Lizard men - shoatle zarki of Chetro ikroa
Chapter one
I can remember the weeks after my spawning in detail but of the first few weeks before I spawned and the time before that I have little memory of. Intelligence dawned on me slowly to start with and from my knowledge of my spawning I was born in the year 2452 in the last days of the high heat just before the wet season truly began. I remember hunting the dragonflies and the skier legs young as I still enjoy there taste to this day but of what I did on any particular day I know not until the 197th day of the year.
without conscious thought I was drawn by the rising full moon out of the pond and onto the solid slabs that surrounded the water, each slab many meters wide and long, glistening white in the almost blue moonlight. As I looked around I suppose I noted that around me stood a few dozen others of my kind their corpse white skin glistening oily in the moonlight near camouflaged with paved stone floor and then we waited for what we did not know but as I eyed up my brethren I noted that some of us ,though they tried to stand, where having trouble staying on there hind legs as they where used to staying under the water and every minute or so they would fall back to all four limbs before once again rising on there hind legs.
After some time we saw figures moving towards from a high hill in the distance there scales blue under the moon, a deep dark blue and I suppose I worried that that they were all taller than us, some by a factor of two, as while my kind once leaving the pools are ready for combat and don't really grow any more we would experience a little growth for another few weeks before reaching are mature full size. As they approached some of there size was revealed to be headdresses full of feather and bone making them much closer to us in size. As they got close I saw that two of them carried a circular object covered in red clothe about a wide as a meter and a half, curving away from the centre like a upside down bowl.
The newcomers placed the covered object down around twenty metres from the front of our group into a grove within the paved slabs,with two of them holding it standing on its edge, in front of the centre of our group they stopped approaching us. Spreading out they formed a long line two thick and a dozen wide to each side of the circle object then the closest four to the the centre came the clothe and cast it of the object to reveal a mirrored shield shining in the moonlight it's edges even at night glowed and sparkled with gold and jewels Inlaid around the edge of the shield in swirling patterns.
Those that had removed the shields clothe went down onto the ground flat and still around the shield whilst from behind the shield itself came one of them tall and green skin inlaid with black and white signs running up his body along the front of his legs, chest and merging only at his head. The new ones head was covered itself in a crown of feathers that made him the tallest of the group though even without it he was large already. As he stepped around the shield he himself looked at it,as a man judges a painting, though he could have only seen himself reflected and as if he found himself wanting he grunted and turned away from the shield and faced us.
Moving towards us at a leisurely pace his clawed feet clicking along the ground he met the closest of us and taking him in hand brought him in starts and stops before the shield and whispered, what it was he whispered I could not tell as the distance was to great but the one he had brought suddenly jumped his legs not leaving the ground as If a electric shock had gone through him and stared truly and utterly into the mirror for near a minute before the priest for that was what he was once more whispered into his ear and with purpose this time the wild one walked behind the newcomers group and then sat down, once more waiting. Whilst the wild one had been walking to behind the newcomers the preist had once more approached our group and he repeated the procedure, over and over again the preist did this some come willingly, some snapping at him but all came the same. At the shield all he whispered into looked into the shield some before he had even whispered and all seemed struck by what they saw.
Finally he reached me and I have been told I needed not the gentlest of grips to steer me towards the mirror and I remember clearly this point it is still one of my clearest memories as the preist whispered into my ears as I stared into the mirror he said "LEARN" and I felt a shock through me and those where the first words I had ever heard and I looked into the mirror and I saw my reptilian body standing tall in the mirror my frills down against my neck my long legs and arms glistening white in the moonlight my chest slightly darker and then I saw my eyes bright and fierce and I looked into them and I knew that the priest was stronger and fiercer and more in every way than me and so when he whispered into my ear the second time I listened as he told me to go sit with the others he had judged and would be good enough for now, and that made me proud as in my mind he was the strongest I had ever seen and so I went to sit with the others content.
As I looked towards those that remained to look into the mirror I noticed that one of the ones towards the back of the group of what I now thought of as the unjudged was becoming more and more skittish as the priest removed one by one those around him and priest I think seeing this himself left him till last. Turning once more towards the only one of are group still left the priest walked and perhaps seeing something in the one who was left all alone that he had not seen in the others he called out and two more of the newcomers came behind him as he walked towards the newcomer. The change in events unlike any who had been judged before seemed to scare the newcomer even further and as he was approached closer by the priest he broke from his spot and before the priest could cry out ran around him to the mirror and stared at it himself. He sat there staring for a time longer thaN any of those before him and and eventually without him experiencing the sudden jolt that all the others had before he stood and walked to where the priest had stopped standing still since the moment the nervous one had moved and put his ear next to the priest's mouth listened as the priest spoke longer than he had before to anyone and then the nervous one spoke back and the priest once more replied and then the nervous one stood tall and walked towards where we had all sat down and spoke out to us "follow me" and we did.