The hunters travelled the forests and reached the hills. The gorgeous vegetation and wildlife surely would have provided the perfect hiding place for this intruder.
"A lot of asuras seem to be around at this point. I see them." Some of the hunters pointed out.
Chenchita and Aja looked at each other. A grin passed their faces. They both hunted humans and animal very well but they were ready to see if they would hunt asuras just as well.
"Let's see the count." Chenchita answered.
"Split up, people. Wherever you find the intruders, kill them." Aja ordered.
All the hunters spread out to corner the asuras. The hunt had begun. Sure, the Chenchu didn't have much of experience with hunting asuras but if things went for the worse, they knew the forests more well than anyone else so they would easily escape.
The Chenchu are divided into two groups. The hunters and the gatherers. The gatherers also reared some wild dogs to help them. The dogs and the gatherers would retrieve the hunt.
Hanging the spear on her back, Chenchita pulled out her bow and steadied the arrow on it. She aimed it at one of the asuras she spotted. Hiding among the forest bushes, she set herself.
The arrow left the bow and pierced through the Asura. Before the Asura could retaliate, she moved but unfortunately, he was sort of fire breathing demon. The flames that caught up the bush had to be put out or else it would start a forest fire.
"Indra dev, please let some rain pour down to put out the fire." Chenchita prayed to Indra, promising him to offer a part of her hunt as an offering in return.
The clouds roared in response and rain poured down. The rain put down the fire.
"Let's see what you do now, fire demon." Chenchita muttered and attacked him with several more arrows. After almost emptying her quiver, she managed to kill the demon.
Moving to the demon, she picked up the additional arrows, leaving only one of them for identification.
Moving off to look for the others, she found two of them. She set two arrows at once and shot one of them quickly. The second looked around to proceed and attack. She moved swiftly and attacked the other from another position. Again, her quiver was emptied trying to kill the asuras.
"Okay, we need a better strategy. These asuras are taking way too many arrow to die. If we go by this then it will be difficult to get them." She said to herself, trying to find a better solution. She moved forward. As itself, the rain was making her job a bit difficult. No, she was not blaming Indra. She needed the rain to put out the fire but the forest floor got slippery and the visibility was lessened.
Once again retrieving the other arrows, she moved ahead to find the other demons. Her eyes fell on another. What kind of Asura was that? From behind, all she saw was dark skin. Almost like the sky had wrapped itself around him. The hair was almost reaching the mid of his back. It almost seemed like he had tiger claws but only sharper. Perfectly turmeric yellow dhoti around his waist, he even wore a gold waist belt. Large bulging arms which could hold on even the earth on them. The shoulders which seemed like they had been hardened with weight on them.
Chenchita aimed an arrow at him and shot it. The arrow fell down after hitting the demon. Almost as if his skin itself was some kind of shield. The arrow couldn't pierce him. She quickly tried to shoot many arrows but the result was the same.
A growl resounded from the demon. Chenchita wasted no time. She turned and started running off. The sound of growling didn't end.
Who ever this demon was, surely it wasn't scared of any damn thing because of how loud he was. Not scared if he could alert the creatures or the asuras around of his presence.
Chenchita moved fast. As fast as her feet could carry her. If she stopped, that demon was surely going to kill her. Just her luck that ahead, she saw some asuras.
Panic filled her. The escape was crossed out. She couldn't go back. She couldn't go forward.
The asuras spotted her and dashed towards her to attack. She steadied her spear to attack. The asuras pounced on her and she fought then off. As much as she could. They were really heavy. Regular arrows didn't do much damage to them unless it was in large number. She had heard that the city Kshatriyas used Astras to fight asuras. She had no Astras to deal with this but all she could rely on was her tribe finding her.
She blew the horn she had with her, letting her tribe know she was in danger.
A growling sound stopped the asuras in their tracks. Heavy footsteps was audible. The growl seemed to really put the asuras in panic. Pure fear in their eyes. Like they had Yama himself walking towards them with his noose and mace. Chenchita too the chance and kicked them off her and started running again.
There was vicious sound behind. The loud vicious growl and the screaming of the asuras. Chenchita stopped for a moment to turn back and see. The saw mangled parts of the asuras. The demon nowhere to be seen. It looked like a tiger had mauled a bear to death for entering his territory. She winced slightly.
She had to hold the tree branch to balance herself at the sight of the dead bodies of the asuras.
Fear filled her, honestly. She had attacked this cruel creature. He seemed to have no care for the dead either to tear apart people like that. Even tigers wouldn't maul intruders to death that bad.
