Leave.

Shaking her head of the fuzzy feelings, Xalendra leaned away from the firebowl and offered the woman an apologetic smile. “I'm sorry, I was just looking around. I-”

Suddenly she felt something brush by her knee. She looked down to see movement under the fur beneath her, and found something was definitely slithering around her. As it passed to her right, it came out from under a fold of pelt and she saw the shiny golden head of a snake slide up next to her foot.

Xalendra cried out as she fell back away from the creature. The woman sat up to look at the source of her fright, seeming starkly calmer than the princess. “Oh, don't mind her,” the medicine woman said. “Just relax and she'll leave in her own time.” She smiled a smile that was not calming enough for Xalendra.

The snake slid closer as she froze. It slithered up to her ankle, proceeding to climb over it and twist its way around for leverage. Xalendra whimpered, biting her tongue as she slowly, ever so slowly inched away, yet it was no use. The snake was upon her, and would not leave.

As she trembled, it wound itself around her calf, making its way beneath the skirt of her dress. It had gone up to her knee before she let out her held breath. “Get it off!” she whispered urgently at the woman, whose eyes were almost as wide as her own now.

“Just be still, and you'll be fine. She'll leave you alone as long as you do not make any sudden movements.”

She gulped back her fear, and **** her breathing to settle. She could feel the smooth scales slip over her stockings as the snake worked its way in between her thighs. She fell a hair's-breadth from her tipping point, and had to use all her will to resist bolting from the tent.