Chapter 1: The Rustling of the Lake
The roofs of Bethma Lake shook as the Lizardmen scattered left and right. Crates, tables, and other objects fell over as a shadow jumped from building to building with blinding speed. The confusion from the supposed assault left many wondering whether to pursue the uninvited visitor or try to clean up after them.
They were unprepared for such a sudden turn of events, they had no reason to. The Shaman Kayak was defeated and driven to the unknown, freeing them from his control. They wondered to themselves; could it be that he returned? Is it possible that he has a new trick up his sleeve? It wasn't until the Shadow finally stopped on the tallest building that one of them identified it. It was not a dastardly evil as they feared, but a young human woman with a spear.
"Where the hell is it?" The young lady looked at a small map that she had kept before looking across the village again. "It'd be around the lake, they said. Somewhere on the outskirts, they said." She grumbled to herself as she began her trek through the village. "Always telling you the obvious, but always leaving out that one detail- What the hell?"
She stumbled over as she realized a shaman had shot a fireball at the cloth roof as she was landing on it. Rubbing her head, the human woman got back up on her feet, but not before realizing she had been surrounded, albeit by a relatively small group of Lizardmen. After counting the number around her, she smirked.
"Welp, looks like I've been caught red handed." She raises both hands up before looking at the color of her gloves, "…No pun intended, of course."
"Cheeky of you to come here like this." Said the shaman of the group. "We've long since welcomed humans here again, there shouldn't be any reason for you to be causing chaos like this."
"Hey man, we all got bad apples in our bushels, maybe I'm one of them."
The shaman glared at her, "That doesn't answer my question, you brat!" He calmed down before thinking for a moment. "Just tell us your name and we might give you a free ride back to the human village."
"Name's Nicola, but you can call me Nic. As for the offer, I'm gonna have to decline. I'm afraid of Stella more than I am a bunch of lizards."
"But that wasn't an offer; that was the easy way." The shaman stamped his staff down, "Get her!"
Some of the larger Lizardmen began to approach her, brandishing their clubs threateningly.
"C'mon, it was just a few crates and stuff. That shouldn't take too long to clean up."
"You ruined my rug! I spent hours making that!" One of the other Lizardmen shouted.
"You broke my favorite spear! I needed that to catch fish!" Said another.
"You made me turn into a newt!" Said a third. Nic and all of the other Lizardmen grew quiet as they stared at him.
"What's the difference?"
"I dunno… But I got better."
Seizing this opportunity, Nicola sprang onto one of the larger Lizardmen, knocking him out in the process. "I'd love to ask questions, but I'm kinda here on important business." She bolts forward, building distance away from her pursuers. Looking up, she spots another opening between the roofs of the lizardmen huts, and prepares to boost herself up. However, she had not counted on an armadillo hiding in the bushes, who proceeded to launch itself towards her.
"Spin attack!" It shouted as it headed towards her face.
"NO!" Nic instinctively planted her fist into the armadillo's shell. The opposing force of her fist caused it to bounce off and land in some dry brush, unconscious. With her momentum broken from the sneak attack, Nicola was forced to land back down. "I can't see from down here," She says to herself, "Ugh… I just need to get out of here and hope for the best…"
Before she could move forward again, a large orange Lizardman crashes in front of her. Startled, Nic attempts to run back, only for another large Lizardman to block the other way. She looked over the bridge connecting the huts to find the way back down to be too high for her to jump from. With nowhere to go, Nic took a stance bracing for what's next.
"You're not going anywhere!" The first one squeaked.
Nicola looked at the Lizardman dumbfounded. The shrill voice was enough for make her lose her composure. "Are you serious?" She laughed. "I've heard babies have deeper voices than that! S-say something again!"
The Lizardman steamed. "You dare mock us?!" His voice even shriller than before.
Nicola held onto her stomach as she laughed even harder. "Oh this is too rich! Are you mice now?! I can't take it!"
"First you cause a ruckus, you attack our people, and now you laugh at us!" The second one let out a squeaky growl. "You'll pay for this!"
The young lady finally calmed down, patting her exposed abdomen. "Hah… That felt good~. Now, you were saying? Oh yeah…" No longer taking her adversaries seriously, she puts a hand on her hip while taking a more confidant stance. "Look, I'm really sorry for the mess I made. I really am! But I'm afraid this will have to wait for another time, I'm on really important business. Really secret too…" She brushes her hand forward. "Now if you could just move to the side, I'll go about my way and we can all be happy. Cool?"
"Uncool!" Both Lizardmen warriors drew their blades. "Your bark must be worse than your bite! You don't even stand a chance!"
Nicola sighed at them. "See, that's what one usually says before they get their ass kicked... I'm really not a person you wanna be messing with." She runs her fingers up her abdomen before giving it a firm pat. "Considering how little you guys dress, you might not have noticed, but my midriff… is kinda special. I don't mean that like I'm egotistical… I can't really explain it myself…" She removes the spear slung to her back. "Maybe a demonstration is in order?"
The first Lizardman lunged forward with his blade at the ready, anger flashing in his eyes. An attack like this in such a tight space could prove impossible to dodge, and blocking an attack of such force could knock anyone off balance. As the blade swung forward, Nicola held the spear up anyways, only blocking was not her true intent. She jumped upwards, keeping the spear above the ground, using it as leverage to swing over the blade, twirling as she did so.
