“The Catfish has trapped us down here, and it ordered your brother to kill us. We had to subdue him.” Sikhez suddenly piped up earnestly, and the newly awakened Troll seemed taken aback at first, looking around at their surroundings like it didn’t know where it was. But at the mention of its brother and the fact that they were the ones who had put him in his current state, the Troll grew cold and focused in on the two Naga.

“The great spirit of the lakes has always been kind to my brother and me, helping us when no one else would. Whatever the spirit might have done to harm you, it must have had good reason. You Naga have always been presumptuous.” It said coldly as it stood to its full height, staring down at them over its beak of a nose. It still didn’t attack them, though.

”You must have been asleep for a long time,” Eshanai cut in with a finger pointed at the Troll. ”I wouldn’t exactly call what the Catfish is doing here kind. Every creature in this room was rotting in their chairs when we arrived.” The Troll looked around with a thoughtful expression. It looked like they were actually getting through to it.

”It is true that I have missed much. A Lot of what I see here is strange to me,” It eyed the many dead goblins skeptically. Many of them turned to corpses again. Then it finally noticed the flowers growing out of its side. Its eyes widened before it frowned.

”You sure have a strange definition of subduing,” the red glow in its eyes brightened after the sarcastic remark before twin beams of red light burst out of its eyes. The beams swept over the flowers, burning them away effortlessly.

”Um,” the two Naga echoed in unison as the Troll turned those still glowing red eyes on them.

”I grant you that if the great spirit of the lakes has wronged us, reparations are due,” it said severely, making Eshanai smile. Maybe this Troll was on their side after all. ”But first things first, no one hurts my little brother and gets away with it.”

Eshanai was too wary of those eyes, shining like rubies and ready to unleash death at a moment's notice. So the backhanded strike that the Troll delivered was a bit of a surprise. The sheer startling speed with which it struck was also unexpected. The Troll had used slow, predictable movements so far, and it was not very coordinated. This brother seemed more used to fighting, like a warrior.

Eshanai could feel the wind as she barely dodged the quick strike, but Sikhez was not so lucky. She moved too late and was dealt a glancing blow that still sent her tumbling away. Eshanai had no time to worry about her sister as the Troll followed up the backhand with a punch aimed at her.

The fist rocketed forward, throwing up dust and debris as it impacted the ground, barely missing Eshanai as she had to contort her body out of the way. Eshanai used the cloud of dust as cover to slither up the Trolls arm. She flew out of the cloud but paused as she was met with those red eyes only growing brighter. A trickle of fear started building in Eshanai’s chest. She had seen what those eyes could do, and she wouldn’t stand up to a direct hit any better than those flowers had.

Fantastic, Eshanai thought with a grin as she swung around under the arm. The beams singed her tail and made the Trolls' skin smoke from the heat before slamming into the floor and boring a deep hole.

Those eyes followed Eshanai as she snaked her way up to the Troll’s shoulder, glowing brighter by the moment, but no beams of light came. Instead, the Troll snatched her with its other hand, surprising her again with how quickly it moved. It brought her close to its face, with Eshanai struggling to free herself but to no avail. Its eyes brightened as the Troll held her up to ensure a direct hit.

Eshanai let Venom drip from her fangs to splash on her tongue. Those big eyes were a real problem, so distinct and beautiful, vulnerable. They made for a great target. Eshanai gathered the venom in her mouth, mixing it with saliva. She turned to spit into the Troll’s face. It hit it in the nose and splashed over the Troll's open eyes, making it flinch back at the burning sensation. It flung Eshanai away as it brought its hands up to try and wipe some of the liquid away. Blinking rapidly, it fell over immediately as the stinging intensified.

Eshanai caught herself with her tail as she landed where she had been thrown like a discarded toy, lessening the impact. She saw Sikhez laying still to the side, bruised black and blue, but still breathing. Her chest rose up and down slowly, apparently unconscious. Eshanai was about to check on her when the cutting sound of the Biquix using her flute rang out again. Eshanai covered her ears and watched as, this time, the distortion brought cracks with it that leaked water into the castle. The Catfish gasped at the damage and hurried to stop the Biquix, but the damage was already done. It rushed to try and talk to the walls again. Eshanai couldn’t hear what it was saying, but it seemed desperate. What had it hoped to accomplish? It must have known that the Biquix wouldn’t be able to play very well. Did it just plan to torture the castle until it gave in?

Eshanai sensed movement behind her, and she slithered to the side, her tremor sense saving her from being hit from behind by the Troll’s red light. The beams slammed into the wall tearing a huge gash that leaked copious amounts of water as the Troll turned its head to follow her as Eshanai moved out of the way. Its eyes were bloodshot and looked irritated as it stared balefully at Eshanai from where it had fallen but were still able to fire their deadly projectiles.

