Chapter 4: Planets

Across the globe everyone’s eyes were on their screens watching this: except for the citizens of Denmark proper, who need only look to the sky to see Ouroboros.

The snake-woman was a monolith to them. Her fingers curled over a chunk of Earth upon which rested Denmark and all the millions of people living there. Her tongue slipped from her mouth, fanning over her lips and letting loose a drop of drool that fell onto a tiny patch of grey. That city and its thousands of lives were all washed away in a tide of cloying, thick spittle.

She didn’t even notice it as she took a big chomp out of the world. Her mouth filled their sky. Her teeth bisected their mountains. She bit only to break off chunks. Ouroboros's snake natures had her abhor chewing despite those human-like teeth she had.

The country disappeared down her throat to stew in her tail gut. She reached down to pick up the other nearby bits of the nation, as it wasn’t one landmass of course. The bits she could reach nearby were smaller, and swallowed down with even greater ease.

She grew again. The lamia was already big enough to see the curvature of the Earth. Her head was in space, but she grew further still. Her ivory underbelly expanded into Sweden. Millions were crushed by the expanding muscle. She gasped in horror: not at the humanity of it, but at wasting so much food. She reached down and uprooted the rest of the country, dislocating her jaw to scarf it down.

At this point it was too difficult to try and keep the humans alive, so she didn’t. If they reached her tail-gut intact, all the better, but she had reached the point where humans were hardly seasoning, let alone meals in their own right.

Norway was to the left: the main part, at least. She coiled around it with her tail, cracking it a bit before passing it up to her mouth. Soon as she swallowed the last of Sweden, she sent that country down her gullet as well.

Another spurt of growth. She was easily visible form space. She slithered about the planet like a worm on an apple.

Ouroboros wanted a cooler treat, so she hopped into the Atlantic ocean and moved towards Greenland. The ocean was scarcely a pool or puddle to her. She dipped her nation-ending hands into the water to scoop up islands along the way. More treats for her.

Greenland was a cold, icy landmass. She wrapped her arms around its southern tip to lift it right up and thrust it into her unhinged jaw. It was cool against her tongue and throat: a novel sensation and flavor to her. The naga wanted it all inside her, so she ate faster than usual. Ice broke with every gulp. The swallowing motions of her throat cracked mountains and ages-old glaciers alike. The country existed as a bulge in that onyx-tail’s gut for just a moment till it fully melted down. The cool waters of the land warmed fast awash in her gut-heat. The following sigh traveled around the world.

She grew yet again. In the process the tip of her tail tore into much of Canada. The lamia quickly slithered north out of the way so as to not completely destroy that meal. She was almost as big as the planet now. Soon she’d depart it, but just one more treat would do. With her tail coiled around the North Pole, she lunged down at North America.

The continent fired its entire volley of nuclear weaponry, but it did nothing. She was beyond reproach from her food. She dragged her world-ending tongue across the continent’s surface and licked the landmass clean. Afterwards, she dug her hands beneath and thrust it all in her mouth. Cuba and the other south eastern territories she just scooped up and swallowed down like mints.

It was time to leave this world. She couldn’t eat the planet while atop it, after all. She bunched up her tail, coiling it up before working that powerful muscle like a spring to launch herself off the sphere’s surface. That resulting quake would take care of the world on its own in some time, but that was time she would not offer.

The naga grew, defying the earth’s gravity while using some unknown power to suppress the own tug her celestial scale form should make. The planet hovered in front of her like a ripe peach. Her mouth watered. She let out a sigh of delight at just the thought of feeling it slip down her throat. The resulting exhale of humid breath washed over the world: sweet and cloying. It ripped up much of the planet’s atmosphere, but they wouldn’t need it for long.

She opened wide, unhinging her jaw once more to make sure she could swallow the Earth without issue. Her upper lips wrapped around the world. Her cheeks squelched against it. Her tongue danced at its surface, savoring the diverse flavors and textures the lush sphere had to offer. Her taste buds made craters as they dug into the crust.

She swallowed. The world went down her throat to her now empty human gut. She rested her hand on her stomach and felt the very planet she slept in once melt away.

Ouroboros wasn’t done. There were still many delights, even here in this star system. The naga turned to the sun: it offered promise, but it was very big. She could feel it try to tug at her with its gravity, but she refused to yield to it. She had powers: vast powers. Yet, she didn’t even think of them unless they kept her satisfying her hunger. Now, she needed one: speed.

She turned towards Mars with her hyper senses and moved towards it. The naga traveled through the void of space much as a snake would through water: by waggling and wiggling her tail. She went far faster than anything that big had a right to, though, and it was mere seconds till she was upon that red world.

It was an arid, dusty world scarcely the size of plum to her. She set her hand behind it and nearly destroyed it that way, but it was intact enough to be gulped down nonetheless. That aridity translated towards a slightly spicy flavor.

From there she moved on to Jupiter. This planet was big: bigger than her, even. But it was gaseous, and so she imbibed it like fairy floss. Its fluffy mass filled her tail gut only briefly before the wisps of it dissolved. She finished its core and grew past its size. That made the other outer planets--Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune--even simpler treats. They disappointed her even, with how unfilling they were.

The naga moved towards the sun with laser focus and intense speed. Mercury and Venus simply burst against her tan bosom as she traveled towards the star. Her mouth watered.

As big as she was, the star was bigger. Like Jupiter though, it wasn’t solid. She could suck it right up. The lamia set her lips at its surface. The heat was immense, enough to scorch planets to black char, but it didn’t even make her sweat. She drunk up its plasma, growing all the while. Once her tail was near full with bulges of star-matter, she took a break, let the mass dissolve, then went in for more.

Within a few minutes Ouroboros grew to more than a quarter of the star’s size. Then, she dived right in. She drank it up from within just like the stew from the camp a day ago. She swam within, opening wide to fill her stomachs, though still having to pause now and then. Her body had to leave the star eventually though: it grew too big to stay within it. At this point, she drank the rest of it like soup.

Her tail bulges dispersed fast. Her fullness was fleeting. That familiar thought danced in her head again.

‘More.’

The naga was still hungry, but there was more. She would have more.

She would eat it all.