I do not own Anaconda. I only own Michelle Harker.

Story Start

The next morning, I woke up groggily to find Luna laying across my body as she stared at the door. Thankfully, the door was closed but it did make me a bit nervous that somebody had been there earlier or something. Luna turned her head to look at me when I moved slightly.

"Hey girl, did I miss anything fun?" I questioned her and she just turned back to look at the doorway. "Great, another day of not trusting people," I thought as I gently moved her so I could get out of the bed and put on fresh clothes.

Brushing my bedhead was a pain, but I was finally able to fix my hair into a braid so it would stay out of my way. Luna happily slithered onto my shoulders and arms before she tensed again. I put on a happy expression before leaving my room and joining the others at the back of the boat.

"Morning Michelle," Denise said happily even though she stared warily at Luna, who just smelled the air.

"Morning Denise, so what's for breakfast?" I questioned taking a seat on the floor of the boat by her. Luna slithered to sit in my lap where she could watch everyone easier.

"I don't know yet," Denise said with a shrug before she ran off to go talk to Gary, who was messing around with the sound equipment.

I stayed where I was and just breathed in the fresh air. The jungle was wide awake this morning as birds flew by and fish swam through the river around and under the boat. Luna had been relaxing, but I tensed when she did. The sound of boots approaching us made me look up to stare at the new man, who we had helped yesterday. I was slightly surprised to still see him on the boat.

"I'm Serone," he introduced himself but he did not hold out his hand for a handshake.

"Michelle, nice to meet you," I said being polite even though Luna was now wrapped around my shoulders and neck in an aggressive stance towards Serone.

"You like snakes?" he questioned as if it was obvious, which it was.

"I love snakes," I told him with a raised eyebrow as if daring him to try something. I had no clue who this man was, but for somebody who had lived here or been in this area for a long time, he should know better than to be stuck on the river.

"Good to know, that will be useful out here," he said as a greedy look appeared in his eyes. He tensed when Luna opened her mouth and hissed out at him aggressively. "Very useful," he muttered before walking away from Luna and me.

"Well that was weird and I officially will stay as far away from him as I can," I told Luna, who closed her mouth and loosened her hold on my body. She did not hurt me. She had done this many times when she felt I was being threatened.

The rest of the day passed by normally for the most part. My bad feeling about Serone and Mateo grew worse when Serone told how he stopped the career path of a religious man, and he came out here for the snakes. I now knew exactly what type of man because working at a zoo, you learn exactly how people are that catch animals just for the money. "Disgusting and dangerous," I thought as I made sure to keep distance between Serone, Mateo, and I the rest of the day. Mateo had tried multiple times to speak with me about Luna, but I would not give him the chance. I knew the others on the boat had not figured out what was going on yet, but they were soon going to be part of a hunt for snakes, but what kind? I had asked Dr. Cale earlier who suggested I join this trip, and it was Mateo. "Not everyone is going to make it out of this," I thought angrily as I gripped the necklace through my shirt. "I hope an anaconda eats those disgusting men," I thought in regards to Mateo and Serone.

Later that night Serone made himself in the good graces of everyone when he saved Gary and Denise from a wild boar. The two had been foolish enough to venture out into the jungle without any protection, but any opportunity for Serone to make himself look better was only helping his cause and making me tenser. I knew he could tell too because he would give me a shit eating grin every chance he got. Luna would not leave my side for anything.

"I just wonder when they are going to make their move," I thought to myself later that night when I was the only one awake on the back of the boat. Everyone else had either retreated to sleep in their beds or they were up in the captain's area talking. The lights on the boat were on so I was able to see a bit into the jungle surrounding us, but not much. Anything could be lying behind the foliage and I would not be able to see it. "Luna, this wasn't the trip I thought I volunteered for," I told her as she slithered around me on the boat. I looked around to make sure nobody was there before I pulled the necklace out from under my shirt. The totem would be creepy in anyone's mind, but it calmed me. "Not the trip I planned at all," I whispered before hearing Luna start hissing louder than I have ever heard before.

My eyes snapped up to scan the jungle around us, but my eyes were not seeing anything. Luna was though because she was staring down one certain spot and never losing her threatening stance. "What do you see?" I whispered calmly as I looked at the area she was staring down. My eyes took time to try to adjust, but soon I saw them, the yellow snake eyes staring at the boat with a hungry look. The boat's light flashed onto the snake briefly and I was able to see the anaconda scale pattern. The size of its head was massive, and it stared me down with no fear. "It has nothing to even fear," I thought as I kept its stare.

I watched the anaconda scent the air and Luna quickly rushed up my body to wrap around my shoulders and protect my neck. I knew if the snake wanted to kill me then Luna would not be able to stop it. Just judging from the size of its head, it was a massive creature. However, it was also, "beautiful," I whispered.

"Michelle, go on and get some sleep. We have a long day tomorrow," Danny's voice inside the boat, but my eyes never left the anaconda's eyes.

"Just don't come out here," I thought to Danny as I watched the snake stop scenting the air and its eyes looked from me to Luna. It titled its head in almost what you could call curiosity before it disappeared into the forest.

"Michelle, get to bed girl, it's late," Danny shouted again and I rushed to my room not even caring that the totem pendant was still in plain sight.

