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Excerpts from Episode 10: The Electric King Snake
The electric king snake is unusually dangerous and dangerously unusual.
Speaking of the dangerous and unusual, how about a little fiction? It’s time for today’s Hidden Lore segment.
Today’s hidden lore is a flash fiction piece titled “84% Compatible”
Hidden Lore Segment:
84% Compatible
The gap between Ted's front teeth opened onto a solar system buzzing with civilizations of light
and power. Every once in a while it would glint and draw the eye of Becky Cooley, the shy
paralegal with the 84% compatibility rating from the dating website.
Ted found that trying to laugh behind his hand was awkward. Trying to tilt his head down while
he spoke was awkward. He'd lost dates to awkwardness and to the bushy mustache he had
used to curtain his upper teeth for a few weeks in June.
So, Ted tried to talk with Becky head-on and her inevitable questions followed, questions about
the twinkle between his teeth, the sense of life and hope and industry in it. Ted felt his cheeks
and ears get hot, but he did his best not to sound embarrassed.
He answered Becky's questions. He even did his best to answer the questions she would think
of later.
"It's a solar system. It's been there ever since my adult teeth came in. I don't know if it's just a
doorway or if the whole system is actually there in my mouth."
"I don't know if it will live on after I die. I'm not sure if the people there know about me or have
ever tried to communicate. Yes, the government knows all about it."
Becky went still and Ted worried that it might have been rude of him to anticipate her future
questions. The specter of awkwardness grew like an afternoon shadow.
Becky didn't quite smile as she pushed her long brown hair behind her left ear and tilted her
head.
There, above her little gold earring, nestled in the folds of her ear, Ted could just see a bluish
glow. And in that glow was somehow the force of gravity held in balance amongst the waltz of
stars and planets and the countless souls that spun along with them.
When Ted smiled, he smiled with the light of three hundred billion stars. Becky smiled back.
I like this little story. Which, isn’t too terribly surprising, since I wrote it.
...
Do you know what a fulgurite is? Well, it comes from the Latin word fulgur, which means
lighting. It’s essentially a tube of glass that forms when a lightning passes through sand. Now,
that’s rare enough, but if lightning strikes a fulgurite just right, well, that’s how you get an
electric king snake, a beautiful serpent that looks a bit like a polished glass sculpture of a snake
filled with pulsing blue electricity. They’re about four feet long, tend to inhabit woodlands or
scrublands not far from where they were born, and are almost painfully beautiful.
That’s not the only thing that’s painful about them. Their hunting and self-defense strategy is
unique among known species. If you’re thinking they use electricity, like electric eels, well,
you’re partially correct.
The difference is they don’t generate the electricity within their own bodies. Instead, they rely
on their close kinship with lightning to borrow their fangs from the sky, if you will. Like gods of
thunder, they call down lightning strikes on prey and would-be attackers alike.
So, now you understand my outfit. A pair of thick gloves and a walking stick doesn’t exactly cut
it when trying to get a peak at the electric king snake.
I spent 16 days rolling along that beach, stewing in my own sweat and utter ridiculousness, but
in the end, it was worth it.
I spotted a flash of summer lightning from out of a clear blue sky and made for it.
I don’t know what invited that strike, because when I arrived the snake was coiled serenely on a
stone. No prey or predators in sight.
The creature looked like a semi-transparent sapphire containing a visible skeleton of raw, white
electricity. I tensed as I approached, wondering if my makeshift safety precautions could
actually withstand a direct lightning strike.
But, the gorgeous creature just turned its head to regard me. Its glass tongue flickered out to
taste the afternoon air, and then it turned and calmly threaded its way into the underbrush.
I just stood there. Sweating in my rubber suit and copper cage. Marveling at the snake’s beauty and my own ridiculousness.
Like all snakes, the electric king snake had no interest in attacking me. It simply wished to go in
peace.
I rolled my way back to Cassandra and sat down to write this episode. Even now, the memory
of that creature nearly moves me to weeping. It was like a sliver of the sky had fallen and made
a home upon the earth. That lovely snake was both the storm and the clear blue morning, and I
feel honored to have seen it.
