It was a beautiful sunny day on our jungle island, the trees towering above us almost blotting out the sun. I was leading one of the new potential hunters on her first hunt. She was doing well so far not talking unless necessary and listening to my advice. Rulan was her name, she had hazel slit eyes, with pale skin. Her tail was long and strong with green scales. She was both a good swimmer and climber. She had extremely long brown hair, tied in a braid all the way down to her butt. The length of one's hair seemed to be an excellent source of pride among the young Naga nowadays. The consensus seemed to be that if you had long hair, you must be strong to be able to have it that long without having it grabbed during combat or cut off. I had cut my hair, so it reached down to my shoulders, and I noticed the haughty glances I sometimes got from younger people when I went through town. If they genuinely thought me weak, I would welcome their challenge so I could show them the error of their ways. I was the best hunter after all, and I had earned my reputation by doing and not through rumor mongering. The trends among the young still made me feel old, when I first started out as a hunter, all we had cared about was how far we could throw a spear or how long we could keep a bow drawn.

My hair may be short, but I still took some pride in it, it was dark as night, and in some lights, it seemed to shine with a healthy glow. My eyes were slitted like Rulan’s, but instead of hazel, they were blue in color. My skin was also pale, but sunkissed from time spent in the sun. My tail was just as green as Rulan’s which was a perfect color for a hunter to have since it was easier to blend in with the underbrush. Usually, at least when we were in the village, we wouldn’t have clothes on, but when hunting we always wore leather armor as we were now. Rulan was carrying a stringed bow with a quiver of bone tipped arrows strapped to her back. I had a leather shield and a spear with a sharp piece of flint as its tip.

As the best hunter in our tribe, it was my responsibility to evaluate anyone who wanted to become one. I observed her for any mistakes as she bent to the ground flickering her forked tongue to taste the air.

“I think it’s a deer Eshanai, and by the heat, I can sense on the ground, it passed not long ago,” Rulan said while straightening herself, looking eager to keep hunting. I nodded at her in approval, smiling at her excitement, and gestured for her to keep tracking her pray. Even though she was eager to continue, she still took the time to stay quiet while occasionally flickering her tongue in the air and changing direction when she needed to. I took note of this in my head, Rulan had the potential to become a great hunter, maybe she could replace me one day.

We made it to a clearing, and we could clearly see the deer lapping water from a stream. It raised its head to smell the air and look around. We were downwind from it, which would mean more points for Rulan, and even more if she could make this shot on the first try. She fitted an arrow to the string of her bow, drew it back, aimed at the deer, and loosed the arrow quickly. Unfortunately, she didn’t take enough time to aim, and the arrow hit the deer in the flank, making it flee immediately. Rulan looked down at the ground, dropping her bow, she seemed almost ashamed. I slithered up to her, placing my hands on her shoulders.

“Don’t worry about it sister, you have been doing very well this far, it’s only your first hunt. You should know how many potential hunters chatter at me incessantly while tracking some animal,” I said, and she laughed at this looking up at me in disbelief.

“Maybe they are not fit to be hunters then if they scare away all the pray with their talk,” she said looking a little happier now.

“Perhaps you are right, but fewer and fewer people want to become hunters now. We need all the recruits we can get. Younglings today are so worried about their pride, maybe it’s good that they don’t become hunters just yet. I’m always a bit worried that some beast will drag them down by those ridiculous braids, the least they could do is pin them up, so they are harder to grab,” I said while hoping that Rulan would take my not so subtle advice to heart. She grabbed her braid self-consciously before saying.

“I guess I was too eager to make a good impression on you. I admire you greatly, first hunter and have for a long time. I will cut my braid off if it will make me a better hunter, it’s just that the other girls will…” She stopped speaking, looking down at the ground again.

“If they call you weak, you can always challenge them. Pull their hair as much as you can, and show them what a weakness it truly is,” I said and winked at her while smiling evilly at the thought of shutting the little brats up. “It is your choice whether you want to cut it off or not, you could pin it up as I said before. Either way, you are the best candidate for the hunters I have had in a long time, so I wouldn’t worry about that,” The happiness appeared on her face again like the rising sun, while she grinned at me like a fool. She calmed down before saying.

“What will we do now? The deer is gone.”

“It might be gone, but we can still follow it. It is bleeding and will tier quickly,” I answered. The only problem with that was that some other beast might find it first. Rulan nodded, looking more confident now as she slithered in the direction the deer had fled. After just a little bit of time spent following the deer’s trail, I could smell something else that had passed here not long ago. I didn’t inform Rulan of the new scent since I wanted to see if she would notice. I wasn’t anxious about this particular beast I could deal with them on my own if I needed to. Not long after, Rulan rose up from the ground and turned to me ‘good girl’ I thought as she made the right guess.

