(part three of my first story. things begin to get serious and the stage is set for an epic confrontation. note: Felarya belongs to Karbo.)

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An Extended Vacation…
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Chapter 2 - A Game of Life or Death…
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     Cliff Rhys was not having the best of days, in fact, this day truly, truly sucked. It helped to prove something he had always suspected throughout his 21 years of life; he was a horribly unlucky person. If something strange, unusual or bad could happen, it has most likely already happened, or was about to happen to him. These last few hours had been the strangest and most frightening hours of his life. It had started off when he woke up in some kind of huge, strange forest with trees bigger than redwoods and no people in sight. Then the insanity continued when he was forced to run for his life from a monstrous six-legged wolf that had been roughly the size of a small bus. He was saved from the wolf at the last second by an even stranger, larger and in some ways much more frightening creature.

     She said that her name was Fiona and she called herself a naga. She looked like a beautiful (giant) blonde woman in her early twenties, but had the lower body of a snake covered in green scales with white zigzag stripes (it looked like an Emerald Tree Boa to Cliff). He estimated that she had to be at least 70 feet tall from her head to the ground, maybe more. Her right eye was green, her left eye was blue and she wore a flower in her hair above her left ear.

     Cliff could only get up enough courage to ask her one question at this point “What are you? Who are you? And where the hell am I?” She thought about it for a second “Well…I’m Fiona; I’m a naga and you might not be completely out of danger yet…” she said as a smile formed on her face. Cliff did not particularly like the look of that smile. It was the smile of someone that knew something that you didn’t.

     Cliff finally began to get some feeling back in his legs and began to try and stand up, he had to lean against a tree for support, but he finally made it back to his feet. He looked at this creature (standing?) in front of him and he really began to wonder if he had gone insane. (Am I really here, or am locked up in a padded room somewhere and just imagining things) he thought to himself. There was also something…wrong…with the way this creature was looking at him. She seemed friendly and nice, but there was something untrustworthy about that smile and something very frightening about the way she was looking at him. Deep in the back of his mind, some kind of warning was going off “you cannot trust this woman, keep your guard up and get away as soon as possible” it told him. She seemed nice enough, but something didn’t feel quite right. He couldn’t quite place his finger on what it was though.
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     Fiona didn’t really understand what this human could be thinking. He didn’t seem particularly afraid of her and he certainly had not tried to run, or started crying and begging for his life like so many of them eventually did. He seemed, distant. Like he was having trouble comprehending what he was seeing. Or maybe he was just stupid, that was always a possibility (In her experiance a great many of the humans she hunted tended to be kind of stupid). She figured that it was actually pretty likely, considering the fact that he was deep in her territory, unarmed and he had already tried to pick a fight with a Kensha Beast. She thought that there was something interesting about this human, (I think I’m going to have some fun with this one) she thought to herself with a small giggle.
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     Cliff finally felt like he was up to talking to this creature. “Uh, you said your name was Fiona?" he said nervously "Well, thanks for the help. I really thought I was done for. Well…I think I need to get going. I really need to try and find some people and figure out exactly where I am and how to get home...Bye.”  He began to walk away, but before he got too far, he ran into her tail which was blocking his way. “Sorry” he said to her and began to go around her tail. It moved to block his way. Cliff suddenly had a very bad feeling.

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     (What is wrong with this human? He actually thought he could just walk away?) Fiona thought to herself. “And where do you think you’re going little guy?” she said to him. “Well, like I’ve already said, I need to go and find some help to try and get home” He said to her. She thought that she had finally figured out why this human was acting the way he was. He must be a new arrival.
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     Cliff watched as Fiona laid down on her stomach in front of him. She folded her arms in front of her and rested her head on them (putting her face at roughly the same height as him). “I really don’t think that you understand the way that things work around here” she said to him. Cliff didn’t like the way this conversation was going, but there wasn’t any way he could get away, so he decided to keep talking to her “What do you mean? What don’t I understand about this place?” he said to her. “Well, you don’t seem to understand the food chain. You see, I am a naga (she points to herself). I’m a predator near the top of the food chain. You (lightly taps Cliff’s chest with the tip of her finger) are a human, you are at the bottom of the food chain.” Cliff still had a blank look on his face like he didn’t completely understand. “To put it simply, your kind is food for my kind. I am a predator and you are my prey.” She said with a smile, as if she had just told him something that everyone was supposed to know.

