Chapter 63: Failure (2)
Without waiting for Atia’s response, Aiyana strode along the riverbank like a woman on a mission. It involved throat-punching a certain eagle and then locking Nova up until she knew how to wield a blade. She’d gifted her Firstmark, and then she forgot it at the treehouse!
If she’d strapped it to her thigh like Aiyana had instructed her, tonight might have turned out a little differently. Nova didn’t know how to use it, but it was better than being completely defenceless. She didn’t even have claws or sharp teeth!
Aiyana huffed her frustration, hands balled into fists, taking a moment longer than usual to register the animal slithering agonisingly slowly in front of her.
Aiyana paused mid-step, her sharp eyes catching the subtle ripple of motion up ahead. Draped like a shadow across the limb of a fallen tree, part of an anaconda’s thick, scaled body dangled lazily in the air — a heavy, silent coil glinting in the moonlight. Its patterned skin shimmered with water and moss, blending perfectly into the humid tangle of the jungle.
With only the ease and grace of something pernicious, the rest of its massive length uncoiled from the bark, sliding down the trunk and slipping into the Soluma River, the water parting around its girth without resistance.
Atia caught up to Aiyana and watched it disappear, the final coil vanishing beneath the surface with barely a ripple. He shivered in disgust, scowling at the slippery beast.
The Oncari were the ultimate apex hunters and had feasted on the anacondas before, ambushing them when no easier prey presented itself. They were a hassle to hunt, and the Oncari never wasted strength when they didn’t have to. Unless you were Yohuali, in which case he’d once hunted them for sport, chasing the thrill of hunting them in their own domain.
Atia couldn’t think of anything worse. When he was just a cub, he’d learned the hard way not to mess with the ’overgrown worms’. If it hadn’t been for Yoa and Aiyana, he might’ve been crushed by the snake’s strength and drowned.
Neither spoke as Atia quietly conquered his childhood fear by gripping Aiyana’s shoulders and placing her in front of him as a makeshift shield.