Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ My Naga Knight ❯ Chapter 13

Touya never thought he would be so relieved to see the Lunar Lake as he slithered quietly about the area, hunting for Dustin and the others. His heightened senses picking up the trail of the alpha male, Touya hurried over to the thick woodlands, which surrounded the crescent shaped lake near the Mallow's farm. He was cautious with every step he took as he made into the thick woods. Slithering a good few feet before erecting on his serpent half, he gazed about the dark forest with a slight hiss.

 

“Dustin, Aland, Finlay…are you guys here?” He called silently with his ears taking in every moan of the trees and every chitter of the chipmunks and nightly birds.

 

The dry leaves snapped underneath Dustin's multi-brown scales as he moved them slowly from where he was resting within the woods. He noticed the scent of the ice demon, serpent from where he was in front of the Paluu Tree. “Touya, you are back!” He exclaimed silently as he watched the serpent child making his way quickly over towards him. His deep, red eyes looked about confused and worried. “Where is Jin?”

 

“Jin isn't here, but he is fine,” Touya assured the restless leader with a slight movement of his hands. “He found another place for us to live. It's an abandoned graveyard behind a human village.”

 

“A human village means humans are nearby!” Dustin quickly pointed out in slight anger. His serpent tail thumped angrily against the hard ground.

 

“I know this, but Jin found another serpent clan. There are a huge number of them living together in this graveyard,” Touya explained, Aland and Finlay coming into view as he did so. “They have this weird belief system, and they took Jin inside of their Wind Clan. There are many more snake demons out there who we can live with if we choose.”

 

“And I choose not to,” Dustin said sternly with a slight flick of his serpent tongue.

 

“But, Dustin—!”

 

“I forbid it!” The alpha leader hissed, towering over Touya to scare him into a coil of submission. Pulling back from Touya, he turned his back to him with his fists clutched at his sides. The thought of such a large cluster of serpent demons brought back the thought of his own family he had lost in a horrible onslaught from Eytheria knights. He didn't want to undergo such a thing again.

 

Aland and Finlay both looked at one another before looking at Touya.

 

“Sorry, Touya,” Finlay said with a shrug of his muscular shoulders. “Apparently Dustin has made up his mind. I guess we are staying here.”

 

“But—he can't…” Touya mostly said to himself. He remained faltered until finding the courage to break through the duo and rush towards Dustin. “Dustin, I need to speak with you about this.” Seeing the leader shake his head and threaten to say `no', Touya quickly darted in front of him with his arms outspread. “Please, just listen to me!”

 

Dustin growled at Touya's insistence on the matter. “Touya, I don't want to hear another word about it. Go back to that human, spoiled land and drag Jin back here!”

 

“No, you have to listen to me!” Touya growled, throwing his hands down to clutch his fists at his sides. “Jin cannot leave there now. He already offered himself to a female, serpent demon he saved. He cannot leave until the eggs are laid and they hatch.”

 

Releasing his anger in a heated sigh, Dustin looked off to the side angrily. It figures he would do something so stupid even after all I said to him! His deep, crimson eyes boiled with inner rage that he dared not release knowing it would destroy what few family he had left. “Fine,” he growled silently between the two of them. “We will go to this place you speak of to wait for Jin to finish with his fatherly duties. But I will NOT remain there.”

 

“Why?” Touya inquired.

 

Dustin didn't hesitate to demonstrate the anger building inside of him. He grabbed onto Touya's neck and squeezed it harshly, but only for a moment. “You are bold to ask, Touya, but my reasons are personal to me. I dare you to ask once more when we are there, and I will make sure you ask it no more.”

 

Aland and Finlay gazed at one another, never having seen Dustin so angry before, but they knew what drove him mad. They both dared not say a thing about it as they slipped over to Touya to help him up from the brutal grab from Dustin. When their leader turned his back to the three serpent demons, Finlay looked at the ice demon with a shake of his head.

 

“Do not take it personally, Touya,” Finlay began somberly, “Dustin just has a wound on his heart that you touched.”

 

“It would be nice if he would tell me what it was, so I wouldn't touch it again,” Touya coughed, grasping his neck gently.

 

 

 

 

The hooves of the horse beat against the ground as it continued to pull Lily and Neda towards the Cormac Farm in the carriage. The storm was still bellowing within that part of Eytheria. It mudded up the road, making the trail they were upon quite slippery. Neda remained asleep upon her side of the carriage while Lily kept her hands cupped in her lap. The carriage soon coming to a halt, Lily looked over at the driver.

