“No matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse.” ― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

Karl woke up feeling refreshed, a sensation he had grown used to lacking. Locust was still gazing at the cave entrance not noticing Karl.

“’Morning Locust.”

“’Morning Karl, sleep well?” He didn’t divert his attention from the entrance.

“Can’t complain, but I doubt that’s going to last.”

Karl stood up, supporting himself against the wall with his claws.

“Did she move?”

“No, she’s still out like a light. I hope she wakes up soon: I doubt we have the capacity to deal with a coma patient.”

Karl looked at the Nāga’s slumbering form on the bottom of the small pool and was thinking about how peaceful and happy she looked, blissfully unaware of her situation. He was interrupted from his thoughts as Titus began to stir.

“’Morning. How’s she?” Titus asked after yawning and trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

“Still sleeping.” Karl replied before heading to the exit. “I’m going to take a piss. If you hear something walking your way, please be sure it’s not me before you blast it.”

Locust nodded and Karl headed over to a bit of vegetation.

A few minutes passed before he returned from his constitutional.

“So what’s the plan, Titus?” Karl asked.

“We wait until she recovers. Like I said before, we can’t drag an unconscious Nāga through Cáqash. At least not in a timely or secure manner. We can only hope she wakes up soon and that she’ll get better in the days to come. She needs to get healthy enough to move around on her own. We only have swords and spears; no shields. Any confrontation with the Skokak, if we’re not outnumbered anyway, would be too much of a risk.”

All three men suddenly shut up as they heard a shuffling noise coming from within the cave. Looking up, they saw Saqatuwa sitting upright in the pool with her back against its sides and a dazed expression on her face.

‘Well isn’t *that* a convenient turn of events.’ thought Karl

Titus stood up and slowly walked over to her. A brief look of confusion passed over her face before relaxing again at the recognition of Titus.

Titus started saying something that Karl didn’t understand. It had that strange bubbling complexity typical of many ancient languages back on Earth, unaltered by modern linguistic influence. Titus’ soothing and gentle tone led to Karl’s concluding that he was most likely issuing some sort of consolation or comfort.

Saqatuwa turned to Karl and Locust, casting a soft smile in their direction, recalling the pair from before. Titus continued telling her something in her own language. She sometimes asked questions, or at least what were inflected like questions. She pointed at Karl and Locust and Titus replied to all of her questions patiently. It was rather agitating for Karl to not know about what they were talking about, particularly when it was about him.

After Saqatuwa and Titus made a bit of… small talk?... Titus motioned both of them to come closer. Saqatuwa motioned him and Locust to come even closer until they were almost touching each other. She motioned Karl to kneel so they were on nearly equal footing and then she embraced him repeating something that sounded like “táput ni” a couple of times, before releasing him and doing the same with Locust.

“She thanked you.” Titus clarified. Karl shot a look at Locust who was obviously comfortable in her embrace. He nuzzled her face like a puppy.

“Seems like someone enjoys Nāga hugs.” Karl teased. Saqatuwa released Locust again and the Changeling staggered a bit like he was in a daze.

“Oh, yeaaah… that’s the good stuff.” Karl and Titus shared a laugh and after Titus translated what Locust had said, Saqatuwa giggled a bit at the Changeling’s bliss. She said something in reply.

“She says she is honoured to see that her emotions are giving you such a reaction.”

“Tell her the honour is mine. Most of our experiences with Nāga haven’t exactly been very positive. I had no idea they could be so… gracious. Makes a Changeling wonder how their true love would feel.”

Locust mussed that last bit to himself. Saqatuwa suddenly asked something again making Titus point to the cave entrance. She moved to exit the cave, but suddenly became unsteady, if something that slithers can possibly be described as “unsteady”. Titus put an arm around her shoulders and guided her out through the mouth of the cave, leaving Locust and Karl alone.

After a little while both Saqatuwa and Titus came back.

“Morning piss.” Titus clarified as he helped her back into the small pool.

“Alright, so as it turns out, she’s not fit enough to travel on her own. We’ll still need to stay here until we reach that stage. I should probably teach you two a little bit of Nazja so you can give her some basic orders in certain situations, but first let’s eat a bit.”

