebellion followed by submitting to the natural order, submitting to me, to their fate as nothing more than a lump in my belly.

	Only he didn’t tire out and accept anything. Minutes passed and the little critter continued to struggle, to squirm and kick and shout for help. It was really putting a damper on the supposed perfect day and giving me a bit of a headache. And every time I convinced myself it couldn’t possibly last much longer, every time it seemed he’d exhausted himself, the brat proved me wrong by taking a deep breath and fighting anew. It was all so hopeless of course, like beating your head against a brick wall to try and knock it over, there was simply no chance of such an inferior life form breaking free of my almighty scales unless I allowed it. And I certainly wouldn’t be allowing it here, I was simply too hungry to let a good meal like this slip away because he was too stubborn to see sense.

	Eventually I got sick of waiting for this little fuzzball to play out his part and cleared my throat before speaking. “Pardon me, child, but how much longer are you going to keep up this charade? You must realize you can’t escape.” As I spoke I expected the morsel to look up at me in fright, perhaps a look of realization to wash across his face before he breaks down in acceptance, allowing me to comfort him and help him come to love and embrace his fate. To say that was not the case would be an understatement. He looked up at me, not with fright or timid reluctance, but with the most foul and hateful glare I had ever seen directed at anything. His eyes bore through me with a hot intensity that made my own heart skip a beat from shock; this little creature hated me! That caught me off guard for a moment, but I was determined to continue my lecture all the same, since simply staring back with a dumbfounded confusion wouldn’t get us anywhere, “Y-You’re simply too weak to fight back against me with any hope. But you must realize you mustn’t try to in the first place. For the strong to devour the weak, the assimilate short lived and hopeless to grant them my life and strength.”

	I reached out to pet the boys head in an effort to emphasize my words, but he pulled away, so far not swayed by such a practiced speech, though I wouldn’t let such rebellion sway me. “You must live in constant fear, always on the lookout for those who would do you harm, of my kind and even your own. You don’t have to live that way anymore. I'll make sure you're well taken care of, that you'll find your place in this world and by doing so become something stronger than you ever could have imagined.  Become a part of something truly remarkable, you don't have to live as a prey that is lost among the various packs of the rat race. I will make you a part of something strong, warm, amorous...myself.  And to do that, all I need to do is let nature run its course right now-” And then, right at the apex of my presentation, at the very part that would have swayed most wayward souls into pushing themselves down my gullet, something quite unexpected happened. With all that unending, burning hatred welling up in the helpless creature, he summoned it all up in some desperate act of defiance in the only way he could. With a disgusting sound, splatters of hot liquid rained upon my face.

	He spat at me! In all my years, with all the countless meals I’ve held in my coils, I have never been spit on! It was the ultimate sign of disrespect and it left me… speechless! I simply stared down at the thing between my coils in shock as he continued to look back with such rage and hate. And it seemed he took advantage of my momentary derailing to throw in his own two cents. “I don’t care!” Was how it started, squirming in his confines again, each word bringing forth new struggle, “I don’t care if it’s ‘nature’, I don’t care if it’ll make me stronger, I don’t care if I won’t feel any fear ever again, I don’t even care if it makes me the happiest mother fucker on the face of the planet! I refuse to die! Not by your hand at least, not by allowing some murderous fuck to continue living, not by ‘becoming part of’ some lousy excuse of a moral crusader sprinkling glitter over his crimes to make them seem right! You don’t get to tell me when I get to live and die, I do! Now let me the hell go!” With the conclusion of his tirade he was wiggling and fighting with renewed vigor, putting everything he had into squirming out of my coils no matter how pointless it was, all that would be accomplished a few broken bones, and yet somehow I was given the thought that not even that would slow his struggles.

	It was difficult to come up with an argument against him; I was certainly not a “murderous fuck,” nor was I some kind of criminal, it was ridiculous to spout such nonsense. This was nature: predators ate prey, simple as that. It was nothing personal; I needed to do it to live. Certainly he understood, even if his continued trashing said otherwise. It was painfully apparent nothing I said or did would convince the critter, and probably simply inspire another rant for freedom of some sort. So, I shrugged, unhinged my jaw, and sprang upon the thing with single minded conviction. My jaws closing over the smaller males head brought to the surface such struggles as I could never before imagine, but were rendered as nothing in the face of my superior predatory strength. He could do nothing to stop me from lowering over him, pulling his shoulders past my lips and plunging his crown into my gullet. I sunk lower, a churr of pleasure escaping my chest at the preys taste, but it was not the sweet submittence I was used to; he tasted bitter, of rebellion and terror and fury. I’d be damned if such a difference in pallet didn’t have its own charm to it though.

	Nearly half of my meal was lost down my throat, everything down to his waist thrashing and squirming as my gullet squeezed and pulled on him, drawing him ever closer to his final destination, his screams of rage muffled against the soft walls. I lifted my head high, to let gravity assist in his decent, his legs flailing about even more helplessly then before as they slowly sunk past my lips, never to feel the wind or sun on their fur again. Normally such thoughts would have brought me all the more pleasure, since I would know my prey was thinking the same thing with shuddering delight, but this time they rang hallow. I sighed around my meal as I finished it off, sending him in his entirety down my long tube of a throat until he was emptied into my stomach, the walls soggy with the remains of former meals and various natural juices. I sighed and licked my lips, my body feeling the same post snack pleasure, even as my heart was ill at ease when I felt him struggle again. Even at the end of things, when there was zero hope and no chance of escaping, he fought anyway. I might have admired it; I did admire it. And soon in the coming hours that senseless determination would be a part of me.

	He would never be alone again, he would never be unhappy or scared again, because everything he was would be a part of me and everything I am would be a part of him. Did that not bring him some comfort, something to anticipate in his final hours while awaiting a grander destiny? His fighting continued, feeling pleasant from under my scales I had to admit, but as I watched the bulge that was once a lively and free little prey critter, I knew those thoughts were wasted on him. I sighed sadly and nuzzled the squirming bulge as my stomach got to work on him like it would any other food, a small thanks for his sacrifice as well as a sincere promise that becoming part of me would be better than anything he could have experience in life. Even if such reimbursement only made him struggle helplessly all the more, it was the least I could do. Sometimes I sang lullabies to my meals as I felt them move, and sometimes I spoke to them, telling them how much I had enjoyed the taste of them, the excitement of the hunt, the pleasure they gave me. With this one just sighed.

	I waited until his struggled finally ceased, nature taking its course, before slithering back to home.