The Naaga tribe

She was traveling in the vulkab region when she caught the scent of the dragon in the air. She increased her speed to pass through these areas controlled by that annoying fire Dragon as soon as possible but what she was avoiding the most happened then, A huge shadow loomed over her body and the dragon landed right before him. He was the ruler of Vulkab, a fire dragon Kwastir.

"You were passing through my territory and didn't even inform me. You should give chance to me for displaying hospitality and maybe you know we can form a closer bond" He said as he changed himself into a middle-aged man with red hair. His red vertical pupils were fixed on a small serpent hanging on tree branches.

Anastasia didn't bother to change her shape but made herself bigger from two inches size she was traveling in. She turned into twenty feet serpent and spoke to him.

"My apologies, King Kwastir but I was in hurry to reach somewhere. And about relations between us, it is good as it is now. I have told you many times before that I am not interested in marrying you."

"Now, the princess doesn't need to be rude. I can assure you that if you will spend a few days in my abode, you will surely change your mind. Moreover, I have never seen you in primal (human)form, but you know we royalties have a long tradition to socialize in the primal form"He licked his lips while staring fixedly at her.

"My apologies, King but we aren't officially meeting. So I haven't broken any old tradition. I'm sorry I can't visit your abode this time so please excuse me and leave my way" she replied directly to him .she knew his intention from the start .'This disgusting lizard wants to marry me and merge my tribe in his kingdom, as well as get his hands on our Serpent's pearl.'

"I'm a very sorry princess but you are coming with me, I promise that you will be treated with at most respect in my abode"

He extended his hands towards the serpent with intention of subduing it.

She had realized earlier that he will not hesitate to use force, therefore she was preparing herself from the start. She jumped back and turned into a hundred-foot serpent and tried to get past by crushing him down in the primal form. He reacted quickly by dodging to one side and immediately turned himself into his dragon form. He was two hundred feet in his normal form with four legs and two sets of wings.

He knew that she was familiar with his plans, that's why he didn't bother to keep putting nice guy act. He was only a small bit powerful than her but that's only because she was in the juvenile stage and hadn't reached adult form. Her legion is so pure she can easily surpass him if given a few more years. That's why he wants to subdue and make her give the child to him with mixed inheritance. He was evolved from lizards race whereas these serpents were other races of dragons this he wants to father the child of both races to dominate the beast world and also that serpent pearl of her clan that could even make him skip levels of strength.

Dragon breathed out lava from his mouth and entrapped ice blue serpent inside it. He laughed maniacally

"You are coming with me today, princess "

Anastasia knew the situation has turned for worse as this idiot is hellbent on capturing her. Thus she decided to escape with a skill she had inherited from her bloodline although she was not very proficient in executing it. She made ice wings on her whole body and small two horns on her head began to glow blue in the light.

'Ice flash '

Watching enormous building of energy in the air, Kwastir understood that she was going to perform some escaping technique this he attacked with his technique to heavily injure her which he was avoiding to do earlier. He stopped spitting lava and made spin in the air with his wings glowing bright red.

'Fire blade Slicing heaven'

Anastasia's whole body turned into a blue streak of light as she dashed in super speed comparable to light in direction of her home cold wind valley. A sharp thread like fire energy sliced into a blue streak intending to slice it through the half. Anastasia felt fire energy slicing into her left side, it burnt her scales and flesh quite badly. She felt extreme pain but didn't stop and continued her dash.

"I will remember this burn mark as a reminder of your humiliation to me, fire Dragon Kwastir. Wait for Anastasia Naaga to repay this debt in the future with full interest"

Kwastir was astonished that she didn't stop instead of serious injury. He thought about chasing but gave up soon because the Naaga race is speed specialist. He decided to storm her valley in the next two months to capture her fully this time.

She changed into her natural shape when close to her abode. She was in an extremely bad mood thus didn't bother to hide her arrival and bulldozed her way straight the to lake where she went into sleep for the healing of an injury.

She suddenly woke up due to some sounds and came outside her private chamber to see two men kneeling in front of the pearl and her servant being flung out of the room .she was astonished for a second seeing two humans such close to the pearl because only pureblooded can approach the Serpent's pearl. But then she remembered her feud with waster which soured her mood thus she decided to kill these humans as soon as possible who dared to enter her divine abode.

...........

"So we are warriors of mercenary corps and a few days ago due to sighting of large blue serpent...…"

Sauren honestly gave a summary of the whole situation to the beast queen.

Zeph was inwardly relieved to hear that Sauren didn't mention words that 'serpent can be executed' but only mentioned that they come here only to investigate the origins of the serpent.

"So you are saying human city near valley has commissioned you and other warriors to investigate the area."

Sauren nodded. Anastasia fell into deep thoughts it was indeed a mistake on her part that she forgot to enter quietly in the valley but blatantly showed her presence which alarmed humans. She thought for a while then felt her mood lighten a bit.

"We are Naaga tribe of the serpent dragons. We had a divine serpent as our forefather thus we have an extremely strong and noble lineage. Our Ancestor made this valley our home and also this pearl is from his body, an indicator of his will. He ruled over the whole region long ago before the rising of humans and had good relations with humans. He even helped your race survive various calamities.

When a city was established at such closeness to our abode, a human warrior came at that time for permission from my father which he happily granted.

He made rules in our tribe that no humans will be hunted by snakes and we will always keep our existence hidden from them. we can only kill them as long as they step into our valley, thus according to rules, I can kill both of you here.

But because you can step so close to the pearl, this means the pearl has the will to protect you. Thus I will spare your life but you have to forever remain in my debt."

For Sauren and Zeph whole speech was the ride of a roller coaster of emotions. They felt from hopeless to hope then again to hopeless, and at last again to hope in the sentence.

Sauren leaped at the opportunity.

"Don't worry queen, we will always remember your debt"

"I'm not formally ascended to the queen but yes you can call me that." She felt small happiness in hearing herself as queen from humans. But she quickly controlled her emotions and said

"Remember, you can't disclose our location and about the investigation, you have to close it down by your efforts. I Now take an oath with a touch of pearl and remember this is pure oath if you break it you will die that very moment. "