The Dangers of Youth
One day, walking along the riverbend trail
I come across a baby false water cobra
Tiny and young, slithering to and fro through the world
Curious of the giant over you, you stare back
And I imagine your futureI know your kind
I know your nature
I know the danger you can possess
Your people’s life is such a routine
So much so I know where those fangs would sink
I know how tightly you’d bind
I know how large your appetite could be
It’s life, you’d defend
The weak and the strong
As prey and predator
The natural selection of the world
So too, would it be
For me to kneel down
And pinch your neck now, as tight as I can
Knowing the nests it would saveBut I don’t, and I won’t
For the young live to learn
With the right teacher, you would know
The difference between necessity and gorging
And I imagine your future could be better
Ekans, the Snake Pokémon
“Newborn Ekans do not have the toxin in their fangs that their species is known for, for many months after they hatch. Without this protective poison to ward off enemies and predators, the youngest spend their early months surrounded by the more mature of their species, coddled by their parents and protected by those of their kind with experience in surviving the wilderness. Even without the poison, an Ekans’ entire mouth is still mighty dangerous. They have the ability to unhinge their jaws and stretch the edges of their mouths to fit larger prey down their gullet, swallowing them to dissolve in their digestive track as they continue to slither about, and for creatures twice their diameter; often, though, this is simply to consume the eggs of bird Pokémon more than the bird Pokémon themselves.”
“For a species of anywhere between six to eight feet in length, Ekans are also surprisingly agile and quiet. Due to their size, they mostly populate in regions with waist-high grassy fields to sneak unobserved by their prey and nearby predators. With their tongues, Ekans can track the scents of nearby creatures, allowing them to redirect themselves to or from a target without having to lay eyes on them either. The most frequent sightings of Ekans are around trees, as they will wrap themselves around the trunks while they sleep, or around branches as they wait nearby the nests of bird Pokémon to learn their comings and goings.”