Chapter 4

The air was heavy. 

It reeked of anger and disappointment, surprise and guilt. 

Diya stared at them as she kept her mouth shut.

She was starting to think Amyntas forgot his eyes on her.

She looked away and he sighed.

He looked at her in disappointment.

"Say something".

He glared at her and she shrunk back in fear.

"We trusted you, Diya. How could you keep something like that from us?, you keeping something like this means you can betray us", Amosis spoke in anger.

"What is wrong with you?, what happened to you that makes you hide in your shell? Do you intend to be like this forever? Not completely honest?. You're no different from those who tried to kill us", Amosis spoke in her face.

"Stop crying Diya. You knew the consequences of your actions".

"Speak up".

Amyntas rose up and stood on his strong tail, opening his mouth.

His snake tongue and fangs were on display.

Diya looked on in fear as if he was going to devour her.

His chest heaved and he looked ready to kill.

Diya covered her face with her arms.

She knew she was going to die one day but she didn't know it was going to be this soon.

She felt his breath on her leg.

He's going to start from my lower body, she thought.

She waited to be lifted up the ground but felt nothing.

Instead, a cold wet substance dropped on her leg.

It burned her leg and she hissed in pain.

When she looked at it, she saw an open wound and it looked like the wet substance was healing her wound.

She didn't realize she had gotten hurt from the run earlier as the adrenaline was rushing in her.

His poison was healing her wound.

The nagas crawled out, leaving her alone.

Then she cried.

She knew they didn't deserve it.

All they ever did was take me in and take care of me. I knew all their secrets yet i kept the most important one from them, she cried as she thought to herself.

She hugged her knees and rested her back against the wall of the cave.

Later that night, none of them came inside the cave.

Diya limped outside as her leg was still hurting and saw them all sleeping on branches of trees except for Gracchus.

She climbed a tree and sat on Amyntas stomach.

He opened his eyes and stared at her.

They were no emotions in his eyes.  

Then he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

Diya hugged his huge frame and bit her lower lip in sadness.

She didn't mean to hurt them.

Amyntas sighed and wrapped his tail around her.

Diya went to sleep under the beautiful moonlight wrapped in her naga brother's tail.

"What do you want to eat?".

"Why are you asking?".

"So i can know whether to poison you or not".

The chattering voices woke Diya up the next morning.

She rubbed her eyes and yawned.

She wasn't on the tree anymore. She was laid on grass covered with a big cloth.

Diya looked at the sky and the sun was already in its full glory shining brightly.

If Diya should guess, It should be around 12 pm.

They had taught her how to tell time by looking at the sky but she wasn't as good as them.

Just to be sure, she checked an old clock they took from one of the humans.

Diya knew the nagas do not need sign language with her as she wasn't mute from birth.

She just decided to go with the sign language in her pack because,

One, she wanted to limit interaction and two, she believed they were just plain stupid.

She just nodded or shook her head most times.

The nagas were used to her body language so she didn't really need to write on the ground except on rare occasions. 

Diya turned her head and saw Gracchus up, she smiled and River yelled.

Gracchus!.

"You can't poison me", Gracchus replied.

"Why not?", Amosis asked.

"Because I'm a naga, stupid".

Amosis lunged for Gracchus as he crawled into the water.

Amyntas was resting against a big rock and Akakios watched the ongoing fight with delight.

Diya stood up and went over to them.

She decided they deserved to know everything, she needed to be completely honest with them and that starts now.

The water fight stopped and they all stared at her.

"Good Morning".

Gracchus gasped.

"So It's true".

Diya nodded her head slowly and looked at Amyntas.

"I sorry", she said quietly.

"What?", Akakios asked.

"I'm sorry", she said again looking at her feet.

"You have a beautiful voice", Akakios complimented.

"Thank you".

Amyntas came over to her and looked at her.

"But why?".

"I–i do–d–d–don't know".

"I was scared", she finally said.

"Of what?".

"Everything, i didn't know how it was going to feel like".

"Pathetic excuse", Amosis scoffed.

"Why did you stop talking?".

Diya looked at Gracchus with wide eyes. Dreadful and tragic memories that had been buried deep in her rose to the surface and invaded her heart and mind. 

"Give it back, It's mine".

"No, It's mine".

"Fine!".

He let go of it and she stumbled backwards into the road.

"Diya!".

Tears began to flow from her eyes as her lips trembled.

"It's alright, you don't have to talk about it".

She nodded and hugged Amyntas.

"Let's go hunting".

They all glared at Gracchus who rolled his eyes.

"Go with Amosis", Akakios suggested.

"No!", she flinched at Amosis' tone and felt hurt.

Amosis crawled away immediately not bothering to look at her.

"He's just upset, Lying is the worst thing you could do to him", Akakios said then went after him.

"He'll get over it in no time", Gracchus consoled then went back to swimming.

"But i didn't lie, i just didn't say it", Diya said lowly.

Amyntas stared at her and shook his head as she sat down with him.

"Are you hungry?", he asked.

She shook her head.

"You can talk", he pointed out.

"Sorry, i mean no".

"Can i ask you something?", she looked at him with uncertainty.

"Go ahead".

"Why did you forgive me so easily?".

"Because you're a child, you're still learning".

She rolled her eyes.

"How old are you anyway?".

"Two hundred and seven years".

Diya looked at him in utter shock.

Amyntas laughed and used his finger to close her mouth.

"Why don't you have a mate?".

"We haven't found her".

"What do you mean we?".

"We naga brothers share one mate, I'm guessing she hasn't showed up because Gracchus is still young".

"How old is he?".

"Eighty four years but she should show up around when he's Ninety".

"Wow".

"When you eventually find your mate, how do you mate?", she looked away as she asked the question.

"With this", he pointed to his lower body.

Diya looked at him in confusion and he smiled.

"Let me explain".

"Nagas can choose to be in three different forms, this", he said as he pointed to himself.

"A full human or a full snake but It's considered disrespectful by nagas to keep switching so you choose one form. There is a hidden penis beneath this layer of skin so when i want to mate, it comes out or i mate as a full human".

Diya was still trying to process the new information when Akakios yelled.

"Time to eat!".

Diya and Gracchus raced to the rabbit in Akakios' hand.

She sighed in content.

Life with the naga brothers was great. She had made a mistake but she was going to fix it. 

If only she knew what awaited her. 

Something bigger than her mistake.