I woke up with a start in the middle of the night, unsure of what had awoken me I asked Lubus if anything was approaching. Everything was as it should be, nothing having disturbed his wards, so I tried going back to sleep. It proved difficult, however, as thoughts of seeing my people again raced through my head. This hut was familiar, and it brought back memories of all the escapades I had been up to in them. I would never sleep alone when home, with one or more partners, the nights and mornings would often turn very pleasurable. That was probably the most challenging thing for me during my stay at the mainland, the lack of company, it wasn’t about the sex really although I missed that too. I had been surprised to discover that I missed having someone to sleep beside at night, of knowing that someone was there who I could rely on and I spent many a night struggling to get to sleep missing that feeling.

Sure I would often go on long hunting trips, but I would bring a hopeful apprentice or a hunting party along to help me. Then I had met Lubus, he had been easy to subdue, despite his magic, and quite willing once I eased up a bit. Our rutting had been new, and novel, and very pleasurable with him being a man and all, I even let him take the lead a couple of times. I often found that once a partner of mine knew that I was physically superior, I could let go of some control. Once I had found out how childbirth worked on the mainland, I had been excited to have more sex with Lubus. We wouldn’t need to rely on the home cave anymore or anyone else to rule our lives if we could birth our own children, but then he had to go and lose his body, making for more lonely nights for me.

Then Lilian had joined us, Lubus had very strongly forbidden me from as he put it “taking advantage of her” stating that she was still a child and not capable of making her own choices yet. I could see plainly that the girl was smart and could choose for herself, but it was true that she wasn’t finished growing yet. She wouldn’t be able to put up a proper resistance if I made advances on her, that was very unattractive in my eyes, and I suspected that my sisters would think so too. What Naga found arousing was power, at least I did, if my partner couldn’t defend themselves to their full ability I would find little pleasure in rutting with them. Sex wasn’t the main goal anyway, Lilian still provided comfort enough for me to be able to sleep.

I turned my head to watch the girl laying bundled up in my coils, snuggled up to my side, sleeping peacefully. She finally seemed to have gotten a handle on her dreams, not having had to summon me since we left the mainland. She still invited me to train every night, but after she gained control and could shape her dreams as she desired. I wondered what it would be like to have my own children, I had seen some pregnant women back in Yhester. Such a state seemed very cumbersome and would make me very vulnerable for a long time. If I even could get pregnant, it had been about a week since I had sex with Lubus, and I was unsure how long it would take for the signs to show themselves if I was with child. Who knows, maybe I would lay eggs like a regular snake, although Lubus told me that my nether regions resembled a human woman’s. I wouldn’t know, I hadn’t spent a significant amount of time examining the mating habits of snakes, but they did lay eggs of that I was sure.

I turned back to stare up at the ceiling listening to all the sounds of the night, countless insects were buzzing around us, indistinguishable from one another, they formed a constant low sounding background noise. I could hear monkeys howling to each other in the distance, it seemed they never shut up, but they were far away, so the sound was faint. I thought again of that enormous beast we had nearly run into, would we stand a chance if something like that attacked us? Probably not, our best bet would probably be to disable it in some way and run away. There was still a fair distance left to travel before we reached the home cave, so it was possible we would run into that thing again. I remembered its scent though so avoiding it should be easier this time, it was hard to miss something of that size. How much did something like that have to eat to survive? A lot, that was for sure, unless they hunted each other I saw no way for many of them to exist at the same time without starving or eating the island bare of life until there was no life left, maybe they were herbivores? That would reassure me, but the devastation they had left behind and the fight we had heard in the distance proved that they could still be dangerous.

I had Red bring Rulan’s braid of hair, and I ran it through my fingers, soon I would be back among family, and I could help them directly, no more worrying. I thought of what I wanted, hoping red would understand, it worked as a leather pouch formed around the braid. A leather string was attached to it turning it into a necklace, I brought it above my head and let the little pouch rest under my shirt between my breasts. It was close to my heart, where it belonged. I fell asleep soon after, letting go of my anxious thoughts and letting my mind rest I dreamed of home.

It felt like only moments later when I was startled awake again, I didn’t know how long I had been asleep for but it was still dark out. I struggled to orient myself at first before I remembered where I was and calmed my thrashing, afraid that I might have alerted something to our presence.

Several somethings just moved over my wards, Lubus said hurriedly in my mind, and I got up, summoning my armor and the bow and arrows. A larger something is moving slowly towards the huts, I untangled myself carefully from Lilian, not wanting to interrupt her mana regeneration, and knocked an arrow to the bow.

