Chapter 15 #2
“Please, Zathar. I hear you but think of what you are giving up. Your position as a prime hunter, as the Prince of Thunder Rock Clan. A beautiful, coveted female for your mate, to be her consort when she becomes Queen… You can’t seriously think to give that up, can you?
” Khawla gestured over his shoulder as he spoke, directing his clawed fingers back the way we’d come.
Presumably, in the direction of the Thunder Rock Village.
I held my breath as I awaited Zathar’s response.
I knew what he was going to say, but my nerves spiked anyway.
It was still hard to believe that any man, or male, could want me as much as Zathar did.
So when he said so, it was like a balm to my soul.
They were words I soaked up like I was parched, desperate for that kind of approval and affection.
Khawla looked at me again but this time Zathar hissed and shifted me until I was behind his back, out of sight.
“Fine, a word of warning then. If you intend to camp in this area, you should know that our scouts have noticed increased Bitter Storm Clan activity on the border. This is not the safest location.”
Then the male spun around and slithered out of sight between the trees, his body vanishing as my eyes simply couldn’t keep track of him among the plants.
The other Naga offered various parting greetings, from nods to a simple goodbye as they left.
Only Msera didn’t say anything, just raced away with an angry slash of his tail.
I exhaled in relief when they were gone.
We’d escaped them, we were in the clear, and I couldn’t quite believe that the adventure was over.
Now we needed a place to settle down at, to make a life for ourselves.
Tilting my head, I craned it back so I could look at the jagged mountain behind me.
Were there caves there? Another ancient ruin we could appropriate?
“I know the way,” Corin said while wiping the back of his hand over his bloody mouth with an annoyed look on his face. “The entrance to the caves beneath Ahoshage isn’t far from here, it will make a good place for us to stay at.”
He turned around, lifted the dazed but semi-conscious pilot from Cosima’s lap, and started moving without a backward glance. Something had gotten him in a snit. Maybe that was just because those Naga from before had bested him, but my intuition told me it was something else.
“Welcome back,” Reid said, grinning and raising his shoulders in a shrug when I darted my eyes after Corin in question. “Yeah, no idea what’s up with him. He’s been grumpy since the moment Min-Ji woke up.”
I didn’t know any Min-Ji but I could deduce that it had to be the name of the pilot that Corin was carrying off into the woods.
So he was upset because of her, had she said anything?
No, Corin couldn’t understand a word that any of us humans said, and they couldn’t understand him. So why was he acting out?
“I see,” Zathar said in response, grinning back at Reid with his sharp fangs on display.
It made Cosima whimper from my left but she still reached over to pull me into a tight hug.
“Let’s follow him, Corin knows Ancestor Caves as though he is a Shaman.
” I had heard Zathar mention a shaman before and now I was starting to get curious; who was this Naga?
Would they know about the technology hidden in those caves?
Corin seemed to know how to use some of it, did their shaman know even more?
I walked with Cosima, Zathar at our back and Reid leading the way.
The woman talked to me in a quiet voice, recapping what happened to them once we’d gotten separated.
Apparently, their flight through the woods that night was when the pilot had first woken up.
Disoriented and scared she’d screamed for help several times, which had drawn some kind of beastly predator to them, but no Naga thankfully.
Privately I didn’t think it was a wonder that Corin was a little grumpy, he’d had to deal with not one but two hysterical women.
Although the pilot hadn’t seemed all that scared when I’d seen her, mostly just dazed and confused.
She had to be suffering from an even worse concussion than I had and weak from her comatose state on top of that.
“She said her name was Lee Min-Ji and she swore up and down during her most lucid moment that she didn’t know what she was transporting,” Reid confided over his shoulder.
His long-legged stride was eating up the distance between us and the silvery blue Naga up ahead and I was starting to grow a little short of breath just trying to keep up.
I could feel Zathar’s eyes boring into my back, silently offering to carry me but I refused.
The danger was over, I could damn well walk up this little hill.
Okay, it was a mountain slope but still.
Cosima didn’t seem out of breath walking, the slender woman was in much better shape than me.
All my thoughts of Min-Ji and how out of shape I was fled when we broke through the treeline.
Another cave with a carved entrance. This one was very different from any of the ones I’d seen so far.
The mountain rose sudden and jaggedly above it, with a scree slope leading to the top of the gate.
It was carved as exquisitely as the last one, but while that one had depicted threatening Rakworms, this one was all flowering garlands. It was peaceful.
The clearing in front of the gate was a surprise too.
The mountain slope cradled the place with two giant arms in a gentle curve and just to the left of the gate a structure remained that vaguely reminded me of a greenhouse.
All the glass panes that had once made up the domed building were broken or gone, but a skeletal hexagonal frame still stood strong; shining a silvery lavender in the purple sunlight.
There were guardian statues too, one on either of the carved entrance into the mountain.
Both were Naga and they too had remained relatively un-weathered, a male and a female statue that each raised a lantern high into the sky.
Crystals glowed yellow inside each lantern, and I wondered if they might actually provide ample light at night.
“Woah, what is this place?” Cosima asked in wonder, echoing my own sentiment.
I tilted my head to look at Zathar, hoping for an explanation but he hadn’t been touching me so he hadn’t understood.
He had risen high up on his tail, towering over me with his arms crossed as he surveyed the place.
It almost looked like he was uneasy, worried.
His azure eyes were blown wide by the way his slitted pupils had expanded.
Corin had already disappeared through the gate, not hesitating, not looking back to see if we’d even followed him.
Reid offered me another shrug and started to follow, not nearly as awed as I was, or maybe he was hiding his thoughts better.
I went to jog after the man but Zathar’s tail whipped out, catching me around my waist. “No, wait here while I check it out.”
I huffed, about to protest but he was already sliding away, his hands gripping both his swords.
Woah, he was really worried. I shared an uneasy look with Cosima, “I don’t know what’s up with him.
Corin seems to think it’s fine…” Maybe Zathar wasn’t as at ease with being inside these Ansestor caves as he’d made it seem.
He’d certainly been spooked when that holographic parade had popped up in the ancient city.
“Let’s follow them,” Cosima said bravely, a shudder wracking her slender shoulders that betrayed her nerves. I appreciated how hard she was trying to keep it together since we’d been reunited. Taking her hand for support, I led the way into the darkness.
We’d only just crossed the threshold when light flared to life inside of it and then we both gasped in shock at the sight that greeted us.