Kendraha makes her way through the ages. These are important years to the growth of human society on this Earth. With her Time Core retrieval bracelet gone and irretrievable somewhere at the bottom of the ocean between Austrailli and Japin, she must learn to live without even a faint hope of being rescued someday.
Stranded in Alternate Time 13-15,
by Py, (c) 9/11/2000,
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The eye of Atlantis, or so it is called. Unfortunately the oceanographers who found it in the waters between Austrailli and Japin named it that, purely for non-scientific reasons, and uneducated people have made a big thing of the name. Clearly the design is Egyptian, dated to somewhere between 150 BC and 50 AD. How it came to the other side of the world is unknown, but such a thing need not have it's origins in the mythical Atlantis legend. As you can see here in this diagram, the bracelet was found here about 100 miles from Japin just off the normal trading routes of the time. It was found with some ballast rocks, and other metal objects suggesting an ancient shipwreck between 300 AD and 500 AD. A simple explanation would be that a trading vessel hit a storm here, and the entire ship and cargo was lost, which included this bracelet. No other signs of artifacts of great significance were found in the area, just a small amount of the usual from the time period, which means nothing much to us, the ship may have been largely empty or mostly loaded with organic materials which decomposed and otherwise eroded over the years. Nothing would remain of the wood, rope, anything biodegradable, but this bracelet, metals, etc., could easily remain even if damaged.
Now, there are some anomalies regarding the bracelet which should be mentioned, after all they are the reason we're all here. Firstly the bracelet is in extremely good shape for having sat at the bottom of the see for so long. When cleaned by the experts who first examined it after retrieval, once the dirt and incrustations were removed, it looked as good as new. You can compare these pictures of other similar jewelry recovered from the site, and you can see the difference. The ancient jewelry looks good, but the Eye of Atlantis bracelet looks almost new. Then there is the Eye itself, a gemstone that specialists declare is a rather unspectacular diamond like stone of industrial quality, except that it's extremely well cut, and stunningly it's hollow. As you can see in this cross section scan, the hollow section is perfectly shaped to fit inside the gem, with smooth edges all around, almost as if manufactured that way.
Yes, it's true such manufacture was far beyond anyone's capability at that time, only relatively recently could such a gem be made. However, let me startle you with our latest finding. The hollow section of the Eye is filled with a mildly radioactive gas. Only recently has the museum that held it allowed us to do a number of tests, and spectrographic analysis and invasive radiographic analysis have shown us the gas inside the crystal. It's completely uniform, no other forms of gas or other material. mixed with it. It's virtually inconceivable in any naturally forming gas pocket that only one form of molecule should be trapped in there through a random chance formation.
So, who made the Eye is the question? It's impossible at this time to believe that any known ancient society did the work. The bracelet is odd but acceptable as simply a coincidence that it remained so undamaged after all the ages, and being easy to clean could be a rare fluke of particle build up. However someone had to make the Eye itself, and to date we have no reasonable guesses as to who. I don't like to say this, but the UFO people and the Atlantis people have as good a guess as we do at this point.
Excerpt from a lecture on the Eye of Atlantis,
Ernest Grub P.H.D. Westerton, (2094 AD)
assisted by Franklin Smith, Museum of Ancient History,
and Isaac Kerganov, Specialist in radiographic gas analysis at the Moscow Institute for Archeological Studies,
13. Kendraha spent some time in Japin after witnessing the society there. The women were so downtrodden, and the men were so hostile to anything that didn't exactly fit their ideas of what things should be. Her brief look at the close nit island society she had left seemed like a breath of fresh air compared to this. She remained with the flat chested and not very curvy form she had adopted as it was these people's idea of beauty, her face and long dark hair braided in a long tail enhanced the overall effect. She had a nice silk outfit to wear around town covering her from neck to knees, and she received plenty of looks from men, generally when they thought no one was watching them. Her average size for a European woman made her taller than most men here, that along with her mental ability kept people from challenging the fact she was a woman who was not traveling under the protection of a man. She had learned most of the language from reading the minds of the ship's crew that had brought her here, but since arriving she had constantly been learning new words, losing those which were sailor talk, and picking up ceremonial and customary behaviors at every turn. Easily this society of Japin was the most complex one she had ever been exposed to.
Over time Kendraha made some discrete inquiries, found the right minds to read to get information that they wouldn't normally give a woman, and quietly went about setting herself up in a private and secluded little tea house. There she and a few women she chose for their spirit joined her, and they served tea to men along with other things during certain hours, and the rest of the time Kendraha began teaching her women the art of fighting. Most of her knowledge came from Rykuu and all of her other Amazons that she had found who had survived the uprising in Egypt. Rykuu had originally come from Japin and had only known a little of Japinese fighting techniques, but quickly Kendraha picked up the knowledge and styles of the local men by reading their minds. The women never asked her how she came by this knowledge, they were happy to learn. Kendraha had the knowledge reinforced in her own mind that reading a skill is much harder than mastering it, but with trial and error, and lots of practice perfecting individual moves, she and her little band became very good fighters.
When they were up to 7 women they needed a bigger place. Kendraha obtained a deserted monastery for her group, it had tall walls and needed considerable work, and she named it the Aho-Choy monastery. This gave them even more privacy, although they continued to maintain the entertainment of men in a small building outside the monastery walls as a disguise. After several years they had enough women to allow for training, farming, building and maintenance, plus entertaining of local men, all going on simultaneously, everyone taking turns at each chore. Kendraha found the most able student and put her in charge for a few days when she needed to leave to go feed, and generally would find some isolated spot where she could lure someone to their death, and later digest them in peace.
