Adviseshipping (Isis/Mana)

. . .

Oops. Now that was a mistake. That spell hadn't supposed to be for turning that stick into a cobra.

Isis frowned at the snake, wriggling confusedly on the ground. She could...she could turn it back, but...it was alive now. It seemed a little cruel to force it back into an inanimate form now that it was alive and thinking. She knelt down so that she was closer to the dizzy looking cobra.

"There there," she said. "It's all right."

The snake looked at her, tongue flicking out. It seemed fascinated by her voice. It curled itself up into a coil and rose up, stretching out its neck to flick its tongue at her nose.

"Yes, it's me," she said, smiling. "Go ahead and sniff. You've got a lot of things to figure out now."

Animal transfiguration was normally a very tricky business, so she wasn't entirely sure how she could have messed up the spell so badly. But one way or another, the snake was going to be very confused, and might not have all of the instincts necessary to survive on its own.

She reached out a hand slowly towards the snake so that she wouldn't startle it. It flicked out its tongue at her fingers, and then, cautiously, it wrapped its head around her wrist and slithered around her arm, twisting itself around and around her arm until it reached her shoulder. She could feel its tiny tongue flicking at her neck, and she laughed a bit in spite of herself.

Once the cobra was settled, she stood slowly.

It was only then that she realized that Mana was standing behind a pillar, staring at her with a wide mouth and huge, sparkling eyes.

Oops.

"How did you DO that?" Mana said, popping out as soon as she realized that Isis had seen her. She trotted over to Isis, eyes wide as she stared at the snake.

"You mean...the spell? I don't know, actually, something in the recipe must have been wrong—"

"No no," Mana said quickly. "The snake! You just—charmed it like that! She came right to you!"

She stared at the cobra with awe, and Isis blinked, glancing down at the snake's little head on her shoulder. Its tongue flicked out, and it might have been looking back at Mana, but it was hard to tell.

"Well...for one, it's a charm-created animal, which makes it more inclined towards people, especially the caster," Isis said. "For another...I've always been good with snakes."

"Teach me," Mana blurted. "N-not the spell, I know you said you don't know how that happened, and Mahad would probably kill me if I learned how to turn things into snakes, but I mean, teach me how to be friends with snakes!"

Isis almost laughed at her enthusiasm.

"You want to be friends with them so badly?" she said.

"Yes!" Mana said, pumping her fists in front of her. "I'm already good with falcons, but there's this biiiig king cobra that likes to sit in my favorite alcove and I think he's really grumpy cause he won't let me get close, but he's soooo pretty and I just want to know what his scales feel like!"

Isis couldn't stop herself from smiling. She was just so bright and curious.

She turned to the cobra on her arm, reaching up to carefully stroke one finger against its head. It pushed briefly into the touch, and then Isis held her arm out towards Mana.

"Do you want to hold her?"

Mana's eyes lit up, and she reached her hands out, mouth wide with awe. Isis pulled her gently by one wrist so that her fingers were right under the snake's chin. It flicked its tongue at Mana's fingers, and Mana let out a tiny 'oh' sound.

Then the snake carefully slid onto Mana's palm, and began to curl around her wrist. Mana held perfectly still as the snake coiled up her arm until it reached her shoulder, and then draped itself across her shoulders. Its tongue flicked out a few times, making Mana giggle.

"It tickles!" she said.

"She's taking a good sniff of you," Isis said, smiling. Mana really was adorably enthusiastic. Mahad better watch out...or she'd still his apprentice from him. "That was lesson one, by the way."

Mana's eyes snapped up to Isis. And her whole face lit up.

"You're gonna teach me?" she said.

"Yes," Isis said.

"Ahhh!" Mana squealed. "I'd hug you but I don't want to disturb her!"

Isis laughed, and Mana giggled too, and the snake just let out another few flicks of its tongue.

. . .

A/N: Okay that was cute as fuck lol. But anyway that was the last ship on the list that I give a damn about so wish me luck for the last three ;w; Still...only three left...goddamn... Next is Adoptshipping (Gozaburo x Seto).