The mission that Alfred and his platoon had been sent on was easy enough. A bust in Afghanistan regarding illegal trading-likely drugs and valuables, perhaps some of the items lost in the looting that occurred after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, concerning American businessmen hiding them in the region.
Of course, they hadn't expected all that they had found. They found drugs, things like bath salts and other foreign imports on their way through the Middle Eastern Region, likely to go south through Africa and eventually make their way to South America, money and weapons, which justified their presence to the locals easily enough.
"Looks like Soviet gear, Al." One of his friends and lower ranked officers whistled whistled. "Someone paid a pretty penny for those."
"Nah, probably just left here from the Soviets themselves." Another piped up. "From the 70's and 80's."
Alfred himself was looking through some of the texts, sighing as he realized that none of the valuable ancient texts he had been hoping to find had ended up here. "Nothing." He said, angrily. "Nothing's here. No ancient texts."
"Al, as much as I love you, buddy," yet another soldier sighed. "I doubt they are even here- more likely they wound up in private collections of some rich bastard."
Alfred Jones, head of this particular platoon, sighed angrily, frustrated.
It was 2014, and he was tired of serving the US military. In college, he had majored in linguistics and psychology, and learned both Arabic and Farsi. It had been all for working in the Middle East. Alfred desperately wanted to work in the US army, helping support troops. However, since he spoke two of the languages, rather than be put through the small US army budget to be a psychologist, he was put in battle to help keep the peace. In his spare time he studied the events of the 2003 invasion well, talking with locals to keep up his language skills- though it was harder to maintain his Arabic than it was to maintain his Farsi, and he was 99% sure he was losing grip on the Iranian dialect in favor of the Afghani versions, Pashto and Dari.
His linguistic skills were lovely when he found the expansive amounts of literature- particularly poetry-in the language.
There was a bit more poking around, and once they had cleared the main area, and left three of the platoon to secure their hold on the main floor, Alfred and the remaining 6 went around to examine other parts of the house- for people, for other surprises.
A call of clears went up- most had simply found food, or the bathroom.
However, another screamed in terror, and had forced the rest into action, clicking the safety off their weapons as they ran to see what had startled the person, Alfred included.
Alfred was at the very back of the door, but he heard them all talking. "Holy shit, what is it?"
"Is it alive?"
"Of course it's alive Jerry, it's watching us."
"What is it!?" Alfred said, frustrated with the platoon. "Is Marshall okay?"
"Yes, Al." The younger soldier himself spoke, though the voice was shaky. "I'm fine, it's just…"
"Ugh… Then why did you scream?" He asked. "Everyone, clear out of here, whatever is in there obviously isn't so much of a danger to require all 7 of us to crowd the door, back off, let me through."
There was nothing at first, and then they reluctantly moved, pulling out of the room to let their commanding officer through.
Two things surprised Alfred- one, the fact his troops had even hesitated to listen to their superior, and two…
The snake…human creature lying encased in glass before him, lying on its side with deadened green eyes watching him warily…blinking every once in a while.
"Is it alive?" One man asked, and Alfred sighed, nodding. "Yes, it's alive. Though I don't think we should refer to him as an 'it'." He murmured, going over to the tank. "Have any of you owned reptiles in the past?" Alfred asked rhetorically, rubbing his temples.
When a crowd of "no", "nah", and "nope," rang through the crowd, Alfred lifted the top off the tank, and looked down into it, much to everyone's displeasure and unease.
"Don't be alarmed, I don't think he can hurt us right now." Alfred said, looking down at the creature- focusing not on the long, skinny green tail, but rather, the emaciated human half- with sympathy, the green eyes having followed him, his head tilting back unnaturally as he watched him. "Well, it's common knowledge that reptiles can become lethargic with hypothermia, but it's less known that they can die just as easily, if not more so, from hyperthermia, and the fact he's star-gazing is telling me that this poor guy's in a lot of trouble."
"But sir…" One said, unsure, and Alfred glared.
