literature

Preview - The Caravan and the Serpent

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I was within the grasp of the beast; may as well have been right in his maw, for he could have crushed me to bits if he’d had any desire to. This naga was obviously a very different beast from the one who’d torn the caravan to smithereens.  I could hear that one being suffocated behind us, but the naga who held me, and most of the rest of the caravan, would not allow us to look back as his constricting tail took the life out of our first aggressor.

The morning had been a calm one turned tumultuous, as if someone had tossed a boulder into the quiet pond that was our lives. A naga striped red, yellow, and black had shown up intending to make us all his trophy kills, and he nearly did so. My father had made a run to distract him, mounting one of the caravan’s strongest bay horses and shooting at the serpent with his favorite powder rifle. Papa had always been so brave; the way he acted, I always saw him as an immortal. But just as any other man, he could not stand up to a naga. The thing reared up 40 feet into the air, taking rifle slugs like bee stings. It tore father in half with its bare hands, which is an image sure to haunt my memory for the rest of my days. In the moment, though, I had been in shock. It didn’t even register that my father had been dismembered; because I was in danger of having the same happen to me. I was so terrified I could feel my heartbeat throughout my body; pounding in the soles of my feet to the top of my throat.

Just as suddenly as the first naga had appeared, a second suddenly made himself known. This one’s tail seemed nearly endless, and his body was marked with the scrawling dark patterns of a boa constrictor. He lunged forward and swung a massive hand at the striped naga, connecting with the side of his head and sending him smashing into the ground. The boa then stole my father’s body from his hands. The striped naga seemed to be finished by the boa’s single, powerful bash, and the boa seemed uninterested in proceeding to fight him anyway.

Instead, he turned to us. We all began to back up, ready to scatter and disappear into the brush, but the way the boa handled my father’s mutilated body made us all pause. He had untied a bag from his waist; I hadn’t noticed until then that he was wearing a leather belt and a waist wrap. The cloth sack seemed to be made out of a large bed sheet knotted at the top. I was perplexed. The boa cautiously wandered to the one remaining flat cart the caravan owned. It was badly damaged, but not destroyed by the first snake’s rampage. He poured the contents of his sack onto the cart, and what he had with him was just as odd as the fact that he was ‘dressed.’ There was a small collection of salves and poultices hidden within the knotted sheet. All in familiar human medicine jars.

“What the hell?” One of my neighbors examined.

I was glad I wasn’t the only one confused.

After he’d emptied the bag, the naga cautiously moved toward us, and we were prepared to scramble. As he moved, he carefully wrapped my father’s body in the sheet. He stopped a good distance from us and bent down, which more closely resembled falling, as he had no knees to crouch and lower himself gently, and only one free arm to catch himself just before the ground. His monstrous torso closed the distance between us, but no one moved. He looked right into the elder’s eyes and set the cloth bundle containing my father’s remains before the group. He pushed himself up a bit, crossed one arm over his heart (or, where his heart would have been if he were human) and bowed his head over the corpse. The gesture was a very human way to show honor to the remains bundled in cloth and condolences to the rest of us. It was at that point my breath came short, I realized that my father was dead, and couldn’t breathe. I still hadn’t the chance to cry, however.

The other naga, at that point, had woken and collected himself enough to lunge at the boa. His fangs sunk through the brown scales of the boa’s arm. The serpent’s face twisted in agony and he let out a hissing cry of pain. Some of the adults came to their senses and started firing at the aggressive naga with the rifles they, like my father, always carried. It caught the beast of guard and made him flinch, giving the boa enough of an opening to wrench him off his arm with his lengthy tail. He then turned again to us; he pulled the cloth wrap from his waist and used it to gather all of us in his arms. I was pressed against the smooth, beige scales just below his pectoral muscles, and I could hear the sound of his lungs filling and emptying – panicked and pained. The striped naga was fully enveloped in the boa’s tail, and the big serpent slithered sideways until he could leave a good portion of his tail behind him off to the right. His arms held us firm so we could not look behind his back, where his aggressor went lifelessly limp. It quickly became obvious that the boa himself could have been on dire straits himself though. He set the jumbled mass of people wrapped up in his arms down as gently as he could manage, except for me. He held me as he slumped backwards against one of the many great, scribesian trees.

