“Oh, Gods above. It’s true. She’s really back.” Fang breathed the words as soon as he saw the gigantic snake-woman appear in the forest.

Fang had always feared a day like this would come. Now that it was here, he could hardly believe it. A small, irrational part of him, driven only by fear, wanted to run. But the larger part knew that when it came down to it, he’d rather die standing in a fight than running and cowering in a hole. His hair stood on end, and his ears were perked up, listening intently for the slightest sound.

Their commander, Red Leopard, was a grizzled old man. He’d seen many comrades disappear down one of those monsters’ throats, Fang knew. As he heard the old man’s voice, though, he could tell he was struggling to be confident and commanding. Nothing could prepare him for this. None of them were prepared.

“READY YOUR ARROWS!” he shouted. The troops scrambled to obey. “AIM FOR THE EYES! WE FIGHT TO THE LAST MAN, OR OUR FAMILIES WILL BE THE ONES TO PAY THE PRICE! WE SLOW HER DOWN, BUY THE OTHERS TIME TO ESCAPE!”

The troops, many of whom had never seen combat before, trembled in fear. Still, they stood at the ready. Not a single one broke and ran.

Fang focused on the giant form watching them from the forest. She was too far away, he knew. If he released his arrow now, it would fall short. Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, she spun and pounced.

Fang didn’t even have time to aim. All he could do was reflexively release the arrow. The shot went wide. Not that it mattered. The few shots that hit bounced off the scales of her long blue tail, which she had whipped out first for this reason. Only one shot hit flesh, embedded itself in her back. He knew it wasn’t deep enough to be anything more than an annoyance to the monster.

A second later, the tail hit Fang, and he flew backward, slamming into a tree and falling to the ground. Pain shot through his whole body. He couldn’t get up. He thought he might have broken several ribs. He coughed, pain slamming into his chest each time until he forced himself to stop. It was all he could do to turn his head to look at the scene.

Only two of the fighters were left standing. One frantically grabbed at an arrow, trying to load, yelling at the other, who was standing in silence, too shocked to act. He watched, helpless to act as Crisis grabbed the fighter with the bow. His arms were pinned against his sides in an instant, unable to reload. He could only scream for a second before being shoved into Crisis’ mouth and quickly swallowed. The other fighter screamed and ran, but he quickly met the same fate, as the naga just reached over and grabbed him.

Fang knew now. He didn’t have a chance. They never had a chance. She took them out in one hit, while they could do nothing to her. How could anyone fight something like this? This wasn’t even a fight, this was a slaughter. Their tribe would have been better off scattering and running. Maybe then some could escape.

He craned his neck to try to see the rest of his fallen comrades. Some of them were unconscious, others were trying to move, but were too injured to make it anywhere, while still others seemed to have given up. Fang was forced to watch as she greedily shoveled all of them into her mouth. These were people he had grown up with, he had trained with, and now they were all dying, and for what? They hadn’t even slowed her down.

“Fuck you,” spit Red Leopard, teeth bared in pain, acid in his voice. “Go kill yourself. I thought you’d finally fucked off.” Crisis didn’t even acknowledge the insult. She just swallowed him like everyone else.

Now it was Fang’s turn. He had always thought that when he died, he would have some witty one-liner, he would go out with a bang, he would go down fighting, looking back at his life as he let go one last time. But he hadn’t accomplished anything, and now he would die for nothing. He couldn’t move, he was in too much pain and too confused to think, and it happened so fast. The monster ate him before he could even shout in protest.

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Having dispatched a dozen of the neko tribe’s best fighters, Crisis eagerly pursued the rest. There were women and children in the group, but even if there hadn’t been, none of them could have run fast enough to get out of her predator sense range, given how quickly she finished off the fighters.

She winced as she pulled the arrow out of her back. It was no more than a proverbial bee sting to her, though, and was well worth the reward as far as Crisis was concerned. She licked her lips. She was still hungry.

She soon caught up to the fleeing civilian group, flinging her tail out to circle around most of them. She quickly grabbed the two nekos with bows in one hand and the three outside her circle in the other. As she casually popped the ones she’d caught into her mouth, she counted the rest she’d surrounded. Twelve in total. Her mood couldn’t be better. She smiled cheerfully. “Hi! Nice to eat you!” She swallowed the nekos in her mouth. Oops, she thought. It’s rude to talk with one’s mouth full.

(Although Crisis didn’t know this, the boy Beth had seen at the river was one of the ones she had trapped.)

A few of them tried to scramble over her tail, but when Crisis grabbed those ones first, they stopped trying that. The remaining nekos yelled insults, cried, and tried to comfort each other. There wasn’t much more they could do, as they no longer had any weapons that could pose even an annoyance to her. They screamed as she picked them up and ate them, one by one.

When there were only two nekos left, both female, she relaxed, completely satisfied. Her hunger was gone, and she felt the familiar sensation of many tinies ineffectually hitting her stomach from the inside. She noticed something was off, though, now that she was not hungry anymore. She didn’t enjoy these sensations as much as she used to. Well, she did still enjoy them, but the enjoyment was tinged with a bit of guilt and sadness. It made her remember how she had fought on the way down the mad wizard’s throat, how she had raged at the unfairness of it, and how Beth had repeatedly berated her, calling her a mass murderer.

She thought it was unfair that she had to worry about this. She was a naga, humans and other creatures like them were there to be her food. It was what was in her nature, what she had always done, and what her friends all did. She remembered all the fun times she had had eating with her friends. None of them ever complained or made a fuss just because some human or elf or neko powerlessly objected to their proper place on the food chain. Even Léa was fine with it, and she was a human herself! (Crisis worried a bit as she wondered what had happened to Léa. She hoped Anna or one of her other friends was kind enough to make arrangements for her protection.)

She knew all this was true, had to be true, but for some reason she still couldn’t shake that little, horrible feeling.

The two remaining nekos were embracing each other, shaking. The smaller one was sobbing, while the larger one was stroking its hair, holding back tears, and muttering some small reassurances. A mother and daughter perhaps?

Crisis picked up the two nekos in one hand, and they both started begging for their lives. She looked at them quizzically. On the one hand, she wasn’t really hungry at this point. She was nearly bursting full, in fact. She wasn’t sure she could even eat them both. On the other hand, Crisis didn’t like to waste food, as it wasn’t always so abundant. It would be a shame to just let them go.

She decided on a middle ground. She easily tore the two apart, then ate the smaller one(as it would fit in easier), prompting screams and howls from the larger one. She closed her hand around it. She figured she could just hold onto it until she got just a bit less full.

Only then did the thought occur to her: what would Beth think? Would she be angry, get confrontational about her carrying prey along with her? Crisis didn’t like upsetting the woman, but their friendship could only go so far. If she didn’t want to see her eat, Crisis could deal with that. Plenty of good humans she knew, like Isham, got uncomfortable with that. But Crisis wasn’t going to stop eating just to satisfy her friend. She carried prey around with Léa all the time, and she had never had a problem with it. Every friendship was a give and take. Beth would just have to learn to adjust.

She hurried back to the river to make sure Beth was still safe.