6th July, 485 BNM

Early Morning

Indo-Burmese sub continent

Megheleya Provincial Kingdom lands

Malabutu Valley Jungle

Hunter's rock

Leaves faintly rustled as Starswirl stirred, though as he blearily opened his eyes, his surroundings were different.

The birdsong, and the light from outside the, cavern he was in, showed it was morning. In here the air was cooler, and the ground a smooth stone with the odd leaf litter lying around in arranged piles.

Shifting up, Starswirl recalled what he thought, nay, hoped was a horrible dream last night. Surely that Tiger would have killed him if it were real?

Gently shifting up, Starswirl paused as he saw a striped form lying across the entrance to the cave, though this one was smaller than the one he saw last night. Slowly, Starswirl charged a spell in his horn, the faint blue light emanating in the cave.

A loud chuffing noise hissed from behind and above him, as Starswirl span to see a smaller Tiger cub, about half his size, give a loud snarl to the one[s?] waiting outside.

Spinning around to the entrance, Starswirl backed up as he saw the one outside come prowling in, the wizard breathing hard as his blue light illuminated the adolescent tiger approaching him. But this one had vibrant green eyes, not the yellow of the night before.

And as the other, a sibling, leapt down from behind him to prowl around to the tiger's side, he saw this one had shining, yet dark blue eyes. Then, from outside the cave, a rumbling growl came.

"Keep back! I'll fire if I have to!" Starswirl warned, flaring his horn as he mock charged the 2 siblings, who backed up with a slightly wary hiss, their forepaw claws extending. He was twice their size, he felt he could take them, even if he was cornered.

The mother however, then entered the cave, and Starswirl faltered.

She was bigger than he was in every way, her eyes level with his, but her body bigger than he could ever hope to be. A veritable beast of a Tigress.

Her golden yellow eyes were the same ones that, somehow, his Prophecy imbued mind told him was that of an exemplar being.

His blue horn shining, Starswirl saw the Tigress walk forwards, the 2 adolescent tigers shifting to let her come close as she snarled slightly, staring intently at the blue shining horn.

With a snort, the Tigress gave a few quick chuffs to her cubs, and they left quickly, prowling out of the burrow they had.

Turning to Starswirl, the Tigress then spoke, her voice low pitched, smooth yet emanating power and authority, her expression backing up her remark:

"You are only alive because me and my cubs fed yesterday morning, and you are too alike what the Overlord is supposed to be to risk killing, for now."

Blinking, Starswirl's light dimmed, as he sensed this Tigress wasn't going to kill him, yet. In the dark cave, he asked quietly: "Overlord?"

At this, the Tigress's eyes lit up slightly, as she remarked: "Oh, so you aren't the Overlord? Good…"

Sensing the change in her mood/appetite, Starswirl shone his horn yet again, silently standing his ground while she stared at him, mesmerised but also wary of his horn. Starswirl asked outright: "You could have killed me, you didn't, and not just because you weren't hungry. Who is this Overlord, and why do you say they look like me?"

Staring at the horn, the Tigress began slowly, as she sat down before him, still making him feel small in the cave. She began as the birdsongs, and sound of a slightly playful scuffle from her 2 adolescent cubs outside the cave rose in noise.

"The Overlord, by what my mother told me, came here to the valley, 53 dry seasons [years, Starswirl thought] ago. There was a stone settlement, a tall pointed building like a small mountain, where there were reclusive ones living there, mostly snakes many different animals not common around here., some sort of faith they followed, the Snake tribes. Something happened soon before the Overlord emerged, and the valley turned more wild than normal, and the faith tribe there vanished. The jungle turned darker, and then those creatures emerged, eyes like fire, and skin like flesh and wood."

Starswirl had a thought, as he said cautiously: "Do the creatures look like, this?"

