Kendraha finally crosses the ocean, and it's getting harder to keep her secret as the human population grows, technology improves, and their minds grow more resistant to her influence. Still, it's very few who have such abilities, and she develops knew talents of her own.
Stranded in Alternate Time 19-21,
by Py, (c) 10/14/2000,
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Detective Laura Benford) The many strange disappearances of people from the Hawaiian Islands during the war years have never been satisfactorily explained. A few were blamed on the bombing at Pearls Harbor which pulled the Ameris into World War 2. This cannot account for the rest though.
Certainly some can be traced back to swimming or diving accidents, but in 1939 the rate of these unexplained cases rose dramatically, lasting until a few years after the war, when it returned to it's previous level. Statistically the unexplained deaths and disappearance rate grew from approximately 1 per year for the entire chain of islands, to about 6 or 7 per year, except 41 and 42 when the numbers went way up, probably due to the initial raid by the Japinese and the 3 smaller raids in 42. The delay in return to a normal level disputes the suggestion that a group of Hawaiians of Japinese descent were secretly waging a war of there own, and even if you allow for them continuing after the war, there's the sudden fall back to normal as if such a group stopped suddenly. Some have suggested the work of one person, this could be possible, except if so they covered their tracks extremely well.
In all my years of studying this case I have found virtually no evidence of any abductions, nor any evidence suggesting a death, never mind a body. The only clear evidence we do have is that in a few cases the victims were seen leaving work or another location before the disappearance, accompanied with or followed by, an unidentified person. In all but one case this person is identified as female and of average height, the one male sighting short and in the same height range as the female sightings, but other than that descriptions are completely different each time. Different hair colors and styles, different skin and eye colors, and physical shapes of the women vary from trim and athletic to voluptuous or fragile. Clearly this Follower as some call her is not the same person, or else this suggests a conspiracy with no clear motive.
There are those who wish to blame the Church of Kendraha, which is rumored to perform human sacrifices to their Goddess. I find the idea of them being responsible for these Hawaiian disappearance cases extremely unlikely. The nearest temple is in San Francisco, and it would be far easier for them to get sacrifices from the mainland. Even if the rumors are true, and if they wanted to get sacrifices from the Hawaiian islands, it would be absurd for them to get all of there war time sacrifices from there, especially with the threat posed to any vessel by the Japinese Navy at that time.
True, there are always small cults to the Goddess Kendraha. These are generally very small family groups, friends, or collections of people which are too small in number to have their own temple. Kendraha cults may consist of 2 people who are obsessed with the religion, to a couple of dozen or more, and the Hawaiian islands would be a perfect place for such a small group to exist. That is if the group existed, attending ceremonies in San Francisco would be far too expensive on a regular basis, so they would manage alone, probably with someone who had minimal knowledge or had read a book on the subject. I find this highly unlikely also, not that they could exist, for surely some Kendrahaites do exist in Hawaii. I find it highly unlikely that any small group could pull off so many disappearances while leaving virtually no traces.
Anonymous man in audience) Detective Benford, who do you think is responsible, or do you think it was naturally explainable in some fashion?
Detective Laura Benford) It's impossible to say with any degree of reliability. However, my gut instincts tell me this is the work of one person. Don't ask, I can't explain the differing descriptions of the Follower, except I think the people sighted had nothing to do with the disappearances and are just unfortunates who were remembered. To assume otherwise means we either return to the vast conspiracy theory, blame the Kendrahaites, or assume the abductor can change his or her appearance.
Anonymous woman in audience) Detective Benford , what of the rumors that the killer may be able to disguise his or her form or otherwise escape into thin air. A few newspapers of the time made mention of the disappearances, and suggested supernatural abilities. They even drew parallels to the Jack Ripper case over 150 years ago, pointing out that he was never caught and at the time was thought to possibly have such supernatural powers.
Detective Laura Benford) Pardon me for laughing, it was bad manners. You shouldn't be afraid to ask that question, there may be such things in the world for all I know, but I've yet to see anything to fit the supernatural mold. Jack Ripper was just a man, you may think otherwise, but whatever he was we have absolutely no evidence of the supernatural about him. Oh, some claim he was actually a she, pointing out the Doctor's wife who was the last victim of Jack. She was killed in a different style, and the murders stopped immediately after, leaving many to say that she was Jack. If so, who killed her, and why?!
With the Follower which was just over 100 years ago we have even less evidence. No bodies, nothing to study, only statistics and vague reports of the Follower. We might have gotten more, but during that time things were disorganized. First the tension before the war, then the bombing of Pearls Harbor followed by frantic war activity, and finally recovery from war. Who knows what opportunities to solve the case were lost.
Now, I have to turn the mike over to another guest soon, any further questions?
Anonymous man in audience) Yes, Speaking for myself I just want to know, are you free for dinner?
Detective Laura Benford) Perhaps, I'll check with my husband, he's out target shooting today at the police firing range, he's a terribly jealous sort, but I'll tell him it's in the name of science.
Excerpt from a follow-up Q and A by Detective Laura Benford,
Assembly on crimes and criminology, Westerton, (2054 AD)
Detective Laura Benford) guest speaker on unsolved crimes, disappearances, and abductions,
19. The young Polynesian woman walked through the jungle of this remote and small Hawaiian island. Nobody ever came here to her knowledge except her, teens and such generally had too much to occupy them to care about this place, and it offered nothing of interest to fishermen, tourists, or the Navy. Their had been talk about putting a radar station here, but radar was still so new, and putting it here would require either a constant presence on the island, or regular visits from people to maintain it. The first was undesirable, the second was unthinkable due to the expense of installation and maintenance from a distance. So it seemed to Lalu that her island adventures were in no danger for the immediate future. Not that she did much, a little clam digging, and the birds were so tame here she could touch them sometimes if she worked at making friends with one. Her nude sunbathing and swimming at a small lake would be out though, but she decided she'd live with that well enough, and the clam digging would remain if they didn't run her off the island, but she knew the birds would become more fearful of humans, and she dreaded it.
