Animals had been awakened by the rain. They were everywhere. At first Steth had a bit of trouble hiding himself, until he crawled into a crevice of green and brown earth and camped out for just a while. It didn’t take long for young but well-fed goat to meander about, passing right in front of him, close enough for his hands to dart out, bring it down, and sink his teeth into its neck.

Nature demanded he unhinge his jaw and take it down entirely, but he withdrew when the venom paralyzed the animal and eventually suffocated it. The snake’s venom wouldn’t affect any other living thing after it had been exposed to fire, and he carried it back in both arms to the cave. One particular cavern had a clear view of the sky, and a fire pit. He recalled making it, and a makeshift pulley system that allowed a fireproof spit to be rotated automatically by water, which was fed by one of the smaller above-ground springs that trickled into a woven basket, and hit a fanned bit of wood that forced the spit itself to turn. He’d rigged it while experimenting with human-created food. It didn't bode well for him, and left him sluggish for three weeks afterward.

He efficiently skinned the goat, taking off its limbs and head and setting them in a naturally made basin attached to the floor. After a bit of fiddling, he managed to attach the rest of the animal above the fire pit, and quickly light a fire. It wouldn’t take a terrible amount of time. As the fire crackled and he arranged the pulley system to deliver water to the paddle, Steth went off to check on Lyra. Perhaps she had gotten up the courage to leave her room...

No such luck. Lyra was still in the room she'd been put in, although now it was less of her wandering around in the room and more of her sitting on the ivy bed waiting to see what would happen. She was still too wound up to sleep; her mind was spinning and she wasn't entirely sure she felt safe in what was clearly the home of the Snake God. So she sat on the ivy bed with her knees pulled up to her chest and the three gemstones still clutched tightly in her left hand. She flinched just slightly when she heard the rasp of what she assumed was scales on stone. She wasn't completely familiar with the sound, but she was becoming more so, and she at least vaguely recognized it. She glanced over at the doorway, but didn't move to get up quite yet even though she knew she probably should. All of her experience told her that she needed to show the proper respect, but that was countermanded by Steth telling her she didn't need to, so she wasn't sure what to do. So she stayed where she was.

Before he turned to the off-cavern that led to Lyra’s location, Steth paused. He didn’t want to startle her. He looked around the corner and appeared cautiously, a bit slowly to avoid rushing. His larger size meant he moved quickly in the eyes of humans, without really realizing it on his part. He moved through the cavern and ducked the lip of the entrance. “I’ve just caught an animal if you haven’t been able to eat.” He said. “Although I realize if you’d rather stay here for the time being.”

He glanced around, behind him. The place was alight, more than well enough to see by. “If you’d like me to bring you around the cavern itself, so you have no fear of getting lost, you can find your favored locations.” He offered a hand.

Contrary to her (much) earlier bout of bravery, Lyra bit her lip slightly and shrank back a little. Even though she was slowly realizing that Steth meant her no harm for the moment, she was still a far cry from honestly relaxing. She shook her head a little bit at the offer of food.

"You're very kind," she said softly. "But I'm not hungry right now..." Indeed, she hadn't had an appetite for anything ever since she'd been drawn as the village sacrifice. She'd been able to choke down a little bit before she'd left the village, so at least she'd had something, but she hadn't felt the need for anything since. "I don't mean to be a bother..."

Steth gave a calm half-smile. It showed one of his fangs a bit. “Quite all right, you’re no bother at all. Besides...” He looked backward, putting his hand to his chin. “I wouldn’t think it’s quite finished yet anyway...” He shrugged. “Well. I’m just happy to have a bit of intelligent company after so long.” He admitted. “It’s been far too long and... people tend to avoid me unless they have a desperate request I can assist them with, know?”

He turned, his tail twisting around itself. “I’m going to a subterranean pool nearby, if you’d like to follow along. It’s a bit more appealing.” He started off, carefully rearranging his tail to not knot it up. It was rather painful when that happened.

Lyra was about to just watch him go, but the gemstones in her hand reminded her that she had a question. She fought with herself for a moment over the wisdom of bringing attention back to herself, and she finally scraped up the backbone to open her mouth again.

"Before you go--!" she started. After a moment's hesitation, she opened her hand to reveal the gems and continued, "If I might ask... why did you give these to me? Surely they're much too valuable to give to just anyone..." It had been nagging in the back of her mind for a little while now, and she very much wanted an answer. He'd given them to her so suddenly, and they seemed to glow just the slightest bit, and she wanted to know why. It was just so far outside of her realm of understanding that she wanted to learn more, even though she wasn't sure how to ask aside from asking why.

