Chapter 170: What It Meant To Be Scared

"What do you two want?! The only time you come to see me is when something is wrong with the two of you!" Growled Nala from up ahead, and the boys tensed up.

Boys, that was what Nala always made the two of the Ferret men feel like each time they visited. Though Nala was not wrong in her assumptions, the men did only come when they were having problems.

"Hey, Nala. This time we aren't here for our problems," Tag called as the men got closer.

"What? They can't come and ask me themselves? What, are you two now a pair of mess… What happened to you two?" Nala asked angrily at first but then switched to a confused tone as Tag and Sig walked into the room's dim light. 

"A lot has happened to us since the last time we were here, and that is part of the reason why we are here," Sig explained, and then the men explained everything that had happened to them since meeting Ashia.

"So, you are all part… Bee?" Was all that Nala could manage after the men finished their tale.

"Hmm, I think so, but Sig is also part Mecha like the Meccat, and I am part dragon. I can't really explain how it works; I don't even think that Ashia knows herself," Tag explained.

"You both are a lot more sturdy than the last time that I saw you, and you look like you have been working? I think that I would like to meet this, Ashia, Queen of the Bees, if she can get the two of you to work!" Nala said with a grin, and both the men laughed.

"I am sure that our most Queenliest of Queens would feel the same!" Tag said, and then Sig was right behind him.

"Yes! We have the most excellent Queen, but… OwO!" Sig yelped as Nala hit him with the walking stick she was holding.

"Stop that! The two of you sound like idiots when you talk like that!" Nala growled as Sig rubbed his arm. 

The wack hadn't hurt him, but Sig stepped back from the woman anyway. Nala liked to throw and hit things when she was displeased, and that was also part of the reason why the Snake Folk didn't like her.

"We try not to do it, but when we get excited, it just comes out. It was something that happened when we were first taken as subjects, so it's kind of part of us now," Tag said, making sure not to exaggerate the words or add in any most's.

"You had better try harder, or I will be finding a bigger stick! Now, you have still not told me why you are here?" Nala asked.

Nala's cave had very little in it; a small table and chairs, a bed, and a trunk that then men knew contained Nala's herd and medicines. Nala was about to sit down in one of the two chairs in the room, but Tag put up his hand to stop her.

"It will be easier for us just to take you to Beezli and the others," Tag said, motioning to the way they had just come.

"Who? I thought that you said your Queen was Ashia? What are you trying to pull now?" Nala asked as she glared at the men with slitted eyes.

Nala had soft light blue scales, but they had blotches of white in patterns all over her body. They looked like clouds in the sky, something that was different from most of the other Snake folk.

"Ashia is going through an evolution right now and can't come to greet you, but it is important that we convince you all to join us," Sig said, but then Nala started to laugh uncontrollably.

"You think that you are going to get the rest of those idiots to join you? Have you now seen what they are doing to themselves and their children? The idiots are too scared to come back to the caves now! The Tar people are gone now, and the predators have not made an attempt on us in over a week!" Nala raged, and the boys looked at each other in confusion.

"Tar people? That is why you or the rest of your people left the caves?" Tag asked. 

"Yes, people that were almost completely covered in some kind of black tar. They were so strong that there wasn't a single person that was able to defeat one of them, so I wasn't able to study it," Nala explained as she walked up and past the men.

"Were they all women?" Sig asked as he turned around with Tag to Follow Nala out.

"Hmm? How did you know that?" Nala asked curiously.

"Those were just Predators without their cloaks on. We fought a small army of five hundred of them and ended up capturing the ones we didn't have to kill," Sig said, but his voice became weak near the end.

Even just talking about it brought back the sounds of the Predators crying out in fear as he murdered them. Tag and Sig had talked about it, but nothing was ever going to get those sounds out of his mind.

"Hmmm, I thought that there was something different about the two of you. So, now you know what it's like to take a life, but it wasn't what you expected!" Nala said, but Tag stopped; his blood was boiling, and the dark tunnel was filled with an ominous red glow.

"Sig never wanted to kill anyone! And what he did saved countless lives, and now he will live with the screams of fear of the innocent people that he had to kill! Don't you dare talk down to my brother; you have NO IDEA WHAT HE HAS HAD TO DO! Those Tar people? They are innocent women trapped like prisoners in their own bodies, forced to never sleep and fight until they are DEAD!" Tag raged with spit coming out of his mouth as he spoke, and the chamber started to heat up.

Nala was frozen in place in shock by Tag and his words. This was not the friendly, carefree boy who used to ask for help when he was in trouble.

For the first time in Nala's very long life, she understood what it meant to be scared.