Prey (Male!Naga x Male!Reader)

Chapter 9

Y/n felt like he was a victim of miscommunication. Or rather, misunderstanding. See, he had thought that for the duration of their little hunt for the naga, he'd be well-protected behind a wall of Einar's fully armed men with Dr. Nilsson at his side. That was not the case.

Y/n stood on legs that fell like jello, his trusty flashlight in one hand and his radio in the other. It was nearing dusk and no sign of the naga had yet been reported. The (h/c) man was with Gazsi and three other men. They made of up only one of the five groups scouting out the western half of the island. Dr. Nilsson was leading the first, Einar the second, Mark the third, and Kadeeth the fourth. Everyone who knew the location of the cage was heading their own group. Y/n got stuck "leading" the fifth. Though, mostly, he was trudging behind Gazsi who's keen eye was roving intently over their surroundings, looking for even the tiniest hint of a trail or sign.

Working day and night to find some potentially deadly creature, running around on a hostile island at night, and all the accumulated sore muscles he had gotten throughout this excursion was not something Y/n L/n had signed up for. Not to mention the stress. The (h/c) man had probably shed a few years off his life expectancy by this point.

"God," he hissed, clutching at a stitch his side developed about their seventh hour in. This sucked. And he still didn't get a gun. So, it double sucked.

As night descended, so did much of the ambient noise. The forest and the swamp became muted; air heavy. Y/n could hear nothing but the sound of everyone's breathing and their footsteps landing too heavy on the ground. Every time it made the (h/c) man cringe a little. They were being too loud, stomping around in territory that wasn't theirs.

"Y/n, come in," Dr. Nilsson voice crackled over the radio in his hand.

Y/n lifted it to his mouth, "Yeah?"

"I'm heading toward the shore. Take your group up north."

"Roger that," he muttered. Then he turned to address Gazsi: "North, she says."

Gazsi lifted an unimpressed brow. "I heard."

Y/n just nodded and followed after the other man as he changed their direction, supposedly heading north. Privately, he was wondering what would break first. Would Dr. Nilsson call it quits soon or would the naga finally show itself? If he was being honest with himself, Y/n was praying for the former.

The radio crackled on with inane chatter from the other groups. Kadeeth checking in every quarter hour only to tell everyone nothing had been found and their status hadn't changed.

Everything was so quiet, it made Y/n incredibly uneasy. Then again, the (h/c) man had been unsettled the moment he arrived here and saw the island's untouched depths.

Mark checked in next, reporting a change in his direction too. He was heading for the shore as well, coming in from the north and planning to meet Dr. Nilsson's group that was coming from the south.

The radio chatter was a little soothing on the nerves. It provided background noise to drown out the heavy (and downright unnatural) silence encompassing them. This far in, Y/n could hardly hear the whisper of wind dancing through the leaves. The vegetation was just too thick.

It was the precise moment Y/n felt the tension in his shoulders ease a smidgen, that his radio crackled on again:

"Uh, we might have something," came Mark's distorted voice.

Instantly, Y/n stopped — and his group followed, all of their footsteps suddenly halting. The silence was so suffocating then it seemed to have its own ringing note.