Human!Orpheus Meets Naga!Uriah
(Haven’t written for these two in a while! Enjoy!)
Orpheus lowered his camera and looked at the last shot he had taken. The vivid fuchsia plumage of the parakeets’ heads stood out perfectly against the green foliage around them. He grinned with satisfaction, and switched back to the active screen, closing his left eye and refocusing on the birds across from him.
“That’s it,” he murmured, watching patiently, “stay nice and still for me…”
His shutter clicked several times before he leaned back against the tree trunk in his harness, adjusting the camera again. So far, this had been a highly successful trip for the nature article he’d been working on. His editors were going to swoon over the wildlife shots he’d managed to collect; the flock of parakeets that served as his current subjects were giving him tons of material to work with. Combined with the orchids, butterflies, and a handful of other animals he’d been able to capture with his camera, Orpheus was confident he’d be getting the cover photo slot. Supposing the team that had been sent to the Sahara didn’t come back with something better.
…Maybe a couple extra photos couldn’t hurt. He had a week before he had to return home, and Orpheus could work on the finishing touches to his final draft on the plane ride back.
“Alright, pretty birds, just a few more,” he sighed, steadying his camera once more. The lens had just focused in on a juvenile’s face when a sudden noise drew all of the birds’ attention. Even Orpheus looked up, startled by what sounded like a person crying out. When he glanced back towards the birds, they all tensed and took off, squawking as they flew through the canopy. Orpheus blew out his cheeks in a disappointed huff, closing up his camera in order to make a safe descent back to the ground.
On the way down and as he was packing up the climbing gear, Orpheus kept glancing in the direction the bizarre noise had come from. It sounded far too human to be an animal. At least, not any animal he’d ever heard—and he had been on plenty of trips to recognize a human scream compared to a wildcat or primate call. Something told him he should probably leave it be, but at the same time, curiosity nipped at the back of his mind. As unlikely as it was, it very well could be an undiscovered species. Or perhaps an amusing anecdote to go on the cryptozoology blog he ran on the side. Both ideas appealed to him.
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” he reasoned to himself. Adjusting the straps of his backpack and rechecking the location of his pocket knife—just in case—Orpheus began to carefully make his way in the direction of the unknown noise.
After about twenty minutes of walking, however, his determination was beginning to wane land frustration was swiftly replacing it. He knew he wasn’t crazy; he’d absolutely heard something, but there wasn’t a single clear sign of any kind of animal or human activity. No noticeable tracks in the mossy soil of the undergrowth, no tufts of fur or loose feathers, nothing. Orpheus huffed and swiped the back of his hand across his brow, pausing in a small clearing to think. His eyes wandered around as he began guessing as to where the cry might’ve come from, reviewing in his head any known species or folklore he might have researched on his way overseas for the trip. Every culture had their sort of ‘Big Foot’ creature, but that seemed far-fetched at best…
Hold on. Orpheus’s vision snapped back a pace, squinting. That wasn’t a vine dangling from the trees, that was a rope.
“Oh, geez,” he groaned. Somebody might’ve fallen. Or there could have been poaching in the area, and something got caught. Either way, he’d have to check it out and potentially report it to the nearest conservation facility. He chided himself on the walk over, stepping carefully over a few logs and stones, ducking beneath a tree with a split trunk.
“So help me, if I end up in trouble because I busted some poaching gig… Yeah, there’s a headline they’ll wanna print: ‘Missing Photographer Found Shot In—‘“
His words stopped abruptly as a flash of movement and red caught his eye. Orpheus halted immediately as a loud, low hiss reached his ears. That sounded like something big. And angry. Inhaling slowly, he visually scanned the foliage around him until his gaze landed on what appeared to be a patch of scales. They moved, and he swallowed thickly. Those were snake scales. Huge snake scales. Bigger than any snake he had ever seen, and he’d accompanied a group searching for anacondas once. But where was the head, if he heard hissing? Orpheus lifted his gaze, and immediately flinched back.
“Holy shit!”
Just ahead was the rest of the creature: it’s impossibly long tail melded seamlessly into a tanned human torso, complete with a human head and face. Piercing green eyes glowered at him through auburn hair and the holes of a weighted snare net. Orpheus’s mouth went dry as he stared back, chest heaving, thoroughly shaken. He’d read about these creatures. Naga. Half serpent and half human, some cultures considered them divine. They were beings of myth, though, not…real.
But this one was. And it—he—was rightfully cross. Afraid, even, hissing like a cobra with lips peeled back to reveal sharp fangs. Orpheus glanced back down along the body, eventually coming to the other problem: a trap clamped tightly down on a portion of the naga’s tail, blood leaking out around the metal teeth of the contraption. Poaching equipment.
