She felt ridiculous, standing with fish in hand in front of the nearest tree to the river. Eshanai didn’t know what to say. Unlike with the river, no manifestation could be seen, but it was well known that trees were slow and blunt, so Eshanai swallowed her uncertainty and got to the point.

“Oh great and ancient, um, tree,” she said as she bent over in a bow and held the fish out in her upturned hands. “Possessing no doubt peerless wisdom and knowledge,” do trees like to be complimented? Eshanai didn’t know, but she went with it. “Please accept this small morsel in the hope that you might answer one small question of mine.” She thought that sounded reasonable, but nothing happened. Eshanai was still bent over, but she raised her head to have a peak.

What met her eyes made her straighten in surprise. A Nightstrike was there, just sitting on the ground among the tree’s thick roots as if having simply risen out of the earth. Its tail was waving slowly behind it with fur as dark as midnight. It was a majestic and, no doubt, powerful creature. Eshanai had seen one of its kind wrestle prey twice its size to the ground, and this one was just sitting calmly in front of her, blinking lazily.

Eshanai hadn’t felt it arrive, hadn’t heard or smelled it. Was this the tree’s spirit form? Or a servant, perhaps? Either way, Eshanai needed to ask her question. “You wouldn’t happen to have seen a goblin pass by here recently, have you?” She asked the Nightstrike or the tree, whichever was listening.

The Nightstrike seemed to have at least heard her, for it flexed its paws, making its claws dig into the ground, and bared its fangs in a beautiful threat display as it growled at her making Eshanai’s chest rattle from the powerful deep sound. The blue luminescence of its teeth would be more noticeable at night, but they still shined in the gloom of the jungle floor. Eshanai kept calm as the big cat closed its mouth and approached her. It bent its head to sniff the fish, all the while maintaining eye contact. Eshanai held the fish closer as she waited for what would happen with bated breath. The Nightstrike gently took the fish in its glowing jaws, and with a sudden burst of speed, it turned to run up the tree vertically.

Eshanai let out the breath she was holding through pursed lips. Doubt still lingered in her that it had only been an ordinary Nightstrike that had played her for a fool.

“Hey!” She shouted after it, looking up. “I hope you know that was for the tree,” but it was already out of sight. What was it even going to do with it up there? Perhaps it had young to feed? But in a tree? The more Eshanai thought about it, the more confident she grew that the Nightstrike somehow served the tree, so she waited. It hadn’t left a single mark from where it had leaped up when she took a closer look. Her heat sense couldn’t even pick up any residual warmth from where the cat had been sitting.

Eshanai looked up, so she was startled when the Nightstrike came stalking along on silent paws from around the tree instead of above. This cat seemed to enjoy toying with her. She could almost see the smile in its eyes as it caught her unaware. That was the thing with spirits, though, and this Nightstrike’s peculiarities only seemed to confirm Eshanai’s suspicions. The golden fruit the big cat was carrying in its glowing jaws made any remaining doubt she may have harbored go away.

“T-this is too much, I can’t accept this,” Eshanai said in an awed voice as the cat bumped its head against her stomach. It grew more forceful, and as Eshanai held out her hands, the cat dropped the fruit in them. It was slightly bigger than her head and oddly warm to the touch, but why would the tree give such a precious gift to her for a mere fish? Unless the cat had stolen it? Eshanai didn’t believe that. The tree would have reacted somehow. No, it could only give these fruits freely.

Would it want something more from her? Another favor? She continued to ponder, worried that this wouldn’t end with her getting an answer, but questions of why the tree would grace her so fled from Eshanai’s mind as she caught the scent of the fruit in her hands. It smelled delicious, like nothing she had ever experienced before, and she simply had to taste it. Eshanai couldn’t stop herself from taking a bite, and as she bit into it and the juice hit her tongue, she completely lost herself.

It tasted somehow of sunshine, summer rain, deep nourishing earth, and a thousand other things she couldn’t articulate properly. Eshanai grew ravenous, and she devoured the rest of the golden fruit without regret. She swallowed everything, seeds and all. It was only when there was nothing left, when she had licked every single drop of fruit juice off her chin and hands, that she snapped out of it and came back to her senses.

