That had certainly come as a surprise, apparently, Eshanai had thought I was a woman this whole time. She had just assumed that mainlanders must be different and that all women around here had different equipment between their legs. I had explained the error of her assumptions and the difference between men and women, she had gone quiet then seeming to think about what I had told her. After setting up camp and starting a fire, she asked the dungeon for the meat it had absorbed earlier in the day and like it was nothing it appeared in her hands looking just as fresh as when she had killed the horned deer. I couldn’t understand why the dungeon would help Eshanai so readily, but I couldn’t deny that this type of storage was useful.

After filling her belly with grilled meat and water from the lake, she broke her silence to ask more questions that spoke to me about how truly different her island must be. For instance, there didn’t seem to exist any children there, not even the animals had them, people seemed to just appear out of this home cave she kept talking about, and all of them were female. I could understand now how she had thought I was a girl but it was still a bit embarrassing explaining how babies were made. She got a look of shock on her face at this explanation and asked if she could have babies if she had sex with a man. I reminded her at this point that we did have intercourse and that I didn’t see why she couldn’t get pregnant, but that I thought she needed to lay with a man from her own species.

She exclaimed that there were no Naga men on the island and asked if I was completely sure that two women couldn’t have children together. I said that I was pretty sure that you needed a man and a woman to make a child and then asked her if she had ever lain with a woman or if she knew of someone on her island who had.

Yes, sex is one of the best things I know, I couldn’t have gotten through some of the more difficult things in my life without sex. Did you know that I had a very hard time sleeping when I got here? After a while, I realized it was because I didn’t have anyone to lay next to me, no one to hug in the night. It’s so strange to sleep alone, knowing that no one will be there in the morning to greet you. It seemed that sex was not such a big thing in Naga society, in fact, it seemed integral.

If two women could procreate, little Naga children should be slithering all over your island from the way your people do things, don’t you think? I asked.

I guess you are right, she answered, and she had another moment of introspection. She stared into the fire, her thoughts far away.

So when we had… sex, that wasn’t, I mean, special? I interrupted after a moment.

Of course, it was special, sex always is, she answered in a confused tone.

What I mean is, I thought… I don’t know what I thought. I guess what I’m saying is that you’d just as likely have sex with any man on the street as with me.

Not with any man, but if it is someone I know and like, why not? She answered as if the question was easy. I had made some assumptions, the night we shared had been my first time, and I guess I had grown a bit possessive. But from the sounds of things, she would like to try out many new men, not to mention her friends back on the island. If anything were to start between us, it would not be exclusive. Bah, screw this, you barely know her, and she is an entirely different species from you, what sort of life could you have had with her? Just focus on getting out of this crystal for now, and you can deal with any misplaced feelings later. But it was hard to hide them from her, anything I felt she would know about and the emotions coming from her about me was at best a fondness and gratitude. Could I live with that? Perhaps her feelings would grow in time, but she would still have no problem sleeping with other people, and she would not see it as a problem either. Perhaps it was best if I didn’t have sex with her anymore, that would be difficult anyway without a body. There would be other women, right? Regardless of our current relationship, there was one thing that bugged me about her island.

This home cave you keep mentioning, what is it? What does it look like on the inside?

Well, I have only been to the upper caves a couple of times, but the elders say that they are extensive and go down deep. There are legends about a big door made out of shining stone, but you’d have to wonder the caves for days or weeks before finding it, those are only legends though. We aren’t allowed to go down there, the elders say that it would anger the caves and I believe them.

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I think your home cave is a dungeon, I said carefully, and Eshanai made a snorting sound as if I was joking and said.

Don’t be silly, you say dungeons lure in people with treasure and gold, but we don’t go in there. From what I have seen no monsters live down there, only the occasional bat.

But you have to admit there is something strange about them. I mean your whole race comes from them, and all the animals on the island do too.

Yes, the home cave provides, but it is no dungeon. It is said that our ancestors live in its depths, they were servants of the gods you know, they take care of our island, keep the balance. She said while staring into the fire, her will seemingly unshakable.

