Read: Kaliya, Queen of Snakes 🐍

Once, I was a human girl.

You wouldn’t know it to look at me now, but long ago, when devas and demons roamed the earth, I was a human girl who dreamed of being a dancer.

The rains had finished, and the Kaveri River swelled threateningly close to the outskirts of the village. In no rush to return home, I sat idling by the riverbank in the marshy reeds, my toes in the water, dreaming of dancing. I wanted to feel the rhythm of the drums in my body, of the high flute winding around my skin. More than that, I wanted to be free of my family.

But instead, that was the day I would meet my future husband. My family was eager to marry me off. I had heard them say as much that morning.

Read the rest of my recently published short story, "Kaliya, Queen of Snakes," over at Zooscape e-zine. Perfect for fans of Madeline Miller's Circe, this is a retelling of the Hindu legend of the epic battle between Krishna and Kaliya, in which Kaliya is a fierce, shapeshifting teenaged girl.