‘Ok Eshanai, don’t stare too much, you can do this,’ I told myself not for the first time on our way back to the road through the woods. It was tough for me not to, Lilian was very strange to me, just the thought that she would someday grow to be bigger was inconceivable to me. She had a mother and a father that together had made her, what would that be like, to have parents? This only served to underline the differences between mainlanders and the Naga further, the fact that the home-cave was a dungeon seemed more and more likely. The mainlanders lived completely different lives compared to us, they had tightly knit families, although I suppose my whole village was my family, and they lived their lives in stages. They grew from a child to an adult to eventually become an elder where they grew all wrinkly and weak before they just died for seemingly no reason, their bodies seemed just to stop working.

I remember the first time I had seen an old person in Yhester, I had thought they had some terrible disease or something, but no they were just old. I was pretty sure I was somewhere around ninety years old, but I still looked like I did when I was first spawned and just as strong if not stronger. I knew some of our elders who were old when I was young and were still going strong to this day, their hair greyed a bit, but none of the other effects that came with age on the mainland seemed to affect us. I certainly didn’t expect them just to fall over and die all of a sudden, sure people died sometimes but for good reasons, like in a hunting accident or from being swept out to sea while diving for pearls. There were a lot of different ways you could die from on the island, but no one had ever died of age as far as I was aware.

And yet we were so primitive compared to these humans, they built incredible structures, created useful tools and weapons and they had even discovered magic. You would think that with our long lives we would have time to discover some of these things too. Humans were so fragile, it was a bit of a miracle that they actually managed to survive, they had no sharp claws or teeth, no natural scales or fur to protect them. What was it that made humans do all these things, it seemed that their fragile nature forced them to adapt. Making clothes to warm themselves and weapons to act as claws, they had to find inventive ways to survive or die trying. Was it due to their short lifespans, did they just make better use of what little time they had? I suppose we Naga had a bit of an easy time on our island, sure we had struggled a bit at first, but once we had mastered our environment, there was nothing left to challenge us anymore, so we stopped moving forward. The mainlanders had their problems, like the fact that they were so particular about nudity and sex, but we could learn a lot from them.

“So you met my father, is he alright did the drake hurt anyone?” Lilian interrupted my thoughts, and I turned to look at her. ‘How can she walk with such short legs? Legs seem unwieldy, to begin with, but to be so short must make it even harder.’

“Yes I met him, Jared, the drake only burned your cart but made off with the horse,” I answered, keeping my opinion about Lilian’s father to myself. It was much easier to talk now that I was on better terms with the dungeon, Lubus, and Red, as it had begun to call itself, had worked together to place knowledge of the local language directly into my head. I wasn’t so sure how I felt about that, but I couldnät deny that it was useful.

“Oh, poor Nessie, we will have a lot of trouble replacing her. Not to mention how much it will cost.” Lilian said with a sad voice, her shoulders slumping. Her mood seemed to brighten suddenly, and she turned back to me “Where did you learn to fight? I mean I didn’t see you, but you must have defeated all those spiders and all by yourself too?” She seemed very excited, and I didn’t see any harm in telling her.

“Back on my home, it’s an island in the sea. I’m the first hunter there, it’s a bit of a ceremonial title, but it means that I am responsible for all the other hunters and manage who gets to join our ranks.” Lilian’s eyes seemed to sparkle at this, and she eagerly asked her next question.

“And they allow you to hunt, the other ones like you, they don’t think a man could do a better job?”

“Yes they allow me to hunt, why wouldn’t they? I’m the best hunter in our village, and I’ve proved it multiple times. The ones like me are called Nage Lilian, and besides, there are no men on the island, but even still I would be the best, or they would have to prove themselves my better to gain my title.” There was a tug on my hand, and I turned around to find that Lilian had stopped in her tracks, her mouth hanging open in amazement.

“There are only women on your island?” She asked, incredulous.

“Yes,” I answered.

“And you make it, you survive?”

“Yes, we do just fine.”

“But how do you… I mean… oh nevermind. This island of yours sounds amazing, my parents won’t let me go off to university because they think women shouldn’t waste their time doing manly things. Instead, they want me to marry some man and have babies.” Lilian said her voice was growing more frustrated with every word. We continued walking and I thought about what she had said.

“Having babies doesn’t sound so bad, but why wouldn’t they let you do what you want to?” I said finally.

“Because, I don't know, because they are my parents and they think they know what is best for me, but they don’t. I swear if they force me into something I’ll just run away and never come back.” Her fists grew white as her frustration only increased, what could I do to fix this.

“I think your parents would be very sad if you ran away,” I said and smiled down at the girl holding my hand. The tension seemed to evaporate from her and instead, she started crying in great heaving sobs.

“Then what am I supposed to do, they won’t listen to me, I’m just a stupid child to them,” I knelt down in front of her and hugged her gently, and after some hesitation, she hugged me back, stroking her hair I said.

“Well if they won’t listen to you then maybe they will listen to me. I’ll talk to your parents if you want.” She let go of me and dried her tears before nodding at me.

Lubus, what should we do?

Yes, I have thought about that. She has some mana running through her already, in fact, I think Lilian is very newly awakened. We could claim the mage’s right and send a letter to the guild, at least she’ll be away from her parents.