"Luna, that shouldn't have happened. Snakes like that out here will happily kill a human, why did it look at us as if it was curious? Why didn't it attack?" I whispered while locking the door to my room and fussing with some books that I had brought with me. My books were about different snake behavior, but none of the books explained what just happened.

Luna flicked her tongue against the pendant around my neck and my eyes widened. She had never once bothered it or even touched it before but now she kept messing with the necklace around my neck.

"You're kidding me, don't you dare tell me that you know that nagas exist, you've been holding out on me if it's true," I whispered fervently as I picked up Luna and looked straight into her eyes. "You're telling me they exist aren't you," I whispered in shock as she gently bit down on the necklace and moved her head up and down. Luna then released the necklace and looked back at me. "You're either honestly telling me that nagas exist or I've lost my mind to jungle fever or something," I told her before hiding my necklace and opening another book about naga mythology.

There was no way I was going to be able to sleep tonight. Luna just stayed wrapped around me that night as I read, and she stayed as close to me as possible the next day too. I was a bit jumpy the next day, but it was because I kept staring at the water and jungle waiting for the anaconda to appear again. I had a hunch that it was going to be following the boat, but now I just wanted to know more. I wanted to know if it was truly a naga using its full snake form, and if it would ever appear in its naga form in front of me. I had many doubts I would see the true naga form if the snake actually was more than just an ordinary naga, but I was not going to lose hope. I had dreamed for years of seeing true naga, and there are many mysteries in jungles. Nagas could be here.

My thoughts of nagas existing grew even stronger when the next day the boat floated past a giant totem that looked exactly like my necklace. "It has to be true," was the only thing that ran through my mind until the totem was no longer in sight of the boat. Serone tried to tell everyone that the people of the mist worshiped giant snakes, and I did not know if this was true or not, but I did know that we had to be heading somewhere sacred for the snakes. "Now the question is, are they just snakes or more?" I thought while moving to the back of the boat again.

My focus on the nagas diminished completely when the boat stopped because of ropes being jammed in there. "It's begun," I thought worriedly as I saw Serone and Mateo give each other knowing looks when the boat stopped.

Dr. Cale volunteered to unjam the ropes, but he was practically signing his death wish early. I stayed far away from the others and close to the boat's edge as he disappeared under the water. Silence permeated the boat until splashing water notified us all that something was wrong. Gary dove into the water and saved Dr. Cale from drowning, and Terri was the first to drop to his side in fear. She was crying and fretting rapidly as Serone took control of the situation. Luna hissed angrily as a poisonous wasp was taken from Dr. Cale's mouth and then Serone created an airway for Dr. Cale by cutting open his throat.

"It was all a setup and it's only going to get worse," I thought as Terri and Serone talked about going this way or that to find the nearest village to save Dr. Cale's life. Terri was too worried about Dr. Cale to realize that Serone was now going to take over and lead them to where his precious snakes were.

"I don't like this," I heard Danny whisper to Terri and I agreed wholeheartedly.

The boat continued to journey down the river and during that time I could have sworn that I caught sight of the anaconda again multiple times. Every time I saw it, Luna would become tense and ready for a fight, but the anaconda only gave me that curious look again before disappearing back into the foliage of the jungle. The others had not seen it and I doubted that Serone or Mateo had seen it, which was slightly amusing seeing as they were the snake poachers. Slowly the boat came to a stop and I looked ahead to see a barrier.

"Just like in the legend," I thought as I remembered from the book I read last night that there was a barrier blocking the entrance to the territory of the nagas. The barrier was made to look like normal men made it, but in reality there was supposed to be tons of baby snakes inside the barrier as a breeding area. True nagas were not born or kept there, but normal anacondas would be. "Let's hope I'm wrong for the sake of all these people," I thought looking at all the others on the boat.

Gary volunteered to help Serone blast away the barrier and I waited with bated breath at the result of blowing up the barrier. The screams of terror when so many baby and young anacondas fell onto the boat made my heart sink and yet jump at the same time. It was all true, the barrier legend was real, and if I was right then so would the naga legend.

Luna hissed at all of the babies slithering around us, and I froze when I heard a louder hiss from the water behind me where I was standing at the edge of the boat. The baby anacondas that had been around me slithered away to go be near the others. Luna was hissing angrily at the water behind me, and I slowly turned around to see the large anaconda in the water. Its head was barely poking out of the water's surface so I still had no true indication of its size, but it just tilted its head again at me.

"You're a naga," I whispered never losing contact with the snake's eyes. "You're not just a normal anaconda, you're a naga and we're about to run into more nagas as well, aren't we?" I whispered to the snake.

If snakes could smirk then I swear it was as it lifted its head out of the water and touched its face to my feet when nobody was looking. Everyone was too busy worrying about Westridge, who now had a baby anaconda trying to swallow his finger.

"Are you going to kill me?" I continued wanting to at least know if I should be ready to die or ready to try to fight. The snake shocked me to the core when it ran its head up against my leg and then shook its head before disappearing into the water.

"Michelle, are you all right?" Terri shouted over to me since she was on the other side of the boat with a lot of snakes separating us.

"I don't know," I told her honestly as I felt my heart threatening to jump out of my chest at what just happened.