ophidian
[oh-fid-ee-uh n]
1. belonging or pertaining to the suborder Ophidia (Serpentes), comprising the snakes.
2. a snake.
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Rick
couldn’t believe how well the date was going.
The woman he was with, Olivia, was everything she had claimed to be
online. She was smart, beautiful, and
easy to talk with. She seemed absolutely
perfect. A part of him knew there had to
be something wrong with her, but he had given up looking for flaws an hour ago.
The two
of them sat in the restaurant and were having a fine conversation while waiting
for their meal. Rick was quite relieved
when she had ordered pork chops. It
meant she had no problem with meat and, should they start dating exclusively, she
would probably not force him to adhere to any weird diets.
When
the food finally arrived, Olivia dug in right away. She cut a very large chunk of meat off of
it. Rick thought nothing of it, as he
thought she would just cut it into smaller, more reasonable bites. That is, until she speared the entire thing
with her fork and brought it to her mouth.
The piece of meat was larger than what would fit in her mouth, yet, she
still tried to fit it all in.
“Are…are
you okay?” Rick asked. It looked like
Olivia was trying to open her mouth wider than it would naturally go, but she
stopped and put the meat down when he asked his question.
“Yeah,
I’m fine.” She said. “Sorry about
that. I’m hungry and I guess I
accidentally let my inner self out.”
“Inner
self?” Rick was starting to get worried.
The part of his mind that was warning him about potential flaws had come
back and was now screaming at him.
“Yup. I’m a snake, you see. A copperhead to be precise.”
“Uh,
what?”
“Yup, I’m
a snake. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I was
born human, just like everyone else, but on the inside, I’m a copperhead snake.”
“Oh. I see.”
And
there it was. She was a therian. A person who felt spiritually connected with
an animal, sometimes to the point where they could actually think they are that
animal on a spiritual level.
“So,
yeah, I guess I just let it out too much and tried to unhinge my jaw.” She
continued. She began cutting her meal
into smaller, more manageable pieces. “Is
there a problem?” She asked once she noticed how Rick was looking at her.
“Uh,
nope. No, no problem.” He said
nervously.
“You
sure? You’re looking a bit weird.”
“What? No I’m not.
I would never do that.”
“You
think I’m weird or crazy or something, don’t you.” She said flatly. “It’s okay, you can tell me.”
“No,
no, of course not. Well, maybe just a
little.”
“It’s
not that weird, you know. Lots of people
associate themselves with being something other than what their body is. For most people like that, it’s the opposite
gender. For me, it’s a copperhead
instead of a human. It’s not that strange
if you think about it like that. And no,
I don’t try and…do anything with snakes.
I am fully aware that biologically, I’m homo sapien, even if
spiritually, I’m agkistrodon contortrix.
Most of the time, I’m perfectly normal by society’s standards. My inner snake mostly comes out with my
liking to sit under hot lights and liking warm weather. And, the occasional attempt to unhinge my jaw,
but that doesn’t happen often. And no, I
don’t keep any snakes at home.”
“If you
say so.” Rick said.
He was not so sure. But, on the other hand, she was quite pleasant
when not talking about her supposed serpentine nature, and he had been having a
good time until she brought that up. As
the meal went on, he decided to at least give it another chance and hope she
did not try to bite him.
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Yes, this is a real thing. I haven't encountered any myself, but they exist. Look it up, it's there online. Not that that mean anything, since pretty much everything's online these days, but it's still there.
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