The figure who emerged from the gates of the Julia Manor, they were a tall human man dressed in worn clothes that were frayed at the edges and clearly at their end. The man was dark haired, fair skinned and clean shaven with dark coloured eyes and a fear to his composure.
When he spotted the group approaching he nearly lept out of his skin seeing the enormous lizard monster, that was at least until he spotted the friend of his masters, a mature woman who had many dealings in the town in the past. Though the servant was unsure of the reason for the collection of children who followed the woman as she came closer, he had business to attend to however and quickly addressed his master's friend and departed in a hurry.
The woman in question wasn’t sure what to make of the servant but decided to ignore them in favour of gaining access to her friends home. Rapping her knuckles on the gate she called inside hoping for an immediate response.
“Coming!” A voice called and the gate opened inward a moment later revealing a stout figure. “L-Lady Adalgard! W-what brings you here?!” The female Krijn stuttered out looking up at the woman.
“I need to speak with Sophus and I brought along some people who are in need of something to eat.” She stated matter of factly and the Krijn servant hurried to invite them in before closing the gate and putting the latch over.
After that she bolted away into the property to find her master.
Adalgard breathed a tired sigh as she looked around the entrance of the property hoping that one day she’d finally have the wealth to own one as lavish as her friends. The whole place was enormous with the house at the centre, walkways around either side to two separate garden areas, one with a large pond and the other for growing foods that the cooks used. Once you entered the home there was an atrium with a small water fixture under the statue of a naked god striking a fearsome pose, beyond this a courtyard lined with hedges that boxed in flower beds with more statues of deities, around the courtyard were covered walkways that looked in on it and held doors which went into separate parts of the home.
This wasn’t to forget the fact that the building was made from mostly Marble with little else used in its construction besides the red clay tile of the roof or the many beautifully decorated banners that hung on the walls of the home. They were a deep red with golden lining and depicted the family crest on it, the crest being a hoof print with a dagger and a scroll crossed behind it.
While she was distracted with her thoughts she noticed the little ones beginning to fidget clearly wanted to run around and touch the wealth to see if it was real. She placed a hand on the shoulders of the two closest to her and gave them a firm look while Luka did the same for the other.
Turning her gaze to the giant and his almost adopted daughters at this point she noticed a grimace on the face of the lizardman. She’d been in Saurian society enough to recognise most basic emotions on their face so she turned her attention to what he was looking at and noticed the small Murder resting on the perch of the roof above them.
‘Does he not like birds?’ She wondered to herself frowning internally before realising what the issue might have been. ‘OH! There aren’t any black birds in the crater! He might think they’re an omen being the son of a shahmen.’
While not being entirely correct she had at least figured out what was causing his reaction.
“They are called Corvus, they are very common to the crags and surrounding woodlands.” Adalgard explained in Suran best she could while looking up at the tall lizard.
He merely nodded his head, eyes not leaving them until she heard the sound of a familiar voice not moments later.
The form of her dear friend Sophus appeared from the shadows of the home's doorway being led by his slave, the man was a Centaur merchant who she’d known for a long time.
Her friend was a tall greying man with dark chestnut brown hair, somewhat tanned skin, green eyes and a lower half that resembled a Clydesdale making him about head and shoulders shorter than Marduk. He wore a light red tunic with a black belt around his waist that had two large pouches on his front and a sword in a scabbard on his left side. As well with similarly coloured caparison to his shirt but with golden trim.
“Adal!” The man cheered her name out in an excited tone taking a hold of her and hoisting her into the air in an embrace before setting her down with a large smile on his face.
She watched as her friend turned to greet the others she travelled with before landing on the odd trio of the Lizardfolk and Centaur twins making an unsure expression before turning back to her.
“And I see you brought friends! Unless you mean to tell me you finally found yourself a man?” The older man grinned like the fool she knew him to be at his own comment making her shake her head.
She couldn’t help but grimace as the details of meeting the children flooded her mind again as they had done so often since.
“No, they are the survivors of an Orcneas attack on Ale village,” She explained and the man's tune changed almost immediately to a serious expression with a furrowed brow.