"I'm not leaving him here- I don't know what he is, but he's obviously sick and in need of care." Alfred said, stubbornly compassionate for this creature that had so obviously been suffering. "Will someone please help me break this thing open, and someone else go turn on that bath upstairs, on cold?"
The man were again slow to move, but Alfred got them to do it, breaking the glass casing and Marshall volunteering to go run the bath, bolting. "He's afraid of snakes." One of them said, snickering.
Alfred was still watching the creature- it had been shifting its gaze slowly around, but Alfred was realizing it wasn't doing so absently. When the last man spoke up, the piercing green gaze had been first leveled at the source of the sound, and then at the doorway where Marshall had left- it was listening, and understanding them, to some extent.
"Amazing." Alfred whispered, looking to where the green eyes met his again. "You're keeping track of who is talking about who- you understand us, don't you?" He murmured, bending down to meet him.
The creature blinked, before nodding slowly, balling up as best he could, with his head arching back almost unnaturally as he wobbled upsidedown, the poor creature looking altogether quite miserable.
"We're making you nervous…that's alright- its okay to be scared, but know we're not going to hurt you." Alfred said, voice soft and gentle. "I'm Alfred. I'm getting you out of here, promise." He smiled. "But first, we're going to cool you down a bit…"
XXXXX
Most of his men apparently, were goddamned chickens. Dealing with insurgents armed with weapons and were more than glad to kill an American soldier? Perfectly fucking fine and dandy. Dealing with an obviously sick and miserable half-snake person? Too scary, of course, and it left Alfred helping said creature almost all on his own.
Said creature didn't mind being helped solely by Alfred, though. It seemed he relaxed with only the one man present. Alfred got him in the cold bath, rubbing down the hot skin and trying to help him cool off, green eyes fluttering closed as he relaxed.
Once the tail was in the water, it was easy to just think of him as human- he looked just like one, pardoning the claws on his hands and fangs that were visible with his open mouth, barely protruding. Alfred thought they could come out if the creature was threatened, and so stayed quiet as he assisted him.
The creature moaned lowly in relief, the sound painfully human, making Alfred sympathize with him, his eyes softening as he stroked the dirty hair on its head and brought his water bottle to the creatures lips to give it something to drink. Upon dripping some of the water into his mouth, the creature was easily coaxed into drinking from it. Alfred had only given them 10 or so minutes, and as they got the 5 minute warning from his troops, Alfred knew that he had to pull the snake-man back out of the cool water.
He stepped away, and asked for sheets to be brought to him from one of the bedrooms from the door, and then returned to the creature.
"Do you have a name?" He asked, gently, and green eyes looked at him sluggishly, but he nodded. "What is it?" Alfred probed as he reached over to pull the snake out of the bath.
"Arrrfur…." He slurred, but Alfred was able to guess well enough his real name with that.
"Arthur?" Alfred clarified as he sank his hands into the water, and the snake man nodded, closing his eyes as the human gripped his body and pulled him out of the tub. The human was very, very glad that Arthur seemed to not think of him as a threat- his snakes growing up didn't have a jaw as large as a humans- if Arthur bit him, there was a good chance of doing a lot of damage. "Well, Arthur, I'm sorry we couldn't meet in better circumstances, but it's nice to meet."
Arthur's nod was lethargic and off-kilter, undoubtedly a symptom of neurological damage done by the heatstroke, since the creature Alfred held was still emanating heat, but it was still sincere. He was choosing to trust Alfred here.
The door was opened, and Arthur hissed nervously at the sudden noise, but the sheets that had been held out for them were dropped as the soldier holding them jumped ship and ran, and Alfred hushed him a bit, setting him down on the floor. "They're for you." Alfred murmured before dipping them in the cold water. "To help get you back to a good temperature on our way back."
Arthur didn't relax, his head and upper body shaking and swaying from side to side, and Alfred's heart hurt for him. "I'll protect you, Arthur. I promise." The commanding officer whispered, pulling them out and wringing the water out, before wrapping Arthur in them, hiding the tail as best he could but focusing on making sure he had a firm grip on the creature's shaking upper body.
