Chapter Title: Green Snakes on the Ceiling

Series Title: Unlikely Brothers

Ages in this chapter: Tanner (14), Dashen (20)

POV: Dashen

Chapter Summary: The boys are stuck in a cave alongside some very odd seeming snakes.


So, we were I guess… trapped. My fault probably, although I wasn't quite sure how. But I was the big brother, I'd take the responsibility. The trapping though wasn't the main issue. No, no, the actual issue was that the cave.. cave? Yeah, probably a cave. The cave were were trapped in, was filled with snakes. Green snakes to be specific. Green snakes on the ceiling to be even more specific. I hated snakes. I hated them even more then they slithering around on ceilings ready to drop on to your head at any given second.

What to do, what to do. Hmmm.

"So, Tanner," I said to my brother. "Suggestions? I mean as a Jedi you had to face snakes, right?"

"Not really. I was only an apprentice for two years, Dash, and not many missions. The were definitely no snakes involved."

"Okay, fine, but you and animals get along. You're always talking to them, speaking their weird languages and stuff."

Tanner pushed his sweat-soaked brown hair back from his face. It was hot at hell in this cave. Prime living quarters for snakes. Not so much for humans.

"Dash, I do not talk to animals. I'm not having this conversation with you anymore. I can't speak snake."

"Well, does it speak your magic?"

"I don't feel any Force push from the snakes, so no."

"Damn it, what good is your magic if you can't talk to snakes?"

I huffed out a breath, scratched at my neck and scrubbed at my hair. I was nervous and this was me with my nerves on end.

"Okay, okay, so, you do know about animals. It's one of your hobbies, you even told me you loved learning about them when you were a kid. Do we know what type of snake they are?"

Tanner thought for a moment. Too long a moment. He had nothing.

"Ceiling snakes?"

I smacked him in the head. "You earned that one, little brother."

"I don't see you bringing anything to the table."

I had to think about this one. We'd come in through a door of some sort. Right? Hadn't seemed a hidden or trap door at the time. We had simply walked through it.

"How can a door just disappear?" I asked for the sake of humoring my thoughts. "I mean, it was there and then it wasn't. Could it be cloaked or shaded in some way? And how did the snakes get in?"

"Snakes don't need doors, Dash." Tanner said to me, and I could feel his eyes rolling with the tone. "But… maybe if we figure out how they move in and out, we can find a weakness in the walls. They have to be able to leave in order to eat."

Logic. Yes. I liked it. Except for… where those bones over there in the far corner? "Ah, Tanner?" I pointed in that direction. The light in the cave was minimal. Some of the stone emitted a pale light, and oddly enough the snakes green color was a glowy type green. So we could see, just not full-on daylight. Still, I knew bones when I saw them, even from a distance.

Tanner's eyes followed my finger. "Hmm" was what he said. Really, that was it. Damn his calm Jedi nerves.

"Hmm? That's it? How about, what the hell is that and are we the next meal? Not sure about you, Mouse, but I prefer to keep my entire body, bones included, intact. Are they human?"

In an almost perfect unison, we stepped forward, stopping a foot away.

"Hmm" Tanner said again.

"Damn, Tanner, stop hmming. We've got a problem."

"Well, the snakes aren't all that large and we are bigger, not so sure they can take us down."

"Not one of them, but if the entire crew drops, we are probably snake chow."

"Snake chow?"

"Snake chow."

Tanner stepped back to his original position. "Wait. Those aren't human bones, there's a skull there, some type of large rat perhaps." He jumped to the side with one of the green snakes dropped downward and landed near his foot. He shooed it away.

"That's one big rat. The skull looks about the size of a small child."

"You've not seen the Coruscant sewer rats. They are the size of a small child."

Nice picture to haunt my dreams, but none of this helped our situation. Tanner halfway thought about taking a seat furthest from the bulk of the ceiling snakes, then thought better about it. I could see the idea floating in his mind and then right back out again. So, yeah, maybe not so Jedi calm as I thought.