 

“Well, we are here at the farm,” the man announced to the two from where he sat upfront.

“Our gratitude is offered to you, sir,” Lily said kindly as she felt the air for Neda's body. Her fingers gripping onto her upper arm, she shook Neda gently awake. “Neda, dear, you need to wake up.”

 

Neda's body shaking from Lily's force, she opened her eyes with a slight moan as she wished to sleep a bit longer. “What—what is it? Are we there?” She asked with a yawn.

 

“Indeed we are.” Lily opened her hand to accept Neda's only to have Neda gently push it away.

 

“I can get off myself,” she said with a bratty attitude.

 

It didn't bother Lily in the slightest. She could understand why the young girl was so upset and using anger to hide herself within. Departing from the carriage by herself, she felt her way to the front of the cart with a few coins in her pocket. “Thank you once again, sir.” Walking forward, she made her way to the horse called Brownie. She ran her fingers through the castrated horse's fur. “And thank you as well, Brownie, for making it through such horrible conditions. Have a carrot on me when you get back.”

 

Brownie appeared to nod with a shake of his head up and down in the dreary rain. His hoof pounding at the ground, he felt the reins press against his right, making him turn around to head back to the castle market as he was being instructed to do so.

 

“Both of you take care of yourselves,” the man called over the pouring rain. With a light tap of the reins against the horse's body, he made the creature take off back down the road once more.

 

Lily reopened her umbrella to shield the rain from touching her skin. “Let's get you inside, Neda,” Lily said with a nod only to get no response at all from the young girl. “Neda, Neda, where are you?”

 

“I am over here,” Neda whispered as she stood before the oak tree where her parents had been buried. She stood there soaking in the downpour, gazing at the rock formation Jin had put up for both Damon and Pearl Cormac. She knelt down in the muddy ground, dirtying up her dress she was wearing just to place her hand upon the headstones.

 

The city woman headed towards the oak tree, where she heard Neda call before hand. Her hand outstretched to feel of the surrounding, foreign area, she felt of the oak tree's bark. “What is it? What are you looking at?” She asked, her blank eyes looking about the space she could not see.

 

Neda eventually moved over for Lily to take her place. She let the blind woman kneel before the grave markers as well to feel of the rock formation and the letters, which were etched inside of them. The young farm girl caught Lily's smile, the smile painful for her heart to see at the sight plainly before them both.

 

“What is so funny?” Neda demanded to know.

 

Lily looked over her shoulder slightly where she heard Neda's words. “I didn't say anything was funny at all, child. I was merely smiling at the rock formation.” She hummed in thought. “You said that your parents were murdered by those snake demons, right?”

 

“Yes.”

 

She shifted her void eyes back at the markers she could feel. “Well, these, Neda, were made by a snake demon,” Lily boldly said aloud. “Most people use cement, stone tablets with names and descriptions upon them, but serpent demons burry their dead with stone formations and engraving the person's name into a boulder.”

 

Neda shook her head furiously. “That is a mean thing to say! My parents were killed by those demons, and you still take their side!”

 

Lily pushed herself out of the mud she was kneeling within, turning on her heels to face Neda. “I am not taking anybody's side, and I am not trying to be cruel to you, Neda. This is the truth. My father documented such behavior from serpent demons before. He called them `nagas'. This was how they buried the death of a loved one.”

 

“They loved no one!” Neda screamed over the rain, her hair clinging to her face. “They have no reason to bury my parents when they killed them!”

 

Dropping her umbrella, Lily grabbed onto Neda, who threatened to storm over towards the grave markers to kick them down. “Neda, stop this! Do you possibly think that maybe you misunderstood what happened that night of the fire?” She asked with a brief shake of the young girl. “These demons do not mean you any harm! I am being truthful!”

 

Neda shook her head with tears joining the rain droplets, which mated her skin.

 

“They felt bad for what happened and buried your parents,” Lily explained with a stern hold onto Neda. “You misunderstand them, and that is no reason to damn them.”

 

Silence formed between the two as the door to the farmhouse opened bringing out Blythe. She had heard the screaming of her sister and was eager to see if it was her. “Neda, Neda, is that you!” She called over the falling rain. Her feet bare, she ran through the mud making grass and dirt stick to them as she hurried to the oak tree where her parents had been laid to rest. “Neda, it is you!”

