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Weeks after the Naga’s return to Night Raven College, Kalyan Vishvaas had caught up with all the lessons he missed and was back on track with schoolwork. The students still came to him for his tutoring and some (much lighter) hypno-therapy treatment, but this time he didn’t have to hide. He’d organize study groups in the courtyard and sometimes private lessons. However, he left the window and the door open, or he’d even do it outside. Kalyan only shapeshifted as human during class time or in the library, he wouldn’t hide his tail or himself anymore.
Beep beep beep went his phone, reminding an appointment with a student for his weekly session. All right, time to get to work.
He opened the door for a boy from Scarabia to get in and getting started
“Hey Kals!” The boy chimed, sitting comfortably on his tail cross-legged “I feel much better, I haven’t had panic attacks this week!”
“Glad to know that” Kalyan set a ten-minute countdown on his phone and sat in front of the boy, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath to recite his signature spell
Open your eyes
Let go of your fear
Cease to resist
Trussst in me
His eyes filled with his colored spirals; however, this hypnosis was much lighter and not used to subdue or trigger the trance with a secret word. The spirals flowed slower from his pupils and reflected in the boy’s eyes, who stayed vigilant and lucid all the time, just felt much more at ease and relaxed. They just breathed and talked about a few things that made the boy feel anxious and Kalyan gave him a few suggestions.
“Breathe in… hold… and out” Kalyan murmured as his patient followed his instructions during the session. Once the timer reached zero, the Naga ceased his magic and let the boy stand up.
“Thanks, man” He reached in his backpack to get out three chocolate bars and put them on the desk. They fist bumped and then he also used his tail to high five.
“You’re welcome! Sssssee you next week!”
The Naga happily munched on one of the bars and waited for his next patient in about twenty minutes, he had time to relax and read something.
Knock knock
“Huh?” Well, he came earlier, maybe he wanted to cancel it for some reason?
“Coming!” Kalyan slithered to his door to open it “Yess, yess? Who isss it?” Before he could even see who was behind the door, a small, red figure bolted inside. Second, he heard a child voice giggling and felt little hands and feet on his body.
“Wh-wha-what?!”
Kalyan’s brown reptile eyes were fixed on a lion beastman child with red hair, reddish-brown eyes, ears flicking, a big smile and he was poking his scaly tail in excitement.
“Hey! Where, where do you come from, child?” Kalyan didn’t recall Night Raven to have preschool program. Nope. Did he sneak in?
“Hello Mr. Snake Person!” The child stumbled a little as he tried to get up, luckily, the tail tip saved him from falling on the floor and lifted him after looping around his waist.
“Heheh, good. He likes you already”
“It’s just like you said, Uncle! He’s soooo big!” The child waved at the door, where Leona was leaning on the doorframe with his head resting on one arm. A big, smug smirk on his lips.
“Housewarden??” Kalyan’s eyes widened. He looked at Leona, then the beast-child, then back at Leona, and the child. “Wait… Uncle??”
“Yes, Vishvaas. This is Cheka Kingscholar, my nephew”
“Hiiiii!” Cheka dangled his little legs, giggling and hugging the tail before looking back at his uncle with a sad look “Do you really have to go?”
“Aye. I have some important work to do in order to pass a test” He then looked aside with a low grumble “I wish your father would understand that my dorm isn’t a darn kindergarten…”
Still, Kalyan was blinking, waiting for the Lion to explain. Did he bring his nephew to show him a real Naga? Well, that was curiously nice of him and flattered the Serpent, but he too had his work, and the other boy would come in five minutes.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, little one, but I-…”
“I told Cheka you’d be taking care of him today while I study”
“WHAAAAAAT?!”
Leona grinned, nodding “That’s exactly it. Have fun, Cheka. Don’t bite him, all right?”
“Wait wait wait wait WAIT” Kalyan left the little prince on his bed, smiling nervously “Wait here a minute, I have to talk with your uncle. Ok, kid?”
“Okie Dokie Mr. Kalyan!”
