The underground lisard people

Noted

[deleted]

That was realy nice!!

Thanks so much for trying!!

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That may be the real truth behind the princess' imprisonment, but after centuries hidden away in that tower, her origins may have faded into obscurity and become lost to time with new stories and fables told in place of the truth.

There'll be a goat.

I see now what you mean. They only know 500 or so words, basically stringing a few nouns along to create concepts. Can’t really ask a question that way.

[removed]

Ha, no, but I'll leave this alone for now. Glad you enjoyed it. It was certainly fun to write

Douglas Adams vibes! Fun write up.

Thanks! 🫠😊

Rock and Stone in the Heart!

I wake up from my nap. It's been a couple millennia but I feel just so rested right now.

As I project my consciousness outward, expecting layers of rock and stone I sense open air very close. And metal. And sounds of bustling cities. Humans walking about, even now at night. I listen in on the sounds and noises and as my consciousness expands into not just light and sound but also more ethereal modes and then it hits me. A great flash of information enters my brain and almost overwhelms me as I desperately channel the information magically.

This takes a week though and by the end I have learned several new languages, caught up on the last 2000 years of human history and then current state of the world.

I flex my muscles, waking up my body and shift through the earth. As I break the surface I change to a human shape, taking inspiration from the clothes people are wearing.

I walk around to the last place my loyal humans dwelled and expect to find a small hut with thatched roof, but apparently my subjects have done well for themselves. I find a sprawling mansion with a secured estate. No guards posted but everything both old and brand new.

I enter the estate. The door was closed, but nothing to hold back the warmth in my hands.

As I enter I announce myself.

"Sons and daughters of Saedra! I have returned! I, Lofwyr, walk this earth once again and reclaim my hoard!"

Several things happen at once. People enter the hallway from several doors, chattering in every emotion at once.

As the chaos reached a crescendo one of the older humans shouts for everyone to be quiet.

He faces me.

"Welcome home my liege, if you are indeed him." He motions to one of the younger people, who promptly disappears and shortly after reappears with a luminescent slate.

We have done as you instructed, growing your hoard and guarding your interests. Sadly our family dwindled in power as kingdoms rose and fell, and the hoard is no longer collected in gold and silver. But we do have news for you. If you can indeed prove you are who you are. "

My eyes flare up at this insolence. Nu nostrils start smoking.

"Insolent little hairless ape. You will not test my patience. Not Lofwyr!"

As my temper quite literally flares up an old memory surfaces. I had left instructions for this moment.

"But I have left instructions."

I hold out my hand, it regains some of the more draconic characteristics. A mote of light appears above it, growing and accumulating until it grows into a sigil.

As it appears the young one with the slate gestures hurriedly to the slate. The older one nods.

"Thank you, you are indeed who you are". Come, I'll tell you about what next. Tomorrow we will go to Essen and you will once again fill the seat we have saved for you. I can't wait to see how you will take control of the area and wipe every other competitor off the map. To be honest, we've been at the mercy of bigger corporations for far too long and rumours are surfacing that another dragon has awakened and is seeking to end our existence. But now we may have a chance to reverse our fortunes.

That's where it hits me. The estate, while in good condition is clearly not immaculate. The clothes they wear are dated by at least 3 years. The adults have lines in the faces, not of laughter but from worry.

The family starts chattering away among themselves. Some relieved, others excited at the prospects. I hear the letters BMW thrown around and worry that maybe I didn't prepare enough for my return.

Even though I knew it was coming, the plot twist was amazing. That was very well written and better than I expected. Well done!

That lord I guess was spared an eventual French revolution with a more direct fate instead...

Everything they said about dragons was untrue. They are not blood thirsty beasts. Of course, I didn't know that when one of the dark, scale-covered creatures swooped down on me while I strolled through the courtyard with my parents.

As the great creature held me in their claws, I was initially gripped with fear. I thought the strong digits might crush me or the claws pierce my flesh. While my heart pounded in my chest and I struggled to get my breathing under control, a million thoughts flashed through my head. I regretted contemplating killing myself, only because it meant the certain end to the hope I had that I might somehow escape the tyranny of my parents over my life.

But as I was carried, I realized the care that the dragon carried me with. They occasionally gave a glance down at me.... not as if I were some morsel, but as if they cared for some precious cargo they carried. Slowly, I calmed and became more curious about my situation than fearful.

