Page 13 of The Naga Scavenger’s Precious Mate

There was a campfire going out front and several small, two-legged figures moved near it. Sky beings just like my mate. So there had been more survivors of the wreck, but how? It had sunk to the bottom of a subterranean lake that the crash had exposed. Had it split into more pieces that I hadn’t seen?

Excitement thrummed through me at the sight. They were with other Naga, Naga of at least three different Clans. I saw purple Copper Tooth males, blue Thunder Rock males, and even the flash of a golden Serqethos male. To my surprise, there was also a green Water Weaver male sitting in front of one of the tents while he worked on curing several thick Vakarsa pelts. I knew the male. Ekkire was a good hunter with wanderlust lodged deep in his bones, he wandered further and wider than any other male I knew. To find him here, doing something so domestic was… odd.

His presence also assured me that this weird alliance was no threat to me, so I rose from my hiding spot and made my approach. I needed to find out what was happening here. Why were there sky beings? Would this be a better place to take my Farah for the winter? Unlike males, Water Weaver females liked to inhabit their village together, to have company, even if it made them fight.

“Zeidon!” Ekkire called out as soon as he spotted me, his body rising as he abandoned his pelts to greet me. Several purple and blue Naga gathered to watch my approach, and then I spotted red scales coming out of one of the huts and I instinctively lowered my trident into a battle pose. What was one of them doing here? This was the last place I expected to find a Bitter Storm warrior.

There was no mistaking it—the male was indeed one, his scales a red but edged with yellow in many places. He was gaudy and bright compared to my dark green, but his frame was packed with muscle, his movements cautious but confident. I spotted the small baby he was cradling against his shoulder too late, and males of every color closed ranks around him, raising weapons and growling as they warned me to stay away.

I smiled when that made Srazz raise his spines and growl back while glaring with a mean glint at those who threatened me. My sweet loyal friend, not the slightest match against any full-grown Naga warrior, and yet he was ready to come to my defense.

Lowering my trident, I raised my hand in surrender. “What is this place?” I asked, directing my question at Ekkire. He shrugged his shoulders and started pushing his way through the half-a-dozen males to reach me. His expression was still friendly and open, and was making the others lose their hostility. Then I realized that the red male was following closely behind my Clanmate, his low voice urging the others to stand down.

It was the Bitter Storm male that spoke to me, “Another Water Weaver. Are you going to stick around or will your restless bones send you wandering again soon? Even the lure of a mate does not seem to hold you in one place.” His words baffled me so completely that I could only stare, my eyes flicking to my friend for an explanation but Ekkire remained quiet. That was not a surprise, he had always been a very quiet male.

Since no help was forthcoming from my Clansmale, I focused on the Bitter Storm Naga holding the tiny baby. It had curled its small tail around the male’s arm and was resting its head on his shoulder, soundly asleep and completely unaware of everything around it. “No,” I said, my tail coiling around Srazz to set him on my shoulder where I could keep him safe if anything should happen. “I was just curious. Why are you all together? Where did you find those sky beings?”

The mention of the two-legged creatures made them all shift and some of them even glared in warning. The red one was far too clever and observant though. “You’ve seen them before?” he asked, head tilting to gaze along my body, taking note of my weapons and gear. His yellow eyes were curious rather than hostile, but I was not about to tell anyone of Farah alone in my cave. I wanted to make up my mind about this place first.

“Dead ones, at a wreck,” I said by way of explanation, which was the truth but not all of it. Then I added, “And others that were alive, blue, red, and one gray one with wings.” I was not surprised my words were met with laughter. Particularly, my description of the living beings I’d seen scour the woods before they flew away again. It was too much of a coincidence to find so many different sky beings all at once, Farah and her kind were enough of a puzzle already.

It relaxed the atmosphere enough that the male holding the Naga child reached forward to clasp my arm with his hand in greeting. He even dipped the horn on his chin toward his chest in a sign of respect, not far enough to appear meek or inferior, but definitely respectful.

“I am Joxra,” he said, “Once Bitter Storm, now part of Outcast Haven. This is a place where Naga cast out from their Clan can come to find a home. As long as they promise to hold precious the humans that our brethren have found and taken as mates.” He gestured through the gate in the palisade up the hill to the entrance of Ahoshaga’s main warren of ancestral caves.

I’d been inside a few times before to look for interesting things and I’d seen the white apparition that rose to greet you. It was some kind of device from the past that did it. Not a ghost, because it said the same thing each time. But Thunder Rock was a very superstitious lot, it surprised me they were even willing to make camp in the shadow of Ahoshaga’s peak.

