Eshanai’s laughter echoed around the chamber they were in and over the onlooking crowd of mushroom-infested corpses, reaching up with their feeble arms and grabbing at the air to try and reach for them.
”You, the chieftain?!” She managed to get out between fits of giggles. The Oni’s flat stare only served to set her off again.
“I’ll have you know that goblins can be surprisingly clever if you put in the time,” Eshanai laughed even harder at that.
“S-stop, I can’t, can’t breathe,” she said, trying to contain her mirth.
“Oh, shut up. You saw it yourself, didn’t you? Why else would you be here?” That finally made Eshanai get a hold of herself. It was true that the sneaky goblin had impressed her. That was one in a million though, and she still wasn’t sure it hadn’t been one big fluke.
”It’s just that, well, I hadn’t expected,” Eshanai said and held out her hands towards the Oni, not finding the right words. ”Maybe a Bugbear or even a Troll. But not an Oni, stepping out of legend to take up position as the chieftain of a goblin tribe of all things.” She managed, incredulous.
”Well, get used to it. You might as well leave now if you are going to keep making a nuisance of yourself.” The Oni said and gestured around them. This conversation was attracting a lot of attention, Eshanai had to admit.
”I want to find that goblin, and besides, you are here. The goblin chieftain and the only fuckable cock on the island,” Eshanai grinned and leaned in to whisper in the Oni’s ear, ”I’m not going anywhere.” Her tongue lightly tickled his ear as she pressed her chest into his arm. When the Oni ignored that, she started licking and making her way down towards his neck. That got her an aggravated snort, and the Oni placed his whole hand over her face and pushed her away. Eshanai was not that easily discouraged though, she held onto his arm and wrapped herself around the Oni’s waist and part of one of his legs.
“Blighted annoying Naga!” The Oni exclaimed with a snarl, “why don’t you make yourself useful and sniff out this goblin already?” Eshanai paused at that. Why hadn’t she? She let go of his arm, in any case, to fall to the ground. Laying on her back, she supported herself with her elbows.
“I was going to do that, but I’ve been kind of busy,” she said as she looked up at the Oni. “And Mister Dick here keeps distracting me,” making eyes at the offending bulge, Eshanai let the end of her tail rub over it as she uncoiled herself from the Oni and stood up.
“How do you plan to get past all these mushroom things anyway? I could probably clear a path, but I would prefer not to get spored again.” Eshanai said as her forked tongue came out to taste the stale air.
“I’m working on that,” the Oni said through gritted teeth as he started to fiddle again. To Eshanai, it just looked like he was banging rocks together.
She ignored him, focusing instead on trying to catch the scent of her goblin quarry. There was the Oni’s scent, of course, and he smelled oh so very good. No, stop that, Eshanai thought, ignoring the Oni even harder. He can fuck your brains out later.
Concentrating, she could quickly catch the mushroom’s earthy scent in the dry, cool air and the desiccated flesh underneath. There was something else there, maybe. If she could get just a little closer, Eshanai was sure she could catch whatever it was. The Oni’s scent always tempted her, so Eshanai simply gave up and relied on her other senses.
They were in a relatively small chamber compared to the size of the whole ziggurat, with more of those beds or boxes the mushroom corpses had rested in lining the walls. Eshanai’s tremor sense told her that it was one of many similar rooms built to the ziggurat’s sides. With multiple cramped passages leading between them on numerous floors, an open area in the middle with a spiraling staircase leading up and further down.
“I smell no goblins, but there is a staircase in the middle. If the goblin got in here, it must have used the stairs. I will know if we get there.” Eshanai said, interrupting the Oni’s grumbling.
“Why does it have to be so hard every time? It always looked so easy in their hands,” he mumbled before he looked up from his rocks.
“That’s some good rock-on-rock action, but I’m a better target for your frustrations,” Eshanai said, casting glances at whatever he was doing as if she was jealous.
“For your information, I’m not simulating coitus,” the Oni said as he went back to banging rocks together. “I’m trying to produce a flame.”
“Why didn’t you say so?” Eshanai said as if she thought the answer obvious, “I could have told you that rocks don’t do that on their own.”
“Pff,” the Oni snorted, ”and how would you do it then?”
“I’d ask the spirits, of course,” she answered with a smile.