The Dragon landed near the top of great mountain, landing on an outcropping from the mountain more than big enough for the Dragon's massive footprint. They carefully set me on my feet, released me, and then gestured with one of their front claws for me to follow them.

Upon crossing the threshold into the darkness, the Dragon leading me started to shimmer and thier shape to change. They became more humanoid, though taller and still retaining their scales and many of their dragon traits.

"So sorry to whisk you away on a sudden." The Dragon spoke in a low, fried voice. "It seemed like something of an emergency for you, princess."

As I was trained, I reacted with anger at being called 'princess.' "Excuse you! I'm a prince!" I replied.

The Dragon lifted their brows as they turned to look at me. "Is that so?"

"Y..yes?" I said, not sure if I had to keep up the act if the Dragon knew.

"Perhaps I should take you back then..." The Dragon suggested, starting to move back toward the opening and gesturing with their hand.

"N-n... why did you kidnap me?" I tried to change the subject.

"It seemed you were in trouble. Contemplations of suicide due to suppressing yourself, being denied every aspect of your identity by your parents, and not to mention the ways they mentally and emotionally abused you...."

"They did no--" I cut myself short and looked down. For a few moments, I let memories of being shouted down for my opinions, being physically hurt by my parents, and how they denied and shamed me when they found out that one of the handmaids had been letting me wear her old dresses in private and put makeup and jewelry on me. "They... they did."

"I and my partner wanted to give you a better life, but we can take you back if you don't like it here."

I took a deep breath and looked up. For the first time, I actually looked at the Dragon and the room I was in.

The Dragon was as tall as the tallest man I ever saw. Their eyes were a cool and gentle blue, partly clouded and peered through gold rimmed glasses sitting on the end of their nose. A purple tinged white beard went down to their belt with a waxed and upturned mustache, and they had matching cropped hair. They wore a purple, black, gold, and silver plaid kilt and doublet, stockings and heeled black boots.

The room appeared to be a royal chamber with rich carpets, bookshelf-covered walls, a fireplace, and lavish decorations everywhere.

"Are you a king?" I asked.

They gave a non-committal wiggle of a hand. "Kind of, you don't have an accurate word for it in human language." They raised their brows. "You may call me Polari, and you may use any of your human pronouns for me, I'm not picky." They scrunched up their nose and smiled. "I don't know exactly what you would like to be called..."

My heart seemed to freeze for a moment, then it sped up as if trying to catch up to where it should have been. My breath caught as I tried to speak. I swallowed, cleared my throat, and as I spoke I felt a warmth rise up through me. "Princeps Morfa... she and they." I looked up, feeling a familiar fear threaten to grab and shred my blooming joy apart as I sought Polari's face for approval.

Polari only smiled that warm smile at me. "A pleasure to meet you, Princeps Morfa."

And then the fear released. I gasped in relief and in surprise. Before I could recover, I felt overwhelmed with a need to sob with joy. I started to feel my knees give as I sought to crumble into a disgusting crying mess.

"Would you like me to hold you while you work out your feelings?" Polari asked.

I nodded weakly and Polari moved quickly to catch me and hold me against themself.

"It's okay, Princeps. You're safe. You can stay here as long as you like or go when you like. You will be loved, educated, cared for, listened to... but it's all up to you, okay?"

I sniffled and sobbed and nodded against their shoulder. It was so unexpected that I might escape that torture for something better. But I got lucky enough to be rescued. I started to look forward to tomorrow instead of dreading it.

Humans are hard to understand in general, but when we found out that they collected all the apex predators from all over we didn’t know what to think. Humans are quite strange some of the most harmless things can concern them; then they turn around and and rub the stomach of the most deadly animal on the planet. Other members of the galaxy went to see what the humans where doing with the animals. When they came back it was so out of this world we thought they were joking. We all went to make sure. The humans had made them into pets. Creatures that can split world and eat stars rolling over and doing tricks. The humans bring fear to us not because they are deadly, but because the deadliest creatures are silly little pets.

Many of those gestures are still "learned" at some point in life tho

The aliens seemingly have some sort of inherent understanding of theirs from birth

Like, if you isolated one from its species from birth, it would still somehow understand the others after growing up in isolation.

We do have keeneeta, it's called body language.

would it be too greedy to ask for more?

