The Lizards

The air felt musty. A cold, damp edge that was completely at odds to the heavy wet heat of the swamp. Tarnic shivered and gave a low moan. His eyelids flickered and finally opened. Shivering again, he pulled himself up into a sitting position, wincing as every muscle burned and throbbed.

Peering round, Tarnic could see he was in a cave; flaming torches bracketed to the wall broke up the darkness, but that half-light only made the shadows seem darker.

Reaching out to the wall to steady himself, Tarnic climbed to his feet. He felt exhausted and braced himself to throw up again.

His stomach ached, but the gastro-contraction never came. In fact, once Tarnic’s head cleared enough, he realised he no longer felt sick. Or smelt of it.

One hand still on the wall, he ran the other over his uniform and then through his hair. Both felt clean. Perhaps not the crisp washed and starched clean of the barracks, but certainly better than the post-swamp and fever aroma of the past six days.

Longer. Whoever brought me here had long enough to wash and dry my clothes and me. And I don’t see a laundrette anywhere close by. He glanced down at his wrist-comms. Seven days. It was early afternoon, ship time. And of course, no signal to call said ship, he thought, lips twisting in irony.

Tarnic looked around this cave again, not the sweeping glance of before, but rather a long and calculating assessment. He ran his dark eyes over every inch of wall, observing the deep green slime creeping across the stone. Noting that the brackets holding the torches in place were metal, probably iron, but crudely worked; that the flames fed from a thick tarry substance that smelt faintly of the swamp.

Following the second torch was a recess, an entrance perhaps? Or an exit. Tarnic walked towards the recess. Although it was barely twelve feet away, he found himself stopping to steady his shaky legs and to breath deeply as the world tried to spin away. Fever’s rotted me, he thought. Brecca and Solma couldn’t stand it, why should I? He reached the shadowy recess beyond the torch. Seeing the depth of the darkness, he turned back and plucked the torch from it’s casing and thrust it into the shadows.

A heavy door sat sealing against the stone. More importantly, as several rough pushes and shoves proved, it was locked or barred from the other side. Damn.



The wrist-comms showed another three hours had lapsed. In that time Tarnic had not only drifted back to sleep, but had slept so deeply that he hadn’t awaken when someone left the tea.

Stinks like Solma after a three-week campaign.

A small loaf of hard bread and several hunks of raw meat sat beside the tea. Having long ago vomited up the last food from his stomach, and knowing the importance of liquid to stay alive (besides, had far, far worse that this before) Tarnic fell on the food and tea and began assessing the situation.

The last thing he remembered with any clarity was trying to signal the Shadowsail from his wrist-comms after Verne’s death. I killed Brecca. Mercy-shot him full of opioids. Solma died naturally of the fever. Verne slipped and fell in the deep water; fever caused that to happen too. Tarnic paused his thought train; Verne had disappeared completely from view and despite the frantic searching, Tarnic never found the body. After twenty minutes (by which point Verne would be well and truly dead, even if Tarnic did find him) Tarnic carried on alone.

He made it perhaps another seven or eight miles before collapsing himself. Fortunately the ground was firmer underfoot here and he had been able to lie down.

Then the humongous lizard turned up.

Tarnic closed his eyes. Approximately four foot high. Six legged, although the front legs looked thinner, more like arms. It sat there, staring at me. Fifty-sixty kilos if it was a gram. Gills round its neck, bet it swims damn well.

There was the sound of a bolt being shot back and then the door swung wide.

Tarnic leapt, or at least tried to leap, to his feet, but the post-fever weakness made his knees shake and his muscles burned with the exertion and he fell crashing back to the floor grunting oaths.



Lok’yi cocked its head to one side and looked critically at the human. Male, it decided. Deep vocalisation. Small perhaps, but too muscular for a female of its species. Lok’yi flicked the door shut with its tail and carried on into the cave. It carried a pitcher of that vile smelling tea in one claw.

Here, it gestured. Take. It pulsed a gentle blue through its scales to indicate friend.



“What the…” Tarnic scuttled back towards the cave wall. The giant lizard was only a few feet away and took up most of the room. Taking a deep breath, and forcing himself calm, Tarnic inspected the creature. Don’t assume benevolence, you are a prisoner. Do assume intelligence, it might be reasonable for bringing you here and feeding you. What’s that – opposable claws on the upper limbs? Could well be the dominant life form on this dammed rock.

The lizard stood on its middle and rear legs, powerful, but short. The torso tapered a little as it became upright towards the fore limbs and head. Blunt-faced with eyes set far back onto the head, which it now tipped to one side. Analysing me?

Certainly no chance of over-powering the animal and even less of rushing it. In fact, Tarnic was weighing up what he could do, when the monster suddenly changed colour.

Tarnic stared fascinated as the deep green scales that made up the lizard’s bulk colour drifted into a powder-blue and then back again.

What was that all about? The lizard offered the pitcher of steaming tea.

“Hmm, no chance of just plain water?” Keep it friendly. The last lot didn’t kill you. Besides, you still need the fluid. “Cheers,” with what he hoped passed as a smile and a grateful gesture, Tarnic took a swig.



The human male is afraid, Lok’yi decided. It has lost its brood and is alone. See how it watches. Humans are as suspicious as amphibians. It found this amusing and twitched its tail. Perhaps humans can even grieve.