“It seems everyone except the Naga can remember that you are unfavoured,” the Oni snapped back with a certain satisfaction in his voice. “We’d have to bargain, and I don’t have anything to ensure a good deal, do you?” When Eshanai slowly shook her head, he continued. “No, what we need is a newborn.” Eshanai looked uncertain. She had never heard of anything like that and was unsure what he meant. Surely he didn’t want to create a spirit on the spot. How would that even work? It wouldn’t be aware enough to bargain anyway, right? And hadn’t the Oni just said he didn’t have anything to offer? She had a feeling that could only end badly, at least if this place was any indication.
“Couldn’t we just wait for them to go to sleep again?” Eshanai Offered an alternative, “they seem pretty tired. I’m sure they would like to go back to sleep in those stone beds. Maybe they’ll forget we are even here if we stay quiet. Their senses seem pretty shit. They’ve got mushrooms growing out of their eyes and ears after all.”
“First of all,” the Oni began, sounding ever more frustrated as he struck his rocks together. “They don’t sleep. They’re dead, spirits trapped in corpses, remember? Secondly,” he continued, voice carefully contained, holding back his frustration. “They are coffins, not beds. Meant to keep vermin from chewing on your dead relatives, and thirdly,” the air seemed to go out of him as he actually stopped what had by now become senselessly smashing his two rocks together and actually considered her last point. “That’s uh, hmm,” he muttered before sighing and looking out over the little forest of grasping limbs.
“So, humans built this place, huh?” Eshanai asked as the Oni stared. Humans were another thing that featured heavily in Naga stories. Now that she had seen some, dead ones to be fair. Well, she hadn’t gotten a good look, what with all the mushrooms growing all over them. She couldn’t help but be curious.
“Yeah,” the Oni answered distractedly.
“So they put their dead here, knowing that this would happen? I know you said they didn’t want to attract spirits, but surely they must have known this could happen?”
“Yes, no, what?” The Oni answered, coming out of his fugue. “They had ways around that, but with no humans here to renew that,” he trailed off, seemingly thinking their surroundings were example enough.
“So, then they just left, or did we kill them off too?” Eshanai asked in a sad voice.
“Bah!” The Oni scoffed with a dismissive hand wave. “Humans are greedy, pathetic, backstabbers, they don’t deserve such concern, but that’s neither here nor there. I just need one! Blighted! Spark!” He said as he smashed one rock against the other, and on the final word, it happened.
Sparks leaped, and the Oni’s eyes widened in surprise. He dropped the stones and scrambled to catch one of the tiny motes of light between his hands. He was too slow though, as the sparks quickly went out. Nevertheless, he didn’t break down in an angry fit as Eshanai had expected. Instead, he kept his hands outstretched, breathed deeply before closing his eyes.
A look of intense concentration fell upon the Oni’s face as sweat started to pour down his brow visibly. His head tilted slightly from side to side as if listening to something that Eshanai couldn’t hear. The look of concentration suddenly transformed into a deep frown as a soft light appeared between the Onis hands. It grew in sputtering bursts and spurts until Eshanai could see a small flame.
The Oni opened his eyes and grinned, staring at the flame still burning between his hands. He lifted one, and the fire followed until he held his hand flat, and it grew to fit in his palm, still hovering over it. Eshanai didn’t like the crazed look in his eyes. Other spirits were sure to notice what he was doing eventually.
“You’ve done this before then?” She asked carefully.
“No,” he answered. “This is the first time I have managed to catch a spirit young and weak enough to fall under my power.”
“So no bargaining, you just forced it to serve you?” Eshanai was concerned now. Spirits did what spirits willed, and forcing them to do something seemed like a bad idea.
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“Yeah, so what? Isn’t that what your people did before you were unfavored?” The Oni said, dismissing her concerns.
”No, we asked, and the spirits answered,” Eshanai said defensively.
”HA!” The Oni laughed in her face, starting to play with his flame. ”And I suppose they just did that out of the deep love they held for you, getting nothing in return. No, your elders must have had something over them, something the spirits desperately wanted.”
”I may be a bit cross with the elders right now, but they are not monsters,” Eshanai defended. ”They might be set in their ways, but those are born from experience, and they have our best interests at heart. The elders wouldn’t do something like that.” She concluded, alluding to the flame the Oni juggled.
”I’d beg to differ,” he said and glared at her. Eshanai met his look with a glare of her own until the Oni looked away.