Take the amount of cheese wheels you reasonably believe may fit in someone's pockets, add 7, multiply by 13, add str bonus

I kind of took it as an urLanguage. A basic or prototype language that we're supposed to be born understanding before we learn the language of our family/people/country.

It's also what people are supposed to be talking in when you hear of "speaking in tongues." But if it were a true urLanguage we'd understand what they're saying.

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Cyrumahndhr roared in glee, belting out a final gout of flames to billow over the smoking carcass of the village lord's castle.

Stones had been thrown and launched far, tearing the thatched roofs and crushing the walls of the local serf's homes, and the former castle lay as rubble. Cyrumhndhr had finally done it. There would be no human that dared to stop him, they would either bow in defeat or die. Rising from the ruin, he flapped his powerful wings, launching his glittering orange body into the air. With a few lazy beats of his wings he landed right in the village's square.

"Mortals!" He bellowed out to the serfs, who he could smell hiding away in whatever crevice they had chosen to avoid the fighting. "I, Cyrumahndhr have conquered your village! Your pathetic human military was no match for my might!" A few of the braver humans posed their heada out, peeking warily from doors, ditches, wells, wherever. Cyrumahndhr scanned their faces with his burning yellow gaze. "You will bring 15% of your shared wealth to me by sundown. You will bring one cow, one pig, and two sheep to me by sundown. You will give me one chicken, or duck, or goose from every family by sundown. You will do so every month, with the exception of the cows, pigs, and sheep- which you will do every three months. If you do not comply I will raze your village, burn your corpses, and eat your smoking remains. If you do comply, then this village is mine, you will do as I say, and I will not kill you."

By the time Cyrumahndhr finished his speech, some of the serfs had come into open view, looking at him confused. Children with hollow cheeks hung on their mother's blouses, and men with bowed backs and swelled fingers gazed at the dragon with an unexpected twinkle in their eyes.

"You have until sundown. My lair is to the north, a cave in the hills of the forest. You will be there." He growled. "Or else."

It was about an hour and a half, the sun was close to setting, but still shone yellow and bright in the sky. Cyrumhandhr sneezed and roused from his short catnap. Rolling over on his, admittedly, small horde he faced the entrance of his cave. He could smell them, the humans. Lazily he waited until the humans filed in, carrying their chest of valuables, and dragging in their frightened livestock. Eyeing one of the fearful cows, Cyrumhanhr licked his jowls.

"Oh great dragon-" One of the hollow faced men began. "We have accepted your generous offer, and have brought you the requested offerings."

Cyrumhandhr hummed, and darted forward, snatching the shrieking cow and eating it whole. When he had finished swallowing the beast, he stared down at the humans. Then their words registered. Sneering, he growled down at them, "Generous? I am a dragon, I have razed your village, killed your lord. I hold you at ransom. I am not generous, I am to be feared." He said, slamming a claw down upon his horde.

The humans paused, some spooked from Cyrumhanhr's outburst. Their leader, the hollow faced man stood strong though.

"That is why you are generous, oh Great One. You have killed our lord, a swine-fat pustule he was. He worked us into the ground, taxed us when we used the mill to grind his grain that we gave to him. Taxed us to use his fields that we used to plant for him. Taxed us on our homes that he owns. Taxes on taxes on taxes. Since we did not make money, he took the grain. Took all of it, most of our crops, our livestock. We have been starving and dying. Working ourselves to the grave under his tyrannical fist." The man said, voice bitter. Then he smiled. "But then you came, oh Great One, and killed that monster. Gave use new terms, livable terms. And..." he paused, voice growing smug, "To top it all off, you offered us the protection of a dragon."

Cyrumahndhr waited as the man finished his speech. Claws tapping idly on the stone of the cave. When the man finished he snorted. "So it seems I have." Rolling over, he waved the humans away. "Far be it from me to refuse eager servants. Leave the chicken cages where they are, and tie the livestock to those-" he yawned, "rocks over there."

"Of course, oh Great One." The human said, his words instantly followed by the sounds of moving and organization by his fellow brethren. And just as Cyrumahnhr's eyes shut, he thought he heard a "Thank you." from the man. But he did not dwell on it, quickly slipping into slumber to the whimpers of livestock and the shuffling of human feet leaving his lair.

Cool.