The Lizard Sphinx Story Continues

Writer's block is painful.  When it rears its monstrous head in programming and in a story at the same time, it's doubly so.  Fortunately, it seems our recent deluge of rain has managed to wash the dratted thing into the sewers where it belongs.  Here's the latest on the Lizard Sphinx Story ...

Vandesaria trudged along behind her dogs. Each, of course, was pulling a travois full of her tribe’s possessions. Their tribe had just driven the Green Feather tribe from the coast and were reaping the spoils of war: a new village and new lands. It hadn’t gone quite as expected. The chief and some of his warriors had run across some stupid woman setting fires and tried to subdue her. He was badly burned from the coals she dumped in his groin before she made her escape by diving into the sea.  

Her pack and the travois they pulled finally reached the Green Feather tribe’s village expecting to see it more-or-less intact. This is the way the chief’s conquests had always gone in the past. She was totally shocked to find the village totally gutted by fire, nothing left to eat, no tools, no animals, nothing. This was going to be far harder than the last one. Vandesaria had helped take possession of the ex-Hill Tribe’s village only a year ago. It had been mostly intact. In less than a week, her people had moved in and extended the range of the South Fields tribe easily. This was going to be a lot harder unless they could find where the Green Feathers had stashed things before fleeing to their boats.

With a sigh, she unloaded her dogs and set up a skin lean-to to protect what they’d drug all the way from the staging area. She and a dozen other women began the thankless task of hacking down the charred remains and clearing up the destruction. It might be months before they had homes for everyone waiting back at South Fields. They’d not completed more than a third of the clearing before the chief and his warriors returned. Green Feather tribe had been warned, he growled. He was angry almost to the point of violence. He barked orders for the warriors to help with the clearing. They looked to protest but the chief’s visage brooked no argument.

By nightfall, they’d managed to clear the centre of the village. They’d set up leaf lean-tos with bed platforms for everyone around the central fire pit. Despite the amount of fire damage surrounding them, the central fire was out and the ground wet. Vandesaria, as keeper of the flame, knew it was her job to get a fire started from the sacred embers. In the gathering twilight, she began to task of finding try tinder and wood. It was over an hour before she had enough to build a dry base and get the central fire going again. With the flames dancing in the central pit, the chief’s face softened. Despite the setback, they would make this another South Fields village.

Periodically during the night, Vandesaria awoke to make sure the fire was going. She fed the flames from the dry wood she’d brought in at twilight. There would be just enough to last until morning but that was better than the alternative. There were predators out there that would take a person if they could.

Next morning, while the other women were starting breakfast, Vandesaria began her quest to find more wood. She couldn’t go far, of course, because the fire needed tended and no one save the Keeper of the Flame could tend the fire. Nonetheless, Vandesaria managed to get a fair stockpile of dry wood before nightfall. A few more days and she’d have enough to last for more than a week.

The next day, as she was foraging for wood, she ran across a strangely carved statue. It was a huge lizard of some sort wrapped about the round smooth stone it had been carved from. Though far too heavy to move, she abandoned the wood she was carrying and ran back with the news. A warrior was dispatched to see the stone and she lead him to the spot. Vandesaria left him to puzzle over the stone while she completed her wood gathering. That evening, around the central fire, the warrior reported what “he” had found. Always thus … women did the work, men grabbed the glory.

Next morning, the chief dispatched many of his warriors to search the area. They spent the next few days futilely searching the area for the treasure they were sure was nearby. Of course, Vandesaria and the other women paid them little heed. They had real work to do. 

About a week later, Vandesaria, still hunting for wood for the fire, ran across another of the strange stones. Rather than dashing back to tell a warrior, she paused to investigate the strange thing herself. As she walked slowly around the stone, she noticed that the carved nose of the lizard seemed to be pointing off into the jungle. That had to mean something. Despite such investigations being a male task, Vandesaria filled the direction of the lizard’s nose.