The Naga bolted outside, eyes glowing both gold and crimson red with anger while demanding an explanation for this. He couldn’t just take in a child when he had therapy sessions, come on! Why would he do this??
“This, Vishvaas. Is for turning me into a puppet”
“… Leona. It was two months and a half ago” Kalyan hissed in frustration “I’m no babysitter! Can’t you get Ruggie or anyone else to do ssssso?!”
“Be grateful I didn’t tie knots in your tail for that” He leaned in, grinning despite the Naga being bigger and taller than he was and pressed his index on the serpentine young man’s chest “You humiliated me. This is the fairest, less painful and especially funniest thing I could think of as payback”
Kalyan’s mouth hung open and he felt the child back in the room, playing with his tail tip and just feeling his scales. He cussed in his mother tongue, since he didn’t have a choice whatsoever. Talk about holding grudges and be patient to serve a cold revenge… He didn’t have any experience with kids, he did play a little with Loobah and Pahaatee’s respective sons back then but nothing else. Of course, he wouldn’t be allowed to hypnotize him, no matter the size and strength, Leona could turn all his belongings into sand…
“Ugh. FINE. Fine. I’ll do it”
“Good Snakey”
Kalyan slithered back to his bedroom; his eye twitching as he heard a few schoolmates snicker behind his back, they probably eavesdropped the conversation between him and the Dorm leader.
“Not gonna lie, man. He had it coming” not that they stopped attending his tutoring and the hypno-therapy when needed. But after hypnotizing three quarters of the College and turning them into mindless slaves? Yeah, this was an adequate punishment.
They still snickered until they felt the Serpent’s presence behind them. They turned around only to be greeted by two furious smoldering golden eyes.
“HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!” Kalyan unhinged his serpentine maw to the max to scare them off, they yelped and ran for dear life. He wasn’t one to be angered. In Savanaclaw there were four people not to make mad: Leona, Ruggie, Jack and now Kalyan. He was a solid second place, since he was even more animalistic than them sometimes.
Once the students disappeared from his sight, the Naga groaned, rubbing his temples.
“This is gonna be a long day”
And, of course, the next patient was already present, perplexed to see Cheka Kingscholar happily rolling on his coils.
“Don’t. Asssssk”
He slithered in, taking a deep breath. “All right. Prince Cheka…”
“Just Cheka is fine” He crossed his little legs, looking up at him with those big eyes “What do you do beside study? Why is there another boy waiting for you? How does your tail change into legs? Why do your eyes change color? How can your mouth stretch so wide??”
Oh, sweet Nagaraja Shesha above the heavens.
Now he did understand WHY Leona dropped him in his room. All right, all right… he had to come with a solution fast.
What did he do when he was a kid, aside hiding behind his mother’s tunic? Well, he liked to play outside but he needed to think about indoor activities… He looked at his desk and took some chocolate for the child to snack on, then a pencil and some paper sheets for him to draw on.
“Do you like to draw?”
“Yup!”
“Good. I have to do a little work here; it takes ten minutes. Then you can ask me whatever you want. Be a good lion cub, ok? Also, when you hear the words Trust in Me, look away”
Cheka nodded and climbed up the chair while Kalyan received his patient. Just like the previous session, he started by having the boy tell him what happened during the week and if he needed a stronger spell or not. Apparently, he still had frequent nightmares. Stronger hypnosis be it.
“Start breathing in… and out… In again… Now hold… and out”
Cheka was too curious to stay there, so he just stood on his knees and peeked from the chair’s back, tail swaying and ears flicking.
“Woooooow!” He exclaimed as he caught a glimpse of Kalyan’s magic, it made the child dizzy but intrigued, however, he lost his balance and fell, with all the chair, on Kalyan’s tail tip.
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!” Kalyan disrupted the spell and held his poor tail while the other boy held his head in confusion and witnessed the comedic scene.
“What did I tell you?!?”
“… Don’t look” Cheka poked his indexes together with a sad look “But it’s so cool! What’s with the breathing? I wanna know! Pweeeeease??”
