It was dark inside, so Eshanai let her tremor sense guide her. Whatever it was that had gotten in had stopped crashing about somewhere up above. She just hoped it hadn’t gotten into her quarters. At least the two adults outside didn’t immediately go back to ripping away at her ship.

Perhaps she should have killed them. Their shells were hard to get through, making her venom impractical to use. And what of the other adults fighting on the beach? They wouldn’t stand idly by and watch as she killed their friends. Eshanai didn’t relish fighting a whole gang of the creatures all on her own.

This was for the best in the long run. Oh sure, she would be rid of the immediate problem if she simply killed all of them now, but they would surely retaliate. Living so close to the sea made them her neighbors, and Eshanai could see a future where she would constantly need to defend her ship from nightly raids if she angered the crab monsters enough.

Eshanai’s tongue flicked out as she made her way through the darkness and up on the moonlit deck. A trail of slime could be seen where the intruder had climbed up on the side and led straight to the little house on the back of the ship that she used as her new den, as Eshanai had feared. The slime and the stench narrowed it down to only a few possibilities, none of which were very pleasant. The door hung wide open on its hinges, presenting a dark hole to her eyes.

Eshanai could feel it in there, laying still among her bedding. Hopefully, it hadn't ruined all of her things with its gunk. Eshanai approached as small crabs scuttled around her on the deck and was startled when the two adults started going at it again. How would she show them that she was not the enemy? She had snacked on their young, but Eshanai hoped they hadn’t seen that. For now, she planned to force the intruder off the boat and hope the adult crab monsters left her alone after that.

Sliding through the disgusting slime covering the entrance, Eshanai tried to peer through the darkness. Soft snoring reached her, and it appeared the thing had fallen asleep. At least it seemed that it hadn’t caused too much of a mess, though Eshanai would likely have to burn her bedding to get rid of the smell.

She jumped through the room to land on the sleeping form, taking advantage of the creature’s vulnerable state. Whatever it was, let out a high-pitched squeal of indignation as Eshanai wrestled with it. The cold mucus covering its body was highly unpleasant, and by the time she managed to get her tail around the creature, Eshanai was thoroughly covered in the stuff, making her shiver.

To Eshanai’s surprise, her normal hunting strategy didn’t work as when she tried to squeeze down, the slippery creature shot out from under her. It overturned a table in its scramble to get away, throwing Eshanai’s things all over the room. The old door flew off its hinges as the thing hurried out into the night, shattering glass and throwing splinters.

Eshanai stared at the further destruction wrought on her boat, stunned. Who would have thought it would be so difficult to protect. It wasn’t extensive, but Eshanai wouldn’t have anything left to sail away on if this kept up. She would have to check the extent of the damages later though, as she had a monster to chase away.

Exiting through the ruined door that was now simply a hole into her den, Eshanai got a better look at the thing. It had a tail like her, but it was fleshy instead of scaled. The body was androgynous, with no features to determine male from female, and fully covered in slime. It was practically oozing out all over its body and dripping down on her deck.

It looked like a Leanesh. With its vestigial limbs that it used to drag itself around, it could reach surprising speeds with its slime as a lubricant. This one was fat. It had a distended belly as if having swallowed a whole melon all at once without chewing. It looked uncomfortable. No wonder it had fallen asleep. How many crabs had it eaten?

The Leanesh was currently leaning against the mast, its face-splitting mouth open to bare hooked teeth at Eshanai. It looked pitiful as it scrambled away from her, swollen belly weighing it down, either too stupid or panicked to realize the mast was obstructing it.

“Get off my ship,” Eshanai said as she stopped and pointed out over the railing. Her usual methods wouldn’t work, after all, so she might as well try a different approach and avoid any more damage. The Leanesh seemed to calm down at least, bright red gills opening up along its neck as it stopped trying to bore itself into the mast behind it and breathed slowly. It looked at Eshanai’s pointing finger and back to her face then back to the hand again before seeming to come to a decision.

Eshanai was about to sigh in relief, thinking that the blasted thing had actually listened when the Leanesh launched itself at her. In a move not dissimilar to her own favorite gap closer, it flew towards Eshanai through the air. She was surprised but reacted quickly enough to avoid getting her head chomped. Instead, it crashed into and bit into her right shoulder, the impact spinning Eshanai around, but she managed to keep her balance through the pain.

Getting a good grip to try and pry the Leanesh off was a fool's errand, and the hooked teeth made the prospect even more undesirable. And trying to get her fangs into its back was an ordeal in itself, but Eshanai had little choice. The Leanesh was squirming all over Eshanai, further covering her in slime. Her muscles were getting sapped of their strength by the cold, and her fangs kept weakly slipping off the soft, slippery skin of the Leanesh.

