Marianne growls in frustration as the large lizard ignores the stone and acorns she throws at it. She can see that the small goblin is tiring but Bog is too far away. She decides to take a chance and flies faster to keep up with the lumbering beast.
Maybe she can try using one of her knives. If she's right alongside it, then there shouldn't be any chance of hitting th...
Her heart plummets as the lizard snaps its jaws and she nearly falters in the air at fear and despair flooding her being until she sees the small goblin stumble into view before running again. Marianne draws her dagger and screams her rage at the beast.
Lizzie stumbles as the annoying creature grabs one of the spines on her head and pulls hard. She squeals and shakes her head furiously to dislodge the intruder but the tenacious thing stays on. She growls as she notices the other flying creature grabbing her prey and flying it out of her reach as it did with the other. One last shake dislodges the pest on her head and Lizzie growls her anger at it as she turns her attention onto it since it landed on the ground.
Marianne grips her dagger as the large lizard glares at her. She may not have been able to test her blade on its skin but she's sure the beast's eye would make a good target. Giving a loud growl of her own, Marianne blinks as the lizard's eyes widened and it sniffles before clambering away with a whimper.
That was a bit anticlimactic.
Oh, but there is no way she is letting that lizard go after it tried to make a meal out of her subjects!
Flapping her wings, Marianne takes to the air again and flies in front of the retreating reptile. Her dagger is poised for a strike and she scowls at the beast before her.
"You listen here, lizard! If you think I'm going to let you eat my people, you've got another thing coming," Marianne growls. "These are my lands!"
Lizzie blinks as the creature starts talking. It may sound a little odd to her but she can understand its speech. She whimpers her apologies for attacking but explains that she was only hungry and she doesn't know what is good to eat here. Deciding that the little creature might be able to help, Lizzie quickly explains her situation and waits patiently as it taps the shiny blade against its leg.
"Marianne?" Bog questions, flying next to her with his staff ready.
"It's alright, Bog," Marianne assures. "This is Lizzie and she's really lost. She doesn't know how she got here, just that she knows she's far from home."
"And that's an excuse for trying to eat Tab and Diana?" Bog mutters.
"She's very hungry and those two wandered too close to where she was searching for something that she could eat," Marianne explains before turning her attention to Lizzie. "Do you eat mice?"
Lizzie cocks her head at the weird name. The little creature's explanation doesn't sound like anything she's eaten before and when the other little creature comes back with a dead creature, it doesn't look like anything she's eaten before. Poking the dead thing with her nose, her stomach offers its own opinion of being too hungry to care. Kinda tastes like a bird chick...well, except for the prickly stuff instead of soft feathers.
"Now, we have to figure out what to do with you," Marianne mutters. "The Shallow Cove delegates might know where you're from because they've seen really weird stuff in their kingdom but they won't arrive until late afternoon tomorrow."
"First thing to do is find her somewhere to stay that won't affect anyone. She doesn't look like a lizard that enjoys the cool dampness of the Dark Forest," Bog mentions, smirking at Lizzie's disgruntled snort. "I did notice a dry creek back in the Light Field with no villages near it."
"That might work," Marianne agrees. "That creek dried up three summers ago and there's an abandoned cave that used to be a dragonfly breeding stable that would be big enough to house Lizzie but there's also a cricket infestation in a nearby fallen tree."
Cricket! Lizzie wags her tail happily and licks her jaws at the appetizingly familiar word.
I couldn't figure out what species of reptile Lizzie is, so in this story, I picked the closest one that my non-reptile-knowledgeable brain could figure out, a Tuatara. A very, very, very lost Tuatara.