Subject to Study (Naga!Brothers x Reader)

Chapter 2

The next morning was a rush to gather more accurate tools, clipping them to my mesh vest for the expedition I had planned for the day. Eating a granola bar and a protein drink, I went through the procedures for leaving the lab without rushing, calmly leaving towards the coordinates of yesternight's find. My familiar backpack was slung over my right shoulder, stuffed with a brand new field journal, my hasty notes from yesterday, and emergency rations as well as survival tools just in case the GPS unit decided to fail me. The handheld GPS was fully charged and linked to the home system in the lab, letting Erika know where my last known location was should the connection be terminated.

I felt an excited rumble tickle the back of my throat, swallowing an energetic scream as I carefully walked towards the abnormally large snake trail. On the outside I knew that I looked calm and collected, but the hyperactive child on the inside couldn't stand still as my feet brought me closer to the coordinates.

The ferns parted as I walked through them, exposing the snake trail to the light. The dirt had hardened through the night, no longer soft and malleable so anything could've changed the original dimensions of the track. Slipping the backpack off my shoulders, I opened the larger pocket to dig out four wooden stakes and a roll of twine rope, quickly measuring out the part I had worked with last night and sectioning it off into more manageable pieces. Using the movement of the track, I determined that the snake had come from the river nearby and headed deeper into the jungle, a large chunk of it still unmapped by the team.

Tucking some hair behind my ear, I shoved the side of the pencil in my mouth before reaching into the backpack and pulling out the field journal. I wouldn't give this snake a name until I confirmed that it was a new species, but I wrote down a few rough drafts of the scientific names. Just because I found the species doesn't mean that I wanted it named after myself.

The next time I checked my watch, it was well after two o'clock in the afternoon. I knew that I could get lost in my work, but it was still surprising to see how much progress I've made during that time. Using the hardened dirt to my advantage, I had collected a small surface sample of the track, estimating a more accurate weight of the snake, as well as the width, length, and type of snake, and had found a small yellow scale stuck on some dried snakeskin. I had grown slightly worried for the creature when I saw the scale, but realized that it was damaged and had just come off with the shed, instead of being pulled off like I originally thought.

Storing all of the samples I collected in individual vials and containers, I packed everything up into the backpack and chewed on a protein bar for lunch, turning my attention towards the deeper jungle. It would be a dumb move to just follow the track into the uncharted area, but the pull of finding this creature was strong.

With a resigned sigh, I turned away from the lush jungle and went instead to the river near the lab, where this creature had come from. Partially using the track as a guide, it took almost fifteen minutes to make it to the slow-moving river, neatly bisecting the piece of land it curled around. The river stemmed from a freshwater spring high on the mountain and joined with many other streams until the water gathered in size and levelled out on the flatlands, deep enough to swim in and slow enough to be called a 'lazy river' in an amusement park.

The water was clear enough to see the seaweed bed waving with the current along the bottom, but still offered enough hiding places for creatures to stay safe from predatory eyes. Setting my backpack down far from the bank, I sat next to it and rested against a sturdy tree after checking for hidden dangers. I pulled out my field journal to go over my notes again, to ensure that the facts were fresh in my mind.

The yellow scale came from closer to the tail, possibly one of the ventral scales that had fallen off from the shedding. As to what snake it originated from, I only had a few guesses with the size that I was working with.