Don't you think you could have said something before I made so much noise? I hissed back at Lubus in irritation, hopefully, the sound had been lost among the buzzing of insects.

Sorry, I was a bit busy with my wards, the smaller shapes are staying on the outskirts all around us, but the bigger one is moving from hut to hut coming this way. Lubus said, and I moved out of our shelter staying low to the ground, trying not to be seen. As I looked around my heat sense picked up several warm spots all around the village, they could only be one thing, and my sense of smell confirmed it a moment later, goblins. The low light was to my advantage, as it obscured me as much as it did the goblins, but I had my sharp senses to rely on. I dismissed the goblins, for now, looking for the bigger creature that had entered among the huts. I jerked in surprise a moment later as I caught its scent, or rather her scent, it was a Naga I had smelled, and strong indicating she was close. Did she come here to hide from the goblins? But why were they staying behind, were they afraid of the village for some reason? Either way, I followed the Naga’s scent until I came upon her exiting one of the nearby huts. It was Lezoz one of Nala's young warrior apprentices, she looked ragged, her hair was caked in mud and plastered to her skull, she must have been injured, because she moved haltingly on her scaled purple tail. I made my presence known to her, not making a sound, but not trying to hide from her.

As soon as she saw me she bared her fangs and lunged for me, her expression was strangely mournful, and I suddenly remembered how Rulan had been on our hunting trip before we returned to the village. Were the goblins using her as a scout against her will? It turned my stomach, they were forcing her to attack her own people, the monsters would suffer for this. I easily dodged her clumsy lunge, being aided by her injury, and wrapped her in my coils before forcing her to the ground. Once I had her caught firmly, I extended my own fangs and bit into her neck, pumping my venom into her bloodstream it spread quickly, and she grew still my venom doing its work. Her attempt to attack me had been pathetic, I almost suspected she did it on purpose to let me win. She also could have used her sense of smell to find me easily, not looking through all these empty huts in vain, did she retain some control of her actions?

My thoughts were interrupted by an icy blast that impacted my back. It rocked my forward, but I quickly regained control and braced my self against the magic. I moved away from Lezoz still form, not wanting her to get hit. The goblins had apparently heard our scuffle as I found out when I turned to face my attacker. A goblin with a feathered headdress stood with an arm outstretched towards me. Blue cold energy flew towards me to crystalize on my scales and armor. A horde of goblins stood behind it, bows drawn, it was hard to count how many in the darkness. I quickly threw myself in front of Lezuz, summoning my tower shield as they loosed their volley. Arrows plinked of or got stuck in the wood, but both of us were unharmed.

The lead goblin cackled madly and leered at me as it said something in its garbled language, it clutched a jagged gem hanging around its neck and leered at me. This must be the one who controlled Lezuz, whatever spell he was using was still going, and I could feel the cold seeping into me even through my passive warmth I had gained from my affinity. How dare these filthy creatures do this to us, they would suffer a thousand times what they had done to us, I would show them why the Naga were at the top of the food chain. My anger grew and the heat in my gut spread throughout my body, melting the ice forming on my scales making it fall away. With a mental push a bubble of warmth formed around me, stopping the blue mana from reaching me entirely. This was similar to Lubus’ shield spell, but with warmth as the element.

The goblins leer disappeared and it lowered its arm the spell stopping, the look on its face was satisfying, but my rage still boiled. A fireball formed in my left hand and I let my anger fuel it, making it grow bigger and bigger. I was just about to lose control when I launched it at the now fear struck goblins. They ran in every direction but the ball of fire exploded among them, charring the ones in the center and making goblins go flying. Once the rest of them saw the feathered one being turned to ash, they fled into the forest. I shot them down as they ran, using my bow, but I didn’t pursue the ones that got away. I rooted through the ash that had once been the magic user and found the red glowing stone, the leather around it having been burned away. I placed it against a rock and crushed it under the hilt of my spear, it shattered into a thousand pieces, and I could see a red line between Lezuz and the gem manifest before snapping in two. I checked Lezuz over, she was still paralyzed, but otherwise, she seemed to be fine. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, and I brought her back to the hut, trying to make her as comfortable as possible. The wards were already set up, so this was as safe a place as any at the moment. I didn’t know what her injuries were and I didn’t want to aggravate them by moving her to much. Besides, I didn’t think the goblins would attack again tonight, not after that display.