The creature was close … so close … was this the end? Miranda was quite sure, it was the end. She had done so much to hold her little daughter in her arms again, to give her a life in freedom, far away from this cell … and now she would die together with her instead of laughing and being together with her. Was this fair? Maybe it wasn’t, but life seemed never to be fair …


As Miranda blinked around she couldn’t really believe what she saw. Around her she could see big trees of a gigantic size, the green leaves were hanging down, the air was hot and wet, like in a jungle and the noises from many different unknown sources came to her ear. This wasn’t Chicago; definitely this wasn’t even North America. What kind of place was this? Did the teleport sent them into the South American regions?
But even there she couldn’t remember of such big trees. Miranda could feel how Ley pressed her small body against her own, she was trembling and she also realized that something went wrong.
“Mommy, where are we? This isn’t home.” She said and with big eyes she looked around. No, this was definitely not their home but what should she tell her daughter? Her eyes wandered around, no sign of the mercenaries, did they cheat on her? But there was no reason, they had not all the money from her and they risked their lives to save them, if they would working against Miranda they would started sooner with this, no, something went extremely wrong and whatever happened, Miranda and Ley were now on their own.
“No sweetie, this isn’t home. But don’t worry, Mummy will find a way back here. I’m very sure that we will find a telephone or something else close by. You know, there are no spots on earth were you won’t find a telephone” she explained and smiled even if she wasn’t very convinced from her own words. But for the moment it helped to calm Ley down, the young child smiled back and nodded, even if she still looked pale, but this was no wonder; Miranda didn’t want to know what she had experienced during this time in the cell. She felt how her heart became a little heavier but she still smiled, she was happy to have Ley at her side and she was sure; nothing would part them again, never.

But for the moment she had to find out where they were and how they would find something like a settlement or a city. This whole area looked a little strange and together with Ley at one hand she walked through the bushes. She could hear sounds like from mosquitoes, in the far a loud growling, but it was very far away. From time to time she shouted out into the darkness of the jungle, the trees were extremely thick to each other so the sunlight didn’t had many chances to break through the leaves, but it was enough to see everything in front of them, even if she felt herself observed from time to time.
But every time she was looking around after such feelings, she couldn’t see anyone. The ground was solid but from time to time they had to climb over big roots and another problem was the fact that Ley didn’t had any shoes, so they had to take often a little break that she could rest. Every hope of Miranda to find a settlement or something similar was destroyed by the fact that their path through the bushes seemed to be eternity. The fact that it became even warmer didn’t help very much and so the clothes of both girl were sticking at their skin, to walk became a small torture; finally Miranda had to stop and search for a cloudy place where they could stay.  

She didn’t have to search very long, after a few minutes she discovered a tree with many leaves and branches so that no sunshine came through the crone of the wood and Miranda sat down together with her daughter, this break was really necessary she decided because her feet began to hurt and Ley’s seemed to hurt even more.
The young girl felt asleep instantly at the shoulder of her mother and with a weak smile Miranda stroke through the hair of her daughter. Well in the end this wasn’t what she called a new start with her child but she was extremely happy that Ley was now free and close to her. Now that her daughter was sleeping at her shoulder she felt how exhausted she also was. Her eyes became heavier and finally she had to close them before she felt asleep, right into a wild and confusing dream.  


She was sitting at the table. It was exactly the same place like the day when they took Ley. But this time there was no laughing girl, no smiling husband, this time she was alone. She stared at a piece of bread, unable to eat something for days. Her husband was buried, her daughter was missed and the police couldn’t help, they had no idea where Ley could be. Months later Miranda should learn that the police was a big pack of corrupt people who protected the scientists for very much money.
Even as she found out where her daughter was, she was unable to help her, she got a hint from an anonymous guy who told her where she had to search, but she couldn’t enter the building they didn’t speak to her, they just sent her back with the words that she saw ghosts and was crazy.  But she knew better. One day she met this guy, Vincent was his name and he seemed to be a high person of the lab but he just smiled to her and said that he had no idea who this “Ley” was and that she should call the police if there were some problems.
From this moment on she met Vincent she had those dreams. Every night she could hear Ley scream in panic, she saw sometimes her face, pale and with empty eyes and then this voice, this cold voice that seemed to be directly beside her “You miss her …? You don’t have to, we take caaaaare of her”


Miranda opened her eyes with a noiseless scream. Her breath was running and she needed some time to orientate herself, to realize that she wasn’t at home in her bed … and that her daughter was sleeping at her side. Miranda smiled down, she just wanted to lie down as she heard some noises.  Her eyes wandered around, the noise was far away but it came closer, and it seemed to be something bigger, something terrible big.
Trees were cracking from time to time and now Miranda know what she feared all the time since she heard that noises; whatever was the origin, it came closer. She began to wake up Ley “Sunshine … wake up … we have to go …” she whispered, but Ley didn’t want to open her eyes, she mumbled something and Miranda had to push her a little.
“Ley wake up, now, we are in danger!” and this seemed to work. Ley’s eyes were opened instantly and even if she was still tired she seemed to understand what happened, because she was pressing her body against the one of her mother. Miranda stood up together with her daughter the noises were suddenly vanished, like the animal or the person that made it went into another direction. But only a few minutes later Miranda hat to learn that she was wrong; the creature didn’t vanish, Miranda and Ley were detected by the unknown and now he was sneaking closer until there was no need for hiding; and unfortunately this moment was just in this moment.


