Eva the Snake

**Eva** is the tritagonist of the animated film *Sahara*.

She is voiced by Angela Galuppo.

Her brother is Gary the Snake.

Her husband is Ajar the Cobra.

Her adoptive daughter is Oichi.

## Biography

Eva is the daughter of a rich snake family. Adventurous at heart, she stifles in her golden oasis and dreams of freedom. It would not look like that, but under her looks of a pretty princess, Eva is an ace of survival, a real rebel with a hard skin.

## History

### Background

Eva was born into Oasis as the daughter of the most influential snake in the community. Her mother, an incredibly thin snake was rather distant in her life, leaving her father to handle affairs regarding Eva and her brother Gary. Her father instilled in both of them fears regarding the Dusties, any snake that was not green and lived in the desert beyond Oasis. She, like her brother also learned how things work in Oasis, specifically how the various families vie for influence while partaking of leisure under the protective gaze of the herons who have turned their natural hostility towards snakes at the Dusties who live outside Oasis. At somepoint both she and her brother began to feel a desire for escape, but both handled such desire differently. While Gary turned to pollen, a drug effecting the mind, and passively took to wearing a wig and learning about humans as his means of escape and rebellion, Eva took a more active course. Eva became a bit problematic for her father due to her attempts at escape and disinterest in recreation and the entertaining of guests for the building of influence in the community. She started to doubt the stories told by her father about the outside world.

### Sahara

One of Eva's failed attempts to escape was witnessed by the Dusty, Ajar, a thief from a nearby community of foul-mannered snakes. This attempt by Eva was foiled by the Chief-Chief, who returned her to her father. Her father was not pleased with yet another attempt by his daughter to leave. She was reminded by him how dangerous Dusties are, and told that they eat their poop and marry their children, which Eva responds with an expression of doubt. Her brother then comes home and makes fun of her for looking like she is about to cry. Naturally hurt Eva retreats into solitude to paint her scales with a flower pattern to calm herself. However while she lays there she realizes that she could cover her body brown and thus disguise herself as a Dusty and be able to escape. This plan however has a side to it she had not considered which was that the herons would try to kill her. During this second attempt in the same day as the first, Eva meets another snake, who appears green though she doens't recognize him and she takes steps to try to pretend to be a Dusty, as per her appearance. Fleeing and nearly being caught the two arrive at a cliff, where Eva wraps about the stranger and pulls them both off the cliff into the river below.

The stranger can't swim, which shocks Eva, as swimming is something the snakes of Oasis learn to do at a young age. Saving the stranger again, while combating the violent river, Eva's disguise begins to wash off, as too does the stranger's own disguise. As Eva realizes the stranger isn't a green snake, she lets him go and swims to safety on a branch in the river. The stranger, manages to pull himself onto the same branch. Eva demands to know if the stranger is going to kill her to which the stranger says no. At this point the two introduce themselves to one another as Ajar and Eva as Ajar's scorpion friend, Pitt, arrives on the same branch. Content with her company, Eva begins making her way into the open asking if Ajar is afraid of freedom before she is suddenly snatched with a rod and put into a basket. As Ajar begins pursuit he is plucked from the ground by a heron from Oasis and carried off as Eva is knocked unconscious after hitting her head on something in the basket which was affixed to the back of a camel.

Eva wakes up sometime later to find herself in the company of other snakes that are captured by the same man. She is told that they are part of a ballerina company and are preparing for their next show. The largest, and oldest of the snake ladies tells Eva that she is fat, but will slim down after some practice. Eva insists that she is not suppose to be here, that she didn't choose to be here, that some mistake was made. The other snakes laugh and tell her that she is one of them now with the largest snake iterating that none of them choose this life. Later that night, the show starts in a desert with the man, revealing his name to be Omar, performing for a family in the desert. Omar tells how he has a magical flute carved by a voodoo priest from Haiti with the power to control snakes. As all, but the oldest of the ladies begin to dance to the flute's music, Eva slithers out of the basket to try to escape. The largest snake tries to stop her, but fails. While making her way across the sands towards the empty desert, Eva finds that she can no longer escape. Instead she is being controlled by the flute, and as she enters the circle with the other performers, she becomes captivated by it, experiencing a lucid vision as she dances.

When she awakens again in the basket, two of the girls congratulate her for her performance and complement her dancing. Eva however can't remember herself dancing, only the vision she had. The lead performer tells her that she is as hopeless as they are now.  In the following days, Eva would practice dancing with the other ladies and begin to take a more promenent role in the performance upsetting the lead snake. Confounding this is the advances of the only male snake in the act of which the lead snake formerly had sole interest. After the oldest snake mentions that she was been doing this for 40 years, Eva begins to go back to the realization that she is prisoner here. She can't see herself doing this for 40 years. After the male snake tries to comfort her the lead snake sees an opportunity to get rid of Eva and shows her a hole in the basket. The lead snake explains that she used to be like Eva, wanting to escape, but then learned that there is nothing out there, but desert. Eva thanks her and begins to slither out of the basket, before a camel catches her and tells her to get back inside. Eva agrees only for the lead snake to push Eva out causing the camels to try to prevent Eva from escaping.

Omar begins to step in, while the lead snake slithers her head out to see what was going on, only to get herself caught too. Omar gets them both and at first, much to the lead snake's horror, begins to put them into a basket meant for snakes that will end up as belts, which Omar sells to augment his profits. However Omar then gets a better idea. That night, he brings the two snakes together to perform an endurance based dance-off with the snake who can dance the longest being allowed to live. Eva wins only by managing to balance upon her head which, the lead snake fails to do, falling over without the strength to move. Omar then gets the lead snake from the circle and puts her in the belt basket with Eva taking the former lead snake's place in the show. Though it is not what Eva wanted.

Omar returns to his home and begins to work on new belts after stowing his flute away. Eva and the male snake talk and Eva is given a comforting embrace. During this moment, she notices Ajar, and her brother, Gary slithering in from the ceiling. She is shocked to see her brother coming to rescue her as he always seemed uncaring to her, and at times hurtful. She watches as her brother and Ajar loosen a ceiling fan in order to break the glass that holds her and the other snakes captive. Omar arrives and goes for his flute only to be bitten by Gary. Omar flings Gary aside announcing that he is immune to their venom because it is coursing through his veins. He reveals his tattoos made with ink that incorporated snake venom in order to build a tolerance. Ajar gets the flute, while Omar is distracted by Gary and leads Omar to a chase in a sandstorm. After a fight in the storm, Eva and Gary find Ajar, now with new skin, after his old one was shedded in the storm. Eva is happy that Ajar survived, but Omar comes, yet before he can do anything with them, Pitt stings him causing him to fall asleep. At last, free of Omar, the group begins their exodus home.