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Shouyousei smiled as she wrapped her arms around her love, as he continued to roll his tongue through her mouth. She moaned softly, pressing her slender body into him as she shivered a little bit and sighed in happiness. Unable to help herself, she pulled back just slightly when he finally broke the kiss. Eyes half opened, she gazed at him happily and felt her lips twitch into a small, tiny smile. He wanted to kiss her forever. It sent a rush of happiness through her, which sent her heart to fluttering.

Kalokin coughed pointedly, and they turned to see his head and shoulders lying over the top of the sand ring around them, with the rest of him no doubt splayed across the ground out of sight.

"Kalokin! Are you okay?" A spike of fear shivered through her. She had just watched him die, painfully, and she panicked for a moment thinking that he had undergone some permanent harm.

"I'm fine, Shouyousei. It hurt, and it will continue to hurt, but believe it or not, it was nothing that hasn't happened to me before. One small piece of me broke, but I can put him back together. Good news though! That was the hardest part, for you and Khaesho at least. Your soul is no longer in danger of collapse, and your body and spirit are no longer trying to force you out. We all live to die another day. Huzzah! Now, I have to get to work actually fixing you, and that means you have to make a choice."

"Door number one. I clean up my mess and pull the entire desert out of your soul. You return to almost exactly how you were before I messed with your head. I'll be completely out of your mind, and you'll be normal again."

"Door number two. I clean the sand out of the nooks and crannies and give some of it back in the form of a blessing. You'll be faster, and stronger, not unnaturally so, but definitely a step above your peers. You'll have sharper eyesight, better hearing, and a steadier hand. You'll be immune to most diseases, and you'll die of old age several years after all of your friends. There's even a good chance you'll instinctively be able to speak the language of the snakes. As drawbacks, your natural body temperature will lower a little, you'll probably grow to dislike the cold, and there might be any infinite number of small side effects that I can't even begin to foresee. For sure though, any time someone looks into your eyes, they'll instinctively know that you're not normal, that there's something different about you, something wrong."

"Door number three. I take my sand, my desert, my soul, and I spread it all throughout your body, mind, and soul. Then, we, ah... Khaesho and I would both have to have sex with you again, at the same time, to help my essence take root in your body. I will then change you, and you will become a bit like Khaesho here. You will become my vessel, a mortal instrument of my will. Strength, agility, perception, intellect, every physical and mental aspect will be improved simply from existing in close contact with me over an extended period of time. More than that, I've been known to dabble in biology in my spare time, and while you're no Serpent, I can almost certainly improve your body to almost supernatural strength and agility. I'll keep you be immune to all diseases, and you'll heal extraordinarily fast. You'll develop an almost impossible resistance to fire and heat, enough that you could walk through a forest fire without getting hurt. It would burn all of your fur off, but you would walk out of it laughing. Also... I could make you more beautiful, if you wish. Whatever self-image you think of as being truly beautiful, I can guide your body to reach that image. It would take a while, but it would happen. When you eventually die of old age, it will take twice as long as most of the people you know, and you'll hold on to your youth for most of that time. You'll acquire an instinctive talent for psychological manipulation, something that can solve no end of problems. You'll become a permanent host for me, like Khaesho is, and I'll be able to rest in your mind indefinitely without either of us suffering any ill effects. I'll be able to cast magic through you, and, given time, you will develop magic of your own, like Khaesho did. I'll be able to impart knowledge directly into you mind, and I'd start with teaching you the Serpent's Tongue."

He hesitated for a moment here, making sure to pick his words with care.

"If... if you're willing to take a few risks, and you trust me... I could take it a step further than that. With a little time, I think I can make you into... something else... a hybrid. I'll change you into something that isn't a snake, but is definitely something more than a wolf. I can make you cold blooded. Given enough time, trial, and error, just maybe, later down the line we'll see the first successful crossbreeding between a wolf and a snake, but only after I mangle your body until you're half snake yourself."