“What in the,” she began before an icy pain stabbed into her head. Eshanai grabbed her temples as she was thrown writhing to the ground. The pain stopped as her vision grew dark and soon was cast elsewhere.

She could still feel her body, the earth against her skin, but she saw something different. Her vision flew along roots from tree to tree. It was nauseating. The twisting turns and the sheer disorientation from being flung around at breakneck speed made her want to hurl. Finally, when Eshanai thought she couldn’t take anymore, the wild ride stopped, and her vision steadied to look out from far above on a place she recognized.

She was overlooking the mushroom grove, with its four-sided ziggurat in the middle of it all. It was one of the places where the elders had forbidden them to go. Eshanai had been there since, of course, explored plenty of the grove but had found no way to enter the ziggurat. So was this where the goblin had traveled? As if in confirmation, Eshanai was flung back along the path to her own body. She felt her stomach churn, and it was a close thing, but Eshanai managed to hold it in somehow.

“To the mushroom grove I go,” she panted as she got up from the ground. “Thank you, great one, for answering my question, although not in the way I had expected.” Then, with a bow, Eshanai left the tree and headed for her new destination.

Eshanai made good time, and soon she even caught the scent of her runaway goblin. She followed it, and it did indeed lead to the mushroom grove. Eshanai entered through a less dense area. Being among the mushrooms was a novel experience for her. They didn’t grow very tall, only a little taller than she was, but they did grow densely packed together. Eshanai was used to the jungle’s wide-open spaces. Here she sometimes had to force her way through, pushing at the mushroom's spongy exterior. Eshanai found them all together lazy, refusing to retract back into the ground like other plants and entirely uncaring of any damage she might do to them, deliberately or otherwise. Do they want to get eaten? Eshanai thought as she struggled on. Then again, she saw no evidence of predation. Maybe they were poisonous or something.

She ran into a couple of raptors munching on a corpse not long into her trek among the mushrooms. She noticed them long before they were aware of her. She could have gone around them, but the trail led right through them, and she wanted to make sure it wasn’t her goblin they were eating.

Eshanai approached slowly before making a sound. The raptors abandoned their meal and turned to hiss at her. She hissed right back with fangs bared, and the raptors turned around to flee, and they soon disappeared among the mushroom stems. It turned out to not be her goblin they had been eating but another raptor. Eshanai was relieved, but what she found interesting about the dead raptor, though, was the arrow lodged in its throat. With excitement, Eshanai continued to follow the scent. She was close now. She could feel it.

The trail led to the ziggurat, as the vision had seemed to indicate. At least now, Eshanai could be sure that she hadn’t been deceived somehow. However, she was still worried that the scales weren’t in balance. The tree would not give her such a precious thing as its fruit for such a minor request, even if it were its only way to interact. Her offering of a fish was ridiculous in comparison. It could never live up to the things Eshanai had tasted when she bit into that golden flesh, to the things she had felt. Nothing could compare to it, and Eshanai thought that she would spend the rest of her life measuring every experience she had up to tasting the fruit of the tree.

Eshanai finally broke free of the densely packed mushrooms to be caught staring up at the ziggurat. She had been here before, but she couldn’t help but marvel at the skill it must have taken to build the thing. It showed its age sure, being overgrown with moss and the stone had chipped and broken in a few places it was still a marvel, with smooth, precisely cut blocks sporting intricate designs that Eshanai could still discern in a few places, and with steep steps built into each side of the tall ziggurat. Eshanai was just about to ascend those steps when she caught another scent, one also leading up the steps following the goblin’s. She thought this just keeps getting better and better as she started her climb with a grin on her face and new energy to her movements. If she was excited before, she was downright ecstatic now.

It was easy for a naga like Eshanai to use her tail to lift herself and grab the ledge to the next step. But, not long into her climb, Eshanai grew bored, the repetitive movements getting to her. Plus, there was not much to see up here besides the intricately carved stone. And if you had seen one, you had pretty much seen them all. So when she found a nice spot where the sun shone through the canopy, she just had to stop and bask in the warmth for a moment.