I began to cry hysterically. It hit me then that my father was gone, and that the beast of a man who had just saved all of our lives was dizzy from a venomous bite. His arm was still bleeding badly. I wanted to scream down at the others to get medicine and bandages, but the serpent held me close to the smooth, cold scales of his chest. I’m not sure how he deducted that I was the person who would be mourning; perhaps it is just because he paid such close attention to us all, but through his dizzy stupor, he felt the need to comfort me instead of taking care of himself.

“Sssssshhhhhh, ssssshhhhhhhh,” the naga hushed me. “N-no… crying.”

I was absolutely dumbstruck, and quieted immediately. My screams became shaking, gasping breaths as I looked at the naga.

“Y-y… y-you can t-talk?” I asked. When he nodded, my breathing became so much more difficult. I opened my arms wide and clung to his chest, letting out a gasping cry. He wasn’t just another naga, he could talk! I didn’t want anything to happen to him because he had reached out to us, and he had spoken to me. What kind of apex predator would give themselves up for their prey? “PLEASE,” I cried. I didn’t honestly know what to say to him. “PLEASE BE OKAY! PLEASE!”

----One Week Later----

“…Masozi?” I tried to stir the naga, who was asleep atop the warm scribesian soil. His eyes opened slowly, and his stunning emerald green irises met mine. His large mouth extended into an arc of an elongated smile which quite literally stretched from cheek to cheek.

“Sss’ssonia,” he responded fondly.

I had to look carefully in his eyes when he spoke or his voice still scared me. It’s shallow lifelessness didn’t fit the sweetness he’d shown as he slowly recovered.

“I… um, I brought you some breakfast!” I smiled at him and his eyes immediately brightened. He worked his torso up with his good arm (as he still babied the bitten one) and scooped me up. The exciting prospect of food, or my visit at all, had made him forget his weakness and he quickly ended up slamming against the ground with me in hand without an arm to support him. He was all smiles though, hugging me tight as my head reeled dizzily from the sudden impact.

“Mmmm, Sss’Sonia made Ss’Sozi breakfassssst!” A hissing giggle slipped through his lips. I was glad to see him in good spirits: his cheerfulness made my father’s death seem more distant. Father wouldn’t want me to be down – in fact he’d likely scold me for not being happier that the caravan’s savior was alive and recovering quickly. It was odd to see anyone survive a bite from a coral naga – they were incredibly deadly, because of both toxic venom and sheer strength. Once he’d been bitten, though, Masozi merely fell sick.

A woman arrived the day of his injury who he called “Nana,” a name we had all taken to calling her as well. She had forced him to keep awake, and rubbed down his wound with jars of various poultices as he swallowed a few bitter potions. Once she was sure he had enough medicine in his system, she looked him in the eyes and nodded, singing him a soft lullaby until he fell asleep as sweetly as a young child listening to their mother at bed time. We had all watched dumbfounded as the woman treated a giant monster like a baby, but no one said a word.

“Masozi will be fine.” She’d said in an old, cracked voice, patting her overgrown 'child’s' head once he’d fallen asleep. “A naga won’t die from another’s bite if they’re lucky, and as healthy as he is. Just give him time.”

She’d been absolutely correct. He’d fallen asleep and barely stirred for two days, but he seemed nearly fine when he woke up, and had been doing progressively better since. I didn’t leave his side often; it made me nervous to be away. I even ‘held his hand’ by squeezing his pinky finger when he was in pain between doses of medicine. Now I sat with him as he carefully dug into a whole bison I’d delivered – cooked on a spit over the fire all night, spiced up with my own special recipe. Father’s favorite. With his big mouth he could have eaten the thing whole, but he quietly took bites out of it, smiling and closing his eyes to exaggerate his enjoyment. I laughed at him as I lounged on his sun-warmed tail. I could tell Masozi and I would be the best of friends. He’d saved my whole world, so now I would stick with him and make sure he stayed safe, even if that only meant bossing the big guy around. He looked into my eyes again and smiled.

“Thank you, Ssss’Sonia.”
Here's a bit of a prologue/preview to help everyone get to know Masozi. ~theDarkessLight and I will be writing a collaborative story featuring him, Sonia, and the Oculi race.

It's been a long while since I'be posted some writing; it feels good to finally let some of my ideas out there again. Please let me know what you think!

Masozi and Sonia (c) to me, ~Kelly-WritersSoul
© 2013 - 2024 Kelly-Clickspring
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cuttiekittie193's avatar

Wow, I really love how this turned out. I really enjoyed reading it, I can't wait to read what happens next :D Thank you for posting this :D

 

* I am also in the middle of making a naga story hehe* Go naga's!