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It wasn't as big a shock as she would have thought... Kalokin... a nightmare who fed upon fear. Hearing Khaesho confirm her suspicions rocked her back in her seat, but it didn't flabbergast her like it should have. Rather... it felt more like he was admitting to something she'd felt ever since Kalokin took residence in her body. She blinked a little and her ears splayed. Oh, that made more sense then she had wished... her tensed muscled relaxing as she sagged in the seat. Staring ahead and allowing her thoughts to whirl in her mind with the onset of emotion that she had no real name for.

"So that's what that... strange mist he pulled out of me was..."

Then she heard Kalokin whisper in her mind. Her eyes widened, her back went ramrod straight, and her pupils became pinpricks. A sharp thrill of pure terror caused her fur to stand on end. Luckily the road was straight, so when she gripped the wheel tighter, and her mind flashed back to his words in her apartment to the weight of him: His body crushing the breath from her lungs... his eyes judging her, and finding her wanting. It was a split second of it, a moment of gut wrenching fear of the God that had become a part of her, but worse than that, she acutely felt that fear siphon out of her mind into the gap that used to be Kalokin. Such a surge of terror healed him enough that he could at least pretend he was feeling alright. That realization confirmed it, and rather than try to deal with the source of such mind numbing panic, she shut her mind down quite firmly.

The emotion was cut off, sudden and sharp. She had described it to a therapist once... it was like seeing the world through monochrome when she did it. Disassociation. It happened during traumatic experiences she had been told. As a result it left her quiet, calm, and almost empty inside as she promptly cut away the feelings she wouldn't, or couldn't, handle at the moment. Welcome back to the world of the living, idiot.

Kalokin didn't hear her though. He was gone, pulled entirely from her mind and leaving a curious space that led to Khaesho again. The moment he felt her fear for him, the absolute terror that she now regarded him with, he had fled, run from his shame and her sweet, nurturing fear to the deepest, darkest corner of Khaesho's mind he could find. There were demons enough there to keep him company... reminders of his past sins. It was a place he went to remind himself of what he was trying to change.

"He... he's hiding now. He says he's going to hide from you until you don't... until he 'can't taste fear in your mind.' He's ashamed... more so than I've ever seen him. Hell Shou, what happened back there? He didn't... he didn't hurt you, did he?"

"...he almost did. When I say he tackled me, Khaesho - I don't mean he knocked me into his coils. He hit me to the ground with the intent to hurt. I was pinned down, I couldn't breathe... the air had been knocked out of my lungs and he was leering at me... He cackled at me, like it was funny. I was afraid, and he laughed..."

That was what had frightened her most, she had felt important, cherished, like she mattered. Merely an hour before he had hugged her, told her they would be worth it, and then like a light switch something had changed. Cold water had poured through her and doused the warm fires that had burned for the God. There was still affection there... she'd seen him suffer for her, watched him die to protect her. She still adored him, wanted to cherish him and hold him close as she did Khaesho. But at the same time...

"Khaesho... When I was younger my parents died in a car wreck. I lived with my Auntie, my Uncle, and my Cousin for a while. While things were being set up, it was only two weeks... b-but... he was a drinker, yanno? Auntie was always busy, and that left Uncle and I a lot of time alone... I told him I'd tell. But it didn't... he... And it didn't stop it... when I told Auntie after Mom and Dad's funeral, she called me a liar. Traci said I was a little whore for suggesting it... but - in that moment... when Kalokin knocked me down... I remembered... Uncle laughed too. I couldn't... couldn't stop him..."

And she whined softly, her ears pinned to her head, her shoulders rounded. Making herself as small as she could while still driving safely, keeping her eyes firmly planted on the road. "I came from what's known now-a-days as a pretty broken home. I hit the ground running, and never went back..."