“…Okay. Okay, okay, uh… Christ,” Orpheus stammered, slowly running a hand through his pulled-up hair. The naga hissed again, it’s coils bunching before the snared portion gave a sharp flinch and the hiss cut short, fading into a pained whine. Lowering his head, the naga panted, trying to shift beneath the net but only causing himself further pain.
“Wait, don’t—“ Before Orpheus could step closer, the naga snapped his head up and hissed again. Orpheus grimaced. This wasn’t going to be easy. He’d likely get himself killed. But leaving something like this, something half-human, to suffer, felt wrong.
“Alright, I get it. You’re not happy,” he said placatingly, raising both hands. “You want out of that, right? …What the hell am I doing, this thing can’t talk to me.”
Orpheus carefully set his bag down, maintaining eye contact with the naga, who watched with a furrowed brow and deep frown, but otherwise remained quiet. Muttering to himself again about how insane the entire ordeal was, Orpheus reached into his pocket slowly and fished out his knife, flicking it open. The naga tensed and growled, low and loud like an alligator bellow.
“Easy, easy,” Orpheus hushed, inching forward. “I’m not gonna hurt you, okay? I just gotta cut this crap apart, then we’ll get to the nasty stuff down there with your tail. Can… Can we do that without you trying to kill me?”
To his shock, the naga went silent and nodded once. Orpheus faltered, staring in bewilderment.
“…You understood that?”
He got an impatient growl in response.
“Right! Sorry, I uh…sorry.”
Clearing his throat, Orpheus crouched down at the net’s edge and began the tedious process of cutting the tangled ropes away from the naga’s body.
“This is insane. I’m insane,” he muttered to himself. “I’m talking to a snake-man, in the middle of nowhere, cutting him out of a net…” He glanced up at the naga briefly, caught the intense stare of his green eyes, and went back to the task at hand. “Yep. Crazy. I’m crazy. Must’ve hit my head somewhere along the line. This is all a hallucination.”
“I’m not a hallucination.”
Orpheus swore and nearly cut his hand.
“You can speak?!”
“Don’t stop! Get me out of here,” the naga hissed through clenched teeth.” Orpheus gawked for only a second more before he resumed cutting the ropes.
“God damnit all, this is—I don’t even know what this is anymore!”
“Just hurry up before whoever set this up comes back!”
“I’m trying, I’m trying! Stop fidgeting!”
“I’m not—“
Both fell silent as a flock of birds erupted out of the foliage a few meters away. Orpheus held his breath and exchanged a frenzied look with the naga.
“Come on,” he hissed, fangs bared anxiously. “That could be them! They’re gonna kill me!”
Orpheus cursed under his breath.
“Try to stay calm. Do you have a name?”
The naga scoffed.
“Yes, but what’s that got to do with it?”
“Just tell me your name. Talk. Keep your mind off it.”
“Uriah. It’s Uriah.”
“Uriah? Well, can’t say it’s the best experience meeting you, but my name’s Orpheus.”
“I appreciate the sentiment, but I’m more worried about dying than exchanging pleasantries!”
“Just one more…there! That oughta do it. Now just hold still, I gotta pry this piece of shit open,” he muttered, looking at the trap clamped into the naga’s tail. It appeared to be similar to a bear trap. He’d seen plenty in his expeditions and in some of the wilderness classes he’d taken; one had to know what to watch out for when traveling through wild territory, especially if there was big game that hunters were desperate to catch—legally or otherwise.
“Damn, this is a nasty one…but I think I can get it off. It’s gonna hurt though.”
“It already hurts,” Uriah growled.
“Yeah, well, it might hurt worse for a few seconds. Just uhhh… Ah!” He grabbed a fallen branch, small and barren but still pliant, and passed it over. “Bite down on this.”
“Why?”
“Do you wanna break your teeth?”
Uriah relented with a whine and held out a clawed hand, taking the branch with obvious hesitation and looking at Orpheus with wide, uncertain eyes once it was between his teeth.
“I’ll be as gentle and quick as I can, okay? It’s not gonna be pleasant, but I’ll do my best.”
All he got from Uriah was a timid nod. Bracing himself for the grisly task, Orpheus carefully assessed the trap’s grip. It was a rusted, ugly old thing; any human who would have been unfortunate enough to step on it would absolutely have needed a tetanus shot afterwards. Why a poacher would be using such a degraded piece of junk was beyond his reasoning, unless they really didn’t care about the state of the animal afterwards. Which, for a poacher, that tracked. But, seeing as it was similar to a bear trap, he had a good idea of how to open the damn thing.
“Alright, here goes nothing.”
Inhaling and bracing himself for whatever unpleasantness was to follow, Orpheus placed both hands on either side of the trap’s teeth and pushed down. The springs at the bottom ground and squeaked, and over Uriah’s pained hisses and whines he could hear the telltale sign of pressure releasing from the metal bits. Carefully, so as not to slip and cause it to re-clamp, Orpheus pried the teeth back, grimacing as they eased out of the naga’s scales and bloodied flesh underneath. Once the metal was entirely free of Uriah’s tail, he forced it down the rest of the way.
