Malomar

In another part of Malomar a hunter learns his place in the cycle of life.

*****

Naga are not to be underestimated. Naga are not to be trifled with. Naga are serious business. All these lessons resounded in Chris Urin's head. Lessons he had been taught by his father, his grandfather, and his uncle. Monster hunting was the Urin family legacy, and since the women of the family had met with death over the last decade, the men had taken to carrying on that legacy.

It was by no means a lucrative business. Everyone knew that a man could only hope to make three quarters of a woman's earnings from the most generous of customers; why should a woman even need to pay for services rendered from some unmarried man? Most people would expect the men to just waste the money on frivolous living anyway. The Urin men were not that sort of males though, and most women in town had learned that. Though begrudgingly, they accepted that these men could do a job, and that's what counted anyway.

Chris was every bit an Urin man at twenty-two. His ragged blonde hair swirled upwards above his face and had been shaved from the sides. He sported a golden moustache beneath his nose styled with wax. Since he'd found his chin hairs to come in black, instead of the family yellow he kept them cut short. His jaw was slender, but he had hopes of it broadening out one day.

Today would be the hardest task yet for Chris. He'd dealt with a few goblins in the local mine, and had even brought down a wild boar that was ravaging the farms to the north of town. A naga, could be completely different.

This one had found a home in a local well. This well provided water to the Greenglade estate, owned by the Thari family. The water was drawn up from an aquifer and cave complex almost a hundred meters below the estate. The family had started noticing slime in their water supply only a few days ago and thought it to be algae. That is until the hissing started. That made the situation much worse.

The naga life cycle had been well studied by Chris's uncle Archie, while he was working with Chris's mother. June preferred a simple kill and clean out operation, but Archie loved to learn about the creatures they were dealing with. He discovered that the naga had a three part cycle: egg, youngling, and adult. The eggs were spread through various techniques, from consumption by wandering beasts, to bobbing along a river. When they hatched a few months later the younglings immediately consumed whatever was near them. Sometimes this was straw or hay, sometimes dung, and sometimes it was their siblings. At first the naga younglings seemed no different than any other large reptilian creature. It wasn't until about a year after their hatching that they became sentient. At this point, their bodies became more humanoid. They kept their long tails, but their upper bodies morphed into that of a woman. The change was anything but natural, and said to originate with the first naga, a power hungry sorceress who had developed a way to transform herself into a snake. The mouth shrank from a crocodilian maw into soft curving lips, the skull shrank and became round, the fore claws stretched into arms with articulate fingers and thumbs, and the chest sprouted cruel mockeries of the human breast.

The situation here had begun only a week ago, and Archie was confident Chris would be facing a youngling. He had prepared Chris for the maw and the wicked fast and brutally powerful tail. He had taught Chris to track the naga using its trail of slime. Chris entered the caverns by the utility shaft, confident in his ability to hunt down this beast.

He had brought the best of his equipment, a leather vest over his black jerkin. He particularly liked this jerkin, as it showed off a bit of the scar he'd received from the boar. Most people thought it daft to show off an injury like that, but Chris was very little like most people. Growing up in a family of monster hunters he had trained hard, and his body had responded. His chest and arms were corded with muscle and his skin had grown thick and course from the exercises. Still, his greatest talent was his flexibility. As the youngest and most agile of the Urins he had found many hiding places as a boy that provided him with immunity from his grandmother's scolding. Today he had made sure he could touch his toes and kicked his own ass a few times from behind. His sword, a short sabre hung at his side and made him feel all the more capable.

Coming out of the utility shaft, he stood in a large cavern with a pool of water opposite him. To his left and right, tunnels led out into the maze-like complex. His torch illuminated only the ground beneath his feet; the rest of the dark space flickered with the shadows from stalactites and stalagmite's. In the distance, he could hear the distorted drips of dozens of water droplets echoing through the caves.

"There's no trail," he said to himself. "I may as well go left as right!" He thought for a moment, hoping to come to a satisfactory conclusion on his direction, but, finding none, set out to his left.

The tunnels were narrow enough that he could touch both walls and only just tall enough that he could feel the roof rubbing against his hair. The walls were smooth and slick from the years of water that had hollowed them out. He drew his fingers across them in the hopes of finding a hint to his quarry. The wet walls gave him nothing to go on as he entered another large cavern. This one seemed to go on for quite a while, but had no obvious exists. He gingerly stepped into the open, prepared for a surprise attack. When none came, he examined the room further. It was mostly conical, aside from the floor, and grew narrower as in the distance. Judging by the darkness of the far end he decided to lay a trap here. He grabbed some lamb from his pack and dropped it just inside the entrance. In front of the opening he had come in, he put down a trip wire. He drew out the trip wire line into the darkness at the other end. There, about half way back he put up his crossbow and stand, hooking the trigger to the wire. He had his trap, now he needed to push the naga toward it.

Turning away from his assembly, he walked deeper into the cone. Here he found an opening. It was not nearly large enough for him to walk in, but if he crouched he could move along it easily enough. He set his torch outside and had a look. This smaller tunnel went on for only a few meters; it narrowed, but he could see a light on the other side. Most likely that light came from the surface, from the well. He walked in a few steps and found himself stuck. He took a step backward and felt his pack scrape against the wall of the tunnel. "I suppose it has to be done" he said to himself. He dropped the pack outside by the torch and climbed in once more. This time he got much farther. Still he couldn't quite reach the outlet while crouching. He got on his hands and knees and began to crawl. Only then did he notice the mucus covering on the walls of the tunnel. "Gotcha" he whispered. He'd found his naga.

