If anyone's reading this after May 2016 and curious about the state of this submission: It used to have art, now it doesn't. I didn't want to re-upload the story, so it's still here.

Basically a little fan-fiction for WhiteMantis, a sort of cross-over of ideas: 'What if Nae was exposed to an Amethystinian-type snakey situation?'

And, for long-time fans of my work who care to take a moment to look back on an older story mine: A hint to where the egg in the scene below came from can be found here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3789529/ (Although some universe-bending logic might be needed to really make that connection)

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In Dreams - Part 1 - 'Morning in the Asazaki Teahouse' ~Or~ 'A Puzzling Package'

~ by Amethystine

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The package could have only been stranger to the stunned recipient if the glossy, patterned paper that tightly coated it had _actually_ matched the kimono she was wearing. It was a style she would have wanted to adorn herself with, the exact sort of beautiful, flowing, floral pattern she enjoyed. In short, if she had the chance, she'd have already been wearing the pattern that appeared on the peculiar package.

It had been just outside the door to her room within the teahouse, meticulously arranged to be precisely centered in her doorway so that it was crystal clear in its intention for her, and not some other resident or guest of the establishment. This was another fact that made it odd, since no one ever sent her things, much less such a lovely looking one. She had spotted it there on the floor when she opened her door to look for her brother, Tetsuo, who was over-due to arrive with her morning meal. She almost always got it herself, which was much easier than waiting for the meandering moth.

She held the package in her pale pink palms, keeping it aloft as she studied it and idly traced the sinuous and serpentine lines of the stalks of the flowers within the artful design, following them with the tips of her scythe-like upper limbs, which hung over the box. Said limbs had their origins just above the shoulders that bore her more human arms. She was an orchid mantis, as fair as the flower after which her species was named.

She traced about like that, antennae twitching as she thought to herself about the provenance of the parcel, until she gasped, startled by the sudden discovery of a strange creature amongst the roots within the wrapping. Its body blended perfectly into the long, thin strips of colour that were the beginnings of the flowers.

The long creature within the paper's pattern was purple, and she attempted to follow the meandering path it took. It was smooth, smoother than a millipede, and legless. A creature of myth she wasn't familiar with, she assumed. The more she looked and followed it, though, the more that she got the sense that she must have once been told a story that had such a creature within it, as it seemed very familiar. She began to remember that such a creature was known to be cunning or devious, and maybe deceitful, and that the way it was hidden among the flowers of the flourishing pattern seemed appropriate, based on her newfound memories.

By now, Nae had shuffled her way back into her room and had absentmindedly closed the sliding door once more, returning to rest with her legs tucked under her and her rounded abdomen held curled up behind her. She sat alongside her bed, which was laid out flat on the floor of her small living quarters. The mysterious box was almost an exact six-inch cube, and she carefully turned it over and around, rotating it to keep the strip of purple creature on the relative top of the package, for her to follow with the tips of her long scythe-claws. The pattern was a maze, and she had begun to see the other lines of purple as she went, other parts of the same long labyrinth of loops that finally found its finale as she reached the tapering tail at the exact centre of the current top.

She grinned, tapping the tail-tip with her claw, only to feel something under the paper that she hadn't noticed before, even with all of her fondling of the box. It was a small, stiff, curved line.. no, a circle! It linked back on itself quickly, a circle less than an inch across. The mantis sucked in a soft breath of regret as she felt the scythe-tip catch, hearing the rip before really seeing it.

With the tear, though, the circle was revealed to be a tiny handle in the middle of a very light wooden box. Carefully ripping the rest of the beautiful wrapping, Nae uncovered the lid of the compact container and pulled it open with the small, circular handle.

Inside, there were pink and white orchids. That would have been enough for the humble geisha, but the parcel was too heavy to just be filled with flowers, so she dug deeper into the garden of the box, and soon found a buried treasure. Her nimble hands pulled some blooms free and quickly found the real point to the pretty package.

There, nestled in the centre of the flora-lined case, was an egg.

It wasn't quite like the eggs she had seen before, though, but it was similar enough for her to identify it as such. The surface of the ovoid was soft and leathery, being more of a tight bundle of warmth, rather than a cold, hard shell. The heat of it stood out to the mantid maiden, more than anything. Warmth of the kind she felt through her fingers during the light, hesitant touches she ventured, was the kind of warmth that was not temporary, fading after being near a source of thermal energy.. she could tell that it was its own potent, petite powerhouse of heat.. and that meant life!

The sudden revelation that the egg and by extension, the package she had been sent, contained a life.. any life, was shocking, and she withdrew her hand hurriedly.

Was she now responsible for this.. thing? What was it? Would it hatch, and did it need heat to be able to do so?

Most of the arthropod's avenues of enquiry were both answered and halted completely by what began happening at that moment. The egg twitched. The slightly wrinkled surface of the soft sac squirmed as something stirred within, causing the taught, hardened membrane that was the egg to stretch, little lumps poking upwards from the ovoid's surface here and there.

