Chapter 1 #3
We were jarred from our intense stare/swear-down when people started yelling.
The brutish Naga spun around, his hand lifting to the ax on his back, and his face morphed from mildly pissed off to furious.
A hint of fear curled through my belly in response; woah, that’s what I’d been dealing with? I was insane.
Displaying a set of impressive fangs, his lips had curled into a fierce snarl.
Suddenly he went from giant to humongous as his muscles swelled, his body rising higher as he balanced on his thick tail.
A part of me definitely admired how fine a specimen he was; this was a male who could protect his mate.
This was the true definition of an alpha male.
My brain clawed itself out of the gutter when I spotted what he was responding to.
From below us on the mountain flank, dozens of Naga were approaching.
They weren’t the same as the three that had woken us from our stasis; they were all a shade of blue.
These were all shades of red, with their bared teeth blackened, their obsidian blades and spears shimmering in the purple sunlight.
I was going to hazard a guess and say that these were not friendly.
Not that the big brute seemed friendly, but these definitely screamed “I will kill you.” Quite literally if I interpreted the hissing and growling correctly.
I dipped down to yank Cosima to her feet just as the Brutish Naga picked the other woman up in his arms, throwing her over his shoulder like a sack of grain.
That’s when I saw her legs, thin, and without any muscle definition, it was obvious at a single glance that it was unlikely she could walk.
She was paralyzed from the waist down and when the scaly brute spun away to put distance between himself and the advancing horde, our eyes met.
She was pale, her lips pressed together in a grim line.
With her hands, she clung to the leather strap of his weapon harness but she didn’t even scream when spears started to fly; thudding into the dirt all around us.
I was impressed; she might be impaired in her mobility, but she was brave given the circumstances.
I wasn’t sure what we were doing, or where we were going, but I was only too happy to follow the broad back of the midnight Naga.
Around me others were doing the same, running for cover near the sharp rising walls of a rock face.
The silver Naga with his injured burden darted through a small crevice, but the big one squared up to the side of it as if he was ready to defend that spot until everyone was through.
Self-preservation dictated that I just leap through that crevice and get out of the way of those flying spears but that wasn’t me.
Impulsively, I snatched a knife from the belt of the brute and squared up at his side.
There was Vera, somehow still in one piece, cradled in the arms of the azure Naga.
They followed the others through the crack in the rock right as another barrage of spears came our way.
I got ready to dodge but the ax swinging down in front of me was all it took, smashing the projectiles from the air so they couldn’t harm us.
He growled, his tail twisting and then a thick coil slammed into my middle, pushing me into the crack without mercy.
I stumbled, then clutched at the rock wall to get upright and move.
Fine, he wanted me to leave? Then I’d leave.
He just better get his scaly ass in here after me, he couldn’t risk that poor girl hanging over his shoulder like that.
For a heart-pounding moment, I was being pushed to safety by his thick tail.
Then something rumbled right above my head, I lifted my chin to look, my eyes growing wide when I saw the threat.
The next moment that tail coiled around my waist and I was yanked back, back into the path of the oncoming tide of enemy Naga.
With a thunderous noise, rocks started sliding and rolling, and where I’d stood only a second ago everything collapsed in a huge cloud of dust. If the brutish Naga hadn’t yanked me back, I would have been flattened like a pancake.
Still clutched in the thick, muscular coil of his tail, I could only hold onto the thick, triangular scales.
We were trapped against this wall, soon a dozen warriors would be on us, and then what?
I was a good fighter but I doubted I could take on more than two of these Naga on my own.
Maybe the brute holding me could handle more than half, but I doubted it. We had a woman to protect after all.
With a fierce snarl, the Naga holding me uncoiled his tail from around my middle.
Then he started moving, throwing his body into a retreat down the mountain flank, toward the wetlands below, and the sound of flowing water.
I followed, certain that staying with him would greatly improve my odds of survival.
Racing after his sleek body and zigzagging to avoid any more projectiles aimed our way.
We weren’t going to get far, this was a futile escape, unless the brute knew something I didn’t. I really hoped so because I really didn’t want to die a second time.