My Own Special Island
By NWRaptor
At forty-three, Julie was a knock-out; five foot two, with green eyes, red hair and freckles. She filled out a bikini like a teenager. Years of constant physical activity had honed and toned her body. After selling her highly successful business a year ago, she was enjoying the best life had to offer. After all, she'd earned it.
Leaving the big city behind, she opted to purchase her own island. She soon discovered that there aren't all that many private islands available for purchase in the world. Sure, there are thousands of islands in the oceans of the world, but most are un-inhabitable due to location, weather, geology, etc. Most of those that are habitable already are, or belong to other countries.
However, money finds a way and she now stood on the beach of her private island, watching the charter boat sail away. Her home was built and supplied; her personal power cruiser was moored in its covered dock; her solar power plant and wind farm stood quietly atop the small mountain behind her. Until the supply boat returned in three months, she was alone.
"Peace at last. No more corporate dog-eat-dog existence." she screamed into the silence. "It took two million dollars to convince those boobs to sell me this place, but now it's mine. I'm 300 miles from the nearest inhabited land, surrounded by the South Pacific and the other smaller islands in this Archipelago, and I own them all. I'm now part of the island and it's part of me."
Life was indeed good for Julie over the next three weeks. She explored the island completely. Like most islands, hers had been formed by the long-extinct volcano on which she now stood. A dense tropical forest covered the highlands around the volcano; fine, black volcanic sand formed the beaches. Three natural springs provided plenty of fresh water. Birds nested in the trees. Small animals scurried through the underbrush.
Leaving the mountain top, she descended to the most remote spring in a small gorge. Unlike the others, the water from this spring was warm. "Must be some lava still down deep" she thought to herself. The warmer water and higher humidity in this gorge gave rise to an abundance of plant and animal life forms found nowhere else on the island. Here huge ferns sprouted from the hillsides. Brilliant wildflowers exploded with color.
Julie stood gazing into the pool below the spring. The sand here was a shiny black obsidian. The pool was shallow here, but she could see that the bottom dropped away quickly. As she stared at the water, she became aware of a dark opening in the wall of the pool off to her left. "Hmmm…" she thought, "I wonder where that goes?
Convinced of her isolation, she had "gone native" weeks ago and discarded all of her clothes except for sandals. Slipping out of them, she dove into the crystal clear warmth and swam down to the opening. It was easily large enough for her to enter. Taking a deep breath, she dove quickly to the opening and swam inside. Surprisingly, it only seemed to go in about ten feet and light was visible at the end.
Continuing into the tunnel, she broke the surface in an underground grotto.
The walls seemed to glow from some sort of chemical light. Moisture dripped
from the walls and ceiling. It was much warmer in here and the sand was pure
white. Large leafy vegetation could be seen back from the water's edge.
"I must be under the volcano" she said. "I wonder if this is an old lava tube." Stepping onto the sand, she began to explore her new surroundings. The vegetation prevented her from determining the true extent of the cavern, but it was at least thirty feet to the ceiling. The air temperature was much warmer than outside, no doubt heated from deep underground.
"It's beautiful!" she thought to herself. "A hidden paradise inside paradise, and it's all mine. Or so she thought.
Even as she explored the area, dark eyes were following her every move. Hunger began to overcome instinctive nervousness regarding this new creature. Very slowly, it closed the distance between them. Stop. Study this new creature. Assess threat danger…..minimal. Assess food potential….high, Assess capture potential…..uncertain. Decision: surprise attack!
Lunging forward, it reached her in seconds. A hard butt with its head knocked her to the ground. "What the…" she screamed as the weight of the creature's body rode up onto her own. Twisting violently around, she found herself looking at a mass of rough scales gliding swiftly through her field of vision. As her eyes tried desperately to focus at this close range, she felt something large glide underneath her back. Turning her head again, she saw it for the first time.
"Oh shit" she exclaimed, looking directly into the dark eyes of the largest snake she had ever seen. Already her body was wrapped in two thick, muscular coils. A third lay heavily across her thighs, pinning her legs. As she watched, another coil slithered under her knees and back over her ankles. With her one free arm, she reached out to touch the coils.
"Amazing" she exclaimed, "so cool and slick. They glide over my skin like I was oiled. I wonder if I can move at all?" Tensing her muscles, she found she could wiggle a bit but freedom was out of the question. She raised her head to stare at her captor again.
"OK, you've got me now. What do you intend to do with me?" she asked. As if in answer, the snake opened its mouth and the lower jaw began to twitch violently from side to side as it worked to unhinge. "Uhhh, I think I got my answer" she thought as the now fully open mouth engulfed her head. "At least my hair is short."
Her head, shoulders, and upper body slid in easily, helped by the powerful muscles of the throat and the copious amounts of saliva secreted by the mouth. Large amounts of air were also swallowed, allowing Julie enough breath to remain conscious. The throat was cool and very slick. She felt rather than saw the rhythmic contractions of the gullet as it squeezed her forward. "Somewhere up there is his stomach" she thought. "That's where I'm gonna end up; just another meal for this thing."
Julie's hips were smaller than her shoulders and presented no problem for the snake. Raising its head upwards, it shook itself from side to side while tossing its head backwards. These motions combined with gravity and Julie's own weight to accelerate the swallowing process. Soon only her bare feet were visible outside the snake. Another contraction and they slid out of sight into the gullet, which closed behind them, sealing the helpless woman within.
"That's it!" she thought, "I'm inside. No one will ever find me or guess what really happened to me. They'll probably just figure I drowned or got taken by a shark. Ah, this must be the stomach."
In the total darkness, she felt herself pass through a tight restriction that seemed to squeegee the saliva off of her body as she passed through. She found herself inside a larger, drier pouch. "At least I can stretch out in here" she said. As soon as she stopped moving, the walls seemed to close it about her. She found herself being massaged by the muscular walls while at the same time, she began to feel wet again.
"Digestive juices" she thought. "It's starting to digest me now. The massage will assure that the fluid keeps removing softened layers to expose more of my meat. What a novel way to be skinned alive!"
As her air ran out, Julie slipped towards an unconsciousness from which there would be no awakening. "Guess I'll always be part of my own special island after all" she thought as darkness descended.
By NWRaptor