A faint blue light shone, and in a sort of blue aura mist, a mini form of the creature that took Siral emerged. Like an ape, but with spikes and skin like rotted wood chunks and vine like hair clump lengths, sharp teeth, and burning orange eyes. The Tigress's eyes widened slightly in the blue light, as she remarked:

"You saw one and lived? You must be stronger than I thought."

"Yes well, in that case, I won't bother saying I have a need to find where it took my friend when we were attacked last night. He's like me, but darker furred."

"If one of those creatures took your friend, he's not alive anymore. Those things live in the deepest part of the jungle, not even I dare venture in there."

Starswirl sat down slightly, pulling his pointed, muddy and torn blue cloak to his hoof in a slight mourning, while he asked with some query: "He was still alive when it carried him off. One of the smaller ones also tried to get me."

At this, the Tigress's interest truly peaked, as she remarked: "Strange, they normally kill and then take any the Overlord wishes back. You must be, unique."

As she sniffed him, she curiously remarked: "And yet you smell of the village nearby, hardly too special."

"You've been to that village?" Starswirl asked, as he suddenly began to warily put two and two together.

"I may live in this valley with my cubs and others, but I know an easy meal is worth a trek up the routes only I know."

"You took that girl in the night!" Starswirl exclaimed, aghast that he was in the presence of a potential ponyeater, and confirmed calf eater. The Tigress wasn't swayed, as she offhandedly defended:

"I'll take any easy meal I can get for me and my cubs. And their hunters giving me pain for my whole life earnt some payment from time to time. I need easy prey that I need not always chase down."

His blue light shone a little more in the cave, as he saw the Tigress hold up her left forepaw slightly, showing the scarred, somewhat misaligned paw toe on the end of her limb. It looked non-crippling, which meant it must cause her pain constantly. It was a miracle she wasn't grumpier in her normal mood."

Calming himself, Starswirl decided to drop the accusation of killing and eating the calf girl, as a predator was merely feeding herself and cubs in this case. Dimming his blue horn light, Starswirl asked calmly:

"Maybe we could take this to the cave's entrance? I'd like to feel daylight, and see where I am exactly."

"Fair enough, but you are my keep, and my cubs will be curious as to why you continue to be less likely a meal later for us, if more news of yourself keeps coming."

Turning away from him, the Tigress gave a few light chuffs to the cave entrance, as her hulking form then waited for Starswirl to follow. Getting the message, the wizard used his blue horn to find his hat, amidst the piles of laves and white stick fragments nearby.

The blue light showed some of the sticks connected to a skull, and tiny bits of sinew and meat, the skull itself rather small and bovine shaped.

Grimacing, Starswirl scuttled ahead to the Tigress, who gave a small laugh at his expense, knowing he'd seen the carcass her son had been playing with while he slept nearby. Her son knew putting the skeleton there would freak him out.

Coming to the mouth of the cave, Starswirl heard the mother Tigress sternly talking to her children, one a son, the other a daughter:

"-not prey, so he is not to be bitten, swiped or roughhoused with. Understood?"

"Yes mother." A pair of replies came from the blue eyed Tigress and green eyed Tiger adolescents, both of them about half her size, though for a Tigress the mother was quite large.

Slowly walking from the cavern, Starswirl turned to see that it wasn't natural, but it was a partially collapsed stone hut of some kind, heavily overgrown with vines and foliage. It looked like some sort of shrine hut, as the site atop the hill gave it a wide view of the valley through the tree canopy's gap in front of him. Probably leftover from the faith based tribe of snakes that supposedly resided here before this 'Overlord' came.

As for the view itself, as he gave a brief marvel at it, Starswirl saw the valley's large sweeping expanse, noting how the towering mountains, like the one with the cliff he'd been lowered down, encircled it until they came together a dozen miles away to a narrow stretch curving out of sight.

"Magnificent." Starswirl murmured, though as he watched, he saw that indeed, the jungle expanse in and around the valley was a slightly darker colour than normal, including the trees around their sloping hillside.

