"Egnero." Romanov pushed Faragonda aside and moved forward. "How do you dare to come here after what you did?"
Faragonda felt how some one pulled her aside. Din's silver arms closed around her waist.
"You will have to explain something to me, Fara." He whispered into her ear.
"Later, my dear." She answered. "If we don't die here."
"You will never die again." Din gently moved her behind him. "I will never let that happen again."
"Who is that, Ms. F?" Bloom moved closer to the Head, touching her to assure herself she was real.
"That, Bloom, is Egnero, brother of Egina, Aileh's mother. He caused this all. He tried to kill her when she didn't gave birth to another heir and Romanov didn't want to divorce to remarry. She survived though…"
"Ouch." Flora looked at the two naga-men, who stood as still as statues opposite eachother. "And he has come here, why?"
"Flora, I don't know everything. This is one of the things I don't." Faragonda ushered them back. "We better move back. You have seen how easily Romanov can kill." She looked at the other naga. "And I have no desire to find out how easily he can kill."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Why did you come here?" Romanov repeated his question.
"It is time for a new king, one that is not as disgraceful as you are, Romanov." Egnero laughed. "You love! By every god, how sick can you get?"
"I'm perfectly healthy," Romanov answered. "Though I know you find that terrible. You should be grateful I love, but if you wish to blame some one; blame the humans, they made me live with them for centuries. Or if that's too much for you, blame the Blood-naga."
"Blood-naga?" Egnero snickered. "Don't you think we all outgrew the fairytales?"
"Ofcourse we all have, but I never said she was." Romanov was fast, to fast for the humans to see, but Egnero was fast aswell and managed to block the attack. Alfea shook when the two strongest beings (except maybe the Dragon and Darkar) clashed. Every one backed away, yet still Naga's died when stray attacks crashed into their midst. Too few of them were strong enough to redirect a attack from a Cobra.
Yet Aileh and his mother were powerful enough, so the Winx could redirect their attention to something else, which they did.
"Din?" Tecna carefully tapped the Silver shoulder. "Who is the 'Blood-naga'?"
He seemed to consider her question, but answered it after a while. "Most deem it a fairytale, but I'm not so sure it is. When the witches and fairies locked our planets away, so to speek, they had killed many of us. Especcially Cobra's. Back in that time, the King had a Harem and ofcourse a Qeeun. The Qeeun got killed when she fled to a save haven and many Cobra's out of the Harem as well. Romanov's mother was one of those. He was but an egg – Yes, most Naga lay eggs, just like real snakes, especcially when they are past the Half-human form – when she was killed. He claimed that afterwards a stray Naga had found him, raised him and eventually helped him escape back to our realms. When he arrived there he was not only the only surviving ofspring of our king, but also the son of one of the most High-ranked Cobra's in the Harem. So he became King."
"That doesn't seem like a fairytale to me." Stella commented. "Except if helping is deemed something out of a fairytale ofcourse."
"It was not the helping, but other things." Din looked at the King, who had summoned a hail of stones. "When the King searched for the Naga that had saved his only seed, she was nowhere to be found. She had never passed the barrier with Romanov. Then there was the colour Romanov claimed she had had. Red, not the sort of red the Coral-snakes have, but truly blood-red. He once desribed her as; 'Her skin and tail had the color of fresh-spilled blood, yet her hair and eyes the color of fresh-fallen snow' if I remember properly. Such a colour combination had never been seen before. It was unnatural, even the Vipers never have purely white eyes and no Naga ever had been blood-red. That made most think he had just come up with some story. But I never was so sure, because why would he?"
"Well, can humans turn into a naga? With Transformation-magic? Because maybe she was a human."
"They can," Faragonda answered that question. "but no one ever does so, it would be suicide. Our body can't cope with the change; one would bleed to death internally if one would try."
"That closes the only option." Bloom sighed. "How long are they going to continue that fight?"
"Most likely forever." Egina send a fireball of her brother into the sky. "They are equals, no one is stronger then the other. And both have great endurance. Unless some one is going to aid one site or the other, this could last until my son would have graduated from his school. What was the name again?"
"Red Fountain, mother and…"
Aileh was stopped mid-sentence by a scream. His father staggered back, pressing his hands against a open wound on his side. He stared in horror at the blood flowing from between his fingers.
Egnero raised his hand for what certainly would be the hit that would kill his brother-in-law. He was about the release a bolt of lightning down, when his hand was stopped mid-movement. He looked up and his eyes widened in terror. The hand was as red as fresh-spilled blood…