A YCH by that i won a slot in~

Really liked the general idea for it, and... wanted an excuse to use pirate Rai in some noms >w>

The story below is by

's original is here



The promise of riches is quick to ally enemies. Furious differences and distinctions can be united in the desire for mountains of jewels and gold coins. It spoke to the nature of all, to want for a better life afforded by the rewards of treacherous risk.

These two were, at most, acquaintances. Bound together with thread of fate with a common goal to seek fortune. It had been an uncomfortable three day trek from civilisation to get here, sharing a tent, a sleeping bag, and bringing less food than they expected. Between the red fur, and black plume, of the zoroark, and the emerald scales of the naga, they had less of a plan than they thought.

Koril slithered to rest against one of the giant, stone, pillars that disappeared into the darkness above them. A hand-held, old-fashioned, torch was ablaze with each of them. The flickering flames had lasted well, but would soon be quenched.
“There are sconces on the walls.” said his partner. “We should set about getting some more light.”
“Anything down here will soon catch on, Rai.”
“The only things that exist in the dark are spiders and rats.”
“For my sake, I hope you are right.” The emerald naga slithered silently ahead of his furred associate, and carried the flickering torch ahead of him.

Down smoothed steps, the two scanned for the merest hint of glistening gold amongst the darkness. But there was only worn stone in giant formations.
“Quick. Before we are lost in the dark, light something.” Rai hissed quietly. His own torch had flickered out a while back, and he could see less by the second. Koril nodded and pushed himself skywards towards an elevated torch. He heard the jealous mutterings below, but paid Rai no mind. He only needed the Zoroark to find this place, not to take a share.
“Happy?” He said, once the new torch had been lit.

Rai gave no reply, except for an astonished shriek. The sound echoed through the vast chamber.
“Gold.” He said finally, though to no one but himself. His eyes had seen an unmistakable glint perhaps thirty feet away. His feet began to rapidly close that distance. Koril heard the feet patter away, and dropped quickly to the ground.
“Rai!” He hissed and slithered after the Zoroark. “Stop!” Holding his torch outstretched to try and see, a shiver ran down his long spine. Behind one of the pillars, away from the treasure that might have been just feet away, was a discarded, golden, husk. Split along one side, he was well aware of how large it would have to be to leave a shedding like that.

“The gold! The gold! The gold is here!” he echoed. Ahead of him, twin gold points flickered and twinkled. Huge diamonds. He thought. A necklace of sapphires. Rai’s legs impacted against something that felt like soft stone. Smoother than polished marble, with a slight give to its surface when he pressed a hand on it to vault over the curious ledge.
“Wait!” Rai barely heard. “This is no treasure!” He stumbled on, getting closer and closer to the glinting gold. He didn’t notice as walls of the same texture guided him towards it. In the middle of this giant room? Walls of smooth, pliable, marble? The gold was above him now, but suspended off the ground. He reached up, and felt a warm, wet, sensation on his fingers.

Koril would have taken a step back if he had feet. There was no mistaking the serpentine shedding tucked out of sight.
“Rai!” he shouted again, but was audience to no reply. There was a distant, sibilant sound, another he was more than familiar with. He could have fled then and there, but a little spark of greed in his heart said he should go back with a measly, single piece of gold. Slower than his accomplice, he went after the Zoroark, for maybe a coin or so to take back. He made it no more that a step before there was a deep grinding sound, and weight piled itself down on top of him.

A golden loop, twice as thick as his own tail slithered forward from the gloom at lightning speed. Koril was too shocked to shift away and was swiftly enveloped by the dungeon’s living serpent. It captured around his waist, then lifted around an outstretched arm. The sheer muscular power moved him with ease, pushing arms back, tightening around his chest, before circling his neck. The smooth, golden, scales ground together, squeezing their prey with unimaginable strength. Koril knew now how it felt to be on the receiving end. He tried to pull back, but was practically lifted from the ground and pulled away from the torch that had been wrenched from his grasp. His landing was less of stone floor, and instead the unending lengths of the golden serpent.
“Help!” was all he could mutter, before he was overwhelmed.

Rai did not turn to see the sounds of struggle from behind, but rather stared at the twin, gold, glints that seemed to move. Not only did they sink to his eye level, but an aura surrounded them. It seemed to have its own light, foregoing the need for a torch. Rai kept staring at the gold, the exhilaration in his heart and mind swamping any sense of fear or alarm. In fact, it was damning that he felt nothing but the lust for treasure in the face of the giant serpent.

Her golden eyes lowered in line to his own, tilting to either side to watch his head follow behind hers. Below the pulsing orbs, the warm flicker of the torch had caught the edge of her face. Mostly shadow, a blood-orange tint to the edges, the snout of the serpent came into view. Utterly gigantic, her eyes sat in a head that was wider than Rai’s shoulders with ease. Serpentine, wholly and fully. Her eyes were set forward, staring with deep orbs of the richest honey.

For a second, Rai noticed that the scales were a deep gold, and covered every inch, aside from the equally glinting eyes, and the dark red maw that opened before him.
“It is quite fitting.” She said, in a smooth and penetrating voice. “That you searched for this treasure, with so much greed and desire in your heart, but it is with my greed, that you shall never part with it.” Rai should have crumbled from the fear, but he felt oddly serene. The entire view was that of the eyes, and despite their predatory heritage, the dull throb in them, to which his heart now beat, was regular and hypnotic.

