Stumbling Skyward

Angella smiled as she swum around the hot spring she looked at grip "whats wrong aren't you going to come in the waters great"she says and playfully splashes grip from in the water befre pulling her naked body out of the water to sit on the side of the water her legs in the water

"I'm just...feeling the water." he said. He stood up, unbuttoned his shirt. He took off his trousers and undergarments, then splashed into the water. He swam around slightly. He felt a lot..stronger than when he had swum at home. He remembered that Felarya tended to cure disease and give health over a period of time. He realized that he wasn't quite as scrawny as he used to be. He set his head under, then raised it out of the water, looking up at Angella while shaking water out of his eyes.

Angella giggled as she watched grip she smiled and jumped back in the water she then moved next to grip smiling "so it realy is a nice place here isn't it so did you see anything you like?" she asks blushing a little

Aleena smiled "yep something's gonna hapen between them soon im gonna go watch"she says flying back to angella and grip she hid in behind a rock and watched the two of them

"Yeah." he said. He knew what he wanted to say, but it sounded incredibly stupid. However, for one moment he decided that he didn't care. The truth was, despite his seeming preference for solitude, he was quite lonely most of the time.

"Well, the most beautiful thing up here is you, of course." he finally said. His heart skipped a couple of beats as it finally dawned on him what he had said.

----

Fenja crawled round a pile of rocks on the other side of the waterfall, trying to look through the dense foliage. She couldn't really see anything. She was a bit startled at how quickly Grip had picked up on this elf. He usually was useless around girls. Was there something else here?

Angella smiled and blushed a little "why thank you thank you very much"she says blushing and pats him upon the shoulder she then had a thought and without giving rip a warnin angella wrapped her arms around him taking him into an mbrace and began to kiss him.

Aleena smiled she saw fenja move about and flew over to fenja "so when he's done with her are you going to let her go"she whispered

Grip at first didn't know what to do. But he had a memory of this, in a far off part of his life he had mostly forgotten. Did this elf really...like him? He forgot this thought and embraced her back, returning the kiss.

----

Fenja paused. It was really proper to let the elf go. But she seemed to be doing actually alright with Grip. In truth she hadn't expected this.

"Hmmm..." she said "Let's see what happens.

Angella smiled he suddenly remembered why she was doing this and broke away from grip she looked sheepishly and wam to the edge of the water she blushed as she looked at grip "i..i..i'm s..s..sorry i shouldn't have done that"

Aleena breathed a deep breathe "ooh she's breaking away from him"she says a little concerned

Grip was unsure of what this meant or what he should do.

"No, no please it's fine. If there was anything wrong the blame should be laid on me. I'm...sorry." Doubt flooded back in. What if she was just doing this because Fenja had threatened to eat her?

---

Fenja frowned. She had done this just for fun...but she hadn't realized how far this would go. Now this was getting rather...serious.

"You make sure she doesn't leave!" she whispered. "Jeez, they were just kissing. This would crush him if she ditched now."

Aleena looked at fenja "sure,but what are you going to do" she asks smiling as she looks at the two in the water.

Angella smiled nervously she got out from the water and actually quickly picked up her clothes and put them back on,she stood on the side of the water as she dried her hair she looked at grip "well um its ok i guess we were both in the wrong"

Grip got out of the water as well and put on his clothes. He felt that he'd messed something up. He sighed.

"Look...I can understand if you're just doing this out of fear. I wouldn't hold that against you at all. But...I'd prefer you tell me that out loud. I promise that if that's the case I can get you out of here. But...I just want to know."


------

Meanwhile, a naga watched the two from the bushes beyond the pool, licking her lips. She was the mighty hunter, about to stalk her prey! Actually, this naga was still pretty much a child. She was little more than human sized, with short black hair and red and yellow scales. She had to remind herself that she wouldn't be able to fit both of them in her stomach. In fact, at her age and size, she should be hunting prey like neera. But she was determined to prove herself an adult. And adult naga ate humans and nekos and elves.

So she would only be able to get one. That was ok. One should do her for more than a week! She paused, trying to make up her mind. Hmmm....the human was kinda muscley. And the elf smelled really, really nice. She'd heard that elves tasted better. Ok, so she'd eat the elf. But she needed to get rid of the human first...she'd wait a little. It didn't look like they were leaving any time soon.