Jarod K Anderson, The Cryptonaturalist
The electric king snake is unusually dangerous and dangerously unusual.
Speaking of the dangerous and unusual, how about a little fiction? It’s time for today’s Hidden Lore segment.
Today’s hidden lore is a flash fiction piece titled “84% Compatible”
Hidden Lore Segment:
84% Compatible
The gap between Ted's front teeth opened onto a solar system buzzing with civilizations of light
and power. Every once in a while it would glint and draw the eye of Becky Cooley, the shy
paralegal with the 84% compatibility rating from the dating website.
Ted found that trying to laugh behind his hand was awkward. Trying to tilt his head down while
he spoke was awkward. He'd lost dates to awkwardness and to the bushy mustache he had
used to curtain his upper teeth for a few weeks in June.
So, Ted tried to talk with Becky head-on and her inevitable questions followed, questions about
the twinkle between his teeth, the sense of life and hope and industry in it. Ted felt his cheeks
and ears get hot, but he did his best not to sound embarrassed.
He answered Becky's questions. He even did his best to answer the questions she would think
of later.
"It's a solar system. It's been there ever since my adult teeth came in. I don't know if it's just a
doorway or if the whole system is actually there in my mouth."
"I don't know if it will live on after I die. I'm not sure if the people there know about me or have
ever tried to communicate. Yes, the government knows all about it."
Becky went still and Ted worried that it might have been rude of him to anticipate her future
questions. The specter of awkwardness grew like an afternoon shadow.
Becky didn't quite smile as she pushed her long brown hair behind her left ear and tilted her
head.
There, above her little gold earring, nestled in the folds of her ear, Ted could just see a bluish
glow. And in that glow was somehow the force of gravity held in balance amongst the waltz of
stars and planets and the countless souls that spun along with them.
When Ted smiled, he smiled with the light of three hundred billion stars. Becky smiled back.
I like this little story. Which, isn’t too terribly surprising, since I wrote it.
...
Do you know what a fulgurite is? Well, it comes from the Latin word fulgur, which means
lighting. It’s essentially a tube of glass that forms when a lightning passes through sand. Now,
that’s rare enough, but if lightning strikes a fulgurite just right, well, that’s how you get an
electric king snake, a beautiful serpent that looks a bit like a polished glass sculpture of a snake
filled with pulsing blue electricity. They’re about four feet long, tend to inhabit woodlands or
scrublands not far from where they were born, and are almost painfully beautiful.
That’s not the only thing that’s painful about them. Their hunting and self-defense strategy is
unique among known species. If you’re thinking they use electricity, like electric eels, well,
you’re partially correct.
The difference is they don’t generate the electricity within their own bodies. Instead, they rely
on their close kinship with lightning to borrow their fangs from the sky, if you will. Like gods of
thunder, they call down lightning strikes on prey and would-be attackers alike.
So, now you understand my outfit. A pair of thick gloves and a walking stick doesn’t exactly cut
it when trying to get a peak at the electric king snake.
I spent 16 days rolling along that beach, stewing in my own sweat and utter ridiculousness, but
in the end, it was worth it.
I spotted a flash of summer lightning from out of a clear blue sky and made for it.
I don’t know what invited that strike, because when I arrived the snake was coiled serenely on a
stone. No prey or predators in sight.
The creature looked like a semi-transparent sapphire containing a visible skeleton of raw, white
electricity. I tensed as I approached, wondering if my makeshift safety precautions could
actually withstand a direct lightning strike.
But, the gorgeous creature just turned its head to regard me. Its glass tongue flickered out to
taste the afternoon air, and then it turned and calmly threaded its way into the underbrush.
I just stood there. Sweating in my rubber suit and copper cage. Marveling at the snake’s beauty and my own ridiculousness.
Like all snakes, the electric king snake had no interest in attacking me. It simply wished to go in
peace.
I rolled my way back to Cassandra and sat down to write this episode. Even now, the memory
of that creature nearly moves me to weeping. It was like a sliver of the sky had fallen and made
a home upon the earth. That lovely snake was both the storm and the clear blue morning, and I
feel honored to have seen it.
Jarod K Anderson, The Cryptonaturalist
