Uruha began to walk forward as slowly as he could manage. He could barely see anything in the dark room, save for the two hands of the lamia that were leading him in. A horrible thought came to his head. What if this whole thing was a trap? What if they were just preparing him to be eaten, all this time? What if when he took another step forward, he fell into a pit of spikes or pool of acid? He stopped in his tracks.
“Step forward.”
Uruha shuffled his feet forward a few steps, not wanting to fall into some sort of pit.
“Um, a bit more.”
Uruha took two small steps forward. God, what if there was some sort of trap?
“You can calm down. Nothing’s going to bite you.”
Uruha began to walk forward once more, before the floor seemingly fell away underneath him and he pitched forward suddenly, a set of arms catching him.
“You may stand. Release the light!”
Out of the corner of his eye, Uruha saw small balls of light appear, as if out of nowhere, and fly around the room, soaring higher and higher upwards before settling in some sort of sculpture hanging on the ceiling, illuminating the room. He looked around the room and it looked as if he appeared to be standing in some sort of intricate circle engraved on the floor, surrounded by lamia attendants. In front of him was a deep, long pit, almost like a bathtub set into the floor, only there was a hissing noise emanating from the bathtub. God, his stomach was twisting itself into knots. He wondered if the order not to eat anything was to keep him from puking his guts up onto the floor, rather than any mystical reason. Fuck, his head was spinning. Was it too late to call the whole thing off? Say that he had a change of heart? Kai would probably be delighted, if nothing else. Wait. Did they say something?
“What?”
One of the lamias looked him dead in the eye. “We said, Uruha-san, to step into the pool.”
Okay. He stuck one of his feet in the snake pool. Three of the snakes suddenly started winding up his leg. Oh god. He knew now. He knew. This was a pit of man-eating snakes and they were going to kill and eat him. The whole Council set this up to get rid of him. Kai would be pissed.
“Fuck!” He yanked his foot out of the pool. One of the lamia looked at him, displeasure clearly visible on her face.
“Sorry.”
Uruha barely even had time to register it before he was unceremoniously shoved into the snake pool.
Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck god no. God no. He could feel it, the writhing, scaly bodies all over him, the telltale tingling of being infused with mana through his scalp as some snakes curled in his hair no fuck get those things away from me scales and bone melting into his skull. It traveled down his face, the bones of his front teeth hollowing out and stretching. He could feel the snakes wrapping around his legs, pushing them tighter and tighter together, the skin and bones fusing fuckshitfuck why the hell did i agree to this as the tingling expanded into full-on static, his skin stiffening and breaking under the influence, the mana running out his toes, pulling the bones downward, fuck that hurt He began to shift, flailing his arms and attempting to kick his legs. Shit, there was a lot more there than he was used to.
“You can stop screaming now.” A familiar voice echoed from somewhere else before a pair of someone leaned over him and grabbed one of his arms before sharply dragging him out.
Uruha attempted to stand, desperately trying to find his feet in all that mess of tail. He fell forward but was caught by a lamia.
“Uruha-sama, are you okay?” He thought he heard a giggle from one of the attendants.
He rolled his eyes. “I’m fine. Can I see Kai?” He began to notice a strange tugging at his scalp, like someone was pulling at his hair. A quick glance to the side confirmed it was one of his head snakes. God, is this what Kai feels all the time?
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone slither over to his side. A quick glance confirmed that it was Ruki.
Ruki.
Thank fuck.
“Uruha, if you’re done staring at the floor like a dead rat, I think that you need to get ready for the wedding.”
Uruha looked up from the set of arms that was holding him. “I think I might need some help with that.” Understatement of the century. He felt as though he was about to puke, his scalp was aching with the constant tugging, and he had about a meter more of foot than he was used to.
Ruki rolled his eyes. “You’re fine.”
Uruha looked up at him, trying to muster up the most pitiful look that he could.
Ruki seemed unaffected. “You need to be able to move in your new body. Slither up the aisle and all that. Never mind the wedding night..”
Uruha had been making several concerted efforts to stand up, and finally managed to do so.
Ruki waved his hand to get the other attendant to leave. “You very obviously can stand. I think it stands to reason that you can slither out that door.”
He let go of Uruha’s arm, and slithered to the side.
Uruha rose up, rocking back and forth on his tail. How the hell do I do this ? I’ve seen Kai move a billion times by now, I should know what to do. I should. I don’t. He began to shift his weight to the left, in an attempt to slither.
Barely a second had passed before Ruki slithered over to his side. “God, you’re doing it all wrong. You’re moving like a dancer, not a nagah.” He grabbed his arms.
The next few minutes were nothing but:
“You need to move your tail more.”
“God, are you even trying to push off of the ground?”
“You have more than two joints. Use them!”
It continued on like this for quite some time.
A while later, Kai was sitting in front of a mirror, watching as his attendant, Ruki, pinned something to the back of his head.
“What’s the point of putting something there if no one can see it?”
Ruki rolled his eyes. “It’s ceremonial. Honestly, if a humble lamia, one of the common snakes cares more for tradition than the great Crown Prince of the Nagah, then we’re really going downhill..”
Ruki had continued talking, but Kai had tuned him out. His mind was currently occupied by thoughts of Uruha. How did he take to the ritual? What did he look like? How was he adjusting to his new body?
“Can’t I see him?”
Ruki continued to work on his adornments, working down to his neck. “Like I said the past twenty times, no.”
“But-”
“Look. The first time you’ll see his new and improved form-”
Kai turned around rather violently. “He’s not improved. He was fine the way he was.”
Ruki threw his hands up in the air. “Fine, fine. I was just saying that you will be absolutely starstruck. Nothing went wrong. He’s just Uruha-with-a-snake-tail. He’s fine. So relax. ” He pushed down on his shoulders.
Kai did not relax.
He was waiting near the back of the main chamber of the Great Temple, wringing his hands. His snakes were darting about wildly, flicking their tongues. Most of the guests were in place by now, with attendants helping the last few stragglers to their seats. In the crowd, he spotted Ritsuka, one of the attendants who had been in charge of the ritual.
Uruha has to be okay and adjusted, right? They would have told me if he wasn’t. Ritsuka is in charge of the whole thing. If she’s out there helping, Uruha must be all right. He kept repeating this mantra to himself over and over again, even though his worries were for naught, he knew that.
The attendants tugged on some ropes, silken sheets falling to cover stained-glass windows, the lighting suddenly growing dim. Kai was still standing at the... what had he called it? Oh, right. An altar. Melodious voices started to fill the high ceiling of the temple, alien words accompanied by strings and steady beats. Kai couldn’t understand the siren language, no non-sirens could, but he could grasp the meaning, the high vocals and soft notes creating a lovely, romantic feeling.
The doors to the outside hall slowly creaked open.