Steth paused. He’d almost forgotten why he gave her the gems. Turning back, he slid close, but not uncomfortably close, to Lyra and opened her hand, revealing the gems. “These.” He said. “These awaken your power. As I said before, you have power. I can sense it, emanating from you, stronger than the priest of the village. These gems are more valuable to you than to me, because my abilities are my essence, I don’t need gems to control most of them.”

He picked up one of the red ones. “Two warm and one cool.” He said. ‘Your power varies from warm to cool. Cool powers, cold, revolve around ice, water, rain, and weather in general. You can turn water to ice and ice to water with a touch, call upon snowstorms and control ice as though it’s a puppet on a string. The warm powers control earth, fire, energies of the body, and the other half of natural weather. With warm power, you can move fire and earth as you wish, boil water to a steam and become a type of fog or steam on your own, to move through cracks or glide upon air, similar to a short flight without wings. If high enough, you can use the clouds as pillow-like stepping stones.”

He set the gem in his hand down. As he did, its tiny glow strengthened a bit. “The gems sense the power within you as well. They’ll help magnify your power until you learn to control it yourself, with a little extra energy.” He moved back. Now, Lyra, if you have more questions, please follow along so I can answer them along the way.” He moved back around, starting down the cavern again.

Lyra almost hesitated in following him, and ended up stumbling a bit in her rush to catch up without tripping over his tail. The explanation had given her something to focus on, and and she metaphorically grabbed at it with both hands.

"I'm just a simple village girl," she protested, as she followed him. "How is it that you see something else in me?" Not that she was ungrateful, of course. She had dreamed ever since she was a child of being one of those wonderful, powerful people that stories were often told about. But it seemed almost too good to be true and besides, if she had potential as he said, then why hadn't anyone seen it before now?

Steth glanced back as they passed a tree root. He ducked it. “Most humans think they have power. They predict weather changes and act as though they command it, and sometimes, deny others the ability to even know they have amazing power. If you’re never shown your true potential, or given the chance to prove yourself, you’ll go through your entire life thinking you don’t have anything special about you.”

He turned as they entered a new cavern, this one tall, with a mirror-like pool of water in the middle so clear one could see to the very bottom. A large, wide walkway surrounded it until it reached the very back, where the wall was damp with water as it fed the pool. “The gems glow only when in contact with certain elements in a living being. Whether you know it or not, these gems do, and because they glow, it’s obvious you have power. You just need to discover it.” He smiled, trying to be reassuring.

Lyra was distracted for a moment when they entered the new cavern, and she looked around in awe. The cavern was beautiful in its natural simplicity, and the beauty tugged at her. This was a cavern she could grow to be comfortable in. It was calm and peaceful and made her feel at peace, even if for a moment. It took her a moment or two to gather her thoughts again. When she did, she turned back to Steth.

"How do I do that?" she asked. She would have thought that, if she'd had such powers, she would have known about them by now. She still held the gems in her hands, not wanting to let them go. She was afraid of losing them and somehow making Steth angry.

Steth bent over the water, close but not close enough for his hair to fall into it. "You need someone to help you." He said simply. "Humans learned of their powers a long time ago, from various demigods born from the Sun god. the humans spread their abilities by helping others learn of their power. All you need is a coach to teach you how to single out a specific ability at will." He put a hand right above the water of the cavern. "If you want to learn, I can help..."

He touched the water. It crystallized and spread, forming a very delicate shell over the water. "And as you learn, you can do much more than this." He indicated the light, icy covering he'd created.

Lyra watched in quiet amazement as the water turned to ice before her eyes, just from his touch. It struck a chord in her that was so deep, so visceral, that she knew she had to learn or risk letting some vital part of herself die. The suddenness of the urge shocked her, but the feeling was strong and insistent and refused to wane. It was the most she'd felt anything but fear since before she'd left the village.

"I want to learn," she breathed, looking at the delicate, crystalline sheet of ice floating on the water's surface. It had started to melt, turning more and more translucent until it was completely clear, and Lyra still found it beautiful. "Please, I want to learn."

Steth smiled widely for the first time since meeting the girl. “I’d expected as much. Those with this ability tend to feel the need to learn and master it when they’re exposed to it, but you can’t begin immediately.” he straightened up. “It takes a lot of practice to be able to focus your energy and not tax yourself to the point of unconsciousness.”

He moved himself around, but the walkway was a bit too narrow to accommodate his entire bottom half. A bit of his tail fell into the water, disturbing it only a bit. “It’s best you rest and at least eat a bit, so you can go a bit longer in your practices.” He tilted his head, as though waiting for an acceptance or declination. If it were the latter, he’d have to accept her decision and begin a water technique plan.