Kalyan looked up, hoping this was just a nightmare of some sort and he would wake up in a couple seconds. The other boy rubbed his head and poked his tail “Kals? Maybe we could do this after dinner? I can wait until this evening, no biggie, pal”
Thank the Gods, some empathy for this poor Snake! He thumbed up with both hands and the boy walked outside. Finally, Kalyan could focus only on one task at a time.
“All right, little miniature earthquake. Ask away…”
Cheka hopped on his tail once again and started asking all the questions he had in mind, what was a Naga, where did they come from, why didn’t he heard about them and neither his uncle nor father, his magic, how could his mouth stretch so wide…
“Well, Nagas descend from ancient gods from the east, they tricked other gods and became immortal. Unfortunately, just like the Faefolk got in a war with mankind, humans were jealous of us, so they hunted us down, we had to hide and scatter all over the world not to be found”
“Oh no…”
“I wasn’t born yet, but my grandparents were alive, and they witnessed everything. My grandpa Kaashi lost his tail tip to a hunter”
“What a meanie!” Cheka puffed his cheeks, as innocent as he was, he knew that poaching was bad. So he completely agreed with Kalyan on this.
"I’ve been living as a nomad from my birth until now, we live in Briar Valley. My mom is a doctor, and my dad is a great mage”
He then spoke about what he did for the students and what his eyes could do. He wouldn’t use it on a child, of course, but he changed his eye color without using magic.
“Wow!” Cheka grinned “You’re a mind doctor! That’s so cool!”
The Naga chuckled, looking up. All right, this kid wasn’t so bad. He was just an exuberant child… Reminded him of how hyperactive Luis was when they were children together. Then he explained how his mouth could stretch.
“You see here?” He pulled a corner of his mouth, revealing the membrane underneath “This can stretch and allows me to open it wide. As for my jaws, I have a special joint between my mandible and jaw that can dislocate, so I can do this” He stretched his mouth widely, pulling a fearsome face. It only resulted in the child poking his tongue
“Aha! It’s split in two! Why?”
Kalyan flicked his tongue to tickle his little nose “You see, there’s a legend” he got a few statuettes from the little altar at the window where he used to pray “When the first Nagas obtained the elixir of immortality, the other gods were angry and chased them. They dropped the cup that ended on a sharp rock, they licked from it but cut their tongue” He flicked it again “And all their descendants have it forked now”
“Woooah! Awesome!” Cheka loved stories and fairytales; this story had completely captivated him “Can I see you shapeshift? I wanna see!”
Luckily, he always wore his tunic when not in class. First, he sat the child on the bed, then concentrated and his tail started shrinking just as his height. It split in two once he became shorter enough and soon the scales were replaced by human skin and the halves became human legs and feet.
“And voilà” he clicked his tongue. Yep, he loved showing off.
“WOAH! Doesn’t it hurt? Having your whole body transforming?”
“Not anymore, I’m used to it. When I was your age, it hurt. I got better with practice”
He did the reverse shift so that Cheka could hop on it again and roll, giggling to himself and pinching it softly. The serpent squeaked and giggled softly before looping his tail around him to lift up “Hands down, kitten, or I’m gonna use these” He wiggled his black claws “On your belly”
“Your tail is like a sleeping bag! It’s so comfy” He snuggled in then gasped as Kalyan playfully released him and made him slide on his tail, moving it in waves and spiral shapes. That sure made the child happy, it was an endless slide for him.
The Naga just watched in amusement, resting on the bed with his head on a closed fist.
“Weeeee!” Cheka laughed as he was launched up and balanced on the tail tip perfectly “Again, again!”
“As the little prince wishes” He chuckled, playing with the child until he was tired and sat back on his chair to doodle something and snack on the chocolate.
“What are you doing?” Kalyan raised to peek, but the little boy covered it with his hands “Not ready yet!”
“Fine, fine” he went back to reading for a few minutes, stopping only when Cheka walked back on him, waving a piece of paper where he drew himself sliding on his coils.
“…” Dangit. It happened again. If anything happened to this child, he’d kill whoever laid a finger on him. This drawing was so wholesome, so he put it under his pillow.
