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It had been about a week since Itaaski had last eaten, and hunger was just beginning to gnaw at his stomach. It was not real hunger yet; not painful or nagging, just the feeling that sometime soon he should go hunting. But Itaaski wasn’t interested in huntingâ€"or at least he wasn’t interested in hunting for food, just yet. Right now he was hunting for pelts, for his livelihood. It was too bad he didn’t eat the meat cooked, but he left it to be eaten by other animalsâ€"so long as he took the parts of it that humans would trade him things for. Personally, Itaaski had little use for pelts other than for sleeping on and keeping the night chill out, but the humans liked to buy them from him for useful things, like knives and such. Other animals of the forest benefited from his hunting as well, getting what was essentially a free meal out of it.
But he’d been following a large jaguar-like animal for a time, getting ready to attack, when the scent of something alarming caught his attention, and he turned his face towards the wind without a second thought, tongue moving in and out of his mouth rapidly to taste the air and try and figure out what exactly it was that he was smelling. He could smell fresh blood as well as old, dried blood, and there was the unmistakable scent of predator…and something was telling him that this predator was a danger even to him, which did not happen very often. But there was something strange about the scent, and though it provoked wariness it also provoked curiosity.
Forgetting his prey, Itaaski turned towards the smell and hastened towards it, moving swiftly and easily through the woods, making little sound. The reptile traveled swiftly at first but then slowed his pace as he neared the other predator, slowing to the point where he could move silently and use his patterned scales as camouflage to blend in with the foliage he was moving among. It soon became clear that there was a clearing in the trees up ahead, and he paused when he neared it, crouching silently behind a bush, his tail held out behind him, the end wrapped around a thick branch, some instinct calling for the false security.
He crept forward slowly, almost slithering along the ground under the bush to get a good view of whatever it was that he knewâ€"he could sense the heat signature it gave off, even though it was almost at the same temperature the air was atâ€"was out there. Whatever it was, it was big. Really big. He moved forward just a little bit more, and then could seeâ€"his eyes would have widened if they were not already nearly entirely circularâ€"it was truly enormous. It was also like himâ€"sort of. Not exactly, but…it was the only reptile-humanoid he’d ever seen before besides himself, and Itaaski wasn’t about to be picky.
Though he would like to go out and meet the…well…whatever he was, instincts called for caution, and he held back, just observing for a time, before deciding that it was probably safe. Basking, after all, is an extremely relaxing activity, and so Itaaski figured that the half-human, half-snake creature would be less likely to attack him in such an instance. So thinking, he carefully withdrew from the bush and made his way around a tree, stepping out into the clearing some fifteen feet from where the naga was reclining among the rocks.
Itaaski was a fairly good contrast to the naga; he was fairly light, with non-melanistic pigmentation and a wide variety of colors, ranging from small spots of black to browns, golds, oranges, and a few touches of green. He was muchâ€"muchâ€"smaller than the eighteen foot long naga, and had a more humanoid figure, with legs as well as arms, and a tail. He was scaled all over his body, and his facial features were more snakelike than those of the Naga. He was slighter in build, but no less muscular; he wore only a pair of shorts for decency, and his musculature was plainly visible, rippling beneath his scales. He was rather more clean than the naga as well, adorned with no blood or bones. Overall, tail included he was only about 10 feet long to the Naga’s 18â€"and was probably more fast because of the size difference.
He stepped forward, letting his tail slide over the grass to make some noise and announce his presence, pausing then looking towards the Naga and waiting for him to react. In this situation, he’d decided it’s a better idea to let the other make the first move, to prevent any unfortunate (for him!) misunderstandings that might result in injury or death.</font>