Khaesho hugged her from behind the seat as she guided the car to a halt at a roadside truck stop. She unbuckled her seatbelt and dove backwards into Khaesho's arms. He made a nest of his coils and settled her in it. Wrapped in his cool, smooth scales, she felt isolated from the world at large... safe in the arms of her mate. She curled herself up, small and warm in the pile of his coils. Her ears were pinned so tightly to her head it was like they weren't even there, and she whimpered softly into Khaesho's shoulder. Kalokin's heart broke as he saw her in a pitiful pile, but he hadn't yet earned the privilege to inhabit her body again... so and he carefully pulled himself into the small manifestation of a glowing snake, the same vague, wispy figure that Shou had first seen him as.

"I'm sorry Shou, this is my fault... I usually spend Dark Moon hiding, either deep within a vessel or far and away, lost in the desert. You and Khaesho needed me though, and I thought... I thought I could keep it together long enough to get you out safely. I thought that, maybe I'd gotten better. I thought that I wasn't such a colossal screw up that I would hurt everyone around me. I didn't want this... I never wanted to hurt you..."

She could feel his anguish and self-loathing, not just about what he'd done, but about who he was. He was a broken, wretched thing, and his greatest fear was always that he would cause others' suffering. Such an intense despair... it tweaked the edges of her heart and brought a soft keen to her lips.

"I'm not mad, Kalo... Actually, I take that back... I'm very mad, and when you can take a physical form again, you're going to, because I'm going to knock you HARD, Capiche? I'm not afraid of your nature, and if I had known I wouldn't have done something stupid and gotten in the way. You... you can't help what you are... even if you have problems, you're still a good person underneath the scars. What I'm upset about, is running around half-cocked without all the information, without the full story. I can't keep myself safe, and do what I need if you're keeping secrets! You could have broken my ribs, or knocked me out, or any number of things if I had hit the bed, or the wall! I was worried about you! Afraid for you! And you attacked me for it."

There was a trembling sigh from her. As she stopped her tirade before she worked herself into a furor. Kalokin's dark mood brightened by a single quantum of happiness, a tender hope that maybe he hadn't ruined everything. "You aren't a screw up though, you just aren't very good at dealing with people. Or telling them what they need to know. And damn it all, stop hating yourself for it. You can't control it anymore than you can control the color of the sky, or the greenery of the grass! If you keep rejecting your nature you'll let it control you. Only through acceptance of one's self can you control the things within that frighten you. First lesson in dealing with me? You scare me, I get to punch you in the face."

Kalokin's form flickered to green for a moment, a slightly silly indication that he agreed with her.

"I... I lost it, Shou. Like when a shark smells blood, I can sense even the tiniest scrap of fear, and I know instantly how to get more. The temptation is... inexplicable... like a servant at a feast who doesn't get any dinner for the night, unless he does something he hates. It's even worse during dark moon... she makes me hungry, oh so hungry, nothing is ever enough. A taste makes her want more, and she knows I'm at my weakest then, and I... between the dark moon and your fear of me hurting myself, I couldn't help myself. I was going to tell you, I swear I was, but we were busy: First with falling in love, then with saving your life, then with altering both you and Khaesho, and then the police interfered. I never really got a good time to explain. I swear to you though, tomorrow, I'll tell you everything you want to know. About us, the spirits, about me, about magic, about anything. I... Can I beg for a second chance?"

Affectionate exasperation tilted her tone as she responded. "Of course you get a second chance, idiot! I just get to punch you in the face for the scare. And any time you scare me afterwards. I don't take to being frightened well, call it something like PTSD. Erm, post-traumatic stress disorder."

She sighed softly, and her shoulders slumped as she curled up into Khaesho a little more, nuzzling against his chest. His coils made her feel safe, and warm. "When you say you were going to tell me, I believe you. You ever call me a silly mortal again though, and I'll cut out your tongue. "

Her words irked him... Who was she to threaten him?!? He almost opened his mouth to say something, but he smartly snapped his jaw closed instead. It was still the Dark moon, and he didn't want to say anything he wasn't SURE that he meant. Instead, he swallowed his pride. He deserved it.