Kendraha taught the women all she knew about weapons, mastering and teaching the local fighting skills more all the time. One time she was very lucky in luring a man with great fighting skills into her coils, and rather than torture him before his death, she pulled every bit of fighting knowledge from his mind that she could. Then too exhausted for more, she simply killed him quickly and drank in the life force before devouring the body. After that the entire group learned a number of new things, and Kendraha smiled at what she sometimes called her Japinese Amazons.
It wasn't long after that when her women became active, more out of a desire in the women to take part in the world rather than anything she had done. They liked being safe, yet wanted to do something with their fighting ability. Kendraha knew she should have expected this, they were too downtrodden to become fierce Amazons quickly, but they were opening up as Rykuu had. Having 11 women now, she first started off by sending them in groups of 3 to other places in Japin and it's islands, the excuse being that they were looking for potential recruits. They would have to defend their honor while traveling, and whether they succeeded or failed in recruiting, they so far always came back feeling good about themselves for having walked among men as Aho-Choy warriors, and not just women. Of course their presence now came to the attention of the local Warlords, but they tended to ignore the women since they seemed to pose no threat.
Eventually the women clamored for more responsibility, mainly because it was always their leader who found most of their money for the taxes and bribes. So very quietly over years they began to develop a trade, working as assassins and such for the local Warlord. They could fight their way through small defenses, or get close to a target using feminine wiles before cutting a throat. They helped him to eliminate opponents and expand his reach that way, in return for gold, silver, jewels, and being left alone. Kendraha first learned then taught the ways of secrecy for these missions, dressing her women in mostly black garments and mask covering most of the face, and restraining the hair and breasts for easier fighting, or dressing them in the most alluring outfits which still allowed movement for assassinations by such infiltration. On the occasions when Kendraha went along on missions, she found that she loved it, and she became quite good at drinking in the emotions without hurting her fighting ability.
As she had feared though when first starting the group, one day the local Warlord grew concerned about the strength and ambition of the monastery, and whether they might turn on him. They were up to 34 women at that time, when at dawn one morning the Aho-Choy monastery was attacked by forces of the local Warlord. The gates were broken down, men in full Japinese armor rushing in. At least 2 men died for every Aho-Choy woman, but the battle ended in a massacre leaving no surviving women in the monastery. Then fires were set, and as the sun rose high in the sky, the remaining soldiers left with stolen gold, wine, and whatever else they could carry.
Kendraha stood on a hill, watching the retreating men and viewing the burning wreckage of the monastery. She felt extremely sad, and shortly after realized that she shouldn't feel so sad since they were only humans. It had been sheer luck that she had been able to escape out the rear exit, a tunnel the women had dug for her. She had manipulated there minds to get them to agree that it should be dug, but hadn't done further manipulations, and was a little surprised that none had revealed the information while trying to bargain for their life. Scanning the area she felt 2 other women, very frightened and hiding somewhere. Everyone had been in the monastery during the attack, so she guessed these 2 had left through the same passage. She felt a little glad knowing that the Aho-Choy hadn't been entirely wiped out.
Approaching the area of the 2 as quietly as possible, she felt them become tense, but only found them as one jumped her followed by the other. The taller one jerked the younger one away before they could do any serious damage, "Mistress Kensui, we have failed you." said the tall one who was nearly as tall as she was. Kendraha stood with her help and tried to smile, "No, this was not within your power to stop. We must move ahead from here." "Will you be moving on to somewhere else in Japin to start again?" the younger one asked, then received an elbow from the taller one and added, "Mistress." Kendraha sighed, "No, it is time for me to leave this place, I will journey across the water to new lands, and I do not know if I shall settle to teach again. Neither of you need come, but both are welcome." The tall woman bowed her head slightly, "I would choose to go home, it is only a short sail to my home island and they can use my skills." Kendraha bowed her head in return, "Then luck go with you." "I would go with you." said the other. "Kendraha smiled, "You may never see home again little one." She felt the stubbornness build and before the young woman could say anything else she bowed her head, "Welcome fellow traveler."
Before leaving Kendraha gave most of the gold she had with her to the woman leaving them, and they all shared a hug before going their ways. As they marched Kendraha turned to her new traveling companion, "Lingdu, you are still very new, I believe you've only been with us for a year." "And 2 months!" Lingdu added with pride. Kendraha laughed, "I will teach you things on the way to the shore, we may need to protect ourselves on our journey. Later we will use stealth to steal gold to pay our passage. Foreign languages and ways are going to be the most difficult for you, I learn very fast." Kendraha sighed considering the mental work she would have to do to insure her companions complete loyalty, and wondered briefly if she could implant the knowledge of languages as well as read them. She planned to deal with the feeding and aging issues as always, she had managed before with Vessinar, and thought maybe it would be a bit easier now with years of experience behind her.
