A Serpent's Revenge: Bakunawa's Bloodline

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

[MAYA]

Maya wakes up and finds herself stranded in a damp underwater cave. Her first instinct is to scam her surroundings. Bioluminescent lights are her only source of light. Though it is faint, her vision is better than that of regular mortals, allowing her to spot her companion laying down unconsciously beside her.

"Sigren!" With panic laced voice, Maya begins to crawl until she's beside her friend. Her scream bounces off of the cave walls. Her panic rises when she sees Sigren lying on the ground. The first thing that she did was check his breathing. To her relief, Sigren is alive. Then, she starts to investigate the wound on his stomach to fully check the damage. To her surprise, there seems to be some layer of skin that's covering the wound on his stomach.

Is his body and skin regenerating? Maya thought while she watched the hole getting patched up with snake skin.

Does he always have his form of ability? Are all Bakunawa children like this or is it just because Sigren has more potent blood?

"Do you always touch other people's stomachs when they are resting?" Hearing Sigren speak, Maya quickly withdraws her hand and quickly scooches back to give Sigren more space to breathe.

He winces in pain, and he seems to have some difficulty sitting up that Maya has to give him a hand.

"Do you always erase people's memories?" Maya retorts as soon as Sigren turns to question her about why she's helping him. Hearing her say those words resulted in a conflicted gaze from Sigren.

A melancholy expression appears on his face. "You got your memories back."

"I did."

"Maya, I—" Sigren's eyessoftens when he starts to think of the perfect words to explain himself, but Maya interrupts him with a raise of her hand.

"As much as I want to grill and scold you for taking away my memories, I think that the most important thing that we should do right now is look for a way out of this place." She says, remember the event before passing out and ending up in this mysterious place.

Sigren immediately realized they were in a cold, damp place after hearing her words..

"What...where are we?"

"To be completely honest with you, I have no idea." Maya shakes her head. "But I can tell you how we got here. Do you mind listening?"

Sigren nods his head. Then and there, Maya starts to tell him all about what happened right after Sigren passed out. With Axel using the stone to summon another deity other than Bakunawa. She tells him how Minokawa emerges from the stone and how they were swept away by the wave, including the shadowy silhouette of a giant snake.

Sigren listens carefully to Maya's words, but soon his brows begin to furrow when she starts to talk about the giant serpent that she believes she saw.

"That serpent...there's a high chance that it could be part of my father's illusions." Sigren seems to be lost in a train of thought when he expresses his opinion.

"Illusions? The Bakunawa can do that? Isn't he locked up or something?"

Sigren snickers. "You really think that the barrier is strong enough to contain the mighty Bakunawa? Sure, his original body is locked up, but he can still project a part of himself into the human realm from time to time. How else do you think that he managed to have children?"

Maya averted her eyes, not wanting to know more about how Bakunawa got his children from different women.

"Still, we have the issue of Minokawa." Sigren thankfully changes the subject. "I never knew that it would be Minokawa who would be imprisoned in the moonstone."

Maya whirls toward Sigren with fury. "This wouldn't have happened if you had just lived your life peacefully and didn't think about revenge."

"They killed my brothers and sisters, Maya!" Sigren's eyes starts to glow in anger. His fangs protrude like sharp needles. "I was a kid and all I could do was watch at the time. You would not understand, which is exactly why I took away your memories!"

"How would you know that I wouldn't understand when you took away my memories!" Maya screams. She knows in the back of her mind that they shouldn't be fighting as, right now, there's an evil firebird god on the loose out there. "Ingko was like a brother to me. You and he were my family, so of course I am furious about it."

"Then, back then, why didn't you want to join me for revenge? Even now, you—"

"It's because I do not wish to be like them!" Maya burst out. Having gotten most of her memories back, she starts to recall even the most unpleasant ones from her childhood, including how they treated her and Sigren. "Sure, I am protected by the academy because of my mother's background, but that does not mean that I do not get the same treatment as you when no one is looking. But," Maya's expression starts to soften. "If I treated them the way that they treated me, would that make me any less different from them? Would it make me feel better, or would I just be another one of them, but worse? Besides, do you think that Ingko didn't fight back because he couldn't?"

Realization seems to dawn on Sigren for the first time as he begins to take in Maya's words. He knows how powerful his brother could be if he fought back. He showed it the day the demigods attacked their home years ago. Unfortunately, his strength wasn't strong enough to prevent Axel from killing him.

"Ingko wanted to endure because he wanted to prove that just because he had the blood of the Bakunawa, it did not mean that he was evil." Sigren would be lying if he said that he did not understand where her statement was coming from. Though he and his brother may have the blood of the villain, his brother is really just a bundle of bright rays of sunshine who would never lift a finger unless it was to protect someone that he loves.

Maya sees the resentful and guilty look on Sigren's face, so she strides forward and places a consoling hand on his. "I can understand that you are angry, but resolving that anger into revenge is just poison that would keep on spreading."

After a short while, Sigren lets out a breath. "You sound a lot like my brother." He grumbles with a pout and ruffles his hair. "I get it. When this is over, I'll just kill Axel."

"Sigren." Maya warns him.

"Fine, but you have to at least let me hit him once!"

"Sure," Maya sighs in resignation. "But you have to get back in line since I also want to get back at him for everything that he has done."

A look of surprise crosses Sigren's face before he arches a brow at her. "Glad that we're on the same side now."

Maya chortles. "There's only one problem. How the hell are we going to defeat Minokawa?"

'If you children are done talking, would it be alright for me to make my presence known?'

*~*~*~END OF CHAPTER~*~*~*