Chapter Text
I don’t remember how long I wandered before the sands began to blur.
The sun was relentless, burning white above me, and the dunes stretched in every direction like waves frozen in time. I was never supposed to wander this far from the trade route. the sand blurred behind me, the dunes shifting beneath me and I stumbled. I knew I had veered too far, chasing some shimmering illusion in the heat haze, but by the time I realized it, the world had become an oven. The sand scorched the soles of my feet through my boots, and my water was definitely all gone. 'shit' I thought.
I stumbled again on the sand, smacked in the face by a powerful gust of wind. along with it came the sting of sand being thrown at my face, and I sputtered and fell to the ground as the dune caved beneath my feet. The slope gave like silk, and I let out a sharp cry as I felt myself fall down the side of the dune. I wasn't sure if I actually fell that far though, I couldn't see much in the sand storm, but I'm not sure it would have mattered much if I did.
I must have passed out in the crater of a dune, because when I awoke, the light had softened, painted gold and amber. The wind had died down. And I wasn’t alone. Not because something was next to me, of course (I would have screamed), but because there were tracks in the sand. Massive tracks. Winding lines across the dune that spanned for miles like a snake. I let out a resigned sigh. "well fuck." I exclaimed, wrenching myself up from my sandy sleeping spot. I didn't want to get up. Everything hurt, and the sun wasn't making me any happier to move, but if I didn't I'd probably die faster. Pulling myself up from the hot sand, I grabbed my water pouch and started walking in the direction of the tracks. If an animal was alive in this weather, it might know where some water was.
'off we go.'
This was so stupid.
The tracks led me through about 2 miles of sand, but now - nothing.
Just endless sandy terrain stretched ahead, swallowing my path. Panic was rising in my chest like a trapped bird, and I was starting to rethink my decisions. I should have turned back hours ago. I should have found the shadiest dune I could find and waited to be found. The sand was burning my skin even through my clothes, a persistent, blistering pain that was wearing away at me and draining my energy with each step I took. 'maybe I imagined those tracks' I thought, panic setting in fully now. At this point, I was definitely dehydrated enough to start hallucinating. I had nothing left, no water, no plan, no strength, I couldn't even remember how long I'd been walking. I was only able to feel the pull of the sand around me, the growing dread as my body seemed to sink into the heat.
The tracks were gone. Either because of the wind or because they were never there to begin with.
I couldn't keep my feet steady anymore, and soon, my legs buckled. I hit the sand hard, my breathing sharp and shallow. my throat burned, filled with the sand that had been blowing in my face for 7 hours now, and fear was starting to creep back into my chest. I tried to push myself up, my hands scrambling uselessly against the shifting sand as I tried to move, but everything was too heavy. My vision began to blur, from tears or from heat I'm not sure, but the edges of my vision began to fade away like a bad dream. God, I hoped this was a bad dream.
As I started giving out from the overwhelming dizziness, I heard it - a sound. Not the wind or sand or my own breathing, but a low, distant hiss. 'another hallucination. Why can't it just be water?' I wondered. I'd rather die feeling like I drank something, even if it was fake, but my brain was insisting on showing me animals. Not even animals, but animal signs. This was so stupid. I wanted to go home. Back to the jungle that I was so stupid for getting sick of and wanting to escape. I wanted to sleep.
My brain just kept giving me unhelpful hallucinations. The ground felt like it was moving beneath me again, so strongly that if I was standing up and not already collapsed on the sand I would have definitely lost my balance. I just closed my eyes. I didn't want to keep feeling the vertigo from all the illusion-movement, I just wanted to pass out so I could die peacefully. That didn't happen. As I was wishing for sleep, my body kept hallucinating random sensations. I was being enveloped by something warm, that wrapped around me gently as it moved. The thing coiled, pulling me from the sand with such ease that I couldn’t resist (not that I could anyway, my body felt too heavy to move). It was almost like being wrapped in a heavy, but comforting blanket.
I felt a grip tighten around me, a steady pressure that didn’t hurt, but made me feel secure. My head lolled against the soft, sinewy muscle of body (wtf brain?), and I felt myself being moved. My body was being lifted, and the world felt blurred as I was moved, cradled in something warm and firm. It wasn't painful. In fact, it was a nice feeling to not be scorched by the hot sand anymore. My chest rose and fell with shallow breaths, and my skin tingled with the contact. The wind felt sharp and hot as I was lifted, cutting my face again like it did when I was walking, and I winced weakly. It hurt, stung my eyes and burned my nose, but after a moment I felt the sting lessen. Something cloth-like was lying over my face, blocking the sandy wind, and for the few moments where I was still conscious, I sighed and let my body relax.
