“That is the stupidest, most ridiculous blighted thing I have ever heard,” the Oni said between gasps. “Your elders tell you that? By all the blighted god’s woman, I’m not a Genie.” He continued as he got himself under control and straightened. They hadn’t, but Oni featured prominently in many stories her people told around the campfire. It was one of those things everyone knew, but no one could prove.

“No, not really,” Eshanai said, uncertain now. “It’s from stories, but I figure they gotta come from somewhere.”

“Oh, this I have to hear,” the Oni said with another laugh. “Tell me one of these stories.” Eshanai didn’t like that he found the idea so amusing, laughing at something she had found great comfort in and was suddenly reminded of why she was here.

“Another time, maybe. I have places to be and people to see.”

“The short version then.” The Oni said with a nasty grin as if he was just waiting to ridicule her. Then Eshanai had an idea.

“I don’t see the point. I could just defeat you here and now and see if the stories are true,” She boasted, some of the earlier confidence creeping back into her voice.

“Fine, if you win, I will do all in my power to make your wish come true,” he answered her right back, not backing down and managing to surprise her once more. “But if I win, it’s storytime.”

“Those are agreeable terms,” Eshanai said after a moment of thought. “Especially since you will have no chance against me.”

“Don’t be so certain,” the Oni snorted. “You snuck up on me before, but I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.” That is certainly true, Eshanai thought. The way he had extracted her venom, how would he use that in a fight?

“I’m so excited,” Eshanai said, and she was. She couldn’t keep from squirming. Her tail undulated below her. “I haven’t had a good row in forever, but how will the winner be decided?”

“Submission?” The Oni suggested with a shrug.

“While I would love to assert my dominance over you,” Eshanai began with a cheeky grin and raised eyebrows, to which the Oni only rolled his eyes, “I suspect it will be hard for you to admit defeat with my tail wrapped around your throat.” That got her a slight shiver and a frown.

“Fine then, how about whoever can force the other of this platform wins?” He suggested and gestured to the top of the Ziggurat they were standing on. It was a good idea. Perfectly flat and relatively small, he would have nowhere to run.

“Seems heavily weighed in my favor. You that sure you’ll win?” Eshanai said with an air of indifference. “These must be some mighty fine tricks you’ve hidden from me.”

“Mighty fine indeed, now are we doing this or what?” The Oni said as he backed away from her. Eshanai did the same until they were on opposite sides of the platform. “First to touch the ground outside the platform is the loser, just to clarify.” The Oni added as an afterthought. It seemed he had a specific plan to beat her even if the odds were against him.

“Ready when you are,” Eshanai said in a bored voice. She relaxed her body, but she was ready to snap into motion at a moment’s notice. She hoped he would put up a good fight, but she highly doubted he could overcome her in the end. Still, for the elders to have gone to such lengths. The Oni wasn’t specific, only eluding that the Naga were responsible for his people's rarity. If that was true, the Oni and his people had to have posed a significant threat. The Naga weren’t big on extermination, it was usually enough to make a few examples, and any uppity monster would see that the Naga were simply superior. Like she had done outside the goblin cave.

The scent trail ended here, the ziggurat was hollow, but she had no idea how the goblin could have gotten in there unless it hadn’t and instead suddenly sprouted wings and flew away. On the other hand, something was moving around inside. If it was her goblin, Eshanai couldn’t be sure. She wanted to investigate it, whatever it was.

“Let’s get this over with,” the Oni sneered, and all Eshanai could do was oblige him, too curious to see what he would do.

In the blink of an eye, Eshanai went from standing entirely still to sudden, violent motion. She surged forward with incredible speed, ready and eager to smash through any defense the Oni could muster. It looked like she would get to him without resistance until he raised his hand. She came to a gradual halt in the middle of the platform, still moving but entirely unable to generate any form of forward momentum. Making a grabbing motion, the Oni lifted his hand, and Eshanai floated into the air. She hung there for a moment spinning slowly around end over end, and he smiled. Eshanai would wipe that smug grin off his stupid red face.

Whatever force the Oni used to hold her still didn’t restrict her movements, so as he opened his mouth to speak, no doubt to gloat, Eshanai had time to sweep her tail across the ground quickly and managed to snag it around the Oni’s ankle.

