That was the second time Randall had been beaten to near unconsciousness. Only, this time, he was beaten to unconsciousness. The surface he was curled up on was cold and smooth. It felt like plastic. The thought swam hazily through his mind before he finally came to.

His head throbbed as his eyes opened for the second time today, and- "Eyuck!" He flailed back against the bars of the cage, throwing himself away from the raw meat that his head had been resting beside. Disgusting! He had been laying next to that? He was going to get a disease or something.

His tail curled around the thin bars of the cage and the tips of his fronds scrapped the top. Ringing his four hands nervously, he realized in horror he was no longer in the swamp. Of course he wasn't. He had been beaten senseless by a screeching human, using the back of her gun as a melee weapon. "This isn't good." He whispered, looking hopeless for a moment.

"Mercy, it's awake!" Called a voice. Randall took notice that the cage was situated outside, the back against the stained white walls of a house. Around him were a number of rusty tools hanging off of hooks. Shovels, hedge clippers, and even a net made of rotting wood and ratty netting. The cage was just big enough for him, with a little extra room. The floor and roof were both solid and black. "Hurry!" Cried the voice again.

"Hold yer horses, I'm comin'!" Replied a voice, faintly from the inside of the house.

"Hey there lil' guy." Came the first voice calmly. Randall whipped his head towards it; beside the cage crouched a concerned child with short raven hair. Her face went back and forth from worry to awe. As if she couldn't tell which was the stronger emotion.

Randall flattened his fronds and ducked his head, like a cat getting in position to stalk prey. He bared his sharp uneven teeth. "Open this cage before I rip it open!" He snarled threateningly at her, taking a snap at the air to show he meant business.

The child stared at him, mouth opening and eyes widening. It then occurred to Randall that she had not expected him to speak. "What, cat got your tongue? I know you can hear me." He looked around, as if suddenly in panic. "Where the hell am I?" His mind went into overload, and he bared his teeth again, eying the amazed girl once more. "I will rip this thing apart!"

"S'awake, huh?" A much taller girl trotted around the corner and watched Randall carefully, going to stand beside the other human. She hadn't heard him, apparently."Sorry took a while. Was changing clothes."

"I-i-it- Mercy, it talked!" She stood up, a hand over her mouth and looking up with those same wide eyes at her sister.

Mercy rolled her dull green eyes, making a face at the lizard. "You think everything talks. You even talk to trees when you think I'm not looking." She glanced at the raw meat in the cage and noted outloud. "You'd think an escaped animal would be hungry if it was roaming around without anyone to feed it."

Randall glared and reared back slightly. He plunged himself forward to skull bash the side of the cage the girls were facing. The cage rocked and the bars shook. Randall was thrusted back, whimpering and clenching his head with his two top hands in pain. His head was covered in dark bruises- he didn't think that through. Indeed, he had been bluffing when he threatened to bust the cage open. "Ow. Ow. Ow." He hissed.

"Huh?" Asked a confused Mercy, face screwing up and brows furrowing.

"See, I told'ya! It talks! A talking dinosaur! It said we better let it out or it'll break the cage!"

"No way- it just. . . made a noise." Her voice was dripping with hopes she was wrong. "See, I done hurt it's head with that gun."

Randall seemed to be going through several emotions all at once. He was pissed off- he was desperate- and he felt alone. "I'm not an escaped animal or a stupid dinosaur!" He said, moving to stick has hands through the bars and fiddle with the lock. "You can't keep me here. Some one will-" His sentence cut off and he pulled his arms back, looking pathetic. "Who am I kidding. Nobody who gets purposely left behind here ever goes back."

"Holy shit!" Mercy cried.

"Uh-huh! I didn't lie!"

Randall crossed his arms and stared down at the putrid meat he had since brushed off to the side away from the center of the little cage. "I bet all the monsters that get caught by humans are skinned alive and fed to their babies." He shuddered.

Mercy put her hands on her head then gestured toward the cage. "A talking mutant dinosaur!"

