Daughter of the Naga | Lesbian Story|

Chapter 75

The moment Charavan and I resurfaced from the water. I heard Atith's voice cried out.

"She's back!"

A while later, we reached the bank and they came to help me up.

"Oh, Meru gods, Nikita, what happened to you?" Tepi asked. Everyone noticed my after-death state.

"What took you so long? I swear to the gods that if you didn't come back after dawn hour, we would turn the sea upside down looking for you," Tusita said. Vorac and Atith nodded in agreement.

"Everyone calm down, I'm alright," I said. I didn't want my friends to know what actually happened to me. For a moment, I just wanted to go weeping over my misfortune. Nothing would make me forget my wickedness towards the mermaid queen. The avatars brought me to sit inside a straw-roofed pavilion.

A few Devatas came and brought me dry towels and holy drink. But I was too soaked up with water to drink again.

"You look like you had been dead, Nikita, what happened?" Vorac said with her silvery eyes staring at me keenly.

"I'm perfectly fine," I said and tried to laugh her worry off. "It was my first time riding a holy crocodile, what did you expect?"

"That's true," Atith laughed. "I remember I almost soil my pants the first time I did!"

The girls gave him a disgusted look.

"Did you meet the mermaid queen, Nikita?" Samudra asked.

I nodded. They gasped in awe.

"Did she tell you about where we could find the Rainbow fish?" Tepi said.

"No," I said with a shake of my head. "But she gave me her magical pearl. She told me I shall know where the fish hides when we go seeking it."

"Oh brilliant!" Atith said and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "I knew no one could convince the sea queen but the holy one."

I flinched.

"I heard the Rainbow Fish is a very dangerous creature," Vorac said with concerns laced in her voice. "How are we going to catch that deadly thing?"

"I will capture the fish myself," I said. My friends looked at me. "The gift from Sovannmacha will protect me."

"Nikita, even with the enchanted pearl, there is still another problem you will have to face," Samudra said in a sheepish tone.

"Oh now you decided to open your righteous lips to tell us something useful," Tusita said with a glare at him. Samudra lowered his head. "Tell her what in the seventh sea is that."

Vorac rubbed her lover's shoulder to calm her. Samudra turned to me again.

"To get to the Rainbow Fish, you must encounter a guardian called Makara, a sea monster of an ancient world."

~*~

I got back to my chamber again. Kesar wasn't there. I took a short bath by myself. Tiny grains of white sand clung to my clothes and stuck to my hair. When I finished cleaning and changed my clothes, Kesar entered the room.

Her eyes lit up as she found me sitting on the bed, and she ran to me.

"My lady! Where have you been all night? I had flown all over the city looking for you," she said. Then she touched my arms and my face. I winced from the soreness in my body. "Oh, my...what happened to you? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine, Kesar," I said. "I had something to do with the avatars last night."

"But you didn't return, and I was getting terribly worried," she said. I pulled her up and sat her on the bed with me.

"Now stop worrying. It only makes your mind weak."

Kesar rested her head on my shoulder and sighed as if in great relief. I smoothed her hair with my hand.

"Her Highness came to see you last night," she said. "I tried to convince her that you were busy with the avatars concerning the next quest."

"Thank you," I said softly.

Then Kesar noticed the cut marks on my forearms and wrists. The small scratches I got from scrubbing against sand and holding on to the mermaid queen.

"What have you done to your poor body?" Kesar gasped. She examined my wounds carefully.

"Oh, it's nothing, really."

"Would you like to drink the Soma juice for a cure to these?"

"No." I shook my head. "Let them be my scars. I need it as a reminder of what I have done."

Kesar looked up at me.

"What have you done, my lady?"

When I did not answer, we stared at each other for a long moment.

"Please tell me, my lady, what happened?" she whispered in a soft voice. I gazed right into her imploring eyes.

"Last night, I met a sea maiden, a queen of mermaids," I said without taking my eyes off her. "And...and...I have done some terrible deed to her."

Kesar went silence. She kept staring at me with a question look.

"What did you do?" her voice was faint. I felt my blood drain from my face. I wanted to break down crying right there and then, and that was what I did.

"I ravished her!" I cried. My face crumbled as I covered it with my hands.

I did not see Kesar's reaction but I knew she must be shocked and horrified.

"I didn't mean to," I said. "It was all my fault. I was stupid!"

I told her what really happened. Kesar never dared to get angry at me. But I saw her tears flowing like waterfalls from her eyes. There was a look of pity and sadness in them. I turned my head away from her sorrow-filled gaze.

"That is all to the story," I said and took a deep breath to compose myself. "If you still pity me, Kesar, may I ask for some balm to soothe my itchy cuts?"

Kesar seemed to take a moment before nodding. She brought out a tray of medical items and helped me clean the wounds. There was no word passed between us. I watched her wetting a ball of cotton with herbal oil and swept it over my palms. The sting didn't bother me as much as the tears that dripped from Kesar's narrow chin.

She was about to finish when the door of my bedroom opened and in came my princess. She reacted just like Kesar did when she saw my face. The Kennari quickly scooted away as I welcomed Amarisa with a sweet smile.

"Nikita, my love! You are back!" she rushed into my arms. Kesar had retreated and sat on the floor with her head hung low.

"I could not sleep all night with the thought of you in danger," she said after she pulled away. When she noticed my hands, she went into the same series of questions.

Of course, I told Amarisa a different story. I told her I had gone with my friends to the sea to seek some help. The journey was rough and thus delayed me.

The princess listened and believed my words. Her eyes were full of concerns and pity. She then resumed Kesar's place and medicated my wounds. The princess was as attentive as she first treated me back when we weren't lovers. It felt like a lifetime ago.

Amarisa finished bandaging me. She brought one of my hands to her lips and kissed each of my fingers.

"Last night as I tried to sleep, I suddenly felt cold and jittery for no reasons," she said. "It was a feeling of horribleness from a distance. The sensation had awoken me with such a great jolt that it felt as if a sharp knife had plunged through my heart."

My face lifted to Amarisa again, speechlessness of what I heard. Tears sprang to my eyes.

"Oh my sweet Nikita, it was so horrible," she went on. "It was like something more important than my own life was gone."

I grabbed my princess and pulled her to me. We embraced each other in silence. Kesar looked up at me from the floor. I wanted to see hatred and disgust in her eyes, but it never came.