"Door three has a hefty price though. You aren't strictly a mortal anymore. The way you walk, the instinctive flow of your voice, your aura itself, everything about you will all but scream of you being supernatural. People will see that, and some of them will instinctively hate you for it. You will not be who you were. You will never look at yourself in the mirror the way you do now, and that level of change can be troubling for some. If you want me to make you a hybrid, then it will become abundantly apparent to anyone who looks at you that you aren't a wolf anymore. I will take apart your insides and put them back together, make you cold blooded because that is what I know how to work with. Your body's natural temperature will drop so low that a cold winter day could kill you, unless you go into hibernation or spend five months wrapped in blankets next to a heater. If any single one of your doctors looks at you for more than ten seconds, you'll be declared a medical phenomenon and they'll waste decades trying to explain with science what can only be explained with magic. You'll have to watch your friends and family grow old and die. You'll still be young when it happens. They'll think you found the secret to eternal life, which, in a way, you kind of did, and they will resent you for that. Every. Last. One. At some point in your life, possibly more than once, you'll have to fake your death, because someone will notice that you're not aging like you should. You'll never be able to eat anything cold ever again, unless you immediately follow every single bite with something hot, and even then, the cold will probably hurt like hell. Like... Ice Cream? The hell is... Ice Cream... woah, that sounds delicious! I want some! Sorry, back on track."

"While I'm making these drastic changes to the fundamental ways your body works, it will hurt like hell and you'll spend a solid week feeling absolutely sick and miserable while your body adapts. You will feel each of your organs die, and then you will feel me twist them and bring them back to life. It will hurt like hell, and that's only the physical aspect; I'm told the mental and spiritual adjustments to becoming a vessel are painful in their own way. It'll be a week before you can move under your own power, and a month before you reach what used to be normal levels of endurance and strength, but after that month you'll keep going up until you hit your new limits."

"There are probably a bunch of other things that I'm not thinking of, but the bottom line is that you'll become a hybrid, the first of what might be an entire new race... Worst of all though, no matter what, you will never, ever be rid of us. Me because I'll always be able to pop into your head at a moment's notice, and Khaesho because I would tell him exactly where you were and how to get there, and he'd chase you to the ends of the earth. We've slid farther for less reason. You'll have no choice but to spend the rest of your long life with us right beside you, because that is where we belong."

"I hate to rush you, but you have all of... ten minutes, I think, before I need an answer. Your body and spirit are still in a bit of turmoil over everything that's happened, and if I need to either clean up or start making changes before your spirit remembers that all this sand shouldn't be here.

Shou listened carefully, perking her ears forwards as she absorbed what he said. Shou bit her bottom lip with hurried thought trying to sift through what everything meant. There was certainly a drawback to disliking the cold. She loved the cold and snow, winter was her favorite time of the year. With snow, and snowmen, ice skating and Christmas lights. She loved to wrap herself up in scarves and jackets to explore the city and the snow; swaddled in a fresh blanket of white, it looked like a truly perfect canvas for the world, an empty, clean beginning from which anything could arise...

The first option was clearly out; despite her misgivings and insecurities, she didn't want them to go away. The idea of losing this piece of the desert in her heart was just unacceptable. The second option was certainly a compromise of the two, but she thought of Christmas, and snow and sleigh rides, and then she looked up at Khaesho who had never had those things, and realized with a start she wanted to do them with him if a way could be found. If it couldn't, as long as she could spend the winters with him, she would be perfectly content with that.

The third option also gave a chance of children, pups down the road, and that was something she had always wanted for herself. Her cheeks flushed a darkened pink at the thought of it, and her ears folded back against her head shyly, but she could not deny how that single fact won her over. Her family had died a few years earlier; she had been on her own for a while now, no worries there. The few friends she had were all dancers, and well... with friends like them who needed enemies? At the idea of never having Ice Cream again, she looked up at her Serpents with worry in her eyes.

"No ice cream..? But... but! When I go into heat, I crave ice cream!" It was amusing that of everything, losing her sense of self, her old life, and any sense of normalcy, she latched onto that. The idea of being sick for a week was certainly not something she looked forward to, but it wasn't just her choice either. Glancing up at Khaesho, she half closed her eyes as her blushed.

"This is quite a rushed, whirlwind romance we've found ourselves wrapped up in... what if you learn a week from now that you can't stand me..?" Her voice was softly teasing, warm. Khaesho feigned being stabbed in the heart, and drew back.