At the Warlord's palace the news of the attack and it's result was delivered. The warlord was furious that no one could confirm the death of the tall leader of the Aho-Choy, he had specifically ordered his men to bring him Kensui's head. Now he had to fear possible assassination from her in revenge, and he didn't even know what she looked like except that she was tall for a female, or if she might find another to do the assassination for her. So he never could fully relax around new people, had to question motivations of people he had known for years, and he could never let down his guard to a pretty woman. The man who had led the raid on the monastery had his head cut off and put on the end of a long stick in the courtyard. Men were sent out, but no sign of the Aho-Choy leader was ever found. The Warlord over the years became paranoid, always having his food checked, and only allowing women near him if a guard or two were in the room with them. Ultimately he closed himself off from all female and most male contact, and died in his sleep one night many say under mysterious circumstances. Some claim his heir had grown tired of waiting for the title, and was embarrassed by his father's cowardly behavior, so he had killed his father. Others claim Kensui had returned to get revenge, and still others blamed an assassin sent by another Warlord, but nothing was ever proven leaving his death a mystery.
Kendraha and Lingdu took a week to reach a port village, hurrying because Kendraha expected pursuit, training along the way when they had time, and Kendraha perfecting her mental controls. First she had to guarantee that Lingdu would see nothing out of the ordinary if she saw Kendraha's tail as she slept. Then she had to get the young woman used to the idea that from time to time she would be away overnight, and make sure that Lingdu would be safe while she was away feeding. She did so once before entering the village, Lingdu obeying and not following, and she was fine when Kendraha returned just over a day later.
Kendraha had no trouble stealing, but had to make it look good for Lingdu, then made sure the girl would not get caught either while attempting it herself by clouding the mind of the target, and observing the young woman's technique at the same time. Eventually they had enough for 2 good short swords to wear on their backs, they each already had a thigh knife from the monastery and a staff of strong wood. On the ship they were both leered at because the sailors knew about the monastery they had lived in, as a result considering them to be loose women, and therefore there was no dishonor in treating them poorly. However, thanks to Kendraha's mental intervention nobody tried anything more than making the occasional lewd remark.
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14. Kendraha and Lingdu journeyed across China for about 2 years, their short swords unseen on their backs under their loose garments, knives in sheaths tied to their thighs and hidden by knee length skirts, and walking staffs looking normal enough as occasionally other people had them also. They had little problem due to there looks, everyone knew they were Japinese, but China had relatively good relations with Japin at the time and for many past years, and there were far greater concerns from the hordes of barbarian invaders on the other side of the great wall to worry about. Right now China had been unified for nearly 300 years, the many individual walls protecting small areas for nearly a thousand years had been connected to make one great wall. Soldiers watched along it's entire length, but the great majority of the country lived in relative peace.
Kendraha as Kensui was seen by the Chinese as some sort of mentor and protector for Lingdu. When they had arrived in China after the escape from Japin a few years earlier, Lingdu had only been 15, and Kendraha's current disguise had aged now to about 34, which she reminded herself in today's Earth did make her a bit old to be marching around the world on foot. Still not impossible though, and with mental influence and some caution Lingdu would never suspect nor question her age. Pretending to feel her human disguise's age, she made sure she needed more rest than Lingdu did, and feeding she handled the same way as always. When she needed to, she left Lingdu to fend for herself for a short time, found someone, this time a slender young woman who seemed a likely target who could be mentally influenced to lose the men accompanying her. She then brought the prey deep into a wooded area, had her undress, and slowly constricted the woman to death in the coils of her hunter form. Kendraha had thoroughly enjoyed drinking in the fear of this last victim, she had been highly superstitious which had made the fear stronger than usual, although she had been quite weak in muscle, but that didn't matter to her feeding. It had ended eventually when the woman passed out from lack of air, then a bit more squeezing and she had died after some unconscious muscle twitching. So Kendraha had fed on the escaping life force, followed by becoming the full serpent form and devouring the body.
Unfortunately she had not been quite as careful as normal, and it turned out that when she returned to Lingdu the next day, the soldiers and the Local powers that be were in a turmoil because the Emperor's 5th daughter had escaped her escorts and was missing. Kendraha confirmed from the mind of someone who knew this particular Emperor's daughter, and it was the woman she had fed upon. Kendraha was glad that she had taken the form of a Chinese woman for the feeding, but didn't want to stay around any longer, she decided they might as well leave the country just to be safe.
It took only a few days to reach the Great Wall, which would have been impassible to them, except the guards orders mainly consisted of keeping barbarians out. If people wanted to leave they had no orders to stop them, however paying a bribe to the guards so that they would remember you and let you back in later was customary. Kendraha didn't want to get back in later, but paid the large bribe to the guards to allay suspicion. They would think that the 2 of them were merchants or invent something to explain it, and by the time news arrived of the missing Emperor's daughter, along with orders that they were to stop anyone trying to leave China, it would be too late. The wall guards probably would say nothing about the 2 of them to keep themselves out of trouble. Kendraha estimated that by the time the news reached the Emperor, then a messenger arrived here, they would be about a day out or maybe 2, but too close if pursuit did come. So she altered the men's minds, making them unclear on their facial features and names, it was the best she could do on short notice with this large group. They stayed briefly discussing local news as was customary when visiting a great wall guard post, then the rope ladders were lowered and they were on their way.
They traveled fast for a few days, then stole a horse. Kendraha tried to teach Lingdu to ride alone, and that's when she learned the young woman was going to have problems around horses. Eventually they slowed as Kendraha lost her fear of pursuit. She hadn't worried much considering she had been in a different form at the time she had devoured the Emperor's 5th daughter, but leaders such as Kings and Emperors could be so unpredictable. He might have ordered the capture and killing of all foreigners in the area, or something equally as ridiculous. Better not to take the risk was her thinking.