-----

Fenja looked at the fairy. "Hmm...maybe it isn't such a good idea to spy on them...I didn't realize that this might actually work..."

Angella sighed she looked at the ground and her bare feet "ok ok fine if you must know i am doin this out of fear the creature made me do this despite my protests she threatened to eat me if i didn't is that what you wanted to hear"she turns away from grip "but i just i don't know im sorry i shouldn't have kissed you,you can just leave me here i'll come down soon"

Aleena sighed "if we weren't spying on them we wouldn't have heard that now the question is what do we do now"she says looking at fenja and then looked at grip and angella

Grip turned to go. His face was set. Really, he had expected this...but still...he had let a little hope in. Hope only lead to dissapointment.

"Alright." Said Grip. "If anything...happens, call me." He was pretty sure there was noone here. Not certain, thought.

----

The naga watched the human move. Now was her chance to take him out. Hmm...not good to rush them. She then came up with a cunning plan. She smiled to herself. This was as good as a big naga could have thought of. She took a good sized rock. It was a simple matter of whacking the guy in the head.

She threw. The rock went almost straight upwards and she had to duck to get out of the way. Ok, just getting a feel. She threw a second time. It veered off to the left, flying into the sky and going nowhere near where she wanted it to. Third time lucky? She tossed one, certain she would get it this time. It went too high and hit a tree. She sighed, then watched in amazement as a branch cracked off and beaned Grip in the head. The human fell to the ground, stunned. Wow, she was better than she thought she was!

She slithered forward as fast as she could, tackling the elf. It was doubtful she could catch the elf running, so she needed to get this right.

"Haha! Little elf! I see I've caught my next meal!"

She did wish she was even a foot taller. It would add a lot more to the scary naga image.

-----

"I dunno..." said Fenja. "I really can't tell what to do. Maybe we should just go back to the cabin and leave 'em." She had the bad feeling that she'd messed this up really badly.

Angella watched the branch hit grip she let out a gasp and then screamed as something tackled her to the ground she looked to see the naga "no no im not your meal"she says nervously as she atempts to push the little naga off from her "now get off me please"

Aleena smiled "yeah maybe your right"she says before she flies down to were the sphere was being kept

The naga was surprised as the elf struggled. This wasn't good. The elf was slipping away. The naga quickly grabbed the elf's feet, putting them into her mouth and trying her hardest to swallow. She wasn't going to let herself fail. The naga fell to the ground, the elf's legs still in her mouth. If she was only a little bigger...she swallowed and to her delight, the elf slid up to her waist into her mouth.

"Ha! Goh ew ow, elh!" she said, trying to say "Got you now, elf!" through her full mouth. She held on and kept trying to swallow.

----

Grip stirred slightly. His vision was still dark. What had just happened....he heard something....he slipped away again...

Baras smiled at Verira, saying, "I know, right! Strawberries are always a good thing to ea..." He then noticed a small naga trying to eat what looked like a human and Grip knocked out on the ground. "Um...could you hang on a moment, Verira. Something's caught my attention." He then carefully walked behind the little naga, which now had the elf up to her waist.

In a quick motion, he pressed a button on the gauntlet, which materialized an orb with a turret on the front. He pressed another button which made the turret fire tranquilizer darts into the naga's back like bullets from a machine gun.

"Oaahh!!" moaned the naga. What the heck was that?! She gasped in shock and was surprised when the elf slid the rest of the way down her throat.She burped, gulping air.

"Phew..." she said, able to talk again. "See! Victory..is mine..." The young naga had a massive bulge in her stomach. Between this and the darts, which were making her quite drowsy, she was very slow in slithering away. If she hadn't had a little resistance to poison, she would have been knocked right out.

"Geez..." she said, pulling a dart from her. She yawned. "Wait...what are...that?" She felt pretty wierd. What on earth was with that elf? She the realized that the little needle thingie might have had poison.

"Hey! Who the heck...stupid...geez..."

--------

Grip awoke. What the heck had happened? He looked around. Hit in the head...by a branch? Huh. As his vision cleared, he saw the naga.

"Hey, who the heck are..." He paused when he saw that massive bulge in the naga's stomach. He put the pieces together and tackled the naga. At this time, the naga had fallen asleep where she stood. She woke up slightly.

"Hey...stoopid humie...leave me alone...I'll...eat you...too."