Only half an hour through the jungle, she found yet another of the lizard rocks. Following its nose, she found yet another. This continued until she found herself at the opening of a small cavern. It was seldom a good idea to enter a cavern alone. Animals often made such places lairs. Vandesaria wasn’t the type to back down from the challenge though. Using the glowing coal she always carried, she quickly started a fire by the opening and, taking one of the burning brands as a torch, she entered the cave.

The cave, it turned out, was the Green Feather’s emergency stash. Bundles of dried wood, ropes, baskets of dried food, everything! A huge treasure! She turned back to the entrance to head back to the village to report her amazing find. Of course, Vandesaria was smart enough to leave out the fact she’d followed the lizards. It wouldn’t do to get the warriors noses bent out of shape by having a woman solve the problem that they couldn’t. Her flickering torch light revealed another of the carved lizards. This time, the entire ceiling of the cavern had been carved. The monsters great nose seemed to angrily point towards Vandesaria as if it would come to life, leap from the ceiling and devour her.

She shrieked, dropped her torch and made for the bright blue of the entrance as quickly as she was able. She had taken but two steps before she felt a strange twisting in her body and she collapsed to the rocky floor. She felt herself stretched on the floor her arms straight out from her body and her legs at a similar painful angle. She found herself lying face down on the cold rock unable to even move. She felt joints pop and reorient. Her limbs shortened until both were the same length. Her hands and feet warped until they looked more like those of the great lizard itself. Soon she felt her body lengthen and, when the strange distortion reached her hips, she felt them change. Somehow, she knew she’d never walk again as a woman. Her body’s final change came more slowly. She felt a strange tingle from her hips and, even through the strange pain, she turned her head to watch as a tail grew from her distorted body.

There the magic paused for several minutes as if waiting for her to adjust in some way. Vandesaria lifted her head again to survey the changes. What she saw was her body in the form of the great lizard itself. Her hands and feet were now those of a lizard complete with claws. The only incongruity was that she had no scales. Her new body was still covered with her human skin. Her clothing lay in tatters about the cave as if shredded and tossed about by some fight.  

She heard a sound from the opening of the cave and saw the shadow of a person. From the headdress, she blurrily knew it was a warrior. She tried to call out for help but all that came from her lips was an odd hiss. She heard the sound of something being dropped and then retreating footsteps. There would be no help from that source.

The magic resumed and Vandesaria felt her skin crawl. She dreaded the changes but couldn’t help watch as her skin developed bumps and ridges, became much harder and changed in colour. When the magic released her again, she took stock of her situation. All that remained of her humanity was her head and breasts. All else was lizard.

A sound at the cave opening caught her attention. An elaborate headdress was silhouetted against the bright sky. The village shaman. He’d help surely. Instead, he made a protective sign and fled the cave like warrior before him. Vandesaria worried what was to come next.

She watched the bright sky in the cave opening for several minutes before realizing that the sky was becoming redder. It couldn’t be evening yet. She’d entered the cave no later than midday. These changes couldn’t have taken that long. But as she watched, the clouds brightened with evening. It had taken half the day, of that there was no doubt. As the sky darkened, the full moon rose casting its silvery glow into the cave.

Once more, the magic seized Vandesaria. This time its focus was her head. She felt her tongue change shape and, when she flicked it out, she discovered it was considerably longer than it had been and definitely forked. As it retreated into her mouth, a burst of tastes and smells filled her. With each flick, the intense tastes and smells returned. Her hearing became less acute and everything became deeper in pitch.  

She was tired. Ever so tired. She had to sleep but she was hungry. Looking about the cave, she remembered the food stash of the Green Feather tribe. The dried meat was good going down and she at most of the stash before wondering how she could eat so much. She’d eaten enough to feed the village. Her thoughts faded and she slept.

Early morning light brought awakening and Vandesaria awoke. At first, she thought it nothing but a dream but even the pale morning light revealed the truth of the previous day’s strange events. Vandesaria was now a giant lizard, a giant lizard with a woman’s head and breasts.