They spent as little time as possible traveling through Asia, the hordes of barbarians the wall kept out were constantly a threat. Kendraha managed to keep them out of the way of the many hordes, she could usually sense them coming and make the leader choose a new direction, and the rest would follow. Lingdu commented on the numbers of close passes she had been aware of, declaring that the Spirits had to be with them. A few times they didn't have enough time for that trick and had to hide, Kendraha using her mental fancy footwork to keep the barbarians from looking their way. Finally near leaving the territory claimed by these barbarian groups, they found themselves horseless, and being chased into a rocky area with no place to hide. Kendraha yelled at Lingdu to run, and stood her ground. Lingdu almost didn't run, but Kendraha repeated the command with a short mental push, and Lingdu ran. When Lingdu was a safe distance away, Kendraha charged the men who were briefly shocked. However they disarmed her of both sword and staff, and were cutting her repeatedly in preparation for having there way with her. She had been trying to force herself to become panicked, which wasn't too hard as having killed one of them, these 6 remaining men would kill her when they were done, and at any moment 2 or 3 might leave to pursue Lingdu. Each impact of blade or hand brought her closer, and abruptly she became hysterical. Mental energy flowed wildly around her, and suddenly all was silent.
Kendraha forced herself to sit up, and on her hands and knees she check the fallen men, and using her knife she killed 3 that weren't already dead and were only unconscious. Likewise the horses were all down, 4 seemed alive, but she put 3 out of their misery. One horse seemed as if it might recover, and they needed a horse. Having sent the girl away to protect her from the mental blast if it came, Kendraha wasn't even sure she'd ever see Lingdu again, but hoped the girl would check things out when no pursuit came for her. Kendraha managed to close her wounds but not fully heal them with body shifting, straightening her garments which were badly sliced up, then she fell the rest of the way to the ground unconscious.
She woke with a fly on her forehead, a sack dribbling water into her mouth, and a very concerned Lingdu looking down on her, "I was very worried for you Mistress, I thought you had killed them all with your blade but they had killed you also." Kendraha sucked up the water greedily then stopped to breathe, "We're a long way from home, call me Kensui." Lingdu smiled, and Kendraha tried to sit up. She immediately realized that her body and legs had transformed to her long serpent tail sticking out from under her skirts, understanding instantly that it had happened when her unconscious state had turned briefly to sleep before Lingdu had brought her around. She could vaguely sense through the parade of ants in her head, that Lingdu was afraid of her along with her concern. "This tail, I should explain." Kendraha said. Lingdu smiled more, "That would be nice, but not now Mist... Kensui." Kendraha briefly felt a wave of pleasure because Lingdu seemed to accept the situation more than she could have hoped, and she hadn't felt this good about a human since the Gladiator and the Amazon who had helped her safely out of Rome.
Kendraha didn't tell her everything, how could Lingdu understand future ideas and time travel. She told her a variation on the Sorceress story, explaining that she hoped to someday find and kill her to break the spell. Lingdu accepted, never gave away her secret, and traveled with her. Over 12 years they traveled the world, finding there share of trouble being accepted because they were oriental women, but never anything Kendraha couldn't handle with her mind. Kendraha had reached the point where her appearance was almost 50, and she was considering how to gently get away from Lingdu. She considered faking her death which would be tricky, but would leave the 30 year old Lingdu alone in Africa. Lingdu was a good fighter now, but Kendraha wanted to see her safely home before whatever she did to separate from her. The decision was taken from her though when Lingdu took ill.
They were with a tribe who had befriended the 2 women, and the disease was known to them. It caused high fevers, did not spread to others easily, and always killed within 3 days. Kendraha stayed with Lingdu the entire time, not fearing that she might catch the disease, her kind had a different body chemistry and had never caught any human disease. She hadn't been sick a single day since arriving on this Earth. One evening Lingdu fell unconscious, and by morning there was no heartbeat. Kendraha and the villagers made a huge Amazon funeral pyre, which the natives had never seen before but made as she directed. They placed the body on top, and Kendraha sang the Amazon death chant while the natives danced a mournful funeral dance of their own, and the pyre with Lingdu's body burned. She didn't feel Lingdu would mind, when the Aho-Choy died the bodies had been sent to relatives or out to sea. There was no sea nearby here, and sending her to relatives was impossible, besides which her relatives probably thought Lingdu had died in the monastery fire 12 years ago.
Kendraha left for the coast of Africa, then after a few years went to Egypt where her life here had begun centuries earlier. Everything was pretty much the same, except for a few new grand stone buildings, some old ones gone, and major changes to the styles and numbers of small buildings where guards and families often lived, and the hovels that housed most of the mass of average citizens. Before entering the country Kendraha had taken the form of a young dark haired woman who could pass for Egyptian, and after visiting various places throughout the country, she was able to find room for herself at an Inn just outside of the capital city.
In the Egyptian archives she spent a lot of time learning what had happened since she had left. The Archives were open to all who could pay a fee, and that was no problem for her. Kendraha learned that history said mostly unfavorable things about Queen Kleopatra, although pointing out how forward looking some of her policies had been, as they had been quite beneficial to the country. The history made it clear though that she had been a brutal and tyrannical Queen, only tolerated by the people because the country as a whole prospered. It discussed her special guards for the palace without mentioning the name Amazons, or making any reference to the fact that they had all been women. It did say that they were vicious in battle, and had little use for other people beyond their group, but were not needlessly cruel for the most part. Finally it said that Queen Kleopatra reigned for just over 45 years, an exaggeration she noted of a few years, and it also said that she never had aged. Kendraha knew she had let her Kleopatra disguise age a few years, but not nearly enough, and the writings indicated that she was thought to have been in league with the dark forces. Then she learned something new, that it had been the priests at the temple to the Roman Gods, who at the urging of the soldiers had denounced her the night before the massacre, which had pushed the revolt into motion.
