A Place Called "Home"
Can you please write something about some nagakin starting a nest for all manner of snakekin, nagakin, gorgonkin ect? Please?
“We’ll have to get rid of her,” the familiar voice of her grandmother spoke in a different room. She could hear her mother weeping softly, pleading quietly for the life of her daughter. “She has the blood, Nira,” the elder rasped, “The cursed snake cannot be allowed to live among us. We will all perish.”
Anquina’s heart beat rapidly, drumming in her ears and drowning out the whisperings. I… I don’t want to die, she thought and turned to Laeli, a great pythoness and childhood friend, “What do I do?”
Laeli slithered around the twelve year old girl, squeezing her gently. Her thoughts enveloped them both. You need to flee from thisss place. I will give you the way. Visions of a long-forgotten and overgrown trail followed. Laeli led their minds a long way down the trail to where there was sand and a great and restless body of water. I made thisss path over a hundred yearsss. It isss by my own creation and with it, you will be sssafe. When you reach the ocean, you mussst ssswim. There isss an island that waitsss for you, and no human can find it.
Will we live there together forever? Anquina asked hopefully.
Laeli smiled, its warmth both invigorating and soothing. I have mothered many snakesss in my lifetime, but there will never be another sssnakelet that will be as preciousss to me as you. I consssider you my own, naga’s one. She began to uncoil, leaving behind one last thought,I will help you be free. It isss time for you to run. The connection was severed as Laeli released the girl.
Anquina watched her friend slowly slither away toward the room where her family was; she had to leave, and there was no time to grab anything to take with her. There was a loose floorboard in the corner of the room, a board she had pulled aside to let Laeli into her home. This would have to be her escape.
She pressed herself into the gap and wiggled through. Raw nail ends tugged at her hair and simple dress. The dry, powdery dirt beneath her hut billowed up around her, and she had to suppress her coughs as she crawled out from underneath. Just as she rose to her feet, a flurry of screams erupted from within her house. This isn’t home anymore. She bolted for the hidden path.
The path was, indeed, overgrown and just as Laeli had shown her. She fled through the dense foliage, afraid to peer back in case she had been seen and was pursued. Is Mama okay? Branches and sticks whipped her flailing arms and legs. Is Laeli okay? Her left foot skidded on a pebble, and she struggled to regain her balance. How far away is this… island?
She broke through the edge of the forest and onto the beach. The sand felt cool and strange beneath her feet, nothing like the damp soil near what used to be home. Before her lay a black stretch of water, glistening silver under the light of the moon. Her island would be across it somehow. Her young body moved much more slowly now, exhausted, toward the tides; the village elders often told tales of an ocean, they called it, full of dangerous and starving creatures. To touch it was death, they said, and she was supposed to swim it.
The water was warm, radiant after a long day of basking under the sun. It lapped at Anquina’s ankles, seemingly eager. Are you here to help me, or do you just want to eat me? She wondered. She took a few steps further, now waist deep. The sand shifted beneath her feet, sucked away by an undercurrent. Something with spiny legs crawled over her foot and pinched her when she flinched. There was no sign of an island, but Laeli had made it clear that she was to go forward, and that she did.
“Kolubri!” Cera’s sharp voice interrupted the story. The children seated around his fire scattered, leaving the two alone.
Kolubri, a giant of a man and son of Euryale, stretched slowly and yawned, “What is it?”
“Anquina has requested your presence.” Cera eyed him with suspicion. Gorgonkin were held in poor esteem by milos vipers. While the three sisters did create the vipers, they were now an endangered species thanks to the men who sought to kill them. A gorgon’s presence always led to danger, and that opinion wouldn’t change no matter how Anquina attempted to reassure them.
“What would she want with an old bat like me?” He chuckled and rose to his feet, feeling a bit sorry that Cera was the one to retrieve him. He’d watched the vipers’ plight for nearly four hundred years, and he had no desire to further the pain and distrust his family had forged.
Cera offered no response, turning around silently and leading the way.
