gila monster excerpt

Huayco rode around her and looked to see if he could tell what the horse was freaking out over. There was a large fat lizard that looked as if it was carefullu beaded in pinkish red and rich black glass seed beads. Huayco and Sabkha looked at each other in confusion, while the horses backed up nervously.

"It is a gila monster!" said wadi. encouraging her horse, star* chaser to back up. "they have a poisonous bite."

Sabkha hopped down off her horse, copper sands, whispering to it to follow Copper Sands if anything goes wrong. She walked towards the gila monster, to protestations from Wadi, crouched down some feet away, put her hand on the ground and seemed to enter a trance of some sort. The dryness of the sand washed over her and she coughed a little. Focusing more and relaxing more she could feel the gila monster's hearbeat as it stared at her, in clear confusion. Soon it felt her heartbeat too, seeming to beat in a pleasing counterpoint to its own, and this confused it even more. She felt it breath, and picked up the melody herself, letting its senses overtake herse for a moment. It stared at her, trying to figure out what sort of gila monster she was. She coyuld feel the cofusion in it, and the hunger. the hunger that threatened to overwhelm the confusion it felt. She felt its age, it was an old gila monster, and could not run as fast as it thought it could before. she felt its frustration with many many prey beingt caught by other predators before it got to them. it aas somewhat afraid of the horses, but it was desperate. It had not eaten in days it seemed, though it was probably less than that. Sabkha reassured it. She was a powerful gila monster, and could find food enough for all of them. no need to take on giant unfamiliar beasts with hooves of iron. no need to be chased away from food, or having to flee predators itself. no settling for weak and unwanted small prey. Sabkha would help it. It would trust her and she would provide for it. It relaxed. The idea of a good chase with a helpful gila monster sounded good, sounded exhilarating, and if it tired, she would catch the food and share it. Sabkha was a nice gila monster. The horses were great beasts in her thrall, and were ill suited to being prey, but rather were fast ways of running after very fast prey. This would be wondrous, if the gila monster could just get on and off of the great beasts. Sabkha was a wise gila monster, she had a plan for that too. There was a cloth, like a giant leaf of sheep wool, that if it sat on it would raise it to the horse's back with no effort on its part. Something about desert magic. It grew excited. To harness the power of great beasts such as this in a hunt. To hunt even the fastest and largest of prey. for what? being wrapped in a leaf made of sheep hair. This Sabkha was brilliant. He would let Sabkha have a larger portion of the food they got, because it was her idea after all. Yes, this was good! He felt her drift away a little,. she said she had to return to mesmerizing the horses. She would help him onto them with the special cloth, just relax and bite no one. bite no one. do not bite. relax. It saw the cloth before it and climbed onto it with excitement, felt it embrace him, and let himself float up into the air, and found itself nestled into a pouch that smelled of animal hides, and inside was meat, Sabkha said he could help himself. All the meat he could ever want! it was dry and tough like leather, but delicious, it nibbled at it with glee.

"We are not keeping the venomous reptile!"

"why not? my enchantment will last for years, and i doubt it has that long left. it is old and hungry. So long as i feed it, it will be a good pet. and keep bandits away, if your reaction is any indication."