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Her Mind's Made Up.
#1
About six feet tall, Akantha could see the immigrant males in the eyes, though most preferred not to return her gaze. Reptilian and with a vertical slit for a pupil, the Naga’s eyes were found to be rather unsettling to most humans. Her skin too, scaled in beautiful shades of brown, seemed to upset them. The older generations, used to these reactions, took to hiding their features; at first disguised amidst the lepers and their bandages; then, as time went on, through similarly concealing garb.

She wore dark shirts and trousers; made of a comfortable material that easy to move in. For the time being, in the safety of the deeper levels of the underground tunnels, Akantha could walk about without the need of using her hood and scarf to veil her face. A face that, for the moment, found itself glowering at nothing in particular.

Another day had passed without Sato’s return. She needed to do something. Why were their scouts not returning? Sato worried her. He was, dependable. Whenever he left the safety of their small colony, he always returned as promised… when promised. If something ha---


A human child nearly ran into her. He came to an abrupt stop, panting, with eyes wide and uneasy just before bumping onto her legs. Small pointed chin tilted as far up as his neck would allow, he stared at her and gulped as her eyes narrowed. Of course, none of the immigrants truly feared them, having lived together so long, but many stepped lightly around her. The small, scaleless creature was lucky she managed to spot him and stopped in time.

She’d seen him before, of course, always being chased by two more of his kind. Looking past him, Akantha immediately saw the following pair. One stopped some distance from her and the boy, pulling his companion to an abrupt halt next to him. It wasn’t difficult to decipher what was going on, and she wasn’t sure she liked it.

The small ruffian that had nearly ran her over shifted uneasily in his feet and glanced back behind him. He must have been twelve years old, or at least she guessed as much. It was difficult to tell how old the humans were, sometimes. They matured much faster than the Naga, growing like weeds and wilting just as rapidly.

Disheveled curly hair, scraped, and dirt smudges on pale skin gave her the impression he’d been rolling around on the tunnel grounds… and not due to any sort of odd human game. The other two boys seemed winded, but not as worse for wear as their apparent prey. The leader of the two possessed a strange orange tint to his hair while his face was covered with an odd splattering of light brown flecks. His friend was perhaps the skinniest boy she’d seen in the entire miserable human group, with a long nose that seemed as pointy as his chin.

Her thin forked tongue darted out to taste the air while her eyes remained on the other boys. Oh, there was fear in the air alright, and she had the feeling it had nothing to do with her. With a grumble, the Naga reached out for the boy in front of her with a clawed hand and set him aside. She had no time to deal with childish concerns, but she was irritable, and something tugged at her.

Lips drawn, poisonous fangs revealed, Akantha hissed at the two in front of her. “Looking for sssomething?”
The hiss and low sibilant sounds and rasp of her voice made the children take a step back. The boy in her grasp flinched, causing her to squeeze his shoulder a slight bit harder.

“n-n-no… nothing, nothing. We… ah… just going home.”

“Then go.”



The boys turned and ran. From her side, she could hear a small sigh and feel the boy relax slightly.

“Now you… go to your parentsss. There are worse things than bullies in these tunnelsss”


For a moment, she watched as the human child ran and turned down a different tunnel in the opposite direction than the other two. One of these days she’d have to ask the creature why it was that he was always running away from them.

Right then, however, what she meant to do was to gather her things and advice the elders of her departure. Sato had not returned, but she would find him. Her mind was made.
Edited by Akantha, Jun 5 2014, 12:42 AM.
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