She realized she was thirsty and made her way carefully to the cave opening. Outside, a somewhat terrified warrior watched the cave opening. As Vandesaria lumbered towards him, he dropped his spear and fled into the jungle. No matter, she thought, for she was thirsty. She made her way to a nearby spring and drank her fill. As she did so, she heard a sound behind her and turned to face several warriors, the chief and the shaman.

“It is as I said,” the shaman points towards Vandesaria. “A great and terrible magic.”

“Our fire keeper,” the chief’s eyes were wide with fear.

“Indeed so. She took the curse for the village.”

“But what now?”

“Of that, I know not.”

“Will she return to herself?”

“I cannot say.”

Vandesaria turned to face them and tried to speak. All that came from her lips was a deep hiss. Her tongue, flicking in and out almost of its own accord, brought her the taste of their fear. She took a few steps in their direction. Several warriors took involuntary steps back. The chief faced the shaman, a stern look on his face.

“Your magic can counter this?”

“I cannot. I do not understand how such changes are even possible. Life is life. One life cannot become another life. It is always so.”

“And her?”

“I … “ his voice failed.

“So then?”

“If we kill her, the curse would but strike again. She must be left alone and cast out.”

“She is our fire keeper.”

“Another village perhaps has an apprentice?”

The chief nodded his assent and signalled a young warrior.

“Go to the other villages and find an apprentice. Hurry. Before the village fire dies.”

The warrior turned and ran off down the trail. It would be weeks before he could return. The rainy season was approaching and, with no fire keeper, this village fire would surely be rained out. This was an evil omen of the worst kind. The chief faced Vandesaria.

“You are cursed, so the shaman says. You are cast out from the village. You will be attacked if you approach the village.”

Vandesaria hissed her anger at the pronouncement but merely ambled towards the chief. Shouldering past him, she headed for her cave. There was shelter and food there for at least a little while. She would have to decide what to do in the future. Her life had definitely changed. As she lumbered towards the cave, a terrified warrior let fly a spear. It merely bounced from her body. The magic, it seemed, would not let a simple death end her curse. 

The sight of a spear bouncing harmlessly from Vandesaria was enough to spook several of the younger warriors. They broke ranks and fled back to the village. Only the chief, the shaman and a handful of seasoned warriors remained. They watched Vandesaria make her way back to the cave and settle herself at the opening. Then they, too, turned down the path to the new South Fields village. There would be no triumphal taking possession, no movement of South Fields families to the new village. It might well be that this village would have to be abandoned for so powerful a curse could and would strike again. A most inauspicious start to the rainy season. Vandesaria found she cared very little of this. The magic had changed more than just her body. South Fields mattered little. Green Feathers mattered little. There was only life now. Her life and she meant to live it, curse or no curse.

Her stash of food lasted several weeks. She knew lizards required little food and hoped that, being mostly lizard herself, this would apply to her as well. It was not to be. She could not stomach grains and plants so most of the stash was useless to her. The dried meat was salty and upset her stomach. She found herself craving red meat. Uncooked, raw meat. Still partly alive meat. Shocked at these thoughts Vandesaria pushed them down again and again. But they were not to be denied.

Three weeks after her change, she could take the dried meat no longer. She must hunt. But what? Her new instincts took over and she followed a scent trail to the village. Here there would be goats and they would suffice. Surprisingly quickly, she snatched a goat from the pen she’d casually knocked apart. She tore huge gobbets of meat from it, wolfing them down without chewing. Anyone that arrived to try to drive her off was met with an angry hiss and an angry scowl. Two goats sated her hunger and she allowed herself to be guided from the village by a pair of warriors.

This became the pattern of her life. The hunt of the village livestock, the return to her cave to sleep of her meal. With the arrival of the rains, though, she arrived for her hunt and discovered the village was in the process of being dismantled. Clearly the fire was out and there was no fire tender to start another. What would she do without her goats? This was unthinkable and she became angry.

Charging into the centre of the village, she stood before the charred mess that was the village fire pit. She roared her displeasure and lashed out at the first person to come too near. It was then she discovered that people would work to sate her hunger as easily as the goats had. The shock ran through the village and the few people remaining fled, leaving their possessions behind.