"I am morally obliged to tell you that cutting out my tongue would accomplish nothing, I could reattach it with ease. Joking aside though, that's more than fair."

He was vastly reduced, but he had enough strength to solidify his vapor into a tiny little ribbon snake. He curled around her neck affectionately, tugging just a tiny bit.

"I'm going to leave now, for a while. I need time to heal... I need fear to heal. I won't be far, if you need me, but rest will do me good. Thank you, lady Shouyousei."

He squirmed upwards to plant a miniscule kiss on her cheek, and then his corporeal form melted. He fell through their minds to rest, absorbing fear from the nearby city as he slowly pieced himself back together.

Had he asked, she would have told him. But instead, he heard her laughter, soft and warm in the midst of Khaesho's coils.

"Yes, I figured as much, I'm just teasing you, Kalo. The normality of it helps..." Her arms looping around him to hug herself close to the Naga, her anchor to keep her sanity in place. "I don't handle this whole... divine/mortal thing very well..." Looking up at her scaly mate she offered a small, sheepish, smile. He chuckled softly and gave her fuzzy ears a lick before responding.

"It doesn't help that Kalokin is the most complicated of the bunch. You're coping better than I did though, that's for sure. When I found out about the fear thing during our first Dark Moon together, I didn't talk to him for a week, and even then, I only forgave him because I was lonely and desperate for someone to talk to... that, and it's hard to dislike him when he hates himself so much already."

He wrapped his coils around her as best he could in the tight space, but only managed to tangle himself into a knot. He kissed her on the cheek as he embraced her, happy with her warmth.

"It's called disassociation. It's when you block emotions that you don't need or can't handle at the moment. I'm certain I'll break down later - but for right now, I don't have that luxury. It's... strange, it's like seeing the world that was once colorful in monochrome. I had to do it a lot after my parents died... it's a result of traumatic experiences... A skill you build so you can cope with emotional pain."

A small smile, as she glanced up at him. The wrap of his body in a knot around her had her chuckling softly as she kissed his chin. Her tongue dragged along his scales, comforting him just as he'd comforted her. The weight of everything that had happened pressed her shoulders down though, and she was too fatigued to raise them back up.

"I should head inside and get something to eat, before coming back out... I need food, and we both need sleep."

"I will wait for you, my love. It wouldn't feel right, to sleep without you in my arms."

Another kiss to his chin, and she wriggled free of his hold. Backpack, pockets, money, and she was out the door. She kept her hood low, but a warm smile on her face despite everything. Even with discovering that she'd unknowingly accepted a deity of unknown origin and background into her body and almost literally sold her soul to what could very well have been called a demon in some cultures, she felt unreasonably optimistic. Everything was going well so far, assuming that she didn't run into any trouble inside. Her ears pricked forward when the bell over the door rang, and she glanced around the interior.

A bored, tired looking teenager was reading a textbook behind the counter of the burger stop. He barely even spared her a glance before looking back to his homework.

"Whaddaya want?"

A glance up, and she hummed a little bit. "I'll take one..." She remembered Khaesho, and remembered that he'd be just as hungry; neither of them had eaten in a week, after all. "Five double cheeseburgers, all the way. Two of those should be meals, large soda, large fries."

"Twenty nine, thirty five. JOE, YOU HEAR THAT?"

"Yea Jimmy, damn, you don't need to shout. It's not like anyone else is in here."

Joe's voice lofted from behind the counter, and the silent kitchen was soon occupied with the sound of burgers grilling. It would take him while for them to put together a large order minutes for him to put her order together, but in the meantime, the gray furred manatee manning the cash register decided to grasp at any excuse to stop studying, even for a moment.

"So, stranger, you hear the news? Apparently, there's some sort of witch hunt or something happening in the city. Some idiot hiker got eaten by a monster, and the entire police force turned out to look for it. They claim it's a Naga, black as night and long as a felled tree, painted red with the blood of his victims, but I think it's just someone got jumpy after too many ghost stories. No Naga has ever left the sands before, why should one come out now?"

