“It would serve you well to stay away from us. The humans that have been here have not been kind, and depending upon the naga, you may be attacked on sight, especially being male and mistaken for a soldier. Some of us are prone to solving our issues with violence.”
“Why does me being a male have anything to do with it?” His brow furrows as he and Benjamin uneasily look at each other.
“We do not need nor want males like we need and want females. Our females left. Male nagas are deeply territorial and protective. The more males there are, the more we become that way when there are females near.”
“Yeah but just because I’m a male doesn’t mean I’m competition.”
“No. You’re not. You will never be.”
“You don’t seem to like us, do you?”
I peer at Quinton, considering him for the first time. Unlike Benjamin with his short brown hair and slighter, older seeming stature, Quinton appears younger, though not by much. Taller than his counterpart, with facial hair all over his chin and cheeks, the bushy strands are tight and light brown. A lighter shade than the brown coloring of his hair. “Humans destroyed my home, much like they have destroyed their own. I… do not dislike you,” I tell him slowly. “I have met males in the pastthat have been fine.” I’m reminded by Celeste’s squadmate, Kyle, whom I came to respect. “But I do not trust you.”
“Is it because of Julia? She’s a female. Are you territorial of her?”
My lips flatten as his question puts me off. Part of me wants to hiss and bare my fangs, to send him fleeing, but another part of me hesitates.
I have made no moves to claim Julia but the human males do not know that. If one of them wants to make a move to claim her, he does not know my intentions. Do I have intentions?
No. I cannot.
A hiss finally tears out of my throat. “I am protective of those under my care. If you sssseek one of the two females with us as a companion, I will sssstop you. You are unknown males I do not trust who have been greatly weakened.”
He raises a thick brow as his gaze runs over me and my tail. “Do you trust anyone?”
“Yessss.”
Julia and Olivia reemerge from the trees. Once amongst the others, Julia helps Olivia to the ground where she gets her comfortable against the trunk of a tree facing the lake. Quinton shuffles over to sit next to her and offers her a bar of some kind from his pack. Olivia takes it with a pained smile and slowly unwraps the outer parts of the bar before she starts to eat it.
Meanwhile, Julia pulls off her jacket and throws it on her pack. With her back turned to me, she then tugs off her shirt, leaving only a fit, sleeveless, black undershirt with small straps behind. An undershirt so tightly clenched to her body, it outlines everything.
Her shoulder blades move as she pulls her long hair forward, revealing soft, dark skin stretched in delicate curves over the bones of her upper back. The bumps of her spine form as she bends forward, leading me back up to the curve betweenher shoulder blades and the smooth skin of her neck. Supple and richly brown, she fascinates me, being all the same shade, whereas I, decorated in numerous shades of gold and brown, hold no fascination to me whatsoever.
My fingers twitch to touch her, to feel just how soft her skin is.
‘Anything he wanted.’
Her words come back to haunt me.
“I’ll be back shortly,” she says, standing with a bundle of items she grabbed from her pack under her arm. She gazes over the others, briefly hesitating on Olivia before looking up and meeting my eyes. “I’m going to wash up,” she says directly to me. “I won’t be very far. Just out of sight.” She turns for the trees without waiting for my response, trudging back into the woods where she and Olivia had emerged from.
Realizing how tense I am, my ears pricking, listening to her footfalls recede, I coil my tail under me. She is not safe alone, not with other nagas wanting her. I am reminded of how many of them were outside Zaku’s vying for her attention.
With a quick glance at the others, and finding them busy amongst themselves, Benjamin briefly looks back at me but then turns away. With Quinton and Olivia staring at the lake in obvious wonder, massaging their limbs retrospectively, I turn from them, knowing they will be happier if I am not here, towering over them.
“I will be back. Do not leave this ledge until I have returned. I will forage for something for you to eat.”
Without further hesitation, I head after Julia, my hands already flexing with anxiety that she is out of sight.
I find her a short distance away and back along the shoreline, kneeling between the crevasse of two large boulders that tower over her right at the edge of the water. From above where I am, still up a slope and several more boulders she has climbeddown, I watch as she crouches awkwardly in the small space she is in, her feet shifting the smaller rocks and pebbles under her. Without noticing me, she sets her bundle behind her where the ground is mostly dry. Twisting her thick, wild strands into a bun on top of her head, she ties her hair as tightly as possible. With tendrils escaping to play over her skin, my mouth waters and the pressure in my chest returns.
As quiet as I can be, I maneuver onto one of the lower boulders for a better view. Closer than before, I slowly peer over the edge to find her staring at the clear water drifting in and out of the multi-colored pebbles in front of her.
She leans over where the wading water stops and plunges her hands into it, shifting some of the smaller rocks with her fingers and palms. Lifting her hands afterwards, she brushes her fingers over her lips, wetting them. Taking a moment to lick the drops off, she lowers her hands back into the water and cups them. Splashing her face and neck, she rinses away the sweat and dirt that has gathered on her skin. Water trickles off her hair while wayward droplets fall from her chin and jaw. Discovering my tongue is tasting the air, I pull it back in, and with a scowl, I shut my mouth. I do not want her to notice me.
Right then, she pulls out her bottle from the bundle behind her and fills it. Bringing the bottle to her lips, she tilts her head back and closes her eyes, gulping the contents down. Some of the water gathers at the edge of her mouth to join the rest of the water dripping from her chin. With her partially turned to me now, I imagine her in my nest.
My stomach clamps and the muscles around my middle harden, pushing at my sensitive inner appendage from all sides. A hiss explodes from my throat and I jerk back.