That is the last resort, I’ll talk to her parents first, see if they can be reasoned with.

She’ll need to be trained either way, at least in the basics, or she might be a danger to the people around her. Lubus reminded me, but I would deal with one thing at a time. Right now we needed to get out of this forest. We didn’t run into much trouble on the way, and what we did run into I could smell before getting to close and avoid it. Lilian became tired of walking after a while, so I offered her a ride on her back which she gladly accepted. It had taken much longer time escorting Lilian out of the woods then it had taken me to get to her, but now I made better time with her riding on my back.

It was evening by the time I made it back to the road and the burned cart, Lilian had fallen asleep by that time, and I had let her rest on my back. I saw Lito pacing back and forth by the cart, biting his fingernails. When he saw us, he came running over, and in a panting breath, he said.

“Your finally back, you’ve been gone for two days, where did you find her?” At Lito’s question, Lilian woke and she wiggled free from my back, and I let her down to stand beside me. She yawned and stretched her hands above her head before speaking.

“Oh, hello Lito, I was captured by a pack of wolf spider’s, but it’s fine, Eshanai saved me,” the smile on her face couldn’t grow any wider, but it slowly disappeared at Lito’s serious stare. He looked at me then as if seeing me in a new light and gave me a slight nod of approval.

“You better come back to the village now, your father has been raising all sorts of trouble since you’ve been gone. You should come to Eshanai,” I nodded at his words, and we followed him up the road until we came to the town in question. This one had no walls to speak of, just a couple of guard towers surrounding a collection of houses around a central square. There was what looked like a couple of farms in the fields to the east as well, as we approached the village we met by two guards standing on the road. They recognized us and must have had my description since they didn’t seem too surprised to see me, they still stared for a while before they seemed to remember themselves.

“Lito, Lilian, and you had better come with us,” They said and escorted us through the little village. It might have been evening but people were still out, and most of them stopped what they were doing to follow in our wake until we came to a stop outside a house at the edge of town. We were encouraged to approach the door with the guards and the people waiting for some distance behind us. Lito approached the door and knocking three times, he stepped back and waited. A bigger version of Lilian opened the door and open seeing her child she immediately sprang forward to embrace her.

“Oh my sweet Lilian, you scared us half to death you know. Where have you been?” The woman asked.

“Oh momma I was so scared, a pack of wolf spiders had me.” Lilian started, and the woman exclaimed in shock.

“WOLF SPIDERS! But that, you shouldn’t,” she stopped and finally looked around at the people around her, she gave Lito a serious look, and he nodded at her as if confirming the story. When she got to me she became startled, and she grew very pale, but she impressed me when she didn’t run or scream in terror.

“Mom, please don’t be afraid, this is Eshanai, she saved my life,” Lilian explained, and the woman turned away from me to look at her daughter.

“I know sweet child, your father told me,” she stood up then only to bow low in front of me. “I am very grateful to you for saving my child if there is anything I can do for you just ask.”

“There is no need for this, I am just happy that Lilian is safe,” She stood up then and smiled at me, a moment later though her expression turned sour.

“I also want to apologize to you for the way my husband acted, he is not normally like that,” she said, looking a bit embarrassed.

“No need to apologize, I realize he must have been worried for his child,” I said trying to be as reasonable as I could.

“Gemma, who is that at the door?” A voice came from further inside the house.

“Oh, no one Jared, go back to bed. You need to rest, what with your injury and all that,” but those words fell on death ears as heavy footsteps approached the door and Jared appeared in the opening. He held some sort of bottle in one hand, and he reeked of something awful. At first, he seemed happy when he saw Lilian, and I had some hope that this could work out without a fight but his mood soured, and he scowled at me when he noticed I was there too.

“Oh, what is that beast doing on my doorstep?”

“Dad, she is not a beast, she saved me,” Lilian tried to explain, but Jared wasn’t listening. He simply brushed her off before saying.

“Be quiet pumpkin, the grownups are talking. What are you gonna do now monster, do you plan to eat everyone in this village now that you have gained their trust?” He said and looked around at the crowd that had formed around the house.

“You be quiet, and go back to bed, your drunk,” Gemma tried and grabbed her husband around the shoulders, trying to lead him back into the small house. This only seemed to anger Jared even more, and he shoved Gemma out of the way, she wasn’t ready for it and fell off the stairs to the door and landed hard on the ground.

“My wife of all people will not baby me, I will say what I came to say,” Lito helped Gemma back to her feet before saying.

“Can’t you see what you’re doing? Your drunk as a donkey and you just pushed your wife down the stairs, look at yourself for a moment.”

“Dad,”

“I may be a little drunk, but I’m the man of this house, and I can say what I want. A man can’t even trust his friend anymore, I thought you would have my back, but instead, you hit me in the head to knock me out.”

“Daddy,”

“If we hadn’t done that, Eshanai wouldn’t have been in time to save Lilian, and your only child would be dead by now.” Lito tried, but it seemed to be too much for Jared to take in as he roared at Lito and charged him bottle held high.

“STOP!” Lilian shouted, and her voice ringed out through the crowd, everyone turned to look at her finally, and she was glowing with a brilliant white light and hovering off the ground.