 

Neda pulled from Lily with a shake of her head, not wishing to believe Lily's words. Her sister's voice far from her at first, she turned to Blythe to hurry towards her elder sister. Embracing her tightly, she cried within Blythe's chest with a shake of her head. “I am sorry, sister, but I just couldn't take it here anymore…!”

 

Blythe embraced her sister with her eyes closed tight in relief that her younger sibling was alright. Noticing the blind woman by the stones, she offered a smile to her. “Thank you for returning my sister to me. She is the only part of my family I have left.”

 

Lily turned towards the direction of Blythe's voice with a nod and smile. “It was my pleasure in doing so.”

 

“Please, it is late,” Blythe began softly, “you may stay in my parent's room if you wish for the night before returning home.”

 

Neda wanted to say otherwise but had not the strength to say anything. The rain getting to her once more, she excused herself. “I need to go lie down. I am tired from the day,” she whispered to her sister. Pulling from her sister's embrace, she headed for the house not too far away, dragging her feet in the mud as she did so—they too heavy with sorrow and pain to be lifted.

 

Lily smiled at Blythe with a shake of her head. “I am afraid that it wouldn't be a good idea considering the bad ending with your younger sister, dear,” Lily announced as she felt around for her mudded umbrella on the ground.

 

“Neda has been less than happy lately considering our parents death,” Blythe sighed, cupping her hands before her whilst watching her sister head for their home. “Do not worry about her right now. I just want to thank you for taking care of my sister.”

 

“I didn't do much, dear,” Lily explained honestly, shaking her umbrella clean from the mud it had accumulated. “A young man, who promised your parents to watch over you, found her in Eytheria and guided her to me.”

 

“A young man? Who was he? It couldn't have been Thane, because he has been here when not working in Kalrune Village,” Blythe said with a hum.

 

“His name is not important, but I believe you know him as `J' from a letter left on your table from what Neda explained to me,” Lily said with a soft chuckle. “He is currently deep in Kalrune caring for a woman he is `married' to, and he apologizes for lack of contact lately.”

 

Blythe shivered from the cold rain pouring down on her with a nod to Lily. “Care to at least come inside for awhile? It is too cold to be standing out here.”

 

“That I wouldn't mind doing.” Feeling her way over to Blythe, she took the young girl's hand as she was guided towards the farmhouse's porch. Finding the doorknob, Lily opened it for Blythe before shaking her umbrella free from the rain as she stepped inside behind her. “You will have to forgive me for I do not know this house all too well. Just be sure to direct me away from tables holding valuable items. I would hate to accidentally break them.”

 

The elder Cormac sister guided Lily over to the sofa in the living room not too far away from the front door. “I will just help you to our sofa. If you want to move elsewhere, just tell me, and I will help you do so.”

 

“Thank you—what is your name?” Lily asked as she made it to the cushions upon the sofa.

 

“My name is Blythe Cormac.” Blythe made her way over to the chair on the other side of the coffee table, which rested in the center of the room.

 

“My name is Lily Madison,” Lily said in return. “I apologize for what I said to your sister, but it was true.”

 

“What did you say to her?” Blythe asked.

 

“I felt the tombstones of your parents, and I noticed they were `naga' markers—you know, snake demon markers,” Lily explained.

 

Blythe was quiet as she listened to the woman's explanation. She couldn't find that to be possible considering the events that night. “This—this cannot be. How do you know this?”

 

Lily placed her hand upon her chest, leaning forward slightly. “I know because my father used to study these demons. He told me everything about them and would often read his findings to me, so I too would know what he knew about them before passing on to the Great Phoenix above.” She sighed somberly. “I apologize for making her further clouded by her rage. I did not mean to do so. It is just—I have built my beliefs upon those written texts my father gave to me, and I trusted that man with my very life. I know snake demons, or nagas as he called them, would rather eat and kill a farm animal than harm a human being unless one of their own had been murdered by said human hands.”

 

She found this hard to all digest, but Blythe took it all in nonetheless. Cupping her chin, she looked off to the side remembering her parents' actions around the serpent creatures whenever they got around or near the barn. “I knew my mom and dad very well, and I know they would never kill a demon. Their main purpose was to scare them away, because they were no fools. They knew a snake clan would come back for revenge over the death of one of their own.”