After a moment, it stopped. Thoughts of the fragile little flame of life being snuffed out right in front of her ran through the mantid's mind, images of the slow squirming having actually been the poor creature's death throes caused her to panic and pluck the egg free from the package, holding it in her palms, the box and its flowers forgotten.

Of course, occurring as if on cue, a tiny head popped free of the egg's leathery skin, a small slit splitting open to allow the smooth, slime-coated snout and the long neck that supported it to stand a few inches above the ovoid itself. It stared unblinkingly up at Nae, who was peering just as steadfastly back, dumbstruck, her antennae twitching, attempting to discern the nature of the 'beast' cupped in her pale palms.

As more of the being's body, that the geisha had thought was a neck, began to slither out of the seam in the sac, almost uniform in width, she realized that the flowing form was familiar.. the mythical monster on the marvelous wrapping paper! It made sense, when she thought about it.. the wisp of a whimsical creature had been half hidden in the flowers on the paper, so the real creature's egg had been covered in real flowers, inside the package.

Besides being strangely adorable to the awestruck arthropod, the newly hatched animal was, more specifically, coloured white, with regular geometric blotches of a pale pink over its back. There was also a large black spot over the back of its head, and very faint spots of reddish brown attached to its eyes, swept back from the intelligent, little round windows through with it observed the world. The skin of the thing was smooth and seemed almost like the hide that all the people of her land possessed, but was not as firm as the chitinous covering of her peers. It was almost like a vine or a long-stemmed flower, its head like a bud that had yet to bloom.. the egg like a giant seed, the head and body before her just a sproutling. The arthropod's affection and affinity for flowering flora seemed to quell any misgivings she had about the 'monster' in her hands.

(It could also have been that some other force was compelling her to care for the creature, some sort of sorcery, the seeds sown some time prior to the arrival of the package.. whether the mantis would have reacted the same way or not without a touch of post hypnotic suggestion is a mystery lost to the ages.)

While the geisha girl grappled with the implications of her holding what she thought was a baby mythological creature, as well as the possibilities of pet possession, as well as why in the world she would receive such a thing, the miniature 'monster' flicked its tiny forked tongue towards its towering companion, its head on level with the insect's chest. The wildly wondering woman's kimono was folded over said region, leaving a small triangle patch of her pale pink porcelain chitin exposed below her neck. This was precisely where the so-called 'sproutling' sprang towards while the woman worried about this and that.

Naturally, Nae's concerns about the package and its contents immediately shift to concerns about her kimono and ITS contents, specifically the addition of the animatedly squirming, slimy, slippery 'sproutling', which was worming its way down between her breasts! As it continued its course into her kimono, the bug leapt to her feet, her arms flailing slightly, not knowing what to do. Perhaps she was afraid to touch it, or thought it might provoke its anger if she grabbed what little was left of the dangling, whipping tail outside the crux of the folds of her silken dress.. or maybe, in her panic, the thought to snatch it and yank it out simply did not occur to her.

Quickly, the tail of her accidental pet vanished into her clothes and she was left with the feeling of the flowing form exploring her body, bit by bit. She had dropped the egg as soon as she had jumped to her feet, and it lay forgotten right in front of her, the split slit sitting face down, allowing the excess goo that resided within to leak out, lubricating the floorboards underfoot. That same slippery substance was what coated the creature as it careened around under cover of cloth. Whatever kept Nae from grabbing at her intimate little interloper had evaporated as she began to try to pin down the devilish creature as it crawled all over her core.

It was not an easy task, as it always managed to slip through her attempts to arrest its exploration, no doubt aided by the goop it was lathered in. She began to twist about more and more rapidly, trying in vain to capture the creature under folds of silken clothing, the smoothness of her own hide, the being's patchwork skin, the slime, and her kimono itself, made it nearly impossible to stop. So fast were her floundering flailings and flappings, that she needed to re-align her footing after particularly forceful flops.. she only lasted a few of these spastic steps before her slender leg landed in the puddle of yolk.

It was at this inopportune moment that the rascal that was running amok under her robe reappeared, rearing up over her exposed neck from behind her back. After a split second to allow a pair of dripping, glistening fangs to unfurl themselves from the roof of its mouth, it plunged downwards to pierce the soft armour of the insect's collar, injecting her with some unknowable venom.

The shock of feeling both the bite and the flow of foreign fluids into her form brought about her most forceful flailing up to that point, her hand clamping down on her shoulder. Nae simultaneously felt that the bothersome being had slunk back into her kimono, as well as her foot slipping in the slime, thanks to her violent twisting. She was sent sprawling to the floor as that half of her footing was entirely lost to her.

The mantis initially landed upon her abdomen and side, and with her arms still holding her stinging shoulder, her head was unslowed in its descent to the hard floor, knocking roughly into the dark, polished wooden plank. Darkness invaded her vision as if from inside her mind, the world quickly clouded from view as she passed out. While some may state that it was clearly the snapping smack of her skull on the ground that brought about her unconscious state, others may contest that the insidious poison implanted within her system by the little beast was to blame. Perhaps a confluence of both is the safest bet.

No matter the cause, the unlucky lady was snatched from her warm little room in the teahouse and thrust into a world of darkness.

~

End of Part 1

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