Chapter Text
Hot Pants had insisted so much for yout to come with her to take a horse ride in the forest near your town that and in the end, you had caved in and let her drag you with her to share a lovely evening together. You had known HP, as you liked to friendly call her, for some years and since the first day you had met her, you had sorted out a clear fact about the girl: HP didn’t pray anyone if not the Lord, so you were quite surprised to see her ask you in such a vehement way to join her in one of her horse rides in the wooded area that surrounded the city you two lived in. Fact is that you recently started horse raiding and she seemed thrilled to have a new companion with whom share her love for this sport, even though she would never admit it.
HP was quite a stoic individual when she wanted to be and in spite of that, you found out that looking at her bright eyes could reveal so much of what she was feeling and so you started to decipher the hidden meaning of every glance she would throw in your direction. She was difficult to approach at first, but you found her company to be very quite enjoyable. She lived in the outskirts of the city, so she was prone to spend most of her time on the back of her loyal Get Up and just recently she had succeded in dragging you to join her too. HP enjoyed your company because you were one of the few people that she could tolerate and spend some time together without feeling the need to talk. Even silence was comfortable for you two and this atmosphere sat well with HP’s way of interacting with other people. Nevertheless, she showed interest in taking you with her and assured you that the forest near your town was such a pleasent place to be at in the evening. You trusted her judgment so you saw no reason to say no to her, because, after all, she was an expert rider and with her guidance you felt more secure, even though there weren’t any real dangers in the forest.
Sometimes you could hear the occasional cry of a wolf to the Moon but that was everything that the large branches of the forest would hide. There weren’t any rumours about what could be lurking into the depth of the forest, so you were quite sure that the area you two would be visiting would be, without any doubt, a very secluded yet safe area to be at.
Hot Pants came to your house in the evening, satchel ready on her horse’s side and her peculiar helmet in hand, that always made her seem a little taller than she really was. Just like her, you had packed, on your satchel, something to eat and some utensils that could be of help if you ever were to lose the path to return home. A map, a little knife, a lighter, a compass, some bottles of water, a little walkie-talkie (you gave its twin to HP, that rolled her eyes at your action and chuckled, thinking you were being too extra for a little stroll in the woods) and even a raincoat neatly folded, because, as you told her: “Better to be safe than sorry!”
“You’re being too paranoid” chuckled again HP, while you continued filling your satchel with everything you thought could be of any use.
“We’re just going out for a little stroll, not going away for two months”
She kept shaking her head but if anything, she was far from being annoyed. With the years she had learned to accept and even enjoy some of your peculiar antics, just like this one. It’s true, maybe you were being too much wary for what you two had to do, yet you honestly thought that something could really happen, even though you started horse riding just recently and you were still a little uncertain about your capacities to take the reins of a horse. But one look into HP’s firm gaze that radiated confidence and you could’t help but feel a little more secure with her by your side.
All the doubts you had quickly dissipated when you found yourself on your horse’s back, trotting languidly on the soft crouching carpet of leaves fallen from the oblong trees at your sides. It was Autumn and besides the chilly air of the evening, you felt at peace while the soft light of the Sun, close to set down over the horizon, kissed your and Hp’s cool faces.
“Well, what do you think, scaredy cat? It is so scary as you imagined it to be?” She mocked you, wearing an half grin of her pale visage.
“Terrible, really” You answered her, choosing to teasing her also “Just you wait till the wolves come to eat you and then we’ll see who was right alla long”
You stuck her tongue at her and she couldn’t do anything if not roll her eyes again at your smugness. Her little smile was relaxed and the setting light of the Sun complimented her sharp jaw and her soft pink colored hair that was sticking out from her helmet.
“If you are so secure about yourself, why don’t we have a little race?” She piped out, looking to you with that determined gaze again.
“A race? I don’t know if we should, honestly. The Sun will set soon and I would like to get home in time to eat those succulent pastries Lucy brought to me from her last trip” Your mouth watered only at the thought of such delicacies. You could still feel their sweet aroma even if Lucy had brought them to you some hours ago.
“Would you stop thinking about food for once in your life?” She shook her head again. Ah, HP, stern as always.
“I could say the same to you with these horse races.” You smirked to her, to which followed another roll of her eyes.
“I’m not still a professional rider, you would win easily”
“That’s the funny part. Nothing is funnier than your sulking when you lose a bet against me!”
“Eh?! You really are the worst, HP!” You whined, yet she shook her head and chuckled. HP wasn’t one to back down easily so she continued to taunt you and somehow, for the second time that day, she had convinced to do something you weren’t really sure you wanted to do. Hot Pants knew you liked bets just as she did and so she was able to persuade you to do a little race with her, with the promise that the first one to reach the old weeping tree would get to eat those delicious pastries Lucy had so kindly given to you. The thought of HP enjoying your sweet treats was something that you had the responsability to prevent.
No, those pastries would be yours and Hot Pants would be the one to mull over her loss while you would take the absolute delight into enjoying said pastries in her face.
