Adult Mambas are very long and so was Za'esha. She still had an entire coil wrapped around my waist under my loose garments.
"You're going to kill me now aren't you?" My father asked, his eyes trained on the mamba's bobbing head.
"No, I'm not. You deserve to be killed, but I'm not going to dirty my hands and do you the favor of putting you out of your misery. Instead I'm going to let you have what you've always wanted."
I gestured with my other hand to the open hallway behind him, "The way lies before you. Go spend as much time, with what's left of the treasure, as you want to. A treasure, which you've used up most of your life trying to find."
He glanced back at the way he had come from and I could see that returning to the treasure held no fascination for him now. "I need a doctor!" He said in the most placating tone that I'd ever heard usher forth from him before. One could even say it sounded like he was begging.
"You need far more than just a doctor, but you'll have to be content with the treasure instead. Contentment is a virtue that you should have taken the time to learn father. If you had, you might even now still be enjoying your millions of dollars and the constantly revolving line of new female acquisitions.
Thankfully for all the innocent lives you would have crushed you're not, instead your here, now enjoy it!"
I stooped down and Za'esha slithered onto the floor and I was relieved to feel her gone. Snakes weren't my thing, but I was now more grateful than ever that the Candace had insisted on her snake lessons as well. Something in the necklace stones helped to docile the snake's fickle attitudes, but it by no means made the handler any less susceptible from receiving a bite if not careful. I straightened back up.
"If you get tired of your treasure father, you may ask Za'esha for permission to leave."
I turned and made my way swiftly down the way Flint and Marshawn had gone.
Iya made as if to follow his daughter, but quickly backed away as Za'esha lashed out threateningly. Iya slumped down to the floor, with his back against the wall, as he felt his heart fail within him. He could only wait now and when he got tired of waiting the answer to his solution lay coiled up on the floor cutting off his only escape.
He shook his head regretfully; everything had been such a waste. No pleasure he had ever experienced in life could take away the sting of the knowledge of what came next. He had no more time to figure it out.