“Nooooo!” Came the Catfish’s desperate shriek. The damage to the castle was apparently enough to affect it, for it writhed and squirmed as if in agony as its face visibly morphed and contorted. Its humanoid features were lost to be replaced by that of a normal Catfish. Empty blank eyes stared dully at the world as its fish mouth opened and closed listlessly before the Catfish burst apart. There was no better way to describe it, one moment, it was there, and the other, a myriad of small river spirits exploded from its body, filling the flooding hall with their iridescent lights.

The castle rumbled at the Catfish’s passing, and Eshanai thought that the water outside the windows didn’t seem so dark anymore. She had no time to observe more than that as the Troll’s eyes turned to the passed out Sikhez. It smiled as it spotted her surrounded by bright river spirits and rising water. Eshanai got a horrible sense of clarity as the Troll’s eyes glowed brighter, and dread settled in her stomach. If she didn’t do something, Sikhez would die. If she attacked the Troll Sikhez might still die. She had to stop the beams from hitting the young Naga, block them somehow, but then Eshanai might die. In the end, the choice was easy.

Eshanai leaped to cover Sikhez physically with her own body. She made sure the young Naga's face was out of the water. She was still breathing thank the mountain before Eshanai made vines shoot into the floor and grow up into multiple walls of layered protection. It would probably not hold up for long, but it might mitigate some damage.

The attack came, burning through the vines in seconds. Eshanai desperately tried to move Sikhez out of the way, but it wouldn’t be enough. The young Naga was stirring but needed some time yet to come to life. She ran out of time, the beams of red light shooting into her side. Eshanai watched in morbid fascination as her left arm was torn off, spraying blood as it spun to land with a splash in the water.

There was a whooshing burbling sound whistling from somewhere below. Eshanai didn’t have to look to know that the damage was probably more extensive than the simple loss of an arm. The dizzy feeling meant she was losing a lot of blood, and it grew harder to think as darkness encroached on her vision. She coughed, and a lungful came up to stain the rising waters red. She had time for a single fleeting thought about Sikhez, beginning to turn around to check on her. The motion made her feel vertigo, and the darkness filled her vision as Eshanai passed out.

Light returned in hazy spurts to Eshanai’s mind. She felt strange, her senses were muffled, and her mouth felt full of wool. She tried to look around at the unfamiliar surroundings, but her neck refused to cooperate as her eyes roved around in her skull. She was in a vast space with thick white mists swirling around her. She had the impression that something was moving around in her periphery, the mists rolled oddly, but she couldn’t turn her head to get a better look. All her instincts told her she was alone, but still, the feeling that she was being watched lingered.

“Hello,” Eshanai called out after an uncomfortable amount of time, waiting to see if anything would happen. “Is anybody out there?” It took an effort to get the words out, almost like the world was pressing in on her, crushing her beneath its weight. Nothing happened at first as Eshanai’s voice echoed around oddly in what her tremor sense told her should have been an open space.

”You really are a fool,” a thundering voice uttered as the mists parted, slamming into Eshanai like the blows of a hammer. A woman was revealed, not matching the voice at all. She was slight with an olive skin complexion. Dark hair tumbled from her head in thick curly locks, covering her body almost like she was wearing a robe. It was not enough to obscure the ends of her legs that ended in roots, digging into the floor and spreading far into the distance.

“Who are you?” Eshanai thought she already knew who was standing before her, but she asked anyway. The spirit, for that, is most certainly what it was, scoffed at the question as it shook its head.

“I am, for lack of a better term, the mother of the spirit currently housed inside you,” its voice wasn't thundering anymore, a smooth feminine baritone, but tired.

“You’re the tree that gave me that fruit. It was delicious, by the way. Any chance you could spare any more?” Eshanai asked hopefully, even though she knew it was kind of disrespectful. But she was in a funny mood, her mind feeling like it had been trapped and was finally let free.

“No, I certainly do not,” the tree spirit said in derision and chuckled to itself. “My daughter sure knows how to pick them. Not only does she not want to sprout in flesh, even when she gets a golden opportunity. Oh no, the island isn’t good enough for her, but she had to pick a bloody suicidal Naga to boot.”

“Wow, wow, wow, back up a bit there,” the oppressive feeling was gone, and Eshanai felt bold in its absence. “Sprout in flesh? What does that mean?” She wasn’t just going to let something like that go.

“It’s what it sounds like,” the tree spirit smirked at her, taking immense pleasure in educating the naive Naga. “To ensure that we get a good start in life, trees like me often take root inside a host. My daughter was supposed to use you like so much fertilizer but instead wants to hitch a ride to take root in new lands.” Eshanai gulped at the news, and the spirit smiled at her discomfort.

