Doing something a bit different! The setting of this little piece is in southeast asia. I don't see a lot of southeast asian rep and considering that's where I come from, I wanted to make one /w\ a bit vague as to where specifically on purpose!
naga!sans/reader
You stare at your empty basket happily, feeling the dirt under your feet as you walk. You managed to sell all of your guavas in the market today, and you got a pretty penny for it. The woven basket swung on your fingers as the wind gently rustled the leaves of the nearby trees. The sun was hot. Though it was near sundown you were sweating, you could feel the cloth wrapped around your body from your chest to your shins sticking a little in certain areas. It was a good idea to wear the rice hat, or the sun would've been shining right into your eyes.
You didn't have much longer to go, you were already near the rice fields. Just a bit more, and you're home.
You wiped the sweat off your forehead with your free hand, hopping down on the uneven ground, getting to the dike of the rice field, starting to walk across.
Two dots light up in the darkness, locking in to the figure walking in the distance. He saw the human lady, walking across the rice fields. All alone... he saw the way the dress she wore pressed to her sides. Mmm... he could see the shape of her. So perfectly soft and delightful.
You jump a little when you felt a little bit of the dike you were walking on sink under your foot. Part of it was mud, but thankfully you didn't slip in. You switch the basket to the other hand, the one holding starting to get misty from holding it too long. It should be close to harvesting soon, the greens were reaching up to around your waist now.
Silently, he slipped between the grass. Around harvesting is when the plants are their tallest... where it's hard for people to see through the grass to see where the dike leads. The ground's become dryer since the seeds were planted.
The wind blows, giving you a breeze that's not too cold that it makes you shiver; pleasantly cool on your skin of your exposed arms, even on your back where the cloth was thick. It brushes the rice grass like a comb, swaying them from side to side, like ocean waves.
The grass shivers and hisses in the wind, disguising the sound of his slithering as he moves closer and closer towards you. He presses himself as flat as he can to the ground, moving the grass aside with his body, climbing a dike, before going into another patch of field closer to you.
You yawn. The winds cooling you off make you slightly sleepy. You stop in your tracks, looking at the field around you. Rays of sun casting through the blades, shadows dancing on the rice.
Spotted scales, colors blending him perfectly into the grass. His body as thick as a tree in one part, causing the rice to bend slightly as he passes through. His forked tongue flicks out before he slowly licks his fangs- two especially prominent ones near the back rather the front- as he raises his skull slightly to look at where the girl was, hungrily eyeing her down.
what a... delicious, sweet little thing you are.
A bug lands on a grass nearby. You lean a bit closer to see it was a beetle, one that was harmless to the rice. You smile, watching it crawl around for a little bit. Though, from bringing your attention to it, your eyes are also drawn to the forest nearby, near the borders of the rice field. It looked darker now, just green and darkness... the stories people tell floated to the front of your mind.
Be careful walking around the rice fields when the sun goes down... especially near harvesting season. The grass is too tall to see what's hiding under it all. Beware, for when the sun sinks under the horizon and night takes over day, monsters awaken from their slumber. They come out to hunt in darkness. No one can save you from a threat they cannot see. They come out from the forest, and you were warned by your father not to play in the rice fields as a child, especially here.
"Of all the monsters, the snake monster is the most dangerous. He is bigger than ten men standing on each other's shoulders, and wider than two. His upper body is that of a ghostly skeleton, thicker and stronger than a human’s. And this giant can lurk completely invisible in the rice fields during harvest, girl. He is huge and powerful, and so masterfully stealthy. He is clever. You can run from a boar and hide, and it will leave you. But he knows how to follow his prey. Like other monsters, he likes to take unsuspecting children, but there are stories of adults being taken away by him. There have even been times where he appears in the heart of the village! Be careful my child, he is to be feared. Don’t be in the fields even before sundown, he might see you and take you away.”
You remember the story scaring you so much that you had clung onto your parents that night, and you remember with some amusement, your mother scolding your father for scaring you like that; though she also told you not to play outside after it’s dark.
You were sure this was a story a lot of parents tell their children for exactly that: so they come home before sundown. There were a lot more stories than just that snake monster your dad told you. Stories to scare children so their parents could keep them safe. When you think about it now you laugh; there can’t be any giant skeleton-snakes here. You walk by the fields everyday to and from home, and you remember the times your dad had worked in the fields until it was late. People go in and around the fields all the time, surely more people would disappear because of this mystical giant snake. Even if he did exist... he’s too big to actually hide, right? A snake that huge would stand out, you’d see the grass move, he wouldn’t be able to weave through them.
Rice field snakes and pythons? Maybe. Giant man-eating, child-stealing snake monster? Probably not.
Besides... the sunset looked pretty from where you were standing. Painting the skies orange and yellow, casting a golden glow on the rice as the wind swept through it once more. You took a deep breath, standing where you were, filling yourself with the fresh air, smelling the rice. The air has cooled down slightly, and you feel pleasantly drier than earlier.
See? It isn’t dangerous, dad.
Besides, the sun’s still there. There was nothing for you to worry about.
... Though you did enjoy the scenic view the rice provided, enjoying it all alone, you were getting sleepy and wanted to go home.
You took a step forward-
A buzz from behind you made you flinch a little, and you turn around to see the beetle flying away again. Your eyes follow it to the sky- when you see something moving out of the corner of your eye. Some of the grass were rustling, shaking, approaching you at an alarming rate. Your heart raced at the sight, your muscles all tensing in a fraction of a second- eyes widening when you see a pair of glowing eyes appear out of the grass- the grass hissed furiously as a giant naga shot out of it.
Your mouth fell open, your hands becoming slack, letting go of the basket. Terror gripped your whole body as you watch- the beast had sprung himself off the ground and flew towards you, hands out to grab you, his great maw parted in front of you. Your throat tightened, gasping to shout, but no sound came out, stuck in a silent scream. His thick arms wrap around you and you are toppled to the ground, making a cry as his thick body thrashed and wound around you.
You kick with your legs and hit with your hands, but the snake quickly coil your legs shut, and your hands only brush against the scales that were rapidly covering your vision. The grass shook violently as you were stripped of your mobility- the last thing you remember was his fangs in your face, hands reaching out against his impossibly thick ribs before all went dark.
...
The grass hisses quietly. The sun sinks lower into the ground, casting a long shadow on a upturned basket. Not far from there sits a lonesome rice hat.