"My, but what is this? My love would scorn me so? Truly, my heart does break that she would even think to doubt me, much less give voice to such venomous idea. Oh, woe to me that I thought I had learned to love, only that she might reject me. Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide! Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on the dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark! Here's to my love, found and lost! Better that my heart stops its beat than that I should live on alone."

Shou smiled as Kalokin broke into an uproar of laughter. Still shaking, he punched Khaesho on the shoulder, which made him lose character and start laughing too.

"Khaesho, my friend, you were wasted when you didn't play for the stage. You would have made a hell of an actor."

She chuckled softly as she stared at him, her eyes brightening as she giggled, then broke into laughter. She smiled, and she couldn't stop the happy wagging of her tail if she had tried.

"You know, I always did want to try acting, until I got thrown in jail and a God took up residence. Oh, but my dreams did die young."

"You would lay such blame at my feet?" Kalokin raised himself from the sand and into a dramatic monologue much as Khaesho had. "Woe is me, that my one true friend would rebuke such! My frail heart quivers that I might have been deceived into thinking he cared about-"

Khaesho landed a light punch on his jaw before the monologue this time and Kalokin fell backwards laughing. Khaesho turned back to Shou then, semi-serious once again. He slithered around her, wrapping his loops around her before he nuzzled her cheek softly, flicking his tongue because he loved the taste of her scent.

"I'll say it as many times as I need to, until you believe me. So long as you want me at your side, there is nothing you could do to get rid of me."

Kalokin, by this time, had raised himself from the sand, and looked at the sky pointedly.

"Five minutes, and this isn't something you want to cut close. It sounds like you've made your choice, but I'll ask again because I'm required to. Are you sure that this is what you want?"

Shou stared at Khaesho, cheeks still colored a pretty pink as she spoke.

"You wouldn't mind having to share me with him?" A jerk of her thumb, motioning to the God beside them. Of course he had shared her up to this point, but this was certainly deeper, certainly something more than it had been previous. Reaching out, she grabbed Khaesho's arms and pulled him into her, sliding her arms around him as the ballerina pressed in close and leaned up to pepper kisses to his chin, and speaking softly. His answer was not what she expected.

"Snakes tend to take an open view towards what a 'faithful' relationship is. The standing rule is, 'anything goes, so long as you tell your friends the next day.' I get the feeling you're more than enough to handle both of us. I know that you do things differently, but I'm fine with sharing you with him. Part of becoming a Vessel is that I really have to share everything with him."

He said it casually, with a laugh, because to him, it wasn't important. Chastity and celibacy weren't words that translated well, because the Serpent society didn't really care about extramarital sex. Shou winced, but hid the pain well. Wolves were faithful... they were canines after all. They took one partner, for life. That was where the belief that she was a whore and a slut had come from, she slept with two men and it drove her instincts nuts. It upset her a little, but she smoothly changed the subject... this was a conversation to have at a different time.

"I can't wait to wake up... so we can start on those kisses that are supposed to last forever..." It was admitted with a shy grin.

He started in on those kisses early, and when she opened her eyes five minutes later, they were in the cave. She hadn't even noticed the transition.

"So, here's what's about to happen. Kalokin needs to spread his essence throughout your body and soul. A lot of it he can do on his own, but... He wasn't joking when he said that sex was the best way to handle that. He's mixing his soul with yours, formally entering into your body and mind. It's personal enough, and the symbolism is just right for it to. This time though, he's not going to mess with anything he shouldn't. He's still in you, somewhere, if you focus, you can probably feel him racing through your veins. He'll make sure we know when it's time to start, but until then... "

He leaned in to kiss her again, and almost jumped out of his skin when he felt a claw tap at the end of his tail. Bending around Shou, he saw Shelandra, stretched to full length along the cavern floor, laying on her belly in submission as she sought his attention. She mumbled something, soft hisses rising and falling like a steady stream in the velvety slurs that compromised the Serpent's Tongue, and Khaesho hissed sharply in surprise at her . They proceeded with an odd conversation, her speaking in their tongue and he in English.

"You will have to ask her... No, I will not ask her for you... Come on, Shelandra, stop acting like a hatchling... I know, but everyone makes mistakes Shel. I'm not mad... No, you're going to ask her yourself, I know you can speak English."

Before she could move away, he reached down and grabbed her. Gently, but firmly, he dragged her up and held her between he and Shou as he rested his head on the copper goddess's shoulder.

