Hissing, I jut my hips outward and come, envisioning her dusky sheath gripping my cock instead of my hand. Pretending I’m breeding her, the rest of my seed ejaculates from my knot and onto the bushes before me. I bite out another hiss and tuck my jerking shaft back into my tail.
Some of the tension eases from my muscles.
Growling at the bulge still pushing at my slit and the fresh seed I can already feel re-expanding my knot, I slither back to the edge of the trees. My own actions infuriate me. Why can I not let go? It is no good dwelling on Julia and what I cannot have. It will only hurt me… and the longer I am hurt, the less useful I am to Zaku and the others.
Scanning the spaceships outside the entrance to the encampment, I observe the flying machines circling in the air and the weapons some of them have. They are always there, even at night, always patrolling. Keeping the dangers at bay.
Julia is safe here.
Even from me.
I growl and turn away once again.
My ears prick when I hear yelling in the distance.
Twisting back, I look in the direction of the sounds— far to my left, I can just make out three human men, soldiers, running at a limping gate toward the camp. Several machines stationed above the entrance begin flying towards them. I can barely discern the ragged noises they are making, only intermittent shouts as they run from something I cannot see.
Gunshots reverberate next and I jerk back, startled. Returning to the deeper shadows, I then see a handful of men running from the entrance towards the limping humans. They surround them quickly and escort them into the camp. Several fresh soldiers, including a couple of the drones, remain behind and instead jog for the section forest the retreating humans had come from. They shoot at something.
I duck down into the dense overgrowth and hurry through the forest in the same direction, wondering if it is an animal or… a naga that attacked them.
In the days I have been here there has been no aggression from the nagas, nor from the humans. I have had a warning shot fired my way but, for the most part, the drones with weaponsremain closer to the camp and the humans that do enter the forest merely guard their machines rather than initiate conflict. Expecting that the soldiers were attacked by a bear, I search for signs of its tracks as I go. By the time I near the general vicinity it seemed the soldiers emerged from, I no longer hear gunfire and, without seeing any signs of a bear anywhere, I am turning for the forest’s edge when that strange smell from days ago, when I was last with Julia, rushes past my nose.
Julia told me about the underground place she found and the ‘others’ she encountered there, but I have barely thought about the subject since. To be smelling it again here, and now…
Something rustles the bushes and I freeze. Whatever it is moves quickly through the forest to my left, low to the ground.
The strange smell, along with blood, fills my nose just as the shouts of the soldiers entering the forest reach me.
Before I am noticed—by them or the fleeing creature—I give chase, catching a glimpse of stirring foliage ahead of me. The creature picks up speed, seeming to realize something bigger has taken an interest in it. Nevertheless, I close the distance between us, and eventually its low, exerted hissing reaches me.
A naga.
I curse. If the humans have been attacked by one of us, they will up their defenses and trust those of us who desire peace even less.
My intention to apprehend the male grows. I will make him pay for his attack. I cannot let an unchecked, violent naga escape, especially one that is so close to Julia.
Spooked, he begins to trip up, carelessly disturbing the plant life around him. I am gaining on him, and he knows it too. I try to discern what kind of naga he is, but catch only gray scales and the beginning splotches of faint patterning. His coloring eludes me; it is washed out, devoid of any vibrancy.
Gradually, I start to notice something else changing in the forest around me.
Orbs.
At first I only note one flying past me, but then two more appear in my periphery, bringing with them the faint noises of more nagas around me. I have not seen so many orbs in one place in the forest in some time. Confused, I briefly slow down before refocusing and speeding after the original naga once more.
Quickly regaining my speed, I close in on him. His labored breaths louden as I dive for him through the brush. Suddenly, he stops and turns on me at the same time—I plow into him, and he snarls loudly as I take him to the ground. Pinning him is surprisingly easy. I briefly mistake him for a sickly young male when I finally get a clear view of his face.
Bloated-looking yet just a little saggy, his gray skin and scales are loose and soft under me. He snaps his fangs as I lift over him, still baffled as to what kind of naga he is. As blood pools from a wound on his chest, I see the tell-tale shape of a hole made by one of the humans’ guns.
“Sssstop,” I hiss when he snaps at me again.
He is half my size and reeks of that strange, unnerving smell.
I pull off of him and he immediately swipes at me with his claws. “Stop!” I demand, trying to figure him out as I shove him back. His shorter tail coils under him like he is about to launch at me.
As I’m bracing, I sense another naga surge toward me from my right. Both pummel into me at the same time. Throwing them off, I whirl on the second, seeing another similarly young, grayish naga with unformed features.
The crack of a branch behind me is all the warning I get before a third joins them, and all three attack me at once. I swing my tail outward and knock two of them away as the third sinkshis fangs into my back. Feeling his stinging venom enter me, I rear up with a growl and reach behind me with my tail, grabbing him and dragging him off.
