Her feet hurt, and soaking them in the cool waters of the river felt divine.
"Just a few minutes... I just want to sit and rest."
Several other women agreed with Jaya and the leader had to relent. "All right... we can have a few biscuits while we rest." The elder looked less than happy, but she was willing to put up with the brief respite. They were only an hour or so from the temple, and the better the condition of the pilgrims, the better the ritual would go the next morning.
Refreshed and renewed, the group of seven put their sandals back on and continued up the path. The lush jungle had gradually covered the Old World, so there wasn't much to look at along the way except for a few rusting heaps that used to be some form of transportation before the Chaos.
The temple seemed to appear suddenly out of the trees as they rounded a corner.
"Ohh... look!" "It's so beautiful!" "Look at all the carvings..." "It's so big!"
The young women were astonished by what they saw - a stone temple from the Ancient Times, created before even the Old World. Carved figures danced between the vines and tree roots, and birds flew in and out of the ornate and layered towers, only a few of which were left standing.
As they approached, a single woman in green ritual robes appeared in the main temple doorway.
"Welcome," she said as she smiled. "I'm glad to see you. And such a large group! It makes my heart happy to see so many devoted pilgrims to the Serpent Temple."
They met at the bottom of the steps and the priestess embraced the elder leader. "Kala, it's so good to see you again."
The elder bowed her head with respect. "My lady..." The younger acolytes bowed as well.
"Come in, come in... I have food all set for you. We shall have a feast in honor of Septos the Snake Mother!" She turned and led them inside, her long brown hair almost touching the ground behind her.
As was customary, the packs of all the women contained plenty of food for the feast and for the time they would be spending at the temple. Each one giggled and gossiped as they unpacked.
The feast was made up of the food brought in on the backs of the women as well as local fruits, leaves, eggs and meats. As evening fell, the fire was lit in the living quarters and they unpacked their blankets. When everyone was finished, the priestess summoned them into the main ritual chamber.
"Stand all around the sides as I light the ritual fire." She pointed to the walls in the dim light and they did as they were told. The priestess cracked two rocks together and a spark jumped into the prepared fire pit. A thin, snake-like strand of smoke crept up from beneath the branches, then, as she blew on the pile, a yellow flame lept up and everyone cheered. The light danced on the walls, making the figures carved there appear to come to life and move all around them. They all danced along with them until it was completely dark outside, then the women retired for the night.
Jaya was dreaming of her brother when something jabbed at her back. With an irritable "grrrummmph" she turned over to see the priestess tapping another girl with her wooden staff, which was carved ornately like a serpent and ornamented with gemstones. They knew that this was the morning they had waited for their entire lives - as pilgrims they had been trained by the elder woman who would not be undergoing the ritual this morning, and they knew that speaking was not allowed until the initial phase of the ritual was over.
One by one they crept out from their covers and stood in a line, naked, waiting for the signal to pass into the ritual chamber. Jaya's turn came and she strode into the room which was warm from the ritual fire despite the cool, misty morning outside. Again they lined up along the walls. Jaya noticed that the floor under this part of the temple was bare earth, something she had not noticed the prior evening with her sandals on.
The priestess indicated that they were each to stand with their arms and legs apart, and they did as they were told. She bound their arms and feet to previously unnoticed metal rings secured to the wall. Then she began to sing.
It was a strange tune without words, and it seemed to creep up Jaya's spine. The stone wall felt cold against her back. The priestess continued singing and then came to each bound girl and poured water into the soil below her spread legs. Jaya could see the faces of the others in the dim light, and they all looked as unsure as she felt. They had been told what would happen, but this was the moment it became real. She began to have conflicting feelings of both fear and desire for the ritual's completion.
Jaya saw something move under the feet of one of the other acolytes, then she looked down and saw the same thing below her - something was growing from the ground below her, and growing at an amazing rate. It looked something like a bamboo shoot, but the species wasn't one she recognized. Slowly, before her eyes, the plant inched toward her exposed sex.