“Come let's go inside and discuss this further, you all are welcome to as well.” The man responded, motioning them to follow after him as he ordered his slave to have the cooks prepare food and drink for the visitors.
As they walked through the atrium passed the first of many statues Adalgards mind wandered to what she might have to say to convince her friend to adopt the children for the time being, but ultimately came to the conclusion he might just suggest it himself as he was the survivor of one such attack decades ago when they were young.
“Does your lizard friend speak Auran?” Sophus asked, breaking her thoughts as they entered the inner garden within the courtyard.
“He’s learning but no, at the moment he still only understands his peoples language.” She quickly replied as she walked in line with the man.
“Then we are in luck, if you don’t wish to translate constantly one of my guests at the moment is familiar with the Lizardfolk tongue.” He offered with as genuine a smile as he could muster through dark thoughts of the attack that had left the children homeless.
Nodding Adalgard accepted his offer “That would be great actually, I’m still not very good at speaking it and if there’s someone more familiar it would make my life easier.” She breathed a tired sigh.
“In any case did you bring anything with you to sell? I can have my slaves bring it all to the storehouse until you’re ready to make a sale.” Changing the subject the man focused on business to keep his mind off the Orcneas.
“I did yes, not as much as previously though, it was Hydra mating season when I was visiting the crater so not many of the Lizardfolk were travelling around enough to get what they’d usually sell me.” She answered thinking about how she’d witnessed one from afar and that was already too close for her liking.
If Saurians were terrified of them, then she was one step away from perishing into the afterlife at the thought of coming face to face with one. She’d heard all sorts of horrific tales about them ripping entire tribes asunder and how the female Hydra were not only the dominant in the relationships but would rape their partners to death and feed their offspring the corpse of their father. They were the most savage among the many monsters of the world she’d heard about and seen, even Dragons, far off and inconceivably volatile to mortals as they were, had never been reported to do things as brutal as that.
It was almost laughable how tame a Dragon appeared in the face of a Hydra, but she attributed that to almost all Dragons being immortal so there was less copulation happening whereas Hydra only seemed to live for fifty years or so from what she gathered, with Matriarch Hydra living for three times that but being even more intense.
“You mentioned Hydra?” The deep baritone of the Saurian at the back of the group suddenly speaking made the woman jump in fright, nearly eliciting a scream from her.
“Yes, I was telling Sophus of the mating season that was in effect while I was in the Basin.” She answered him quickly and the large lizard nodded his head.
“They are very terrifying… I have encountered a Matriarch recently to our meeting and I feared for my life more than ever before.” Adalgard couldn’t hide the surprise on her face upon hearing that he’d actually come face to face with the scariest animal in the whole Basin such a short while ago.
She didn’t even know how to pursue a conversation about the topic completely shutting down as she trembled at the idea.
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“Here we are, this is where we can talk.” Sophus announced as they reached the lounging room full of cushions and other soft amenables to make for a comfortable experience.
Seating himself at the head of the room the homeowner sat facing the others as they all found a comfortable position while he ordered the slaves that had come into the room to retrieve several people and help with the food by setting up several tables in the room.
Adalgard sat near the man with the twins opposite her with Marduk as he awkwardly fit himself and his tail into the room, next to her though were the children and Luka continuing that trend at least. She wondered why Lilia and Orchid had taken so strongly to the Lizardfolk but couldn’t really come up with an excuse that made sense, eventually dropping the topic in favour of admiring the food that was set in front of her a moment later.
Almost an hour passed of eating and talking more benign topics as the old merchant spoke of the goings on in his family and the half Spriggan spent her time gladly recounting her adventures in The Great Basin in detail enough for everyone ending on the note of the village called Ale and its demise as she had come across it. Describing how the monster chased a woman, a friend of hers, out of the village and the Lizardfolk tore it asunder with a single swing before the woman had even reached the Spriggan.
The story put a good light on the Saurian as he closed his eyes through the talk content to listen to what was being spoken, Adalgard assumed he did this to improve his Auran listening skills, though he wasn’t forced to wait long to understand the conversation as only half way through the story the one who could translate for him arrived.
