Chapter 35 Unexpected Consequences
THIRTY-FIVE
UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCES
Krellix
I have lingered to watch the encampment.
I do not know why, other than the hope of seeing her among the few people who come and go from behind the tall, tree-made walls.
I do not expect to get any more information about my missing clan or about what is happening here than what I already have.
I should head back to Zaku’s to inform him of what I have learned.
There’s an influx of humans.
They have lost their alpha, their leadership.
We do not have to fear being abducted anymore.
But I linger outside the encampment for days anyway, unable to leave Julia. What if something goes wrong and the camp is dangerous for her? What if she needs me? I may have Nepsh watching out for her but it is not enough to alleviate the misgivings that maybe she was better off with me after all.
I yearn for a glimpse of her, but cannot get close enough to the entrance without being seen by a drone or soldier on patrol.
I cannot even leave the forest. Security has been tightened.
They will see me coming from any direction if I venture out into the open.
I have circled the camp many times, only to find large machines also circling it, cutting the trees back further row by row, widening the distance ever more.
Other machines, and sometimes soldiers, carry those logs behind the wall, where I assume it is cut down for kindling.
Humans like their fires. They like their meat cooked. I shake my head, not understanding it.
But I do understand their need for warmth. And I do understand that Julia needs cooked food and warmth to survive. I cannot find it within me to begrudge her these things.
Still, I do not like the slow destruction of my home… I turn away with disgust only, but again, my gaze is helplessly drawn back over my shoulder.
Missing Julia’s touch and the feel of her body against mine, of having her nearby, I stare at the distant barricade as I sink back into the denser shadows of the trees.
The need overtakes me abruptly, so intense I cannot endure any longer. With caution, I release my shaft from my slit.
I circle the hard appendage with my hand and thrust into it, immediately releasing a little of my pent-up seed.
Moving my palm over my shaft’s tip to smear that same seed onto my skin, I then slide it down my length and grip my throbbing knot.
Julia. I squeeze it hard, forcing more of my seed to eject from my body.
Julia. I imagine her sighs in my ears as I press my palm in tight circles against me. Julia!
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 weapons remain 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 sinks his 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.
More nagas appear in the shadows just as I spin to re-face the first two.
Driving forward to meet them head-on, I knock them both to the ground while two others jump on my back, sinking their teeth into me and tearing my flesh.
I whip one off with my tail and slam my fist into the other even as the first two begin rising from the ground, dazed but uncowed.
Overwhelmed, I roar and lash out with my dulled claws.
Several orbs fly past my head as another naga launches at me.
There are too many to keep track of now.
I turn on him before he reaches me and slam him into the nearest tree, rounding my hands around his neck and wringing it until I hear a snap.
But another leaps on my back before I can reposition, and yet another pounces on my tail, immobilizing it.
I let the one in my grip fall as I twist for the naga on my tail, refusing to go without a fight.
More attack me from the sides. More and more. Far too many for any single naga to fight off alone. Despite my best, I am swiftly taken to the forest floor, their claws and fangs ripping deep into me, flooding me with venom.
“Die,” one of them hisses.
I push up on my arms, trying to roll over. As my world grows hazy and more nagas fall on top of me, a strange sort of calmness takes over.
This is it.
Julia’s face flashes in my mind: her warm brown eyes, and a rare but disarming smile beaming at me. I reach for it, for her…
But the darkness and the pain pulls me under.