The island housed a massive network of caverns that grew steadily as its number of occupants increased. Anquina waited for them in one of the new excavation sites, a glimmering blue cove covered in large blue crystal formations. There was also a clear pool of water with no visible bottom, meaning they’d possibly dug through the island. A fence would need to be placed here to keep the younglings from falling to the mercy of a shark, so she heard they were called, nasty fishbeasts with unending rows of teeth.
She sat, crouched by the edge, pondering sharks and other manners of sea creature, as Kolubri and Cera arrived.
“This is quite a place you found here!” Kolubri bounded into the room without warning.
Cera cleared their throat and glared at him, “Mistress, I have brought him.”
She rose slowly, dusting herself off. “Ah, yes! Good. Kolubri, what do you know of these crystals?”
“Hm…” he moved closer to the wall, inspecting the stone carefully, “I believe this is sapphire. The humans had uses for it.” Snapping a small piece off of a cluster, he brought it to his leader. “If you polish it up, it shines like the sea. A pretty trinket.”
Anquina took the sample and palmed it. “Were there any other uses?” The section where the piece had broken away from the rest of the cluster gave off a prismatic gleam.
“As far as anything we can use?” Kolubri asked. “I’m pretty sure I remember them being used in medicine somehow, but I don’t remember what for.”
Up until this point, Cera had been standing, uncomfortably resolute, in the corner. It had taken all of their self-control to keep from interrupting, but they could not bear to do so any longer, blurting out “Poison, Mistress!”
She dropped the stone in shock. “What?”
Cera could feel their stares. “Sapphire was used to combat poison, especially the venom of…” their voice trailed off for a moment, almost strangled, “snakes.”
A wave of realization swept over Kolubri, “We can’t let the younglings in here!” His voice was almost in a panic. “The humans, they would encase venomous snakes in sapphire jars to kill them.”
“I have no venom, nor do you,” she thought aloud, “but Cera… Cera, you must go. Stand guard and ensure that no snakelets enter here.” She turned to Kolubri, “We must close this off.”
Cera opened their mouth to protest, but knew better. Anquina had opened this island as a serpentine refuge in Laeli’s memory, and she would die herself before she would see anyone else perish. They reluctantly left the cavern to take post.
The two swiftly set about grabbing debris to fill the entrance. Kolubri’s great strength allowed him to tear chunks of stone from the floor, while Anquina architectural knowledge directed where the stones would land. In her village, builders manipulated uncarved rocks, arranging them in such a way that the stones interlocked and became a solid structure. She was recreating this now, slipping smaller rock pieces into cracks and packing loose areas with sand. The wall, once finished, would hold.
Kolubri grunted under the weight of a sheet of stone, “We’re almost done. We’d better cross over it now.”
They slipped over the wall, and Kolubri pulled the last stone into place. Cera’s expression softened in relief, but his stance remained urgent.
“It was just reported to me by a lesser that there is trouble at the beach. Permission to investigate?” Standing post made Cera uneasy; they were better suited to action.
“You are in charge of our defenses,” Anquina reminded them, “but since I’m already here, I’ll come along as well.”
Kolubri shrugged, “I’ll go back to teaching the young ones. If I can round them up, that is.” Anquina thanked him for his help, and he went on his way.
“So what disturbance is at the surface this time?” She asked Cera as they walked toward the beach. As the island was invisible to human eyes and inaccessible to them, the most common problems were carnivorous fish and merfolk.
“It would appear we have a human,” Cera didn’t quite believe it, but that’s what the report said.
She paused, “That’s impossible.”
“They were scouted by Devtri,” they replied. Devtri, being the child of a great sea serpent, was blind but had a sense of taste and smell like no other. He spent his days scouting the waters, and his reports always led the community to bountiful food supplies or warned them of dangerous creatures. His only false report was that of Anquina being human, as she was Naga. Her serpent blood allowed her to communicate telepathically with other serpentines through touch and blessed her with an indefinite lifespan, though she could still be killed.