She picked up movement as something shuffled around under her, inside the Ziggurat. Several somethings in fact, and at first, she had thought her goblin might be among them. They moved very oddly, though, stumbling around in aimless circles, seemingly with no purpose in mind. Are they tired or injured? Eshanai thought as she was enjoying the sun on her skin. In either case, she needed to get in there.

Eshanai had made more progress than she thought. Being a little over halfway up the ziggurat, she had a good view of the surrounding area. Mushrooms of every color spread out in all directions to cover the grove. She hadn’t taken the time to climb this thing before. Eshanai took a few more moments to admire the various wind spirits frolicking about in the air. They manifested mostly as long bluish wisps flying by themselves or in groups. Sometimes Eshanai thought she could glimpse faces in the spirit’s forms, but she couldn’t be certain.

Some of the spirits were following behind birds. One particularly large Harpy Eagle had a whole trail behind it and under its wings. Such a big bird might need help to fly, with wings almost as long as Eshanai’s tail and talons more like knives than actual claws. If that was what the spirits were doing or if they simply followed the bird was another thing Eshanai didn’t know. The climb continued as the majestic sight disappeared on the other side of the ziggurat.

The other scent was getting closer now, and as Eshanai neared the top, she peeked over the last step and quickly dove back down again. What was standing there examining the ziggurat’s top platform was not her quarry but something even rarer than a smart goblin, an Oni.

Eshanai had only gotten a quick glimpse, but there was no mistaking it. With red skin and a single horn growing out of its forehead to curve back over its skull. It stood with its back to her, so she hadn’t seen its face, but she could take her time to examine every part of it once she caught it. It even wore clothes, ragged though they were, she would enjoy peeling them off it, off him, at least it looked like a man, oh how she hoped it was male.

She peeked over the last step again, and when the Oni didn’t turn to look at her, seeming absorbed in thought, Eshanai readjusted herself and sprung off the ground to jump at him. She sailed through the air silently, the distance between them closing quickly. Eshanai impacted the Oni’s back, and a cry of surprise finally ended his deep contemplation.

She quickly wrapped up his arms and legs as she rode him to the ground. He struggled, bulging muscles straining, and Eshanai smiled. It would have been more fun if he could have put up more of a fight. Then she shrugged and bent down to sink her fangs into the squirming Oni’s neck, pumping her paralytic venom into his blood.

The struggling gradually stopped as his muscles seized up, and Eshanai carefully retracted her fangs from the Oni’s neck before she decided to loosen her grip slowly in case he was pretending. She slithered back a few paces to watch her venom work. This was too easy. Oni were supposed to be peerless warriors, according to the stories. It was well known that the elders had forbidden all contact with them. By this point, Eshanai had begun to see the elder’s rules more like suggestions than anything else, she could make her own rules, and the elders would just have to live with that.

It was then with great joy that she watched the Oni slowly, painstakingly, rise to its feet. She let him, curious to see if he could overcome her venom. To Eshanai’s great astonishment, he not only overcame her venom but somehow forced it out of his body.

She watched as, with jerky movements, the Oni made a fist over its stomach area as if grabbing something in mid-air and slowly led it up to the two punctures Eshanai had made in his neck. The clear liquid that was her venom poured out with a healthy amount of blood. This repeated over other areas of the Oni’s body until his movements grew smooth and effortless.

“I’m glad you are not a total pushover. Now show me your cock. If I find it satisfactory, we will fuck.” Eshanai had never really seen a so-called cock before, but she figured such a thing must be pleasant to look at. Her forwardness seemed to take the Oni by surprise, for he jerked back and sneered at her. Eshanai was a bit confused by the reaction. Surely he was feeling as pent up as she was with his race being so rare and all.

“Typical Naga,” the Oni finally spoke, “first you attack me, and now you want to fornicate.”

“You’ve met my kind before then? So what’s the matter, Naga not to your taste?” Eshanai teased as she pushed her arms forward, making her breasts squished together. A look of longing came over the Oni’s face before he shook his head, and Eshanai almost felt bad for her teasing. Almost, she could break him down in time.