For one brief moment, Lyra wanted to insist on starting right away. The relentless desire to learn had taken firm hold of her, as if she had a void within her that begged to be filled. She had never felt a yearning so strong before. After a minute or two of mentally wrestling with herself, she bowed her head respectfully to Steth.

"If you say it is best," she said, "then I will do as you say." That one part of her howled in protest, wanting to learn now now now, but she tamped it down as best as she could. She needed to learn, but she needed to learn the right way, and she knew that.

Steth nodded. “I commend your restraint.” He said. “We should put it off until tomorrow morning, at which time we can begin immediately if you prefer. But for now, you should calm yourself, rest, wait for a while.” He moved around and out of the water. Luckily he could swim. “I’ve got to check on the goat...” He suddenly realized, moving back into the cavern. “Come along if you like. Perhaps I can take you back to the village for clothes?” It wasn’t something he would have thought about if he hadn’t held an appreciation for the pale fabric of the shift Lyra wore. But it was a long shot. She might not want to return to the village since they basically gave her away to Steth for a bit of rain.

"I..." Lyra trailed off. She still felt the incessant, pressing need to learn about her abilities, but it was dimmed slightly by the thought of her home village. "No," she said. "No, I don't want to go back there. Not right now." She looked down a bit as she spoke, a little ashamed. One should never be reluctant to return home, but she didn't want to go back. They'd given her up, after all, and she wasn't going to forget that. She wasn't sure where she would get more clothes from, but she would figure something out. She could sew fairly well, after all, most women in the village could, so if she had to, she could make herself something if she got her hands on the fabric.

"All right." Steth said lightly, going on so Lyra could follow along. "I don't hold that against you. Once the ones you love just... give you up... it's a bit difficult to face them again." He almost related to her. He'd been given up as well. For a moment he thought about bringing it up, but decided against it. He didn't need to bring her down with his problems, after all. "Well... I hope you can sew. I've got just the things you'll need to make your own clothes, instead of going to get your old ones." Among what he'd accumulated over the decades, he'd taken to owning various bolts of fabrics and looms, sewing items in general.

They arrived in one of the more open caverns to the scent of fire and meat. "Seems the goat should be done by now." He said. "I took out the insides so it'd get done faster." He moved around and studied the fire and what was above it. "I wouldn't say it's my kind..." He commented. "But perhaps it's good enough for now?"

"I can sew well enough," Lyra said as she followed him. She kept a respectful distance, though, not entirely comfortable following too close. She didn't want to inadvertently make him angry, and she wasn't sure what would or wouldn't set him off. It seemed she had quite a bit to learn about her new life now... She took a few tentative steps towards the goat. It smelled good as it roasted, and it seemed to be cooked well enough... And honestly, it was more than she could have hoped for. She was a gift, it was well within Steth's rights to make her find her own food, or not feed her at all. But here he was, giving her food and offering to let her make clothes for herself. "I'm sure it's fine m-- Steth." She stumbled over the name. It didn't feel right yet to call him by his given name, even though he'd told her she could.

Steth smiled and pulled the spit from the fire, burrowing the end of it into the earthy ground. When he moved the spit, the leaking water began extinguishing the flames with light, sputtering hisses. He used one of the loose, flat rocks to lie the finished meat on, so it would avoid contact with the ground. “I don’t really have anything like utensils, since snakes tend to swallow their food whole.” He laughed a bit to himself, and for the first time seemed just a bit awkward. “Er, anyway. I’ll leave a trail of blue ivy from here to the room in which I’ve stored what you need to make new clothes.” He slithered out of the room and lingered by the entrance, placing his hand on the wall. It immediately became pale blue, veins of leaves and twining arms hanging from the ceiling and clinging to the walls. As he passed the glow, his scales flashed pale bluish-green.

Lyra couldn't help but watch as he left, and stared a bit as his scales changed color briefly and then back. For a moment, she thought it was a trick of her eyes, but there was no way for her to have a second glance so she turned her attention back to the goat.

Fortunately, she wasn't squeamish about starting to take apart the animal. She was a woman, she'd been at least helping in the kitchen since she was old enough to see over the kitchen table. Handling meat didn't bother her, nor really did the lack of utensils. She ate with her fingers as a child, she could do so now. Now that she'd had a chance to see and smell the cooked meat, too, she realized that her appetite had returned with a vengeance. So, trying to ignore that still-present urge inside her to learn now now now, she set to work stripping some meat from the bones and eating her first good meal in quite a while.

Later on, (although she wasn't sure what to do with the rest of the goat and hesitantly left it there) she cautiously followed the trail of glowing vines on the wall. She stopped in her tracks, however, when she saw the room they led her to. The cavern was spacious, with bolts upon bolts of different fabrics in a mind-bending number of fabrics and colors. Even from where she stood, she could count more silks and brocades and satins than she ever dreamed of, although she didn't see any of the more mundane fabrics she was used to. No cotton, no wool, no linen.