“Goblins,” she said and clenched her fists in anger. Goblins weren't dangerous to us. They used blow darts and sharpened sticks often covered in poison. Naga’s are very resistant to venom and poisons since we have our own type of venom glands. We can inject it into our prey through retractable fangs. The main problem with goblins for us was that they would often sneak into our village to steal food and supplies. I guessed that this was the source of Rulan’s anger. “Thieving little shits,” she said and started to rush off down the deer’s trail. I stopped her with a hand on her shoulder, and she turned around, her eyes blazing with fury.

“Calm yourself before you do something dangerous. Stop wasting time on pointless anger and try to guess how many there are instead,” I said, and the fight seemed to leave Rulan at once as she realized what she was doing. Goblins might not be a significant threat to us, but if there were many of them, they could overwhelm us. She started tasting the air with her tongue, a thoughtful look on her face.

“I would say that there are at least three of them,” Rulan said looking sure off herself. “But not more than five,” she added quickly while waving her hands in front of her. My guess would be five, but there could be others approaching from another direction. I nodded at her assessment and let her take the lead. We followed the trail more slowly now, being extra careful not to make a sound. We began hearing bickering in the strange, incomprehensible goblin language. If it could even be called a language, it just sounded like they were gurgling and screaming at each other to me.

We hid behind a tree when Rulan decided we were close enough and peeked at the goblins bickering over the body of the deer. It was still breathing but had collapsed in exhaustion. The goblins hadn’t even taken the time to butcher it, too busy with their squabbling. There were five of them, three with sharpened sticks, and two with blowpipes in their hands. They were small little creatures, barely reaching up to my waist, with green skin and pointed ears. They had jagged teeth, with bulbose noses in the middle of their faces. The only protection they had on were the loincloths covering their groins, protection is a strong word, but it was the only thing covering their bodies. Once again I let Rulan take the lead, I gestured for her to get started. She looked nervous for a moment, bunching up her shoulders and looking back and forth between me and the goblins uncertainly. Then she steeled herself and seemed to think about the best way to go about this.

“Ok, I’ll climb this tree and try to take out the ones with the blowpipes, you charge in and scatter them as soon as I shoot my first arrow,” Rulan whispered, and as I nodded agreement she slithered quickly up the nearest tree, getting her bow ready when she was in position. I got ready too, but I wasn’t worried, it was only goblins after all. I observed them from my hiding spot, waiting for the shot to happen. They seemed to be arguing over what to do. One goblin gestured towards the arrow still lodged in the deer while speaking calmly to the goblin that was pointing a knife at the first one and screaming its little lungs out. ‘Could they be recognizing our weapons and wanting to flee?’ I wondered, well the first one seemed to be at least, the screamer didn’t seem capable of noticing anything right now. I was so deep in thought that I almost missed the arrow that hit one of the pipe wielders at the back. ‘That was a rookie mistake. Luckily no one noticed’ I thought as I charged out towards the goblins. The other pipe wielder went down with an arrow in the throat as I leaped in the air towards the goblins, my spear aimed towards the screamer. I landed on him just as he turned around, and I pierced his throat with my spear while knocking the first goblin away with my shield. I pulled out the spear, but the tip had broken off, so I threw it to the side as the last goblin charged me with its sharpened stick pointed at me. I knocked the spear out of its hands easily and wrapped the little goblin up with my tail. There was no need to bite it to inject my venom as soon enough the crack of its spine could be heard, and it fell limp in my coils. I squeezed some more until all the air in its lungs came rushing out of its mouth all at once, and I let the body drop lifeless to the ground.

The goblin I had stunned with my shield earlier, the one who had argued with the screamer, had gotten up from where it had fallen and was staring at me, and I stared back. This one was bizarre. Generally, in these situations, I would expect a goblin to charge right at me with no regard for its own life. This one was looking at me with what looked like fear in its eyes, it was hard to tell, their eyes were so small, and they didn’t have any eyebrows. It looked around at the dead goblins around it and then back at me, slowly it backed away from me. I felt no need to kill this one, it was somehow smarter than its brothers, and it could spread the word that you didn’t mess with the Naga. Had we missed something about the goblins that shared our island? Were we killing intelligent creatures? I had always thought that goblins never held a thought in their head other than to breed, eat, and sleep. The screamer seemed to fit the typical goblin, but this last one was different. Perhaps goblin society is more complicated than we realize?

My thoughts were interrupted, as the goblin fell over a root as it slowly backed away from me. I hissed at it, showing my fangs to scare it away, and it scrambled backward on its hands and feet. It got up and ran into the forest until I couldn’t see it anymore. I stared after it until a hand landed on my shoulder.

“Why let that one go? surely it will bring reinforcements?” Rulan asked, a deep crevice between her eyebrows.

“It’s better if they fear us, and for that, some must escape telling the tale,” I answered, but in my head, I had another reason for letting the little thing go. I bent down and put the deer quickly out of its misery. I was showing Rulan how to skin and butcher the corps when a ball of something white and cold hit Rulan in the chest and spread across her armor.