"If we stop, I can light this lantern," Toman said. A rustling sound betrayed that he was already rummaging in his pack. The rustling continued for quite a while, the only noise in the dark of the cave.
"Here, let me help," Nassata offered, and her scaled hands took Toman's bag away from him.
"I take it you can see just fine," Toman replied wryly.
"Compared to our day vision, we Nadra see poorly in the dark, but our heat sense helps us," Nassata replied. "I had forgotten that humans are blinder yet without light."
Light flared bright, then settled to a soft glow as Nassata lit the wick of the lantern. The Nadra was tilting her head to the side thoughtfully.
"Although…perhaps we are simply more used to it. Our tunnels are far more softly lit than the outside world, and when we warriors patrolled uninhabited sections of Salithsa, we often went without any lights at all. Now, of course, with the Reshkin…" Nassata broke off with a sigh and passed the lantern to Esset. "Well, you'll see. Let's continue."
Knowing more information would come, Toman and Esset fell into step just behind her.
They hadn't gone much further when Nassata suddenly said, "Ah, the sentries," and thrust the haft of her spear towards Toman. Surprised, Toman took the weapon from her purely out of reflex as Nassata lunged forwards, away from them. There was a thud of scales hitting scales and the dry sound of their bodies struggling on the stony ground.
Bewildered, Toman and Esset quickly moved forward a couple steps so that their lantern-light illuminated the scene; Nassata appeared to be fighting with one of her own kind. A third Nadra slithered out of darkness, holding a spear with a metal haft. He was a powerful-looking creature, his bare, scaled chest and arms muscular and rather intimidating. He had no hair to speak of, and his scales gleamed a dark green while his eyes glinted emerald in the lantern-light. His gaze wasn’t entirely friendly, and it was fixed on Toman and Esset. He completely ignored the pair struggling on the tunnel floor.
The pair of young men froze when they saw him, but he simply stood ready. His spear was held vertically, so they were relatively certain he at least wasn’t overtly hostile towards them. His disregard for the fighting pair convinced the young men that it was more a spar than a fight. Esset kept his eye on the green Nadra, but Toman snuck a look at the fight going on at the edge of their circle of light.
Nassata’s opponent appeared to be another male of her kind, this one appearing a bit younger—from what Toman could see—and of a somewhat lighter build than the other male. His scales were a pale yellow, and like the two other Nadra that Toman and Esset had seen so far, his eyes, when they caught the light, gleamed a brighter shade than his scales, making them a bright yellow topaz. Unlike the green Nadra, the yellow male had ridges along the sides and back of his head, giving him a fierce appearance despite his smaller stature.
Toman couldn’t help but be impressed by their struggle. They were incredibly fast when they moved in striking motions, and their style of fighting made full use of that strength. The fighters moved constantly, but their flowing movements were punctuated by sudden, abrupt striking motions that Toman’s eyes could barely track at times. Their battle was about speed and leverage, far more so than strength. He had no doubt that either of them could overpower him if they chose, but he had a feeling that wouldn’t be a tactic that either would choose.
"Tsan! Were I foe, you would be dead!" Nassata taunted as they suddenly broke apart, raising her torso high and her arms higher, her fingers crooked into claws that were pointed at Tsan. The yellow Nadra bared his teeth at her, but he was smiling.
"Nassata, you are softer than I remember—has so little time away made you lose your luster?" he taunted back. There was another thud of scales-on-scales as the pair both lunged and crashed together. They grappled and their bodies jerked from side to side in a match, not of strength, but of who could topple the other with a sudden, unpredicted movement.
"Tsan, Nassata." The green Nadra’s voice was deep, slow, and deliberate, but elicited an instant reaction from the pair. Their grips on each other loosened, and Nassata slipped one arm around Tsan’s waist as she turned to face the green Nadra, shifting her coils atop Tsan’s and moving behind his torso until she was looking at the green Nadra over the yellow Nadra’s shoulder.
"Yes, Asiran?" she said, surprisingly demure as she placed her chin on Tsan’s shoulder. To Esset, it seemed like a strangely intimate gesture, and he wondered if there was something between them. Then he remembered what Nassata had said about the Nadra being an extremely tactile race, and he wondered if that was all it was.