“I see…” she remained quiet after that. If humans had finally managed to locate and access her island, then she would have to gather the nest quickly to move it. Some of the kin living there were rescued as infants and knew no other home; to displace them would be cruel. If there was truly a human approaching the island, then a thorough evaluation of the situation would be necessary.
The sun shown blindingly bright, paining both of them as they exited the nest. Their eyes were better suited to the dim corridors of the cave network after spending so much time in them.
Anquina shielded her sight with her hands and squinted at the cluster of guards by the water. They were causing quite a ruckus over an object further out, presumably the human, though she couldn’t see it very well in this harsh light. With Cera in tow, she strode over to the group and demanded to know the situation.
“There is a young human swimming this way. It appears to be alone, but we cannot be sure that more aren’t on their way,” one guard offered. “We aren’t sure whether killing it would make the situation worse.”
She thought for a moment. “If there is only one, let us see if it can reach the island. If it can, we must dispose of it and make plans to move the nest. If it cannot, then we are still safe.”
The guards grumbled but accepted the idea after a stern look from Cera. The word was put out to wait-and-watch, and many of the soldiers elected to spend the time gambling with sea shells. Tensions grew as the human drew closer to the shore. It was close enough now to be made out as a girl, bearing tribal tattoos similar to the ones Anquina wore. She had been away from her village for nearly sixty years, but perhaps this was a member of her tribe. The idea was unsettling, and it was pushed from her mind as quickly as it came.
The girl finally emerged from the water and crumpled into a wet heap on the sand. The guards rose to their defense, but Anquina dismissed it with a wave. She slowly walked over to the trembling heap and crouched beside her.
“What are you doing here, little one?” she said softly.
The girl sputtered, spitting out sand and seawater. “I-I was told I would be safe here.”
The guards moved closer, and Anquina, again, motioned for them to wait. “And who told you this?”
“I was running,” she coughed, “in the woods. These-these men were chasing me, and-and there was a big snake. She said I would find…” the girl grew very quiet, “she said I would find family here.”
Anquina paused. “A… snake? Told you this? Did she tell you her name?”
The girl wiped her face and met Anquina’s gaze, “Laeli.”
Anquina’s heart beat rapidly, drumming in her ears and drowning out the whisperings. I… I don’t want to die, she thought and turned to Laeli, a great pythoness and childhood friend, “What do I do?”
Laeli slithered around the twelve year old girl, squeezing her gently. Her thoughts enveloped them both. You need to flee from thisss place. I will give you the way. Visions of a long-forgotten and overgrown trail followed. Laeli led their minds a long way down the trail to where there was sand and a great and restless body of water. I made thisss path over a hundred yearsss. It isss by my own creation and with it, you will be sssafe. When you reach the ocean, you mussst ssswim. There isss an island that waitsss for you, and no human can find it.
Will we live there together forever? Anquina asked hopefully.
Laeli smiled, its warmth both invigorating and soothing. I have mothered many snakesss in my lifetime, but there will never be another sssnakelet that will be as preciousss to me as you. I consssider you my own, naga’s one. She began to uncoil, leaving behind one last thought,I will help you be free. It isss time for you to run. The connection was severed as Laeli released the girl.
Anquina watched her friend slowly slither away toward the room where her family was; she had to leave, and there was no time to grab anything to take with her. There was a loose floorboard in the corner of the room, a board she had pulled aside to let Laeli into her home. This would have to be her escape.
She pressed herself into the gap and wiggled through. Raw nail ends tugged at her hair and simple dress. The dry, powdery dirt beneath her hut billowed up around her, and she had to suppress her coughs as she crawled out from underneath. Just as she rose to her feet, a flurry of screams erupted from within her house. This isn’t home anymore. She bolted for the hidden path.
The path was, indeed, overgrown and just as Laeli had shown her. She fled through the dense foliage, afraid to peer back in case she had been seen and was pursued. Is Mama okay? Branches and sticks whipped her flailing arms and legs. Is Laeli okay? Her left foot skidded on a pebble, and she struggled to regain her balance. How far away is this… island?