Kendraha sat up and sighed, more than once in her travels she had seen the power of religious leaders over uneducated or foolish followers. Her own religion to the Goddess Kendraha was the same as the rest, but at least they had rare visitations from the Goddess herself to recount to followers. She instinctively went to rub the time core retrieval bracelet, touching only her wrist. Kendraha looked at the bare wrist, "I've got to fit in to survive now more than ever, with you at the bottom of the ocean there's no hope for retrieval now. The pressure probably broke the crystal, but even if not they can't find me now." She began carrying the papyrus scrolls back to the record keeper while thinking to herself, "Besides there all dead after the revolt or whatever happened. Temporal physics says that my time in the past has to equal my time missing from the present, something to do with synchronization of living molecules passing through a time gate into the future. I've been gone over 400 years, even if the machinery were totally destroyed they should have been able to reach me within my first century here, if they could find this time line again without the bracelet to home in on of course which is virtually impossible." As she left the building she frowned, "There dead, and I'm stranded in an alternate time line where I'm surrounded by primitive humans, and not a single intelligent Humalli around anywhere. I've let myself consort with humans in ways I don't like thinking too much about, and some of them are decent for humans. How long can I go on this way?"
Several days later she made inquiries as to the temple of Kendraha. It had been the first in the world, created when she had been Queen, although small and a barely known religion for many years. The old temple had burned down in a suspicious fire over 200 years earlier, but a new one a short distance outside of the capitol city had been built, surrounded by sturdy stone walls reaching up more than three times the height of a man, and surrounding the temple and living space for the temple residents . The gates were always open during the day unless there was trouble, and it was a short distance from the city to the temple, so between the distance and the walls they had only occasional slight problems with individuals.
Kendraha arrived at the temple a few weeks later during a ritual celebration to the Goddess, and she took a place far in the rear where she could leave unseen. She drank in the emotions as the worshipers knelt together, chanting phrases she didn't recognize as having created, therefore were new. Much of everything seemed new, she didn't mind, the main points were all there. They all knelt before a pit, and on the far side was a thrown of sorts which was created in the shape of the Goddess Kendraha. The coils formed a nice wide chair with armrests, the human body of the Goddess formed a backrest although the priestess who was there sat straight, and seldom sat back. Kendraha knew that some temples had a human head on the Goddess, but this being the first temple had a traditional serpent head, which rose up as if to peer over the head of the priestess. To finish the effect the combination thrown and statue was done in a brilliant bronze, the serpent eyes were red ruby's which had been the cause for the death of more than one thief who tried to steal them.
The priestess interrupted the rhythmic chanting, and said a few ceremonial words. When she was done a half naked volunteer was brought from a side door, escorted by a robed priest with his hood down, who gently led her by one arm. The woman was a worshiper who had volunteered, and been chosen from 3 volunteers. She had long black hair and a good figure. Kendraha didn't need to read the nervousness in her mind, the young girl was shaking, but determined to do this. Even if someone did not receive the marks of blessing from the Goddess herself, it was still a sign of favor to even climb back out of the pit alive. Many here had never been in the pit, and some had been several times, this particular ceremony was only done once per lunar cycle most places, unless the priest or priestess in charge said otherwise. Those who died in the pit were considered evil or to have sinned against the Goddess, while those suspected of either and climbed out were forgiven. However, if the Goddess didn't show herself, sometimes two or more acolytes would be waiting in the pit with ropes and gags to hold the victim while smothering them. No one was allowed to look into the pit during the ceremony except the priest or priestess, and when the ceremony was over the judgment of Kendraha was announced. Everyone then left, and the body would be disposed of where no one should find it, and after making it unrecognizable in case someone did..
Kendraha slipped out of the temple as the ceremony continued, trying to mentally scan for those acolytes on guard who might glance towards or around her, to make them see just another acolyte. If discovered she would simply change plans and work her way back into the ceremony, unless it was just one and she could make them forget seeing her. Entering a side door she made her way to the priestess's room, it was easy as all acolytes in the building were attending the ceremony. In the priestess's room she found the hidden hatch having read it's location in the mind of the priestess, who was supposed to be the only one who knew it existed and exactly where. It was a nice one with the surrounding surface and handle made so it seemed like just another part of the floor. She closed and locked the trap door behind her, finding herself descending the stone stairs in complete darkness, but using handholds and going slow it was easy enough, the pit was only about 15 feet down.
At the bottom of the stairs she entered the pit, and closed the inner hidden door behind her. She then went to the secret doors and hidden rear exit to make sure they were locked from the inside also. Kendraha walked through this underground chamber, and came close enough to the bottom of the pit to almost be seen by the priestess, and shifted herself. First she became the hunter form with the serpent body of green and black from the lower ribs down, then she made a head transformation. She couldn't shift to a serpent head, that was beyond even the greatest of her people, but she made her hair go green, made her eyes look more serpentine, tried to shift the muscles in her face to look less human, and made her tongue more slender and tried to create an illusion of it being forked.
