A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 294: Coiled Moon Festival. Day 3. Blessings

Chapter 294: Coiled Moon Festival. Day 3. Blessings

I spent the rest of the day with my friends before we went to sleep for the night early so that we could be fully ready and stay awake for tomorrow.

When we got up, I was the latest as I got my food and scarfed it down before we all headed back outside.

Once outside, we were told to gather into certain areas depending on which race we were. The reason being, it was easier for our respective Species Deity to bless us with fortune or whatever.

That being the case, the three of us said our goodbyes to David since he was the only one of us that wasn’t a Naga.

As for where we went, we joined all the Naga and gathered inside of the north east district of the city. I was also able to manage getting some snacks along the way as I felt a little peckish.

When we arrived, it was around half past noon, so I thought that we would be a little early since this was supposed to go on until midnight.

But I was wrong, as there were murmurs of when people would receive their blessings from their ancestors and respective deities.

I wasn’t exactly here for all of that though, I was just here because I was meant to be here.

But even after another half an hour, nothing came down upon this area of the city. We could clearly see motes of light descending and landing on other parts of the city, but none of them ever landed over here.

All the other Naga started to become anxious. Nothing like this had ever happened before. This was the Naga kingdom, where most Naga resided, yet nothing was falling down upon any of us.

Asty started to get worried and grabbed my hand. I looked down upon her wide eyed and pouty face.

I squeezed back and smiled reassuringly which gave her what she was looking for.

She was already holding Ash’s hand, but they were lovers, so it was normal. She only held my hand because she looks up to me like a big sister.

So when she was feeling nervous, she would always look up to me for support, as she saw me as a figure that would always help her.

And I will. To the best of my abilities, I will always support her and her endeavours.

And not a few moments after that, a tiny mote of light descended upon our area finally.

The people around us looked up at it expectantly, as it slowly made its way over towards our direction.

There were sighs of discontent from those it flew past, and expectant gasps from those who thought it would be theirs.

And Asty was no exception. Ash and I however weren’t, as we didn’t care about such things.

As the light grew ever closer to us, it started to descend towards us from its currently high up position.

And soon, it landed right above Asty, and I swore I could see stars in her eyes as she looked up at it expectantly, her mouth agape in shock, likely never actually expecting it to come down before her.

It remained in place for a couple of seconds before shimmering some dust down on her face which caused her to sneeze before it then flew inside of her mouth and basically exploded in a burst of light.

It wasn’t a harmful light or anything, but it was clearly meant to take effect there specifically.

When Asty recovered from the shock of both sneezing and the light exploding in her mouth, she just blankly stared in front of her, with a distant gaze that said ’I’m not here right now.’

Then not a few moments later she suddenly screamed in pain as she let go of our hands and held them up against her mouth.

We were worried as to what made her scream. Obviously she was in pain, but in what way?

That’s when we saw blood spilling out of her hands when she suddenly coughed out a mouthful of blood.

Her arms were shaking, eyes bulging and threatening to burst out of their sockets as blood continued to pour out of her mouth.

The crowd around us gasped and screamed out in shock as they backed away, but Ash and I remained where we were and held Asty up to prevent her from falling over.

"Huurrraaakk! Kaaacckk!" Asty retched continuously as blood kept on pouring ouot of her mouth.

And all of a sudden, something fell out of her mouth, landing on the ground in the small puddle of blood that was made from her blood.

And before I could do anything, another one fell out. The blood soon stopped shortly after.

"Oh my Goddess! Asty, are you okay?" Seeing that Asty had stopped bleeding now and was looking more stable also, Ash grabbed her and pulled her in to confirm if she was okay or not.

Though, I doubt we’ll get a response seeing as she wasn’t responding.

"Asty? Asty! Say something, ANYTHING!"

Whilst Ash was busy with making sure Asty alive and well, which I could tell she was, I leant down and picked up the two things that she puked out of her mouth.

"Wait a minute..." And the moment that I picked them up, I realised what they were by the shape.

They were teeth. But not just any ordinary teeth. They were Asty’s clearly, but they were her fangs.

A Naga’s fangs never fall out under almost any circumstance. The only time they do, is when they are forcefully removed, or when something causes them to fall out, like a disease or something that rots away at the insides of your mouth, causing them to become loose and then fall out.

But none of that is what happened her. If I had to guess, it would be that the light that descended from the sky and exploded in her mouth did this. They caused her teeth to be expelled.

But why?

"Oh my Goddess..." I heard Ash cry out in shock.

I turned to look back at Ash who was holding Asty by her upper arms, looking at Asty’s face in disbelief.

And when I saw where she was looking, I saw that Asty had a new pair of fangs. Clearly indicated by the pointy white protrusions that poke out of her mouth now.

Her fangs had been replaced.

Such a thing was unheard of. I don’t think I can recall such a thing ever happening before. It makes sense as to how, but why is another question entirely. And it wasn’t one that was going to be answered any time soon.

I soon heard whispers of the people around us, and they were all looking our way in contempt.

At first I thought it might be because of Ash standing out of place but no, it was more the fact that Asty’s dress had been stained in blood.

There was also probably some who felt resentment towards her for receiving the blessing from our Goddess.

I frowned as this isn’t something we should be worrying about. The persons health takes priority over some stupid ceremony.

"Asty? Asty!"

When I turned back to look, I saw Ash frantically shaking the poor girl who had clearly fallen asleep from the shock.

"It’s okay Ash, she’s fine. Just unconscious is all. That was a painful experience for her, let her rest for now." I patter her on the shoulders and reassured her that Asty was fine, which she was.

She then pulled Asty into a warm and loving embrace, coddling her head in her own neck as she sighed in relief and hugged her, supporting her as she slept.

The voices of disgust got louder.

I didn’t say anything because that would only make things worse. It was best to ignore this kind of thing and let it blow over.

That was something I learned from my Etiquette lessons.

So for now, I would ignore their disgusted glares and only focused on my friend who had just gone through something potentially gruellingly painful.

"Let’s go back. She need rest." I said lightly to Ash as she kept a tight hold on Asty.

With tears welling up in her eyes, she turned to look and me and nodded, understanding that staying here was a bad idea.

Together, we held Asty’s arms over our shoulders and began making our way back to the orphanage.

And as we started to make our way back to there, the people that we slithered towards on our way back parted in disgust so as to not get close to us, likely because of the blood that covered us.

Neither of us cared as none of this mattered to me or Ash. We only cared about Asty and her safety.

Attending the festival was nice and all, but it wasn’t something that mattered to us. We didn’t really care about the faith and the Gods much.

We believe in their existence sure, but it’s not like we worship them or anything. To us, this festival was something more like a way to speak to the Gods rather than request for them to bless us with a fraction of their power or whatever.

When we eventually got back to the orphanage, we had passed by many, MANY stares of disgust once they saw our pure white clothes stained with blood.

We ignored them all and came back to an empty building. We quickly arrived at Asty’s room where we took her dress off, which would’ve only invited more disdain, and laid cleaned her up before laying her out on her bed.

I then left shortly after because I could tell that Ash wanted to be alone with Asty for when she woke up.

As for where I went afterwards? I decided to sneak up onto the roof.