Shassala

As I followed Renther and Kallix up the mountainside I felt my heart beating faster, and not just from the difficulty of climbing the mountain, but also from the danger and excitement of going to a place we were not supposed to.

I just wished my friend Talass had decided to come. Really, she could be such a worrier I reflected as I thought of our last conversation.

“You know you shouldn’t be going up there with them! It’s dangerous on that mountain and if the elders find out you’ve gone up there, they’ll strip your scales!” She had half shouted half whispered at me.

“Then we won’t let them find out, don’t you want to have at least one adventure in your life? The next season is coming and I want to go have some fun while I still can. Besides it’s just a mountain, we’ve gone hunting all across the valley and even up the halfway up the Veil before, there isn’t anything up there that we can’t handle.”

“What if there is an Onca-Parda? My mother said she saw one last week.”

“They don’t attack groups so all the more reason to go with them.”

“Shassala,” My friend whispered with more force. “Aren’t you worried about them? You’ll be all alone with the two of them what if they, you know, try to take advantage of you?”

“So, what if they do? Aren’t you a little curious? Besides with the season so soon don’t you want a little experience?”

“My mother would kill me if she found out I did anything like that.”

“You should talk to my grandmother, she tells stories about your mother that you wouldn’t believe.” The aghast expression on my friends face was all the answer I needed to know I had failed to convince her to join us. The best I could do at that point was convince her to not tell the others where we were going. “Listen, if you don’t want to join us that’s fine, but I am going up there with them. Probably nothing will even happen, we’ll just go and see the sacred pool, see if we can find the source of the thunder we heard yesterday, and maybe find some regents to bring back. Kallix and Renther have always been good friends of ours, just because they are men now doesn’t mean they are just waiting for a moment to attack me. It will be fine.”

Although Talass didn’t look particularly convinced she did agree to cover for us with the elders but not before she gave Renther and Kallix a quick whispered talk that left them a little pale looking.

Coming back to the present I looked at the backs of the two handsome young Lamia. Renther with his strong arms, broad shoulders and powerful looking tail covered in beautiful green scales. Even Kallix was very handsome even if he was a little smaller and not quite as strong as Renther. He still had some muscles and a quiet intensity that I found very attractive.

I hope Talass hadn't been too hard on them, they’ve always been close friends and I am sure they wouldn’t hurt me or try to force me to do something I didn’t want to.

I also really wouldn’t be against something happening with them, not sex, well probably not, but something. But as we all kept getting higher and higher up the mountain it looked like the two had been completely honest about their intentions of just climbing up the mountain to see the sacred pool and try to find were the thunder yesterday had come from, running my hands through my hair I tried not to let my annoyance show as I followed them.

When the peals of thunder had ripped through the valley yesterday the entire village had flown into a panic. Most people thought it had been some monster that had never been seen before, others blamed outlanders. Not that any outlander had been seen in years.

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Even if we couldn’t find it though seeing the sacred pool would still an adventure.

When the top of the mountain came into view I felt a sense of pride and accomplishment swell in my chest. That is when we heard we heard it. It was a deep bellow coming from the top of the mountain, a sound of pain and anger. I may not go hunting as often as some Lamia, and hardly at all since I had been chosen by the elders to learn herb craft but I recognized most calls from animals and that didn’t sound like anything I had ever heard before, looking at Renther and Kallix it looked like they didn’t either.

“Maybe we should go back down now.” Renther said.

Kallix nodded along with him.

“What?!” I said with more annoyance creeping into my voice than I wanted. Trying to soften my tone I continued. “We only just got here and you want us to turn around just because we heard something?”

The two of them looked at me like they were surprised I spoke up. “If you two want to turn around then I won’t stop you, but I didn’t come all this way to be scared away by just a little noise!” I said trying to sound confident rather than just pushy as I moved up to the last few feet of the trail and peeked my head over to get a better look.

While I looked at the top of the mountain I was more closely listening to what Renther and Kallix were doing. I didn’t think they would abandon me and I was rewarded by the sounds of them approaching me from behind and joining me in looking of the crest of the mountain.

