May then crossed her arms with a look of skepticism on her face. "Venting once isn't going to take all of my sadness away. Besides, I'll only tell you how I'm feeling if you do the same." I raised an eyebrow. "What?" She nodded with a smile. "It's obvious that you have a lot of emotions bottled up inside you, which is why you're so cranky all the time. If you tell me something, I'll tell you something. That's the deal."
I then glared at her with an expression of ice. "Not on your life." She shrugged. "Then I guess we're both going to stay ticking time bombs." I thought about it for a second and an idea came to me. "Alright then. I have other ways of getting you to vent." Her expression changed to surprise again and I led her to a small dead tree hidden among the rest of the lively ones. "Now that you know how to punch correctly, I'm going to teach you how to kick."
May looked at the tree in the ground and back to me with confusion. "I thought you were going to get me to vent, what does fighting have to do with it?" I shared her confusion for a moment as I turned to her. "Fighting is a form of releasing pent-up emotion. Now kick it." She sighed. "We really should be going-" I raised my hand to stop her and then gestured to the tree. "Just do it."
She then rolled her eyes and took her satchel from around her head and placed it on the ground before approaching the tree. She stopped flying so her feet were on the ground, and she raised her foot to bump the trunk pathetically with her heel. She returned her foot and I sighed. "Not like that. Hit it with the bone of your shin. It inflicts twice as much pain."
She shook her head and turned to me. "I really don't-" I interrupted her again but didn't move as I responded. "Pretend it's Damien." She then immediately turned back to the tree and struck it with her leg so hard that the thin trunk cut in half and fell over onto the ground. "HYAH!" The crack of it echoed through the silent forest and I was speechless for a second.
May rubbed her lower leg which was starting to bruise and tilted her head. "Wow, you're right. That is a stress reliever." I was impressed with how strongly she could hit something when she actually tried but hid my impressed expression as I turned to her. "You have more potential than I thought you did."
She looked at me with hopefulness and joy and squeaked. "Really?! That is the nicest thing you have ever said to me!!" I sighed with irritation and turned away from her. "Practice when you can while we travel. Let's go." She did as I said and retrieved her satchel from the ground where she left it. She slowly became more like herself the more time passed, and before I knew it she was a ray of sunshine again. As much as I despised it, I needed her to be as cooperative as possible.
We headed towards some mountains close by that looked like a giant mountain was split in half through the middle. The peaks were tall and were entirely made from stone as the sun shined behind them. We reached the base of it by nightfall and camped near the entrance to the canyon. I noticed however that May just fell asleep without counting sheep or saying how beautiful the sky is.
I shook my head as I laid down to rest by the fire. 'She's still upset, isn't she? This just proves how pointless relationships are. I'm glad I'm smart enough to not fall victim to companionship. I still don't get why someone would WANT one of those. Fools.' I closed my eyes to a night of dreamless sleep and awoke again to the golden sun emerging from the skyline. I sat up to see that May was already awake and making breakfast. "Good morning."
She had sliced a bunch of fruit and skewered the pieces along two sticks, and topped it off with cinnamon. She handed me one without saying anything and we ate in silence from how delicious it was. Later we made our way into the canyon, and May became more excited the closer we got to Granite's cave. I held a hand on my sword at all times, feeling anxious as I saw the huge and long snake tails of the Nagas that held their eyes on us from the cliffs above.
They were just like May described, half human and half snake with regular hair other than the color that matched each of their tails. Their eyes were also bright with sharp slits for pupils, and they had snake teeth as well. May said hello to them but they just watched as we passed by. It was unnerving to have so many eyes on us, but they didn't seem hostile at the moment so I tried to ignore them.
Once we approached the cave May stopped in front of, a Naga with both a brown tail and hair came rushing out with excitement. He immediately wrapped his arms around May and she did the same. "CherryMay!" Before she could yell his name with delight in return, he pulled out of the hug and grabbed her hands. "I'm so glad you're here! You came just in time!!"
He didn't allow her to respond again and pulled her into the cave as quick as a flash. "Ah!" I sighed and followed them into the cave, dragging my impatient feet as I walked. I noticed that Granite's tail was designed with a snake pattern, and diamond shapes crawled along the back of it as he slithered.
My line of sight then fell to the end of the cave where another Naga was lying down on a slightly elevated rock. As we got closer I noticed that this Naga was a woman with a dark violet tail and hair. Her thick hair was tied back in a messy ponytail and she weighted her head on her arm as she rested. Her skin was shining from sweat and I wondered why until my gaze fell to her tail. It was wrapped a couple of times in a large circle, cradling what looked to be a large batch of eggs that were freshly laid.
Their shells were soft and a little bloody as they stuck together like what regular snake eggs do. May gasped as soon as she saw them and the mother Naga opened her eyes and smiled, softly. "Hello again, CherryMay." May came up and grabbed her hand as she kneeled in front of her. "I can't believe this! I didn't even know you were pregnant, Olive!"
The Naga named Olive closed her eyes while continuing to smile and Granite came over to kiss her forehead. He turned to May as she stood up again and spoke with a gentle happiness. "She's pretty tired so we better let her rest. Snakes aren't pregnant for very long, so we were just too excited and panicked to remember to tell you. So sorry, but before we could think we suddenly had seven beautiful eggs!"