Over the centuries that followed, people would disappear in the forests around Vandesaria’s cave. She was responsible for for some but not all. It was enough to change the tale though. Vandesaria became a demon, an evil spirit, a woman transformed. In the legend that sprang up, modified by time and numerous retellings, Vandesaria was no longer a revered fire tender but the fire aspect stayed. Centuries later, she’d been transformed into a fire breathing dragon that gobbled people down after roasting them with her fiery breath. Of course, she was as she had been … a girl with the body of a lizard. And very, very lonely.

Centuries later …

“This be a great place,” Captain Kuntara Koagoish decided, leaning on the rail of his ship.

“Aye, it be,” agreed his First Mate, Tenba Killian. “There be no villages for miles around.”

“Villagers up the coast tell tale of a dragon,” protested the helmsman.

“Dragon!?” scoffed Captain Jenkins. “Now when you be listenin’ to tales of dragons?”

“They be leaving this stretch o’ coast alone for a reason,” noted Tenba.

“All the better for use then,” the Captain announced. “Get the men ashore. We be needing provisions and a place to stash our booty. An’ be quick about it. The King’s men be not that far away.”

“Aye, Cap’n,” Tenba replied and scurried down the stairs to the main deck to make it happen.

The men were quickly in the landing boats and rowing ashore. Once ashore, they spread out. Provisions, water and, of course, a good place to hide the treasure were their orders. The provisions weren’t hard to come by. There was good game in the jungle and a clear spring just a little inland. Soon the mateys were hauling water jars from the ship for cleaning and filling. The jungle provided many fruits and the ship’s cook and several of the crew were soon drying them for stowage aboard. The hunters soon returned with several large birds that proved palatable and these were soon turning over a fire. The cook soon had a smoke house going to cure the meat of the creatures the hunters brought in.  

Several days passed and the ship’s stores were nearly full. They’d be able to go to sea again very soon. The scouts were out everywhere hunting for a good place to hide the treasure.

“Cap’n!” came the shout as a party of three returned from an expedition. “Cap’n! There be caves farther in. With sand bottoms. Just right for the treasure.”

“Let’s be seein’ these caves,” Captain Koagoish stood from log were he’d been scanning the horizon for the King’s ships.

The men had found ideal caves, the Captain decided and soon the bulging sea chests of treasure were carried from the ship to the cave. The Captain ordered the men to dig pits to bury their loot. A team of five (all that could really fit into the cave) were soon hard at work. The Captain returned to the shore to continue his watch.

“The air be thin here,” complained one of the men after an hours work.

“Put your back into it,” commanded the supervisor.

“I be getting some fresh air,” the crewman stood.  

The others, after a few minutes decided a short break was warranted, emerged from the cage to carnage. There was blood everywhere and clear drag marks showing where the body had been taken. Drawing their blades, they followed the trail. The sight of a great reptilian monster shredding their mate was enough to get their hackles up. With a will, they charged the creature.

They might have been using noodles instead of swords for all the damage they did. The creature turned and the men caught sight of matted hair and a woman’s face. In the mouth, sharp teeth covered with blood still held a gobbet of flesh. With a hiss, the creature attacked. The entire crew, save one, were laid out in minutes for the creature was fast and deadly and her hide far too tough for mere swords to even damage.

The remaining crewman ran, stumbling into camp shrieking about a demon. Several shots of grog finally calmed the man enough to spill his story. He told of the creature and its horrific appetite. The Captain frowned. At least there was no fire with this dragon.

“Enough,” he decided. “We be going to kill this beast.”

“We be no demon slayers,” protested on man.

“Its hide be tough. Too tough for swords,” protested the survivor of the battle.

“Then we use something else …” the Captain paused. “‘Course it be the best defence for our treasure. You buried it?”

“Nay. We took a short break. Air be thin up there and fouled in the cave. Then it attacked.”

“How far back?”

“As far as we could. You kenna see it from the front. It be two, maybe three hundred paces and behind some huge rocks.”

“I be bettin’ that’s its lair then.”

“Lair? Demons have no lair.”