She handed over the cost of the meal, and nodded a little bit. A soft chuckle escaped her lips as she turned around and hopped up to sit on the counter. Her thick tail slid up with her, draping across the countertop and betraying her apparently Chimaeran nature.

"Really? I was heading into town on a vacation, but that sounds... most troublesome . Maybe I should just head back home... Are you sure the hiker got eaten? And a Naga? Really? You're right, they never leave, never let anyone in either"

His eyes traced the lazy sway of her tail, eyeing the thick curves before he looked back up into her eyes. Something struck him as off about her, but he was sleep deprived and brain dead from studying, so he ignored it.

"Jackie Blue Jay allegedly has footage of it, and she's leaked a few teasers to the internet. Guy seems pretty violent, and if it's real, then the hiker is lunchmeat by now. It could totally be just fuel for the hype train though... it wouldn't be the first time she released computer created footage of myths as teasers. Besides, he was seen up on Wheeler Peak, and that's where the police are. Angel Fire should still be safe. It's just a case of small town police bored because nothing ever happens here... they're probably still talking about it on the news. It's probably on the news still."

He fiddled with a remote behind the desk, and the TV in the corner turned from a stupid soap opera to the local news station.

"-thorities are still fruitlessly searching the mountainside for the body of one Shouyousei Murasaki. She was last seen about a week ago, heading into the mountains despite warnings from locals about an alleged monster who lives there."

The video feed of the bright, peppy sea otter was replaced with a burly stag, a local who'd been interviewed earlier in the day.

"I'm telling you, this thing had to be twenty feet long! I was here when it first showed up, seven years ago, almost. Crawled right up into our neighborhood, black as the devil's soul and just as hungry. From the first, I didn't like the look in 'is eyes. He looked savage, looked at me like I was a meal. My wife and daughter wandered to the door, curious at what had happened, and he actually started drooling! He inched forwards a bit, and I slammed the door on him, cracked him right in the head. I called up my friends, got my gun, and we chased the bastard down the street, but here's the weird part. Once we had him cornered, he turned, laughed at us, and disappeared! God strike me if I lie, we all watched him just dissolve into smoke.

Back to the reporter, who maintained an energetic mien through her delivery.

"Local authorities were disbelieving of such a tale, until one Jacqueline 'Jacky Blue Jay' Sparks uploaded a video to the internet, apparently a teaser for the next episode in her ghost hunting show."

The feed switched to the clip now. Simon's hands shook ever so slightly as he held the camera and flashlight trained on Jacky. A sinister voice echoed through the cave, captured perfectly clearly by high quality technology.

"You thought they were jussssst telling tall talesss to passss the time? Did they not warn you to stay off of MY mountain?"

The sound of ripping flesh emanated from the speakers as blood splattered across Jacky, Simon, and the camera lens.

"sssssSo sssssorry about that. Dinner iss a bit messsssy today. The good newss issss that it meansss I won't have to eat you, though the blue one does look rather tasty."

The video stopped as Simon fell backwards, and the image froze with a pair of red glowing eyes glaring down at them from the ceiling.

"When questioned about the clip, Jacqueline said this."

Another image cut, to another interview, this time with Jacky.

"There's not really much I can tell you. Yea, we'd heard the locals tell stories, so we went looking. It's what I do. Simon, my cameraman, and I got lost, found a cave, and went exploring. Yes, we found a black Naga in the cave, but more importantly, he let us escape unscathed. I know he seems vicious in the teaser, but it's just a teaser, there to build hype and convince people to watch my show. I sincerely doubt that he's the reason Shouyousei went missing, but more than that, I really doubt they're going to find either of them. Those tunnels were like a labyrinth, it would take weeks to search through them all. I'm not answering any more questions now, if you want to know more about what happened, you'll have to wait until Friday when my show airs on TV. If you're STILL not satisfied, I'll be hosting a live video-chat conference immediately afterwards. As always, call me with any rumors or ghost stories, I'll be glad to investigate."

