My Food... ( ͡T ︵ ͡T)

Max came to, the darkness of exhaustion slowly loosening its grasp. She hissed in discomfort as she shifted, setting off a chain reaction of crackles down her spine as she uncoiled. Once straightened out, Max stretched, twisting her body, first to the left, then right, and after another bout of pops, Max sighed in relief.

SHE'S ALIVE! Max mentally added rope and trojan horse to her list of tricks. Max's azure eyes narrowed. Something about this felt off, though. She could feel her scales crinkling as her brows furrowed. The little snake's face scrunched up uncharacteristically as her tail tapped her head.

Hmm? Max's azure eyes went wide, and she lifted her tail up and twisted back and forth black scales gleaming like new. She turned this way and that way to inspect her other wounds. Nothing. Max stilled and cautiously put her tail down, eyes blank.

Huh, what do you know? She is an OP. Max's eyes curved. Sage did adore her! Max's eyes narrowed as another thought occurred, did Sage have to be such a tsundere about it? Would it hurt to have at least told Max that she too had made it to the gilded halls of The OP? Max gave a righteous nod as she looked off in the distance, internally squealing and engraving this moment of OPness into her memory.

Grrr. Well, knowing Max, maybe Sage had felt that she would be reckless, not that Max was reckless. Max just had bad luck. The recent series of events passed through her mind. Yes, she had bad luck. Max shook her head. Time to move on, and since she is in tip-top shape, it's time to find food!

Max had lost count of how many days it had been since she had come to this world, but luckily the blood from the dogasaur must have been enough to keep her going while she had been unconscious, but it wasn't enough.

Aside from that, something had dragged the carcass of the dogasaur away or eaten everything down to even the bones. The kicker was that there was no indication of what had eaten it or which direction the dogasaur had been taken. Which Max found disconcerting on several levels since she had passed out not far from the corpse.

Ugh. She could feel her brain heating up from all the speculation and big scary monsters that appeared and disappeared with things that tried to eat her. Max shook off her doom and gloom thoughts of monsters stealing her away for delicious snacks amid her sleep.

Forget it. Instead of focusing on something that would not lend itself to her survival, and she needed to prioritize getting something to eat sooner rather than later. Max's stomach took this as an invitation to announce its agreement. She'd just have to cross that bridge when she got there. Snakes didn't have to eat every day, so that ought to give her some time to hunt, once she got the hang of it.

Now, where to? This was a forest, obviously, but she wasn't sure how to find where food stuff grew. Heck, she had grown up in a concrete jungle. Then again, Max could be overcomplicating things. All she had to do was find some berries or small animals that she could eat. There problem simplified.

Max shuddered. She knew how snakes ate their food and all, but she want to be a rope with a huge knot in the center. Then again, it wasn't like anyone would see her. Max would need to find a spot where she could safely digest her meal. Max tapped her tail to her chin in satisfaction. Yes, this could work.

She straightened out and checked her surroundings with a flick of the tongue. No fresh scents. Alrighty then, time to find dinner! Max slipped through the leaf litter like a fish through water and headed north. At least what she assumed would be north given the location of the moss was growing on the trees.

Wait a minute, what are the cardinal directions here? Is it the same? Max's azure eyes narrowed, and she shook her head. No. She will not go down that rabbit hole.

Max moved through the dappled light of the swaying trees to mitigate the soft glow of her eyes. Perhaps she needed to see if she could arrange another chat with Sage. Max hissed in annoyance. Why did she need to glow in the dark? Sure it was dim, but then why make her coloration suited for darker environments? It felt like Sage had set her up to get into trouble, or for trouble to find her.

Max backtracked. Since her eyes were a source of trouble for her, then perhaps she could use that to her advantage as some sort of lure? On the flip side, there was a possibility that she could draw too much attention. Argh. Why did surviving have to be complicated? Why did Sage make her snake? Why here in a forest? Max sighed, enough of that. She needed to have a chat with her favorite themsie and hear them out.

For now, she needed to be alert. Max tasted the air for anything new. While her vision wasn't the best, she could be vigilant. Max slithered deeper into the forest as the sun rose and the sounds of animals waking up grew. Good, maybe she'd be able to find something here.

Bush. Bush. Tree. Rock. Leaves. More bushes. Grrr... Weren't forests supposed to be laden with fruit? Where was all the food? Forget being sneaky Max was hungry, and her stomach was growling with enough fervor to scare off even predators! Why? Max could feel nonexistent tears well up. She just wanted to eat. At the rate she was going, even rocks and leaves were starting to look appetizing!

