Chapter 1 #2
Even if this was their territory, I was going to make sure that whatever prize had landed in our mountains, I was the one to claim it.
If it was a good prize, maybe I could use it as bargaining power with the Queen to restore our positions in the Clan.
Give my brothers and me another shot at finding our mate among the females of the Thunder Rock Clan.
I knew Iave didn’t care; he claimed we should try to find other Clans and see if any of their females were ours. But somehow… Just the idea alone of trying my luck with a Bitter Storm female made me shudder, my scales clicking together in discontent.
We, from Thunder Rock, were all in shades of blue and gray, with the occasional silver, but all of Bitter Storm was red.
A warning flag if there ever was one, as they were zealots, determined to eschew any technology and any advancement.
I wouldn’t mind a female of a different color, some of the other Clans had shades that were very appealing.
But that zealous distrust of anything new, anything different, and any advancement; that I couldn’t get over.
My two closest friends were following right on my tail; I could hear their steady breathing, the sound of their scales scraping across the rocky tunnel floor.
We were close to the point of exit I had in mind.
If my calculations were correct, this would take us very close to where this sky-ship had fallen.
My mind was already imagining the possibilities, alien tech from the advanced civilizations that populated our skies? Precious metals?
The Queen loved anything shiny, especially gold. If we found enough gold… I could already see her response as she allowed us to return to the fold. The envious looks of the females that had rejected my brothers and me as I presented the Queen with our treasure.
A shaft of light pierced the deep darkness ahead of me, my nictitating membranes sliding down over my eyes to protect them from the harsh brightness.
My hand slid to the leather harness straps that crisscrossed my chest, checking that my twin blades were secure.
With a leap and a powerful twist of my tail, I curled myself up through the hole, my clawed hands finding purchase on the rocky walls as I pulled myself into the outside.
I curled my tail protectively around the opening the moment I left it, providing cover for my brothers in case of a threat.
Scanning the rocky slopes around me, I noted the deep purple and pink of the forest covering the mountain down below, the thicket hiding any who might be in it.
The slope above me was far more sparsely covered with plants.
High enough up the mountain that the trees had given way to short shrubbery.
There was no smoke. Whatever had fallen from the sky had crashed through the ceiling of a cave in the mountain’s flank.
One that had housed a huge, subterranean lake.
I could see the edges of the crater, see the wreckage of something alien hanging over the edge of it, slowly grinding and sliding further into the black water it had revealed.
I cursed right as Iave slithered over my coiled tail and into the open, he had his ax already in hand.
“That’s not good, is it?” he asked, “If it sinks any further, none of us are getting any treasure.” Despite his disagreement on how to get females for our own, he was fully on board with getting our claws on this treasure from the sky.
Already, his keen black and gray eyes were searching out options, calculating our best path into that crater.
When Corin joined us outside, I didn’t wait another moment, hurrying up the slope.
I was a strong swimmer; whatever we’d see when we reached the wreckage of this alien vessel, I was not leaving without at least something.
Both my friends were right on my tail and I knew they’d feel the same about it.
I crested the edge of the crater, appraising what appeared to be half of a sky-ship.
The other half had likely already broken off and sunk into the black water, or it had dropped to the planet somewhere else.
It was a small, narrow vessel, the front half of it if I was not mistaken.
The tip of the nose had broken into the mountain, exposing the lake.
It was a splintered, crushed mess. The back half of the piece looked intact; it gave me hope that something worthwhile might be inside it.
We needed to hurry, tech of any kind was valued by my Clan, but if the Bitter Storm Clan arrived, they would torch it all.
They considered anything foreign to be taboo; they wouldn’t rest until each part of this ship was destroyed.
If they discovered we took anything, they might even attempt to hunt us down.
Though the ship was twisted and torn, the back half of it seemed to lie balanced on the edge of the crater, a huge tear in the side providing access.
Normally, I would be more cautious and test my approach, but with time running out, I chanced it.
Sliding through the crack in the hull of the strange vessel, I opened my nictitating membranes to adjust my sight to the darker setting.
This was not going to be a find of gold or jewels, but we might find other tech to scavenge and use; it was still a valuable find.
Ships crashed more often, but it was a rare enough occasion that tech was a commodity.