Back to the reporter again.

"Nevertheless, when a missing person report was filed by miss Murasaki's landlord, police responded in force to try and find her. Their efforts so far have been met with failure, but scent hounds have been deployed to track the wolf's strong scent trail through the caverns. We still await their report on what they find. This is LeiLani Perierre, channel three report."

Shou watched with an eyebrow raised, waiting until it cut to commercial to turn back to him.

"I love that everyone assumes she's dead... really nice of them."

The stag's story of Khaesho's first appearance intrigued her though... it was something she would bring up to Khaesho when she went back outside. Amusement and unease fought, and amusement at his antics won out.

"Wow, that is... a little much, I think... but she does bring up a valid point. If she found this Naga and he let her go, what's to say he didn't do the same for this girl? I think the media just needs a new story to freak out over."

Shaking her head a little, arms folded onto the counter, and her long tail curling lazily around her leg.

Nameless Burger Minion #1 chuckled as he leaned over the counter. "Probably. That happens if it's been quite for a while, yea? Cops want to try out their shiny night vision, media needs a story to hype... If nothing else though, this Naga sounds like he's poaching though. That mountain is a state park, property of New Mexico."

Minion #2 brought her food up and set it on the counter, prompting a sigh from Minion#1 as he resolved himself to his studying. Shou grabbed the food bags with one hand and balanced the drink holder with the other before she turned and swayed towards the door. As her scaly tail slid off the countertop, he noticed what looked like a rattlesnake bead at the end of it. He was cramming for a biology test, and he'd only recently learned about rattlesnakes... it was the only reason he noticed it. It was unmistakable, especially when he realized that he was looking at a diamondback pattern marching down towards the bands around the tip. That was impossible though... there weren't any Snakes in civilized populace... and none had ever successfully crossbred with a Naga.

"Say... I don't think I caught your name. Who did you say you were again?"

A silent spike of adrenaline shot down her spine, even though lying to him would have been easy. She'd grabbed the bag and drink before he spoke. She could make it to the door quickly, and once she was outside, he'd have no hope of catching her. Should she tell him the truth? Should she lie? Should she fuck with his mind because Kalokin's devil-may-care attitude was infections?

"I didn't say."

Turning, she headed for the door. The idea of telling them who she was, and giving it away flitted through her mind for a moment, but if she did? Well, the car was still parked in the parking lot, and that was not something she wanted to deal with - more driving. Or risk the kid calling the cops. Glancing over her shoulder, she gave a small, sultry little grin.

"Names Mura, have a good night fellas."

A swish of her hips, and she was out the door heading back towards her car. Burger Minion #1 watched her scaly, rattlesnake tail sway towards the door. His sleep deprived brain didn't quite put four and four together... at least not until the morning after. When he did wake up from a nightmare about a black snake with grey hands, he went back and wheedled his way into looking at the security footage from the night before. They were good camera's, good enough to see the rattlesnake pattern and bead at the end of the tail. He cut together the relevant video segments on his computer, and was about to email them to the police when he stopped. If she'd wanted them to know, she'd have told them... but she didn't. She didn't want the police to know where she was... but at the same time, she'd given him a clue to let him in on the secret.. He couldn't help but grin a little, he felt like part of a conspiracy. No... instead, he went and "leaked" the security video to one of the most ridiculous, mocked, and unbelievable news sites on the web... and he laughed about it the entire day.

---

Shouyousei clambered through the door and directly into Khaesho's coils. He'd taken the time to arrange himself more comfortable, but he still looked rather odd, draped across the backseat and the trunk.

"Mmmmm... I smell food, real food. Can I have a tiny taste? Just a little one?"

