My captor brought me to a building hidden amongst the thick undergrowth; not one of the towering temples I'd glimpsed before, but still impressive enough to one who'd live all her life in a wood and thatch hut. The walls were built of great stone blocks; the construction obviously ancient and worn, sprouting ferns and vines from cracks and crevices. The entry opened onto a small paved area with a large sunken basin in one corner, water flowing down a series of sculpted rocks into the pool. Past this courtyard carved columns marched along an open hallway, where I could see doorways leading into darkened rooms.
The snake-man moved across the courtyard and led me through several rooms, for they were interconnected and not all opened onto the small court. Night had fallen as we'd walked, so I could see little of what they contained though I had the impression of furnishings. Finally he stopped and made a gesture; beyond him a clay lamp flared into life, illuminating yet another room. As the light grew steady I could see what it contained in the dim yellow glow -- the low stone table upon which the lamp stood, a small iron-bound chest, several thick furs laid over a mattress of reeds and grasses.
"You may rest here little one. I will come for you when the new day dawns." My captor gestured towards the room, his dark eyes watching until I hesitantly stepped inside and moved towards the 'bed'.
Suddenly all my fears seemed to weigh upon me, the physical demands of my ordeal and the long dark walk to this place to mantle me with exhaustion, the wounds inflicted by the great snake to throb and burn. I stumbled and fell upon the thick furs with a shuddering sob, the thoughts I'd not dared allow coming now to the surface. What was to become of me in this place?
But even as my tears began to slide down my cheeks I heard a single word in my captor's deep, rumbling voice -- "Sleep." And I knew no more.
-- --
It was the sounds that woke me; a faint clicking against the stone floor, a soft rustling. I opened my eyes slowly, disoriented at first because I didn't recognize what I saw around me. As the room came into focus I gasped and sat up, my eyes going wide in disbelief. Two creatures were in the room, neither of whom would have stood past the top of my thigh were I on my feet. They resembled large frilled lizards with strange bright eyes, their scaled skins painted with brilliant colors and strings of beads and feathers adorning their necks. They went still as I moved, turning their heads to watch me before suddenly dropping to all four feet and scuttling through the door.
It took me a few moments to regain my breath, and a few minutes more before I was brave enough to rise from my bed of reeds and furs to move towards the table. The creatures, it seemed, had brought me food. A clay bowl of water, a flat wooden platter with some sort of roasted meat and raw vegetables -- little different from what I would have eaten at home, in my village. The very familiarity of the meal made me aware of my hunger as I sat on the floor, picking the food from the plate with my fingers. The taste of the cold, clear water washed some of the lingering disorientation from my mind just as the warmth of the food filling my stomach made me feel stronger. Curiosity stirred and I looked around the room I'd been led to the night before with interest. There was not much to see. The walls and floors were made of sturdy blocks of stone, the ceiling slabs of the same laid over thick smoke-stained timbers. The morning light came through triangular openings just beneath the line of the roof, well out of reach of my arms.
"I see that food was brought for you. It is good to know that the Sul'en have already accepted your presence here." I turned, startled, as I heard the low rumble of my captor's voice behind me. He was no less powerful or disturbing in form, but there was a kind of terrible beauty to him as I looked at him for the first time in the full light. The sun glinted off his lower body, bringing glimmers of rainbow colors to edge the ebony and deep green scales. I saw that he, too, had vibrant colors painted on him just as the smaller lizard-creatures had. Zigzags of red and yellow curved around his biceps, strange symbols in black and bright blue adorning his broad chest.
"The Sul'en?" I looked up at him, catching the first thing to come to my mind in my distraction. Slowly I came to my feet, suddenly painfully aware of my nudity as his black-eyed gaze became more intense.
"The lizard-folk who tend my home, brought you this food." He gestured towards the table and the remains of my meal. "The Sul'en. The lizard-folk have always dwelt with my people. They serve us, and we protect them. While we slept they waited, and now that we awaken they return to their ancient duties."
"Oh." I could think of little else to say, though now I was even more curious about this place that I had been brought. "What sort of duties? And what are 'your people'?" Greatly emboldened by his seeming willingness to talk I took a breath and asked, "Who are you?"
"Come little one, and we will talk," A slow enigmatic smile curved his lips as he gestured, sliding back to give me space to pass the doorway. "While you bathe. I find that I liked watching you bathe very much." There was a hungry note in his voice that made me tense as I slid past him and walked through the rooms towards the brighter light of the courtyard. His low, mocking chuckle followed me.
I blinked in the light as I came out of the building and into the courtyard, my eyes widening in surprise as I noticed two lizard-folk apparently pruning back vegetation overgrowing part of the sunken basin. I didn't know if they were the same two I'd seen before, but their low chittering voices and quick movements were wondrous to me. A hand at the small of my back pushed me forward as the snake-man emerged from the doorway, guiding me towards the water. He uttered a few words in that strange, hissing language and the Sul'en darted off.
"Wash now, I will answer your questions." As the snake-man gestured toward one side of the basin I saw that a bowl of herbal soap sat on the raised lip of the pool, as well as a length of some sort of fiber cloth. Carefully I stepped over the lip and found that there was a slope to the bottom of the pool, so that one end was deeper than the other. Immersing myself I began to wash.
"The Sul'en keep the household; they clean and prepare food, keep the pools clean and the water running clear. They farm and harvest the fields." My captor settled near the edge of the pool, his flat black eyes watching my every movement as he spoke. The bulk of his thick snake-like body looped beneath him as he rested against the wall, his hands absently smoothing over the shining scales.
"My people are the hunters, the warriors. We protect, and we serve the Temple. The Jh'tariss and the Sul'en serve Lassossa, the Great Winged Serpent, Mother of All. Once, the humans begged for the honor of serving us. They called us gods and offered us sacrifices, worshipped us." His strong voice trailed off, a note of disgruntlement apparent as he dwelled upon the past of his people, so recent to his mind, so very ancient to mine.
