“I have only seen three,” Zaku answers. The King Cobra is fearsome, but I do not watch him like Vagan and some of the others. One bite and the Cobra could take out any one of us, but he has some honor in his cold veins.
Honor I do not know if I have. But Zaku isn’t just honorable, he’s pompous and hard-headed. He’s rash. Everything is beneath him, and it shows in his inability to help anyone but himself, even in this. If Zaku could steal a female human for himself, he wouldn’t have gathered us. Sometimes I think he’s not honorable at all, just overzealous.
I keep an eye on him anyway. If Zaku doesn’t win one of the females today, he’s going to destroy the world. Or die trying.
As for everyone else? They watch me.
I tighten my grip on my spear, meeting their eyes.
“Three? Three is not enough!” Vagan shouts. “There are at least seven of us here, and more yet in these woods. How will three brides appease us all?”
“They won’t,” I say. “We will fight for them when they are handed over.”
Some growl, some hiss in agreement. We size each other up, considering who we could off now before the humans arrive.
The Boomslang with the shimmery green scales slips to the ledge, his voice lowering. “Why not fight now? Until there are only three of us left?” Azsote suggests, waving his hand.
“Why not let the females choose who they want to mate with?” another offers. I look at the naga and bare my fangs. It’s the Copperhead. He is a quiet one. I’m surprised to hear him speak at all.
“No,” I snap.
“That won’t work,” Zaku says at the same time.
“We will not honor their choices,” I add. If my female chooses another over me, I would kill him and take her.
I am not honorable, after all.
The Copperhead nods. He knows what I say is true. The females can’t have the luxury to choose, not now that their very presence has created a strange fervor.
Our members have filled up with unspent spill, causing pressure, bringing us pain. When I first saw my human, my shaft flooded with seed, seed that has been dormant for years, and I have had to milk my shaft nightly to relieve the pressure.
If I’m suffering, the other nagas are too.
“Three females is a problem,” says Zaku. “But I have an idea. If we fight for mating rights to them, there is a chance they will run while we battle. It is paramount that the females do not come to any harm. Especially by us or our ways. They may be all there is, and we can’t lose them. We must keep them safe.”
We mumble in agreement. I love the red of my female’s hair, but it is the only red I wish to see upon her. I do not want to witness her blood outside her moon cycle.
Zaku continues, “If they run, the animals could kill them, the pigsss. They could get hurt—”
“So what’s your suggestion?” Vagan interrupts.
“I suggest we spread out when the human males hand them over. So we do not fight. I suggest they run, we follow, and we hunt them down. Whoever catches the females first wins nesting rights to them.”
Silence hangs over us as we ponder Zaku’s words. It is a good suggestion but not the greatest. My redhead is already mine. But the other male nagas will want proof, and a hunt—because I know I will catch her—is a good way to prove it.
“I like this idea,” Boomslang speaks up first.
“Of course you do,” Vagan snaps. “You are a hunter of the forest.”
Azsote shrugs. “I am. That does not change that this is a good suggestion.”
“And what about me? What about Syasku? We fare best in the water. A hunt over land cripples us.”
Nobody cares about Vagan or Syasku, but I don’t say that aloud. “There is water nearby, a lot of water. If the females head for it, then you have an advantage.”
“And if they don’t?”
I turn back to the facility, not caring enough to answer.
“I will accept a hunt,” says Syasku of the Cottonmouth clan. Good. If the other water naga accepts a hunt, then Vagan has no grounds to argue it.
Vagan scowls.
“It is settled then,” Zaku declares. “We will hunt for nesting rights to the females.”
Another wave of shouts soars the air. I lift my spear and release a bolt of electricity to the sky. I like this. I will win. I have destiny on my side. Vicious, red destiny.
The other males pound their chests, and some release their well-hung and hard members from their scales. Tails coil and thump the ground. For a frenzied moment, excitement and real camaraderie return to us. It is a rare thing. We are deadly as a group.
We are deadly alone, but together… The world would tremble with fear.
But the excitement does not last. I turn back once again to see if my bride is outside, if she’s being gathered with the other females to be handed over.
And for a second, I see her. My heart stops.
She’s being led to one of the flying transport machines. Another female is fighting, kicking, and screaming behind her. She’s lifted off the ground and hauled to the machine.
My female goes calmly.
She knows her fate. Knows who awaits her
Me.
Venom fills my mouth. My heart revs back up.
The others have gone silent, and I know they are watching as well.
“She is the one I want,” Azsote rumbles. My eyes flick to the Boomslang watching my female, and I slam my spear into his side.
I attack him, striking out with my tail, knocking him over. He evades my speartip, rolling away before I can plunge it into his gut.
“She is mine!” I roar, fury surging through me. “Mine!”
How dare he want her. How dare he even look at her! Azsote strikes back, hitting me with his fist, slicing me with his