It was true that Eshanai had purposefully gone against the elder’s wishes, but she still had immense respect for them. What the Oni had done could antagonize the whole island, maybe even the mountain itself, if he was allowed to continue. The elders would never be so reckless.
“If you are going around trapping spirits against their will, at least let me see that cock before a stray vine strangles you to death in retaliation,” Eshanai said, and the Oni stared at her, his mouth hanging open slightly.
“Figures, that’s what you’d care about,” he muttered before clearing his throat. “No, I will not be doing that, but you can rest assured that when we are done here, I plan to set it free.”
Eshanai didn’t know much about spirits, pretty much only what they could do for her and little about their dispositions or how they developed. If she could believe this Oni, he would know more on the subject, having studied these things or whatever.
”Fine, but don’t come crying to me when I have to save you later,” she said, a little perturbed. ”Actually,” she went on, now more considering. ”Do come crying to me, and when I’ve saved you, we ca-,” Eshanai was downright exuberant now, but the Oni cut her off before she could finish.
”Stop right now!” He said hurriedly, waving his hands at her. ”That has been the most compelling argument you could have made.” Eshanai pouted in disappointment, folding her arms beneath her breasts.
“Get on with whatever it is you are going to do then. The faster we get out of here, the faster you can let that spirit go.” She said in a frosty tone. What the Oni did next, however, was anything but frosty.
Eshanai watched with wide eyes as he seemingly plucked a thin stream of fire from the glowing ball of flame with his other hand, and with a wave, sent it out to engulf the first row of mushroom men. Their dry flesh took readily to the flame, and they burned quickly, making Eshanai cough from all the smoke.
Soon they fell lifelessly to the ground, the next row of mushroom-infested corpses mindlessly stepping over them, catching themselves on fire. This didn’t stop the Oni from flinging out more streams of fire into the crowd around them. Eshanai couldn’t help but notice the original ball of flame getting smaller and smaller for every bit of fire he plucked from it. She also saw the pair of burning limbs reaching the edge of their stone block. Standing on the pile of burning corpses below, it started to pull itself up.
“Great, not only unrelenting corpses trying to get to us, but now they’re on fire as well,” Eshanai said as she smacked the appearing face with the end of her tail, making it fly back into the crowd, setting more of them on fire. The Oni looked over to her and frowned.
“They’ll burn down to ash soon enough,” he said, but more hands were appearing on all sides now. The Oni rushed over to step on their fingers while Eshanai continued to smack them away.
“Isn’t there something you could do to speed things up?” The Oni glanced at his reduced flame uncertainly before he replied.
“I don’t want to take any more fire, or it might go out entirely,” they both looked out at the crowd of corpses then, with splotches of fire spreading through them. “I’m an idiot,” the Oni said with a palm to his face before he gestured at the still burning corpses.
The fire burning in the crowd followed the Oni’s commands and leaped eagerly from corps to corps while Eshanai protected him from anything that managed to climb up to them. When everything had caught, the Oni somehow made the flames burn brighter, and Eshanai had to look away before it grew too uncomfortable.
It became hard to breathe in all the smoke, but it soon subsided as all that was left of the mushroom corpses were ash and blackened bones.
Those same bones crunched under scales and bare feet as the two of them made their way down from the stone block they had sheltered on. Eshanai opened her mouth to say something, but the Oni quickly put a hand over her mouth to silence her.
“Shut it,” he whispered. “Let’s see how shit their senses really are, ok?” Eshanai removed his hand but nodded agreeably, staying quiet.
They made their way out of the small chamber silently and had to squeeze their way, single file, through the small passages leading through the Ziggurat, the Oni’s fire the only thing lighting their way. Well, it was lighting the Oni’s way as Eshanai knew precisely where they were through her tremor sense.
She could also sense the various traps lining the cramped passage, and she marveled yet again at the humans who built this place. She could sense the intricate mechanisms hiding in the walls. This included the loose tile the Oni was about to step on, causing spears to fly out of the wall to no doubt perforate his whole body.
Eshanai alerted him by placing a hand on his shoulder. He stopped, and she showed him where not to step. Eshanai took the lead from there, stopping every time she came upon a trap and making sure it wasn’t triggered. She could definitely smell goblin now, she wanted to rush ahead to get to it quickly, but they were coming up on another one of those chambers filled with coffins.