A slight growl off to his side brought his attention back to his 'host'. Turning to the Tigress, who had taken to lying atop a rock, shaded by the old shrine's sloping stone walls, Starswirl sat down calmly. Nearby, he saw the 2 adolescents eye him up, the male slightly larger than the female.

"Let us lay the ground rules. Anything I can learn from you that might help me with my secure place among this valley is what you'll share. In return, you won't be prey, by us or anyone to the best of our abilities. Agreed?"

Blunt, but acceptable. Starswirl gave a slight nod, as he asked first: "Before any of that, what about introductions?"

"Very well. My son, Shahn, the mischief maker, and my daughter, Daila, the one that unfortunately backs up his mischief."

The female, smaller but the same age, suppressed the faintest of snickers at this, while the male merely grinned with his fangs showing for Starswirl to be unnerved by.

As she pointed a claw at him, the Tigress remarked: "My name is Nahia, and know that I have a good position of power in this valley, so don't forget your place."

"Clearly. My name is Starswirl, the Bearded."

"Wears clothes as odd as his name." Shahn whispered, to which Daila nodded with a slight chuff in agreement, a paw masking her suppressed smile as Nahia shot a look at them to be quiet.

Looking at Starswirl, as she then gazed out across the valley, Nahia relaxed slightly more, as she turned to Daila and Shahn:

"Make sure our territory is secure. And if you see Jakai, tell him I may have something to share with him. Maybe information, maybe food."

As Shahn took off, Daila paused before she left the den's area, remarking to her mother: "Are we going on a hunt with him?"

"Yes, if Starswirl here has some interesting insight to share. But, not a hunt to eat necessarily, but to keep ourselves secure."

Understanding, Daila bounded off in a different direction from her brother, leaving Nahia alone with Starswirl, the former of whom laid down on the rock perch, asking outright:

"So, tell me about your friend and you, what happened to lead us to where we are now."

3 hours later

Late Morning

Malabutu Valley Jungle

Hunter's rock

Suffice to say, Starswirl was confident he was no longer on the menu with these tigers, even with Jakai, the father, being roped in. From what he gathered, normally male tigers didn't stick around much as father roles, but there were two reasons why Jakai helped Nahia. One, she was as big as he was, yet also physically stronger, as she'd picked him for his keen intellect.

Two, this cursed valley was vicious enough that even Nahia, with her reputation, wished to ensure any cubs she had this time were safe. Apparently, to a slightly pained memory by Nahia, she'd lost an entire set of 3 cubs 9 years ago to those orange eyed demon creatures that had taken Siral.

Nahia made no apologies for the villagers sacrificing them in wake of her attack, as she seemed pleased at the fearful reputation she had, among other things in the jungle. All she was sorry for was Starswirl's friend being taken by the creatures. She said death by a tiger was at least by a natural creature.

Those things had begun to appear when the Overlord took over 53 years ago, and that tribe of faith practicing snakes, apparently a King Cobra tribe, had vanished, them having been killed or driven out save for a few stalwart ones that had embraced a wild lifestyle over their previous shrine and monk-like ways.

But the fact remained that all they gathered was that the demon creatures had not killed Starswirl's friend immediately, which was odd, and that according to Nahia's mother's tales to her, the Overlord had resembled an equine with a similar shining horn.

But it was Jakai's news from his usual patrolling that changed things.

"They were bringing mice back to their nest near the buildings along the rapids, and they saw some of the creatures come through the river. One of them had a black form in its grip."

"You are sure it was a black animal?" Nahia stressed, looking her slightly smaller male mate in the eyes, his blue eyes not hesitating as he nodded. Clearly, he was more enthusiastic and compulsive than Nahia, though he still had the air of dignified maturity about him:

"Yes. The Eagle Owls don't lie, nor do their eyes deceive them. But that was before dawn."