"We expected you back later," Asiran replied. He had yet to take his eyes from Toman and Esset.
"I made decent time there, and excellent time back," Nassata replied, shifting to look at Asiran from over Tsan’s other shoulder. Tsan reached one hand back to slide against her scales as she moved off from atop him on his other side and then away from Tsan completely, towards Asiran. "I did not want to take any longer than necessary."
"I expected something...more," Asiran replied, looking Toman and Esset up and down. Esset knew how they looked, himself especially. Young. Weaponless. Skinny—especially next to the lithely muscular Nadra. But the pair had practice at not taking offense to others’ hesitation, since it wasn’t an uncommon reaction. Neither one of them looked like he could deal much damage.
Nassata slid up beside Asiran and ran a hand up the arm holding the spear before ducking under it and pressing her back up against his chest as she looked up at him and replied. Asiran placed one hand on her shoulder in response.
"Gretchen assured me that these two can help us better than a mercenary company," she said. "And I believe her. I’ve seen some of what one of them, at least, can do." Now Asiran looked down at her.
"Very well," he replied. "Retrieve your spear and proceed." Nassata flashed a smile up at him and slithered back towards Toman and Esset. Asiran let his hand run down her arm as she pulled away.
Yes,
Esset decided with a tilt of his head,
this is just the tactile tendency of the Nadra that Nassata had mentioned.
"Come," Nassata bade them to follow her, holding out her hand for her spear. Toman happily handed it over as they stepped forward. Tsan had vanished for a moment and reappeared with a spear of his own, just in time to salute them with it as they passed. Esset was all too aware of Asiran’s eyes on them as they passed him and continued down the tunnel again. Nassata had mentioned that they might not be welcomed by every Nadra…
The three didn’t encounter anyone else until a glow of light had appeared ahead. By the sound and light radiating from the end of the passage, Esset guessed that the city was just beyond the curve, but they stopped to greet two more sentries that stood there.
"Tseka, Sokess." Nassata slithered forward and both sentries took turns clasping her forearm in a warrior's clasp. Then one of them locked her red eyes on Toman and Esset.
"So, these must be our…saviours." She sounded distinctly less than welcoming. The warrior—Nassata had greeted her as Tseka—was very striking, with brilliant scarlet scales burnished to a dull sheen. Her eyes were utterly fearsome, a vibrantly bright shade of blood-red. Her hair was a startling orange-red as well, and it was pulled back in huge, thick braids and wound around her body in a harness around her torso.
"Toman and Esset." Nassata introduced them.
With a very sudden movement, Tseka was next to the two humans, quick as a striking snake. She raised her torso up on her coils so that she towered over them, deliberately looming in an intimidating fashion. She bared her teeth and hooked her fingers into claws.
Toman and Esset both stepped back and braced themselves, but their faces only hardened in determination—there was no trace of fear. There was a long moment where neither moved. Toman and Esset were unwilling to take preemptive action, and although Tseka was being hostile towards them, she hadn’t actually attacked them yet—although given how fast she moved, neither was entirely sure they could stop her in time if she chose to attack.
"We’ve no quarrel with you," Toman finally said after the conflict had stretched on long enough.
"Huh." Tseka suddenly relaxed, her torso sinking back down into her coils until her head was level with theirs.
"Well, they’re not a waste of time at least," Tseka suddenly said to Nassata over her shoulder, her smile slightly malicious. Esset looked slightly disconcerted.
"Oh, come on, I was just playing with you," Tseka said, slapping them both on the shoulders; Esset winced. Tseka didn’t apologize.
"Tseka likes her…games," Nassata said, directing her explanation at Toman and Esset. She looked like she was considering apologizing on Tseka's behalf, but she didn't. "Come, you must see the city."
"I'll catch up with you later," Tseka promised, but it was ambiguous who she was speaking to; she had already returned her gaze down the tunnel she was guarding.
Toman and Esset weren't given any time to consider the semi-hostile exchange, for the tunnel had opened into a massive cavern, and they were struck by the sight of the underground city.