When the volunteer sacrifice dropped into the pit she landed in a crouch, the soft dirt helping to break her landing so that like most she wasn't hurt by the fall. Kendraha waited as the crowd above chanted and the woman stood. Then Kendraha moved forward, immediately sensing surprise and awe from the priestess above who had never truly seen the Goddess before, but also sensed that she was keeping her outward appearance composed. The young woman turned her head and saw Kendraha, who hissed and shot her tongue out briefly for a dramatic effect, while sending thoughts of fear to the young woman. The woman reared back in horror and screamed, bringing the chanting to a halt. Kendraha focused her mind to make the woman walk towards her while allowing her to scream all she wanted. Once within range she quickly ensnared the woman in several coils, releasing any hold on the woman's mind as it didn't matter now. The woman's arms were trapped as she lay on the pit floor vainly struggling, as Kendraha slowly squeezed with her coils.
There was always so much to feed on in the pit, the struggling victim's emotions, confusion and fear from above. They could only here as none except the priestess would look into the pit, but they could guess from the sounds what was happening. The priestess saw and confirmed with a nod, and the chanting resumed. Kendraha toyed with the woman, bringing her to the edge of death, only to relax her grip on the gasping woman to allow the struggling and the desperation to grow again. She felt her own arousal growing, and sometimes it was hard not to keep control, but she did. After 4 times cutting off the woman's breathing entirely and almost letting her become unconscious, the woman was so weak she did not recover much after a loosening of the coils, but just lay there in a barely conscious stupor.
Kendraha unwound her coils and moved out of the pit and into the chamber adjoining it. Out of view of the Priestess she shifted back to human shape with her previous face and hair. As she went back up the dark stairs she hoped this visitation would help the religion. She hadn't needed to feed on life force yet, and had only wanted to give the religion another visitation as attendance was poor these days, and seemingly getting worse all the time. If she had fed here it would probably have been safer than feeding outdoors where someone could stumble across her serpent form digesting the body, at least in a temple pit she could lock herself in, and the temple acolytes would protect her. Maybe when she did need to eat she'd come back, but not today.
Back in the ritual room they waited the customary length of time to see if the Goddess returned to finish her sacrifice, then the priestess signaled 2 acolytes to go down. Descending on ropes they found the nearly naked woman unconscious, and one of them carried her up. The bruising on her skin was intense, and would look worse later. The priestess woke her, and pronounced that she had been blessed by Kendraha. The nearly naked woman tried to stand straight on shaky legs while everyone paraded by to look at the bruises. In between each person the woman was rubbing the skin and ribs under her breasts a lot, cringing at her own touch. Kendraha bit her lower lip, hoping she hadn't gotten carried away and hurt the girl too much.
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15. Kendraha was pretty good now at staying largely unseen, moving constantly when on the road, or living a silent and solitary life of modest wealth when settling down. Occasionally she tried something different, but was always careful to steer clear of entanglements with people who were known to have bad reputations and power along with it. She always kept her escape routes from sticky situations planned in advance whenever possible, and of course when settling down she tried not to steal too much from any one location. Sometimes she developed a method of earning money in addition to stealing, having become a mistress on several occasions, running a business of one sort or another other times, and she lived a comfortable life for many centuries. She traveled the world in one disguise or another, moving on whenever she grew bored, or simply needed to let some situation cool down without her around.
On a visit to Greece shortly after her first return to Egypt, she learned of the disappearance of all her Amazons, except those living on the island. Apparently the disappearance had been due mainly to the absorption of Greece into the Roman empire, and the slow inevitable decline of the remaining Amazons as the Roman soldiers took more control over the years. Amazonia Isle however which was a half days journey from shore escaped much of the Roman grip. Although they appeared to behave as good Roman citizens, and did have to tolerate Roman visitors, even allow a few male Roman representatives to make extended visits, they did not according to Roman law have to allow any males to live their permanently, so they chose not to. So except giving in on small things, they had retained their good Roman citizenship, need not fear Roman invasion, and thus kept their island for Amazonians only. Kendraha visited them a few times as different people though, and they were changing. They still remembered the Amazonian laws, still practiced with weapons and fighting, but something to her seemed to be leaving them. She later determined what when a foreign ship arrived on one visit, they were less aggressive towards it. When the ship of men arrived they greeted it, traded with them, had a party with the crew, then when the men became drunk and disorderly the old Amazon spirit returned, and the men were driven off, some dead and only minor casualties among the Amazons. Still over the centuries they drifted farther from the Amazonian heritage, even going so far as to practice Crissium Masses, and change the name of the Island.
Kendraha's religion did somewhat better, but only slightly. It shrank for reasons she wasn't sure of, although she attempted to occasionally visit all of the temples she learned about, her visitations usually varying 20 to 50 years apart. The ships of the day tended to follow the coast as always, but she still didn't like ocean travel since her bad experience near Japin. One time she visited Stone Henge which had been taken over by Kendrahaites for the religion, but she made no visitation there as they had no pit, and were so exposed there was no security. The rituals were mostly the same here, and often they imported a snake to hug the sacrificial volunteer. It was too cold to keep the snakes around in winter, but acceptable to them the rest of the time, so the ceremonial serpents were sent South for the winter. Generally they had a new snake every few years, and the snakes ranged in size from twice to three times a man's height. Kendraha didn't like the cold here either, but being able to shift to human form and half human form required a greatly different body chemistry from both snake and human. Most of the year she could take it here as a human, tolerate it as the hunter or the feeding form, but come winter neither hunter or feeding form could live here. She was completely warm blooded in human form, partially warm blooded in hunter form, and completely cold blooded in feeding form. She could live in a location like this most of the year, but feeding on flesh would need to be eliminated in winter as the place was too cold, and that would require feeding on life force and emotions alone more often.
