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Right, that’s a nice entrance. Crawley thought to himself, Aziraphale staring at him with evident disbelief.
After bidding Aziraphale farewell before the water rising to their waist, Crawley sneaked up to the ark for a dry and warm spot to nap. There wouldn’t be dry ground for quite some time, and caves would probably be damp for a while as well. No point searching around for sanctuary when there is an ark carrying animals in front of him.
He slithered about for some time to look at the species, and his mind was bombarded with questions about the Almighty’s designs. Many of animals here he believed was rather pointless. Flawed, even. Well, to be honest, he was mostly talking about horses. Unicorns were fine. At least the horns were cool. The deer had the loveliest eyes. But he never liked horses. It seemed like they are not fond of him either. For some reasons, they always chose to chew on the stack of hay he was napping in and huff damp hot breath noisily. It’s rather unpleasant.
He found himself a warm spot, made sure that horses were on the other side of the ark, and coiled up, hiding his red scaled belly, to rest. The room was dark, not exactly warm, but this would have to do.
He expected to be left alone until the water fades. Who would notice a black snake in a dark room on an ark full of animals in the middle of a flood anyways.
Apparently, someone did.
He had no idea when he was spotted. But, when he was aware of the noise around him, the room was already full of Noah and his children, discussing feverishly about the third snake. The third snake? Crawley had no idea what’s so significant about the third snake.
Then he heard someone said, “we should throw him out,” Tilting his chin and cocking his head indicating an invisible line between Crawley and the window. Alarms ran off inside Crowley’s head, drowsiness from the interrupted nap fading in the instance.
Throwing him out? No way. Out of question. Absolutely not.
He’s not going into the water. Avoiding getting all cold and wet is the whole point he got onto the Ark at the first place. Not to mention he would have to go through extra trouble to start a fire and warm himself up after getting out of the water. Starting fire in damp weather is so much trouble. He learnt it the hard way. He might have gone a little too far when he was exercising his wings a few decades ago and failed to stop before he hit water.
Not to mention the trouble after he dries himself. Sea water is the worst. Crawley winced at the memory of cleaning dried salt crystals that stuck between his scales after he dried himself.
No way he’s going into salted water.
Then he heard a calming soothing voice said, “I’ll take care of the third snake.”
Angel! Crawley’s serpentine head darted towards the speaker and half of the room stepped back and braced themselves. His mind shouted silently then panicked again when he realised the last time the angel saw his snake form is in the garden. That’s a long time ago and there is no telling whether the blonde connected the dots.
Aziraphale did not look at him. Instead, he moved gradually to stand in between Crawley and humans.
“Oh, Aziraphale, that’s very kind of you. But I think this may be a test.” Someone in the crowd said, Crawley didn’t see the speaker. Sprawling on the ground didn’t necessarily provide the best view.
“This might be God testing us. To see whether we follow through the plan or not.” The voice sounded sinister and carried a tinge of violence.
Humans moved forwards, trying to capture Crawley. He had no idea how far Aziraphale was going to go to save him. Better start thinking about how to escape then.
He thought about some possibilities. Miracles? probably not a good idea in a room full of humans. Flying out? Rush into the storm was not ideal and he’d have to be very careful with the timing of pulling out his wings to avoid bumping into the window frame or free diving straight down into the ocean. His golden eyes darted back and forth from the crowd to the exit, calculating what to do.
Suddenly, he felt his body being drawn to a warmth glow. Squirming and slithering on its own accord. Before he understood what happened, he’s coiled up on Aziraphale’s shoulders. It’s warm and the upper part of Crawley’s body was caressing the angel’s blonde curls. He always wanted to know what they feel like.
He has no idea what’s happening next when he heard a whisper. “Don’t move and don’t change.” Aziraphale said in an assuring voice. Then he turned back to address the humans, frightened about the angel being surrounded by a serpent.
“He’s alright. He’s an old friend.” Probably frightened by the affection in his own voice and the word friend, the blue eyes widened and he corrected himself right away. “A-a-acquaintance. We’ve only met a couple times.” He swallowed, feeling the serpent’s tail lazily hanging by his side.
Right, don’t panic. He reminded himself. Important task, save Crawley from this mess. He breathed and calmed a little.
“Anyways. Please don’t panic. He’s alright.” Ahem… He cleared his throat. “He is rather harmless…,” the hanging serpentine tail gently swatted at his back, accompanied by a threatening hiss. “to your family, at least,” he added.
“I’d be willing to keep an eye on him,” in attempt to comfort the humans, he promised and flustered, worrying that sounded as if he’s looking forwards to spending time with the demon. “That’s if you are alarmed by him, of course.”
The demon hissed slightly to remind the people in front of them that he could be dangerous. They gave in and let Aziraphale take care of the black serpent.
When they were left alone in the room, the temperature dropped due to the loss of warm-blooded humans and Crawley curled up closer to the angel. His scale enjoying the warmth radiating from the bare skin of his neck and shoulder. The angel didn’t seem to mind. Not until he tensed up again from the relief of stopping Crawley from being dumped out.
He shifted his torso a bit to shake the serpent’s head to the front and scolded. “Crawley, why are you here!”
The demon hissed in response.
“I know you are still capable of speaking human language in your snake form.” The angel sounded stern. “You will take properly, or I’ll have to shake you down and force you transform back into your human form.”
“How do you plan to do that?” Crawley tilted his head a bit as he spoke, attempting a looking-down-at-Aziraphale look with his serpentine anatomy. The angel chuckled and Crawley helplessly vibrated with the movements.
“I just did.” The angel smiled. “Crawley, do you have places to go? In the middle of the storm, I mean.” He asked gently.
The serpent fell silent and started moving away from the angel’s body. “I’ll find sssomewhere.” He said with a hiss. Unwelcomed anywhere, eh?
You’re a demon. You’re supposed to be unwelcome. He reminded himself.
“Oh, you shouldn’t travel in a storm like this.” The angel’s plump fingers fumbled a bit, trying to scoop him up. Crawley felt the middle of his body being raised and he shot to secure himself by the angel’s corporation again, disliking the feeling of hanging in the air.
“We could spend some time catching up here, yes?” The angel offered. “You can let slip of some of your evil plans? I’d be gathering information of the hellish deeds this way.” He grinned proudly for thinking of such a clever plan.
“Whatever, angel.” Crowley huffed.
Neither of them mentioned the fact that they just conversed several hours ago before the flood started.