As Jakai remarked this, Nahia did some thinking, whilst Starswirl asked aloud, wary while in the company of 4 tigers, 2 of them adults:

"Surely there is someone who can venture in and about with those creatures? Unseen perhaps? If we find the Overlord, maybe Siral will be there, alive, for whatever reason it wishes him."

"Only someone who has lived long enough, before the Overlord came. Enough to not fear them, but know how to live with them in the valley with less trouble." As Nahia spoke, her eyes went distant, as she knew exactly who to speak to.

Standing up, Nahia scanned the jungle down in the valley, as she then spoke to Jakai, the male tiger regarding her with a knowing look:

"Jakai, I need you to watch these two. I'll be gone with Starswirl here, for 3 days at most."

"Yes Nahia." Jakai remarked, as he gently nuzzled her face, before he then bent down to gently lick her left forepaw, which surprisingly, made Nahia slightly purr with some relief. As he pulled away, Jakai cast a look over at the 2 adolescent cubs he'd sired, satisfied when they both sat beside him, though Daila and Shahn both looked somewhat worried for their mother briefly. It was Daila that asked quietly:

"Will you be-"

"I will be FINE, you know this full well, all of you! Or need I recall what I've done to secure the reputation that keeps us safe?" Nahia growled, growing irritated all of a sudden. Quietening down, the 3 tigers watched as Nahia gestured to Starswirl, who had quietly begun walking over to her as she called back sternly:

"3 days at most. Make sure you two have practiced your hunting before I get back. Come on, we must go if we wish to reach Chai before dusk draws too close."

As she spoke without pause, she gently shuffled down the rock, careful on her bad left forepaw as she landed, biting down with ease the constant pain it caused her when she walked. An old wound that would never fade.

As the tiger family watched her, and Starswirl beside her, start down the hill, the Grey Unicorn beside her had to ask:

"Who is Chai?"

Passing down a gully, to where the ground began to level off as the trees and vines grew thicker, Nahia remarked with some of her usual alert tone, despite her seeming at ease in the vicious jungle: "The oldest living creature in this valley. She will know about the Overlord, and your friend being there with it, more specifically with you there to jog her at times shady memory. She has many underlings too. I'd say she is the only creature in this valley that I hold as highly as my children and Jakai."

As he brushed aside a vine, Starswirl remarked bitterly as the air's humidity was already beginning to get irritating as the day drew hotter:

"I hope she resides somewhere shaded."

"She does. But must you tread so loudly? Any hungry animal could hear you for miles with your clumpy footfalls."

Swallowing his indignant response, Starswirl made sure to magically shrink his hat and cloak as he saw the foliage getting thicker as they went deeper into the jungle, securing them in a neck pouch he kept handy. It was best not to get caught by clothing on anything in this jungle.

But he was sure he'd never be as quiet as Nahia when it came to his footfalls.

Even so, the Tigress led the Unicorn deeper down into the valley. It was eerie, as the jungle was always quieter where Nahia trod, yet Starswirl was in the protection of a fierce predator.

A nice change of pace he'd appreciate, if his friend were not still missing.

2 hours later

Midday

Malabutu valley

River channel

A wide river clearing was pock marked with a steady, but weak current, as the boulders marking the river's expanse showed a natural crossing point by simply hopping over them.

As Nahia moved on ahead, leaping across the boulders for the sake of showing Starswirl a safe way across the river, she scanned the river silently with her golden eyes. As he drew level with her on a boulder in the middle of the current, she growled for him to stop where he was.

In a split second, an ear piercing roar came from her mouth, as she seemed to challenge the very river itself before them. Then, as if angered, or fearful, a few brown and grey shapes began to quickly swim away from the boulder crossing, scaly tails with ridges and spiked bumps showing that the river crocodiles fear Nahia.