At the entrance I could see three sky beings of similar build and colors as my mate, they were with Naga males. One I recognized even from this distance. Zathar. Once, he was the crown prince of Thunder Rock, then he was cast out by his own mother. “Zathar is our leader,” Joxra declared proudly and without any hint of subterfuge or shame. A Bitter Storm male readily following a Thunder Rock male? Unheard of and very interesting.

“Aha,” I hummed. Scratching Srazz under his chin I had another good look around. These males looked comfortable in each other’s presence. They were well-fed and happy. Yet, by their own words, they were all cast out of their own clan. Except for Ekkire, maybe; Water Weaver didn’t rush into those kinds of decisions since our males already roamed so much.

“Tour? You should stick around, Zeidon,” Ekkire said at last. I couldn’t say no to that, even if it meant I would not be able to hunt today. This was important, they had humans as Joxra called them. Sky beings just like my female. I wanted to meet them and I wanted to learn all about this settlement and its leadership.

***

Farah

“What is it, Buzz? Do you hear something?” I asked the tiny purple dragon. His body was no bigger than my fist, but he had a long, sinuous neck and agile tail that made him appear bigger. When he flared out his wings and raised the little spikes along his back I knew he meant serious business.

He’d been uneasy on and off all morning, and now that the day was fading into late afternoon it was getting even worse. He paced along the edge of the pile of furs, then fluttered to a spot on a shelf to glare into the darkness at the back of the room. His unease made me just as restless and I rose to pull on the pair of pants I’d made from that pretty but durable blue fabric. I would feel better when I was less exposed in just a simple dress.

I wanted to think that I was just imagining things and that Buzz was just reacting to this planet’s equivalent of a mouse scurrying around in the dark. That thought didn’t really help to make me feel better; I didn’t like the idea of a mouse for company either. The pants did fit alright, though; that was a win. I’d even managed to sew a pocket at one hip, I was pretty proud I’d remembered how to do that.

I was just tying the last lace on my sneaker again when I heard a sound that definitely didn’t come from Buzz. Now fully dressed in new pants and my sweatshirt, I rose to stare at the ominous darkness beyond the rows of cluttered shelves. What the fudge was it? Enough with the self-doubt; there really was something back there, staring at me. Buzz sensed it, I sensed it, so it had to be there.

My eyes landed on one of the primitive weapons that Zeidon had stuck in a bin near the exit toward the tunnel. The one visible door in this place, although I was now certain that it could not be the only one. My legs only wobbled a little bit when I shuffled around the campfire to the bin and pulled out a sturdy club-like thing.

It was shaped like a baseball bat but slightly curved. Someone had wrapped fabric around the handle end to make it easier to hold, and it was heavy, smooth, and white as bone. I had the feeling this might be actual bone, or maybe a giant fang, but that meant the beast it came from was enormous. It would make for a very adequate weapon, even if my arms struggled to hold it up.

“Come on, Buzz. I know you hear it too, where is it?” I murmured to the little dragon. He fluttered his wings and with a chirp-kee-kee, landed on my shoulder. His little maw was pulled back into a silent snarl, his lavender eyes fixated on the last row of shelves. “Show yourself! I know you’re there.” And those words wouldn’t help a bit, because whoever that was wouldn’t speak my language.

I didn’t feel nearly as brave as I was acting, but I forced myself to walk around the fire with my club to get a closer look. The shelves were filled so much that you could barely see through them. Broken, jagged pieces of metal plating, piles and piles of cables sorted by length and color, and a whole basket full of something that looked a bit like a lighter. There were collections of many more things I couldn’t decipher too. Zeidon was definitely a major hoarder of things.

When I rounded my third shelf, the light from the fire became blocked and long shadows surrounded me. Buzz made uneasy noises on my shoulder but bravely kept clinging to my sweater. I was grateful for his company, without it, I would have crawled beneath those furs and hidden. Still an option, I conceded. If I didn’t find anything behind the next shelf I was going to give up and do the sensible thing: hide.

I hoped that Zeidon would be back in not too long, but he had said the hunt would take him the whole day. I thought it was late afternoon because of how my stomach felt, but I couldn’t actually tell down here with no windows for daylight. I didn’t even know if the days had a similar length to days on Earth, what if it was very different?

A hint of panic filled me when I realized I didn’t know how long it would be until Zeidon got back. I had to figure this out on my own. Panic was useless, and I hated how it had made me feel and react back at the lake the other day. I was not going down another rabbit hole like that.