“That be sumthin’ other than a demon, I’ll warrant,” the Captain scratched his head. “We be loaded and ready for sea again. Back to the ship.”

“But Baranni and the others?” protested the survivor.

“You be going back to the monster’s lair to burn them then?”

“Oh no no no. I not be goin’ anywhere near that place evah agin. That be sure.”

“Thought not. To the ship then!”

“But their ghosts?”

“Will protect our treasure alongside the beast.”

With that, he rounded up a boat crew and was on his way back to the ship. Half a day later, their landing site far behind them, the Captain decided they’d had enough vacation.

“Back to the straits, men. There be big ships to plunder out there.”

Modern Day

Kevin Jenkins wasn’t a “formal” scientist, of course, despite him using the “Doctor” honorific on his blog. He was an explorer and a searcher for cryptozoology. He’d tried, without success, to find the Yeti in Nepal and the Loch Ness monster in Scotland and the Ogopogo in British Columbia. Never able to stick with one search for an extended period of time, he switched targets and countries whenever he found a more interesting target than his current quarry. Which was often… 

Today found him in the coastal jungles of South East Asia. Archeologists had discovered the remains of an old village dating from the Neolithic. It wasn’t the village or the artifacts that interested him, though. The locals had legends of a real fire breathing dragon in this area. The village and the dig was merely a jumping off point that was good for a few instalments before he went off to investigate further.

Never one to hire a guide, Kevin made his own way through the forest, machete in hand. Mostly he kept to easier paths but, on occasion, as the whim took him, he’d explore deeper into the jungle. On one of the forays, he ran across an eroded stone that looked like it had a carving on it. Rather than returning to the camp and letting the archaeologists know about the find, he decided that, where there was one, there would be more. He thrashed about for several days in the area hacking his way through the jungle. Sure enough, he found a second and then a third. Eventually, he pushed through into a clearing around a cave. The cave was clearly occupied but Kevin could see no obvious signs as to what kind of creature had made its lair in the cave. Off to one side, he found a middens heap. It looked like it had been used for centuries at least. There were shreds of clothing in various states of decay, various items from some that were fairly new to some that clearly had been there for a long time.

Now Kevin, despite his grand self-granted title, wasn’t the brightest spark in the fire. But even he could see that this cave had been occupied for a long time. No single creature could live long enough to accumulate the contents of the middens heap. It clearly was the abode of more than one creature, a breeding colony of creatures at the very least. Given the number of bones and their variety, they weren’t too particular about their diet either.  

He turned to go and heard a hissing roar that made his skin crawl. The sound was from behind him and, before he could do anything, he found himself knocked flat from behind. He twisted in the creature’s grasp and found himself facing not the monster he had feared but the dirty face and matted hair of a woman.

“Wait!” he screamed in the local language.

“You come to my treasure, you die!” was the reply.

“I’m not … not … hunting treasure,” held her off as she tried again and again to bite him with her razor sharp teeth. He saw, to his horror, that a pair of them was decidedly longer than the rest and he was sure they held venom.

“All hunt treasures,” came the hissing reply.

“I seek … a dragon … not a treasure.”

She abruptly stopped attacking him, a look of puzzlement on her face.

“A dragon?” came the puzzled reply. “Dragons are of the sky and water not of the land. The land is of the people.”

“I’m a scientist,” he managed as if that explained everything.

“Scientist?” came the puzzled reply.

“A seeker of knowledge.”

“Ah. A shaman then.”

She abruptly released him and dropped to the ground. Until now Kevin was sure he was dealing with some kind of mad woman of the forest (such were rumoured to exist … he really should take up that quest). Instead he found himself staring wide-eyed and mouth agape at a creature the likes of which had never even imagined.

The filthy head and breasts of the woman were blended with the body of a huge grey-green lizard. Her arms and legs were those of the lizard and she walked on her belly as a monitor lizard would: by lifting her belly from the ground and twisting from side to side. She waddled a few meters away and turned to face him.

“Shaman. Can you break my curse?”

“Curse?”

