Chapter 4: Chapter 3: The Crocodile Rocks

Helen, GA

Friday, March 11, 2022, 3:50PM

Breach Event Beta -2hrs, 10min

Phillip awoke with a groan, his entire body feeling as though someone had played football with him using him as the ball. As his eyes shifted back into focus, he could tell he was in his bed in his room, his head propped up on a couple of pillows. From somewhere in the living room, he could make out muffled conversation, likely Mom and Dad worrying over him and taking some sort of blame for his current condition.

He glanced around the room and nearly froze as he realized that there was something curled up at his back, a scaly are draped across his waist, a tail laying across his lower legs. Well, he had met one interestingly scaled creature today… well, he thought it was still the same day.

"Mom, Dad? Are y'all out there?" He called out, hoping that the sound of his voice wouldn't wake the titodile. That is what she had called herself, right? He heard the conversation cut die out, and then two sets of footsteps heading toward his room.

"Honey?" That was definitely his mom's voice. The door opened gently, and his mom's head leaned in the room. Her eyes narrowed when she saw the visitor, but she quickly wiped the look from her face, replacing it with warmth and concern for her son. "How are you feeling? How is your… friend?"

"Warm," Philip replied. He chuckled, and then grimaced an coughed in response to the pain the laugh had brought on. "I'm sore as hell, too."

"Well, whatever attacked you, your new friend there defended you and ran it off." His mom grimaced as she recounted her side of events. "It… she carried you in the house to us and has refused to leave your side since. And I mean that quite literally. Not that I'm comfortable with what looks like a cross between a pubescent girl and a crocodile getting all friendly with my son, but considering the circumstances we thought it best to just monitor y'all until you woke up."

"Well, she saved my life from whatever knocked me around, so I suppose being the little spoon is the least I can do in return." Phillip chuckled at his mom's instant uneasiness at the implications surrounding the statement. She stepped further into the room so that her husband could finally make his way in.

"Hey, buddy, how're you feeling?" His dad said.

"Like a human pinata," he responded, smiling and grimacing all at once. "I see you've met the Titodile. She ate my fish and then saved my life. I think I'm gonna rename her, though, because that sounds surprisingly lewd when I put any thought into it."

"Please do," mom said wryly. "I for one don't want my 12-year-old son constantly using a word with 'tit" as the main feature."

Phillip chuckled. "I don't know, mom. I just thought it was just a bit of a mouthful."

The look on his mom's face combined with a sharp laugh from his dad was all he needed to know that the joke had landed well. Oh, this was gonna be fun, assuming they let him keep her. Not that that was a simple thing, was it?

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*CRASH*

The croc pillow suddenly disengaged from him, sitting up and scrambling for the floor but remaining near him. Dad peeked out the door, then quickly but quietly shut it and began looking for something to reinforce it. He decided on the heavy dresser, and mom helped slide it in place.

"What is it?" his mom whispered.

"Some kind of snake/female hybrid," he whispered back.

There's a quiet knock at the door. "Hello?" a soft voice calls out.

"What do you want?" Dad speaks up. "Whatever it is, take it and go. We have an innocent child in here, and a… protector."

"Ah." There is a silence."What if I said I needed to make a deal with a male of the house? I got… separated from my master, and am… coming dangerously close to becoming feral. I don't know this world. But I need a taming to keep from going nonverbal and potentially violent. Please help."

"I don't know what this.. taming is," dad responds, "but I don't know that I'll be able to help. I have my family in here, and my young son. Please just don't hurt us."

"I'm sorry. I won't hurt you, but I am out of choices." There is the sound of movement away from the door, and then a deathly silence. Phillip strained his ears, trying in vain to listen for any sound. It's eerily quiet. Titodile backs close to him. "Titodile," it says, sounding nervous for the first time since Phillip had met her. The movement pushes you back onto the bed forlack of room to go anywhere else. The monstergirl glanced back to him, attempting to show an aura of calm, but coming up short. He frowned. If the girl who fought off a previous attacker was suddenly unsure of their chances, that scared him to death. "Mom…" He began to say, and his mother glanced back, tried to smile, before her eyes went Wide as saucers.

"PHILLI…"

The glass of the window behind the bed shattered inwardly in such a violent manner that everyone in the room was staggered by it. Phillip felt himself pitch forward, before something rough and scaly wrapped around him' dragging him through the impromptu opening and out onto the lawn.

"I'm sorry," the snake girl said. "I just don't have a choice." Phillip was wrapped up and dragged away into the forest before the titodile could make it out of the bedroom. He heard anguished screams, then silence as something pierced his neck, and he drifted off into unconsciousness.

 

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