Teacher's Pet, by Cat Feral
Sssome of you do not know me. The young who belong to my human'ss nesst do.
The femaless often refer to me ass hiss "Long, thick ssnake" and then make the uncouth ssoundss ssignifying that ssomething amussess them. Primate humor, of which I undersstand nothing, nor asspire to.
Nor do I undersstand more than a few wordss and phrasess of the noise that you primatess call sspeech. Do not be offended when I ssay that it iss really very primitive. But I have been with Sseveruss long enough that I can ussually grassp the gisst of what he'ss thinking.
With regardss to being long and thick, I am - in human termss - five feet long and three inchess in diameter; normal for a female python of my age. I musst make one thing clear. I am not Sseveruss's ssnake. Sseveruss iss my human. Even he forgetss that ssometimess. You primatess have ssuch a sswollen ssensse of your own importansse.
Sstill, I have owned sseveral humanss in my life, and ass humanss go, he iss quite ssatissfactory. Thiss in sspite of the fact that he triess to resstrict my movementss more thesse dayss, which iss not hiss plasse.
It makess little ssensse to me. I wass out one night, perhapsse ssixs monthss ago, sslithering through the treess on the sschool groundss. Below me, I ssaw a creature which looked much like the margayss of my homeland - but with different markingss. It looked tassty, sso I dropped from the branch and sseized it in my coilss. As I began to tighten, the creature sswiftly grew, changed and became a human. A mature female, I'm fairly ssertain. I did not know margayss could do that!
It sseized me jusst behind my head, pulled me around sso that I wass forssed to look it in the eye, and then made many angry ssounds. After that, it carried me back to the building where the humanss ssleep, moving quite fasst for ssuch an ungainly sspeciess, and sstill holding me in the ssame undignified manner. Pride urged that I wrap around it'ss neck and ssqueesse, but ssurvival argued againsst it.
It took me sstraight to the chamberss which I share with Sseveruss thumped againsst the wall that openss. When he openned the wall, the creature thrusst me unsserimoniously into the armss of my sstartled human, then made many more angry ssoundss at him, before sstorming away. Inssolent primate.
Ssinsse then, he triess not to let me out alone.