He crawled, then he slid, then he came through an overhang that he had to shift his shoulders bit by bit just to get through. Finally, he made it through into the light. He stood on a shelf above the biggest cavern he'd seen yet. This one was almost completely spheroid. The only disturbance in its shape was an outcropping of rock that jutted into the water filling the room's floor. Perched on this outcropping was not at all what Chris had expected. Instead of the gaping, toothy jaw there was an elegant mouth. Long black hair bloomed from a humanoid head. It waved back and forth, voluminous and free. The scales of the lower body were exactly what he'd been told about, blood red, interlocking and hard enough to be nigh impenetrable. Above the waist was a different story. They became delicate and small, most shimmering a pale red-gold, but a few reflected their own colors: blue-green, purple, or silver. These outlined, not a ferocious beast, but an elegant feminine figure. Breasts that shimmered in the little light shed from the surface world, slender fingers, and a softly curved sparkling face reached Chris's eyes.

Her eyes though, were the eyes of a snake. Chris snapped out of his delusions looking at those eyes. This was a monster, one he needed to defeat. Perhaps, he thought, Archie was wrong about how developed this naga was, but it still needed to be removed. He slowly drew his sword, careful that it not catch the light and alert the creature. Then he grabbed a popper. The poppers had served him well, though his father and uncle had no use for them. They were the work of the town alchemist and, when pressed right, could explode loud enough to scare beasts away. He had been told they were made from dragons' teeth, and he hoped he could channel a bit of that dragon now.

Holding his sword and popper at the ready, he crept out into the room. He felt his knees go weak approaching such a creature. It was sunning itself now, and seemed at least twice his size. How could he kill such a thing? He shook his head. I'll kill her, he thought. I'll kill her while she's not looking, from behind. He hadn't noticed how the sight of the thing began to warp his mind. He saw not a monster, but her. He saw a beautiful being. The most beautiful he had ever seen. The scales were not an abomination, were not evil. They were shy and slight. He kept sneaking closer to her, to this wondrous thing. He saw her tail twist just a bit and thought what a magnificent thing. He had seen no human with a tail such as this. It sparkled, every bit of her sparkled. She caught the light and shone it around the room, much too his pleasure.

Why, he thought, should anyone want to kill such a majestic being? His feet had brought him just behind her. The base of her tail rested on the ledge in front of him, the rest spiraling off into the darkness of the water. He was amazed. There was even more of her, more he had not appreciated properly. How could anyone want to kill such a majestic being? He held up his saber, preparing for the killing strike. It would land below her sloping, thin boned shoulders. The cut would carry enough force to penetrate the shimmering scales from this angle. The blade would sink in and slice into her heart, the heart that supplied cool blood to this magnificent body. How could anyone want to hurt such a majestic being? His sword was not where it had been, he wasn't sure where it was exactly. He was lost in the beautiful hair that cascaded down her scaly back. Her back, that's where his sword was, resting on her back, to the right of her spine, just above the heart. Resting, he thought.

She turned. Her tail shifted underneath her to bring her face to face with this little human. Her tongue flicked out to taste his scent. He stood there, captivated by her, no doubt. He was staring directly at her chest. It was of little consequence what he saw now.

Chris was vaguely aware that the beautiful creature was moving around him. She was twisting her tail around his body, positioning herself in front of him, wrapping her coils around his legs, twisting them around his arms. She was holding him, lifting him of the ground in her tail. Her hands were undoing his breeches. The clothing was falling down. She came close to him and he saw the indisputable wonder of her body. He saw his cock was throbbing and hot. He saw an opening in her scales, just below her hips. His arm jerked, but he did not know why, he did not know what his muscles were thinking. He saw the opening come closer to him. It enveloped his dick in its soft, wet coldness. His muscles gave another spasm, but a different type this time, lower. His hips were thrusting. His legs were tightening and then loosening again.

He felt his heart begin to beat in time. He felt overwhelmed by the beauty of the moment. He was doing so well. He was doing what this beautiful creature wanted. She liked this movement. He congratulated himself. He loved that he could do such a thing. He had never thought himself capable of such magnificence.

Before him, lay his life so useless, such a waste of time in comparison to this moment. Why had he even bothered? If he had only known he could have been here. He could have been wrapped up in this majestic being. He could have been serving a purpose so great. This was better than anything he had imagined himself capable of, it was his true calling.

He thrust faster, harder. He knew what to do; he knew how to do it. He felt her accepting this, her enjoying his thrashing body. He loved this. He was jubilant at her slightest attention. Thrusting, pushing his body was made to do these things; he was fulfilling his purpose in this great ecosystem.

He felt himself swelling, he felt the crescendo coming. He was breathing hard and fast. He wanted to do more, to bring himself to completion faster, and to give her what she wanted as fast as possible. But something was happening in his brain. He was realizing something, realizing that he would die. She would crush him once he came. Uncle Archie had told him that. "Naga breed with human men to keep the humanoid side alive." He could see that this would be his final act. Once he came he would die.

He thought as best he could amid his thrashing. One thought, so what? This would be his last act? He would squirt his seed into this creature and fuel another generation of the human eating monsters? Great, they were what he wanted. This was better than he had imagined. He was going to be used. He would cum, be crushed to death, and his body would be consumed by her. What more could he have ever wanted from life. This was the perfect end for him.