Daughter of the Naga | Lesbian Story|

Chapter 54

After we spent the whole afternoon at the waterfall, we decided to get back to the meadow. We found Pisey, still sticking her head inside a flower bush, munching. I managed to drag her back and then we flew out of the mountain.

I let my princess hold the reins of our Ashva, and we soared through the woodland together.

"Are you hungry?" I asked Amarisa, who shook her head in response. It wasn't wise for either of us to go without eating. My eyes looked for a place we could land and rest.

"If you are hungry, we can stop at one of the temples for a meal," Amarisa suggested.

"We can do that?" I said.

"Yes, indeed." Amarisa nodded. "The servants and the temple guardians are duty-bound to keep the offerings anew. There is no sin in helping oneself with the leftover from the gods."

I instinctively rubbed my tummy as a sign of hunger.

"Well, even your lips are the only thing I crave, I still have to live on food, too."

Amarisa laughed and turned to pinch my cheek.

"I wonder if I could ever find anything as adorable as you," she said. I enveloped her in my hands and buried my nose in the curve of her delicate neck. Amarisa jumped from the sheer tickling feeling. Her sudden movement startled the horse.

"Whoa!" I cried and reached for the reins to steady the animal. I made Pisey take a quick descent. Once her strong hooves touched the ground, the divine horse snorted in annoyance. She shook her mane and tossed her tail. Amarisa stroked Pisey's neck apologetically.

"I think I should take the reins back," I said and pulled it from Amarisa's grip, but she pushed my hands away.

"No, what you should do is stop your flirtation and let me steer the horse!" she protested.

"We don't want to land with our faces on the ground, Amarisa," I said and made another attempt to retrieve the reins from her, but she pulled it back again.

"Amarisa, let go!"

"Nikita, don't be mean!"

Before we knew it, we were tugging the reins back and forth until Pisey let out a piercing wail. I didn't doubt that the Ashva would toss us off her back in no time if we kept on fighting.

"Alright," I said. "You steer the horse then, but we don't fly, okay?"

"Oh-kaay," Amarisa imitated my modern word, which made me laugh.

Pisey began galloping through the woods further to the northern part about a mile of the Walled City.

After a while, I saw a glimpse of an unusual monument in the distance. It stood in the middle of a cruciform arrangement of four square lotus ponds. At its center stood a sanctuary tower made of gold with several dozen stone rooms. The whole complex was built on a circular island surrounded by a large water Baray.

"What is that temple for?" I asked Amarisa.

"It's called Rajyasri, 'the Fortune of the Kingdom'," she told me. "The temple represented the Great Lake Anavatapta, which is believed to be the center of the world. Inside, you will see four fountainheads of a golden lion, bronze elephant, bronze bull, and bronze horse. They face all four directions. The water is drawn from the great rivers and issued through their mouths."

"And what does it do?"

"Rajyasri Temple is a place of miraculous healing," Amarisa said. "Though King Father has built over two hundreds of Arogayasalas, 'the chapels of hospitals', this one is especially blessed with magical cures from the divine Nagas themselves. It merits the four elements of the earth, fire, water, and air."

I looked at the island temple. Its base was encircled by two Naga serpents. Their open heads faced the north side while their tails entwined, pointing to the west.

"I've heard legends of your kingdom as old as time," I said, remembering the tales my friends had told me. "It's said that your people descended from the Naga race. The avatars told me that you yourself are rumored to be the reincarnation of a Naga princess."

"There is some truth to that rumor," she said. "When I was little, I often dreamed of a strange jade-green palace. My mother once told me of her own dream when she carried me in her womb."

"That a serpent gave her a Jorani stone?" I said.

Amarisa nodded.

"In her dream, the serpent god recited this riddle to her: 'Behold a gift beyond your sight. Brilliant and beautiful like a jewel to a bird's nest. When the blazing sun shines upon, there shall be nothing left'."

Amarisa turned to me again with a solemn look.

"What does it even mean?"

"The Hora predicted that my birth would turn the wheel of destiny."

"Turn the wheel of destiny?" I said. "How?"

"I do not know," she said. "But Mother Jayara told me that destiny would still find you even if you didn't go seeking it."