"Our city is beautiful, yes?" Nassata asked proudly. They both nodded dumbly. They stood in the entrance to the cavern, and a few meters in front of them was a ledge, beyond which dropped the bowl of the cavern. The ledge spiraled down the cavern walls, creating a walkway for the Nadra down the tiers carved into the stone bowl that was their city.
"You see the entrances along the various tiers?" Nassata asked. Esset nodded. "Some are simply rooms or suites, but others are tunnels that lead to other parts of the city. Our tunnels intersect many times. This is only one of three great caverns, which act like a nexus."
Esset noticed that there were no doors to any of the rooms, homes, shops, or tunnels; there were only curtains, some made of cloth, others of beads and the like. The stone beneath their feet had been polished so smooth it practically glowed. Generations of Nadran scales slithering across it had polished it more perfectly than any artisan could ever hope to.
"Look up," Nassata suggested. They did, and they saw that they weren't on the top floor. Several tiers were yet above them, and the ceiling arced higher yet. The whole place was illuminated by a remarkably clear and bright light that emanated from the ceiling. The roof of the cavern was covered in stalactites, jutting down in various lengths and diameters. Esset thought they’d been polished and hollowed out, then packed with some kind of bioluminescent organism—moss or lichen, most likely, or perhaps some kind of bug. Before he could ask, Nassata was speaking again.
"The art in our city is the pride of our people," she remarked. "It is a great honor to maintain it or paint new sections." Esset could see why. Somehow, thoughts of caves and caverns and all things underground brought to mind thoughts of washed-out colors and monotonous surroundings. Not so in the Nadran world; Salithsa was a painted city.
The snake-people didn’t favor murals, paintings depicting scenes, events, or images of concrete things. Instead they seemed to favor geometric patterns or more abstract swirls of color. But each painted section flowed into the next with no jarring transitions or apparent asymmetry. And they used every color imaginable—their underground world was rich in minerals with which to make paints of every kind and color.
The last thing Esset noticed was how warm it was; again, the typical thought of a cave evoked a damp coolness that was lacking here. In fact, if anything, he would have described it as the exact opposite: a comfortable, dry warmth. It was rather pleasant in the underground city.
"It’s a good thing neither of us is too afraid of heights," Esset remarked, peering warily over the edge. The foot-high lip provided reasonable containment for Nadran coils that could mistakenly err over an edge, but for a human or other biped, it would be a simple matter to step or worse, trip, over the small ledge. As he looked down, however, he noticed for the first time a large pool of water at the very bottom of the cavern. The last tier circled around the great spring. Well, that explained where the city got its water supply.
"Nassata!" an excited, breathy soprano called from behind them. They turned, and both Esset and Toman blinked when they actually saw the female speaker.
The Nadra they’d seen so far had all been dull of scale and muscular of form—this delicate thing before them was neither. She was very slight, with fine features and a shy air about her. She had long, curly hair so black it had a blue sheen. Unlike Nassata’s hair, however, hers simply hung loose—and, thankfully for the two modestly brought-up young men before her, it covered her otherwise bare scaled breasts. Her eyes were a bright sapphire blue and her scales matched. Her scales weren't dull, but rather polished bright and painted as colorfully and intricately as the city itself.
"Kessa!" Nassata slithered over to hug the smaller Nadra, giving Esset a chance to covertly study Kessa's scales. The geometric patterns on her scales had to have taken hours to paint, and hours still to maintain—each shape was no bigger than her own pinky-fingernail. The colors looked like they were made of rich enamels—or something like it, Esset was no expert—and in colors that complemented her scales: blues, purples, and a few bright yellows as accents.
"It's good to have you back," Kessa said to Nassata. "We expected you go be gone longer. I came to meet you as soon as I heard you had returned."
"It is good to be back," Nassata responded. "I was fortunate to find help so quickly, and help with quick transportation at that."
"But they can help?" Kessa asked, her eyes wide. There was something innocent about her, something almost helpless.
"Yes, they will help us," Nassata reassured her. Then Nassata turned her face towards Toman and Esset.
"And in turn, Kessa will help you. She can be your guide when you are not with the warriors, and if you need anything, just ask her. She will also bring you food and any other necessities you will be needing here."