She broke through the edge of the forest and onto the beach. The sand felt cool and strange beneath her feet, nothing like the damp soil near what used to be home. Before her lay a black stretch of water, glistening silver under the light of the moon. Her island would be across it somehow. Her young body moved much more slowly now, exhausted, toward the tides; the village elders often told tales of an ocean, they called it, full of dangerous and starving creatures. To touch it was death, they said, and she was supposed to swim it.
The water was warm, radiant after a long day of basking under the sun. It lapped at Anquina’s ankles, seemingly eager. Are you here to help me, or do you just want to eat me? She wondered. She took a few steps further, now waist deep. The sand shifted beneath her feet, sucked away by an undercurrent. Something with spiny legs crawled over her foot and pinched her when she flinched. There was no sign of an island, but Laeli had made it clear that she was to go forward, and that she did.
“Kolubri!” Cera’s sharp voice interrupted the story. The children seated around his fire scattered, leaving the two alone.
Kolubri, a giant of a man and son of Euryale, stretched slowly and yawned, “What is it?”
“Anquina has requested your presence.” Cera eyed him with suspicion. Gorgonkin were held in poor esteem by milos vipers. While the three sisters did create the vipers, they were now an endangered species thanks to the men who sought to kill them. A gorgon’s presence always led to danger, and that opinion wouldn’t change no matter how Anquina attempted to reassure them.
“What would she want with an old bat like me?” He chuckled and rose to his feet, feeling a bit sorry that Cera was the one to retrieve him. He’d watched the vipers’ plight for nearly four hundred years, and he had no desire to further the pain and distrust his family had forged.
Cera offered no response, turning around silently and leading the way.
The island housed a massive network of caverns that grew steadily as its number of occupants increased. Anquina waited for them in one of the new excavation sites, a glimmering blue cove covered in large blue crystal formations. There was also a clear pool of water with no visible bottom, meaning they’d possibly dug through the island. A fence would need to be placed here to keep the younglings from falling to the mercy of a shark, so she heard they were called, nasty fishbeasts with unending rows of teeth.
She sat, crouched by the edge, pondering sharks and other manners of sea creature, as Kolubri and Cera arrived.
“This is quite a place you found here!” Kolubri bounded into the room without warning.
Cera cleared their throat and glared at him, “Mistress, I have brought him.”
She rose slowly, dusting herself off. “Ah, yes! Good. Kolubri, what do you know of these crystals?”
“Hm…” he moved closer to the wall, inspecting the stone carefully, “I believe this is sapphire. The humans had uses for it.” Snapping a small piece off of a cluster, he brought it to his leader. “If you polish it up, it shines like the sea. A pretty trinket.”
Anquina took the sample and palmed it. “Were there any other uses?” The section where the piece had broken away from the rest of the cluster gave off a prismatic gleam.
“As far as anything we can use?” Kolubri asked. “I’m pretty sure I remember them being used in medicine somehow, but I don’t remember what for.”
Up until this point, Cera had been standing, uncomfortably resolute, in the corner. It had taken all of their self-control to keep from interrupting, but they could not bear to do so any longer, blurting out “Poison, Mistress!”
She dropped the stone in shock. “What?”
Cera could feel their stares. “Sapphire was used to combat poison, especially the venom of…” their voice trailed off for a moment, almost strangled, “snakes.”
A wave of realization swept over Kolubri, “We can’t let the younglings in here!” His voice was almost in a panic. “The humans, they would encase venomous snakes in sapphire jars to kill them.”
“I have no venom, nor do you,” she thought aloud, “but Cera… Cera, you must go. Stand guard and ensure that no snakelets enter here.” She turned to Kolubri, “We must close this off.”
Cera opened their mouth to protest, but knew better. Anquina had opened this island as a serpentine refuge in Laeli’s memory, and she would die herself before she would see anyone else perish. They reluctantly left the cavern to take post.