Chenchita took off running. That is the option she had. She didn't stop. The lake was before her. She jumped into the lake to swim past it. The rain was pouring down making the water level of the lake rise.
She moved into the waters quickly. Suddenly, something caught her foot. A snake. She knew that for sure. Possibly a large python. They are frequently hunting in waters. If having the option, they'd eat humans too.
She felt sharp teeth sink into her. She tried to drag herself out of water. A head emerged and caught her arm, constricting her. Almost pulling on her arm. The python moved to drown her. She tried to struggle but several snakes had probably caught her. Drowning her.
Opening her eyes under water, she saw that it wasn't a forest python but a several headed Naga. No wonder it caught her. Nagas were rather capable of eating humans if needed. Some of them would develop a taste for humans. She attacked with her spear but the Naga managed to contain the blows, slowly twisting around her wrists.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. That was it. She had no escape.
Just when she thought the Naga was going to eat her, something started pulling away the Naga from her. The Naga let her go in a moment.
Finding the situation, she quickly swam up to the surface and breathed heavily. Her lungs almost screamed for air.
A form surfaced from the water. Fair complexion. He had dark black hair. Beautiful black eyes with golden boundary in his eyes. Almost like a rajanaga. He helped me to the banks.
"Are you alright?" He asked. He was a Naga too. The bit of snake scales over the human skin. He wore a head gear of a several headed snake. His arms too had snake jewellery. "I apologise for my brother."
Another form emerged out of the water. He was slightly darker. A Naga by the look of it.
"Jyesth..." The Naga asked the Naga who saved me. The elder Naga grabbed him by his throat.
"How difficult is it for you all to get it through your heads?" He almost slammed the younger Naga to a tree.
"I apologise, Jyesth." The younger one quickly apologised.
"Listen. I think you should leave quickly. Some really cruel demon is around in the forest. He might actually attack you all. This isn't a good time to have sibling fight. The demon's skin is so hard that arrows don't pierce it." Chenchita told them. "Also, not the best way to deal with an 'out of control' sibling."
The elder Naga looked at her for a moment. She took off quickly, even with the injuries.
"Why did you save her? We are Nagas, Jyesth. It is normal for us to hunt and eat other creatures. We can't eat human food to fill our appetite." The younger Naga complain.
"She isn't some random human, Martya. She is Sri Mahalakshmi. Have you been starving enough to eat the Goddess ?" Shesha asked his brother.
"Goddess? You must be mistaken, Jyesth. She belongs from the Chenchu tribe. She has those markings. They live all around the forest. They're hunters. Not really a group of innocent souls. They hunt animals so as per nature's law, they can be hunted too."
Shesha raised an eyebrow at his brother.
"You are telling me that I do not recognise the Goddess I live around? Even if I starve for a hundred years, I'll still recognise her as Sri Mahalakshmi. That is how well I know the aura."
"Honestly, if you starve for hundred years, you'll be dead..." The younger brother tried to be clever. Shesha gave him a look daring him to make another clever comment. "I apologise. My tongue is quite loose. I apologise. I made a mistake." The younger Naga apologised quickly.
"Go eat some deer or some crocodile, Martya. Why are you eating humans? It isn't necessary." Shesha suggested. "You are lucky that it was I who reached you because if Swami had found you, you'd be dead."
Shesha turned his younger brother's head to show him the lion head emerging out of the water, washing off the blood on the mane. The first reaction was to hide behind the eldest of Nagas. Fear filling the younger Naga. Grabbing his elder brother's hand when the Lion-man crossed the lake and was proceeding towards the side the two Nagas were on.
"Stop trying to eat humans, idiot." Shesha slapped him on the head. Shesha moved out of the way of the half-man half-lion. He hid the younger sibling behind him, a silent request to excuse the foolish behaviour. The younger Naga put his head down, not daring to look into the eyes of the Simha Hari. The deity took just one look at the two Nagas brothers and proceeded ahead. The claws retracted into the paw like hands. Hari shook his head, the water sprinkling out of the large coarse mane. A far cry from Narayana's majestic luscious locks. Gandharvas simply bowing their heads down in the way to let that water sprinkle over their head. The water falling out of his mane as pious to them as Ganga herself.
"But what demon was she talking about??" Martya asked once the sight the lion-man was gone.
"Him..." Shesha answered not looking at his brother so he can avoid the confused look.
"Wait a minute... She was-"
Shesha took off quickly before the younger Naga could ask anything more.
Rajanaga - King Cobra.