Don’t be blinded by old stories and legends, it could be an ancient dungeon that has found a way to tap into the power of the earth itself and therefore doesn’t need people to explore it. I think everything living on that Island was created in that dungeon, that would explain the lack of children. The Naga, all the animals, even the goblins were probably, Eshanai cut me off there with a sharp gesture from her hands and outrage in her thoughts.

I will not hear another word about this, now I’m going to sleep, and tomorrow I will try to pretend you didn’t just say that. She curled up by the fire and closed her eyes, seemingly upset.

What, about the goblins?

GOOD NIGHT! Came the forceful reply in my mind, but I didn’t have a good night as it turned out I didn’t need to sleep and the dungeon wasn’t much for company. I didn’t have a body anymore, and though it came with some advantages, like not having to stutter, I still missed my body. Well, I might as well take advantage of all this time and work on my plan a bit.

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It was just as hard to sleep on your own as usual, knowing that Lubus was there close by was some comfort but it wasn’t the same as having someone there beside you to hold. My mind was running in many different directions after my talk with Lubus, if the home cave truly were a dungeon like the one in my navel that would make us, the Naga, monsters wouldn’t it? We would be basically the same as the goblins, I had wondered why the goblins were given such a powerful weapon as magic when we had been given nothing to deal with it. But if the home cave were a dungeon that would actually explain things, a dungeon wouldn’t have our survival as a priority it would want the strongest one to survive. If we couldn’t adapt to this new threat on our own, it would probably see it as an acceptable loss to make the goblins stronger. But the home cave couldn’t be a dungeon, all my life it had provided for us when we had asked it, there had been some hard times in the beginning, sure, but that didn’t mean it was some monster spawning crystal. Doubt kept creeping up on me in the night until I fell into a restless fitful slumber.

I woke up the next morning feeling like I hadn’t slept at all, I really missed my island and my people. I had missed them before on this journey, but it hadn’t hit me this hard before. I reached up to feel the little braid of Rulan’s hair I had woven into my own locks and memories of better times flooded my mind, and I started to cry. It didn’t happen often, and I felt it was embarrassing but no one was here to see me, so I let it all out in great heaving sobs, all my frustration and helplessness went into those tears, and when I finally stopped, I felt somehow lighter like my burdens weren’t as burdensome anymore. They were still there, my peoples future rested on my shoulders, but those shoulders were now more capable of carrying it than they were before. I wouldn’t let my people be defeated, even if the home cave were a dungeon it didn’t matter, I would still save them.

It had occurred to me that there was a way I could prove I wasn’t a monster, they didn’t get pregnant as Lubus had called it. I would just have to make her… or him rather, get me with child, as these mainlander women could become. If I could get pregnant surely every Naga could, Lubus would just have to get out of the core, and we could begin. Then I remembered that he was in my navel now so he had probably seen me while I was crying and as If the thought had prompted him he began talking.

Are you alright Eshanai? I’m sorry if I upset you last night? I sighed and got up to warm myself in the morning sun.

It wasn’t that, I was a bit homesick okay. I’m sorry if I snapped at you yesterday, can we just not talk about that for a while? I need time to think things through. I asked while I stood in the sun and soaked in its rays. I remembered the exercise Lubus had thought me then and with my eyes already closed I breathed in and out slowly trying to sense the sunlight around me. Lubus, probably sensing what I was doing, stayed quiet to let me focus, and after a while, it worked as I could feel the sun shining down on me from the sky sending waves of energy down towards the ground. I coaxed it into me a little at a time until it grew uncomfortable and I stopped focusing on opening my eyes.

That was very well done Eshanai, you are a natural at this.

I think it’s just easier for me to deal with the suns energies, it seems more personal somehow. Do you know what I mean?

Yes, yes I think I know what you’re talking about. Anyway, today I wanted to gather materials, can you get to a high place and tell me what you see?