They ate a bit of the food Locust had managed to grab from the encampment and the surrounding area, also giving some salted meat to Saqatuwa, which she greedily swallowed down almost whole. Karl realised that she was part snake, and hadn’t honestly expected anything different, but the situation was made a bit more unnerving by her apparent lack of difficulty in dealing with the dreadfully dry, rock-hard meat.

After breakfast Titus started learning both Karl and Locust some basic stuff in Nazja like; “be careful” (nuqusunásh), “keep silent” (ciqunapsh), “run” (qaqish, which truly meant “slither”) or look out (kunamsh). Karl knew this was going to be no easy feat. Remembering stuff like this in a normal situation that was hard enough. He couldn’t imagine that the tension of their situation or the heat of battle would help any.

“Alright, now let’s test what you know. I want you two to give me these orders, but in Nazja.” Titus handed them each a paper with a couple of orders on it.” You first, Karl.”

The first order was “lay down”.

“Sipsunsh.”

Titus laid down.

…

Karl made no mistakes, but he was rather slow in giving a couple of them.

“Okay, you did well, but you can’t afford to think for so long on couple of those orders. They need to be like second nature. Locust, your turn.”

Locust ran into the exact same problem, hesitating a bit too long, and speaking a bit too slowly.

“Same problem. Work on your speed and you should be fine!”

With that, he walked over to Saqatuwa, on his way grabbing a bottle with a green coloured liquid in it. Titus carefully shook the sleeping Nāga and after gaining her attention he showed her the vial.

Saqatuwa asked him something. Titus nodded his head, causing her to sigh.

She took the bottle and slammed it back like a shot. Almost immediately her face crumpled in disgust, almost like a little kid after taking his cough medicine.

Titus offered her his canteen, which she gratefully took. After taking a few small nips she gave it back, saying something which prompted Titus gave her a smile and some quick words. She retorted something before coughing on the aftertaste.

Most of the day went by pretty quickly as they all told a bit about themselves, with Titus translating what Saqatuwa had to say. She was a member of the Môyikowak, a special order, the membership of which was limited to two-armed female Nāga, that focused on healing magic. She told them that the Môyikowak were invaluable on the battlefield, aiding the injured and lending magical support, both defensive and offensive. The Môyikowak were also the guardians of something called the “Táhkikam wuci Kitiyayôk”, the closest translation for which, said Titus, was “Well of Life”, an ancient pool filled with healing magic said to have been extracted from the earth by an ancient Nāga emperor, one of the fabled Evolved.

Much to Karl’s disappointment, she did not go into further detail about these figures, but seeing as she had been otherwise forthcoming, he doubted that she knew more than what she told them.

He still had one more thing in his sleeves, or rather, his backpack, that Locust had brought with him.

When he took out the stone tablet, she immediately went silent and her eyes grew in amazement. It was a funny sight, reminiscent of how his face would have looked if he got his hands on a new game release, or some new piece of tech churned out by the relentless electronics industry.

She warily slithered over to him and motioned to the tablet. Karl held the tablet out to her. She carefully took it in her hands and supported herself on her tail as she inspected it.

“You just made her day, boy: you don’t know how much she wanted to get her hands on that tablet.”

They waited for a bit until Titus asked her something, to which she replied… well, something.

“She’s on to something.”

After a while, everyone had decided to leave Saqatuwa to her own devices as they did not want to disturb her, when suddenly she addressed Titus with an enthusiastic string of words.

“Hmmm… She says that the tablet is a lost segment of one of their sacred manuscripts. It describes how to create some kind of summoning rune.”

“Hey Titus, can you ask her if she knows why the Skôkak are so hell-bent on getting that tablet?” Karl asked. “I mean, beyond the obvious, there must be a reason why they want it *now*.”

Titus nodded and asked Saqatuwa to which she replied something.

“She says that the rune is needed in order for an ancient Skôkak ritual. It is this rune which enables them to bring Sarkânas: an ancient gigantic snake used in battle by the Evolved. They were led by Mácitôkwa, easily the most powerful and dangerous of the lot. The Sarkânas were killed off after Mácitôkwa’s army was crushed and she was imprisoned. The details of the battle that led to this are either vague or lost to history. The Skôkak are all that remain of her followers and ever since that event they’ve been searching for a way to bring the Evolved back. If they get a hold of this tablet, they’ll find that way.”