Eshanai braced herself for what she knew would be an unpleasant experience and with all the strength she could muster, bit down hard. She got a mouth full of slime for her trouble as her fangs finally sank in, and she almost gagged and let go as the mucus hit the back of her throat. The inside of her mouth went numb, and icy needles of pain were stabbing into her brain as the loss of blood and cold slime served to cool her down even further. Eshanai finally retracted her fangs when she felt she couldn’t take anymore and collapsed with the Leanesh on top of her.

Her venom had done its job well, a little too well maybe, as the jaws of the Leanesh were clamped down tight on her shoulder as all its muscles tensed in paralysis. Eshanai had to pry them off carefully using her bare hands, the curved teeth making it a delicate process. She threw the creature overboard and just lay there listening for a moment, shivering and exhausted. To her relief, the sound of the adult crabs trying to break in stopped, so it seemed they had gone after the Leanesh.

There was no guarantee that they wouldn’t come back once they were done with it though. Eshanai was too tired to care about that, having bigger problems to worry about. The stars looked so pretty tonight, and the temptation to just lay here under the open sky was strong. But she had little time. Eshanai knew she had gotten too cold too quickly and needed to get warm. She forced herself to get back into her little den, fighting the urge to just close her eyes for a moment to rest. Her body was slow to respond, moving sluggishly, but the pain throbbing through her shoulder helped to keep her awake. Ignoring the mess inside and adding to it as blood ran down her body to pool on the floor where she slithered. Eshanai made it over to her resting place. It was just a pile of soft things really that she had thrown in a corner.

Most of it was covered in slime, but some things on the bottom had managed to stay dry. Eshanai used those to wipe the worst of the mucus off herself, then she took all the dry things she could salvage, wrapped them around herself, and let sleep take her.

Eshanai’s sleep was undisturbed for the rest of the night, and she woke up to the rising sun shining in through the windows. She was caked in a mix of dried blood and mucus flaking off her as she supported herself on her elbows. Her head complained at the sudden movement, and the sun in her eyes made the pain flare, making Eshanai put up a hand to shade herself. But otherwise, she seemed to be fine. The multiple wounds in her shoulder had scabbed over. It still hurt, especially when she moved her arm, but at least they had stopped bleeding.

Bleary-eyed, Eshanai made her way out of her den and into the sunlight. She stood there for a moment to bask in the uninterrupted glory until her eyes adjusted. She felt a little better with the sun's rays on her and made her way down the side of her ship. Any sign of the night's activities was gone as if swept away by the ocean. Of course, the hole in her boat was still there, but any sign of battle was gone. The adults must have taken the corpses with them when they left. Eshanai was just glad they had left her alone.

She went down to the water to wash, sticking to the shallows for now, as she didn’t want to be pulled under again. The water felt great against her skin as all the filth she had accumulated washed away. Eshanai’s hands scrubbed furiously across her body, and she noticed the scars on her midsection had faded by now, reduced to barely visible circles. She dunked her head in and ran her fingers through her hair for a quick rinse.

Eshanai was happy to notice that the salty water seemed to help with the smell of the slime that had been with her up until now. She smiled at the realization and took some time to enjoy how the waves beat against her and how the sun felt as it seemed to rise out of the ocean, casting its colors across the sky.

Deciding to live out here had been one of Eshanai’s better decisions, in her own opinion. She had been kind of freaked out at first, feeling that the vast emptiness would somehow reach out and swallow her up and cursing herself for not listening to the elders. But then she had noticed the sun, and her fears were eventually cast aside when nothing happened. It wasn’t that different from the jungle. It was just that the view never stopped out here. The beach was practically bathed in sunlight, and she had lost many a morning laying in the sand basking in its warmth.

At night the stars came out, something she had only gotten the occasional glimpse of through the jungle canopy before. She would marvel at the seemingly endless number of twinkling lights up there seeming so far away, and yet Eshanai sometimes felt as if she should be able to reach up and pluck them down if she just stretched far enough.

The clacking and little splashes around Eshanai signaled the end of her enjoyment. It was time to get some breakfast. Many shelled creatures lived on the beach or were buried in the sand. She avoided any crabs she spotted, even if they looked nothing like the hatchlings from last night. She didn’t want to anger her neighbors, and she didn’t know if she was being watched.

There were round flat shells the size of her hand, placed in little hollows they had dug for themselves and filter-feeding of the waves that came in from the ocean. They were making the clacking sounds, so Eshanai called them Clackers. There were small round ones that sucked in water and shot it out periodically in tiny jets. They were responsible for all the splashing around her, so she called them Splashers. Regardless of what they were named, they were all pried open, their white meat scooped out to be devoured raw. They tasted fine but slimy, and Eshanai would have preferred to cook them. But with no spirits to adhere to her every beck and call, Eshanai would have to find another way to make fire. If only Jiro was here, then it would be a feast, Eshanai thought wistfully.

