Sleeping Beauty: Book 2 Chapter 1

Verse 1
Something brushed

past her feet.

There it goes.

Weaving through the brush, into the woods.

"What could it be?"

Sleeping Beauty wondered drowsily.

"It's a nightmare snake."

Parrah answered, and Noya giggled.

A bed of smooth serpents

might make for cool, cossetted dreams...

Though she heard the writhing nightmare,

Sleeping Beauty let out a stifled yawn.

Parrah:

How would a bed of snakes feel?

Sleeping Beauty:

I don't know.

Never slept in one.

Noya:

Then let's catch some and make a bed!

Sleeping Beauty:

I don't know.

Never slept in one.

Verse 2
Finding a place to sleep in the Library

is far too much work.

Perhaps... a moving bed? That would be so nice...

Verse 3
All I want is peace, quiet,

and a nice warm bed.

That's all I need in life.

Verse 4
I hear the sound of fighting.

Someone wails.

Such a sweet lullaby.

Verse 5
A sound could be heard

in that shifting space between reality and dreams.

It was the sound of slithering snakes.

Verse 6
Hello there, Miss Snake.

Why don't you join me?

Your soft, cool scales

will carry me to the land of dreams.

Verse 7
Why, Miss Snake.

I heard you hibernate in winter.

Won't you share that secret with me?

Verse 8
Oh, Miss Snake.

When you dream during your winter's rest,

do you dream of the sun's warmth?

Verse 9
No matter how many times she asked,

the snake did not reply.

It simply continued to writhe,

flicking its forked tongue.

Verse 10
A gigantic snake appeared before Beauty,

glossy and quivering.

Parrah and Noya chattered endlessly.

"Oh no! A snake! A snake!"

"Hurry and run! Run, little Briar Rose!

Run before it swallows you whole!"

But the snake did not move to strike.

It was as if those eyes held a warning.

As if its flicking, tasting tongue tried to deliver a message.

But all it could do is stare.

Snake:

That thisss

world...be...

Parrah:

Hurry up and kill 'em already!

Noya:

They'll swallow ya whole if ya don't!

Sleeping Beauty:

Oh?

Really?

Parrah:

You want a new bed,

don't you?

Noya:

You want a nice,

deep sleep, don't you?

The snake's quivering body crumbled,

collapsing to the ground.

Sleeping Beauty climbed atop its corpse

and made herself comfortable.

"Ah... I was right. It's so nice and cool."

That's when it happened.

A voice within the snake whimpered,

"Peace in this world..."

Peace? That's easy to achieve.

"All you have to do is sleep,

just go to sleep."

And soon enough, she did exactly that.

Discordant Poem
Have you ever heard of Adam and Eve?

The reason they were exiled...from Paradise?

Adam and Eve were seduced by a serpentine devil

and ate the forbidden fruit.

That was how they gained knowledge

and were banished from the Garden.

You know...

Adam and Eve could've lived in Paradise forever...

if they'd just ignored the snake.