Chapter 9
Zeidon
With the Ayala babies adopted by their new mom, I could finally get started on my hunt.
Already, Srazz and I had lost precious hours of daylight, but I was glad my first mission of the day had gone successfully.
I had only needed to place the young in the clearing near her burrow and their squealing had brought the female out.
She’d dragged them into her nest by the scruff of their necks one by one after only a few sniffs and licks.
I could only assume that she thought they were the young she’d lost a few days ago.
Srazz was somewhere in the underbrush to my left, foraging more nuts and berries to stuff his round belly with.
The sky was clear, the sun warmed my scales, and I knew my mate was safely tucked away inside my own den.
Everything seemed to be going well, but I felt a niggle of worry cling to the back of my mind.
Yesterday, at the lake, we’d been interrupted when Bitter Storm warriors had crossed a little too closely to our location.
Since I was deep inside Thunder Rock territory, a Clan of blue-scaled Naga, there shouldn’t be any of the technology-hating Bitter Storm warriors.
Something was happening, something big. Or maybe it had already happened.
It was not in my nature, or that of my Clan’s, to care much about the activities of any of the others.
Our males went wherever they wanted to go and hunted on any hunting grounds we liked, and the fabrics our females made were welcome for trade at every home.
This niggle of worry made me feel like I should care, to protect my female.
Srazz came trundling out of the bushes just as I reached the spot where an underground river exited the mountain.
It was close to where I had made my den with my mate, a perfect pathway for me to quickly reach a clearing downhill that the fat six-legged Vakarsa liked to visit.
He chortled gleefully at the sight of me, then glared malevolently at the rushing water and issued a warning growl.
His growl made me smile, but that smile faltered when I noticed a broken branch to his left.
Once I saw it, I saw more signs. The Naga that had disturbed Farah and me yesterday had passed through here.
Their trail told me they headed along the river I had intended to follow.
Had their food issues driven them to hunt in the territories of other Clans?
Were they going to be a force to worry about?
They posed a threat to Farah; they would kill her if they saw her.
Bitter Storm did not tolerate any differences, or any reminders of the past like the bits and pieces of technology I liked to scavenge the skyships and ruins for.
Worried about their presence, I started to follow their tracks, much to Srazz’s pleasure as it meant we weren’t swimming just yet.
What I discovered next made me reevaluate all my plans. The Bitter Storm warriors had taken up a spot on high ground to observe a long palisade wall, then they had turned into the woods to head back home. That wall shouldn’t be there, it hadn’t been there the last time I’d come this way.
Far more interesting was the colorful array of Naga males I saw coming and going.
There was a camp with a handful of tents and wooden buildings in front of the gate, and beyond the wall rose Ahoshaga Peak, which I’d circled as I tracked the enemy warriors.
I could see the entrance to what Thunder Rock considered the most haunted ancestral caves in the territory. Only it didn’t look so haunted now.
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.