The plane had been flying over the jungle, just a routine commercial flight when something went horribly wrong. At first the crew tried to correct this small error of construction, but they failed. It was an older plane, with flammable materials within the cockpit. It wasn't very long before smoke began to fill the cabin and the passengers began to panic.

That was all one survivor's mind could remember. Uncertain hands moved to touch a burned face, then fell away. A hiss of pain accompanied each movement, though nothing seemed to be broken. For that the young person was grateful. Even more comforting was the fact that none of his family had been aboard.

The smell of smoke in the air. Shifting with winces and groans, 'Ethan moved away from the smell. It hurt to think, it hurt to breath, but the twenty-four year old knew there wasn't anything he could do about it. Actually, there was nothing at all that he could do about his hopeless situation. The blond leaned back against a tree, cursing the fact that his cellphone had been in his carry on bag, which had crashed and burned with the plane. There would be no help at all for him.

The sound of the plane crashing had terrified the creatures in the rainforest, sending them scattering as far away from the crash site as possible. Birds cawed worriedly as they sped away via air. Other creatures moved away at a much slower speed, having to overcome physical obstacles on their way in the ground. The smell of smoke and the sight of fire was terrifying for most animals.

Only one creature remained in the area. However, he technically was not an animal, so it was only natural that he was curious about what had just happened. He was in the process of climbing to a closer from than the tree nearby that he had been perched in, to try and get a better look at the strange crashed 'creature.'

He wasn't very familiar with human technologies or customs, though he had seen humans before in his lifetime...just once before. So when he finally slid the last of his big, red, scaled tail's coils onto the next stable tree and craned his neck to see what was going on, he looked visibly startled. The 'creature' had been full of humans! It seemed that they had all perished in the crash...except for one, which he spotted leaning against the tree next to the one he was in.

He tried to hide behind the big trunk of the tree he was in, but his tail, which was extremely long and a flaming shade of red, stood out from the environment around him.

The sounds of animals running away made him groan involuntarily. Ethan opened his eyes slightly, only to close them quickly again. Trying to remember small survival techniques was not working very well. Thoughts floated away in the breeze, or were submerged with the sensation of having burns and a large collection of other hurts all throbbing and pulsing at the same time. The man knew he needed to move, find shelter, food and medical help...

Turning his head, Ethan spotted a large scaly tail. It was bright red, the color reminded him of flames and smoke. A small strangled sound left him as he remembered things, snippets really. Screams filled his ears, and all he could do was croak listlessly. Smoke had filled his lungs and burned his throat so that now speech was more painful then anything else.

The prospect of being gobbled up by a giant snake really wasn't all that frightening. The blond man found himself wondering what it would be like. Hopefully it couldn't hurt him anymore then he already was. It seemed like the young man was just one big throbbing mass of pain, with nothing to look forward to and no hope of escape from his fate.

Hearing the human making frightened sounds, the male in the trees knew that his obnoxiously red tail had been spotted. Curiously, he placed his hands on the right side of the tree and peered over and down at the human once again, tentatively revealing himself as he tried to slither around to the branch on the other side. He was a young man with peach-colored skin, a long shock of fire red hair, and bright golden eyes.

His upper body was human...and the lower half was that of a snake. The only snake-like attributes on his upper body were his fangs, which were curled up in his mouth along with his human-like teeth, a very long but not forked tongue, and a small, barely visible hood-like flap of reddish skin around his neck, which would flare up sometimes when he started getting aggressive or was frightened.

He tilted his head to the side curiously, regarding the human with those almost soulful golden eyes. He didn't seem to be all that intent on eating the human before him--in fact, he seemed much more curious than he did violent. He wanted to get a better look at this human, and possibly help him. He had a feeling that with those grave injuries, he wouldn't be able to survive out here in the rainforest on his own.

The snake moved... And then it wasn't a snake at all, or was it? Confusion roiled trough Ethan's dark blue eyes. In the end it didn't matter, what did was that he was now hallucinating on top of everything else. Letting his head fall back, he groaned again at the small sharp flare of pain. Definitely, something was wrong with his head. Surviving a plane crash was enough luck for anyone.

The thought of the others who hadn't been so lucky plagued him. Then again, without help Ethan knew he wouldn't survive. The skin that had once been a nice sun tanned color was now littered with burns and cuts. Blood welled from many small wounds, while the skin peeled of the patches of warmth covering the man. A dry cough started in his chest, rising up in a horrible rattling sound. It didn't ever seem like it would end.

Finally it did, but Ethan's breath still rasped. Glancing up at the serpent, he tried to remember vaguely what people like him were called. It started with an N, he was sure. Those eyes really were something, but the colors reminded him too much of flames. Flinching away from he thoughts, the young man tried to move away but failed miserably. It only caused him to fall over, with no more energy left to spend.