Kendraha avoided war areas, if it was expected then she left for elsewhere, and if war came as a surprise she did whatever she needed to do before escaping. In a large scale fight she had to deal with her single opponent, depending on others to handle the rest as any human did. Being a woman helped her again as male soldiers were often conflicted about killing women, and even the majority who weren't were briefly stunned to see a woman fight back as if trained to fight. She was wounded several times, healing wasn't a major concern for her, but once she received a sword through her body. She barely survived, waking that night on the battlefield with the dead and dying all around her. Kendraha found the sword threw her body gone, the invading soldier having withdrawn it to go after other people, and her blood pooling on the ground. She had felt death would claim her soon, so she crawled to the nearest living person, dragging her sword with her. One after another she would kill the dying men from both sides of the battle, feeding on their escaping life forces, using that power to heal herself and replenish her strength. When she could find no more she was barely able to stand, but knew she would live. Kendraha only then noticed the ones who had returned to kill as she had, but instead to loot the bodies, and they looked at her bloody form like she was some sort of demon. They had run, and she had known they would speak of the dead woman who rose to kill, but she wasn't worried much. It simply meant shifting her features and moving on again.
Things began to get a bit more civilized past the year 1100 AD in her opinion, however still very primitive. Kendraha tried becoming a falconer for a way to make money and fit into society. Like most animals the falcons were scared of her in human form at first, but eventually treated her as any other human. By her second shifting as a falconer she learned to communicate with the birds to a small degree using her mental ability. She could instruct the falcon flying high above which prey to attack, or have it cease an attack, sometimes. Kendraha learned even to read the thoughts of the bird a little, and occasionally could understand what the creature saw. She could train a falcon faster with her mental abilities, and she amazed everyone with the things she could make them do. Kendraha was careful not to have the falcons do anything in front of others that she couldn't train humans to do with there falcons though, and kept her other tricks for private use. She really enjoyed working with all the various birds of prey while traveling the world, and it became one of her favorite things to do for money, selling many trained falcons to the rich, and by constantly moving on regularly she rarely made enemies of other falconers.
Just after the 1400's began, and with the Roman empire having long since disappeared, she was in Italy when the black plague struck. It was the right country, most time lines were the same, but it was about 40 years early by her recollection. It ran rampant through the streets, and she picked up an extra life force feeding occasionally when no one was looking, and the fear around her was wonderful. She wasn't working with birds at the time, and had come here hoping for some good feeding when the plague arrived eventually, knowing that she wouldn't catch it due to her differing body chemistry. The last thing she expected was to find small black sores forming on her human skin, along with the bulging lymph nodes and other discomforts that came with the black plague. She became hysterical, how could a human disease that only infected them possibly effect her. Sure fleas carried it, but they were no more effected than she should be. Ultimately she fled away from dying humans into the woods. There she collapsed in a small clearing, and more out of reflex than conscious thought she reverted to her most primitive form, the giant green and black serpent, although more black than usual as the sores remained.
Eventually she woke in the clearing in her serpent form, the cold blooded form while more advanced than current serpents had managed to throw off the disease entirely. Kendraha wasn't sure of the time, but felt it had been a few days at least. She managed to shift to human form after crawling free of her clothes, then put them back on. The sensation of ants in her head and the weakness from hunger made her stagger back towards the village, where she found someone left alive who was alone, killed them with her knife, and greedily drank in the life force.
That incident scared her a lot, there should be no disease on this Earth evolved to take advantage of her kind, so she assumed it had been some freak mutation, an extremely virulent strain. There were other diseases that could in rare cases cross species lines, but not too many, and she hoped no more for her. She took comfort in the knowledge that shifting away from human form entirely had cured her, but even so she didn't want to test that again. The black plague seemed to appear all over Europe now, she knew from other similar time lines that the fleas were carrying it, and the rats helping to spread fleas, and it should occasionally reemerge for the next 2 centuries, but this first outbreak was always the worst. She also noted that she had reentered a plague zone and not caught it again, and hoped that she had gotten some immunity from her exposure, and also wouldn't carry and spread the disease as the fleas did.
Kendraha used the name Kenette and stayed in Italy during the years immediately after the plague, and in the latter half she met a painter name Da Vinci. She loved his work and his excellent mind. She became a companion of sorts, posing for him once in a different identity for a painting called "Woman with Flowers", because he was having trouble finding a model. Mostly he only needed a model for one brief session, then he did the rest from memory, adding in background and even shifting the models position in his mind. Kendraha found Leonardo's mind to be quite difficult to read sometimes, some people were a bit more mentally alert these days, but nothing close to dangerous to her, and none like Leonardo. He invented also, and she tried to help him over a few areas of difficulty, although science had never been too important to her, but she knew a little. Her greatest contributions to him in these areas came generally as inspiration and sometimes as assistant in some experiment.