The police were given breadcrumbs, certainly. She had called Alyssa the night before, cleaned out her apartment, cleaned out her bank account. It wasn't like she was missing, at least not as much as they thought she was. A soft chuckle when Khaesho pulled her in close as she nestled into his coils.

"We've not eaten in a week, I've got what I hope will be a decent meal for you, at least enough for now."

It took but a moment to fish her burger out of the bag before handing the other burgers to him. He puzzled over the paper wrapped parcel for a moment and licked it tentatively.

"Erm... this doesn't taste at all like it smelled..."

Shou didn't even bother to answer, she just laughed to herself and removed the wrapper before taking a bite. Khaesho mimicked her action with a moderate blush before tentatively tasting the amalgamation of ingredients before him. It took only a moment to determine the deliciousness of fast food, so he tossed the entire burger- minus the paper- into his mouth.

The unlikely duo was far too hungry to bother with small talk as they wolfed- literally wolfed, in Shou's case- their food down with glee. Companionable silence filled the air, ending only when Khaesho was done with the second burger; he regarded the drink before him without much knowledge of what it was. He'd seen Shou sipping from her straw, and found out how to work such an apparatus for himself... only to receive quite a shock when he did.

"Crooked Bones of Rikh Ghanyr, What was THAT? It tasted like flavored sugar, but it squirmed all the way down."

She laughed at his expense, happy that he was boldly exploring her world. "That, my love, is a soda. It's a fizzy, carbonated drink. The squirming you felt is the bubbly carbonation!"

He took another taste, prepared for the odd feeling this time.

"You Civilized get into no end of mischief with science, don't you?"

He grinned haphazardly and giggled, which was certainly an odd sound coming from fully weaponized snake crammed into the back of an S.U.V.

"I like it!"

He squirmed beneath her slightly, resettling his coils, trying to find a comfortable position to lay in that didn't twist his spine in quite so bad a knot.

"Yea, just don't drink too much... it's almost pure sugar, not at all healthy for you."

She usually avoided soda; as a ballerina, she'd needed to keep a sharp eye on her waistline so that her custom tailored costumes always fit. She could relax at least a little, for now... They finished their meal and stuffed the trash into a bag. Shifting even a little was a co-operative effort... an effort that ended with something long and slender poking into her back.

"Khaesho, is that a knife strapped to your tail, or are you just that happy to see me?"

The great Naga blushed slightly and wriggled the protruding object away from her spine.

"Erm... Don't get me wrong, I'm quite happy to see you, but... yea, that's a knife strapped to my tail." He squiggled a little more so that he could put his tail into her hands, and she marveled at what was there. Literally strapped onto his tail with black leather was a thin knife, currently protected by a sheath. Khaesho reached over and pulled a few straps before tugging the sheath off, and Shou reeled with backlash as a literal wave of magic flowed outwards from it. She wasn't sure how they'd kept it hidden from her, but the odd tail dagger was literally brimming with energy now that the sheathe was discarded.

"What... what is that?"

He grasped it by the flat of the blade and handed it to her in a way that slid it over her hand. The complicated knots looked like they could be adjusted to fit around a person's wrist to make it a punch dagger as well as a tail knife.

"It's my namesake. Long ago, there were many separate Naga tribes, each acting of its own accord. There were no gods back then... just Naga trying to survive a harsh desert that seemed to yearn for their demise. Then, the four appeared for the first time to the chieftain of the mightiest clan, the Cobras. They demonstrated their divinity, then spoke of their plan; an entire nation of Naga, united under one banner, working together."

Gears clicked in Shou's head, until she came to a sharp realization.

"Oh! Is that why there's a species of snake called the King Cobra? Is that the same species the chieftain was?"

He sighed and poker her ribs with his tail tip.

"Yes, the King Cobra's were named after the grandest chieftain... but he never ruled the wastelands. His entire tribe was assassinated halfway through the war, leaving only his allies to fight on for him. With the Cobra's shattered, the divines turned to the Rattlesnakes for leadership... despite the fact that some believe the Rattler's were the ones to carry out such wickedness. Now, be quiet for a moment! This is your bedtime story, and it's quite a good one."