“Sweet victory, here I come” you both thought in the same moment. It was quite childish, but in the end you liked to joke together and this was just one of those times where the strict demeanor of your friend seemed to be less stricter than she wanted to appear. Hot Pants knew what she was doing and you had proof of her brilliant talent in horse riding just as you both shouted “Ready, Set, Go!”
In a blur she was already first and as you encouraged your horse to go faster, Get Up and Hot Pants seemed to be momentarily closer. You kept a good rytmh for a little bit but then you started to lose her and more distance was left between your horse and Get Up’s back.
“Hey (Y/N), I can already taste those pastries!” You heard Hot Pants shout yet the more you spurred your horse, the more Hot Pants became distant.
“Alright, you win, I want to go back!” You shouted to her, yet she was so distant that she had literally faded into the golden light of the setting Sun. You stopped your mare so the poor animal could take some breaths and you waited for Hot Pants to come back since home was in the direction you both came from. When HP delayed her return, you started to get worried.
“Hey, Hot Pants, it’s not time to play pranks on me! Come here so we can go home!” You shouted but no response came from her. You waited some more and yet nothing. Worry was slowly crawling into your sistem so you spurred your horse towards the direction Hot Pants had taken. You couldn’t help but notice how a always more thick veil of fog had strarted to creep up in the eerily area you were stalling in. How strange, you could swear that you heard some finches intonating their last melodies of the day just a while ago. Something wasn’t right with this place, at all. You started to get scared and you frantically called for Hot Pants, begging her to come out and to go home, but every scream you let out was shallowed by the thick fog that surrounded you, falling on deaf ears.
You started to steer your horse at your right, then your left, then in front of you and again at your right: a process you kept repeating, before coming to the tragic realization that yes, you were lost in this immense forest. The fog was so thick that even breathing was starting to become difficult and the more you tried to move away from it, the more it kept following you. You kept calling for HP, for Lucy, for any of your friends, for anybody who could have been there with you. But there was nobody, only your yells that kept echoing into the dense fog. At this point you were desperate, you didn’t know where you were and how to return home. You felt as if you were running in circles and probably you were since the fog kept confusing you, numbing your sense of orientation. You tried to take a shaky breath but it was so difficult with the moist fog that clung to you and your skin just like a sticky veil you couldn’t peel off from yourself.
Your thoughts started to get dim too and you starterted to get dizzy, yet your senses didn’t gave up yet. You had to return home, you kept repeating yourself and even if you were lost, at least, you still had your loyal companion, your horse with you… but even that was a joy briefly lived. You only saw a blur, something that resembled a bright turquoise appendage – a tail, maybe? – running under the legs of your horse. The poor creature got scared, literally throwing you off her back and down into the cold and soiled ground. You felt as if you your breath had been knocked out of your chest for how strong the impact with the ground was.
Your eyes rolled and automatically closed and you fainted immediately after the collision. Even though you could swear that the last thing you were able to see was actually a pair of dazzling cyan eyes staring right back at your from from the darkness in front of you, before passing out.
The first thing you felt, when you woke up, was an excruciating pain into your sore head. You tried to move a little your head but every little momevent was met with an unbereable pain going through your skull. You moaned in pain and you started regaining your senses little by little and with them, the awareness of your surroundings You were exausted and now your bones, that you so desperately tried to move, ached like crazy and you couldn’t do anything if not trying to understand where you were at the moment. Your head was throbbing terribly, yet you forced youself to open at least one eye to see what your surroundings were but you were met with the pitch black. Or better, it was the pitch black of the dark night since some stars were visible from where you were layed out. You didn’t felt any type of cold nor did you shivered so you deducted that you were still out here, yet a roof was under your head, maybe a cave of some sort.
You started to wake up fully and even if every bone in your bones told you no, you tried to move your body a little but you found out you were unable to. How come? It was as if a force, a huge weight, was tying you down to the soft fur coats you were laying on. Trying to not panic, you tried to wiggle, but the mysterious weight, which you couldn’t really see in the dark, coiled against you even tighter.
“So, moving isn’t an option” you thought, trying to remain calm even if your senses were screaming at you to get out of there. Something brushed against the bare skin of your arms and you recognized that feeling. It was of skin, hot yet moist to the touch: a feeling you had experienced already once in your life, when you had gone to the circus with your father and a lady had let you take a pic with a python. When she had put the python on your shoulders to take the photo, you had felt its skin and felt the same sensation you were experimenting in that predicament. What even was this creature that had itself coiled against you? Were you a prisoner of a gigantic python?! You tried to not wiggle to much because you felt as if you were being shallowed by the quicksand: every movement could mean death for you.
And if really a gigantic python had chosen you to be its dinner, you hoped Hot Pants survived because, as a ghost, you would haunt her dreams for convincing you to go with her in this stupid horse ride that was becoming a literal nightmare. But then you felt that the snake had indeed arms like yours, when they anchored themselves to your waist in a tight grip.
“What the…?” Then came the… purring?
Yes, you were getting agitated. What even was this creature?! Damn, you wished you could see better. This situation was literally killing you.
And the your heard it. A smooth voice, full of sleep, coming rubling from the creature.