Eshanai gave a smile of her own, and with a surprised “oomph” from the Oni, he fell headlong on his back with a thud as Eshanai gave a sharp yank. The force acting on her seized, and Eshanai landed softly on the platform. Before the Oni could get his bearings, she whipped him over her head and behind her to fling him out over the other side of the ziggurat as she let go of his leg.

She turned around to watch her victory unfold but was surprised again when the Oni came to a gradual stop in the air. So whatever power he had could act on himself. She should have figured that out, he removed her venom after all, and his flight was probably why he had added the ground touching to the rules.

Eshanai watched as the Oni righted himself while hovering, his back still turned to her. This had been a clever ploy by the Oni, fly out of her reach, and he could shove her off with a gesture. She could do nothing to affect the outcome. Or so he thought, but if Eshanai was quick enough, she could still win this.

So as the Oni started to turn, Eshanai jumped. She flung herself in the Oni’s direction by bending her long body, aiming, and quickly extending her tail. Let’s see if he is strong enough to carry us both, she thought as she launched towards her target.

Eshanai had the satisfaction of seeing that smug expression turn to surprise as the Oni spotted her flying through the air. He was quick on the uptake, though, as, with a sharp downwards gesture, he made Eshanai change direction.

It was like an invisible giant had swatted her out of the sky like a buzzing insect. The force pushed all the air out of Eshanai’s lungs as she fell like a stone and crashed heavily into the side of the ziggurat smashing through the stairs, leaving a big hole as the only sign of her passage.

Eshanai struggled to breathe as she lay surrounded by darkness, light from the hole she had made, the only illumination shining down on her.

Despite the lack of light, she could still feel the things moving around in the darkness outside her small circle of light. They were the injured things she had felt before, but now they moved towards her with their slow shuffling steps.

Big blocks of stone from her crash lay scattered and broken around her, one having bounced and rolled onto her tail as it landed, trapping her.

Eshanai sat up and tried to take another breath as one of the things stepped into the light. Her lungs refused to cooperate, but her eyes were still on her side.

The thing that approached her looked like nothing more than a bunch of mushrooms walking on two legs. It reached mushroom-covered arms towards her, but as Eshanai pushed them away, pain lanced through her left shoulder, dislocated. The mushroom thing stumbled back but found its balance before it fell. Eshanai slammed her fist against her chest until something clicked, and she could breathe again. Sweet relief flooded her as she took in big lungfuls of musty air.

Eshanai moved forward as much as her trapped tail would allow and punched the creature with her good arm, making it shoot backward until its foot caught on the ground, and it rolled violently until finally coming to a stop in the middle of the floor. It got up a moment later, seemingly no worse for wear, or at least that was what Eshanai could discern through her tremor sense as it again began to shuffle towards her. Unfortunately, all the commotion seemed to have agitated the others in the darkness. They advanced towards her with an urgency they had previously lacked.

Eshanai was unsure what harm these creatures could truly cause her, but with the numbers she was picking up, they could surely overwhelm her.

She tried to lift the block one-handed, but it wouldn’t budge enough for Eshanai to free her tail. Slamming her back against it was not an ideal way to pop her shoulder back in place.

It would have to do though, as the mushroom things were only getting closer by the moment, and as if that wasn't bad enough, boxes around the room contained more of the mushroom-infested creatures, and they were beginning to stir.

Three more creatures stepped into the light, with Eshanai still throwing her back against the boulder with her shoulder out of alignment. She put her self-treatment on hold as the three approached.

Eshanai quickly circled behind them, sweeping them up in her tail, and turned back towards the boulder trapping her. She lined herself up so that the creatures were trapped against the rock and her scales.

The mushroom things flailed and struggled uselessly to get free. Many of the mushrooms clinging to their bodies fell away and revealed the desiccated flesh beneath. They looked so thin and emaciated that Eshanai likened them more to walking corpses than anything else.

Either way, Eshanai continued to slam her back against the rock with the three things trapped, giving her a small window of time. With a snap and a pop, her shoulder finally wrenched back into place as she let out a groan of pain through gritted teeth.