She gasped when the knobbed tip finally touched her labia. Shaking, she felt the plant slowly push its way into her, growing gently in diameter as it penetrated. Her pussy began to twitch as the hard rod found the back of her tunnel, then it stopped moving. Gentle sounds of pleasure and surprise filled the chamber. Jaya could feel her slippery juices coating the shaft and she had the urge to grind against it.
Suddenly something shifted inside her. The tip of the shoot cracked in half and spread her wide open, the unfamiliar stretching sensation making her gasp and close her eyes. She stood still, her knees threatening to give way, when the priestess stopped singing.
The lady in green moved to a huge log drum at one end of the room and began to gently pound it. Jaya could feel cool air beginning to flow up the tube, her inner muscles grasping at it, her knees shaking. There was no turning back now.
The priestess changed the drum beat and Jaya opened her eyes. Large snakes from the jungle were creeping into the chamber from the open doorway, flicking their tongues. Her heart pounded in her ears as one began to approach her.
It seemed that she was watching from some vantage point other than her own body. The large serpent, easily 2-1/2" in diameter, had stopped at the base of the plant impaling her. It explored the shaft, smelling it carefully, then it found a natural hole at the base that Jaya could not see.
Slowly, muscularly, it began to climb up the inside of the shoot. She could feel the vibrations of its movements as they were transferred to the tube spreading her open, and she began to breathe faster. The whole plant began to move from the weight of the creature inside, and she could feel her juices flow and her slit begin to tingle with desire.
Moans began to fill the ritual room, and Jaya cried out as the head of the snake found the back of her tunnel. The forceful creature pressed hard into her flesh. She could feel it pushing, then a cramping sensation deep within took her breath away. Her cunt strained against the widening bamboo shaft which was forced apart by the serpent's massive body. Still it pushed on, its sinuous movements coming in waves as it penetrated her.
Her world became the snake inside her. Nothing else existed, nothing else mattered. She felt a growing heaviness in her belly, and she knew it was slowly slithering into her womb. She moaned loudly as the widest part of the creature finally entered her stretching pussy, and came hard as it forced its way through her cervix. Her hips bucked against the plant's shaft and she gasped and moaned skyward uncontrollably, the new sensations within her body driving her over the edge. No man had been able to please her as well, nor would any man ever be able to.
Her belly felt strangely heavy and when she was finally able to open her eyes and look down, she was shocked to see how large she had become. The huge snake was filling her as if it were a child almost ready to be born, and she could feel its movements throughout her womb. The serpent's muscular body slowly coiled and twisted within, and she could see its movements ripple across her belly.
The priestess cut off the plant's shaft and carefully removed it from Jaya, then did the same for the others. The young acolyte's head lolled with fatigue but she braced her back against the wall and forced herself to continue even though her legs wanted to fold. The movements inside her womb had stabilized, but now she felt a new sensation - more stretching and pushing deep inside. The egg laying had begun.
For what seemed like hours she watched the oval shapes appear and slide and shift across her newly tightened abdomen. She knew the female serpent was laying her clutch, and she enjoyed the feeling of being stretched and pushed to the limits of her capacity. With every new egg, she felt even more full, her breaths becoming more shallow as her womb continued to enlarge and press up into her lungs and other organs.
Finally the filling sensations ceased. The mother snake began to twist and move once again, making Jaya gasp. She felt as though she would burst, but still the creature did as it desired. With a now-familiar stretching sensation deep inside, the head of the serpent found her cervix and began to slide back through. Jaya groaned and tried to contain herself, but as she watched the tongue, and then the diamond-shaped head of the beast push its way out of her slit, she found herself in the middle of another crashing orgasm.
Her hips moved back and forth as though fucking a man, the new weight inside her adding to the experience as the body of the snake and the eggs shifted and moved. She could feel her muscles spasming against the snake's body stuffed inside her tunnel, little plaintive moans escaping her lips as a tear ran down one cheek.
Just as her legs finally failed her, she found her arms and ankles being freed, and a special stool below her which she collapsed onto gratefully. The seat was something like a toilet, allowing the mother snake's head to hang freely out of her lips without injury.