The half spriggan felt very surprised to see a Lamia, one of the half serpentine people known for their lower half consisting of a snakes tail. She’d seen only a handful of them in her life, but she supposed it made sense for one to be familiar with the Suran language as they tended to spend a lot of time interacting with the bipedal crocodilians.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“I am Minerva of the Drake tribe, you may call me Nerva if you like.” The Lamia introduced herself to the group first in Auran and then in the most fluent Suran Adalgard had heard outside of the Basin.
She also was quick to notice how the serpent woman struggled to avoid dragging ‘S’ sounds likely something to do with the forked tongue she and her kind had.
Minerva was very beautiful by the half Spriggan’s standards with soft unmarred skin, an elegant composure and stood as tall as herself despite her long tail half. The Lamia had long silky raven black hair that cascaded down her back tied in a way that made it resemble a cobras’ hood, her eyes were bright blue with large round black pupils, along the outside of her arms was a layer of scales with her inner arm being pink flesh, she had scales around her collar and chest as well. Her lower half was easily longer than the Saurian's tail by several feet, it and her other scales were all a very dark blue that bordered black with very light bluish scales on her underside.
Lastly she was dressed in thin purple silky fabrics that barely covered her large bust, they were adorned with golden lining and matched the same type of skirt she wore around her waist.
Slithering across the room to the largest man in the room the serpent woman was quick to indulge her curiosity talking ad nauseam with him about his origins, tribe and all other sorts of information the half Spriggan quickly tuned out as she got to discussing the important matters she originally come straight here for.
“So will you be able to house the children?” She asked and Sophus didn’t even blink twice before answering.
“Of course! I’d be more than happy to take care of them and raise them as my own!” He barked a laugh smiling as he addressed the children themselves asking for their names and whether they’d like to stay with him.
“I’m Luka. I’m Pan, I’m Briar and I’m Orli.” The four left introduced themselves before the older man turned to the centaur twins who’d made room for the serpentine woman to talk with Marduk.
“We are Lilia and Orchid, we would be grateful for you to adopt us Sir Julia.” The pair bowed their heads speaking in Centurian the language of the half horse peoples.
After they had all introduced themselves Sophus suggested a small tour of the property now that they’d eaten so he could show the children what they’d be ‘gaining’ though Adalgard thought there was surely a better way to word it. The children weren’t so young they would need convincing to stay in another place, they’d all gotten over their parents deaths in the way that most children do- by not acknowledging it and moving on with their lives.
As the large group vacated the lounge room they headed out into the courtyard with the hedges and crossed to the opposite doorway through a kitchen out into the yard outside which had the large pond in it.
Something that came to the mind of Adalgard as they walked was how hard it was not to notice the clear and immediate closeness that formed between both scaled members of the group as they moved slowly at the back of everyone discussing things that only one other person could barely understand.
So it hadn’t come as a surprise when the half serpent woman declared she and the Saurian would be breaking off to talk elsewhere and they disappeared for the rest of the day.
Part of Adalgard wondered whether Marduk had taken to the Lamia purely because they could converse clearly and exactly or if there was something else there and the pair were about to go find some place to make a mess of while they added more hybrids to the world as he had done with the priestess the day she met him.
She could understand it however even if she had no sex drive of her own to speak of, the Saurians were a strong people who prided themselves on even stronger spawn, so if they saw an opportunity to make good on that then they would pursue it to the rightful end. The simplicity of a race whose only goal was producing offspring she supposed.
In any case she closed off that line of thinking shortly after starting it and looked forward to her life returning to its regularity.
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The morning after arriving in Óðal, Marduk awoke in the compromising position of being wrapped up by Minerva’s tail unable to leave without provoking the serpent half of the plump woman from constricting his body even tighter. Each time he moved her tail naturally tightened around his form and had reached the point where it was now crushing him.
His night with her had been pleasant, this was not.
Finally giving in he voiced his complaint-
“Please remove yourself, my bones are being crushed.” He announced in a dry tone.
Barely a moment later the eyes of the woman opened up and she unfurled from around him allowing him to stand at which point he left the room not bothering to consider saying anything. His Lizard wiring told him to lay with the woman but nothing about staying to see the effects of their night, it was why he was never bothered that his father was killed by a Hydra, because he’d never actually known him well enough to form a bond.