Eshanai heaved with both hands this time. The shoulder still gave her trouble, but the pain was manageable. Finally, ever so slowly, she managed to lift the big stone block off her tail. Eshanai maneuvered it out from under the rock and released her grip to let the block fall back into place with a resounding thud that made more debris fall from the ceiling.

The three mushroom men she had trapped against the rock were released only for them to be snatched up again and wrapped up in her coils. She couldn’t suffocate them as they didn’t draw breath, but she could sure as the mountain crush them.

At first, it seemed to work as Eshanai had expected, with broken bones and pulped innards and the three creatures going limp in her embrace. But as the last signs of life escaped them, the mushrooms covering their bodies burst, releasing a cloud of greenish-brown spores into the air.

Eshanai recoiled in horror at the foul-smelling cloud. She flung away the corpses and retreated up on top of the tallest block around, but she had already breathed plenty of the spores. She couldn’t perceive any immediate ill effects, but she couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t be sprouting mushrooms from her eyeballs anytime soon.

Eshanai would have to deal with unforeseeable consequences when made apparent and avoid breathing in any more of those spores. She didn’t want to go to the spirits for help and add to her nebulous debt. Just then, a shadow passed over her, and Eshanai looked up to see the Oni hovering in the opening she had made.

“Looks like you owe me a story,” the Oni said as he came flying down to stand beside her.

“You cheated,” was Eshanai’s reply before she got a sly look on her face. “But maybe you’d like to come back to my place. We could get a fire going, eat good food. Did I mention I have real pots and pans at home? No, well, we could watch the stars, snuggle real close, I could tell you all sorts of stories, and maybe later you’d let me see that dick.” Eshanai grinned and wiggled her eyebrows at the Oni, who only gave her a deadpan expression.

“Forget I asked,” the Oni sighed before looking around at the shuffling mushroom creatures.

“Oh, come on, why is it so important to keep your dick dry?” At that, the Oni took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“You know, that’s the biggest problem with you Naga, all you care about is getting off. Even to the point where you don’t care who gets hurt in the process, and you can’t take no for an answer.” The Oni sounded tired and frustrated. If only he’d let her help him with that.

“I care about other things, just not as much, and it has been a long time since I have been with anyone,” Eshanai said defensively.

“Really?” The Oni said with a scoff, “what other things do you care about?”

“Well, like you getting off, for starters, preferably inside me,” Eshanai answered and gestured to her groin area. “And sex isn’t supposed to hurt unless you’re into that. Fucking is best when all involved enjoy it.”

“Yeah, well, I’m telling you I wouldn’t enjoy it,” the Oni said and crossed his arms.

“You sure about that,” Eshanai said as her eyes flicked down to his bulge. “Mr. Dick here seems to disagree. He seems to like me a lot, in fact,” she said seductively as she grabbed one of her stiff nipples and twirled it between thumb and forefinger. The Oni’s eyes glued themselves to the movement, and Eshanai grinned at seeing she had his attention.

“Isn’t that right, Mr. Dick? Don’t you just ache from being stuck in those pants?” Eshanai said and bent down, treating the Oni’s bulge as another person. “This big dum Oni is so mean for keeping you from me. It would be such a relief to sink into my wet, tight, hole, isn’t that right, Mr. Dick?” The Oni coughed and slapped both cheeks as if bringing himself out of a trance.

“Be that as it may,” he said dazedly, “the answer is still no.”

“Fine,” Eshanai said with slumping shoulders, “You keep that thing like it’s buried treasure,” she grimaced and did a voice, “Hey, I’m a big sexy Oni with awesome mind powers, and I’ve got the meaning of life between my legs. It tastes like honey and smells of elderberries, but I can’t let anyone see it, or they would be hopelessly addicted.”

“I don’t sound like that,” the Oni said, sounding surprisingly petulant. “Can we finally get off the sex talk?”

“Yes, My name’s Eshanai. What’s yours?”

“What does it matter?”

“Well,” Eshanai began with a cheeky grin, “so that I’ll know who to call out to when you pound me later, and vice versa.”

“I stepped into that one, didn’t I?” The Oni asked tiredly, massaging his temples.

“Yes.”

By now, a sizable crowd had gathered around the stone block they were standing on. The moaning of many dry throats turned into an oppressive droning noise.