The serpent's tongue flicked in and out as the eight-inch portion of its body that was free of the pilgrim's pussy moved and looked around the room. Jaya could see that the other acolytes were also now sitting on their own special stools, some of them rubbing their newly-swollen bellies, and some of them stroking the exposed heads of their creatures. Each of them had between six and twelve inches of huge serpent protruding from their naked slits, and all of them looked as satisfied as Jaya felt.
She rubbed her pregnant belly happily, then felt her swollen pussy lips where the snake's head pushed them apart. She examined herself as well as she could over her massive abdomen, and smiled as she pushed back her labia to view the smooth, shiny body of the mother serpent jutting out from her slit. For a long time she simply watched the snake's movements between her legs as if hypnotized. Occasionally the animal's body would move inside her belly and it gave her chills and made her tingle and twitch.
Over the next two months the women learned to walk and sleep and gather food with their new companions in place. The eggs inside them slowly grew larger, and they enjoyed rubbing each others' bellies and comparing themselves to each other, making bets as to which one of them was the largest and when the eggs would hatch. They especially enjoyed feeding time, and would take turns giving bits of meat to each others' beasts, taking pleasure from the feelings inside them as the creatures swallowed and grew fatter.
The movements of the serpent coiled within Jaya's womb became more and more forceful until one day it could no longer be ignored. The massive shape made her belly ripple violently and she knew it must be time. With the help of the priestess, she made her way back to the ritual room where the fire was lit again.
This time soft mats were laid all around the room and Jaya picked one close by the door. She groaned as the beast's muscular body writhed inside her, gasping as it pressed into her lungs suddenly. Reflexively she pressed her hands against her stomach, and she could feel the creature's movements even more clearly, mixed with the oval shapes of the leathery eggs.
"Ohhh.... it's such a burden... but I don't want her to go..."
"Shhh... I know. I was once an acolyte like you."
Jaya groaned again, partially with discomfort and partially with pleasure. She could feel herself growing slippery against the body of the mother snake, which heightened her desire.
"Here... this will help."
The priestess began to fondle Jaya's clitoris, and Jaya's body writhed with pleasure uncontrollably. She crashed into a sudden, helpless orgasm and screamed with passion. As she began to relax, she could feel the snake begin to slowly work its way out of her, the shifting movements bringing her to several more smaller climaxes.
Finally, just as the mother serpent was finished, the thrashing motions of a hundred tiny snakes inside her began to tickle the edges of Jaya's mind. Her eyes flew open to see the priestess tending to the tired mother, and before she could speak, the first of her children began to wriggle free of her womb.
In fascination she watched as dozens of the creatures slipped from her open hole and escaped into the world. She felt her belly shrink further and further, until all that was left were the leathery egg shells that would be gradually absorbed by her uterus.
"Priestess..."
The beautiful woman in green gracefully knelt next to her.
"Yes, Jaya?"
She could hear the birthing moans of another girl drawing closer to the ritual room.
"I want to be a priestess for this place like you."
The woman smiled broadly.
"We shall see... you cannot be a priestess until you have gone through the full ritual nine times."
Jaya's face lit up eagerly, but before she could speak, one of her companions waddled to the doorway, one hand on her massive, writhing belly and the other braced against the wall.
The priestess looked at Jaya carefully, then a twinkle appeared her eye.
"You can start, as my assistant, by helping this girl to a mat."
Overjoyed, she got up as quickly as she was able to, the unfamiliar lightness of her body making her feel as though she would float away. She ignored her slippery thighs as she helped the other acolyte to give birth.
"Yes, Jaya. You will do very well here. And I've been hoping that the right girl would come along that could make the commitment necessary to this temple. And to my needs..." Jaya looked up and saw the priestess looking at her in a new way. Blushing, the girl smiled and remembered how the woman in green had satisfied her earlier.
"I would like that very much, Priestess," she replied, her reddened pussy lips tingling with anticipation.