We could trade it or use it; the Clan would want it.
I was taken aback by what I did find inside this ship, not expecting it to be filled with coffins.
I froze, my hackles rising, my scales twitching in discomfort.
Who were they? That they had been transporting their dead in this manner?
Our tribe only buried our most revered, like the queen and her consort; we had cremations for everyone else. Were these important people?
“Wow… what is this?” Corin asked in a hushed whisper as the three of us stared at our find.
“We can’t touch this,” I decreed. We were not so desperate that we’d resort to grave robbing.
Iave hissed as he slid past me and curled his large body around the various coffins, looking inside each of them with a curious expression.
I wanted to follow suit, but it seemed disrespectful.
My nose twitched, my tongue flicking past my sharp teeth to taste the air.
Something smelled good, very good. I hissed in annoyance but gave into my baser instinct, sliding around the coffins as I tracked the enticing scent.
From my periphery, I could tell that Corin was going around the edges of the vessel, carefully avoiding the coffins but checking the walls, panels, and any other likely spot for tech for us to use.
Good, at least one of us was doing something productive.
My eyes snagged on the last coffin bolted to the floor in the row of six coffins.
It was nearest the crushed front of the ship, where I could see one arm smashed between two sections of metal.
It was covered in red blood, a dark blue sleeve torn and burned.
A clawless hand with tan skin and no protective scales was all that was visible of the body.
Tearing my eyes from that limb, which was much smaller than my own, possibly belonging to a female, I eyed the coffin I was next to.
A panel at the top was clear, allowing anyone who wanted to take a look inside of it.
This coffin was not big; a full-grown Naga would never fit, not with our long tails.
The figure inside it only seemed to take up half the space available.
Was it a child? I could see a mane of hair, long and silky.
It was a pale color I had never seen before.
The face was even paler, a pinkish white, with fine bones and a small chin.
It was vaguely similar to a Naga female’s face but far softer and rounder.
It was oddly appealing I decided as my eyes traced the delicate feather of pale hair that lay on her cheeks and the full pink of her lips, which looked even softer than the rest of her.
I had the oddest urge to flick my tongue against them.
My cock stirred in its pouch, which was disconcerting.
Why was it responding to this creature in a coffin?
It was dead. I cast my eyes left and right to make sure neither of my friends was watching me.
Then I pressed the heel of my palm against my pouch, willing the first stirrings of arousal to go away.
My eyes were glued to the face of the creature in the coffin.
She was slender, with small shoulders that didn’t take up all that much room inside the confined space.
Her chest curved like a feeding female, the teats round and soft, another enticing part of this creature.
A female; had to be. Her arms were even smaller, thin but softly curving, especially compared to that dismembered arm I’d spotted before.
Sliding my hands across the surface of the coffin, I pressed against the blinking buttons of light on the top without a clear plan.
I couldn’t read the script that scrolled across the screen’s surface.
The only one who could possibly do that was a Shaman but he wasn’t here.
Whatever it was, I had no business activating the tech on this coffin.
Was it going to activate a memorial plate?
Show me more of the indecipherable letters?
With a hiss, I scooted back, rising up high on my tail while my hands went for the grips of my swords. The outer shell of the coffin was sliding back, the transparent lid moving until it clicked down over the bottom part. Leaving the female exposed from the waist up.
“What happened?” Corin demanded. The male had risen up as well and, from a few coffins away, was staring at this one with a dismayed expression on his face.
Iave was curled over another coffin, barely paying any attention to what I had done.
He seemed as engrossed with a creature inside that coffin as I had been with this one.
I shrugged, dropping my hands from the handles of my swords while I leaned in a little closer to better inspect the female.
“It just opened. I don’t know…” but my breath faltered when I realized that her soft, curvy chest was moving up and down.
Was she breathing? Was she alive? Before I could stop myself, I’d placed my hand on the center of that chest, startled when her skin was warm to the touch. Definitely not dead.
Her eyes blinked open. A bright blue color I’d never seen before, when I thought I’d seen every shade of blue there was on my clansmen. Her mouth dropped open, revealing blunt little teeth. An ear-splitting scream issued from it that had me clasp my hands over my ears. What the fuck?