She couldn't help but grin before zipping her lips and tossing the "key" over her shoulder. She gave Khaesho a happy- and silent- look before he sighed and continued his story.

"Though the Cobra was all too happy to believe that the gods had decided to make him King of the desert, most tribes refused the divines' wisdom and guidance, largely due to jealousy at not having been picked. A great war began, a war that would span the better part of a decade... until every Naga was put under one of two banners. There were those who followed the king, and those who rebelled. They followed the flag of a Naga whose name has long since been lost to history."

Kalokin had been silent up until now, but he pressed to the front of their minds to let drip a few quiet thoughts.

She went by the name of Nikolak, translated as Nightmare, for the terror she struck into the hearts of her enemies._Khaesho's mouth opened and closed silently, but before he could form a question, Kalokin prodded his thoughts back onto track. _You're telling the story... I'll only add in if there's something you don't know.

"Well... anyways, as legends go, he-... she... was a demon in close combat. She started the practice of affixing a knife to the end of her tail, to give her an added weapon. Many died by her knives, and it seemed like the war would be turned by her seemingly immortal strength alone."

She wasn't entirely mortal. The Naga didn't have gods then... but they had demons. The abundant evil chose her as their champion, pouring forth hell's fury into a mortal frame. She was the first Vessel, a Vessel with malicious intent.

"As the story goes, not even the gods could stand to her power... they were insubstantial, where her bones were as stone and her muscles as whiplash wind. The only way they could defeat her was by taking Vessels of their own, volunteers from the army. Bhalxash took a Leaping Viper from the southern hemisphere, Ghoz, an Anaconda from the equiatorial forests, Shellandra, a copperhead from the northern sand dunes, and Kalokin..." Khaesho stopped quite suddenly. In all the legends that he'd heard he'd never heard mention of Kalokin. The stories said the four divines took mortal Vessels for the first time, and that they forever after preferred that form. Shelandra herself had told him the tale, but she'd left Kalokin absent from the list.

I wasn't in that army, Khaesho. His voice trembled as if he only barely kept control. It was still the night of the dark moon, and his mysterious affliction plagued him still. Again, Khaesho almost opened his mouth to ask a question, but... now wasn't the time. He knew better than any that Kalokin only spoke of his past when he wanted to, and that when he wanted to, questions were rarely needed.

"Anyways... the point of the story is that, after she was defeated, the Rattlesnake King's royal guard continued the practice of strapping blades to their tails. They combined the words Serpent and Scorpion to make the title of Scorpent, a title that persists to this day. The Scorpent bloodline traces back all the way to the first royal guards, and though there are many who marry into the family or join the ranks from other postings, the title of Scorpent is only given to those who have mastered the art of tail-blade combat. This specific tail blade is a relic... before we left, F-... Kalokin... insisted that we pull one big heist to steal it. This is the tail blade that Nikolak used in all of her battles. Its imbued with powerful magic, an art none have been able to replicate before or since."

During his story, Shou had started struggling out of her clothes... she was exhausted, almost unnaturally so, and after sleeping wearing nothing but bare fur and Khaesho's body, she knew she didn't want to have clothes on when she drifted away. That moment of precious sleep was fast approaching as she cuddled up to her mate. A question buzzed at the edge of her mind though, a nagging thought that refused to leave her mind despite the fact that she was tired down to her bones.

"Bu... wait... you said you fled the deserts as a teen... and you couldn't have b-been a member of the royal guard at such a young age... How... who taught you t' use it...?" Sleep pressed down on her like a lead weight pulling her down into subconscious.

I did, of course... I invented the style, after all...

There it was... the feminine voice that spoke when Kalokin "lost control." Shou was too far gone to remark... and by the time morning came, she'd forgotten that she'd even asked the question.