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

Story Start

The boat was being driven by Westridge, who was not happy about the job, but he was not going to get Serone's wrath towards him just yet. The others were either talking amongst themselves or glaring angrily at Serone. Serone just walked around like he owned the place. I kept Luna close because she looked ready to dive into the water and try to pick a fight with an anaconda. She was slithering all over me to get rid of the scent that Alaric left on me. I was still in shock at the idea that I had seen a real life naga and spoken with him. I could barely believe it was all real, but seeing Mateo's dead body nearby had solidified the reality of the event in my mind.

"Luna, what's going to happen to us now?" I whispered as Serone shot down a monkey to use as bait the next morning. He and Gary had sometime become rather chummy with each other throughout the night when we had been sleeping. "Why are you using that to attract the anaconda to us?" I snapped angrily because I knew that only drawing the nagas to us would make the others on this boat die faster. I might even die faster because of Serone's actions. Luna stared at the dead monkey for a bit before hiding her face behind my hair. "Do you want these people to die any faster?" I shouted at him and then threw Mateo in his face.

"We need bait to catch the anaconda, and if you need to be the bait then that will work. However, I would rather have your help then use you as bait," Serone said back with his unnerving smirk.

"I will not help you trap and cage an anaconda," I shouted at him angrily as my nerves and worry for everyone on this boat were getting to me. If we were dealing with just a normal anaconda then I might be able to actually help a bit, but we weren't. We are dealing with nagas. Nagas that are only protecting their territory from invaders.

"Then do not get in the way," Serone snapped back at me before hooking the monkey to a rope before tossing it into the water.

"This is going to be bad, and you're a greedy fool, both of you," I shouted at Serone and Gary before walking to stand beside Danny and Terri. Terri had spent most of the time watching over Dr. Cale, who was not doing any better, but thankfully he was not doing any worse.

"What the hell are we going to do now?" Danny snapped.

"First chance you get, push Serone in the water when the snake is around us," I offered and they gave me contemplative looks.

"I have a better idea, but we shouldn't try it yet," Terri whispered.

"I still like my idea," I thought while petting Luna's head when I felt her tensing up again.

"Your idea is quite amusing," Alaric's voice sounded in my mind and I tried to hide how much I jumped.

I blamed the boat and river before walking to my room in the boat. Luna looked at me confused as she slithered off my shoulders and onto my bed. "Alaric, where are you?" I whispered almost afraid to breathe. I was definitely excited, don't get me wrong, but I was still in a life or death situation because I did not know if the nagas would kill me too. Luna settled on my lap as my window, which was on the side of the boat in a slightly hidden area, was pushed open by an anaconda's head. Luna rose her body and was hissing profusely as the snake slithered more into my room until there was enough so it could transform into Alaric's naga form.

"The others on this boat are fools," Alaric said simply before the sounds of screams and loud hissing erupted outside of my room.

"Terri, Danny," I screamed and went to rush out of my room, but two strong arms latched around my waist.

"You will not leave," Alaric's voice shouted in my mind.

"I have to help them," was all I shouted stubbornly while trying to struggle out of his grip. The feel of his hot breath made me shudder before a scream left me. His fangs had found a place once again in my neck and this time it felt like they were on fire. Throughout the pain, Alaric's voice tried to soothe me as a clawed hand ran over my stomach underneath my shirt.

Luna went to attack Alaric, but he kept her away from us with his tail. She was no match for him and I whimpered for him to not hurt her. She was family to me and I would not lose her in all of this chaos. The screams from outside were growing louder and so were the hisses from the anaconda that was attacking the crew. My struggles died down at the fire from the bite had traveled through my entire body. I was exhausted and felt like I was going to pass out from the pain of the bite.

"You will be safe now," Alaric whispered to me in my mind as his fangs left my neck. I expected to feel blood trickle down my collarbone, but it never did. He turned me around to have us look eye to eye with each other before he gently laid me down on my bed. Luna took that opportunity to slither onto the bed and sit on my stomach while staring at Alaric in a challenging manner. She was as stubborn as I was for the most part. Alaric chuckled before he turned into his snake form and disappeared out of the window.

Denise's scream for Gary made my heart jump but the exhaustion from the bite was still pulling me under slumber's control. Luna hissed worriedly as she slithered over to look out the window before coming back to my side. Denise's cries and scorn towards Serone was the last thing before I fell asleep. Flashes of Alaric smiling down at me was all I could think of while I slept.

"How did you sleep through all that?" was the first thing I heard when I returned to consciousness. I woke up to see Danny staring down at me confused and also worn out.

"Danny, what's wrong? What happened?" I questioned as I slowly sat up in the bed. My body still felt strange after Alaric's bite yesterday, but I did not have time to worry about that with the look Danny was giving me.

"Gary was killed by the anaconda last night, but Terri's plan worked and we have Serone tied up. He's unconscious right now, but we stopped him. Now we just have to get out of here," Danny said as he walked with me out of the quarter's area and onto the back of the boat.

Denise was being consoled by Terri, but when the two women saw me they rushed over to give me a hug. I was shocked to say the least, but I tried to comfort Denise as much as I could when she broke down into tears. I was not the best at comforting anybody. Terri pulled back with a smile to see I was all right before frowning and moving her hand to touch my neck. "What happened to your neck?" she asked in surprise.

"What do you mean?" I questioned hoping my acting skills were good enough.

She grabbed my hand and pulled me into her room where there was a mirror. She shoved me in front of her so I could get a better look at my neck. A gasp left me when my neck had black spots forming around the area where Alaric bit me two times now. Terri spun me around and started asking if it was any spider or bug that bit or stung me, but I truly did not know what to say to her. She kept freaking out about it since Dr. Cale was still bedridden thanks to a wasp.

"Terri, I'm not feeling ill. All right, I'm fine, just breathe. If I feel bad or any a little bit nauseous, I will let you know," I assured her with my hands on her shoulders.

"Ok, sorry, I just," Terri said and I pulled her into a hug.

"We are going to get him help, ok, Dr. Cale is not going to leave you," I told her softly and she just nodded before she pulled herself together.

"Let's get out of this jungle," Terri said with a new determination and we left her room. She went up to join Westridge to drive the boat. Danny and Denise stayed on the back of the boat with me. Luna had joined me once again even though she was looking at the black spots on my neck with an annoyed look. I had a creepy feeling that the spots were going to turn more scale like as the time passed.

"You will die out here without my help," Serone said to me after he woke up.

"No, you're the one that's going to die out here. You have no idea what you are dealing with out here, poacher," I hissed down at him angrily. "You're going to get every one of these people killed for your greed," I continued and my anger rose at the audacity he had to smirk in his situation.

"Money is the most important," he started to reply but I kicked him in the face as hard as I could.

"Finally, I've been wondering when you were going to hit him," Danny yelled as I walked away from a now bloody Serone. His nose has been broken from my kick.

"He needs to stop talking every once and a while," I told Danny with a smirk before looking at Denise, who looked ready to murder Serone. I had no doubt she would attempt to kill him at least once.

The view of a beautiful waterfall made everyone stop glaring at Serone, but of course, the beauty was disrupted because the boat crashed up onto a bank of sand. Dread filled all of us as we knew that we would need to somehow get out of this mess. We were also still being followed by one or more nagas, but everyone else only thought they were anacondas. Westridge and Terri immediately started making a plan on how to get the boat free. I just hoped we did not meet any trouble when we went to put our plan into motion.