One crocodile, a large male about 17 feet long, dared not retreat though, as he came up and eyed Nahia in a challenge from 8 feet away, before she snarled, fangs and claws bared full force:

"This equine is mine, and I shall do with him as I please! You dare attack him, or daresay it, me, and I shall bring your skull back to my den as a chewtoy, just as I did those ones I killed 14 summers ago!"

The crocodile seemed to back off at this, as he turned tail and swam briskly up river, to which Starswirl gazed at Nahia, who had a ghost of a satisfied, perhaps even relieved smirk on her face, as she silently led him across the rest of the river's crossing.

1 hour later

Early Afternoon

Malabutu valley

Vine Labyrinth

"Don't stray, otherwise you will get lost."

Nahia warned Starswirl, though he had no intention of wandering from her. As they had ventured into the forest area that seemed overgrown with vines, Starswirl had to wonder all the more what was prompting such sinister growth in the jungle.

Wandering through what seemed like a well-travelled path through the vine forest, Starswirl paused as he heard what sounded like a loud hissing coming from nearby. Only hesitating briefly, Nahia gave a loud snarl in the direction of the hissing, which stopped immediately. Out from under a vine bush, a saw scaled viper scampered away from its hiding place, not wishing to pick a fight at all now that it was clearly Nahia.

Like everywhere else, all noise decreased in the jungle in Nahia's presence, except for up ahead. With a slight growl akin to a groan, Nahia led Starswirl to a clearing, where the Vine forest at last began to open up a bit.

There, higher in the vines, was one vine that seemed to be moving slightly, grey and scaly in colour. With a knowing toothy grin, Nahia wandered over to the tree trunk the vines were growing around, and with a single poked claw she clamped down onto the moving vine's end enough to hold it in place with two claws of her right forepaw.

"Who dares pull on my tail like a-"

As the King Cobra's head darted down from amidst the vines overhead, he briefly saw Starswirl, which confused him, but then he saw Nahia, to which he gulped visibly, as he shook slightly:

"Nahia, I, er..what brings you to this humble part of the valley?"

"I'm just passing through here Rhan, my charge and I here have a need to meet with Chai, about matters which I don't think I need indulge to you."

His hood having been flared slightly, Rhan's neck became less flattened as he mellowed, or more cowered, in Nahia's presence, the King Cobra nodded in nervous agreement: "Of course Nahia, I just wondered why you wanted my attention?"

"I just know that, among the snakes that are smart enough to speak, you like to spy a lot. Chai has you as a set of eyes out and about after all. I was just wondering if you'd seen any sign of a Black furred one like Starswirl here."

"Hmm, no. My eyes can see much, but I have not seen any sign of a Black equine like he. My eyes, can only do ssso much." As he remarked this, Rhan couldn't help but stare with some focus at Starswirl, who began to sway slightly, before he shook his head, the Wizard's blue horn charging as he jabbed a hoof at the Cobra:

"Dare try and hypnotise me again, and Nahia won't be the only creature to fear before you."

Taken aback, Rhan remarked sheepishly as Nahia scowled at the careless cobra: "Forgive me, my sssight of ssseduction is still a little loossse."

A tiger paw extended out, a claw coming to gently poke and hold Rhan by the chin as Nahia spoke with a deceptively sweet voice: "Well, make sure you work on controlling it, or if not, that it works better. For your sake."

Gulping, Rhan sighed in relief as Nahia retracted the claw, gesturing for Starswirl to follow her. As Starswirl followed, he heard the faintest of shuddering whispers from Rhan as he slivered up:

"Brute and her lackey come along and interrupt my hunt, my poor stomach could use a good bird or rat snake, oh what is a Cobra to do.."

Disregarding the self-lamenting King Cobra, Starswirl heard Nahia remark back to him as she led on, not once looking back except for the odd glance:

"You're learning fast. Reputation can save your life, and time, by saving trouble."

"You seem to have quite a reputation yourself." Starswirl remarked, not approving or otherwise of it. Nahia said nothing, but she knew it was good that way.