    Cliff finally understood what she had been trying to tell him and he began to realize how horribly bad his situation had become. This wasn’t a stupid beast (like the wolf) he was dealing with…this was a creature at least as smart as a human, but infinitely times more powerful. He felt felt the first signs of panic begin to form in his head, but he managed to keep control of himself (Losing you head is the last thing you need to do right now) he thought to himself. “Now” she said “the big question is what should I do with you? I mean, I ate a big meal just a little bit ago, so I’m not particularly hungry at the moment…” she tilted her head to the side and seemed to be in deep thought. “Well, you could always let me go and forget that you saw me” Cliff said, trying to sound as convincing as possible. “Hmm, I guess I could let you go…(she seemed to be considering it), but I mean really, what fun would that be?” she said. Then a smile returned to her face and she seemed like she had thought of something. “Oh, Oh I thought of a good idea! We can play a game, it’ll be so much fun!” she said. Somehow Cliff had the impression that their ideas of what were fun would be slightly different, but he listened to her as she explained her game to him.

     “OK, I’m kinda full now and it’s only a few hours until nightfall, so it would be kind of a waste to eat you now, so here’s what I was thinking. You go and find a place to hide out for the night, ‘cause believe me, you don’t want to be out in the forest at night, there are much worse things than me out there, and then tomorrow we will have a little hunt. If you can stay away from me, you can stay alive. I saw how you survived against that Kensha Beast so I know that you can be very resourceful when you need to" she gave him a wink. "So, what do you think. Doesn’t it sound like so much fun?” she said with a small giggle, she seemed really proud of herself for thinking it up.

     “I don’t guess I have much of a choice, do I?” Cliff said. “Aww, of course you have a choice, you always have a choice. If you don’t feel like playing, I guess I can go ahead and eat you now. I could probably find room for one more” she sounded kind of disappointed. Fiona licked her lips, opened her mouth and began to reach towards Cliff with her right hand. “WAIT!!!” he yelled to her “Fine, I’ll play your game…” he had a defeated look on his face. “Aww don’t look so sad. If it makes you feel better, I have been known to let humans go who have been especially brave or interesting” she said with a wink "There is still a chance that you can come out of this game alive." Cliff had an idea that things like that did not happen very often.

     Fiona reared back up to her full height and began to move away. She turned and looked over her shoulder “Hey, I never got your name little guy” She said.
“My name is Cliff Rhys” he said to her. “OK, see you tomorrow Cliffie, we are going to have so much fun” she flashed him a smile and moved off into the forest. Cliff had to fight off the urge to panic, he knew that if he lost control, he might not be able to get it back. He made his way through the forest until it began to get dark and decided to spend the night in a small cave formed by the roots of a massive tree. He pushed himself into the back of the cave and curled into a fetal position. Cliff didn’t think that he would ever be able to get to sleep, but all of the day’s stress and fear finally caught up to him and he drifted off into a calm, dreamless sleep.

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    Fiona found a large tree and climbed up in it to relax while she digested her meal. She eventually fell into a content and happy sleep.

Several hours later...(the middle of the night)

     Anyone watching Fiona sleep could have seen that she was in the middle of a nightmare. She was shaking and had an uneasy look on her face. She was also talking in her sleep, almost too faintly to hear “Mommy, daddy, anyone. Please, don’t leave me all alone out here. I don’t want to be alone anymore…” It was the same dream she had been having all of her life. In the dream, she was a small child again and she was alone in a raging thunderstorm. The freezing rain fell in torrents around her and no matter how much she yelled for someone, anyone to find her and help her, her voice could not be heard over the howling of the wind and the crash of the thunder as lightning flashed overhead. Near the end of the dream she would always hear a loud crash and then…

Fiona woke with a start and a small scream...

     It took her several seconds to remember where she was. She was still in the same tree she had climbed into earlier and was now covered in sweat and she was still shaking a little from the dream she had just woken up from. She’d been having that dream all her life, but it had been happening more and more frequently since she ran away to live by herself in the forest all those years ago. And during these last few weeks she had been having the dream almost every night. It was still night, so Fiona calmed herself down as best she could, wiped the sweat off of her forehead and eventually drifted off to sleep again.
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A few hours later the sky began to light up...

It was dawn, the day of the hunt had arrived…


TO BE CONTINUED…
(There should only be one more part left now, but the next part will be EPIC!!! I hope)