Chapter 16: Impact, part 2

Harry and his friends recover from their latest interaction with humans

A full moon shone down through the last wisps of cloud left in the nighttime sky. The first tendrils of dawn were stealing into the sky, light flickering to life across the great black starry canvas. Harry stared up from where he was sprawled with one leg flung over Naginis's side and his back resting against Sahensha's. The limp form of a red snake hung around his neck and did not wake with the dawn.

The air was crisp and cool from the night's rain. Mist rose from the ground and filled in the spaces between the trees. The forest filled with sounds, birds chirping, bugs buzzing, small animals finding food.

Harry's green eyes stared up into the canopy of day as it broke over the forest.

"We're going to make a nest."

This time, his company did not protest.

It was well into the morning hours before Sahensha rose his head. His crown scales were a deep red now, nearly the color of blood. Any day they would break and he would have a beautiful mane.

The young Basilisk cast his gaze about. He tasted the air with a black forked tongue. His Emperor was the only human around now. It was better this way.

The two humans last night had tried to steal the Emperor away.

It was the second time such a thing had happened to the group, and they were all shaken in their own way. Sahensha remembered Nagini's furious hiss, and the way her scales shone when she lunged during a flash of lighting. He remembered Indiis coiled protectively around the Emperor's wrist, and the way one wizard had tried to separate him from the Emperor.

There were many flashes of light that night, not all of them from the sky.

The Basilisk had heeded his Emperor's cry not to kill the wizards, though he dearly wished to. They had tried to steal the Emperor! It was a crime worthy of his stare. Sahensha found himself resentful that he had been reduced to joining Nagini in crushing a man. He knew he was capable of so much more.

Harry remained where he had been since the end of the struggle. His gaze was cast upwards into the clouds. Rain had not closed his eyes, nor had sleep claimed him. His thoughts were turbulent, like the storm and the wind. How he hated those men! How he hated people who kept trying to take him away from his family! The fire rose and fell behind his eyes.

Harry breathed in deep the fresh morning air. He had thought all night and had come to a conclusion.

People were the problem. People kept trying to take him away from his family, from his friends, from being in a place where he belonged. He had only just found a place to belong, after NOT belonging at the Dursley's for years and years. Harry couldn't just give that up. Some part of him knew that he had to protect what he had found. He had to protect his friends.

Nagini stirred from under his leg. Harry sat up for the first time since being woken and rubbed her scales. The python twisted and turned and slowly worked her way to lay her head across her human's lap. The night had strained her, she hadn't even known she could move so fast. There had been a yell from Harry, her human, her Emperor. She didn't remember much after that. There was rain, she remembered as Harry stroked her scales, and two men. Her amber eyes snapped open.

Harry smiled. "You're awake."

The python nodded. "Are you hurt, Harry Potter?"

"I'm not hurt," he said. "How about you?"

"I am sore," she admitted, rubbing her head against his warm palm. "I have not crushed a large meal in some time. It will pass."

Harry was already breathing over the long expanse of her green and brown scales. Nagini writhed a bit and then her whole body relaxed. A lovely sensation had unfurled through her entire being after Harry had blown across her scales. She felt sleepy and not hurt.

"I am not sore anymore. Thank you."

Harry's smile grew.

He loved being able to help his friends when they were hurt. Nagini must have used all her strength last night to squeeze that man. There was hardly a shape of him left when both she and Sahensha had finished squeezing their long coils over him. What was left, Sahensha had started to swallow, but spat out when Harry begged him. The Basilisk had reproached Harry for begging, saying he should just command him as his Emperor. Harry had thrown his arms around Sahensha in exhaustion, then collapsed back on the ground to stare at the sky.

The entire night had been an exhausting ordeal. Yet Harry had not been able to sleep. He felt better, now that his friends were awake and well, except small Indiis.

The little red snake had been flung far and landed hard on the ground. Harry had blown across his scales in the rain but Indiis did not stir. Refusing to think the worst, Harry had stubbornly kept his friend close to his heart, draped in his usual spot. The red snake's body was cool from the rain. He would wake any minute and tell Harry all about the world around him, and try to argue they didn't need to make a nest.

Sahensha's head moved into his lap to join Nagini's. Harry's hand rose to stroke his red crown scales, causing a shiver of delight to ripple through the biggest snake. Nagini allowed the bigger snake to wrap around her and her human. It was warmer this way.

Light had finished stealing across the sky.

It was day.

Harry reached up and took Indiis' body in both hands, holding him up, and blew gently over all of him. When he had exhausted his breath he breathed in deeply and blew again. His arms began to shake with the effort of holding up the small snake for so long. When his arms gave out, both Sahensha and Nagini held up Indiis with their joined noses. Harry realized he was crying as he took in a trembling breath. His breath caught in his throat.

He could do this. He would breathe across his friend's scales, and Indiis would wake, and scold him for wasting the whole day sitting around and breathing. And everything would be alright.

Harry felt a hiccup steal his breath, and he sobbed.

"Why do you cry, Emperor?"

Indiis opened a single bronze eye. Harry cried out in amazement. Nagini and Sahensha let him grab up the small snake in both hands, holding him carefully. The little red snake moved sluggish, as though he were made of lead. Finally he found peace in curling his head against the heat of Harry's palm. His eye shut slowly as if he were sleepy.

"Indiis, don't go to sleep," Harry begged. "Please stay awake."

"I am just going to nap," the little snake assured his boy. "I will wake again."

"Don't go," Harry whispered, nervous and afraid. "Don't sleep. You won't wake up. I know it."

Indiis made a noise between a snort and a sigh. It was a tired little noise. He was a tired little snake. "I have not yet spent all my years with you, my Emperor," he chided Harry, tickling the flat of his palm with a forked tongue. "I will sleep and wake with the rise of the moon. Do not be afraid."

"But I am afraid, Indiis," Harry pleaded. "Please don't sleep, you won't wake up. I love you. I want you to live."

The red snake felt a feeling in its whole body, a feeling so big it nearly burst from him. The feeling swelled and rose and grew, and it grew so big that it stole all sleepiness from him. Indiis opened his other eye.

"If it is your will, Emperor, I shall do it."

Sahensha and Nagini watched in awe. Harry didn't know it, but from the moment he had begun to speak, a gentle golden glow had enveloped him head to toe. As his fear turned to relief, the glow dimmed and faded.

Indiis was scolding Harry for begging him, reminding him of his position as Emperor of all snakes. Harry laughed and accepted his friend's words. He couldn't ever remember feeling so nice in his entire life.

Somehow he knew that now everything would be alright.

The sun was high overhead by now. Harry let Indiis arrange himself in his favorite position, hanging in a loop like a necklace over his collar bones and shoulders, and stood with his hopes high.

"We're going to go find a place to call our own," Harry announced. "We're going to find a place where the sun shines all the time, where there are broad, flat rocks to nap on, and with plenty of places to hide. We're going to find the best place, you'll see. It'll be somewhere that smells nice, and where the grass is soft and green, like mint. It'll be somewhere we can all be safe."

Harry had started walking without realizing it. He was still describing the place they would find, certain that it was somewhere they would approve of. Both Sahensha and Nagini had fallen in slithering beside him.

All together, they went deep into the forest.

End Chapter