"Seriously, little brother, I've no idea what to do here. This is a first for me, being stuck in a cave with green snakes on the ceiling. Or for that matter, any snakes on any ceiling." I looked at him, wishing for an answer.

His hand reached into his belt pouch to discover what he already knew. The com was useless.

"Whatever the composition of this cave, it's blocking us. So, let's be smart about this. Don't do anything stupid. Dash."

I feigned mock surprise as I glared at the former Jedi kid. "You know, in case you've forgotten, many of my situations, you have been a co-conspirator. I'm not the only idiot in this family."

"Ah," Tanner said as he stepped away from me, "But you are the original." Yup, just far enough to avoid the head slap. Damn Jedi.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we need a plan. Come on! Whoa!" Three snakes dropped that time. One of them - one of biggest of the group - grazed my arm and I felt the weird scales on the glowing skin. Not the scales of a normal snake.

"The scales are different. There's some type of fuzz on them. Great. Fuzzy glowy green snakes on the ceiling. Perfect. Colton's is gonna kill me for this one."

While I rambled, Tanner was taking action, kinda. One of the snakes that dropped, he reached out to try and pet it. Talking to it. Reasoning with it? My head fell into my hands and I rubbed my face hard.

"Hello Momma Snake." Tanner said. "You are very green and glowy and my brother says you are fuzzy too. Can I feel?" He reached out with two fingers, still talking. "I won't hurt you. You're a very pretty snake. I wonder if this is your family. Maybe you've got about three hundred kids sliding about? They are all very beautiful. You must be very proud of all of them."

He went on, I just stood there shaking my head. But thinking backwards too. This was exactly what Kossi would've done. Not only to lighten the serious situation, but to really try and ease another creature. I had to laugh at myself there. The parallels were so strange from my real brother to my adoptive brother. Not that it would help us out of this predicament, of course. Still. It was fascinating. Tanner kept talking.

"Where do you live momma snake? Do you live in the cave? Or maybe you go to another place to eat or hide or sleep. I think.. hmm."

Great, more hmms. "Tanner?" I asked when I saw him thinking too hard and actually making contact with the large snake.

"Dash, I don't think the glow effect is constant. I think they have to recharge. See how some of them are dimmer than others?" He pointed to the ceiling. And it was true. Some of the snakes were very bright, some you could barely see at all. Maybe his hmms were amounting to something.

"What are you thinking, Mouse? The sun has to recharge them?"

He nodded, not taking his eyes off the biggest of the snakes. "Maybe so and the momma snake here, she's pretty big to be slithering through too tight a space. She's a fat one."

"Yeah, ah, don't call her fat. She might decide to turn and eat you."

"Nah, she's my friend now, see?" With those same two fingers, he set them under the snake's chin and… scratched? Was he seriously scratching the snake on the head? My life. I swear. It got weirder and weirder. "She's a gentle soul, Dash. Come over and pet her."

Nope and nope and nope. "Nope. I'm good. I thought you can't talk to animals."

"I can't. But I can feel."

I cringed just a bit. "Please don't tell me the snakes are magic snakes."

"You mean Force sensitive?"

"That's what I said. They aren't, are they?"

"This one is. Maybe it's just the adult females, I only sense it from her. The others are just there. Hmm."

"Tanner, stop with the damn humming. Tell her to help us find the exit."

"Dash. For the last time, I cannot talk to them."

"Well then whammy her with your magic that Ben's been teaching you. I'm sure he faced his fair amount of snakes during all those Jedi years."

If Tanner had been an impatient kid, he'd have picked up a snake and hurled it at my head. Thankfully, he was all things that I was not. And that means, I did not get pelted with a snake. He did turn away from me and back to the creature.

"Forgive my brother, momma snake. He's a good guy and I love him, but he's an idiot sometimes. I imagine you have your fair share of babies like that? Now, we need your help."