Eshanai could feel them stumbling about in there, not as many as in the chamber she had landed in but still a substantial amount. She carefully poked her head around the corner, and when none of the shamblers reacted, she slowly slithered into the opening. She stood there for a moment, just waiting, to see what would happen, and while their faces did point in her direction sometimes, they didn’t seem to notice her. That all changed when the Oni stepped in beside her, flame held high. The closest ones snapped their heads unnaturally in his direction, with their bodies following soon after, starting to limp towards them slowly. The others in the room seemed to understand what was happening and did the same.
“What’s that about?” The Oni exclaimed, so surprised he forgot to whisper. Eshanai shushed him, and he shrugged but looked apologetic. “How come they completely ignored you but went straight for me as soon as I stepped into view?” He asked, now in a whisper.
“I don’t know,” Eshanai hissed back. “They’re spirits, right? So maybe they’re friends with the one you trapped, or they might just really hate fire. Either way, we can’t let them out of their chamber.”
“Why’s that?” The Oni looked ready to bolt at any moment but stayed to hear what she had to say. His flame had grown a bit, but it was still not back to its original size.
“Because they’ll trigger the traps,” Eshanai explained, still whispering, watching the corpses make their plodding way along closer to them.
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Yes, but some of these traps are very extensive. We might get caught in the crossfire.”
“How extensive are we talking here?”
“Like giant saw blades extensive or the roof falling on our heads extensive. I’m not even sure what some of these things are supposed to do,” despite the dire subject Eshanai sounded impressed as she looked around the walls with a gleam in her eye.
“I’ll just burn them down as I did in the last room,” the Oni suggested.
“Yes, but that won’t stop them. It will eventually but not right away. I thought that I could move some of these coffins to block them in, then we can just leave them here.”
“It’ll make a lot of noise,” the Oni cautioned.
“So will burning them,” Eshanai countered.
“If they get too close, you can just push them back. How many are there, ten, more in the shadows?”
“More like fifty, and I can be gentle,” Eshanai’s eyebrows danced as she grinned shamelessly at the Oni. He sighed, shrugged his shoulders before acquiescing.
“Fine, we’ll do it your way, but quietly.” Eshanai got to work immediately, grabbing the closest mushroom corpses and throwing them to the back of the room. She watched as the Oni cringed at the noise. This would be a lot easier if he could use his force power to help.
“Quietly,” he whispered forcefully. Eshanai only shrugged at him before approaching the first coffin. She heaved it up over her head, using her tail for leverage before she rested it on her shoulder. Then, she moved to the chamber’s exit and placed the coffin down gently in front of it. The Oni gave her a look from the other side.
“What?” She whispered.
“I forget how strong the Naga are,” he answered in the same whisper. “I thought you were going to drag it across the ground, but this is more acceptable.”
“You could help, you know, with your mind-lifting powers or whatever they are.” The Oni eyed the now regrown flame gently crackling over his hand.
“It would be difficult while trying to contain this spirit. I’d prefer not to risk it.” Eshanai rolled her eyes at that but got back to work nonetheless. She retrieved two more coffins in quick succession and stacked them on top of the first one, and they were off again.
They passed by two more rooms where they had to do the same thing. The corpses continued to ignore Eshanai, but as soon as the Oni stepped into view, they focused right in on both of them. When they had blocked off the fourth such room, Eshanai heard it, a distant clanging and grinding of gears.
“Something just activated one of the traps,” she said as she turned around to look in the direction of the sound.
“So one got out?” The Oni hedged.
“Or we missed one in the first chamber. It’s too far away for me to get a clear picture. There were still bodies in some of the coffins I used for stacking.”
“What!” The Oni exclaimed, forgetting to keep his voice down. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“Keep your voice down, and they seemed perfectly content to stay in their boxes, even the ones I moved. Didn’t seem right to disturb them, is all.”
“We have to get back there, kill them before they bring this place down upon us,” he growled in frustration, starting to turn around. Eshanai wrapped him up, turned him back around, and placed him in front of her.
“No,” Eshanai said in his face.
“Why not?”
“Think about this, what if one of those dangerous traps are activated while we are on our way to see what happened? No, our best bet is to book it to the stairs in the middle.”
“We’ll only attract more attention when we go past more of these chambers? And how am I supposed to avoid those same traps when I'm running, huh?” Eshanai thought about that for a moment before she turned around, lowered herself, and gestured to her back.
“Jump on,” she said.
“What?” The Oni asked uncertainly.
“Ride me.”