Prey (Male!Naga x Male!Reader)

Chapter 12

Y/n's eyes opened to meet pitch black darkness. It was disorientating for a moment, not being able to see his surroundings. His head was pounding, his entire body was stiff and achy, and he felt his stomach give a worrisome lurch —

Y/n was on his hands and knees in a second, heaving his guts out. Oh god, he had swallowed a lot of seawater.

Oh god, he was alive.

Heart pounding loudly in his ears — Y/n was alive. He had thought — he had really thought for a minute there he had drowned. After the cage was submerged completely in water, it apparently became much easier for the naga to move it, and move it the naga did.

Y/n had passed out before they resurfaced, but they had. Somewhere. Where it was pitch black and quiet. The only sound was faint, but constant. It was — running water, he realized belatedly. He was somewhere near running water. Where was he? Underground maybe? The air felt marginally cooler here than it had ever felt before on this island. He was still... on the island, right?

The (h/c) man pressed his pounding skull against the cool floor of the metal cage. A groan left his lips. He felt terrible.

There was a sound just then, something above the hammering in his skull; a soft drag against rough, dry rock.

Oh right, the naga. Y/n wasn't alone, was he? Tension erupted in his shoulders, his breath held in his lungs. His stomach gave an anxious twist as the sound became louder; closer.

Metal began ringing as talons were dragged across the cage's bars. "You live," a deep voice breathed those unnerving words against the back of Y/n's neck, making the (h/c) man's hair stand on end.

You survived the journey here; you did not drown...

Y/n realized the naga had probably heard him retching; had been alerted to his conscious, very alive state that way.

"But," the ringing ceased, the air still and silent, "for how long?"

Y/n curled in on himself, (e/c) eyes wide; his body hurt all over. He said nothing to the cold voice pressing closer, vicious and absent of empathy.

"You are in my home now," the naga continued. "But you will not last. When you die, perhaps I will find a way into that... 'cage' and I will eat you... while you are still warm."

The consideration was low, thoughtful — and completely and entirely inhumane. Y/n truly believed the creature's words. He took them right to heart. How the naga clearly viewed humans as food; as nuisances unworthy of any other considerations...

Y/n's breath was punched out of him, fear curling in his gut. The king cobra, he recalled with a dawning sort of horror, was cannibalistic — he should've realized sooner; known before... Their diet consisted of other snakes, their diet — Y/n clenched his eyes shut, a sudden influx of horrible thoughts flooding through his mind. There was no way the naga intended to eat every man it had killed out there, but what about one or two? In the beginning when only Rat was missing?

Had Rat been eaten? If Y/n had paid more attention to all the little details, could he have prevented this? The situation he found himself currently in? And being eaten... was that really what fate waited for Y/n?

No, Y/n promised himself. He had a few days before dehydration got its hooks in him. He'd figure something out before that point. He still had his bag, he still had his water bottle, the two radios — he had the time and means to find a way out of this situation.

Just... just not a lot of it.

And for the time being it seemed Y/n was stuck in this cage, the only thing that protected him from the creature outside of it. The same thing that would end up killing Y/n in a few days. Worse, he was in the naga's home, somewhere dark; somewhere he didn't know.