There were things she avoided too, like the holes dotting the beach here and there. They were no bigger than the tip of her finger, but she had no idea what could have made them, and she didn’t feel like sticking her hands where they didn’t belong. Little sea snails were leaving trails along the edge of the water. They had little wings along their bodies like giant ears that they used to catch the current when they were swept up in a wave. Using the water to surf for long distances before they were back to their usual slow crawling paces. Eshanai had tried eating them once but had gotten a mouth full of sand as she bit into a snail. It seemed the creatures stored it inside themselves for some unknown reason.

Having eaten her fill there was nothing left to do but see to the damages. Her ship was a grand thing in Eshanai’s eyes. Placed perfectly upright amongst all the wreckage, it truly looked like it had been put down with care. The remains of a sail hung from the single mast on the ship's deck, with the little house on the end that served as Eshanai’s new den. The hole in the side was a problem, ships sunk when they took on too much water. Hopefully, her new book would tell her how to fix it.

The broken door and dried-up slime everywhere was less of a problem. The ship could sail without a door, and the filth was washed out with seawater. Her ruined bedding could even be saved by letting them soak in the salty water for a while. Eshanai hung them out to dry over the railing, the horrible smell had disappeared entirely. She was more worried about the things that had gone flying when the Leanesh fled her bed.

Maps and papers lay strewn against the wall together with the now broken table. Eshanai had interpreted them as best she could. She may not be able to read the strange symbols, but there were some things she could intuit on her own. Like the circles drawn over empty ocean, and then there were the symbols she did recognize. In one of the corners were drawn four characters, matching the ones on the glass bauble.

She found the contraption after some time spent carefully sorting through her things. The glass covering seemed to have cracked, but it still worked, as the little arrow still spun around merrily in its casing. Those same four symbols were painted in a cross shape from each other. Eshanai had no idea what it was used for, but on the off chance that it was somehow helpful in sailing, she had taken care of it. Plus, she was simply fascinated by how it moved and would take it out from time to time to amuse herself or try to figure out its mysteries.

Gathering the maps and picking up her bauble, she put them in a drawer of her desk. A faded painting hung over it, depicting the first actual human she had ever seen. Well, it was only a painting, but still. She had been unsure if it was real. Maybe one of her sisters had painted it or something until she had met the Oni, and he had confirmed it for her. Eshanai was a little disappointed, if she was honest. All the stories and legends had built humans up to be something more in her head. Not just Naga with legs.

Although he was a man, evidenced by the beard covering his chin, and that was always exciting. Clothes covered almost every part of his body, so Eshanai didn’t get a good look at him. He did fill them out well, and she liked the way he was standing, all proud and confident.

Maybe she shouldn’t let their appearance fool her. They had built this ship, after all, not to mention the ziggurat and all its traps. Humans were amazing, and Eshanai wouldn’t let their mundane appearance get the better of her. The Naga could learn so much from them. Eshanai just needed to find some first.

Before going out, Eshanai sat in front of another one of her treasures. It was like someone had taken a highly reflective sheet of water and hung it on her wall. Her own face stared back at her as she ran a beautifully carved come through her hair. She let it hang straight and loose for today, liking how it framed her face and unsure if it would improve her chances with the lake spirit. At least it couldn’t hurt, and she could use all the help she could get.

Opening another drawer in her desk, Eshanai watched as her flute rolled to a stop inside. It was an old and worn-looking thing. Carved out of wood, it had ten holes running down the top where her fingers would go and one at the top where she would put her mouth to blow into. She picked it up with reverence and sat down to practice a little.

Music was not unheard of among the Naga, but it was certainly rare. Talked about in stories and legends. There were certainly singing and dancing, but spirits had always refused to make any instruments. It didn’t matter who you asked. The story was always the same. Making an instrument was always the one thing a spirit either couldn’t or wouldn’t do. Somehow the humans had managed where the Naga had always failed. Eshanai wondered if they were favored like the Naga or just excellent negotiators.

Putting her lips to the Flute, Eshanai played a long clear note and just listened to the sound in delight, then she started to play. Putting as much of her meager skill to bear as she could, Eshanai tried for a fast jaunty little melody. Running her fingers over the flute, she imagined an adventure with Eshanai as the main character.

The melody shifted with the action, turning loud and fast in the fights as she battled both the waves and colossal sea monsters but turned slow and somehow hopeful as she spotted land.

Eshanai liked the little tune, and by the time she was done, she was comparing herself to the likes of Beathaven and The Pride Piper. So it was with new confidence and determination that she ventured into the jungle that morning to confront the lake spirit.