Arthur wrapped his tail around Alfred's midsection to get a grip on him, leaning his head against Alfred's chest as he hid himself from sight under the cover of the sheets.
"Alright soldiers, you better had made good use of yourself loading the items into our truck." Alfred said, voice threatening as he came out of the bathroom. "Since I assisted with the sick captive all on my own."
"W-we did, sir." Jerry said, quietly. "Are you alright?"
"Perfectly fine." Alfred nodded, confidently. "Alright. Here is how this is going to go: Arthur here has been held captive for some amount of time, he has heatstroke and requires immediate medical attention, and he may be hostile due to fear, particularly of large groups. As it stands, he's with me. Jerry, you take drivers seat, and I'll be in the back on the drive to the base. No one is to discuss anything about Arthur other than the fact he was held hostage in this area- with anyone. I will discuss this with my higher ups on my own. Are we all clear?"
"Yes, sir!" They reported, because even though they were uneasy, they understood commands simply enough.
Arthur's fingers curled into the fabric of Alfred's uniform, and Alfred felt his breath hitch. "Let's get moving then. If we have everything, mission's complete and we can get back to base."
XXXXX
The drive back to the base was the easiest part, despite how Arthur devolved into a non-human language in a clear hallucination, had his tremors culminate into a seizure, and how he was now currently unconscious, either from the seizure or from heatstroke, Alfred couldn't tell.
It was still the easiest part of getting him inside under wraps.
"Alright. Now what." Alfred muttered to himself as he held the man close to his chest.
Alfred had a few options.
A- Reveal Arthur to the whole base, potentially get the creature thrown into the hands of the US government and either live in captivity as an experiment for the rest of his life or get experimented on and killed in the process.
B- Don't reveal Arthur to anyone, risk him dying here from heatstroke, and getting himself court martialled for the death of a civilian he could have saved with medical attention, or…
C- Don't tell anyone at the base, find someone outside of the military to give Arthur treatment, risk getting court martialled for withholding information.
The third option was the best, but the hardest- it required him getting them into another car, while they were already at the base, or Alfred going AWOL- another dangerous option for himself. Unless he found someone- one person- who he could get help from in hiding Arthur…this whole ordeal would end up with one or both of them captured, dead or worse.
Alfred held the unconscious snake man's upper body in his grip, the man limp and feeling small and feeble in his arms, even though his tail was longer than Alfred's entire body, he was so underfed he was skinny and weak and it was sad, so, so sad, but Alfred didn't know how to help him other than to make sure he stayed safe.
They arrived, and Alfred wanted to be there when Arthur woke, but the creature was simply out cold.
However, of course, the questions started to come- why wasn't the commanding officer at the front, and Alfred realized his out. "Wait! I'm back here, I have an international citizen in need of medical attention- he's asked to be taken to another camp, rather than a military base."
"Lieutenant Jones!" They said, annoyed. "You should have radioed to tell us that- we would have instructed you to go straight to a Hospital."
"Sorry, Colonel." He murmured, stroking Arthur's hair. "I got distracted- he needed someone to be with him, he's had a seizure since we've been driving."
The man huffed. "Fine. The weapons are in the other car with the majority of your company, yes?"
"Yes, sir."
"I see no issue in letting you bring him to an international organization." He huffed. "If he's so against getting help from the US government…."
"Yes sir, thank you sir." He breathed out a sigh of relief, holding Arthur tighter. "I'll be in contact."
And with that, the colonel let the platoon leave, and Alfred was able to drive the jeep out away from the base, before going back into the back and retrieving Arthur, buckling him into the passengers seat now that he would only risk hurting Alfred if he attacked.
Arthur was thankfully unconscious the rest of the drive out to the nearest international heath organization, and Alfred didn't drive over any bombs on the way there either.
XXXXX
The doctor assigned to him at the Doctors without Borders camp was none other than a disgruntled Canadian who was upset about still being assigned out here. He was complaining on and on about the needless American military, and Alfred simply didn't argue, refusing to discuss his patient until the man chilled out some.
