Guest held their breath as they walked slowly into the cavern. A lake sat in the centre with water trickling down from the crystal ceiling into the water mass. On the surface surrounding it, piles of gold coins and other treasures filled up the huge space.

But that was not why they were here. On the far back wall inside another smaller space sat a large nest graced with stolen fine materials from red silks to perfectly crafted woollen blankets. In the centre lay a Naga curled up amongst the luxuries.

He was huge, his tail at least 20 feet long and that wasn’t including his upper body which was human looking side from some scales shimmering scales on his cheeks and lower arms. His scales shimmered like an opal gemstone and his hair ranged with diverse tones of blue depending on the lights angle.

It was a dimly lit cave so there wasn’t too much to see.

From what Guest had heard this Naga for some odd reason kept the remaining eggshells of their one and only offspring. The villagers and travellers had explained the beast one day woke up to the empty broken egg in a panic searching everywhere for what was supposed to be inside. Nothing came of the Nagas search.

Many villages suffered months after from the monsters wrath as the Naga went into a rage searching for something that clearly couldn’t be found.

Guest didn’t care too much about the stories, what they wanted was the egg shells. Naga eggshells were practically priceless and hard to retrieve.

Searching for the eggs remains they finally spotted it near the edge the nest. Reluctantly with gloved hands they went to grasp the large shimmering egg remains, a large hand flew in out of nowhere with bruising strength.

Dark blue eyes of fury locked into their terrified gaze, “how dare you attempt such an atrocious act in my own home human! And of all the things you consider stealing, the one thing that is most important to me-“ He stopped speaking suddenly and sniffed the air. His slitted pupils dilated and he looked bewildered.

Guest slid their hand out of the grip swiftly and didn’t think about why they came there. Instead they bolted out into the cavern again planning to run for their life.

Meanwhile the Naga, Hendrix was surprised into a state of shock. That smell, it was exactly like the one found inside the shell of his precious egg. His snakelet was alive. They were actually alive. All these years he thought they were dead.

But his snakelet was running away now, they were wearing human clothing, they were running on two legs and not slithering along on a single serpentine tail. His snakelet had been raised completely wrong by human influence. He would have to change that at once. He couldn’t let them escape.