Once she grew bold when a rich nobleman who was secretly a Kendrahaite came to Leonardo. He commissioned a special work that he felt only Leonardo could do properly. He wanted a portrait of Kendraha, don with a human head and a woman in her coils. He discussed the basics of what he wanted, the price, and left the details to the artist. Leonardo had a wide canvas, and had his assistant Kenette pose naked at the head of another naked woman lying on some straw on the floor. After viewing and drawing some sketches on separate paper, he was having trouble with the tail. So Kendraha made sure that the dark haired model was under her complete control and wouldn't remember anything out of the ordinary, and that what Leonardo saw wouldn't make him afraid, and it would all seem as if an inspired dream later. She managed both tasks, hoping she had done no lasting damage to Leonardo, then she shifted to the hunter form, maintaining her Auburn hair and voluptuous body, while her serpent tail emerged from her lower ribs down. She smiled seductively as in the previous modeling sessions, and coiled her tail around the dark haired woman with her help, trying not to hurt her.
With 2 coils around the woman's body just under her breasts and around her thighs, another around one leg, Kendraha squeezed until the model was panting, her body somewhat sweaty, the Italian woman trying to hold the front half of her body up slightly as she faced Leonardo. Kendraha faced the long haired model, her seductive look having a slight tinge of hunger to it, the model trying to look afraid just as the artist wanted when she wasn't gasping for air. Leonardo took events in stride as if this was all normal, just as Kendraha had influenced his mind to react, although she found the task of controlling the models reactions and his at the same time quite challenging. By the session's end Leonardo had seen enough to do it all from memory, the model was panting rapidly in the grip of the muscular coils, and not even attempting to show fear anymore, and Kendraha had all she could do to force herself to let the woman go. Kendraha knew that she could not afford to feed in front of Leonardo though, a giant snake with a bulge in it's stomach lying around his studio for 24 hours would not go unnoticed. Eventually the woman dressed and left forgetting everything except that she posed with another woman for a painting. Leonardo would see this all as a vivid dream and would finish his work, and Kendraha would resume her legs and continue as before. Ultimately the Nobleman loved the painting called 'Kendraha Feeding', he paid double the agreed price thanks to Kendraha's mental push, and Leonardo doubled the models fee, since she had complained of unexplained bruising to her body and legs after the session.
Kendraha didn't know if her mental blocks on Leonardo would hold or not without her to reinforce them, but suspected they would at least last long enough for her to be gone whenever she left. The altered memories of the Italian model would most likely fail, so she made a point of eliminating that possibility some time later. She found the woman, lured her away from her home, and took her out to the deep wooded area where nobody went. There she undressed and transformed to the hunter form as before, and used mental control to have the woman undress also, then had the woman come to her. She took her time squeezing the woman in much the same way as in the painting, only without blocking the woman's fear. She did use her mental control to freeze the woman's vocal cords, not allowing any signals from the brain to reach them, but she still had to fend off the woman's groping arms as they alternately pushed on the coil around her body, and sometimes tried to reach Kendraha's face and neck. She more than once wondered why she hadn't caught the woman's arms and upper body in a loop of her tail, this was a slow way to kill, painful for the prey, yet dangerous for her if she didn't watch those hands and keep her from crying out for help. In this method the ribcage was not sufficiently constricted enough to cause death, but death would come from a combination of that, the organs in the constricted area failing from the pressure, and the body in general failing from lack of blood circulation. Kendraha decided though that she had wanted to carry out the image in the painting, and this is how Leonardo had done it. As time passed and the models silent struggles grew weaker, Kendraha decided it was a very satisfying way to feed, she had gained a great deal of powerful emotions from her victim, but she wasn't eager to try this with just anyone. She had to be able to fend off the attacks from the arms, spend energy keeping the victim from crying out until she could release her mental grip on the vocal cords, and be ready to react quickly if the victim surprised her.
When the woman lay nearly on her stomach and hardly moving except for labored breaths through a gasping mouth, and making sounds of a dry throat trying to make quiet words, Kendraha allowed signals from the brain to reach the vocal cords, immediately hearing low guttural grunts and pleas for mercy in Italian in response. She pulled the woman's back to her chest, and kissed her behind one ear and on the neck, fondling one breast and murmuring words in Italian, promising it would be over soon. The models nipple grew hard and she begged for her life, and abruptly the coils around her grew tighter much faster. She jerked and spasmed as she desperately tried to get air, Kendraha held one arm and the other tried weakly to reach something. She kissed the Italian woman's shoulder, and continued to tighten her grip. The young models body went limp, and a short time later the life force escaped to be taken in as food by Kendraha. It had been a long and tiring kill, but reinvigorated by the main feeding, Kendraha shifted to the full serpent form and began swallowing the model starting with her head.
It was several years after that when Kendraha left Leonardo, heading for something new. She had been exposed to plague at least once more since then, having gone to a sea port for supplies for Leonardo, only to find the plague suddenly all around her. She hadn't caught it again, satisfying herself that at least temporarily she was immune. Also she had gone against local custom and traveled to a neighboring village which didn't have the plague, straight from a village that actively had the plague, and she hadn't spread the disease. Still she was concerned that the plague might further mutate and endanger her again, so she wanted to possibly spend some time North, the fleas wouldn't go too far North, and if she came South for winters the fleas shouldn't be active here either. Keeping warm in feeding form during winter would be tricky, but their were castles that provided warmth, and even more Northerly ones should be warm enough by summer. Or maybe instead she could just go far East, or to Africa, no plague would be there, but fewer comforts. What they had here was extremely primitive, but what little comfort there was seemed wonderful after over 1000 years with almost none at all.
To be continued
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By Py