"I can't possibly take any of these," she murmured to herself, still in amazement. "These are all much too fine to waste..."

Steth had curled his tail around him in a larger cavern, in which bolts and ribbons of fabric lined the walls, piled on the floor, and rested on pillows. A few looms of various build, one better than the other, sat against the wall across from where he was, and on the naturally-made shelves, smaller sewing items sat in cheaply-made burlap, the only rough fabric in the room. The cavern itself was lit with a series of gold-shining veins of gold-like mineral, which wasn’t hard on the eyes and brightened when one neared it. The various reds, blues, greens, whites, blacks, silver and golds, and countless other colors gleamed depending on make. Some seemed rather fragile, but in reality, not even Steth could pull it apart with his bare hands without a very good amount of effort.

He looked around when Lyra entered. He got a bit of amusement from her awed expression, but regardless, made himself mobile as she spoke. “The only waste is having it all fade away with age.” He assured the girl. “It’ll come of so much better use in your hands. I’ve been given much in my centuries alive, Lyra. Most I don’t need. I continuously find things at the shrine and worry for its safety in the elements and around animals. So I take it in. And then what? It begins piling up. Be my guest, Lyra, and take everything you need without asking me. Anything you need at all, and let me know if it’s not here. I’ll be able to find it.” He nodded. “And if you wouldn’t mind me staying with you... It gets rather boring when you’re alone so often.” He shrank back, becoming smaller and reaching Lyra’s height as he piled himself near the corner close to the cavern’s entrance.

Lyra hesitated, but was starting to realize by now that no amount of protests from her would make Steth change his mind about something. So, cautiously, she began to poke around amongst the different fabrics and materials, brushing them with her fingertips to try to gain an understanding of how the cloths all felt and moved. She wasn't a master seamstress, but she understood that different fabrics had to be handled differently. After a while, she finally pulled down a bolt of satin. It felt durable enough to survive her first few attempts at working with it, and it wasn't so smooth that it would be hard to sew, like the silks all seemed to be.

Once she'd picked the fabric, she went and sifted through threads and pins and needles, looking for everything she would need. She could at least make herself a simple dress, even if the material was much, much richer than she was used to wearing.

Steth watched the girl for a bit, as her uncertainty showed, but didn't do much more. She would have to be patient if she wanted to learn her power, this he knew, and he dwelled on it for a while before his attention turned to his scales. It wasn't difficult to see that they were almost as durable as dragon hide, though with much more purpose than to simply protect. They helped him move without the use of his arms, let him swim easily and more powerfully, and sometimes, they flashed or glowed very faintly, or began a tingling itch that just wouldn't go away, something like a warning, but nothing came of it and the feeling eventually faded. Among the coils he found the end of his tail and studied it. Like most earth-dwelling snakes of the Sun god's world, the end of his tail faded to a pearly white, enabling the creature's young to see it when raised until they separated from their parent. However, he'd not seen many other Naga as of late. In fact, within the previous five years, Steth had come across fewer and fewer Naga. Most of the ones he did meet were water-dwellers, pale blue to a very deep purplish tone to hide within their watery home, adapted to the situation they found themselves in.

With a sigh, Steth put his head down and watched Lyra. Perhaps he and she could find out what happened to the many Naga that once roamed. Soon enough, anyway.

It took Lyra a couple of tries to really get used to working with the satin. Finally, she managed to put together a serviceable dress, and she made sure the seams were tightly sewn. She didn't want the dress to fall apart on her. Making the dress had taken her quite a while, and once she'd put down the needle and thread, she didn't have anything to focus on to keep herself awake anymore. More quickly than she anticipated, she got hit by waves of drowsiness that pulled her under and put her to sleep.

To Steth, it was fascinating to watch Lyra work on her new clothes. She definitely had patience to spare, it was evident in how hard she concentrated, correcting what mistakes she found. It really ate away the rest of the day, and long into evening, which Steth could feel from the cooling of the air even deep in the cavern, she finally fell over and asleep. After a few minutes, in which he cringed at the way she was lying, which didn't look too comfortable, he carefully moved and lifted her up in both arms. She didn't weigh much, even less that Steth had anticipated. Taking up the gems and dress she'd laid beside her, he returned her, and her items, to the cavern with the soft bed of ivy and laid her down.

Before he left, Steth put a hand to the wall just outside the chamber and the foliage on the wall itself faded, leaving a trail out of her room and to the one he'd be in, not far away. In the dark, save the small veins of pale greenish-blue, the movement of his scales sounded more like faraway whispers as he left.