“They seem very cross with us. Maybe I woke them up when I crashed through the roof,” Eshanai said and looked up at the offending hole in the ceiling.

“I’d imagine you would be pretty grumpy too if you were stuck in a lifeless decaying vessel,” the Oni answered and retrieved something from his pocket and started to fiddle with it.

“So they are spirits then, stuck in corpses. I’m no expert, but couldn’t they just leave if they are so uncomfortable?”

“At this point, it would be difficult. They have changed too much. Anything old enough attracts spirits, can even birth them, so to speak,” the Oni explained, sounding distracted. “Humans never learn. Burial is bad enough, but to preserve corpses and then entomb them, madness.”

“So they stay because they were created here?” Eshanai was quite curious. The elders seldom talked about things like this. And if they did, it was mostly to their selected apprentices.

“Partially, think of it like, if you act a certain way, be something or do something long enough, and it becomes a part of you, you change, and the opinions,” the Oni paused, thinking, “rather the perception of others doesn’t help. Spirits are shaped by their environment or the things they inhabit. This is especially true for non-sentient ones.” Eshanai was quite impressed with the Oni. How could he know all these things? Especially now that he was alone. How old was he anyway? He seemed to remember his people. Had they taught him?

“Look at you dropping some knowledge and being all chatty,” Eshanai said and squirmed restlessly.

“I have spent a fair amount of my life studying these things,” the Oni said and looked up from whatever he was fiddling with. His expression fell when he saw the way Eshanai was moving, “that turned you on, didn’t it?” Eshanai nodded her head proudly, “is there anything that doesn’t make you think of sex?”

“Don’t blame me,” she said, abashed. “You’re the one being all sexy, strutting your stuff, you tease,” she threw a meaningful glance downward and bit her lip. “I’ve been alone, driven a little crazy by desire. That’s nothing new though. Then, along comes this perfect stud of a man, the only man on this island. He is probably even more frustrated than me, and he won’t even fuck me. He could solve all my problems, but he doesn’t even want to touch me. Am I that disgusting to you?” Eshanai accused. She was entirely done with his ridiculous practices. None of the stories about Oni could have prepared her for this.

“Excuse me if I have certain hangups,” the Oni shot back. Then, sounding frustrated, he sighed. “Laying with you would probably be amazing, but you are the enemy, and I have already made several concessions. Your people have already taken so much from me. Pride is all I have left.” He had a faraway look on his face, mind cast back to a better time perhaps.

“I don’t understand you,” Eshanai said, breaking the silence. The Oni only looked at her before rolling his eyes. She did understand some of what he was talking about, like loss and pain. The only way to move on was to let go of the past, not to cling to it like you were drowning. That should be, if not easy, at least achievable for the Oni. For Eshanai, it was more complicated. Losing whole tribe's worth of Naga, again and again, had taken a toll on her. And there was no evidence suggesting it wouldn’t happen in the future, trapping her in an endless cycle of despair until she, too, died. Sure there was a chance she might be reborn, but her newfound defiance of the elders had made her question even that. It was a rare thing after all, and in the few cases she had seen or heard of the sisters who came back always seemed different somehow.

“You have distracted me long enough, thank you for finding a way inside, but I have a goblin to find.” The Oni said, going back to his fiddling.

“Oh, me too,” Eshanai said in surprise. “Where did you find this goblin? Maybe we’re looking for the same one.”

“Ehm, I was wondering how it got in here when you attacked me.”

“Hey, I wanted my wish. You just don’t pass up an opportunity like that.” The Oni sighed again in the face of her exuberance. “But what does it matter now?” Eshanai continued and gestured to the hole above them. “All we need to do is find it.”

“He’s been sneaking out here for months now. It would have been nice to know how it got in.” That piqued Eshanai’s interest, was he somehow connected to the goblins?

“Seems you’ve been watching them. Why are you so interested in the goblins anyway?”

“I could ask the same of you, but the chieftain should know what his tribe is up to.” Eshanai’s eyes widened in surprise at that statement before it was her turn to burst out laughing. She laughed so hard that it almost blocked out the oppressive groaning of the trapped spirits surrounding them.