Tarnic jumped as Lok’yi’s tail swung into the wall making a loud thunk. Some power there. Did’ya see the way it just swished the door closed. The. Big. Heavy. Door. Keeping his eyes fixed on the lizard, Tarnic took another sip of the tea. Tastes like sour strawberries, he thought. That or gone off raspberry syrup. Mixed with bloody tree bark.

“Thank you, maybe I’ll finish the rest later.” He forced a cheerful note into his voice. Animals, and people, often respond well to tone he remembered.



The human does not drink. Lok’yi narrowed its eyes. Ignorant animal, doesn’t it know it will die like its brood if it does not drink more bosa? Lok’yi blinked. How to explain?



The lizard didn’t move when Tarnic put drink down on the floor. It just stood there staring at him. Eventually it blinked and then, slowly, bent to pick the drink back up. It offered it to Tarnic.

“I’m good, but thanks.” Drink any more and I’ll burst. Gently Tarnic pushed the pitcher back towards Lok’yi. Who promptly pushed it back towards Tarnic.

We could be here a long time.

The lizard’s scales turned that pale blue again, just momentarily, some sort of signal. But what?

<<Drink.>> In his mind, Tarnic suddenly saw himself drinking from the pitcher again. Drinking until it was empty. <<Live.>> Tarnic saw himself fit and healthy, moving easily and without pain. Then, just as suddenly, he saw the bodies of Brecca and Solma in his mind and a burst of agony as all his muscles flared in searing heat. <<Drink, live.>>



The human didn’t understand; it had given the bosa tea back when Lok’yi pressed it on the male. Frustrated, Lok’yi felt a flush of anger. Very well, it would try sending thought-pictures. Mild telepathy was often used within the brood to communicate ideas that were beyond colour change or verbalisation capacity.

But humans rarely responded well to it.





The wrist-comms showed the passage of another three days. Several times each day the lizards came into the cave bearing raw meat, berries, leaves, the odd loaf of hard baked bread. And always the tea.

Tarnic flexed his arm and eyed it critically, strength was definitely returning and the cramps where occurring with less severity or frequency.

Tarnic could now tell the lizards apart and thought he had their names sussed too. There were three, the big one, the one that brought him here originally, was Lok’yi and appeared to be in charge. Lok’bri looked very similar to Lok’yi, but seemed to resent Tarnic’s presence. Twice the lizard had brought food into the cave and proceeded to eat it itself. It always handed the tea over, as though it were afraid not too.

Tak’ro was much smaller and was a deeper shade of green too, with blue marking around its eyes. Tarnic wasn’t sure if it was a juvenile or somehow racially different, but it seemed to make a greater effort at communicating and for that Tarnic was grateful. Typically reserved and even reclusive, to his own surprise, he was starting to crave human conversation.



<<We should move now. Hunters are gathering and we must make it back to the brood.>> Lok’bri flickered its long tongue. An impatient gesture that was not lost on Lok’yi.

<<The human is not strong enough to face the swamp yet. It will slow us down, better to wait another day here and then move fast.>> Lok’yi tried to keep the flash of colour from its scales. Lok’bri was young and still learning, showing irritation would not help.

<<He. Human males are called ‘hes’>> Tak’ro pulsed the thought shyly. <<This one calls he-self Tarnic’Tam.>> “Taah-nick-tam” Tak’ro tried the syllables out loud, the names sounding alien to the amphibians. More used to clicks and hisses or the telepathic thought-waves, Tak’ro loved the idea of speaking human.

<<He. The he Tarnic’Tam needs another day of rest and bosa tea.>> Lok’yi tasted the sexually oriented pronoun and wondered, yet again, how Tak’ro seemed to pick up languages so easily. It certainly had learnt the Lok brood dialect faster than Lok’yi had expected. It flushed a quick yellow around its feet in pride. Both of them are learning things fast. They are a credit to the brood. <<One more day and then we return to the brood.>>



Tak’ro was standing clear of the door, thin fore arms pointing at Tarnic and then at the open door.

No translation needed there I think. Time to face the big bad. Tarnic got to his feet and followed the lizard. Beyond the door was a narrow tunnel, with the occasional side tunnel or entrance to other caves leading off it. It was into one of these caves Tak’ro turned.

The lizard seemed unconcerned if Tarnic followed or not. Tunnels could run for miles in all directions, not really worth the risk of running off, eh?

The other two lizards were already in the new cave. Lok’yi sitting calmly on its four strong back legs and watching dispassionately as the younger lizard paced up and down.

<<Why take it with us. It is humans>> Lok’bri spat the word in its mind, <<that are hunting us out in the swamp.>>

<<Humans with different skins; artificial ones to protect them from the swamp. This one had no artificial skin, is it so great a leap to think he is not one of the hunters, Bri?>> Lok’yi flittered the end of its tail.

Lok’bri snorted abruptly making Tarnic start. The lizard flashed through a series of colours along its flank. <<If it is one of the hunters, the brood will kill it and eat it. And us for bringing it to the lair. I assume you have considered that Lok’yi?>>





Word count: 2016

Lok'yi Character Profile  () Lok'yi character profile #1845493 by ~MM~