She continued to wince, a slight twitch in her eye now a constant due to the frequent pain her left forepaw was now always in due to her injury at the hands of cattle hunters. When she had her first set of cubs, her current set being the 2nd, the first ultimately lost to the demon creatures halfway to adulthood 9 years ago, she had been raising them outside the valley before bringing them down, just as she did with Daila and Shahn. Hunters came, she defended her first 3 cubs, and in killing 3 of the hunting bulls, looking for skins, her left forepaw was badly knifed. She had been enduring it in pain since.

But in secret, that forepaw made her weak, but she refused to let it be known. Her reputation made her fearsome, and her bitter attitude, enhanced by the injury, backed up her reputation and notoriety in the valley, second only in legend to Chai, and the unnatural demon creatures.

Her family of cubs and Jakai were the only ones that knew though. Her reputation greatly exceeded her true abilities.

Had it not been for her paw, what she had exaggerated over the years, of acts she had done to get them started, was for her own protection.

In this valley, danger was greater than ever, and she refused to leave her mother's, her home. Reputation was a type of protection for her and her cubs she came to rely upon, as her hunting required her to take a more brute strength, less ambush driven approach. She could not chase prey, so she had to be strong, or take easy prey.

That was her deception. She exaggerated her deeds, even flat out lied, so as to ensure she and her family remained a feared, and dominant group amidst the valley, where their only true enemy to fear was the demon creatures.

And yet, as Nahia led Starswirl to Chai, who likely knew about the demon creatures, and their overlord, she found herself paranoid. Reputation may not be enough, and even if she was formidable, the slightest dent in her notoriety would invite trouble from many in this hyper competitive part of the world.

Lies were merely a layer of protection she relied upon, for the sake of survival. Lies built on abilities she had not had for 10 years due to her injured paw, made moot by her losing her first cubs 9 years ago by the demon creatures.

2 hours later

Mid Afternoon

Malabutu valley, mountain slopes

Despite having ventured north into the valley, Nahia had taken them east too, to the area where the curving mountains surrounding the valley came back around. Here the cliffs began to rear up. And here, was Chai's lair.

The shallow river bed rippled with the stony layer beneath the inch thick water, while the jungle covered the expanse behind and around it. Ahead though, as the stream narrowed to a channel flowing out of it, the cavern beckoned, a triangular gash in the rock face that led into darkness.

As Nahia led him in, the Tigress murmured back as it became clear this cave had a few slivers of light from crevices higher up inside the cave:

"Chai is old, hard of hearing. If you're lucky, she will have fed, and her underlings will have news of the creatures, and maybe your friend. And we both might have insight on the Overlord."

"Very well for me, but what do you gain in that regard?"

"Knowledge of the Overlord, which can help make living in this valley easier."

"Why not leave?"

"This valley was my family's home, my mother's home, before the Overlord came. I won't leave it, I'll adapt, as will my cubs and as my mate has, even if he depends on my reputation, understandably."

Starswirl frowned lightly in the darkening cave as they ventured inside, not sure what to make of this whole idea of fierce some reputation for self-protection ideology. She was a powerful tigress, why push it so?

Yet her paw signalled something deeper, also connecting to her taking easy pickings from the village outside the valley, which got him and Siral into this whole mess to start with.

As they ventured in, something glimmered a bluish green in the stream's pools in the cave, as a aurora like bioluminescence lit up the pools slightly in dotted colonies. Despite the settings, and his worries for his friend, Starswirl still appreciated the world's beauty that he was witnessing, even in this savagely cursed valley.

High above, bats rested in their usual hiding holes, while further inside, other denizens of the cave took advantage of the crevices letting sunlight stream down.

In the dark crevices to where Hinai and Starswirl headed, unseen, waiting, but already aware, Chai waited.