As the three of us looked at the mountaintop I felt my breath get taken away. It was more amazing than anything I had ever seen before!

There were sharp drops carved into the mountain rising above my head, stone walls on some of the drops, and even a small tangle of trees, bushes and other plants. Just from where I was, I could see several rare magical regents that the other potion makers would give their under-scales for. But what really dominated the top of the mountain were the stone buildings.

I had heard of the great cities that the outlanders build and palaces that their rulers lived in and I wondered if this was where the king of this place had lived? It was the tallest building I had ever seen! It was such a shame Talass wasn’t here she would have loved to see this.

I was snapped out of my wonder when I saw something leaving the palace. With the plants between me and it I couldn’t get a very good look but it was fairly small with a hunched over back, perhaps some kind of a shell, it walked on two legs and had two arms.

It staggered in front of the palace and let out a great bellow into the sky.

“FUCK YOU SLIME! OH YEEAAAHHHH!” It roared its arms flailing wildly at the sky before stalking away from us.

I wasn’t sure how long I had stared at it after it had ran out of view up one of the small cliffs. I turned to talk to Renther and Kallix, see if they wanted to follow it with me but when I turned around I only saw their backs as they raced down the mountain leaving me behind.

Those cowards! I thought in open mouthed incredulity. They didn’t even stop to make sure I was following them! Well I didn’t need them! Before I started learning herb craft and potions I had been a great hunter on my own rights! Determined to not give up my adventure so quickly I readied my bow an arrow and I slithered after it as fast as I could following where it had gone.

Although the rocky ground didn’t leave any tracks for me to follow the path was straight forwards with only a few small rooms open that it could have gone into.

Making my way down the path as quietly as I could with an arrow pulled back in my bow I quickly looked into each room making sure it or anything else wasn’t hiding in it before continuing on. As I approached the end of the corridor my heart started beating a little faster. It was running out of places to hide.

Turning the last corner I saw a small set of tiny ledges carved into the mountain, they looked like they would be pretty damn uncomfortable on my tail but I wasn’t going to be stopped by just those. Listening for any sound of the creature I instead heard just running water.

Making my way up I realized by the sound that I was probably at the sacred pool! I had heard stories of this and the ancients who made it since I was a child! I couldn’t believe I was going to get to see it.

As my head and bow poked crested over the top of the climbing path I saw the monster in front of me with the sacred pool just behind it. Only it wasn’t a monster, getting a closer look at it I could see now that what I took for a hump had just been a bag on its back, and while it wasn’t a Lamia it was clearly not a monster. Maybe an outlander? If that was the case it might not be safe, my parents and the other elders loved to tell stories of the outlanders and their violent ways.

Watching it closely I saw that it was pulling a shirt off over its head, there was a bad looking slime burn on its neck, it was red and puffy and looked to be getting worse as I watched. That looked serious if it didn’t get some medicine on that it would probably eat through most of its skin and maybe some of the muscle. Watching it I saw it dip the cloth in the sacred pool and dab at the slimes acid.

Looking at the rest of the outlander I was amazed at how much they looked like us, at least from the waist up. His shoulders were broad and strong and he even had hair on his head like a Lamia, it was an odd color, brown like the earth and oddly short, but still nice looking.

Holding my bow and arrow in front of me with the arrow drawn I shifted to get a better look and I must have made a noise, or perhaps it had other ways of sensing its surroundings because the muscles in its back tensed up and its head perked up as well. Slowly it turned around and regarded me as I pulled the arrow back as far as it would go, ready for anything.

When it turned around I wasn’t expecting how close its features were to that of mine. It was clearly a man, and although I wasn’t certain, I thought he looked like he was in pain, and frightened. Then I realized how I must look, some savage pointing a weapon at him when all he had done was try to clean a wound.

Slowly I started to lower the bow when he said something and his entire body tensed, I thought for a moment that he was preparing to lunge at me and I panicked, in my surprise I let go of the arrow.

While it was still pointing at him.