Prey (Male!Naga x Male!Reader)

Chapter 3

Dr. Nilsson and Y/n were in the lab the following day, looking over both the environmental samples and the piece of snakeskin she had found.

Under the microscope, all doubts had disappeared.

"I don't know what to say," Dr. Nilsson leaned back on her wheeled stool with a sigh. Y/n stood right next to her, forearms resting on the counter. "While my earlier approximation of the snake's length being around thirty feet might be inaccurate, the species is not. This definitely belongs to a king cobra — but there is something off about its pattern. The individual scales are much larger than they should be."

"And that means?"

"That we've either uncovered another supposedly mythical creature — a damn basilisk — or this specimen is abnormal."

That proclamation shocked a laugh out of the (h/c) man. "Well anyway," he said, handing over his tablet, "here is the summary of the environmental samples we took yesterday."

Dr. Nilsson took a cursory look at it.

"Ideal habitat for reptiles," she concluded. Hand over her mouth she chanced another glance at the skin. "Oh, I don't know what to make of this."

Dr. Nilsson reached over and penned a few handwritten notes in her personal journal before she turned her attention back to Y/n.

"I'm hoping to explore the lake at the middle of the island tomorrow. I'm also hoping to set up another encampment there — depending on how it looks — so we have a midway point to freely explore the western and northern halves of the island in depth."

"Alright," Y/n murmured, drumming his fingers against the countertop.

"Y/n," a hand landed on the (h/c) man's shoulder, "why don't we break for lunch and afterwards we can take a walk. Sort of ease off a bit on all this work."

Y/n smiled, "Sounds like a plan."

They both left the portable, locking the building up after them, and heading down to retrieve their daily quota of dehydrated foods. As they spooned the rehydrated slop into their mouths, they sat in a rather companionable silence, looking out at their surroundings.

Shuffling the strange meat jerky around on his plate, Y/n spoke, "You never did tell me why the government refused to fund this trip."

"Officially their reasons were 'classified.' Unofficially, I believe they were paid off by private holdings. Someone wanted access to this island before the government could interfere."

"What kind of 'someone'? People like Einar?"

"That's a very likely possibility," Dr. Nilsson replied.

"Well, if so, then where are they? Why are we the only people currently on this island?"

Dr. Nilsson's metal utensil collided with her tray in a loud clattering. "I've thought about that too. I don't think we are the only people on this island, looking for the infamous Ophidian narus, no. Perhaps they came before us. Maybe they're north of us, or west."

"'Came before us' — that'd be hard to do considering we came here within a literal week of its discovery," Y/n deadpanned.

Nilsson gave a short laugh, "Yes, quite the busy week for you, wasn't it?"

"I expect a million-dollar Christmas bonus at this rate," the (h/c) man muttered with a frown.

"I'll think about it," she promised. Dr. Nilsson then stood, patting Y/n's shoulder, and dragging him up to his feet, "Come on, let's take that walk."