Something pulled him from behind. Smooth, fluid, and strong enough to force him onto his back. A coil of the tail had looped itself around his neck, softly and calmly. And calmly now if pulled him to rest, splayed, upon a length of coil with a girth that rose to his thighs. Rai laid down on it of her volition, and waited. Playing the predator’s game was not often on prey’s agenda, but when the soothing sight of an entrancing gaze keeps your mind, then there's no other. The giant head of the serpent lowered to keep level with his, though it was his hind paws that met the breath of her nostrils. Again, he did not feel fear, only a warmth like a comfortable bed that soothed his body, tampered with his movement, and calmed his mind. As the ruby maw of the serpent revealed itself with glistening folds and thick strings of saliva, Rai stared with a strange sensation of desire, which felt like a tug in an empty chest.

Koril fought against the sheer strength of the serpent’s sinuous coils. From instinct, and tussles with other nagas, he knew to try and entangle himself with the snake, and try his best to constrict around a heart or lung. From there he’d dart out and never return or look back. That is, if the coils around his chest ever relinquished. So far, they had not, and even as his own breath drew shallower, they still constricted.

“Rai! Rai!” He shouted, weaker than expected, not hoping to see the Zoroark as a conspirator with this great predator. Beneath his chin, the coils flexed, and pulled his head upwards, towards the direction of his vanished accomplice. He was both pleased, and disheartened, to see the serpent already making a meal of the skinny fox. As he was being consumed without effort, Rai’s eyes glowed a throbbing gold, and they were linked with a floating stream of a similar colour to the voracious guardian.

Koril’s prison shifted constantly, and dragged the emerald naga closer towards the Rai’s fate. He could see more of the shimmering, golden, scales of the giant snake, and how their perfect interlocking made her smoothly powerful, and how Rai had been fooled in the low, flicking, light to think she was a pile of treasure. The gargantuan reptile manipulated him with the strength and ease as a giant might between fingers as large as oak trees.
Am I even having an effect? He thought. His tail was crushingly powerful on smaller mammals, but before her it paled.

Koril was pulled upright, and after a flurry of muscular movement, was pinned against a wide length of her tail. It spanned across his shoulders, and easily ran from the top of his head to the tip of his tail. His arms were drawn behind his back, and then a half-loop poured over the nape of his neck.
“I began this treasure as nothing more than rumour.” She spoke cleanly, even though there was most of Rai down her throat. “And through the years, the rumor became a tale, and then a legend and earth for the seeds of greed to fester.”

She rose off the ground. Rai disappeared further into her dark maw, being pulled by the powerful throat. Her tongue rolled across his face and passed over his dull, empty, eyes. His fur had a temporary sheen, only dulled when the golden lips closed over the top of his head. The giant serpent sighed constantly, and swirled the zoroark around with her tongue. Koril struggled to escape the thick binds, though the lazy strength she showed was still enough to restrain him.

A blast of warm, odourless, air spread over his face. She was an inch from his eyes. The curve of her golden snout hovered in front of him, and unblinking eyes. Despite their warm glow, which matched the blaze of the ignited torch behind them, her gaze was neutral and emotionless.
“Did you come by his greed?” She asked. It was a simple question, but with fear nestling in his stomach, his answer came out as a stutter.
“N-n-n-no.”
“Then, by your own desire for wealth.” She smiled with smooth lips. “If I let you loose, then you would tell of the trickery, and I would not be able to feed.” The coils around his neck, his chest, and his tail, crushed around him. More green scales disappeared behind the golden stretch of muscle.
“I...w-won't!” He pleaded insistently. “I'll gather people. I'll...gather them and bring them to you!” These was a pause. For a second, Koril hoped his offer would work. The snake smiled without opening her mouth. The bulge of the zoroark had not progressed into her throat yet.

“Are you begging me?” The corners of her lips, which he could not see, curled slightly.
“I'm...I don't want to be e-eaten.” He whimpered. She rose above him, and slid close enough that the light scales of her neck pressed into his front. The mere weight of her leaning against him compressed his chest.
“Then plead. Whimper. Cry. Sob.” She looked down her snout at him. Koril felt a squirming push, which was different to the sheer press of the snake, bulge out of the throat against his chest and navel. Koril lost his body below the neck, becoming just an uncovered head as the snake stared down at him.
“P-please- ” He wheezed.
“Again.”
“I’ll...let me-”
“Again.”
“I-I-” He trembled.

The giant snake brushed her lips against his forehead, and then let her lower jaw open. Capturing his entire view, the dark maw occupied his view. The glistening folds and fleshy sides of swallowing strength were all he could see. Her tongue licked and pasted across his terrified features. No, that wasn't all that was there.
“Again.” She said, a lip brushing his sodden face. There, deep enough in her maw that he was like a pinprick of light and colour in an infinite tunnel, Rai’s dull, entranced face almost smiled as the flesh crushed and pulled on him. Koril let out a loud whine, and tried to escape.

“Again.”

Koril (the naga) is