“And what about when I get there? Will this daughter of yours burst through my chest to water the earth with my blood?” Eshanai hadn’t known the spirit's intentions, not truly, but she had always thought it was benign. To discover that this was a possibility felt like a betrayal. Did all trees begin growing like this? The spirit kept smiling, letting Eshanai’s doubts grow in her mind.

“No,” it finally sighed with a roll of its eyes at Eshanai’s visible relief. “My daughter is like you in that regard, taking great pains to go against the grain and defying her betters. She has always been against sprouting in flesh, an outdated and barbaric practice, she calls it. Sometimes I think she forgets she’s a tree. Does she know how much energy it takes to grow so large? What it takes just to maintain such size?”

“No,” Eshanai said uncertainly to the spirit that so mattered of factly speaking its mind. “I have no idea.”

“And neither does she. She has no idea what it took to get us here, of the sacrifices I have had to make just to keep our way of life,” the spirit was going a bit hysterical as it shouted the last sentence.

“I’m sorry, lady, but if you dragged me to whatever this place is just so you could berate your daughter’s life choices,” Eshanai cut off at the three spirit’s death glare, having to take a moment to steady herself. “I’m just saying. Do I really need to be here?”

“I brought you here to tell you to stop being such an idiot,” the spirit said after a moment of staring. “Hells, I don’t care if you die. That would just mean that my daughter had a nice place to sprout from. I want you to stop taking such extensive damage. You really hurt her with this last stunt, you know.” Eshanai supposed that made sense. If an arrow pierced her, it would have a chance to hit the little tree inside her too.

“So what should I have done? Just stand aside and let my sister die?” Eshanai asked, incredulous.

“Yes. You have more sisters, don’t you? I only have one daughter.” the calloused words rang out into the deathly silence that followed as Eshanai’s temper burned. Her strange state of mind made the words come out in a rush, nothing in place to hold them back or to soften them.

“Listen here, you overgrown weed, I never asked for this. All I wanted were some directions, not to be saddled with your brat. Who, by the way, has actually been pretty helpful so far, unlike you. If you cared about your daughter, maybe you could pitch in a little bit and stop berating me for protecting my family.” Eshanai’s eyes widened at her own tirade, and she wondered why the tree spirit didn’t smite her there and then. The two only stared at each other before the spirit sighed, worry and sadness showing through her combative facade.

“I… suppose I can’t fault you for that, but I still worry about her. You know it's funny, she is so precious to me, yet the harder I hold on, the further we fall apart. She is like a bar of soap,” the spirit laughed until tears came to her eyes, and she started crying. Eshanai hesitated at the sight. One part of her wanted to go to the spirit and hug her, but the other part held back. She had already crossed many lines and didn’t want to appear anymore disrespectful, but then again, what did another overstep matter? The decision was taken from her as a hand landed on her shoulder, and Eshanai turned to see a younger version of the tree spirit walking passed her.

“I’ll take it from here,” the young one said as she approached what had to be her mother. The two embraced before a fierce discussion ensued, with a lot of yelling and crying involved on both sides. Eshanai felt like an intruder peeking in on the intimate moment. She tried to give the two of them some privacy, but there was not much room to give unless she wanted to enter the mists. In the end, mother and daughter seemed to makeup, and they hugged again before the younger one, the one living in Eshanai’s stomach, approached her.

“How are you here when you are inside me?” Eshanai blurted out, but the young spirit only smiled kindly at her.

“I’m not, silly. This is only a dream, and I think it’s time for you to wake up.” The white mists faded, and Eshanai gasped as she sat up surrounded by soft bedding in a dimly lit room. She spotted Sikhez immediately, hovering by her bedside. Other than some bruises and redrimmed eyes, she looked fine but surprised. The Oni standing behind the young Naga looked equally as startled. Jiro immediately turned away from her, but she could see the relief in his shoulders. Sikhez was wavering between throwing herself at her and bursting into tears.

“What’s wrong? Things ended pretty badly there, but it’s fine now right?” Sikhez gaped at her, not knowing what to say as her eyes drifted lower to Eshanai’s chest. Her face contorted and tears started flowing before she covered her face and fled the room.

“What’s with her, huh?” Eshanai asked when she and Jiro were alone. He too stayed silent, but his eyes too drifted down to her chest before darting away, and not in a fun way. Eshanai glanced down to see that where her left arm should be instead was a bundle of vines likely keeping her from bleeding out. They covered about a third of her chest where the Trolls eye beams had cut into her.

“Oh,” was all she said as she remembered what had happened.