“I was not always thus. I was a fire tender, honoured by my people.”

“Fire tender?”

“Fire must be fed to stay alive. I gathered the wood and kept the people’s flames alive. Have you no fire tenders?”

“We can create fire when we need it now,” he pulled out his lighter and flicked it alight.

“Oh!” she scuttled back a pace. “All have this? Not just shaman?”

“Sure. Everyone has one. They just go to a store and buy one.”

“Store? Buy?” she looked puzzled.

“Sure. You take money and go into the store and …” he paused as the increasingly puzzled look spread across her face. “How long have you been like this?”

“I cannot remember. Many years, too many to count.”

“When you met with another tribe to trade?”

“The chief’s would get together and agree: some many of this for some many of that.”

“Ah. Bartering. Most of the world now uses money. We assign value to coins and bills,” he pulled them out. “The value of the thing we want is expressed in these. We exchange the money for the thing we want. The seller has the value now in the money.”

“I see it. More convenient. But the fun of the exchange?”

“Oh, people still haggle over the price for many things. Most things where I come from though are haggled for. It would take too long.”

“Your world is strange.”

Kevin had a strange thought.

“Do you watch the sky at night?”

“Yes. It is calming. I remember better times of so long ago.”

“You know the star all the others turn about.”

“Yes. Different now than when I was younger.”

“Different? Which one?”

Vandesaria pointed to the bright star Vega. Kevin just whistled. He remembered enough of his archeoastronomy course to realize Vega hadn’t been the pole star since 12,000 BCE.

“You have been cursed a long time,” he stated in awe.

“As I said.”

“Tens of tens of tens of tens and then some.”

“I stop counting after a time. It hurt too much.”

“I believe you.”

He looked at her in silence a while.

“Can you break the curse, Shaman?”

“I’m not a shaman really. A scientist though seeks knowledge and solves problems. This is a problem that would be very interesting to solve.”

“You will help?” relief flooded her features.

“I will try. I can’t guarantee anything.”

“At least you try.”

He stood and retrieved his pack from where it had fallen in their tussle. He wandered into the bush a bit and gathered some fallen wood and chips from a rotted log. He laid out a fire and surrounded it by fist-sized rocks.

“You are a fire tender, too?” she asked in awe.

“I can set a fire and, when it gets cooler, I will light it.”

“It has been so long …” she smiled. Her smile was a pretty one and lit up her entire face. Only the inescapable fact that she was mostly a lizard kept him from wanting to kiss her.

“Women of my day want nothing more than to be clean.”

“Mine, too. But I cannot. No hands.”

“I can help with that,” he offered.

“Oh! Would you?”

He lit a small fire and set a pot of water to heat. It was soon pleasantly warm and Kevin took a washcloth from his pack and a bar of soap. He lathered up the cloth and carefully removed the dirt of millennia from her face and neck. She beamed, revelling in the warmth and scent of her first bath in eons. He paused when he got to her breasts. He’d been slapped enough times for being too forward with the ladies and definitely didn’t want to get slapped by a lady who could easily eat him.

“May I?” he indicated her breasts. She responded by lying on her side so he could have easier access. Soon her human portions were clean except for her hair which remained impossibly matted.

“And the rest?” she inquired plaintively.

“The rest?”

“I am dirty here too,” she waved her arm in the air.

Kevin shrugged and took his scrub brush to the rest of her. Soon she was clean from the tip of her nose to the tip of her tail. She had loved every second of the attention.

“Can you fix my hair?” she asked tentatively.

“We’ll have to go down by the stream, I think,” Kevin replied. Despite the strangeness of her form, he had enjoyed bathing her. This struck him as very odd. He’d seen the strange images on the internet of hybrid men and women created by artists world-wide. He’d not been turned on by them but Vandesaria has different somehow. He got up and headed for the stream with Vandesaria a few paces behind him. He paused a moment at the edge.  

“This will be colder than the bath was,” he noted.

“Please?” she begged.

“Okay.”

Keven got to work with a bottle of shampoo and tried, several times, to clean her hair. Centuries had left it impossibly matted.