“So instead of snake people we could have to deal with giant snake people?”

“Oh, I doubt the Sarkânas are the only creatures that they are planning on bringing back. There are older and fouler things than Skôkak in the dark places of the world. Many of them were allied with the Evolved in their time of power and they have long awaited an opportunity to make a comeback. Once it gets out that the Skôkak have a means to return their ranks to their former glory, and trust me, it’ll be obvious, these creatures will come flooding out of their hidden places looking to do the same. The Skôkak are too smart to not know this, so they’re probably counting on these others to join their ranks. That’s really something we don’t want happening.” Titus said on a tone that really did not promise much good.

“Can you bring back any Evolved with that ritual or only this Mácitôkwa?” Karl questioned.

“In theory you can bring back any Evolved you want, but you need a whole lot more than just that rune for that part of the ritual. The Sarkâna ritual is decently simple because you just call upon some of her powers or some crap like that to allow you to start the summoning. Not too complicated for an experienced practitioner, but bringing her back requires a way to open a portal that can essentially generate matter out of nothing. If they can’t pull that off, they need a body that can serve as host for her spirit. She won’t have any of her physical capabilities, but her magical abilities will be fully restored, and that’s dangerous enough.”

“How do you know all of that?” Karl questioned.

“Most of my life has been spent traveling all over this world. You have no idea what kinds of info you can pick up that way.”

“…Alright, that’s a long enough history lesson. What are we supposed to do now?”

“We wait.” Titus replied.

****

It took three days for Saqatuwa to heal enough to be able to handle movement on her own, or at least as healed as she was going to get: her imprisonment and exposure to those magically enhanced sedatives had induced advanced muscular atrophy, and only movement could solve that problem.

Unbeknownst to Karl, magic apparently also took a toll from lack of use. Titus would occasionally ask her to exercise her magical abilities, namely, to create a fireball. Until now, she produced an exchange of orange sparks between her palms, nothing more. On perhaps the 9th attempt, much to her happiness, she finally managed to make one roughly the size of a human fist. Karl had never seen the Nāga so happy.

He was glad that they finally got back underway: he was starting to go a little stir-crazy in that cave. Of course, leaving the relative safety of the cave meant they would again have to face the dangers of the swamp. Somehow, Saqatuwa’s presence eased him. Even in her weakened state, she seemed to exude an aura of safety.
Of course, that was only a desperate attempt by his brain to create some kind of false security in this dangerous area. Titus had told him about the Môyikowak and, despite their obvious prowess, they were considered only the third best female warriors the Nāga had to offer. Ahead of them were the female part of the royal elite guards and some kind of female-only warrior order the name of which he had since forgotten. Still, third place would have sounded damn good if she weren’t incapacitated.

The males were the better fighters, because the Nāga females were more sorceresses that gave the males support when needed. Males were more physically capable in a fight, whereas it seemed that nature had compensated for the females magical abilities with weaker bodies.

Saqatuwa said something to Titus who nodded.

“Hey, Karl; Saqatuwa asks what your weapon of preference is.”

Karl was taken aback by the question, but answered nonetheless.

“I guess it would be a spear, but I prefer to just use my claws and teeth. Easier to use.” Titus translated his answer for Saqatuwa who nodded in agreement and replied.

“She says that the males of their race also prefer using their natural weapons, but that she and most other females prefer to use either swords or tridents for mêlée. Most females try to use magic when possible though.”
“Could you ask her if she has experience fighting Skôkak?” Titus nodded and a couple of seconds after asking he got an answer.

“She says that she has never fought the Skôkak before. The Skôkak rarely come into contact with other Nāga. She knows a little of their language; it’s in the same linguistic family as Nazja and the two languages probably used to be almost the same, but due to the Skôkak isolation, it’s developed very little where Nazja has undergone a variety of augmentations and modifications over time. She also says she probably forgot most of it, but many Skôkak do also have a rudimentary understanding of Equish due to their contact with the pirates, so there’s likely to be some common ground for communication.”