"So, why is an American here anyway?" Dr. Williams asked, raising an eyebrow in suspect.
"Ugh. You're not even a real doctor- you're a medical student interning for them." He muttered. "I wanted to talk with someone higher up than you? With a little more experience, maybe?" Alfred glared in growing frustration, standing outside the car with the air running inside.
The med student/intern grumbled in upset, and a staring contest started- a stalemate that would last for all of a minute. Because suddenly the silence was broken by a pained groan, and Alfred had to look back in fear. "He woke up…" He murmured, climbing back in the car to look at Arthur and try and speak to him. "Arthur? Arthur, can you hear me? It's Alfred…"
Clouded green eyes opened to watch him, and the body's wobbling came back, his head tilting back unnaturally as Arthur groaned, his tail curling inwards on himself. "Shit…" Alfred mumbled, rubbing his forehead and looking back to where the intern was staring at them in confusion.
"Arthur, you need medical attention. I won't let anyone hurt you on purpose, and if something hurts, tell me, I won't leave you, I promise." He was saying, though he didn't know how much the creature understood as Alfred made the judgment call.
"Stand back." Alfred said as he got out of the drivers seat, and walked around to the passenger side door, opening it and pulling out the torso first, the medical student quickly running to assist him…but stopped in his tracks as the tail fell out of the car in a heap.
Alfred raised an eyebrow at him, but gently started to speak to Arthur, helping the snake man wrap his tail around Alfred's torso once again, though the motion was weaker.
"Hey- not backing out of any international agreement, are you?" Alfred said with a grin. "I mean, you title is doctors without borders…I'd imagine that would include the border between different species of humans, right?"
XXXXX
The med student agreed to help him shortly after seeing Arthur for the first time. He also brought his supervisor, a zealous French doctor who was fascinated by the creature the American Soldier had brought to them. Not many were assigned to this part of Afghanistan at the moment, the French one, Francis had revealed. After all, there were worse crises in other parts of the world.
"Just…get helping." Alfred said, frustrated, and the two nodded, setting up an IV and restraining Arthur's torso and head to the bed so that he'd stop wobbling for the moment.
"So, you mentioned Alfred that he's suffering both human and snake like symptoms?" Francis asked, writing things down quickly.
The soldier nodded. "Indeed. The thing he keeps doing with his head is called stargazing, and the swaying is called wobbling. They're both neurological problems that can develop from heatstroke in snakes. But, he's also had human symptoms- delirium, and seizures."
"Where did you find it?" Matthew asked, dumbstruck as he applied ice to the neck and armpits of the creature.
"I found Arthur while we were conducting a raid." Alfred emphasized his name. "We found various other classified materials, but this one was…alive." He murmured, stroking Arthur's head as the snake man whimpered in fright or in pain, perhaps both. "He's able to understand us, and he told me his name was Arthur."
"Poor man." Francis murmured sympathetically as scratched his head. "That leaves me with a problem. What pain medication do I give him, how on earth do I treat him? Is he more human or more snake?" He shook his head, sighing.
"I don't know." Alfred admitted. "But he needs food, shelter and water. If he stays cool, he'll start slowly recovering if he's more snake like. And I couldn't keep him at the base, it'd be too dangerous for him there."
"I would be inclined to agree." Francis nodded slowly. "But that leaves me with almost nothing I can do for him but to sit and watch him suffer."
"You can probably give him some morphine…it works in snakes and in people, after all." Alfred piped up, putting Arthur's hand in his, letting the creature squeeze it tightly.
Francis agreed, getting out a dose- one appropriate for an exceptionally large human to make up for the fact the creature had an extra several feet in length to the average human.
After a period of waiting, about 18 minutes later, Arthur's death grip on Alfred's hand and his tense body both relaxed, his eyes fogging over with sleepiness rather than pain, and the doctors considered it a victory for them all- for themselves, Alfred, and the snake-man Arthur.