Grip highly doubted that was a feat she could accomplish. He grabbed the naga's jaw and yanked them apart.

"Eh! Wat ew oing?" mumbled the naga. With such a small naga, Grip could see Angella down the things throat.

"Right! Spit her out or I'll rip you apart!"

"Does she need some ipecac?" Baras asked, materializing a bottle of brown liquid. "This'll make her throw her up right out."

The naga tried her hardest to filter the poison out of her system. She thought, with one burst of speed, she could make it to the bushes and drop down the backside of the slope...

The moment she began her last dash, she fell forwards. Grip had tackled her again.

"Hey...gettof you perv!" she mumbled. Grip took the bottle of brown liquid he had snatched from Baras, forcing it into the naga's mouth while he plugged her nose with the other. The naga was forced to swallow the liquid. There was some horrific heaving and Angella was freed. The naga collapsed on the ground, utterly exhausted. She didn't feel like she could move.

"Damn...humans." she spat. She'd been robbed of what could have been her greatest achivement and meal.

"What the hell is your name?" said Grip, still angry at the naga.

"Don't have one. No-one gave me one. Don't need a name like you stupid humans."

"What do you mean? Where are you from."

The naga waved her arm. "Behind the waterfall. Little, shady place. No way to get there but that way. Perfectly safe and perfectly happy without humans. Damn hard to hunt in this area though. Had to eat insects thanks to you."

"I don't think you can blame me." said Grip.

"No, him!" she said, pointing to Baras. "The Meddler. He's the guy that screws with preds. I can't come down the cliff to hunt. He'd just screw with it, or kill me."

The little naga glared back at them. "And if you try to kill me I'll...I'll..." She couldn't think of a threat that could be carried out while basically paralyzed. She simply beat her fists on the ground in frustration.

Angella had to admit she had been quite scared when she was swallowed but she was glad she was free she kneeled down next to the naga "grip thank you for saving me i...i don't know what would have happened if you hadn't"she says while still looking at the naga she runs a hand through the frustrated naga's trying to calm her down she didn't know if it was going to work o not though.

"You're...welcome." he replied. "I think we got this under control. Of course we got to figure what to do with the child here. I'm surprised an unparented naga survived for so long."

"Leave me alone." muttered the naga. "I don't want to be kidnapped by humans."

"We just want to help..." muttered Grip. At that moment, Fenja walked over, standing and looking over the pool.

"What happened? I saw Baras firing off a bunch of darts."

Angella looked at fenja she backed away a little "well this young naga here attacked us and ate me thenbaras fired darts at her then grip saved me and now the naga's moody"she says fearin her voice as she spoke.
Aleena flew p behind angella in her human size smiling

"Hehe. Good work on being the hero, Grip." Fenja said, looking at him. Grip looked away. Fenja began to feel a bit bad. He'd guessed her involvement. And assumably it had not gone well. This was worse because it had gone somewhere to start. That just meant he had farther to fall. She realized she was feeling...guilty.

"So." said Fenja, looking at the naga. "What do we do with the brat? I don't think we can keep a naga around here. Hmm...why don't we show her to the naga back at the cabin? Maybe she'd take her, or know someone that would. Oh, by the way, what's your name."

"I don't have one you stupid giant!" retorted the naga. "Never seen another naga, but I'm only gonna have a proper naga name." The naga paused as she realized what Fenja had said.

"Wait..there's another naga here? An adult one? A real one?" Her tone suddenly changed and she seemed a bit hopeful. Grip realized that this kid had had no training in naga ways - but she certainly seemed to want it.

"a larger naga oh dear"anglla says nervously she then begins to climb down the rocks she had come up when she reached the bottom she looked up and ran away from the goup as fast as she could in any random direction
"should we go after her enja"Aleena asks smiling

Grip just watched in silence as Angella left. He knew that this was just Fenja messing with him again...but he felt something...a bit different this time.

Fenja followed the elf into the forest and snatched her up, bringing Angella up to her face.

"What the hell did you do?!" she snapped. Her anger faded quickly. She knew it was probably her fault.

"He asked you if I had set it up, didn't he?"

Angella let a terrified scream as fenja picked her up "i..i...i o..only k..k..kissed h..h....h..him and yes actualy he did ask if you'd set it up and i didn't feel like lying to him so i told the truth"she says terrified as she struggles to escape from fenja