Some trees were pushed away easily by the creature and Miranda had to raise her head completely to see what was there. In front of both was a creature, half human, half snake.  
It was a female creature because she had breasts and also female intimae places, her long brown hair felt down to her shoulders. She was completely naked and the upper part of her body weren’t some legs, it was a snake-tail with scales, Miranda couldn’t recognize the colors in the darkness. Two intelligent eyes were looking down at her, Ley was hiding herself behind Miranda’s back, and the creature began to smile bright.
“Mh I hoped for a sweet midnight snack … and here you are. What a good end of a day I would say, so please stand still and make no troubles okay?” the voice was friendly and also charming, it was like the creature was talking to a pet or something else but Miranda’s head worked fast enough to realize that they were in great danger. She grabbed Ley’s hand and she began to run as fast as possible through the buses. “Hey! Stop! Don’t make it too more difficult than necessary!” the voice of the creature was shouting behind them and Miranda could swear that she heard a sighing, a few minutes later the predator was following them. Ley and Miranda were mobilizing all their reserves to escape.


They were running. Her feet began to hurt, her stomach was paining but she knew to stop now would mean death.  She didn’t look behind, because to look behind would slow them more and more she knew that she was close to them.
Then she stumbled and fell to the ground, the little person together with her and for a few seconds she felt the burning pain of the impact to the hard ground. She could arrange to land on her back, the small child in her arms so she wouldn’t get hurt but know they would need some time to stand up, time they didn’t had and she was right; she could hear the noises behind her and as she opened her eyes she could see the creature close to them, she felt the small child trembling in her arms and then she awaited the unstoppable end …


The naga was coming closer, she smiled down to Miranda. “See, you just exhausted yourself even more, I told you that it wouldn’t help. But its okay I think, you humans do this all the time. Oh by the way, I’m Katrika … I think you should know whom meal you’ll become.” The naga smiled, she looked so fresh and friendly that it was a little obscure “Now sit still and this will be over very soon” and with thse word she wanted to grab Miranda but close to her, the big hand suddenly stopped.  Miranda could stare at the soft skin in front of her; she could even feel the hand that was so close to her. Then the hand wandered back at Katrika’s side and the naga laid her head to the side and went a little lower to watch Miranda … no not Miranda, she recognized … Ley.
The naga was looking with big eyes to the trembling child, tears were floating down her cheeks and with also very big eyes she stared up to the monster that wanted to eat her and her mother. All the time while they were running she was silent and even now she couldn’t say anything, she was just too much in panic. The naga took a short grim and pointed down with one finger. “Is that yours?” she asked and Miranda looked down to the pale Ley and nodded
“Yes …. She’s my daughter… “ she whispered and something changed in the expression of Katrika. Her eyes became a little bigger and … her whole face became warmer, there was no lust of eating them in her face anymore. Katrika began to raise herself into her full size and nodded one time “Okay … then you won’t be my meal” she simply said and a last thoughtful view hit Ley, did Miranda saw sadness that Ley was crying? Did the fact that a small child was lying in her arms, crying and trembling, changed her mind? Miranda couldn’t answer this question, the naga didn’t give her an answer too, she just turned around, no more words, nothing, she just vanished beside the bushes as silent as she came.


Now that they were alone, Miranda slowly realized what happened and she also knew one thing; Ley and her weren’t in the jungle of Amazonas, they weren’t even on the planet earth, because such creatures didn’t exist there. Now that the treat was away her head began to use this information and she felt suddenly sick.  This creature wanted to eat her and her daughter … like they were just a piece of meat. And if a creature like her was here, there were definitely others too. She felt how her legs became weak, all the running, and the panic began to exhausting her more and more, she had to sit down. This all was too much for her; the fact that they weren’t on earth, the fact that there were creatures, as big as houses, the fact that there was no sign of human civilization … the kind that they were alone in a strange world and nobody was there to help them.
She couldn’t hear Ley crying anymore and Miranda looked down; it was also too much for Ley but her body did just shut down, she was sleeping or maybe she was unconscious, definitely she was alive and lying in her arms but Miranda felt guilty. Tears were flowing down her own face, she wanted to give her daughter a safe live, protection and everything else, and now she brought her into a land that was populated by monsters.
What kind of mother was she? She closed her eyes, she wanted to avoid all the tears, but she couldn’t; all the frustration, all the fear and the panic of the last hours was now hitting on her like a hammer. And finally her body shut down too and she felt asleep, right under one of the bigger trees.


The next time Miranda opened her eyes she was awaked by some noises. Instantly she opened her eyes and wanted to wake up Ley, maybe a monster was close to them again. But as her eyes were opened she stared at some boots, normal sized boots and as she continued looking up she looked into a friendly face of a smiling man.
He had long hair and in the dawn she couldn’t really say what kind of color it was, it seemed to be many different. He had a younger face and a smile was on his lips. “Who are you?” she whispered with a weak voice. The young man was grinning a little brighter.


“Oh, my name is Rev … good morning.”