The trek continued on without much conversation.

After about five hours Titus spoke up.

“Do you guys still remember the Cloppington disaster?”

Karl and Locust just looked at him unsure of why that was suddenly important.

“Well, we’re going to enter the path of that caravan and I doubt the pirates or the Skôkak cleaned up very well. Expect to see some bodies… or what’s left of them anyway.”

Not so much later the first skeletons were adorning the path: bones crisscrossed the path while empty-eyed equine skulls leered at the party from every direction. It became impossible to walk without stepping upon a bone. Karl felt skulls being crushed under his sandals.

After a while it became apparent that the bones were not simply strewn about, but were rather organised in an almost artistic fashion. Bones were arranged in geometric patterns on the ground and suspended from trees while skulls were placed on stakes and placed strategically along the path. The skeletons that hadn’t been disassembled were propped upright on their “feet” with sakes. One tree was wrapped in hundreds of teeth suspended along a cord like a macabre Christmas decoration.

“Damn. The Skôkak have a pretty twisted sense of décor!” Locust said, stating the obvious.

Saqatuwa was just slithering on, not seeming to care a bit about the bones.

“This place must have reeked to high heaven a week after that battle with all of those bodies decaying here.” Karl noted.
The path of death continued for a while. The density of remains varied, indicating where the most casualties occurred.

****

The sun was had almost disappeared behind the horizon when they arrived at a hill where the ruins of some small, wooden, hastily assembled buildings stood. Most of the wood had fallen or was decaying, but a decent amount of it had somehow remained standing.

“This is where Captain Cloppington and what was left of his men made their last stand. It’s also where we are going to sleep tonight, so get comfortable.” Titus announced to Karl and Locust before translating it to Saqatuwa.

She looked almost as disgusted at the prospect as Karl and Locust. There was, after all, a difference between walking over corpses and sleeping next to them.

Not that there were many other options: there was far too little daylight left to search for another spot to set up camp, so unhappily and reluctantly, they all followed Titus to the hill. Skeletons were littered everywhere within the remnants of wooden palisades. Titus headed to a very small shack that probably served as the officers’ post. The shack consisted of four wooden plank walls and a wooden ceiling that already had some cracks and holes in it. Dirty, but devoid of skeletons.

“This’ll do. We’ll take turns on watch: Karl you take the first shift, Locust has the second, I’ll take the third and Saqatuwa has the fourth.”

“Fine for me.” Karl replied.

“Yeah, it’s alright.”

“Good.” Titus said before translating it for Saqatuwa who nodded that she understood.

Karl waited and waited until it was time to wake Locust. After waking him, Karl dozed off happily into a pleasant dream involving fighting off zombies with other people like he was playing co-op in a game. The zombies were slow and his guns seemed to possess infinite ammo. He gallivanted all over the map, kicking ass and having the time of his life.

That was until he was roughly woken up and he saw a couple of Skôkak standing near him with spears and swords in their grasp. The others had already been secured; Titus paws were bound behind his back and he had a rope around his throat to prevent him from running. Locust was nowhere in sight, but one of the Skôkak had a moving burlap sack over his shoulder and some muffled sounds came from it. Saqatuwa was bound with her hands and tail to a large and thick stick held up by two muscular Skôkak warriors in the same fashion as a hunted beast that had been caught. Both Titus and Saqatuwa had cloth gags firmly affixed across their mouths. One of the Skôkak held out a rope to Karl. Every inch of Karl’s body screamed out to fight, but his rational side realised that he didn’t stand a chance, claws and teeth regardless. He sighed and put his claws behind his back to allow the Skôkak to secure him.

****

He was shoved outside and after getting another rope fastened around his neck connected to Titus’ rope they were led into a village, which they reached a couple of hours later. The only consolation was that it was at least in their intended direction of travel. He would need to get out of the village alive to actually make use of that though.

They earned quite a lot of glances from the civilian (for lack of better terminology) Skôkak. Karl and Titus were bound back to back to a wooden post and the bag containing Locust was put on a hook. Saqatuwa meanwhile had been brought to another side of the small square, still tied up like a hog on a spit. Karl saw she was saying something, probably trying to negotiate with the Skôkak (now that they were side-by-side, Karl could see how different the two types of Nāga actually were), but she was cut off by one of the Skôkak females who pressed her finger over Saqatuwa’s lips.