Lalu hadn't known why she had chosen today to come here, it had only been a few days ago that she had already been here, and usually she waited 2 or 3 weeks between trips. However, she had done it the way she usually did, not telling anyone so as to guarantee nobody would follow or find her. This insured her privacy unless someone just happened to come this way by coincidence, and even then they would have to go inland to the valley where a clear lake was formed by a convergence of mountain streams.
Lalu put her supplies down next to the lake, then began to undress, letting her voluptuous 19 year old body escape the jeans and blouse. She carefully hung them over a tree branch along with her white bra and panties, being careful not to let them get dirty. Her mother would make things hell for a few days if she found dirt on her undergarments. She also knew about the clam digging and tolerated it, but didn't know that she went alone, or the rest of the things she did. Her mother would throw a complete fit if she found out, and father was a Navy Captain and he'd ground her for a few years at least. Of course she would be 21 in less than 2 years, but father always yelled about as long as she lived in his house, and his reputation in the military. Lalu thought it was mildly amusing, but still having a Hawaiian mother and mainland father did tend to keep her rebellious streak in check a bit, if only to keep from embarrassing him with the Navy.
Lalu dove into the lake, it was warm but with a slight chill to it. She wasn't worried about animals here, this being Hawaii there was nothing dangerous to worry about on land, although at sea sharks were a concern. So Lalu swam underwater in the lake with no fear, playing with the fish she found swimming there. Then she floated on her back gently kicking from time to time, or doing a fast lap around the lake. Finally she stood in hip high water, brushing it out of her long dark hair, letting droplets roll off her Polynesian skin. She felt an urge to move forward to get out of the water here, even though her supplies were some distance away, telling herself that she could walk along the shore. So she proceeded to walk her way out of the lake onto the surrounding sand.
She turned to walk in the direction she wanted, finding that the trees often came between her and the lake, but there were no thorns or heavy brush to block her way. Halfway to her goal Lalu felt an odd sensation and stopped near a large tree. It felt as if someone was watching her. She forced a small laugh, reminding herself that nobody was here except her. However she felt goose bumps forming on her wet skin, and caught herself straining to hear the least little noise. Smiling at her own foolishness, Lalu tried to relax herself.
Something big that at first seemed like a thick green and black rope fell down in front of her, one end of it still secured in the branches above her head. Pain shot through her forearm, and before she could react to any of it there was a coil around her body. Lalu quickly realized that this was not a rope, it was far too thick, and ropes don't bite or writhe. As it pulled her a few steps backward another coil began forming around her, and she suddenly remembered. "Oh my god, your a boa constrictor! There are no boa constrictors in Hawaii!" was her first coherent thought, then she began actively struggling and screaming.
Lalu tried to remain standing, she wasn't sure why but it seemed to her that if she fell than she would never get up again. The serpent was very heavy though with most of it's length on her, and coils around her chest between her large breasts, around her thin waist, and around her thighs. Her right arm had somehow gotten stuck against her body by the uppermost coil, but her left arm was free, and the serpent's head had repositioned somewhere on her leg.
Lalu shrieked and tried to scream, finding both more difficult as the coils around her tightened, and more weight required her attention as it lowered onto her from the branches over her head. When she did manage to take a step forward it was because the last of the snake had fallen upon her. She worked hard to remain upright, but with the coils shifting all around her combined with the weakness from lack of oxygen, Lalu quickly fell to her knees, then fell forward. The serpent lost no time in consolidating it's grip as she panicked and rolled, trying to fight her way loose but only helping the snake to further coil around her, and although Lalu tried to reach something she found her other arm now hampered by a coil of serpent muscle.
Lalu screamed as loud as she could, which wasn't much at this point, and the coils grew tighter around her. Thoughts flashed through her mind wondering if this snake had escaped a zoo or something, and what would her mother say when she didn't come home. Her own fear of snakes had been suppressed in the immediate attack, but now rushed back to fog her mind and make her hysterical. The serpent had slowed to a rhythmic constriction of it's prey, so every time Lalu exhaled the coils tightened, and her next inhale was less than the previous one. Lalu still fought, kicking her lower legs and trying to squirm out of the crushing coils, and getting nowhere in the process.
During occasional moments of clear thought, the attack seemed to Lalu to be going on forever. She swore that when she could barely breathe and would nearly black out, the coils would loosen and let her take in air. Then she would fight hard again, her fear and now anger at the world driving her on. Then the coils would grow slowly tighter once more, until she stopped fighting and just tried to breathe. This repeated many times, then eventually when the coils loosened Lalu's struggles did not intensify noticeably. She was in pain, her fear dulled by exhaustion, and she lay on her back gasping for air, gripping the sand and kicking weakly, but little more. Then the serpent once more tightened it's grip, until Lalu was straining for air with mouth and eyes wide, first getting little, then getting none. One lower arm worked free and weakly pushed at a coil, then Lalu's body stiffened briefly and finally relaxed, her head falling limply to the ground.
A short time after this The serpent moved it's head onto Lalu's chest, staying motionless as if waiting for something to happen. Then it moved around to her head while the coils loosened a bit, unhinged and expanded it's jaws, and slowly began swallowing the lifeless form of Lalu. It took time for the serpent to work it's jaws around Lalu's voluptuous form, she was almost too big for a normal serpent of it's size, and it had known this when selecting this larger than normal human victim. However, with her better than average Humalli shape changing ability, which included being able to stretch her feeding form mouth more than normal, it wasn't too difficult. Plus the emotions from the woman's fear of snakes had worked well, it would be her best feeding in many years, and well worth the effort of stretching her mouth a bit more than usual. Besides, in serpent form she could swallow all but the largest humans, and this meal was only large for a human female and not a real problem for her.