"Shelandra has something she'd like to ask you, Shou."

It might not be accurate, or even possible for a snake to make puppy-dog eyes, but that's the only way to describe how Shelandra looked then. Her burnished copper scales glowed a bit, but her fires were firmly doused, quenched by her embarrassment and shame. Shou stared at the Goddess, frowning as she waited for Shelandra to break the silence. She was confused, and had a healthy spike of fear at this snake. She wasn't afraid of Khaesho or Kalokin, but this one... she didn't know her, and what she had learned through their fight was terrifying. She bit her bottom lip and waited, doing her best to remain rooted to the spot, though her tail had curled between her legs.

"I... I wass wondering... if it iss not too much of a burden... that iss, if you do not mind..." Khaesho wrapped his arms around her noticeably flat scaled chest and gave her shoulders a reassuring squeeze. Shelandra lost even a semblance of composure then, and a torrent of words burst forth as she shook. "Please, I... I jusst want to feel loved again... Khaesho's love for you... my brother's love for you... they burn even more fiercely than my firess at noon. They are yourss, but please... let me experience their love through you... please... just being close would be enough... "

Khaesho let go of her, and she immediately coiled herself into a tight pile several feet away, head buried, red eyes peeking out from between two coils like glowing coals.

"What she means is, she wants to tag a portion of her soul into your mind so she can share your experiences for the night. Not all of her, just a small part, enough for her to feel everything you felt, and after that, she would leave. If I understand any of this, it would not hurt you, and you would not even know she was there unless you wanted to. Still though, it is your choice, and after how she acted earlier, it is entirely within your rights to say no."

The cowering Copperhead's words surprised Shou, and her heart ached a little for the spirit. As Khaesho explained, she bit her lip again, and hesitated. Frightened though she may be, Shou had a bleeding heart; it wasn't in her to hold a grudge. Carefully moving away from Khaesho, she approached Shelandra where she had curled and crouched down in front of her. Gently she reached out, and parted her coils much as she could to see her face again. She spoke softly, as she might to an frightened child and she reached a hand out to cup Shelandra's chin in her palm.

"You were very unkind earlier, to Khaesho and I expect to Kalokin as well... Gods are supposed to exemplify what the best of their people can be, the most noble, the most kind, the most loving... and yet, I am quite certain you never came here with the intention to help me." She stroked the side of her mouth with a thumb, gently caressing the warm scales as her eyes softened. "But even Gods need a second chance sometimes. You may not be mortal, but I wouldn't say you're infallible... And everyone, God or Mortal, should know love, and remember it fondly."

Hesitantly, she leaned forward, remembering that vision of Khaesho wrapped around her. Her heart ached, but she stubbornly pushed it away as she pressed her nose to Shelandra, and offered a soft smile, a tender lick. "I will gladly host you this one night, and perhaps, if you ask kindly in the future, I may yet allow it again... alright?"

Shou's words smote Shelandra like a blade; She crumpled to the ground for a moment, but hesitantly pulled herself upwards to wrap a few coils around Shou. She whispered softly into Shou's ear and began to glow with soft orange-red light.

"Saethe hrashe eithleshe"

Her body dissolved into a warm glow that sank through Shou's skin, leaving Shou lying on her back on the hard stone floor. Every fiber of the wolf's being was suffused with soft warmth, and she glowed a faint orange, like the evening sky in the last throes of sunset. Shou squealed slightly in surprise, worried that the glow would turn into the flaming kind, but as seconds passed and she felt nothing more than warmth, she relaxed. Khaesho chuckled softly as he watched the exchange.

"A blessing from the Sun Goddess herself. It is a great honor..." His eyes were distant, and he clearly was thinking about something else.

"A blessing? What sort?" Shou's words snapped Khaesho's eyes back into focus, and he smiled as he took in Shou's glowing form.

"The permanent kind. When someone says 'Gods bless you,' what just happened is what they're referring to. Different blessings affect different people in unpredictable ways... but you'll bear her mark forever. Truly, it is a great gift to match a grave apology. Kalokin tells me he's finished with preparing you. That means there's only one thing left to do to make this official."