'it's not water, but it's nice I guess'
I woke slowly.
There was something warm against my side, a steady, comforting pressure holding me in place. My body felt like lead, like I was sinking into something soft, but it wasn't the harsh grip of the sand. No, this was different - this warmth was soothing, like the embrace of a blanket, enveloping me from all sides. My skin, still sticky with sweat and sand, felt a strange relief. I could feel soreness in every muscle, like I was one big charley horse. It felt aweful, but the pain told me I was alive, and I hadn't actually died. I drew in a slow breath, my chest rising, then falling in a sluggish rhythm. I couldn't open my eyes yet, too tired to do so, but I could feel that I was either dead or rescued. The air around me was different, cooler and fresher than the suffocating desert. It wasn't painful to breathe in, lacking that sharp dryness that the desert carried, and I could feel my lungs crying in relief. I was lying in something soft, too. Not sand, not rock, but fabric. smooth, soft, velvet fabric, caressing my body at every angle. when I moved my head slightly to shift my position, I realized yet another new aspect of the environment. There were pillows. They were placed under my head, legs, joints, back, basically everywhere I laid. I couldn't move around enough to enjoy them, still far too weak and in pain, but it was a massive comfort to know they were there.
Then, as I was trying to calm down and enjoy my peace, something touched me. Actually, it picked me up, gently lifting me from my sweet sweet blankets and into its embrace, carrying me off somewhere else. It was so sudden that I panicked, the fear from the desert coming back and settling in my throat. I pushed through the pain of my muscles and jerked, flailing my sore limbs in protest and startling the person. "No- don't- !" My voice cracked, more a whisper than a protest due to how dry it was. They stopped instantly, their hold tightened awkwardly as I thrashed. They almost dropped me but managed to keep a firm grip on me so I wouldn't fall. Then, as if they could sense the terror bleeding through my skin, they eased back down into the blankets and pillows slow and gentle. the warmth of their coils returned beneath me like a living mattress. Dense muscle shifted under my spike, layered and coiled, supporting me alongside the pillows. The nest-like space cradled my aching body, but I couldn't focus on the comfort - only the fact that someone was here.
My breathing came shallow and quick, and despite the pulsing pain in my head, I forced my eyes open. They didn't want to obey. My lashes stuck together from the heat and grit, and my eyelids burned when I fluttered them. But I blinked until the shapes swam into something I could recognize - until I saw him.
The thing that lifted me out of the sand earlier with snake-like coils and strong arms wasn't a hallucination. He was real. Towering. I stared up at him, paralyzed. He wasn't human. His upper body was - at least in shape - but it was too perfect, too smooth, too still. Bronze-colored scales lined the edges of his strong shoulders, catching the light like tiny pieces of stone. And his lower body.... it went on forever. Coils, thick and dark and dusted with sand, formed a massive ring around the nest, encircling us both.
He was crouched low in front of me, his expression unreadable. Golden eyes, slit-pupiled and steady, watched me in silence.
I couldn't breathe.
He didn't move. He just... waited.
I wanted to shrink away into the blankets. To disappear into the warmth and pretend I hadn't woken up, to believe that this was all a dream. But he was still watching, eyes heavy with... concern? He looked at me like I was on death's door (I probably was) and was like a crazy person. His gaze flickered over me after a moment, not in hunger or anger, just... observation. He scanned my body, the attention making me take note of my own state. I was dressed, but my clothing clearly did nothing to protect me from the sun as all of my visible skin was an angry shade of red, and burned with a pain I somehow didn't notice before. I winced. My delirium was probably blocking the pain when I was wandering. glancing down, I could see my shoes which looked tattered beyond repair, and when I flexed my toes I could feel the grains of sand stuck in them. It felt uncomfortable, but I didn't exactly have the energy to remove them. I quickly glanced back up at the naga, who was still staring at me.
My voice barely worked. "what...are you?"
It came out more like a cough. My lips cracked from the dryness, and my throat felt like sandpaper. Probably because there was enough sand in it to be sandpaper. My body still screamed with thirst, exhaustion, and fear. Not so much fear now that he wasn't doing anything, but I was fighting to stay awake. My whole body felt like a paperweight, and I really wanted to go to sleep but the nauseating anxiety in my chest kept me awake.