“I wouldn’t lay with you if my life depended on it,” despite his words, hungry eyes traveled over her upper body, and Eshanai welcomed the attention, arching her back and turning from side to side to give him the best view. “Argh,” he exclaimed in frustration and tore his gaze from her as he shook his head again. “Get your mind out of the gutter.” It was unclear if he was talking to himself or admonishing Eshanai.

“I don’t see what the problem is. Just pull down those stupid garments of yours and show me what you’ve got. I like what I see so far.” Eshanai said, referring to the bulge quickly forming in the Oni’s trousers. She struck another pose, leaning forward so that her breasts hung pendulously from her chest. “Aren’t you lonely? Not a lot of Oni around these days. Maybe you’re just scared you couldn’t handle me.” This made the Oni sneer even harder, showing a mouth full of needle-thin sharp teeth.

“And who do you think is responsible for this state of affairs, hm?” Eshanai was slightly taken aback by the ferocity in his tone. What was he talking about? “By your reaction, I see that must have been before your time. So the elders don’t talk about it?”

“About what? They only say we are forbidden from interacting with any Oni should we run into one,” Eshanai said, having regained some of her equilibrium. “If what you're implying is true, I should have heard about it. I’m nearly seven hundred years old, and not even a rumor of this, what? Some type of conflict?”

“Seven hundred years is still young when it comes to the elders,” the Oni snorted. “Yes, you Naga are the ones responsible for my people’s decline, or at least your elders are.” A tense silence settled between them, Eshanai expected the Oni to fly into a blind rage at any moment now, but he didn’t.

“For someone faced with the supposed enemy of their people, you seem incredibly calm,” Eshanai finally said.

“It was a long time ago,” the oni answered with a shrug, “and as I said, your elders are the ones responsible.”

“So, does that mean we can fuck now?” Eshanai asked with excitement back in her voice.

“No,” the Oni answered flatly, his expression falling.

“Oh, come on, you must be a hundred times as pent up as me. Think about it. I have never had cock before. Don’t you wanna just grab me and throw me down? Pound me until I scream, until I squeal. Or if you prefer, I could do it to you.” The Oni looked sorely tempted before determination replaced the look of want in his eyes.

“Just because I can tolerate your presence doesn’t mean I want to sleep with you. I’ll talk to you and act cordially, but no more.”

“Fine, be that way,” Eshanai said with clenched fists. “By Gaia’s mountainous melons, I have never met someone so opposed to a good time,” it was all suddenly too much for her, and it all came crashing down on Eshanai as she burst into tears. She couldn’t take it anymore, this island was too small, and it only reminded her of all the people she had lost. She wanted to, needed to get away somewhere far from here, get away, get away, get away.

“Hey,” the Oni interrupted her self-pity. “If you’re that desperate for sex, just go to one of your sisters. At least you still have sisters.” He was standing closer now, and he tentatively reached out a hand to lay it on her shoulder and smiled. Well, wasn’t he a chipper one all of a sudden? She wanted to lash out at first, telling him that his suffering was nothing compared to hers, but he was right. Who was she to judge another's pain? She still had sisters after all, like he had said, while he had no one. The last Oni was smiling, the loneliest man in the world was trying to cheer her up, and suddenly the melancholy that followed Eshanai like a dark cloud didn’t seem so hard to bear anymore.

“It’s not that easy,” Eshanai said as she dried her tears. “They flee at the sight of another Naga, too afraid of the elder’s decree.”

“And you are not?”

“No, but never mind that I will simply have to fight you, and when I defeat you, I will wish for you to obey my every command.” The idea seemed to bolster Eshanai as a determined look entered her eyes.

“Wait a moment,” the Oni said with confusion back to plague his handsome face. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, I know your tricks, but don’t try to act coy. Everyone knows that if you defeat an Oni, they will grant you a wish,” Eshanai said with conviction as she started to prepare herself to fight. The last thing she expected the Oni to do was to laugh. He was laughing so hard he almost fell over, bending over and clutching his stomach in great heaving fits.