He arranged his coils into a neat pile, and patted them meaningfully. She laughed, jumping up onto him to kiss him again. She felt warm, almost feverish, and her skin itched with a need to do something, anything. He embraced her and returned the kiss passionately before he looked away as his eyes lost focus. He muttered softly under his breath, and then his eyes began to dance and spin as he looked into hers, and she started to slip into a trance. She spun, directionless, seemingly motionless, until she blinked. She was back in the city where sand coated the streets. She was grinning, laughing as she moved to kiss him again. She squirmed a little bit, already excited, but the lips that found hers were not Khaesho's, but Kalokin's. The desert wrapped city blurred then, and she saw Khaesho again in the cave. She blinked few times to clear her vision, but it only stabilized the effect; she saw them both. She saw Khaesho holding her body in the cave and she saw Kalokin holding her soul in the sand swept city. With a whispered word, the two Serpents mixed further still. Glowing blue runes appeared across Khaesho's body, the same ones that had showed last time, and matching runes etched their way across Kalokin in black. The overlapping two tone effect looked odd, and they looked like one snake that was both blue and black.

They smiled, moving in perfect synchronization, and leaned forwards to kiss her again. She could feel everything, both in the city, and in the cave. Staring at the two of them, she was caught breathless by their smile, and she kissed them back eagerly. It was a strange feeling to feel everything as though two were touching her at once. When they pulled back to speak, she gave them her full attention. Khaesho/Kalokin spoke, and their voices melted together. Their tone was oddly solemn, and though they smiled, there was a gravity in the air that spoke of great importance.

"The double vision and synchronization comes from the fact that Kalokin has completely immersed his soul in Khaesho. They are, for now, effectively one mind, one soul, one body. Me. You should be able to feel everything, both physically and spiritually. There is a ceremony, and then the fun part, and then you'll need to sleep for an entire week."

The glowing sigils and stern tone made him seem more a god than Kalokin ever had, but his lips smiled and his eyes danced with happiness, betraying the proud visage with an undercurrent of childlike glee. He kissed her, softly, carefully, one being moving in both body and soul. There was the taste of dry desert, and just a hint of subtle spice; she knew Khaesho's tongue well, but beneath that, there was something else, something that had to have been Kalokin. It was light, airy... a little sweet, and surprisingly refreshing. Bizarrely enough, it reminded her of cotton candy, if cotton candy tasted like sweet rain and cool mountain air.

"T-that is a long sleep..," She murmured the words into his mouth, and he inhaled greedily, all but snatching the breath from her lungs. The combination of tastes, the sweet rain and the spicy heat, surprised a strangled moan from her. She was fond of sweets, and quite enjoyed this new flavor added to their kisses. He broke the kiss first, pulling back slightly to speak in the soft slide of the Serpent's Tongue.

*You before us stand tasked with the grave duty of ferrying the soul of one of the divine, Kalokin. It is a great honor, and a great privilege, but it is grave duty nonetheless. Do you willingly accept this burden, and all that it entails, for the sake of the people, for the sake of the land, and for the sake of those we are sworn to protect?*

Shou really had no idea what they said; the hisses sounded as impenetrable as ever. Shelandra had been coiled in a tight pile several yards away in the desert filled city, but here she came forwards and whispered into Shou's ear.

"It is just ceremony, but it must be done; it guides the magic that hold reality itself together, and there are some rules that even we must follow. Repeat after me."

With Shelandra's guidance, Shou spoke the required response, in a halting reproduction of the Serpent's Tongue. She nodded softly as she looked up at the two of them. There was fire in her eyes and conviction in her voice as she spoke the necessary words, and she kissed them back at the end.

*Knowing the duties of the divine, I willingly accept this burden, for the sake of the people, for the sake of the land, for the sake of those that we will protect.*

He kissed her again, but this time he exhaled sharply as he did, and sand poured from his mouth into hers. It felt like sand, at least, but it tasted like Kalokin had; soft and airy, almost weightless, and just a little sweet. It literally vanished as it passed down her throat, and she inhaled, pulling his essence into her lungs, deeper through her chest and stomach, until her entire body tingled slightly with the sweet feeling of blue skies. Her back arched a little as she pressed her slender body into him until she was completely suffused with his soul. He broke the kiss first, wide smile splitting his face as he spoke with laughter.

"Congratulations, Shouyousei Murasaki. Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life."