Kendraha had enjoyed hunting in feeding form, although she wasn't about to make a habit of it. This had been a special case though, the woman's fear of snakes had intensified her emotions in ways that Kendraha doubted the half human hunter form could have achieved. However, to do it right Kendraha had been forced to rely on the hypnosis techniques she had learned in only the past few decades. Humans had developed hypnosis on this Earth also, and Kendraha had never bothered to learn it back in the academy, since she felt there would probably be no reason to use it on any missions to alternat time lines. Her usual mental abilities at close range were more than enough to get a human to do what she wanted on any Earth, but here Kendraha had learned that hypnosis offered several advantages. She could give someone a hypnotic suggestion strengthened with her own mental powers, and whatever she wanted they'd do it if they were a good subject. She didn't have to follow close to them, just suggest that they go somewhere, like she had with Lalu. So that had allowed her to ambush Lalu in serpent form to drink in her extreme fear reactions to a snake. It took less time to give such a complex push to a human mind this way as well, but she hadn't liked the idea of leaving her alone and hoping Lalu showed up. Kendraha thought she probably wouldn't use the technique too often, but occasionally it would be a good way to have someone go to a location without supervision. Kendraha just about finished the swallowing of Lalu, and realigning of her jaws, when she decided she could sleep and digest right there.
Kendraha hadn't liked the idea of crossing the ocean, but a few years after killing Jack Ripper, she decided it was time. The metal ships were safe enough, and having stalked and killed the woman known as Jack Ripper, she felt something of the Amazon in her rebelling at the notion that she still wouldn't brave the ocean crossing. Leaving the whorehouse to her best 2 girls, she bought a ticket on the largest and safest steam vessel of the times. It had been a swift crossing of about 12 days, with the first few days having to isolate herself in her cabin, because once again she had forgotten her sea travel ritual that her doctor had given her. She stayed in her cabin a lot for those days, and nobody seemed to notice that they tended to get a queazy seasick feeling in their stomachs as they passed her door.
North Ameris seemed wonderful to her, the technology was about the same as she had left, but the mind set of the people was different. She met lots of people, most either prospering, just happy to be in Ameris, or both at the same time. Society was basically structured the same, but a lot looser, and she thought it might prove easier to hunt here. However, Kendraha promised herself to make trips across the ocean in the future, at least once every 50 years or so to keep in the habit, and so that her temples to the Goddess would not go completely without her attention. Kendraha did hope to start a temple or 2 here in the new world, but there was time for that later.
It was only a few years after that when she read a mind with thoughts that intrigued her, and a trail led her to meet the Wright brothers. She became so curious to actually see if they would invent the airplane on this Earth, that she mentally encouraged both brothers to be attracted to her, more than they already were. Although their father was a strict religious man, he let his boys choose their own ways as much as he could, and the idea that they were both seeing a young and attractive French accented blonde woman didn't entirely please him. However, Kendraha kept her mental touch on them very light, she didn't want either of them falling deeply in love with her, only let her hang around, show her things, and let her be there when the plane went up, if it went up.
Ultimately she did have affairs with both of them, neither knowing about the other, and her trying to make sure that neither became too distracted. It worked, neither brother had ever seriously thought of marriage around her for a long time, and they still looked at other women even in her presence. But both were quite fond of her, and once she thought that Orville had nearly gone too far and was about to propose, but he hadn't, and she had managed not to devour either of them in return.
Finally the Wright Flyer had flown 3 times, then crashed. Wilbur had broken his bones but recovered, Orville had married a female reporter, and eventually Kendraha had left without devouring anybody in the large Wright family. She didn't want to alter what she knew of general human history in most time lines, and having a Wright family member for dinner would almost surely do that, especially one of the 2 brothers. This phase of human history interested her mainly because it so effected Humalli history. The Humalli had never invented airplanes or balloons until after inventing time travel, then learning how to fly from humans in other time lines. When she had left her people, Humalli had some good quality aircraft about equal to late 20th or early 21st century human technology from other time lines, because that was about the best the human slave population could create, maintain, and operate.
It had taken a lot of bravery for her kind to cross the ocean. They were no cowards, but drowning was a major problem for them as they tended to sink in human form, and somewhat less so but still enough to cause death in hunter form. They could do much better in feeding form which like any serpent could swim fine, but then they were subject to all the problems of a cold blooded animal. Besides long distance swimming could be difficult, unless you were one of the Humalli that had developed some fins on their tail and other places like the sea snakes of this and many other Earths. Their problem was being less adapted to land, living in homes half in the sea or a lake, or having to keep several well maintained pools at home. They weren't poisonous as were sea snakes here, but they also constricted their prey in shallow water, usually in a hunter form also, in primitive times using their disguise and mental abilities to lure primitive prey into the water with them.
In all these years Kendraha had never tried forming fins on the end of her serpent tail until that night in the whorehouse weeks after killing Jack Ripper. With her above average shifting ability Kendraha had no real problem doing it to either the hunter or feeding form, only deciding how it should be for the best appearance and how well it would work. After that she was much less concerned about travel on ships that left the sight of land. Up until then she didn't worry about her serpent form being able to reach land in an emergency, having only come close to overestimating her capacity once, but the tail fins and other stabilizing fins doubled or tripled her range. Kendraha knew she could easily swim from one end of the Hawaiian islands to the other now in feeding fin form, or at least between any 2 close islands in hunter fin form. She even learned how to put webbed fingers and flipper feet on the human form to give herself a chance of survival that way, or webbed toes instead if too many humans were around. Kendraha was quite pleased with herself, these were tricks few in her world could have done, probably because all Humalli except sea Humalli had a dislike of deep water so few had ever tried. It didn't seem so bad to her since then though, and Kendraha had realized that the world was changing, and try as she might her future survival would require some risk taking as things grew more technologically advanced.
Of course this still only increased Kendraha's range a bit, which was nothing compared to the size of the ocean, and cold water currents were still a major problem, but it changed things in her own mind. She still hated deep water, and still preferred not to take avoidable risks, but she found herself able to contemplate taking some risks that before would have overwhelmed her thoughts. Mostly she put it down to the Amazon in her, but partly she thought it was the casual way that humans did these things all the time. Of course they didn't have a 10 thousand year life span or more to protect, but each year that excuse became weaker. Kendraha loved her new fin form variations, but never planned to use them except in emergencies or to keep in practice at shifting into them.