The two swiftly set about grabbing debris to fill the entrance. Kolubri’s great strength allowed him to tear chunks of stone from the floor, while Anquina architectural knowledge directed where the stones would land. In her village, builders manipulated uncarved rocks, arranging them in such a way that the stones interlocked and became a solid structure. She was recreating this now, slipping smaller rock pieces into cracks and packing loose areas with sand. The wall, once finished, would hold.
Kolubri grunted under the weight of a sheet of stone, “We’re almost done. We’d better cross over it now.”
They slipped over the wall, and Kolubri pulled the last stone into place. Cera’s expression softened in relief, but his stance remained urgent.
“It was just reported to me by a lesser that there is trouble at the beach. Permission to investigate?” Standing post made Cera uneasy; they were better suited to action.
“You are in charge of our defenses,” Anquina reminded them, “but since I’m already here, I’ll come along as well.”
Kolubri shrugged, “I’ll go back to teaching the young ones. If I can round them up, that is.” Anquina thanked him for his help, and he went on his way.
“So what disturbance is at the surface this time?” She asked Cera as they walked toward the beach. As the island was invisible to human eyes and inaccessible to them, the most common problems were carnivorous fish and merfolk.
“It would appear we have a human,” Cera didn’t quite believe it, but that’s what the report said.
She paused, “That’s impossible.”
“They were scouted by Devtri,” they replied. Devtri, being the child of a great sea serpent, was blind but had a sense of taste and smell like no other. He spent his days scouting the waters, and his reports always led the community to bountiful food supplies or warned them of dangerous creatures. His only false report was that of Anquina being human, as she was Naga. Her serpent blood allowed her to communicate telepathically with other serpentines through touch and blessed her with an indefinite lifespan, though she could still be killed.
“I see…” she remained quiet after that. If humans had finally managed to locate and access her island, then she would have to gather the nest quickly to move it. Some of the kin living there were rescued as infants and knew no other home; to displace them would be cruel. If there was truly a human approaching the island, then a thorough evaluation of the situation would be necessary.
The sun shown blindingly bright, paining both of them as they exited the nest. Their eyes were better suited to the dim corridors of the cave network after spending so much time in them.
Anquina shielded her sight with her hands and squinted at the cluster of guards by the water. They were causing quite a ruckus over an object further out, presumably the human, though she couldn’t see it very well in this harsh light. With Cera in tow, she strode over to the group and demanded to know the situation.
“There is a young human swimming this way. It appears to be alone, but we cannot be sure that more aren’t on their way,” one guard offered. “We aren’t sure whether killing it would make the situation worse.”
She thought for a moment. “If there is only one, let us see if it can reach the island. If it can, we must dispose of it and make plans to move the nest. If it cannot, then we are still safe.”
The guards grumbled but accepted the idea after a stern look from Cera. The word was put out to wait-and-watch, and many of the soldiers elected to spend the time gambling with sea shells. Tensions grew as the human drew closer to the shore. It was close enough now to be made out as a girl, bearing tribal tattoos similar to the ones Anquina wore. She had been away from her village for nearly sixty years, but perhaps this was a member of her tribe. The idea was unsettling, and it was pushed from her mind as quickly as it came.
The girl finally emerged from the water and crumpled into a wet heap on the sand. The guards rose to their defense, but Anquina dismissed it with a wave. She slowly walked over to the trembling heap and crouched beside her.
“What are you doing here, little one?” she said softly.
The girl sputtered, spitting out sand and seawater. “I-I was told I would be safe here.”
The guards moved closer, and Anquina, again, motioned for them to wait. “And who told you this?”
“I was running,” she coughed, “in the woods. These-these men were chasing me, and-and there was a big snake. She said I would find…” the girl grew very quiet, “she said I would find family here.”
Anquina paused. “A… snake? Told you this? Did she tell you her name?”
The girl wiped her face and met Anquina’s gaze, “Laeli.”