Didn't he just finish telling me that he could not talk to animals? What the hell? "Tanner…"

"I'm only saying the words, Dash, so hopefully she can feel the tone and the meaning behind them. Not everything is about the verbal, but at times, speaking out loud can help one feel." Me put in my place (again) and he started with the snake again. "Some of your babies might need to recharge again, their glow isn't as bright. Maybe they can't hold the glow very long when they are young and as they get older, that ability improves. So, you need to lead them. My guess is, they are not very well behaved at such young ages, so they will slither out in groups rather than single file. There has to be a bigger way out."

He was kind of talking to me while still feeling-toward the snake. I got it now.

"You can show us that bigger way out and we can go and leave you and your family alone. We won't bother you anymore, but we can't find our way out. Can you tell your babies to go into the sun?"

Yup, there it was. The oddest one-sided conversation I'd ever seen in my life. But, if it was going to work…well, Tanner would be the one to make it happen.

The big snake eyed him for several long minutes. It was creepy, but oddly fascinating. It's… no wait, I guess it really was a female. Her tongue flittered as if she was studying Tanner's face or possibly his soul for sincerity. She'd find it. The kid was as sincere as they came.

Tanner smiled at her as he stood and waited. Patient. So patient was my brother. I envied him at times. He waited her out and at some point, he won. The fuzzy, glowing, green snake moved sideways, then forward to wrap around his feet as a loving pet might do. After that, she hissed three short times and several giant balls of young green snakes on the ceiling, were no longer on the ceiling. Of course I leapt backwards. When four hundred slithery reptiles fall from the ceiling and land all around you in mass confusion, you'd leap backwards too. Or run like hell. The latter was not an option however, so I stood my ground, kinda sorta… After the leap.

Then almost as one, the rolling mass of snakes did just as Tanner said they would. Not one by one, but in masses, they shuffled to the furthest part of the cave (and the darkest too) and just when it looked as if they'd all run head on into the stone wall, part of that stone wall opened. Was it the movement or the weight or the speed? Not a clue. All I know is that they rushed the opening and slid for their lives. The larger 'momma snake' stayed back to make sure all her charges got through. Then, she turned to stick a tongued look at my brother before scurrying through the passage herself.

As Tanner yelled THANK YOU MOMMA SNAKE at the top of his lungs, I grabbed his arm and dragged him out the door before it could trap us again. Together we followed the rolling balls of baby snakes until rays of sunlight could be seen shining through the ceiling of the cave beyond. It was there where the top later of stone thinned to an almost transparent shale, allowing for powerful sun rays to light and warm the area. A few more steps and there we were. In the open. In the sun. Not far from our ride home.

Tanner climbed on the speeder bike first, and was he waving to the snakes as they slithered off into the sunny distance? Of course he was. Why wouldn't he?

"Mouse, you are one weird kid," I said to him as I hopped onto the bike in front of him.

"It's not so weird if you just listen and feel, Dash."

"Uh huh. Sure. Whatever. Put your helmet on, weirdo."

With a pop, he clunked the black helmet onto his head and then whacked the top of mine. That hurt. I deserved it.

"We are heading home, and I expect a full report by tomorrow on the type of snakes they were, their habits, their food source and the reason they glow."

I kidded of course, but he'd do it. If Tanner loved anything, it was learning. Fuzzy, glowy, green snakes on the ceiling? Oh yeah, he have his brain stuck in research mode for the next how ever many hours.

"Too bad we can't keep one as a pet. I'd really like to see how the sun works against it's fuzzy scales."

"You would and no. No pets and especially no slithery ones. I can imagine Colton's reaction if you brought one of those things home. Although…" My turn to hmm. That might be entertaining to see his eyes bulge and the veins on his neck expand as he chewed me out for humoring Tanner with a pet snake. Ah, never mind. "No, never mind," I said, and told Tanner to hold on for the ride home.

Naturally, and not unexpectedly, Tanner babbled in my ear (well, he yelled mostly - over the sound of the engine), about how fascinating snakes are and what kind they had on Coruscant and that confused me, because that was a giant city planet and why would they have snakes?

Because they had rats, was his response.

And well… that was good enough for me.


END