So she had crossed the Atlantic ocean in a steam ship with many humans making the journey. In her first 20 years in the United States of Ameris she found the first cars, motorcycles with sidecars, electricity in more expensive areas of the country, and she saw the invention of the airplane. Kendraha eventually gathered money and took up a disguise as the daughter of a rich old woman who almost never was seen even by many servants, and when she was seen was never seen with her daughter, although the servants would swear that they had seen them together if they had ever been pushed on the subject. In the late 20's and 30's even the daughter was seldom seen outside her family mansion, crime from the mob and moonshiners was too great. Kendraha felt unsafe so stayed home, occasionally would travel to implant a hypnotic suggestion in someone, then wait at home for her meal to come to her after making sure they hadn't let themselves be seen. The servants were easy enough to deal with, such long term exposure to her mental influence made it easy enough to make them do or believe anything. Kendraha even had several of them going out to catch food for her, which they would deposit in a cell in a soundproof cellar room area, then she would simply make them forget all about it.
War tension in the late 30's made the world locally a bit safer, but sea travel became out of the question. The last thing Kendraha had expected was to fall in love. She had absolutely no idea what this feeling was when the big Navy Commander and her met, but it had grown. Realization had at first made her want to puke, then throttle the Commander, then simply go to bed with him. When he asked her to marry him she did without a thought, coming up with excuses for leaving her mother, then having her mother die so she could inherit everything. When he was made 2nd in command of a submarine and transferred to Pearls Harbor, she went with him without a thought of the dangers of feeding in such a small place, or flying over the huge stretch of pacific ocean. She was a good wife, waiting faithfully for his return from a mission, greeting him with a huge smile, and serving in a Naval hospital as a nurse. They even let her bring her birds from the states, as long as they met certain health and safety standards.
Now Kendraha stood in human form on the beach of the small island, watching the waves of Japinese planes heading for the main island. "Damn, they're 2 days early on this Earth." Kendraha hoped that like on the other Earth's, the subs and carriers would be out of the harbor when the attack came, but she had planned on being available to the hospital. She could still be there for the immediate aftermath. Kendraha ran to her little speedboat, and as fast as she could with the little outboard motor she rushed home.
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20. When she docked her small boat, Kendraha wasn't at all surprised to feel the tension in the air. Fear and panic from almost every direction combined in a delicious way, however she was annoyed to find her thoughts on Paul, and hoping he hadn't been anywhere near the harbor for the attack. Kendraha ran up the ramp onto the pier, her nurse's shoes clattering on the wood, her skirts bouncing as she ran. Kendraha saw a motorcycle and grabbed it. A man began to protest, so she told him that she was a Navy nurse needed at the hospital, while making him think she showed him an ID, and while projecting cooperation into his mind. Her short blond hair blew around her as she sped down the road towards the harbor, which was easy to see since smoke clouds streamed up from the ground there, and hung above the place while the wind slowly blew it away.
Arriving at the harbor Kendraha found the expected devastation. The exact count escaped her memory, but this seemed bad enough to fit the mold. Kendraha saw ships on fire, men jumping into oily water or into water on fire, a few buildings accidentally hit, even an overturned truck on fire, and people running everywhere. She joined in with the people trying to help save people, saving lives when she could, easing pain when she couldn't, and discreetly feeding on the escaping life force of one sailor who died in her presence.
Kendraha spent 11 hours working to save lives and send them to the hospital, then she went herself. At the hospital she worked nearly 34 hours, hardly thinking about the job sometimes. Her mental abilities made her an excellent nurse, she could feel the patient's symptoms, or read their thoughts which was particularly useful if they couldn't or wouldn't talk. Kendraha then gave advice in the form of intuition, and the doctors had come to depend on her as her intuitions so often led them to the answers. Everyone loved her at the job, even strangely the nurse who tended to hate any other nurse who showed her up. Now Kendraha was 3rd nurse in charge already, and had been accepted by everyone it seemed in record time, even by those nurses who's boyfriends ogled her body from time to time.
Eventually someone dragged her off to take a nap, Kendraha wasn't thinking straight and allowed it. Her mind was flooded with concerns for Paul, she hadn't heard a word from him in these times of nighttime black-out following the raid, but she consoled herself that she hadn't found anybody from his sub among the injured, nor had anyone else she thought. All those thoughts ended when her head hit the mattress of the cot in the nurses sleeping room on that floor, when she instantly fell unconscious. Sleep ended an hour later when another nurse entered the room and screamed. That nurse ran like the devil was chasing her, but when others entered they found Kendraha pretending to sleep, her tail having returned to legs. After that Kendraha snuck down to the basement, where she found a rarely used room, locked herself in, and slept on the cold cement floor.
Eventually things slowed down at the hospital, and word came that Paul's sub was fine and so was he. However over the coming years she saw little of him, only the occasional stop for refueling brought him to land briefly, and fortunately his patrol area included defending Hawaiian waters. In 1943 word came that his sub had been sent on a mission into Japinese held waters, and was overdue. A year later an island in that area was taken, and the wreck of the sub was found submerged in over 100 feet of water. Kendraha cried terribly for hours after the visit with the admiral who told her personally, and her best friend Judith stayed with her all that night. Kendraha managed to fix Judith's mind so she wouldn't notice the tail, but found concentration difficult so it took a lot longer to do. It was a time she would never forget, feeling such emotions from the inside felt so terrible. Of course Humalli had the same feelings for each other, but no one had ever died on her, and the conflicts of having been in love with a human just made it strange.
Judith became a roommate for the rest of the war, each able to compensate for the others long hours at work, but usually they kept the same hours. It only took a year for the pain of losing Paul to seep into the background of Kendraha's mind. During that first year work helped her forget temporarily, and it seemed to her that every time they got things fixed and people healthy again, the Japinese would throw more planes at them. However that stopped after 7 months and the island returned to normal after a while, unless a ship returned then things briefly became fast paced again. Kendraha tried to get involved with other men, even trying women which she had done before. But even with Judith it wasn't the same. This made her realize that not even Humalli could force a relationship, and she also realized how entirely inexperienced she was at love or whatever this was, rather than a brief fling ending with feeding. Vlad had been probably the most intense, but there hadn't been a serious relationship like that one since, nor before it on this world. There had been Vlad and a few others over the years who had seemed almost Humalli, then there was Paul, he had been everything good in Vlad, and more. Humans were always animals to her unless they proved otherwise after a while, until Paul, now it was harder to think of them as animals if she knew them personally at all. Judith was her best friend now, and she hadn't thought of Judith as an animal for years. Kendraha found herself having difficulty to when it came time for feeding. Unless she knew and disliked a person or considered them an animal even after getting to know them, she found herself sometimes having to push herself to kill, and even then killing slow to draw out fear and similar emotions was difficult even with those she tended to dislike.