 

“Then you have to understand that maybe what happened the night of their death was an accident. Maybe you both didn't see the entire picture as you thought you did,” Lily assured. “I can tell you right now, no child snake demon would dare try and kill a human unless they stepped within their nesting grounds, and they build nests far, far away from the stench of humans.”

 

Blythe shrugged. “We don't know if they were child snakes. They sure didn't appear the part.”

 

Lily chuckled within the depths of her throat, waving her finger slightly. “Ah, but you have me. If the snake demons ever show up again, or if you by chance recall their look, I can tell you what you need to know.”

 

“Well,” Blythe began, trying to remember what the demons looked like, “one of them had crimson scales and looked to be more than 20 feet long or so. I am not sure. He had wild, red hair and elf like ears.”

 

“What were the placements of the scales on his body?” Lily inquired, leaning her head back slightly.

 

“Scales on his body? I never saw any scales on his body.”

 

“I actually think I know who you mean,” the blind woman said as she fixed herself upon the sofa cushions. The sofa creaked and groaned under her movements. “I have heard of that one. He sneaks into Eytheria's Castle Market sometime—a male, correct?”

 

“I think so.”

 

“Did he have a shaft?”

 

Blythe paused, wondering what she meant by that term. “A what?”

 

“A shaft—a place where his penis hides.”

 

Blythe blushed at the term as she shook her head crazily. “Uh—I don't know…! I never get that close to one, but he looked muscular to me.”

 

“Then I can tell you right now that that one you saw was a baby,” Lily confirmed, knowing it was Jin they were speaking of. “He is only in his early thousands and an adult naga is at least four-thousand years old. I have seen him around my house at night, and I often feed him.”

 

“You feed a demon!” Blythe exclaimed, covering her mouth in shock.

 

Lily chuckled, shaking her head slightly at the young teen's reaction. “It's not as horrible as you may think. If you feed snake demons, they are more than likely to stay away from farm animals or house pets, and I love my house cat a lot.” She moved a bit of her wavy hair out of her face. “If you wanted, you could throw raw meat out for them, and they will eat it, leaving your precious horses, chickens, and cows alone.”

 

“Thane doesn't take too kindly to demons,” Blythe explained. “He is a knight who has come over here every morning to help with our barn and taking care of the house.”

 

“How old is he?” Lily asked.

 

“He is only twenty. He works the night shift at Kalrune Village as I said earlier.” Eagerness building within her, Blythe shifted a bit in the chair she was in to try and relax once more.

 

“Hmmm,” Lily hummed, cupping her mouth in thought. “That is a lot of work for one so young. He will not be able to put up with it all if he continues.” She leaned back upon the sofa's cushions once more with a soft smile to the young girl she could not see. “How about this—I will stay here and help with things as well when I am able. I have to say with already meeting `J', I feel like I know you both already as well as your background story. I can cook and clean, which are probably both things Thane cannot do well being a young man.”

 

Blythe inhaled sharply in surprise, placing her hands together before her almost as if she were praying. “Oh my, way thank you! Thank you very much! But, what about your home back in Eytheria Castle? It is quite a walk to and from both places, and you don't know the way being blind.”

 

“Well, that does present a problem,” Lily said in return with a shake of her head. “I know I can get here by carriage as I did today, but I am not sure about getting back.”

 

Thinking on the situation too, an idea eventually struck Blythe. “How about you take one of our horses? We have a good many to choose from that didn't die in the barn fire, and they have all been trained to go from here to Eytheria. You wouldn't have to worry about a thing being on one of them.”

 

She smiled at the offer given to her. “There is an inward stable in the castle market,” Lily said with a few nods. “That sounds like a good idea to me. I accept the offer and promise to take special care of any horse you give me.”

 

“Wonderful!” Blythe exclaimed with a bow from where she was sitting. “Simply wonderful!”

 

Lily pushed herself up off of the sofa. “Now, seeing as it is almost dinner time, can you direct me to the kitchen? I will need your help finding my way around there too.”

 

Shooting up from the chair she was upon, Blythe grabbed tenderly onto Lily's wrist to help her over towards the kitchen area not too far away. “It is this way. I can stay with you until you have everything memorized, Miss. Lily.”

 

“That is very kind of you, Blythe,” Lily chuckled as she made it into the kitchen area.

 

Neda watched and listened to everything from the top step. She didn't agree to anything that was happening, but she knew being so young, she couldn't have a say in the matter. Leaning against the top banister, she sighed sadly to herself before standing to her feet and heading to her bedroom to be alone.