“Okay! You’re out! Move!”
Uriah didn’t need told twice. The branch he’d been given was spat out, nearly bit in two. His tail lashed away instantly, recoiling several feet back as Orpheus also lurched away. Before he could think on his next steps, though, Uriah struck out with the end of his tail, flinging the trap towards a tree trunk with so much force the teeth were forced through the bark, pieces of rust and loose metal flying loose and clinking down into the soil.
“I was gonna need to document that to report it,” Orpheus sighed in protest. He looked towards Uriah and his mouth snapped shut, seeing the naga rise to his full height. He wasn’t a hulking creature, his muscles surprisingly lean for what he expected to be an apex predator of sorts, but he was still taller than him—especially with Orpheus sitting in the dirt. Uriah glowered at the remains of the trap and growled, that same deep rumbling he had heard before, and then turned to Orpheus.
“Hey, easy, easy! Don’t be mad at me! I just got you out!”
Uriah’s clawed hands reached out and, much to Orpheus’s shock, grasped and lifted him by his shirt as if he weighed absolutely nothing. Before he could question it further, the naga swiped the back of his hands across his shoulders, flicking off dirt and bits of plant matter; his tail held up his previously discarded pack. Orpheus accepted it, his face blank with surprise.
“Well?”
“Uh…well what?” Orpheus asked dumbly. Uriah rolled his eyes and huffed.
“Do you want to be here when the people who set that crap up get back? I don’t. C’mon.”
“You want me to follow you?”
“No, I want you to stand here and give them directions to the nearest trail,” he hissed back sarcastically. “Just keep pace, alright? Sheesh.”
Shrugging helplessly, Orpheus hesitated only a second or two before following Uriah’s lead, all the while internally chastising himself for what had to have been the most vivid fever dream of his life. The entire ordeal felt more fiction than reality, but…it all felt very tangible. Real. He wrestled with those same thoughts as he kept up with Uriah, the naga casting nervous glances back at him every so often as he led him deeper into the old growth of the jungle. It was quiet between the two of them, awkwardly so. So much that apparently the naga felt uncomfortable with the silence and decided to break it.
“Why did you help me?”
“Pardon?”
“You could have left me there. Or captured me yourself,” Uriah muttered. “Why didn’t you?”
“Uh, well, for one, poaching isn’t exactly my style,” Orpheus huffed. “That is, it’s illegal. Can’t imagine any animal or their parts are worth the jail time and fines. Plus it’s just…eesh—“ He made a gesture of discomfort with his hands. “—Y’know?”
“…Right. ‘Eesh.’” Uriah’s mouth twisted in slight curiosity. “So, you’re not a hunter?”
“Nah. I’ve gone fishing before, but hunting’s not for me. I’d rather hold a camera than a gun.”
“Ah, yes, that reminds me. No pictures.”
“What? Aw, c’mon, you’re a scientific marvel—“
Uriah turned abruptly and gave Orpheus a stern look.
“No. Pictures. Do you understand?”
Orpheus held up his hands placatingly, swallowing.
“Okay, okay, yeah, uh, I got it. But…why?”
The naga exhaled sharply and gestured to his neck, where a pale mark circled his entire throat. A scar.
“I’ve had my fill of attention. Let’s put it that way.”
“…Somebody held you captive?”
Uriah frowned.
“A man with bizarre powers, and an interest in the arcane,” he answered lowly. “I was his…pet, for lack of a better term. Something to amuse him, impress people who thought it was some nifty party trick. I managed to get away once; I wouldn’t be so lucky a second time. A friend only recently helped break the collar and cuffs I was stuck in a short while ago. So no photographs; he’d use them to track me down.”
Orpheus took note of the sullen slope in his shoulders and the downcast demeanor in Uriah’s body language. Dream or not, it was an awful story. Taking several strides to catch up and look to Uriah’s face directly, Orpheus gave him a look of sympathy.
“I’m sorry you had to live like that. No pictures. I promise.”
Uriah paused and stared at him, the faintest hint of a smile on his face.
“Thank you. And for freeing me, too. As far as mortals go, you’re alright.”
“Oh, well, let me just tack that up on my wall,” Orpheus joked. “‘Most Alright Human.’”
A small chuckle escaped the naga as he shook his head. Orpheus took note of the slightly pink tint to his freckled face. Strange, for an inhuman creature, he was rather attractive.
“Come on. It’ll be dark in a few hours. The least I can do is offer you some shelter until the morning. My friend might be able to help me get you back where you belong, then.”
“I’ll take you up on that. Besides, your tail could use some antibiotics. I’ve got an emergency kit in my bag. If that’s the plan, then, after you.”