Srsli
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Interlude: Lily
🕑 Added 2025-08-18 08:21:53 +0000 UTCLily hated the city. Impossible to get a proper sleep, and with that lizard on the hill, she rarely had a clear view of the moon. Why did humans choose to live like this?
There hadn’t been much to do once the child had entered the city. He’d taken his time before finally cooking something—but that fish.. the smell had been amazing, and the taste even better.
Maybe she’d been drawn to the child because of his food after all? That didn’t feel right—but it had worked out, for now.
For whatever reason, he had chosen to visit the storm man’s temple today. In the past, she’d never seen eye to eye with that god—always preferring calm night air and moonlight over turbulent storms and blinding flashes. And his chosen one in the mountain…
Well, everyone makes poor choices.
At first, it had been calm. But as the human approached the Temple, the stupid lizard attacked him! Or her. Or them, it didn't matter..
That stupid lizard attacked.
Enough was enough. Did it think she didn’t know it was trapped in its lair after growing too fat to leave? Did it think its pathetic lightning could do anything to her?
No, today she would teach this lizard a lesson.
When another bolt came crashing down toward the Temple, she swatted it aside like an annoying insect from the swamps. First things first, she would show her displeasure at being rudely attacked. The storm man’s statue was slashed in half under her wrath.
Maybe he'd get a better chosen after today.
She raced through the city with the lizard’s lightning snapping down behind her, leaving a trail of destruction in her wake. But she knew how to hurt him.
Dashing in and out of shadows, she left the city and began the climb. The lizard’s roars echoed in fury, but she had her purpose.
As she cut through the mountain path, she cut down every dragon-kin she found. She knew the lizard loved his kin more than anything.
Maybe a trail of corpses would teach the creature a lesson.
Closer to the peak, she knew exactly where to go. The lizard must have been frothing with rage by now—he’d stopped targeting her directly and instead was hammering the mountaintop with lightning, again and again.
He was never very smart. Every flash across the rocky surface gave her a new shadow to slip through. Then she sensed it. Her prey.
Killing the lizard himself would be troublesome, even in his lair. But killing his mates? That would torment him for centuries.
She raced into a cavern she knew well—one of his mate’s dens, his first. And sure enough, a fat drake cowered inside. She thought dragon-kin were supposed to be proud, yet here was this bloated thing, hiding in the dark while its stupid mate raged above.
Deciding the lizard should know what was about to happen, she revealed herself. The drake roared defiance. If she wanted to, it would already be dead—but no. She wanted it to scream. She wanted the stupid lizard to hear.
She dashed through the shadows, slashing deep behind the drake’s legs. It collapsed with a howl of pain.
The mountain trembled as the lizard outside went berserk. But what could he do? For thousands of cycles, he had squatted in his lair, growing fat while kin fed him. The humans called him “continent killer.” The truth? He could kill nothing that didn’t crawl into his jaws or sat still waiting for his lightning.
She struck again, a shallow cut across the drake’s neck. It cried out, thrashing, trying to retreat—but its ruined legs dragged uselessly.
Once she felt the lizard’s fury crest, she ended it. With a swift strike, she severed the drake’s head.
As the corpse slumped to the cavern floor, a thought struck her. She wondered if the child could make these creatures taste better than she remembered.
And what better one to test than this? So fat, so plump… perfect for cooking.
Now she had to figure out only one thing.
How in all the realms was she going to drag it down the mountain?
She had a vague sense of where the boy was now, and again this was another thing she could not explain. Never had she been able to sense someone—not a particular human. Sure, her senses were good, but she could tell the boy was leaving the city...
She’d need to ponder this. But first, dinner.
She called forth her shadow-tendril ability. Usually, she used this to entangle people, but surely she could use it to drag the fat lizard down a hill, right?
As she pulled it from the cave it called a lair, she saw that the stupid lizard was going absolutely crazy—lightning crashing down on everything as he raged inside. The whole mountain shook, but he couldn’t move. And even if he could, what was he going to do? Attack every shadow?
Weak creature.
It took her a long time to get the fat lizard down the mountain, but she did it. She dropped it outside the building the boy was staying in. When the humans he travelled with raced outside, they saw the fat lizard and called the human child—as they should have.
It didn’t take him long to work out what she wanted. Good, smart child. But then he said it would take a few days?
Fine.
She supposed she could sleep for a few days. Then—snack time.
Comments
T J Ward
Yeah on my actual chapter list this is slotted after 52, but obviously its posted here out of order on patreon due to it at the time being a test.
Sloth
Should place this after chapter 52 or 53
Metafy
Thank you for the Lily Interlude it was fun.