“Thankssss, little one”
“Heehee! Unca Leona’s friends are my friends!” As he mentioned Leona, he frowned “I miss him… I hope he finishes schoolwork soon so I can spend time with him!”
“He’ll be here soon” He scooped the lion child in his arms, he was clearly tired from all that playing. “You sssleepy?”
“No, I’m not, I wanna play more” And yet a yawn betrayed him, making the Naga laugh softly “Come on, let me tuck you in”
He started humming his song and lifted a coil to make it hang between his wardrobe and wrapped the tail tip to where the tent was hung. It formed a hammock shape on which the child was softly placed and cradled.
“Just relax, be at resssst, like bird in her nessst” Kalyan sang as Cheka yawned and mewled, curling up in a cute fuzzball.
(…)
Leona opened the door, lowkey hoping he’d find Kalyan having a crisis. Instead, the scene shocked him. The Naga was leaning on his bed, reading his book and Cheka cradled on that coil hammock. The Leader snarled, thinking he used his trick on the child, but there was no stupid grin on his face, he was just asleep.
“… What the heck happened in here?”
“Went better than expected, he did make a chair fall on my tail tip and submerged me with questions. Overall, we bonded.”
Leona folded his arms, grumbling to himself. Kalyan raised an eyebrow and stretched his mouth in a big, smug grin.
“Are you mad your plan backfired or are you jealous?”
“Of course not! I just hoped things would get more difficult for you, reptile.”
Kalyan chuckled, closing his book “He’s a good, good kid. If you helped raising him, you did it right. Why don’t you spend more time with him?”
“You wouldn’t get it…”
Kalyan rolled his eyes, sighing “Non-official therapist here. You know you can come here anytime and just talk.”
“Hah, you wish. I’m not staring into those weird eyes of yours anymore. But… Thanks for keeping him out of trouble.”
The Naga could tell he cared, but that was Leona for you. He wasn’t one to share a lot with people, beside the College counselors. And given what happened between them, it was justified that he wouldn’t go under his hypno-therapy…
“However. You could do this in your life, after graduation. Your Mother is a doctor, right?” Leona shrugged “She cures with potions; you cure with those swirly eyes of yours. Business is already going good for you”
“Woah, are you Leona Kingscholar or were you swapped with someone?”
“Tsk, shut up, Vishvaas”
The little lion boy’s ears pricked up and flicked as he heard Leona’s voice. He immediately sat up and smiled wide “UNCA LEONA!” He jumped on his shoulder, making the Housewarden produce a startled feline noise “Mr. Kalyan was so fun to hang out with! He told me so many cool stories about his people. We played slide and swing. He gave me sweets and I drew a pic of him!”
Still, he hugged his uncle’s head “But I missed you! I hope we can hang out together all three soon because he’s one of your coolest friends ever!”
“We’re not…” Leona groaned, rolling his eyes “I’ll, uhm… think about it. If you wanna be his babysitter, since you two get along so much.”
“Tsss-sss-ssss!” Kalyan flicked his tongue out on the child’s nose “It was a pleasure, please behave around your uncle, eh? He must work hard so he can graduate and then I’ll be the apex predator here.”
Leona genuinely laughed “In your dreams, Vishvaas. Come on, Cheka. Say bye-bye…”
“Bye, Mr.Kalyan!” Cheka waved happily, giggling as he held his little arms around Leona’s neck “He’s awesome! But you’re more awesome because you’re the best Uncle in aaaaaaaaaaaall Twisted Wonderland!”
The prince would never admit how much he was happy to know this little fuzzball liked him regardless of his magical power, so frowned among the other beastmen in the country. He patted the kid’s back and, before disappearing after a corner, gave Kalyan a grateful look.
“Sssss??” The Naga’s eyes filled with non-magic spirals and then blinked. Just like last time when he slept on his tail.
He just shook his head and took out the drawing from under the pillow, then taped it to his wardrobe, lips trembling and curled up in a moved expression.
“Ssssweet Shesha. I wanna be a dad someday.”