Start a fire in the cave.

It's hard to **** your eyes to stay open at this point. Your body is working overtime trying to repair the internal damage done by Rits, along with churning out semen as fast as it can be produced thanks to some monster girl trick she pulled on your testicles.

You slowly arise and find your discarded pants. Putting them on, Rits wonders what you're doing.

"Aw, leaving already, Darling? I thought you'd stay a while..."

"No, but... It's cold in here... aren't you cold?"

"Well of course I'm cold, but we can always snuggle up for warmth. That's what my sisters and I always did."

"I... have a better idea." you say, although snuggling doesn't sound too bad right now.

"Hm?"

"I'll gonna grab some wood... to start a fire."

"Fire...? I don't believe I know what that is..."

"You'll see..."

With that, you turn and pick up what's left of your torch. You see now it's almost completely burnt out. It probably wouldn't last the walk to the entrance. This entire time it's been lighting your walk in, the fight, your medical procedure, and... ahem... lovemaking, but now it's had enough.

By now you've lost track of Rits completely, although you think you hear her re-attaching her skirt and putting on her clothes from earlier.

"Rits... where are you?"

"I'm right here." her voice coming from behind you, although you can't tell where exactly.

"I... can't see you."

"What are you talking about? I can see you just fine."

Yeah, well I don't have whatever predator's night vision your eyes are probably equipped with.

You fumble around with your now useless torch, knocking into the wall that was nearest to you in your blindness.

"John? Don't tell me you can't see?"

"No, I can't."

"What's wrong?" you hear a slithering sound approaching you.

"Nothing's wrong... I just... can't see in the dark..."

Her hand grabs yours now.

"Dark? Oh. I guess humans use that... fake sun... to see at night."

You assume she's talking about outdoor lighting via lanterns.

"Take me outside... please."

"Alright, Darling."

You notice just how tall she is now. Although her human body is slightly smaller than yours, her snake tail props her up by a decent amount. You walk side-by-side with her as you leads you towards the moonlight outside, your arm being held up as she leans down a bit to reach you.

You reach the exit, breathing in the warmer night air, your eyes adjusting to the evenly lit exterior of the cave. Your former fire outside is now smoking ashes. Rits looks curiously into it, seemingly having never been near an actual fire before. You travel into the tree line and gather branches of varying size and shape, along with leaves for tinder. Eventually you have enough to feed the fire, at least until you fall asleep. The occasional breeze through the cave means you won't have to worry about smoking yourselves out accidentally.

"Take me back inside, please."

You consider sleeping out here, but exposing yourselves to the elements when there's shelter right in front of you wouldn't be a good idea. Caves are colder, but they stay the same temperature all the time. The night will only get colder.

"Of course, Darling." She seems pleased you didn't decide to run off, although you wouldn't get very far even if you wanted to.

Your hands full now, she just pushes you gently by your shoulders, taking care to turn you in case you're about to run into a wall.

Now at her room (you guess, you don't know how deep this cave actually goes), you stop and drop your fire supplies around wherever she leaves you.

"Can you grab my bag?"

She audibly slithers to where you left your belongings, gathering them all into their receptacle and bringing it to you.

"I can't see... can you be my eyes for me?"

"Alright... I guess."

The finer details aren't important, but you guide her through the process of forming the bundles of sticks into a tower shape, laying the leaves at the bottom, and using your fire starter to strike away sparks into the dry leaves. She looks surprised (almost entranced) when a small flame starts at the base of the small wooden tower, but you take over from there, blowing air slowly, and tossing twigs into the fire. You slowly add more larger branches until the flames are a nice, warm blaze. She licks your face again, you guess as a celebration of your teamwork, before turning her attention to the fire. You could swear you almost saw Rits try and touch the flames once or twice, before deciding against her curiosity once she felts the heat coming off them.

The two of you sit, tired from the day's events, you laying up against her thick midsection as she intently watches the embers rise from the fire and then disappear. Her entire tail is long enough to loop around the firepit several times over, the end coming to rest in your lap. She doesn't seem to notice or care as you slowly stroke her tail in your arms like you're holding a puppy. You're content to fall asleep here, but you break the silence to ask:

"You've... never seen fire?"

"...no... never …"

She barely even turns her head to address you.

"But snakes are cold blooded, right?"

She now turns and looks at you with a small tinge of anger, either mad you called her a snake, or for implying her blood was cold.

"...I mean... weren't you cold in here?"

"I was... but it was the only place I could find."

Her face saddens as she remembers the painful events of yesterday. So she can't fully regulate her body temperature like mammals can. There's at least some similarities with the normal snakes you've read about.

Your eyes widen as you remember something important.

My journal! I should write about this!

Of course the entire reason you left home was to find strange new sights and document them. This seems strange and new enough for anyone to take note of.

"Hey, Rits?"

She notices your excited tone now.

"Can I ask you a few questions?"

"About... what?"

"About you, of course. I want to know everything about you."

Her face reddens in embarrassment as she cups her palms to her cheeks.

"Awwww, Darling! Go ahead, ask me anything you want!"

You get up and grab your notebook and a pencil. Thankfully, nothing broke in the scuffle earlier. Rits looks at the paperback book in your hands with curiosity.

Another foreign object, huh? We have a lot to exchange.