They had a big celebration covering the entire hospital and shipyard area when the Germans surrendered. Kendraha also was happy, she had been in Germany once in 1936 for the Olympic games held there, and she had gotten close enough to sense Hitler's mind. She couldn't remember the details, but his mind was as cold as she had ever sensed in a human, full of hatred and rage. Kendraha had wanted to kill him, but he was always surrounded by people, and she didn't want to make that particular change in the potential outcome of this time line. If she had done so, what would come next might be worse. So she left it alone, knowing that most likely Germany would be defeated in the end in this time line as in most human-centric time lines where he existed, and if things were going too badly she'd find some way to get at him before he won his war.
After that there was another big party when the final surrender came, that of the Japinese. It took a total of 2 atomic bombs to do it, followed by a brief 5 day invasion and heavy bombing campaign. The emperor refused to surrender, so he was assassinated. Those on the scene said by a member of the assumed extinct Aho-Choy assassins. A woman disguised as a servant, sworn to save Japin from the Emperor's folly, had gotten close to him and killed him followed by killing herself. Kendraha was half drunk when that news came over the radio, and nobody could quite understand why she was laughing hysterically while sitting on the floor. However, most of the others were less interested in her antics then in hearing how at the emperor's death, the next in line for the throne surrendered immediately.
Judith took Kendraha home, putting her totally blitzed friend under the covers, leaving the sheets untucked at the foot of the bed as her mind had been trained to do, then she went to sleep it off also. When Kendraha woke she had a major hangover, and barely had time to shift back to legs and run to the bathroom. She wasn't concerned about damaging her body or brain cells with alcohol, Humalli were harder to hurt that way, but she still felt like her insides were coming out.
It was almost 2 years after the war when Kendraha was feeling a lot better, although not quite herself. She had also become somewhat alarmed by the numbers of experts being called in to consult on the disappearances of Hawaiian citizens and tourists. It was time to leave, it had been stupid to come to Hawaii, and the only smart thing to do was leave before needing to feed again. Now that things were almost back to normal after the war, the situation could only get worse.
Kendraha tried to talk Judith into coming with her, but she declined, saying she loved living in Hawaii, and soon her boyfriend would return from patrolling waters and removing sea mines. Kendraha didn't want to force her will upon Judith, and so let it rest there. Part of her wanted to take Judith to her island spot and drink her life force to prove that she was back to her normal self, but she reasoned that although she still had some issues about feeding on humans these days, things were much improved. Her conclusion was that the shock of being in love with a human, then the shock of losing that human so suddenly, had both combined to twist her mind. Reason, the need to feed, and memories of some words of wisdom from her mother again, all had brought her around, and she didn't need to prove herself. Every time she fed on a human it proved her point just a little more, and made her feel better.
Still, there were some lingering doubts, hesitations to kill more people each year it seemed for a while, fewer hesitations these days but still too many exceptions for her to feel like a normal Humalli. She had grown accustomed to not feeding off of some people, everyone had favorites, even farmers had chickens they refused to kill. However, they didn't sleep with there chickens as far as she knew, but the chickens didn't look, act, and seem like the farmer in almost every way either.
Halfway home riding in a Navy cargo plane to California, orders came to divert to a small Navy outpost at the Panamah Canal, where some high ranking officer needed an immediate air lift to the nearest hospital. That annoyed Kendraha, but she shrugged knowing the crew would comply unless she mentally influenced them, which would look very strange. Aside from the crew she was the only being on board, and Kendraha tried to make herself comfortable among the crates. Flying wasn't too bad, and she was getting more used to taking risks. Back in Hawaii she had driven in jeeps, motorcycles, trucks, almost every dangerous activity she could think of virtually every day she was there, not to mention her little motorboat. These were things a Humalli wouldn't do, at least not here on this Earth with the primitive technology it offered. Planes and such back home were far safer, but after forcing herself to face these lower risk dangers for a while, it seemed almost second nature to her. Although she still was cautious, stayed away from the worst situations as best she could, and tried to control the lump in the pit of her stomach. She had known that it would come to this eventually, there was no way to avoid it short of locking herself away as a hermit or something, which would make food harder to come by.
The nearest hospital turned out to be South, it was a simple appendix job so it was decided that the ill Captain should go to a small Navel facility in Brazzil. They never reached it, as over the jungle their plane suffered a malfunction of some sort, Kendraha never knew exactly what. The twin engine cargo plane went down in the jungle, it's wings getting sheered off, it's nose smashed in, and Kendraha barely escaping the fire alone.
Trying to survive in the jungle did concern her, Kendraha could eat food in one form or another, and should be able to walk out before needing to drink in someone's life force, but there would be no tasty emotional snacks in the meantime. She wasn't concerned about poisonous snakes much, her body had handled the Australli venoms well enough. Predators were a problem though, she might ward off the higher forms as she had packs of wolves, but the lower forms such as snakes and caiman wouldn't be so easily deterred, and in any form she was vulnerable to them. In the end she made her fingernails grow long and sharp like the talons of her birds, then kept her human form for it's speed, planning to eat whatever fruit she could find. She took off her shoes, thickened the skin on the soles of her feet, and generally toughened the skin of her entire body a little, while still looking human if someone saw her. As for her Navy uniform, she stripped to bare essentials, discarding all but her underwear, trusting her skin to protect her from scratches. All this time she kept hoping that her worst fears about some new disease able to hurt Humalli wouldn't appear in the hot and humid jungle environment.
