The Adventure of a Demon’s Adder

This story is about a Demon's Adder. Demon's Adders are a rarely seen snake that can be found in forests and some swamps. Most Adders live near the border of the United States and Canada, but a growing number of Adders live near the Thailand-Chinese border. They are quite intelligent and are very hard to catch. Demons Adders are completely black except for a red pattern of diamonds running down their back and their eyes, which have an extremely intelligent, look to them.

A Demons Adder will usually move around at night until it finds a burrow occupied by a mouse or small rabbit. Then it will wait quietly until its prey comes out around daybreak. When the animal comes out the Adder will sink its fangs into the victim and release venom, which will sedate the animal for up to two days. This keeps the meat fresh in case the Adder is full. The Adder will stay in the animal's burrow through the day and repeat the process again the next night.

Few Demons Adders are seen by the same person twice. Only one Adder has been recognized multiple times and named. The Adder's name was George and it was one of the first Adders to live wild in Asia. George was brought over by a group of scientists from Thailand and accidentally escaped with a few other Adders near the border of Thailand and China. Once those same scientists decided to read the brain waves of a young Demons Adder while it was sleeping and came out with startling results. Several amazing creatures that nobody had ever seen or heard of before appeared on the screen. The scientists were fascinated by the Adder's "dream" and are planning to do more testing soon.

Now that you know a little more about the Demons Adder, I will relate to you a story taken from an entry, in the journal, of the head of a group of scientists who live in Thailand.

Dec. 22, 01

Today we used the brainwave scanner on the oldest Demons Adder in the lab. This time instead of waiting for the Adder to fall asleep we decided to sedate it in hope that we might get a longer reading than the last test provided. When all preparations had been made, and the Adder was put to sleep I flipped the switch that turned on the scanner and interpreting device.

The image that appeared on the interpreter's screen was nothing out of the ordinary. It was similar to a forest somewhere in North America, but the viewpoint was of some kind of snakes, most likely an Adder's. "Looks like the place we captured our Adder's," said a scientist. He soon fell silent when the interpreter made a sound like footprints and the view on the screen swung around and showed three scientists pointing at the screen. Quickly the screen swung around and went into a hole.

The scientists saw no movement for fifteen minuets and decided to establish watches so some of them could rest. After eight hours during which the scientists on watch saw the light from the hole's entrance start to fade, the Adder, for that is what they decided it was, popped out of it's hole, only to find more scientists with nets waiting outside. The Adder managed to bite one of the scientists but it was quickly netted and put in a dark cage.

Several hours passed before the cage was opened. A seemingly blinding light shone from outside and the Adder was carefully picked up and placed in a cage with seven other Adders. The big object the Adder's cage was placed in soon started moving. Through one of the air holes the Adder saw trees whizzing past. The scientists watching the screen concluded that it was in a car. Soon the cage was put into a humungous, shiny bird (airplane). Many hours later the cage was taken out of the airplane and towards a humungous object when all of a sudden the cage fell with a jerk, and the door popped open.

Freedom!!!

Before the poor scientist who was carrying the cage could recapture it the Adder had slithered out of the clearing and was moving as fast as it could through the trees in the small forest next to the scientists’ lab. Everything was different from its old forest. The Adder seemed confused by the new trees and plants and the interpreter screen kept spinning around as if the Adder was trying to find something familiar. Finally it halted upon seeing a small rodent scurry into its hole. Even though it was the middle of the day the Adder seemed to take comfort in the fact that it could still find food and it settled down to wait for its prey to come out.

The Adder was startled some hours later by large feet moving through the undergrowth. Fearing that the humans were coming the Adder plunged into the hole that its prey was hiding in. When the sounds started to move farther off, the Adder’s curiosity got the best of it and it slithered out of the hole into the brush. Instead of a human the Adder was startled to find a large black and white mammal (Panda Bear) peering at it from a short distance away. The animal started to move away and the Adder followed it cautiously. After a short time the animal stopped walking and started eating. Then it suddenly brought its head up to listen to something and sniff the air. It looked around in fear and sprang away into a thicker part of the forest.

The Adder followed the animal’s example only it dived into a hole. When nothing happened for a long while the Adder went deep into the burrow and the screen the scientists were watching went blank.

All the scientists, including me, were amazed at what we had seen. It took us a while to realize that the screen turned off because the Adder hooked up to the brain wave scanner had woken up. The Adder had been sedated for the better part of two days and while all the scientists were not constantly watching the screen, we all were exhausted. Tomorrow after a good night’ s sleep maybe we will be able to think more clearly about the things this experiment has told us.

Dec. 24, 01

None of the scientists were awake before ten this morning. The constant vigil at the interpreter's screen and the excitement of the new discoveries had tired all of us out. At twelve, when all were awake, we started to discuss the events of the previous two days. All of us agreed that the Adder in the dream had to be the one they had been brain scanning. Also, most everyone agreed that if the previous theory was correct, that Demon's Adders must have a near photographic memory to remember a two day period of time so vividly. The fact that they have an amazing memory and can learn things very easily would also explain their growing ability to avoid humans. Beyond these few facts we scientists disagree with each other. We have decided nothing else as a group, but hopefully another discovery will occur that will let us learn more about these mysterious creatures and how they fit in to the complex world of science. As for right now we can but hope, and pray to God who created us, for the enlargement of our knowledge, which we will use for his greater glory.