“So will you teach me Auran?” He asked as the half serpent woman appeared next to him a few moments later.
“You’ve made your point, I would be glad to see to it you’re educated in the speech of men and others.” Her smile was genuine and had he still been warm blooded it just might have found it heartwarming.
It was odd how he could no longer internalise the warmth that came with emotion like that, he wasn’t sure if he’d ever get used to it, even when he shared a bed with another it was bereft of passion or the usual feelings beyond base arousal to chase a place to sink his seed.
In any case he headed toward the area of the Julia manor where he’d been told they prepared food, though he wasn’t sure they would appreciate him rummaging through it to feed himself before he headed into the town to investigate and learn more about it. But he needed a lot of food, so he didn’t bother asking before he raided the pantry of the merchants and readied himself to go out into the town again.
While he was eating one of the many slaves in the manor came across him stuffing his face and looked beyond terrified at the sight before they ran away causing him to stop and choose that moment to finally leave.
Taking to the town, literally that is, with Minerva as his guide they first began to explore the merchants district where a plethora of businesses were set up and even a Bazaar if the Lamia woman was to be believed. As they walked the snake woman sparked a conversation between basic attempts to share words in Auran-
“You said your mother was a Seer? Which god did she serve?”
“Zäna” He replied as his eyes tracked the flight of a pair of Corvus that travelled over them cautiously keeping pace in a way that only exacerbated the worry of the man.
“She is the Mistress of the Moon?” She asked and he nodded wordlessly. “Were you ever gifted her visions as well?”
“No, though my mother died due to her connection so I am greatful for never being troubled in such a way.” His answer caused the woman to hum and they went back to their lesson.
Not before long they entered the merchant district and it became very obvious how difficult it really would be for them to traverse the town. Not only did they have to deal with every other guardsmen who wanted to know who and what he was let alone what they were doing and where they were going, but also there were the stares and the fact that the pair were just too large to move through the streets of the town built for Humans and the stout Krijn meaning they were constantly at a standstill to keep from merely mowing the crowds down.
It was when they approached the first of many shops which Nerva put on their itinerary that Marduk realised what she was doing, they’d come to a tailor first who had a large display of colourful robes, dresses, shirts, pants, gowns and more all waiting to be brought, sized or made anew.
He didn’t really have any money nor did he care to buy clothing considering he was all scales and only needed to cover his manhood.
“I have many friends in the markets who would be glad to share their patterns and textiles with you.” She said as they stopped in front of the counter within the store.
Inside was a cacophony of colour and fabrics he’d never thought he’d see again all being sold by a person that gave him pause. They appeared human in all but their arms, legs and most clearly the enormous set of wings stretching out of their backs, as for their legs and arms they were feathered and avian looking with claws instead of hands or feet.
She was a beautiful woman on top of the avian aspects, not just pretty, but gorgeous in a way that stirred Marduk’s lizard brain and heart. It was an unnatural charm that tugged, pulled and drew in his attention no matter how much he wished to look elsewhere. Her appearance was that of long wavy brown hair that looked fluffy and soft, skin tanned a caramel brown and eyes that glowed a gentle green, a large figure of broad shoulders and wide hips that supported ample bust and posterior. Lastly she dressed in gorgeous deep velvets wrapping around her in the form of an asymmetrical halter top dress.
He might have also commented on her somewhat short stature if it weren’t for the fact that his own enormity made it difficult to discern heights.
“Mila” Nerva greeted in a warm tone using Auran to communicate with the Harpy.
“Nerva!” The other woman replied in a melodic tone with an enchanting quality almost sounding as though she’d sung the name.
As the pair approached each other they greeted one another with a kiss bow putting their arms back behind them as they did so and then hugging to plant a kiss on one another's cheeks before stepping back.
“And who is this fine specimen?” The Harpy woman asked in a salacious tone that worried Marduk more than he found it attractive.
The unnatural charm present might have been a good business strategy but it was horrifically distracting for someone such as himself who was born to a race with low tolerance for magical charms.
“He’s a Saurian from Duranki.” His guide answered before the pair quickly descended into briefly reminiscing about their lives for these past months they’d been apart.
They talked like this for some time eventually drowning out the original reason for coming.