“I can’t get through the matting,” he stated. “The best I can do is to cut the matted hair off and wash the rest.”

Vandesaria merely nodded. She’d hated the matted hair and had, many times over the centuries, tried to pull it loose. It hurt as she used lizard hands not suited for such a task to tug hanks of hair off. Kevin decided the best thing to use was likely his scissors at first. Soon great hanks of filthy hair were strewn about beneath her face. Eventually, with the mats removed, Vandesaria’s hair was loose and a lot shorter. He decided he needed to do something about the way it looked for it looked like a bunch of spikes sticking out at all angles. Before he could do anything however, Vandesaria scuttled to the side of the stream and wet her hair in the cool water. Kevin decided to wash her hair before he cut it any further. She was startled by the strange liquid that oozed from the bottle but quickly calmed as she realized it was just soap. It took several washes and rinses before her hair was clean. He took his razor (a wonderful solar charged electric model) and careful cut the spikes. He was no beautician but the resulting close cropped hairdo was a definite improvement on the matted mess they’d started with.

The pair walked slowly back to the cave. The sun was going down and Kevin popped up his tent much to the shock of Vandesaria. She had never seen a hunter’s tent set itself up. Surely he must be a shaman with such magic. Once the fire was started, Kevin told her of the world outside: of its great cities and numerous peoples. She told him of the centuries she had seen. She’d not killed and eaten all the travellers that had come into her domain. Some she had talked with around a fire and allowed to go. It had been these traveller’s tales that had started the legends around her. Kevin told her of the legend of the fire breathing dragon that had gotten him started on the quest that had ended up here. Vandesaria merely laughed. People made up strange stories, she decided.

She headed for her cave while he entered his strange magical tent. He had so many amazing things, he surely must be a very powerful shaman. Things could not have changed that much, could they?

In the morning, Kevin was still asleep when Vandesaria emerged from her cave. It was heated by magma deep underground and kept her warmer at night than a normal face would have. Even so, she was cold and headed for a favourite rock to heat herself. Some time later, Kevin joined her.

“Quite the view, isn’t it?” he asked.

“I have seen it too many times.”

“I imagine so if you are as old as I think you are.”

She dropped her head with tears in her eyes.

“Everyone I grew up with, my tribe, all long gone. All my training under the old Fire Keeper Oriandikast useless if fire can be made at a whim instead of carefully nurtured.”

“But you have seen so much, experienced so much.”

“Of what value is that?”

“Some people study history and pre-history. What you have seen and experienced would be invaluable to them.”

“Yours is such a strange world. I have only seen this tiny area. I’m sure those people would not be interested.”

“You might be surprised. Some of them spend their lives trying to figure out what life was like in your time.”

She pushed herself up on her feet and turned to head into the forest to hunt. She had to eat something every day unlike a real monitor lizard which could go weeks without food. She told Kevin that she was going hunting and Kevin understood that she wanted to be alone.

When she returned several hours later she seemed happier but Kevin knew she was still bothered by something. He debated within himself as to whether or not he should try to figure out what it was. Strangely, he found himself with odd feelings for her. She was ancient and yet young. Experienced and yet strangely naive. She was an enigma to Kevin and yet he somehow felt he’d known her forever. He was definitely drawn to her. Her face, when clean, was beautiful and her breasts definitely voluptuous. Kevin liked that in his women. His feeling wasn’t love, or at least he didn’t think it was. But what it actually was, Kevin was not prepared to say.

The next day, she decided to show Kevin the treasures in her cave. He was astonished at the value. These looked old, maybe eighteenth century maybe earlier. He didn’t realize that there were pirates anywhere outside the Caribbean and then only in the 1800s. Clearly, he was wrong. This was Chinese maybe; Asian definitely and work a bundle. Kevin realized that she was becoming more trusting of him. Oddly, despite the fact she was mostly a deadly monitor lizard, Kevin trusted her, too.