Mid-Afternoon

Malabutu Valley, Chai's cavern

As they wandered in, Starswirl noticed a dozen coiled up snakes, most of them King Cobras, dotted around the cavern, watching them curiously. But it was the deeper pool, where swirling waters in the cavern during floods created a deeper pond for the stream to circulate in from the deeper caves before flowing out to the jungle, that all eyes turned, including Nahia's, and Starswirl's.

A slight hiss from all the Cobras of anticipation came up, as a dark, long shape began to move in the darker waters. On a jutting out spit of rock into the pool, a large scaly head, as big as Starswirl's own head, emerged, the dark brown and black visibly glistening as the sunlight streamed overhead form the crevice opening on high.

Coil after coil, a mountainous length of scales, hauled itself from the pond, before the massive Python, a titanic 48-foot length, had Starswirl the permission, or daring, to accurately measure her. If Nahia's 12-foot length made him feel nervous, then this beast made him feel shaken to his core. The serpent could swallow him and Nahia whole, and they would barely visible as slight bulges in her long length.

Methodically, as the King Cobras of both genders around the cavern bowed respectfully to this 'Queen' of the serpents, python race regadless, Chai turned her brown scaled head to see Nahia and her 'guest' watching her, the tigress with only the slightest of awe, more genuine warm respect.

"Nahiaaa. It hasss been a long time."

"2 summers."

"I exssspect you have a reason beyond sssimply visiting an old friend to be here, with company it ssseems. He ssseems to not be from around here, doesssn't he?" The massive reticulated python raised her head to hiss at them with some humour in her voice, to which Nahia rolled her eyes at Chai's self-indulging amusement.

"This is Starswirl, his friend was taken captive, alive, by the fire eyed creatures. And does he not resemble the Overlord?"

"In the same way a Cobra, and myself, are the same? Yes, if you wish to be that narrow viewed." Chai remarked, the cobras around the cavern turning their gazes away, as it became clear this conversation was between those 3.

Starswirl, summoning his usual composed demeanour, shone his blue horn light to emphasize:

"What can you tell me about the Overlord? Does magic, like this, bring any memories back?"

Chai regarded the blue glow with some mild recognition, as she wracked her mind.

They were fortunate though that Chai need not feed for another 2 months, after a feast of a deer she'd easily caught a month ago still in her belly. She was inquisitive now, even before this revelation of Starswirl's slightly similar talents to the Overlord.

The python's coils barely shifted, half out of the water, half on the stony embankment, as she recalled:

"My underlings in here with me had their temple, their shrines. I know you use an abandoned one as a den Nahia. But yes, it changed when the Equine came here, 53 summers ago. An Equine male with a horn like your own, and yet also, wings like an eagle's."

Starswirl recalled a text he and Siral had studied in their last time travelling turn, in the archives of a church in Pahrii. The emergence of a new sub group of Equine, particularly from their own home country of Equestria.

"An Alicorn." Starswirl remarked, utterly confused. What had an Alicorn been doing here?

As Nahia sat down on her belly, listening intently for her own uses, she nursed her bad left forepaw as usual, while Starswirl and Chai exchanged what they knew. The Python would grow to like this Grey furred Unicorn very much for his intellect, and sympathised that his equally smart friend was captive, though maybe already dead.

All they knew was Siral was where the creatures resided, where even she and her followers had no eyes in, the depths of the old Cobra temple.

What best could be done was gather what they knew together.

Author's Notes:

Lying isn't always wrong in the scheme of black and white, depending on the environment, personal history, and otherwise.

If Nahia is the notorious Huntress Lady of the valley, then that makes Chai the Queen of the Valley.

For reference, King Cobras and Black Mambas in this story series at the only sapient snakes from hatching to death, but particularly big constrictor snakes like Pythons of the biggest kinds [Chai is a female reticulated], and Anacondas, gain a level of sapience when they reach a certain age/size, and they become sources of wisdom/leadership among snake clans like used to be in the valley.

But more on the Alicorn coming to the valley 53 years ago in the next chapter.