Those hacking coughs concerned the other male just as much as the mere sight of all the burns did. He didn't like the smell of burning skin--he had experienced it once before, when trying to flee from a forest fire during a particularly dry week when no rain dropped down on the rainforest. The feeling was awfully painful even when he wasn't jostling the burns, and the smell...the smell was something he would never forget.

The human startled him when he suddenly fell over. Without thinking of the consequences, the naga quickly slithered down from where he was towards the ground and, like a speeding bullet, made his way over to the collapsed human. He leaned down to assess the damage, still looking concerned. What was he going to do with this human? He had little medical knowledge, and the only tribe of his people still around disliked humans. He himself was a loner. He supposed that the best thing to do right now would be to find some water for the human to soak in.

"...My apologies, beforehand, for any kind of pain I cause..." He had a pleasant voice that was neither masculine nor feminine. He leaned down and deftly scooped up the human in his strong arms. Not a second later, he was slithering with surprising speed through the forest, trying to head back to his territory. He lived near a large lake that connected to the Amazon River, but it was the only lake around that wasn't crowded with piranhas.

Weakly, Ethan tried to struggle but had no energy for it. A sharp pain wracked trough him the moment the naga lifted him. It seemed to come together, pulling and straining at every muscle in his body. Finally the blond went limp having lost consciousness. The wreck, then this, had been too much for him. The strain on body and mind had caused the young man to shut down completely so he wouldn't have to deal with anything at all.

His ragged t-shirt was holed and cut, small burn marks covering it. The man's once honey blond hair, shoulder length, was now soot covered and parts of it had burned. The only part of him relatively unharmed was his lower back. Rasping breaths came from his wounded lungs as he was carried, his breathing becoming a little more labored. Limply, the man's head lolled a little back and fort, as his arms hung listlessly while he was carried by the naga who had so startled him.

The naga was moving quickly, faster than any human could move. And he was completely quiet as he moved, as well, save for the sounds of branches and small plants being pushed out of the way by his powerful lower body. It did not take him very long to reach his territory. The smell of water, which had been strong before, grew even stronger as the young man pushed through the undergrowth and toward the lake. It was big, a moderate size. It was a great territory to have, as water was good on hot days for cooling off.

Quietly, the naga bent down and slid the human out of his arms, into the cool, shallow water near the shore. He was hoping that the cool water would soothe his wounds. It would keep the insects away too, for now. They tended to be attracted to the smell of burnt or dead flesh. Once the human was securely in the water, and his head was safely on land, the naga slowly backed off, giving him space. He would let him come to on his own. For now, he laid down nearby and watched him with curious eyes.

Smoke. It had mostly been smoke, not flames which had first shown the trouble they were all in. Ethan's mind was reeling. A soft moan escaped him. The young man had been out of it for hours, and now felt completely numb. Water cradled him, softening the edges of pain and cleaning the wounds at the same time. Groggily, Ethan opened his blue eyes. Some crazy memories had resurfaced, just fevered imaginings he was sure.

His thoughts had cleared remarkably after the few hours of imposed sleep. Tilting his head to the side, Ethan let out a gasp, more of a rasp in reality. The water might have eased his wounds, but it would be a while before Ethan was able to speak. In any case, his blue eyes were wide enough with surprise that it was obvious what he was thinking. It was impossible! There was a half snake person lying nearby, watching him with golden eyes and flashing red scales. It reminded Ethan far too much of fire.

The naga, a strange combination of rapt fascination and genuine concern on his face, was staring intensely at the human before him. He didn't know what to say, or what to do. His tail began to coil up a little bit from its relaxed sunbathing position, indicating that he was nervous. He didn't quite know how to deal with humans, so...this was all very unusual for him.

Finally, the young man figured that he ought to say something. He cleared his throat pointedly, a sheepish grin making its way onto his face. He had pointed, fang-like teeth.

"...I think you'll be all right," were the first words out of his mouth. "Your injuries just need to be looked after for a few days. Er...how...do you feel? Would you like something to eat? I'd offer you a drink, as well, but...you're kind of in the drink, if you haven't noticed yet."

It talked! Ethan closed his eyes for a brief moment and tried to make sense of the situation. This was either real, which wasn't very likely, or some figment of his imagination. It was probably a coping mechanism or something of the sort... Ethan certainly didn't want to be alone at the moment. The young man would prefer any company, even that of imaginary snake people, to being alone. Upon the thought he opened his blue eyes and tilted his head to the side to regard the naga. At first, the sounds coming from Ethan's throat made absolutely no sense at all. So he settled for feebly miming the fact that he couldn't speak and that moving was a chore.

Or at least he hoped the small feeble fluttering of his hands in the water conveyed that sense. Blinking hazily, Ethan then bent his head to try and gulp down some water. It was slow going, but he managed to soothe his throat a little with the liquid, though the act of swallowing was painful in and of itself. That would pass, hopefully, and soon the blond would be able to speak.