A couple of Skôkak women gathered around her. Karl’s curiosity got the best of him and he began to study the scene. First the female Skôkak started touching and prodding her, studying the patterning of her scales and the contours of her body. Then one of them started touching Saqatuwa’s breasts, varying from firmly grasping them to gently massaging her nipples. In spite of her situation, sleek moans escaped Saqatuwa’s throat as she involuntarily writhed in pleasure. Another of the female Skôkak started working on where Karl guessed was her nether region, alternately using her tongue and fingers. The remaining two alternated between kissing her and caressing her belly with their long, thin tongues.

“So Karl any last wishes?” Titus questioned.

“Yes: let them end me with this view and I’ll die a happy man.” Karl mumbled dreamily as he kept his eyes display.

Titus looked around to the best of his ability. He was confused as to why Karl would want to die looking at some dusty squa... oh!!! Titus managed to get Saqatuwa and the Skôkak females in sight that were still continuing their make-out session.

“As much as I would like to agree with you, I can’t help but think we’re witnessing some kind of sex crime.” Titus muttered.

A spike of unease went through Karl as he realised the truth in Titus’ words. He honestly hadn’t considered the possibility before now, and now that it was at the front of his mind, he didn’t like it one bit.

Annoyingly, his libido kept humming despite the objections of his rational brain.

After a few more minutes, it seemed as if the Skôkak women were finished with Saqatuwa, each giving the sweating and exhausted Nāga a last kiss whilst massaging her beautiful breasts one last time before departing, leaving her hanging like some fresh caught prey who was sweating and panting of exhaustion.

Ironically that was the closest thing they all could be compared to Karl thought grimly. He saw some of the male Skôkak slithering towards them.

“They’d better not expect the same of us! I already do some of that stuff with Locust.”

“Come again?”

“Uh…. Nothing.” Karl awkwardly replied. He felt their bonds loosen from the post, but his claws were still bound behind his back. He was roughly hauled to his feet and shoved in some direction by the Skôkak. He heard Titus curse behind him as he got poked by some warriors with their spears, which earned him a slap on the head.

They were led through the town towards a grouping of big rocks that did not give Karl a good feeling.

“We’d better figure out a way to convince these guys to allow us to leave. And by convince I mean bust the hell outta here.” Titus said.

“Yeah, I was thinking along those lines as well.” Karl replied before adding. “Say uh… you think they would make those women give us a turn?”

A loud scream suddenly came from somewhere on their right. They saw a pony guard strapped to a large stone altar-ish construction with three male Skôkak around him, one of them holding what looked like a sacrificial knife.

The pony hadn’t been harmed from what Karl could see, but suddenly the… priest?... firmly grabbed the pony’s balls and with quick precision made a clean cut in the scrotal sac, causing the pony to issue a scream. The Skôkak squeezed the slit sac, causing a white testicle to fall out onto a plate that was put underneath it. He quickly cuts through the vas deferens before repeating the process with the pony’s remaining testicle.

Fortunately the pony had already lost consciousness from pain-induced shock by the time the Skôkak started to work on the second.

“Yeah. About your earlier question Karl, uh…. I think the answer is no.” Titus mumbled in a state of abject disgust. Karl could only mumble something inaudible as he gawked at the garish scene.

Their guards roughly prodded them forward.

“I think we better think of a really good reason if we don’t want to end up like that guy.” Karl stuttered still in light shock at both the image of the pony and the thought that unless he convinced these snake people to let them go, his balls were going to join the pony’s ones.
“Yeah we better start thinking.” Titus replied.

Author's Note

Hello everybody!

I know it has been quite a while since the last update but at the very least you all can hopefully enjoy the new chapter and if you ever had doubts, breath in relief knowing that I haven't thrown the towel in the corner nor am I planning to.

If you enjoy the chapter and or story in general please leave some form of support behind and I will be sure to get you guys more.

Author: TheShadowOfZama
Editor: Vlasislas32