He blinked slowly, head tilting, and then moved.
Now toward me - but away.
His coils shifted around us with a cacophonous rustling sound that filled the cave, and I heard something like water sloshing faintly from deeper in the nest. I blinked again, fighting the haze clouding my vision. He returned in seconds, something smooth and carved held in one of his hands - a bowl, I could see, when he got closer.
He lowered himself down to me, far lower than something his size should be able to move, and gently set the bowl beside me in the blankets. He stayed low, his body like a statue, the only movement the flick of his forked tongue tasting the air.
I stared at the bowl. I could see it now clearly, filled with clear, fresh water. Water. My hands barely responded. The muscles in my arms screamed when I tried to lift them, not even enticed by the reward of hydration. My body was done.
I looked from the bowl to him, contemplating. He didn't move, just lied still a foot away like he was trying not to spook me. I wetted my lips, and after a moment of hesitation, spoke up. "can't... reach," I croaked.
His expression changed. Not much - but something flickered behind his eyes. He leaned forward - so close I could see the delicate shimmer of his scales - and picked up the bowl from where he set it down. He gently lifted it towards me, and I felt one of the many coils around us moving behind me. It pushed up under my head and back, guiding me to sit up properly. Carefully, like I was made of something breakable, he tilted the bowl toward my lips.
I should have been terrified, but I was too focused on getting something to drink to care. Water touched my mouth, cool and clean as the edge of the bowl brushed my lips. I drank in greedy sips, nearly choking at first. He adjusted his angle when I sputtered, unbothered, patient, and moved the bowl away from me until I stopped coughing. Only after I stopped and was looking at the bowl again did he give it back. I finished what I could, taking as much as my stomach would allow me, before sagging back into the coils, my breath shuddering. I could feel the water sloshing in my stomach, unaccompanied by any food. I felt like a water balloon.
I swallowed hard, my throat still raw but less painful now. "Thank you," I whispered.
The corners of his eyes creased slightly, accompanied by a gentle smile.
I slumped back against the nest with a quiet groan. My muscles were jelly. My head spun even when I closed my eyes, but I was still aware of the way the coils beneath me flexed slightly, adjusting to cradle my weight better. He didn't leave me on the ground. He lifted me - just enough so that I rested in the nest's center, held up on every side by warm muscle and scale.
He moved again. Not abruptly. Not threateningly. Just circling slowly.
I could hear the low drag of his massive tail sweeping across the floor, the shifting of his weight as he slid some coils around me loosely. Not binding or tight, but present. A barrier. A shelter. It felt nice, and my exhaustion was beginning to weigh on me. my eyes slipped close and I let out a soft sigh, letting myself relax. At the same time though, I felt the softest pressure on my hair. My eyes snapped open. he was close. So close that the scent of him filled my nose - sun-warmed and spiced with something else I couldn't place. His nose brushed my temple, then the crown of my head, and the breath he released was warm against my skin. His tongue flicked out, tasting the air by my cheek, and I flinched. I didn't mean to, I knew by now he wasn't going to hurt me, but he slowly pulled back. I berated myself in my head for ruining something so nice, for scaring him away, but to my surprise he didn't leave entirely. He laid back near my feet, and slowly, he began to work. He gently removed the sand from my clothes, patting them down, as though removing all traces of the desert from my body. His hands lingered on my skin, no sense of urgency in his movements, and he moved to grab my shoes. I winced when he did, feeling the grains of sand in one of the shoes scrape against my sensitive skin, and his gaze shot back up to me. He looked guilty, and started moving slower, taking more care with me than I thought possible. He undid the straps of my shoes, carefully removing them from my feet and causing me to sigh in relief when they were finally off. Bits of sand fell out of them and off of my feet when he removed them, and I grimaced when I saw the blisters on the back of my feet that had formed during my wandering. All my injuries were starting to make me wonder what else was hurt on me that I just wasn't feeling. Seeing my grimace, the naga lifted up my foot gently to check the back of my heel, and I saw his brow furrow at my injury. He turned from me and disappeared into the nest for a moment, only coming back a few minutes later with some things I guessed were for my blisters. I could barely even see what he was holding with how droopy my eyes were getting, and my vision was even more hazy than when I collapsed. "m'gonna sleep for now.. kay?" I mumbled, turning my head and letting my eyes finally slip shut. It didn't take long for sleep to take me, probably minutes, and it felt incredible when I eventually lost consciousness.