Randall face palmed, sliding his three fingered hand down his squash face. "For the love of God. I am not a dinosaur!"

Anne jumped up and down, grinning madly. "Oh man this is so cool! What are you? A space alien? Mercy we gotta space alien in our back yard!" She laughed hysterically, showing teeth.

"No!" Randall yelled. "I'm a monster!" He gripped the bars of the cage, watching them. "In the midst of night, I creep silently into slumbering childrens' rooms. I hardly touch the floor as I make my way to their beds- and when the child wakes up, looking around and whining for mommy- I pounce and-" He let out a blood thirsty roar, waited, and said. "Then, they scream." He gave a devilish laugh.

The sisters were quiet, getting a smug look of satisfaction out of Randall.

Suddenly; "I was right, and you were wrong! Monsters do exist!" Anne crossed her arms, looking pleased with herself.

Mercy didn't look so happy. After the first shock had began to ebb out of her, she started to get worried. "Anne, what are we gonna do with him? What about Daddy?"

That shut her up. She stopped smiling and bit at a fingernail. Then she shrugged. "We can't tell no one. They'd wanna experiment on'em! I don't want them to, they'll end up killin' him!"

"I know. He's sentient. It'd be like lettin' them take one'a the kids at school to do weird government experiments on, jus' cause we don't like them."

Randall growled. "Don't you dare compare me to you. I'm nothing like one of you humans! You're all just filthy poisonous scum!"

Anne crossed her arms and looked grumpily at the lizard, crouching back down to eye level a few inches away. She squinted frustratingly at him through the bars. "Hey, and what's so wrong with bein' a human? Least I only got four limbs like the rest'a the animals!" That was somewhat a fib, since not all animals had four limbs.

"Everything! The reason I'm here is because of one of you. And the reason I'm in this cage is because of that tall one there tried to kill me!"

"Pfff," Mercy put her weight on one leg. "I only hit you like, seven times."

Randall finally released the bars and rubbed his still sore head. "Yeah, and it freaking hurts."

Suddenly Anne's eyes softened. "I'm sorry." She pouted, and reached a hand through the close fitting bars. Her fingers barely grazed Randall's scales before he lurched his head back and hissed. Anne quickly retracted her hand and looked sad. "Was just tryin'ta make you feel better."

"Well don't." Randall replied, and despite the venom in his tone his voice was softer than before. He was stuck here. Stuck with two bratty girls while he was behind bars. What was there for him, now?

There was a awkward silence between the three. Then Mercy finally spoke. "So. You're clever. Got a name?"

The lizard stared at her as if debating giving away his name or not. It couldn't hurt. Wasn't like he was going to go anywhere, by the looks of it. "It's Randall. Randall Boggs."

Mercy nodded and got beside her sister, who was still watching Randall (it was a little creepy, in Randall's opinion). "You hungry?" She asked, giving a reassuring smile. Randall didn't reply.

"Didn't eat the meat." Anne said.

"I know," Mercy replied in a disappointed voice. She rose one corner of her mouth and furrowed her eyebrows. "Listen, I'm sorry about beatin' you up. Alright? You was looking like you were about to hurt my lil' sister!"

Randall shrugged. He didn't like being watched so intensely, especially with them so close. He looked down at the meat and finally spoke up. "I'm not eating that." He said flatly.

"Fine. I'll get you whatever you want." Replied Mercy. "As long as it's not humans."

Randall looked back up. "That sounds disgusting. What makes you think I'll eat anything you give me anyways? I'm not some pretty little pet that will eat out the palm of your hand just because you pat me on the head."

"Then," Mercy began, lifting her chin up. "you'll just starve to death."

Randall sneered at her. "You got a smart mouth."

Tell me if you find the accented dialog too bother some. I wanna keep a little bit of it, but tell me if I'm accenting it too much. (it helps that I'm Southern, haha)

Thanks for reading, I appreciate all reviews.