When after a few days of following the Amazon river, she assumed that she'd have to reach some form of civilization soon, she was brought to a halt by a woman screaming, and waves of fear coming from ahead of her. She ran downstream, using her mind to listen for danger, and sensing 2 humans, one stationary and one running away. The one running away was a woman in great fear for her life, as was the stationary one. Kendraha quickly determined that the one running was unlikely to return in time to help the other woman, help was probably too far away for her to return any time soon with it, and she'd be aware mentally if the running woman did return alone.
Breaking from the jungle onto a riverbank clearing, she saw the screaming native woman in several inches of water, struggling in the coils of a dark green Anaconda, which she guessed was at least 25 feet long and maybe more. Kendraha had no idea why the woman had strayed so far from her village, she couldn't read the woman's hysterical thoughts clearly, but thought it had something to do with gathering food. Except for a loin cloth arrangement, the brown skinned woman is wearing nothing, and has already fallen, her body already secure in several massive coils. Her legs kick and one arm pushes and hits the coil around her chest, but it's useless as the serpent has begun to tighten it's coils for the kill.
Kendraha watches in fascination for many moments, the woman sees her and calls for help in a gasping voice. Kendraha feels a small amount of sorrow and desire to save the woman, but more she feels some fascination at the whole thing. She had only seen events like this a few times when she herself wasn't the hunter, and drinking in the victim's fear was always enjoyable. The huge Anaconda head released it's grip on one of the woman's legs, and it rose to look directly at Kendraha not 8 feet away. The serpents huge black forked tongue tasted the air, and Kendraha's eyes widened briefly as a gentle feathery feeling crossed her mind. Without thinking she reacted instinctively and knelt down, "I am no threat to you, I only wish to pass through your territory, and feed on the overflow of emotions from your hunt."
The anaconda acted as if it could understand her, and it turned to finish it's still weakly struggling prey which had little air left for screaming. Kendraha finished feeding on the emotional overflow until the woman died, then remained kneeling there as the anaconda slowly swallowed it's meal. She tried then to work it all out in her head before moving on. The anaconda had shown a small mental talent, enough to prove it was on the road to evolving into a Humalli. It wasn't much of a talent, not nearly enough to affect a shielded mind, but Kendraha suspected it was more than enough to cause prey to not see the anaconda for a few fatal instants, and possibly it was enough to lure an unshielded human into it's coils. Although the talent seemed untrained to her and thus instinctively applied only, it was definitely enough to do both those things and more with smaller less intelligent prey if not unshielded humans yet. Kendraha guessed that if all anacondas were like this one, in a few thousand years they would make good human hunters. She doubted that they had any form of shape shifting ability though, such required intelligence first, and that had been lacking in the anaconda also. She estimated that between 100 thousand and a million years or more would need to pass for that, and if mankind was still largely unshielded then they'd find themselves faced with a new predator.
Kendraha didn't know why she had given one of the formal responses for when one Humalli trespasses uninvited on another's kill, but guessed it was just old habit and the surprise of having her mind touched by the serpent. Right then she decided to help the anacondas. She spent several years roaming the jungle, learning that other anacondas also had the talent, and using her techniques of implanting knowledge to try and teach them a few things. They actually learned to respond to Kendraha or her mental touch, treating her as an equal. It was hard to teach them, they were generally such a solitary breed, but she made the rounds from one snake to another. Other tree snakes seemed to have little or no talent at all, and she learned how to radiate thoughts that kept even them away from her.
She couldn't teach the anacondas much, how to use there mental ability more effectively taught through example seemed best. Having no written language she tried to teach them to better communicate more effectively using their hissing and body movements, as well as direct mental contact. Kendraha found eggs, taught the young practically from hatching, and like all young they caught on faster than their parents had. Things were going quite well, and Kendraha estimated that she had made a significant difference in the evolution of the anacondas on this Earth, although it would still be thousands of years before they could regularly hunt humans, and still an extreme length of time before they could shift forms if they ever could. There destiny might end up to forever be slightly smarter than average serpents, but whatever happened the Amazon jungle would be a little more dangerous in the future.
Her current danger was brought back to mind when she was in hunter form, hunting side by side with an anaconda she called Irving. They were both laying in shallow water, her tail unseen and her upper body resting on land mostly hidden by bushes. Irving was in a similar position and completely unseen. A jaguar got through her mental defenses, mainly because she had been distracted from defense while trying to concentrate on getting a monkey to come her way. Without humans around the most intelligent life force to feed on in the jungle were the monkeys, but each one only lasted her a week or two, which meant she went through a lot of monkeys, and they were becoming less nutritious all the time. As smart as they were monkeys could be mentally controlled somewhat, but it was hard to grab one's mind with them high in the branches. They weren't truly intelligent, at least not as far as her stomach was concerned, and her body was beginning to rebel, so she knew that she'd have to leave soon.
The path out of the jungle was known to her now, the anacondas had seen a village which she had located, and there she could either get someone to follow her into the jungle so she could feed properly, or get a ride downstream to civilization. She was naked now when in human form, except for a skirt of leaves, skirts always being her preference as there was no crotch material to get in the way of transforming to hunter or serpent form. This was why she seldom wore lower body underwear, or wore skirt like underwear when she did, and always preferred outer garment skirts rather than pants such as what some women were beginning to wear these days. Transforming with crotch material in the way either meant she had to slim her hips and slide out of the clothing during the transformation which took extra time and effort, or allow the transformation to break the material, which stung like hell, the tougher the material the more it stung. Breaking through the crotch and the inner side of pant legs of denim jeans or leather pants really hurt, while breaking through most panties merely stung like a bee sting. Either way was undesirable, and a few unexpected shiftings over the years had taught her to try and stay with skirts.
When the spotted jaguar pounced it landed on her human half, slashing with claws and biting with teeth. Almost reflexively as her arms fought and she screamed, her tail shot up and around the big cat, which was shocked as it had never seen a human with a tail before. Kendraha was writhing in too much pain from the sudden attack to squeeze the cat, but reflexively she tossed it further into the river, her tail slipping free of it. The jaguar landed right on Irving, who was more than happy to quickly wrap up the jaguar and begin crushing it in his coils.
