The king was bored. He had just executed two of his most trusted advisors, but execution had lost its thrill. He needed something else.
"Something wrong, my lord?" asked one of the girls surrounding him. He had four girls with him, all of whom had been chosen for their beauty. They were all wearing as little as the king could persuade them to, just enough to hide their modesty. "Another peeled grape?" she asked. The king waved her off. Even their beauty no longer excited him.
"Anything at all?" she asked. "Perhaps a small meal would please you exellency, or maybe a little light entertainment. The jugglers you enjoyed last year are in town again." The king refused all suggestions the girls put forward.
"I think I shall sleep on the problem," he said, and left to go to his room.
"I hope he find a way of making himself happy," one of the girls said. "We still have the tiger he bought last time." The tiger chose this moment to pad in. The girls immediatly diverted their attention to him, making a fuss of him.
"Do you think the king might be entertained if he knew what we did with his pet?" another girl asked.
"We can't tell him," another replied. "Thats only between us and the tiger."
Shortly, the girls returned to their room, undressed and got into bed. They had been together for a couple of years, and were used to each other naked, and their ban on being alone with a man other than the king had led to frequent sex between them. Tonight though they were too worried, and all four were soon asleep, the tiger between them.
Early the next morning the king called a messenger to him. Soon the messenger left the castle, hurrying off on an unknown demand. "Look's like he's thought of something," one of the girls said, looking out of the window. "I wonder what it will be this time."
Later that day a coach arrived. They took something from the coach in a crate, and took it down into the dungeon. That annoyed the harem girls, as it was the only place in the castle they could not visit, as the king kept it locked. "It's probably some new kind of torture device," one of the girls guessed. "Or maybe it's a really fierce prisoner, who the king is taking no chances with, and is going to be executed. That usually makes the king happy for a while." The others nodded in agreement.
It was not long before the secret was revealed. That evening, while the king was relaxing with his harem, he called them together and took them down into the dungeon. "What are we going to see?" one asked. "You shall see soon enough," he replied. The king locked the four of them in one cell. They were not afraid, as the king did this from time to time, and usually let them out within a few hours.
"I want you to meet a friend of mine," he said. The girls were confused, as there was no-one with him.
"Do you think he has finally lost it?" one muttered under her breath. "When will we meet him?" she asked, now audibly.
"Very soon, very soon," he replied. "Just sit down and he will be along in a minute." The king then walked away, presumably to find his new friend.
"Who do you think his new friend could be? Remember that man he found a couple of years ago, not long after I started here?" The girls shuddered. That man had been creepy and scary, and had attacked one of their friends, and killed her. For that, the king had executed him, and they were all glad of that.
The girls sat in the cell for ten minutes, idly chatting, as the king's friend failed to appear. Suddenly one shouted. The others turned to see where she was pointing. Out of a hole in the wall a huge reptilian head had appeared, followed by a serpentine body.
"I hate snakes," one said. The others nodded in agreement. The four retreated away from the wall where the snake had come from, towards the door. Soon the snake's tail had all come out of the hole, and they were relieved to see it wouldn't get any longer, but there was already thirty feet of snake in the room.
"Do you think it will eat us?" one asked.
"I hope not. I don't think they can eat people anyway."
The snake was laying along one edge, watching the proceedings. Suddenly it struck at the girls. All four dodged.
"Maybe they do eat people. The king wouldn't let us be killed though, would he?"
The snake struck again, this time hitting one of the girls, and immediatly taking her in its coils, dwarfing her.
"Help!" she shouted. The remaining three started to beat on the snake's body, but to no effect other than to anger the snake into trying to bite them. Meanwhile, with one coil round the girl's neck, and another round her waist, the snake started to tighten on her.
Suddenly the girls saw the king looking in on them. "You bastard!" one shouted. "Let us out!"
"No, this is the best thing I've seen for years. I feel like I'm 21 again."
"Help!", the girl shouted again. The coils were easily a foot across, and were tightly holding her. She struggled in them, but to no avail. The others turned back to help her, pulling at the coils, but there was no way for them to defeat its giant strength.
"I can't breathe," she screamed. Her head was locked firmly in place by the coil around her neck, under her chin, and this pushed her breasts down against her chest, the thin clothes offering no resistance. She was still kicking wildly with her feet, but they were flailing into thin air, the two coils easily enough to hold her up.
"Please," she cried, but the king would have no mercy. The snake continued constricting her, slowly but unstoppably, thick bands of unmoveable muscle on her.
She was feeling faint, starved of enough oxygen, her heart racing in her terror of the snake. The coil tight round her waist pushed her stomach, making her feel sick, and giving her no space to breathe. The one round her neck was doing the same higher up, crushing on her rib cage, holding her head.
She had little energy left now, and was only just staying conscious against her desire for oxygen. Still the snake crushed relentlessly, unstoppingly.
Soon the thick green coils took their toll, and she stopped breathing, laying still in the snake's hold. As the other girls watched, the two huge coils released her. One lept in to grab the still body, but a nasty bite from the snake was all she got for her troubles.
Behind them, they heard the click of the door. The king was standing there with two heavily armed guards.
"My pet needs to digest his meal now. Don't worry, he won't be hungry for a month or so now, but then he will need feeding again. Don't even think about trying to escape. If you leave this palace or tell anyone, you will be executed now rather than eaten. The choice is yours."
The three remaining girls followed the king meekly, sweat dripping off them from the exertion, their well tanned bodies shining. They recieved a few strange looks as they walked, but a stern glance from the king soon put a stop to those. They knew that in a month's time one of them would be snake food, but none were willing to take the chance of escape.