Merlin had started the day in a good mood, the sun was shining, the druids were out offering their healing services and Arthur had finally loosened up. All was well in the world, at least to Merlin, unfortunately his little bubble of perfection was burst when several people came rushing through the castle gates, carrying a number of other civilians. They were obviously sick.
Quickly he offered his services, ignoring the fact that as royalty he should just get servants to do it for him and carried a young woman to Gaius chamber. The physician began busily working on the victims, four in all, while the healthy ones looked on.
The sick were pale, their skin had a sickly grey pallor. The most unsettling thing had to be their veins though, clearly visible through the almost translucent skin, they were jet black. Between the black blood and grey skin they appeared almost stone like, Merlin almost jumped when Gaius pulled back an eye lid to reveal pasty white irises.
"What did this?" Merlin asked uneasily.
"A Naga." Gaius replied sourly, " A creature of dark magic. It's venom is deadly, I'm afraid I can't do anything for these people but ease their passing."
"What?" One of the healthy men cried, "Surely you have a cure!"
"I'm afraid the only cure is the blood of a Naga mixed with willow root." Gaius explained, "Willow root I have but Naga blood is hard to come by, the blood must be boiled with the willow and administered within 48 hours of the bite. At the very latest."
"Isn't there time for us to go and find a Naga?" Merlin asked.
"Not for these people I'm afraid." Gaius shook his head, "I will make a draught that induced deep sleep, they will pass without pain."
The villagers wept for their lost loved ones while Merlin quickly located Gaius's bestiary and flicked through it until he came to Naga. A page was taken up by an illustration of one of the strangest creatures Merlin had ever seen. The torso and face belonged to a young man; a forked tongue came from his mouth, slipping between four sharp fangs, two on the top, two on the bottom. His eyes were thin, the pupils merely slits. Surrounding his neck was a large, scaly frill like that of a cobra and his human hands were tipped with sharp claw like nails. However where his legs should have been was a large to snake tail. By him was a large sword half his height, sticking out of the ground.
Besides the drawing was writing.
The Naga is a half human, half snake demon that hatches from eggs laid by the females. Notoriously long-lived and ever youthful these evil creatures sustain themselves on the blood of other creatures and replacing it with their venom. They tend to prefer carnivores to herbivores. Their bite is venomous, the time until death is changeable depending on how much blood was taken from the victim, Naga's never drain a victim completely. The longest a human can last is five days, however if the Naga is hungry at the time of bite it can be cut down to two. Aside from the venom bite their claws are extremely sharp and their tails are armour by near impenetrable scales. They have been known to carry large swords as a precautionary measure, these swords are made from the bones of other Naga's and strengthened by their venom but are breakable. Their weak point is the chest and neck.
"One has taken up residence in the caves by our village." A man told him once he was done, "At first he only took our cattle but then he disappeared for a month. We thought he'd gone but then he attacked the village and drained these people of most of their blood."
"We can't have a Naga running around." Merlin told Gaius, "I'll get Arthur and the Knight of the Round Table, we'll take care of it."
Gaius nodded and set about making his potion.
…
When Arthur heard about what had happened he agreed with Merlin whole heartedly, this Naga needed to be slain. They would take bottles with them as well to gather up as much of it's blood as they could just in case this happened again in the future. Before they knew it they were on their way to the village to locate these caves. The villager had told him the creature changed caves each night and there were dozens, it would take them a while to find him.
He wasn't lying; the caves were bored into a rock face almost half a mile long, in a range of sizes. Leon pointed out that they should stick together, while splitting up would save time if they encountered the beast while they were alone they were as good as dead.
"Here snakey snakey snakey!" Gwaine called into the cave, this one ran particularly deep, "Come out and play!"
"Are you even able to act serious?" Percival grinned.
"I hope not.' Gwaine replied, The others chuckled.
That was normal, laughing while hunting a blood sucking half snake monstrosity. Just another day in the life of Merlin the warlock. Out of the corner of his eyes Merlin noticed a small side tunnel and without thinking poked his head down it, inside was a small cavern with some large boulders, no Naga. Merlin turned to head back to main tunnel, he didn't see the snake like yes peep over the back of the largest boulder.
"You ssssmell nice." Came a breathy male voice. Merlin jumped and turned, Sword drawn in one hand, torch in the other. He was face to face with the creature from the book, he was a few heads taller than the prince, scales a glimmering green and hair black as pitch. He crawled over the boulder and slid over to the prince, hands out in front of himself ready to grab him.
"I haven't eaten in agessss." He grinned, "All the villagerssss ran away and I do hate the tasssste of deer blood."
"Arthur! It's here!" Merlin called without fear, swiping at the creatures chest with his sword. It hissed.
"Now, I'm not an it." The Naga hissed silkily, "You could at leasssst have the decency to call me a he."
He'd fallen for a trick; while the creature was talking he had wrapped his long tail around the warlock from behind and with a quick movement pushed him into the room away from the door.
"Now, assss much asss I enjoy playing with my food, I'm sssstarving." The Naga boy hissed.
He slithered toward the prince, a deep hissing erupting from his throat as he opened his mouth and bared his fangs.
"Astrice!" Merlin commanded quietly, sending the hungry Naga flying. It growled.
"Magic, interesssting, you magical folk alwayssss tassste the besssst." He growled, snapping out his long armoured table and knocking the prince down with the force of a charging bull.
Arthur and the others arrived in the doorway with a yell but Merlin didn't hear it properly he felt the air knocked out of him and his torch and sword slip from his grip. The Naga hissed as the fire burnt his tail, it seemed that while the scales were armoured, fire still hurt him.
"Merlin!" Arthur cried charging forward, only to be knocked down by the Naga's thick tail.
By the time Arthur had gotten to his feet the Naga was leaning over Merlin who kicked it in the chest, which only served to anger him. While the Naga recoiled from the blow Merlin made his move toward his sword but just as he was about to reach it the Naga grabbed him, digging it's nails into the skin on his arm. The free nails tore apart the chain mail and cloth at Merlin's shoulder revealing the skin beneath.
And before anybody could stop him the Naga had sunk all four fangs into the youngest princes shoulder.
Poisoned Merlin was the most popular so far! So I wrote that one up. Naga's are creatures from Indian mythology but they didn't drain blood or ave swords made from bones. I made all that stuff up.
The picture I based the Naga off is by Zanten on Deviant Art, its named 'Karok cobra naga'