Max growled, not just her stomach, but she growled. Max blinked in surprise. She could growl? Max's azure eyes narrowed as the soft chirps of the birds above disappeared. Back on Earth, and with the dogosaurus, the birds had gone silent. Eyes gone wide Max whipped her head left, then right, and up. Nothing.

There was no predator. Not even the crunching of leaves. No noise. Zip. Was it because of her? Did she cause this? Why! She wasn't even that big! Max doubted she could even eat one of those birds because Sage had made her necklace-sized! Max could feel a tick form under one of the scales near her eye. Great, scale wrinkles. She wasn't just going to be a snake. She was going to be a wrinkled snake! That brought with it a whole slew of images that had the little black snake shuddering in disgust. Traumatized, she mentally tossed all the images into a made-up trash can and dumped imaginary gasoline on it, lit it on fire, and did a tribal dance around it. There, much better.

Max slapped herself with her tail. Enough of that! Gah! Focus on the task at hand... With dead eyes, she realized not only was she lecturing herself, but now she was abusing herself. If only Arin were here, but no. Arin didn't come with her and Sage was a butthead that didn't even want to provide a minor, MINOR TUTORIAL ON HOW TO SURVIVE HERE! By the end of Max's mental rampage, her tail was curled into a fist and she was shaking it at the sky.

Max settled back down with an oomph. Time to move on. There wasn't anything here for her and she didn't have all day to mope about in a one-on-one conversation with herself.

Mind adjusted, she flicked her tongue checking for anything edible, or something that her instincts would say was edible. Berries were her first choice, then small animals, and lastly bugs. Max did a full-body wriggle of disgust at the thought of those legs, that head. No, no, no, Max did a full-body wriggle of disgust. No, bugs are not an option unless it is dire.

She had no desire whatsoever to eat bugs, and now that she thought about it wouldn't her venom melt any small prey she managed to catch?

Snakes were omnivores, right? What if they were carnivores? Would she get sick if she tried to eat something other than meat? Max felt unsure. Max hesitated and slowed to a stop. Unless she could adjust the amount she injected. Then she would need to account for partial meals in the meantime. While it wasn't optimal, it would only be for a short time. Smaller meals were better than no meals. Max paused a question popping up. Max didn't know whether or not she was trying to make herself feel better at this point or if she was making it worse so she shoved it into a mental box for later reflection.

Furthermore, the chance that she'd be captured again or have another mishap happen was higher than what Max was comfortable with. She'd need to take time to learn to accurately dispense her venom meant that if there was an emergency she would not be running on an empty tank.

Besides, it wasn't like she could rely on Sage every time she was in trouble. Sure, Sage hadn't given her a tutorial and maybe they wanted Max to demand their help, but was that necessarily correct? NO Max couldn't completely outrule that possibility but she'd rather have a frank conversation with Sage about it than assume that that would be the case.

Shaking her head Max focused on her current problem. Food and how to procure it. While her venom was potent, it was limited and once it was used it took her a while to make more.

Max opened her jaw testing, She could do what pythons did and crush her prey. Then ta-da no half-melted breakfast. Max winced. It wasn't ideal, but what could she do? She had to eat to live, and while she'd opt for fruits or vegetables first if that didn't pan out then hunting it was!

Feeling better, Max's tongue flicked out. Her pupils dilated in surprise and she leapted, the smell luring her with promises of a happy tummy. Food! She quickly curled around the small wriggling form and squeezed, all thoughts of cute and fluffies gone in place of a full stomach. Yes! Go abs of titanium! Max tightened around her meal-to-be, not wanting to them suffer long when a small scream and cry for mercy sounded from the bundle wrapped in her coils. It... It spoke!!!

But then, her food? Noooo! Max shook her head. Maybe she's just hearing things. After all, she scolded herself earlier. Assured, Max resumed squeezing. The breathing of the creature grew fainter and fainter. Just as its breaths started to skip Max heard a breathless sob and a soft plea for help.

Now Max wasn't picky when it came to food, but eating something that could talk? Max shuddered. Ew. Absolutely not. Gross! Bleck, but, but food. Max wanted to cry as hunger pulled at her insides. At this very moment, if Max was brutally honest with herself, it did cross her mind for a second, but it was only just a second.

Okay maybe two, but in the end Max relented and the black snake sorrowfully loosened her coils to get a good look at her captive. It was the size of a mouse, but now that she actually looked at it. It looked human!

Panicked, Max dropped the feathered humanoid and slapped it away with her tail. Picky or not. Foodie or not! Starving or not! That did not mean that she was some kind of cannibal! Max curled up and wanted to cry. Her food was well, not food. So when would she get to eat in this place?!