//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 Serpent and the city. // Story: Serpent of the south // by J-90 //------------------------------// Chapter 11 Serpent and the city. "Welcome back to Southpost Bluey! Great to see ya visiting again." "It's great to be here again George. And this time I even got more company, aside from my good drivers." Blueblood said to the griffon at the town checkpoint in a very glad tone. "Oh? And who might... That... Be?" the griffon, George, was asking, only to lightly go silent when saw who Blueblood was talking about. A rather large serpentine creature with a multi-armed humanoid body where the snake head would normally be. "Hello. How's your day going?" Naja greeted in a polite manner, even giving a little wave of hand. "...Bless my soul... The Lady has returned..." George managed to utter out, before almost fainting. Luckily for him, Bluey caught him with basic telekinesis, helping him back up. "So... I guess that I was not forgotten during the around thousand years?" Naja carefully asked. "Oh no. You truly lived on in all the tales and stories among our families, and many, many others wished that they could have seen you in person during those years." George answered, while starting to actually tear up a little. "And luckily, no one has never tried to start any cult-like things or groups about you. The Materia keepers made sure of that, while also managing to hold onto your teachings of materia and their respectful handling." "That's good to know. I really never want to be worshipped in that manner." Naja nodded, while noticing few other creatures near the checkpoint having either curious or almost-fainting reactions when seeing her. Clearly they had also heard tales about her at some point. "So is there anything I should maybe worry about around here? Bluey already told me about occasional sea-serpent visitors, but it would be good to know what has changed here, besides the obvious." "Not to my knowledge. The most recent worry was the deportation of few Equestrian spy operatives, working for some noble who did not get the memo of stopping those operations. That was around five or so decades ago." "It's true. There even was quite a scandalous set of trial's about it in Canterlot too. My grandfather was present during those." Blueblood quipped in, adding his two bits about the issue. "All right, have to ask more about that thing later. Now if it's not too much trouble, I could use a little tour around here, before heading to the Tanah kahijian, due to my absence, thanks to few obvious reasons..." Naja concluded, following with a rather simple request. "We can help!" came an excited answer, turning few heads to it's direction. There stood a trio of ladies; a brown-white spotted minotaur cow whose top looked like it could burst if she breathed too deeply, a bluish-grey diamond dog maiden resembling a collie with plenty of fluff on her collar area and a bright red griffin gal with some natural curvature with some chest fluff. All three of them looking rather attractive, and looking at both Naja and Blueblood. "Hi Bluey dear!" they all greeted happily, waving at Blueblood, who was also smiling. "And hello to you too, Lacte, Fofa and Scarlet. I missed you all so much." he answered, while walking up to them. And soon all of them exchanged a few kisses, clearly holding back a little. At least to Najas eyes. "Sooo Bluey dear? Are you trying to add the Queen of the Forbidden Jungle to our little harem?" Scarlet asked, while looking Naja up and down with both amazement and slight drop of interest. "Sorry but I'm not. I'd like to have my pelvis to remain in one piece, and not to have it break under some extra-heavyweight lady's bottom. No offence..." Bluey answered, followed by a quick apology directed to Naja. "None taken. I'm fully comfortable with my weight-category, thanks to my tail. I think that good chunk of it might be mostly muscle, but still on the heavy side." was her answer, followed by a quick glance at her tail. "Well it sure look's nice and shiny. Did ya shed recently?" Lacte pointed out, while looking at the marilith's tail appraisingly. "Well, I think some old skin most likely burned off from it. Had a major problem with a doorway a little while ago." After a few more simple questions about Naja's looks, mostly about her clothes, the trio of ladies, and Blueblood too, began to show Naja around the harbor town. There was plenty of stores, storage's, all kinds of ships docked at the harbor, several hotels and inn's of varying price ranges; nothing overtly fancy though, where you would have to pay an arm and a leg for one night... Just a comfortable places to stay a day or two, along with basic houses. The final destination on the tour was the beach house section of the town, some of them fancier looking than others. "And this is our house. Not much to look at, but it's really homey." Bluey concluded, while pointing at the said beach house with his hoof. Said house was a humble looking pink walled, red roofed, two-storeys high, most likely having all of the essentials for all four creatures. It even had a text on it front, saying "KAME HOUSE", which tickled some little shred of a memory within Naja. Most likely something from her old life, that just happened to be similar with something in a different world. "Looks very nice. I hope you keep it clean too." Naja said with a smile. "Oh we sure do. And as a bonus, the walls are soundproofed too, so our little fun-times won't disrupt the neighbours." Lacte commented proudly. This made Naja to glance around a little bit. Other beach houses where at a little more than a basic respectful distance away from this one... "Well thank you for the tour, and for keeping me company. I hope we can chat again." Naja called to the four, while starting to leave. They happily waved back, before heading inside the house. Marilith could only imagine what they might be doing... And soon decided to just start to head towards the Tanah kahijian, if only for the sake of her mental fortitude... "Excuse me? Are you by any chance the one called Naja?" came a question behind her. After turning a little, she saw a hippogriff maiden standing there; she had almost a snow-white plumage in her front half and light gray fur on her back half, wearing a bright red sash, with an ornamental pin, holding a four materia crystals in it. She also had a few more in her wristbands. "Yes. Yes I am. And you are?" "My name is Hera, the current Head Sage of The Materia keepers, and of the line of Hermes. heard that you had returned, so I came to meet you. And maybe keep ya company on the way there." "... All right, let's head home." While Naja went with Hera down the road towards the Tanah kahijian, a special carriage was arriving to the front of one the hotels. Said carriage was one the few that where allowed to travel between the Southpost and Equestria, mostly bringing tourist's with it every now and then. Today several ponies, few griffons and a minotaur got off from it. Including six special ponies and their dragon friend. "Here we are everyone. The town of Southpost." Rarity said with a little flourish. "Wait... Why did you say 'everyone'?" Rainbow asked with a slight head tilt. Even AJ and Twilight seemed a tiny bit confused by this too. "Oh, it said in the brochure that the locals have an historical issue with the said term. This place used to be a hotspot for several event's that have soured most of their relations towards Equestria. And some of those metaphorical wounds are rather fresh in few ways, even to this day..." "Well... The post-Solarian era apparently was preeeetty messed up compared to today..." Applejack admitted, having read about it. "I guess it makes sense. This place seems pretty multi-species place." Twilight also admitted, looking slightly sheepy. "Nice wing's girl." came a random friendly comment to the purple princess from a kirin lady passing by them, who barely spared a glance at them. It felt like nice change of pace for all seven of them. And her species also drew the interest of Spike for some reason. "Well, let's get settled to our room, and then go see the sight's." Pinkie suggested, and started to go in the hotel in her bouncy way, with others following after her. Maybe their visit here just might go very well.