Impressed and angered by this show of agility, the Lizardman attempted to slash at where the young woman was about to land. Nicola suddenly somersaulted back the other direction and around the Lizardman. The warrior, believing she'll try the same tactic again, turned around and feigned an attack to her left before going at her right. To his surprise, Nicola jumped up and flipped over him, and drove her spear in front of him as he turned around, twirling around the blunt end before facing him.
"What do you think? Pretty cool, right?"
The Lizardman attempted another swing in rage, only to have the blade kicked out of his hand. Nicola changed the kick into another twirl around the spear before pulling it from the wood below. With her adversary disarmed, she swung around and slammed the Lizardman's face with the broadside of her spear with a mighty crash, sending him stumbling backwards.
"Mama I think I swallowed a fly. Where do I stick the cactus?" The Lizardman mumbled before falling unconscious.
Nicola reassumed her stance as she turned to the second Lizardman. "Sorry about your buddy there, but I'm sure we can still work this out. What do you say?"
"The only thing I can say is that you clearly don't know how to use that!" The second Lizardman pointed to her spear. "Your little dance moves aren't going to work on me!" He charged at her and swung his blade, but prepared to swing back to make sure she didn't try to jump over it again. As he began to pull back, Nicola lunged her spear forth. The Lizardman tried to pull it back all the way to strike again, only to realize his blade couldn't go any further. It was then the warrior caught a small hook at the base of her spearblade, holding the blade by its own hook.
Nicola smirked. "I'd say I can use it pretty well, thank you very much." She pulled her spear back in a dancelike movement and took the Lizardman's blade from his grip, sending it off the bridge and into the stream below.
"C'mon, I don't wanna have to fight more than I have to. Tell ya what, we get your buddy patched up and we'll call it even. Alright?"
The Lizardman simply growled at her. "That was my favorite sword!" He jumped backwards and grabbed a massive club resting at the center column of the hut. In a shrill squeak, the warrior charged forward and swung it aimlessly. Nicola danced around the predictably slow movements before lunging her spear forth once again, poking the Lizardman's big toe. Nic's adversary dropped his club off the bridge and gave a blank look for a moment. Tears immediately began to stream as the Lizardman grabbed his foot, shrieking in pain.
Nicola immediately took the opportunity and jumped over the Lizardman, snagging his harness with the hook of her spear. With a great heave, she swung the spear around and launched the warrior at his partner, who had just regained consciousness to see him barreling towards him. They piled back with a mighty thud, leaving them both unconscious.
The young lady approached them, with her hand on her abdomen. "Still don't know how to explain it, but when I leave it exposed, stuff like that just happens. Also, about 'attacking your people'? I jumped on one guy's head before this little scuffle. That hardly counts as an attack on people." She held her spear up looking at the hook. "You know, maybe I should have used this to scale the roofs. Ah well." She began moving forward. "Maybe now I can explore this place with some peace and…" She began to hear a rumbling and shouting. "…Quiet?"
She saw a massive horde of Lizardmen rushing towards her, armed and angry. Nic laughed nervously at the size of the raging crowd. "Hey… Uh… Sorry about your… uh… bosses? Maybe? We can talk this out, really!" Quickly slinging her spear back, she bolted forward in a panic as the horde charged forward. "I just need to get to the lake so I can jump safely down, then I'm home free!" She began to head towards a corner hut, and prepared to make a turn. "The lake's right around the corner, I just need to-"
"Spin attack!" The armadillo had returned and planted itself straight onto Nicola's cheek as she began to turn. Having had little reaction time to the sudden attack, she faltered to her side and onto the edge of the hut. She barely stops with the edge of her foot. Looking down reveals a steep rocky hill, with jagged rocks sticking out in places. Still in her dangerous position, she spots the armadillo once again, approaching her still standing foot.
She nervously shakes her head at the armadillo as it reaches its paw out at her foot. The armadillo nods in response. She shakes her head with a begging look in her eyes, and the armadillo nods reaches closer.
"N-no." She squeaked.
"Yes." The armadillo squeaked back, and pushed onto Nic's foot.
Nicola shouted in terror as she stumbled over and began falling over the rocky cliff. The horde finally catches up to the building where she fell and looked on. Eventually she came out of their view and they began to look at each other.
"Did you think she made it?" Said one Lizardman.
"I dunno. You'd have to be really lucky to survive a fall like that." Said another.
"If I remember correctly," Said one of the shamans, "That leads to the back entrance of Dragon Nest. If that girl did survive, she'd have to be stupid to go into a place like that."
"But what should we do?"
"I wish Berauk were still around, he'd know what to do."
"He didn't leave any children." The shaman said. "We're still deciding on the next chief."
"It's been so long! How much longer is it going to take?"
"That we are not certain, nobody's stepped up for it. And the decision process is very complicated."
"Can't we just put it up for a vote?"
The shaman merely looked at the other Lizardman. "Do you know anyone good for the job?" When the Lizardman shook his head, the shaman looked at the rest. "Do any of you know anyone capable of becoming our new chief?" The rest of the Lizardmen looked at each other, shrugging and giving confused looks. Sighing, the shaman looked back at the hill. "Regardless, we'll have to send a scout down there, to make sure she doesn't do anything stupid." He looks back at the first Lizardman. "Why don't you do it?"
"…But why does it matter to us that she gets into trouble?"
"We still need to punish her for the mess she's made. Now go."
The young Lizardman sighs and prepares for the trek down the hill.
Author's note: Cover Art courtesy of Tiano (BakaTianoRoyale1)