He’s a survivor, like me.Survivors survive. That’s what we do.I just have to keep my head on straight and help him as best as I can.
I was telling the truth when I said I would die for him. There’s never been anyone I’d stand in front of and take a bullet for until him.Never.Never because I’ve never met anyone who cared enough about me to do the same.
I need him to live because I have some explaining to do.Pushing my wet hair back from my face, I rub my palms hard across my eyes, biting back a string of curses when I realize I smudged my makeup.
Following the females deep beneath the city, I soon discover how vast and interconnected everything is. Similar to the original tunnel Darolus discovered me in, tracks lie across the ground of these ones, sometimes forking into different directions. They seem to continue on forever until I’m completely lost. The females are silent as they haul Darolus’s body in the front, the end of his tail dragging behind, while I trail after them. Besides the female who returned for me, a speckled yellow and black one, none of them glance back at me to see if I’m following.
The yellow and black speckled female sometimes grabs something from inside a pouch at her side and throws it into the air behind me. Smelling something pungent and bitter each time she does, I release a litany of sneezes that gets me hissed at.
Eventually, we make it to a large space that’s lit up by several long plastic tubular lights with a blue glow. The sharp smells of soil and water hit my nose as I’m led to a mostly-empty room on the right side of the main one. Besides cement walls surrounding me, the darkness makes it hard to interpret many details, but I see moss and lichen growing in several sections. There are a few crates, rickety tables, and hides down here as well.
A naga retrieves one of the blue lights and brings it into the smaller room, brightening it up. Turning away from the larger space where I’m searching for more nagas, I focus my attention on those in the smaller room with me.
They lay Darolus flat, and as I move into the room, two more nagas appear from behind me to hiss loudly and glare at us. Now five in total surround me, their tails takingup the entire floor. If they decide to attack me… I’m vastly outnumbered.
Heading to Darolus’s side anyway and kneeling, I gaze up at the nearest female. “Now what?” I ask, my voice soft. “You dragged him down here, now what?”
“He called you hissss,” the original female, an entirely black and grey one with black hair and eyes, speaks up. “Are you?”
Am I? Glancing down at his body, I’m reminded of all the times he has called memine. “Yes. Yes, I’m his.”
All the females start hissing and I hesitate, wondering if my answer is wrong.
One of them leans over Darolus and in a sweeping, dramatic arch—sniffs his body. “I can smell her on him.”
Another comes to my side and does the same to me. “But he is faint on her.”
“I’m wet,” I add.
They hiss at me again.
One of the new ones, another speckled black and yellow one, bares her fangs at the original three. “You should have not brought them here. You have endangered ussss, Melsya. You are recklesssss.”
“Darolus has been guarding us for countless seasons and the strange female human has begged for his life,” the one who must be named Melsya says. “We found them outside, by the doors to the offering site. We must address this. It’s like I have said, unusual things are happening above. We need to know more.”
I look sharply at her. “He’s been guarding you guys and you outright stab him?”
Her eyes flick to me and I notice the long gray waves of her hair braided down her back. “He attacked ussss first. We will always do what we must to defendourselves.”
“He was trying to save me! You attacked me and my crewmates first!” I argue.
“You were unknown intruders, beings we did not recognize. I reacted as I must.”
“You could’ve tried talking first!” I accuse. “Diplomacy is better than death.” I should know, I’ve been on a lot of missions for Weston in the guise of diplomacy. Several of them hiss and growl at me. I hiss and growl at them back and realization dawns. “It was you that day in the tunnels, wasn’t it?”
“So it is you? The same human.” One of the original three, the one who’s been silent until now leans in to peer at me with her two friends. Their keen eyes take me in and I try not to curl my arms further over my middle. “I thought it might be. Strange female.”
I reach up with a cold shiver and rub the back of my head. “That hurt, you know.”
“You should be lucky we left you alive,” she growls.
Darolus groans and we all turn back to him.
Leaning toward him and the wound at his front, I place my hands over him, wanting to touch him,comfort him, but hesitating. “Help him! Please!” I turn to the female closest to me. “I’ve been with him for weeks and he’s never once hurt me. You can trust him still if you trusted him before. Please.”
Something sharp stabs into my neck and I jerk away from Darolus’s body, twisting to see the end of a metal spear aimed at me. Meeting Melsya’s eyes, I frown at her as she scowls down at me.
Long wispy gray hair flutters over her face, and as I flash my light at her, the brightness of her yellow speckles makes me wish I knew more about her kind and what they’ve beenthrough to react the way they do and choose to live deep underground rather than above. Unlike them, I could never willingly do it. Her dark eyes glare back at me and I squint.