Kendraha lay there for some time as she bled and the jaguar's struggles grew weaker in Irving's coils. As it died she didn't bother to try and feed off it's life force, jaguars like most other wild animals had very little and it wasn't worth the effort to her. Kendraha crawled out of the water, shifted to human form, got dressed, and waited for Irving to finish swallowing his meal. By the time he was done Kendraha had managed to call down a dozen monkeys, killed them with her sharper than normal fingernails, and drank in their life forces. It was enough to stop her bleeding and get her back in shape, but she didn't have enough left to shift away the wounds entirely.
The attack scared her, and Kendraha decided that she had done a lot for the anacondas, and it was time to leave for civilization. Managing to find 3 anacondas on her way out of the jungle she told them all the same thing "Strike fast, coil strong." They didn't understand her exactly, there was still a language barrier, but they all seemed to get the general idea, and she knew word of her leaving would spread. The response she generally got was a nudge from their noses and some warm feelings with thoughts of warm water. The warm water image Kendraha interpreted as good luck, while cold water would have been bad luck.
It was on her 3rd day after leaving Irving that she arrived at a village, which she entered after shifting her fingernails back to normal. After the initial shock of her scarred form appearing from the jungle, they fed her regular food and took her downstream right away. Then the small outpost of all men were surprised when a white woman presumed dead wearing nothing but a loin cloth of leaves was brought to them. They fitted her out with some of their spare clothes, shirt an pants, so she reminded herself not to transform for a while, but the hunger was growing fast. She told them of the plane from Pearls harbor which had crashed, and having spent all that time wandering in the jungle, and they were amazed that she had survived. The next day they took her downstream to a large village, which then took her to a town. There she had to convince the doctor that he had already done the exam, and found her to be fine. After that a good sized boat took her 2 days downstream, and she marched overland to a small city which was at a high elevation to avoid flooding. By this time she was practically ready to eat the next person who got too close to her, but she managed to control herself, and that evening Kendraha snuck off into the night. Near a bar she ambushed a drunk man, killed him quickly with a knife, and drank in his life force. Even without the emotional feeding first or the flesh feeding after, this simple life force feeding on a human was the best meal she had taken in since that native she had devoured over a year ago. Now however, she could easily last until she arrived home, where she could get rid of these scars and find a real meal.
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21. Kendraha was Blonde and buxom, draped in green and black scales from her neck to her ankles, still maintaining legs, with scales down her arms to her wrists. Her entire frontal area was light green, showing off the curves of her body with minimal concealment. Next to her stood a tall red haired Amazon with lots of curves of her own, and wearing a leather 2 piece outfit, and she held a long and dangerous looking spear. One end of the spear rested on the floor, the other rested at about her head's level, a sharp looking point sticking up out of it. A man in sunglasses and a shimmering silver suit walked up to the Amazon, "May I have this dance honey?" "Don't call me honey Elvis!" and she used her spear to stab him in the stomach, the rubber tip bending in half as it struck. "I get the point." He stood back, "You don't know what your missing babe, but I'm sure it's for the best. Your big feet would probably step all over my blue suede shoes." The Amazon lifted her spear to throw, and Elvis quickly departed.
Kendraha blocked the rear end of the spear from hitting her in the face, "Watch it Henet!" Henet put the spear vertical again, "Sorry Kennedy, that guys been hitting on me for months, and he knows I won't have any more to do with him." "So why don't you slap him with a restraining order?" Kendraha asked. "I've got to face my enemy, never back down, and never get others to fight for me while I'm physically capable." She shrugged, "It's an Amazon thing." A short vampiress who had overheard them interrupted, "You mean you still insist your an Amazon for real?" Henet smirked, "Of course, that's what I've been telling my friends, and I don't lie to my friends. The Greater Rainbow island will someday soon reclaim it's birthright. We still do all the old activities, I'm pretty good with the bow and arrow myself." "So, why are you here, I mean here at Westerton?" asked a tall male vampire who had joined the conversation. "Learning of course, why does anyone come to a university!" Henet said as if it should be obvious. Then she continued, "Westerton is only about 30 years old, but it's got a lot of what we want on the island most, those are history, business skills, and electronics such as computers and automation. When we open up the island we might make a resort of it, but we have other possibilities."
The vampire smirked, "I have just one big question to ask!" Henet looked at him and said nothing so he continued, "Are those real?" he said pointing to her chest." She smirked and put one hand on her hip and adopted a Mae West voice, "100% real big boy, under the inch of foam that is, would you like to feel the padding here, or shall I remove it first?" "Padding?" the vampiress said with a questioning tone? "Your big enough aren't you?" Henet grinned and maintained her Mae West voice, "We Amazons have an image to protect." The others all grinned, and Kendraha grabbed the vampires arm, "My dance this time, you can have the vampiress." The vampire smiled at Kendraha, "Now I know yours aren't from padding." As the dancers moved away, Henet looked at the vampiress as if sizing her up, until the woman started to blush and began looking at the floor. Henet's Mae West voice continued, "Sorry kid, but your just not my type, and I'm not your blood type."
After several dances with first the vampire, then a cowboy, followed by a tin man, Kendraha went back to her seat. She saw Henet dancing with a silver suited spaceman, and the short vampiress still sitting near the refreshment stand. She tried to project a happy mood, but the vampiress was having none of it. "Why so glum?" she asked. The vampiress perked up, "No problem, just my steady is in the hospital." "Nothing serious I hope." Kendraha asked, already having read the answer in the woman's mind. "No." she replied. "Just an appendectomy, they got it fine and he's recovering." "So what's the problem." Kendraha asked as she poured each of them a drink of punch. "He insisted I come here tonight to this party." the vampiress replied with a resigned look. "He said that the new millennium only comes around once in a lifetime, unless you have a really long life span." "Yes, really long." agreed Kendraha softly. The woman sighed, "He insisted I come to the Westerton millennium costume party without him rather than stick around the gloomy hospital." She tried to smile showing her fangs, "Go to the party he said, ring in the new millennium with other people, have fun, drink all night, dance till dawn, get laid." Kendraha nearly choked on her drink, and the vampiress softly added, "Sorry, I made the last part up."