“Darling…” a warm breath washed over you, hitting right into your right cheek
“SSSSStop moving sssso much~”
NOW You were scared. VERY scared. In that moment the creature, that now you even didn’t know to which world belonged, seemed to stir and loosen a little his grip on you. That blessed moment gave you the chance for the right sprint to wiggle out of the stranger’s extremely comfortable embrace, falling on the ground. Your broken bones were protesting but there was so much adrenaline running through your body that, going against your own body, you started to crawl away towards the exit of what you discovered was indeed a cave. You had started to see the light of the moon when a rough has latched itself on your ankle.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Came the same rambling voice of the creature that had held you till that moment. He was a male, of that much you were sure. Still, he didn’t came up to the moonlight like you wished he would. Not knowing who was forcing you to stay in that humid cave was really putting a strain on you, you were desperate to just wake up from this awful dream turned into a nightmare.
“Please, let me go!” you tried to plead, but your vocal chords were so strained from all the shouts you had let out before in hope of an helping hand that never came. So instead of your voice, just an hoarse croak came out of your lips.
“I don’t have anything of value with me but if you let me go home I will bring to you everything I have” you tried to reason with the menacing creature, his eyes now visible under the pale moonlight and staring right at you from the pool of black he was immersed into.
“You’re the only valuable I need” he responded, tightening a little his iron grip on your ankle.
“Me?!” You asked me, almost on the verge of having a breakdown because this nightmare didn’t seem to be finished.
“Yesss”
“But… but I… you…” You were honestly so confused by the events that you couldn’t keep up with the stress anymore. You couldn’t. You had it enough. Without wanting to, two rivulets of salty tears made themselves known, cascading down your cheek and down, in the cold ground.
“Please, I’m so tired, just let me go home” You cried to him, hoping to appeal to the creature’s sense of compassion, if he ever had it in his heart.
“I don’t even know who you are. Please, let me go home, I won’t tell anybody of our meeting, I swear” You were really inconsolable and the eyes of the creature, from the pitch blak depth, seemed to be getting closer at you. You were focused so much on your own emotions that you hadn’t noticed that the stranger had made himself known. And when you turned around, you almost fainted. In front of you there was a creature that you had never seen before, not even in your wildest dreams. He was half man, half snake. You recognized him to be a Naga, a mythological creature that supposedly existed only in the legends. Yet he was there, gazing at you with curious slitted cyan eyes. His half body, or well, tail, was big and powerful, it oozed power from every pore.
The color of his tail was quite peculiar, bright turquoise with a yellow writing that run through the lenght of his long tail and kept repeting the word: “DIO”. Quite a peculiar fantasy but what truly left you without breath was his face. He was delicate and soft like an angel and he could pass up as one if it wasn’t for the slits in his big vyan eyes and the fangs that protruded from his full lips. He had long blond hair that cascated past his strong shoulders, soft and shiny like gold threads. You were flabbergasted by him. He seemed to came out straight from a mythology book and you still couldn’t understand why was this happening and how such a creature was even real. He noticed that you calmed down and that you were watching him just as intently as he was watching you.
“Your name is…?” You could only mutter.
“Diego” He responded to you.
“And me… why…?”
“I’ve taken an interesssst in you” He said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to say. He passed his thin forked toungue on his lips and then continued on saying:
“I’ve been ssssstudying you for quite a while. I find you to be deeply gorgeoussss, kind and amazing, so I decided to take you with me and make you my mate” he finished, smirking towards you and waiting for your response. And after he had said that, you passed out because too many things had happened that day.
Diego was fast in retrieving your body and hold you close to his body while you succumbed to your fatigues and the immense stress you’ve just had been pressured in feeling for that day.
“My preciousss (Y/N)” he murmured, positioning you against himself again and soon drifting asleep with a content sigh. Him, Dio, finally had what he wanted and he couldn’t be happier to start his new life with you, even though you weren’t aware in the slightest of the plan the Naga had prepared for your “lives” together. While you slept in the arms of Diego, Hot Pants was looking for you like a madman, together with Lucy and a search party organized just to look for you.
In fact she had waited for you to come back but when she had seen that you didn’t come towards her direction, she thought that you were probably waiting for her to go back together. She, indeed, went back to your previous location, but she couldn’t find you, nor you, nor your horse, only some of your personal belongings, including the walkie-talkie you had taken with you. It was as if you had vanished into thin air. Hot Pants didn’t want to think the worst but knowing you well she knew that you couldn’t have returned without her. You were too wary to venture alone without her.
Later, she even visited your house, discovering it to be as empty as you had left it. Something must have happened to you and she couldn’t help but feel her heart full of so much guilt. After all it was her who convinced you to come with her and it was her who challenged you to do a race. If she hadn’t done any of these things maybe you would be right there with her and Lucy, tasting the pastries that laid untouched on your table. They even had lost their good perfume and a sense of dread washed over HP, even if Lucy tried to reassure her and tell her that everything wiould be fine. Nevertheless, she spent all the night looking for you in the forest but after finding those few items, of you not even a trace or a footsprint was left.
Not even one.