That night, around the campfire that she still couldn’t believe could be created so easily, they talked. Kevin told her about the outside world, of the great ships and trains and aircraft. She told him of her times, of tribal conquests and the strange magic that had changed her. Kevin still couldn’t believe in magic despite the evidence of his senses. She insisted he come see the carving. He followed her into the cave and was astonished at the detail of the carving. All that he’d read indicated that her primitive times couldn’t create this detail. When he reached to touch the carving, she leapt on him.

“No. It is sacred. Taboo! Do you want to end up like me?”

“Taboo?”

“Not carved by men. From before times.”

Kevin took a closer look at the carving and realized it was much more than a simple carving. It was a fossil, carefully chipped free by primitive tools. Not a dinosaur, surely, but ancient. He didn’t know a lot about palaeontology and couldn’t guess at the age but it had to be millions of years old.  

As he stared at the fossil, he realized it wasn’t quite static. There seemed to be a glow about it, a shifting haze. Now Kevin had read about temporal fluxes and portals and such in science fiction. This was how they described them. But that was fiction, not real world. But his eyes couldn’t deny that the effect, whatever it was, was real. Could a temporal rift create a blend of creatures like Vandesaria? Kevin didn’t know and he decided trying the experiment with him as the subject might not be the best idea.

He sat with his back against the half opened treasure chest and placed a hand on Vandesaria’s bare shoulders. He realized he enjoyed her company far more than that of any other woman he’d been with. There was no posturing, no need to impress, no artificial pickup lines. She just was and he accepted her as she was. She wriggled closer to him and curled her monitor body around him, with her tail ending in his lap. They spent quite a while that way, each lost in their own thoughts, before the dimming light in the cave told Kevin he’d best get to his tent. Vandesaria was loathe to see him leave and Kevin realized she’d not had any human contact in many centuries. Kevin, however, couldn’t sleep on rock, however warm, and eventually made his way to his tent. Vandesaria stayed on her warm rock.

The next morning, Kevin awoke with a start to find Vandesaria sharing his tent with him. She was chilled and lethargic. Kevin decided she’d joined him shortly after he’d fallen asleep but his small tent and the heat of his body hadn’t been enough to keep her warm. He dragged her into her cave, to the warm rock, and waited. After several hours, she began to revive and Kevin went out to hunt. He knew what she usually hunted and, despite being a less than skilled hunter, managed to return with a few small mammals of some sort or another. These, Vandesaria swallowed whole. Kevin realized he’d never seen her eat before and was astonished as she unhinged her very human jaws to get the creature down whole. He helped her clean herself up by heating some water. She didn’t say very much as she warmed but the look in her eyes was thankful and perhaps a bit more.

That afternoon, Kevin decided that he’d move his camp. He folded the tent and moved his sleeping bag and mattress into her cave. He propped the folded tent up against a wall and spread his gear beside her in the cave. She had awakened fully finally but it was becoming cooler as evening approached, too cool for her to hunt effectively. Though Kevin offered his food, she found it wrong somehow and, after a quick taste, left it for Kevin. They decided Kevin would hunt again to let her warm fully in the cave. It didn’t take long for Kevin to return with a rat-like creature and, once again, Vandesaria swallowed it whole. She joined him on the cave floor, he on his air mattress and in sleeping bag and she sprawled beside him with her front leg touching his arm and her tail resting across his legs.

When morning’s light streaming into the cave awoke Kevin, he was startled to find her snuggled beside him with her back ridge resting gently agains his chest as he lay on his side. Even more startling was the realization that he’d put an arm around her in the night like she was a lover. It felt wrong in one sense but ever so right in many others. He stayed still and waited for her to awaken. Despite her hard scales, she was oddly nice to hold. That confused him on several levels. He found her human portions strangely attractive but had trouble with the monitor lizard portion. He was falling in love, he realized, but was having problems imagining how things could progress from here. After all, love lead to marriage and children in his mind. How would they make love? Could they even have children? And, maybe most important, would they be human or some mix of lizard and human? He had no answers. He didn’t want to live here in the jungle forever but couldn’t even begin to fathom how she would function in his society.

Of course, even though the story is continuing, I still have to come up with a decent title for it.