Kendraha cleared her throat, "Yes well, I think you ought to have fun in all those ways, except the last one of course. There's plenty of unattached guys here, and there's a werewolf over in the corner who's watching you, and he's kinda cute. With only a little mental nudge from her the werewolf came over just then, and the vampiress and the werewolf were ready for the next dance. "Or should I say just wolf?" Kendraha muttered when they were out of earshot.
The party was being hosted by Westerton itself, for faculty and students. It was a costume party, with the theme being the just ending millennium, which gave the members of the various historical branches of the university a chance to show off. Kendraha found the party wonderful, and her thoughts strayed to the last century as images from it appeared on a screen near the bandstand. The first decade she had met the Wright brothers and seen them fly, then the roaring 20's had been exciting and dangerous enough to send her into seclusion, using her rich unseen woman and often seen daughter duel disguise. The 30's had been similar except for the great depression, and the 40's had seen love enter her life, and leave her stranded in Pearls Harbor of all places for a Humalli to be. In the 50's people had been so rapped up in the family mode, poodle skirts and sweaters were common for young women, unless they were so called, bad girls. She had tried both roles, finding neither entirely to her liking, although bad girls were more fun and had much more freedom.
A film clip of Woodstock came up on the screen, sounds were heard in the background of the party chatter. Kendraha remembered Woodstock, the 60's had been an interesting time in her life. Kendraha had experimented with the whole range of drugs available at the time, grass, LSD, uppers, downers, anything knowing it wasn't going to do her permanent damage unless she got careless and overdosed. Free love and good will to all, as long as nobody got annoyed, and even then few people held grudges. On the screen a colorfully dressed man with long hair came onto the Woodstock stage after the current rock group finished it's last number, "Thank you, thank you. Now we have an announcement." he said over a PA to the sea of people in various states of dress and mental states. "We've had some reports about the red pills. Please do not take the red pills. Lots of people are complaining, and some guys even said they saw a stoned snakewoman in a bandanna, dancing in the woods with a couple of little green guys. So please avoid the red pills, they make you see weird shit man!" That was one of the famous cuts from the Woodstock concert, almost as famous as some of the music, titled 'Don't take the red pills." Kendraha hadn't seen the announcement in person, she had been too busy dancing with herself in the woods in hunter form, stoned out of her mind at the time. She had no memory of little green guys though, and hoped that was someone else's hallucination. Whatever, the closeness of discovery had made her swear off mind altering drugs, except for occasionally something light in private.
The section on the 60's ended with the Vietnam war, and the moon landing. The Humalli had never made it off planet, and Kendraha had to admit she was extremely impressed by the humans here having done that. It struck her that the humans technology on this Earth evolved much faster than Humalli technology on her own Earth. Her mother had been nearly 3000 when Kendraha had been born, and during that time the Humalli had done far less in improving technology and inventing. She wondered if that had something to do with the long life span of her people, and the desire to avoid risks, so they invented more slowly. Or if maybe the small Humalli population was the reason, and possibly also because the Humalli discouraged humans from being too inquisitive, thus they couldn't help invent. But she reminded herself that at least her people didn't have these horrible and wasteful wars with their own kind either, and no threat of nuclear annihilation hung over everyone's head back home. The racial problems were also not found with her people, and it drove a lot of conflict here.
The 70's had been a lot better, rock had become more entrenched as the young people's music of choice. Then there was the brief disco age, where rock took a backseat. Kendraha remembered feeding on more than one disco king or queen she found and lured away to her home, after taking the proper precautions so that the police wouldn't connect her to their disappearances. Dance clubs, singles bars, and Science Fiction each grew and became part of Ameris society. The imagination of humans especially in science fiction amused and fascinated her. She remembered sitting in a movie house with a guy once, watching the big science fiction movie of the year, where Duke Skystalker takes his tiny little space fighter against the huge Imperial Destruct Star, and another small craft piloted by the evil Dark Traitor. She had jerked at the near destruction of the hero, sending popcorn all over the place. Then she had cheered with everyone else as the Destruct Star exploded.
The 80's hadn't been too impressive, accept that the Ameris had begun using a reusable space shuttle, and rock music had regained it's place as the music of choice for the young, while adding splinters of more specialized forms of music. The 90's saw the collapse of the communist governmental system nearly worldwide, and the cosmonauts at the Russian Mir space station having all sorts of problems keeping the place going. Space and technology were the focus of this last section, with scenes from the Voyager and Pioneer space probes, along with the Trailblazer which landed on Mars in a giant air bag. The very last images were of computers, with people using them and announcers speaking of the dawning of the information age, and how at the moment only about a quarter of the world's homes and businesses were webbed.
It ended with an announcer posing the question of what the next 100 years would hold, showing fictional images of people on other planets, and weird views of daily future life. The bandleader called everyone together, "Okay everyone, it's almost time, the year 2000 and the new millennium. I know, it's supposed to be 2001, who cares if someone forgot to start with 0 for the first year." He waved a hand to a clock on the wall, "Get ready, 10, 9," The crowd joined in. "8, 7, 6," Kendraha straightened her scales, the rental agent hadn't said the costume would itch so much, but she hadn't been able to resist the irony. "5, 4." she was near the center of the group, Kendraha always loved the emotional taste of new years."3, 2, 1," the crowd cheered, "Happy New Year!" The band began playing, and people began hugging.
The lights and everything electronic went out. Mumbles went around, and some woman screamed, "Oh my god, it's the millennium bug!" A dark shadow hovered near the window, "Nope, everyone else has power." Kendraha felt one mind chuckling to itself, then heard a Westerton professor's voice, "Leon, you put that power back on, I heard you coming out of the circuit breaker room!" The mind stopped chuckling, footsteps were heard going into the next room, and the power returned. Kendraha sighed, "Some things don't change on this Earth, we've still got plenty of jerks."
To be continued
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By Py