The Lilliad chp 10

Up close, this new person was as large and intimidating as they had seemed from across the room. They looked down at her with surprisingly tired-looking eyes. Despite being made of a shiny blue stone, they somehow communicated absolute exhaustion. 

She reached up.

The other person reached down and touched their palms together. 

“You’re cold,” Lilli said, surprised. She patted at the hand uselessly, trying to warm it. “Is it because you’re down here? Oh! Are you cold blooded like Elathor?” 

“I don’t have blood at all, or if I have I’ve never seen it.” The new person shifted. Somehow there was no accompanying sound. “Why are you here?”

“I’m Lilli, and I’m robbing the place.” She pursed her lips. “And rescuing a lizard that I know.” 

“Rescue-robbery?” The new person hummed. “Well. If you take me with you it would be both.”

She furrowed her brow.

“It’s decided.” An enormous cold stone hand patted her head. “Thank you for kidnapping me. I need you to murder someone, first.” 

“...that’s a pretty big drawback.”

“He’ll make me come back if I leave him around.” There was a snort. “And kill you, in the pit.” 

“I don’t want to be killed in a pit,” Lill allowed. She sighed. “Will you help me get my lizard?” 

“I don’t know what that is, but definitely.” 

“Is there anything I can call you?” Lilli tried. “Igni… what’d you say?”

“Igni is fine, I don’t care.” Igni shrugged. “Problem one: I will not be any help navigating this place, because I have been in this room since I was a very small rock.” 

Rocks grow?

There was no time to linger on that upsetting possibility. 

“I need you to give me orders,” Igni said. The tone that accompanied that was so flat that Lilli did not dare argue. “I can’t take any significant action without instruction.” 

Lilli recoiled. 

“Yes, it’s barbaric.” Igni waved an impatient hand. “Let’s mourn later.”

She got the hint. “Igni, come with me,” Lilli said. She felt sheepish even as she said it. “Let’s find a lizard.” 

“Lizard search mode activated.” Igni sounded a thousand times more cheerful. And then Igni took a very careful step up 4 steps, and slowwwwwly moved weight to that foot. Then Igni repeated the process.

“That will take us a while,” Lilli said, dubious. 

“Yes,” Igni agreed. “Consider: I am very heavy. If I just walk, everyone will hear it.”

“Oh, we’re sneaking.” Lilli felt relieved to understand something. 

“I’m just fucking with you.” Igni reached down and picked Lilli up around the waist. Somehow, Lilli ended up sitting on Igni’s shoulder. “I’m too big to fit through the door, gonna have to smash it. We’ll be heard.” 

And then Igni looked up and r o a r e d.

Lilli sighed. Not very stealthy.

Igni sprinted up the stairs, sending chips of broken stone flying in their wake. Igni held arms out in front to protect Lilli and then muscled through the door. 

Someone shouted in the distance. 

Igni roared again. It sounded happy this time. 

Well. When one is a 15 foot tall rock person, stealth is not the natural strength one leans into.

“Come at us,” Lilli shouted. She swung her feet and clung to Igni’s neck. 

It only took a couple of seconds for Igni to build up speed. Soon they were barreling down the hallway, wind pulling at Lilli’s hair. At regular intervals, Igni reached out and punched through the walls.

Lilli screamed the first time it happened. She laughed the second time. 

The fourth time, someone screamed on the other side. Igni stopped abruptly and then backed up. That involved literally walking backwards, since there was not enough room for Igni to turn.

On the other side of the collapsed wall, there was a wizard. 

“I’m looking for a lizard,” Igni screamed at top volume. 

The wizard screamed again. He tried to hide under a bed. 

“Lizard!” Igni roared.

“You’re really enjoying this,” Lilli said very quietly. 

“The prison is the way you’re going,” the wizard answered. He did not come out from underneath the bed. 

Igni started sprinting again. 

.

.

.

Elathor had to say, if pressed, that today had not gone optimally. 

He had no new information for his studies, he was trapped in a dungeon, and Lilli had probably already bolted. 

‘At least that’s mildly comforting. I’ll definitely die here, but she probably….” 

He trailed off. He wasn’t certain what she would do.

There was a horrible deathly sound in the distance. Elathor straightened, and pulled his tail around himself defensively. There was nothing else to do.

The wall exploded. Elathor yelped and slithered backwards. “I do not like that!” Elathor said.

There was a very loud sound that he recognized as rock grinding together. An unfamiliar face peered through the hole. “Lizard?” They asked.

Elathor eyed the stranger. He tilted his head to the side. “Lizard,” he agreed. 

“That’s him,” a familiar voice chimed in. “Hello, Elathor!”

“Oh, is this a rescue?” He brightened. 

“Yes, but first it’s a murder.” The stone person reached a hand in and beckoned him to come out. 

Elathor obeyed, picking around the rubble. “Oh, lovely,” he agreed. “I haven’t murdered in a while.”

“What?” 

“Weeks,” Elathor explained. He let the new person pick him up and deposit him on a shoulder. He wiggled backwards a bit, finding a more comfortable perch behind the neck and shoulder blade. “You are anatomically very similar to many meat people,” he commented. “The form is very like musculature.” 

“Whatever.” Their getaway vehicle shook. “I need the wizard who is very old and smells like dead things.” 

“Do you have a name?” Elathor asked. “That doesn’t really narrow down the candidates.”

“No, and I won’t recognize him when I see him, either,” came the amicable answer. “My eyesight is very bad.”

“Oh, wow,” Lillian said, in the low voice she sometimes used. He had noted that she did not seem to appreciate being answered when she used that tone, so he prudently did not. 

“He’ll make it clear.” 

Bored, Elathor began letting his gaze wander. They were passing all sorts of interesting things.