It has been a very long time since the events that took place down in the rotting dungeon.

Somewhere far away from there, on the other side of the mountain, there is a secluded forest. Cicadas buzz loudly, filling the woodland with the shrill sounds of their summer cries, together with that constant melody of sleepy birdsong. The voices of the small creatures are all somewhat quieter and calmer than they should be, as they have been lulled into a deep peace by the heavy summer heat, which coats the world as if it were a thick, comfortable blanket. The airy, bright forest landscape goes on for a while, stretching away from the mountains which encloses it on almost all sides, like a sanctuary.

Further away from those high, cold peaks, the forest starts to thin out a little bit as it comes closer and closer to the secluded beach, on which no hominid foot has stepped in hundreds of years. The cove is the only opening that isn’t blocked and hidden by the tall mountains. The sand, crystal-white and glistening with salty ocean water, shimmers beneath the bright rays of the sun that hangs high above in the bright blue sky. The calm, continuous crashing of the ocean comes together with the sounds of the forest behind it, all of it together creating a peaceful ambiance.

The large ocean-lizard, sitting high atop a particularly warm and sunny rock, looks around the beach lazily and then lets out a long, prolonged, deeply sleepy and comfortable yawn, as it scans the area for any particularly fat and juicy bugs to eat with its one eye. Or maybe even a tiny crab, though it doesn’t like eating those too often. It feels bad for the crabs. But that’s just how life is out here on the beach. You eat, or you get eaten. That being said, it’s a nice beach. Perhaps the nicest of them all. The lizard loves its beach. It loves the beach-master who has granted it a life in such a paradise, though it does not know why it deserves such kindness.

Anyways, if it doesn’t want to eat bugs or one of the many skittering crabs, there are always some nice berries or shallow-water fish to get. It likes fish.

Licking its eye to moisturize it, it slowly makes its way down from its hot perch and starts calmly walking over the sands of the beach in its search for some lunch. Maybe after that, it will take another long nap on the rock. That sounds like a nice idea. Being a lizard is the best. But it’s a little lonely, honestly. There aren’t any other lizards here. It’s just the one. The only one of its kind. This makes the lizard very sad sometimes. Sometimes it stares out over the boundless ocean, wishing that it had someone to share the sight with. But there is nobody here but it, the crabs, the fish and the bugs. It saw a frog once or twice, but they never stayed long. Every time they saw the lizard, they would say ‘ribbit’ and leap away.

The purple-tinged lizard stops, feeling something come towards it. Something not unusual to the beach, but something that it likes to appreciate anyways. The wind. A strong, hot breeze carries itself over the ocean and crashes over the lizard’s body like that of a wave of water. But…

But the wind carries something else with it. A voice? No. A thought. The lizard opens its eye, noticing that it isn’t alone anymore. Yet somehow, this doesn’t surprise the lizard.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“What’s your name, friend?” asks the happy lizard as it keeps walking. The stranger isn’t here in body, rather the stranger that it senses is simply… here. The stranger is present, but they are present inside of the sleepy lizard, not like a parasite. That would be a rude thing to imply. No, rather, they’re like a guest in the house of its body.

“Iyumi?” asks the purple-tinged lizard, repeating what it had heard in its mind. “That’s a really nice name, tell you what,” it says, nodding once to itself. “How did you get here, Iyumi? Huh? What’s that? You’ve always been here?” The lizard looks around, blinking slowly. “Are you sure? I don’t think I’ve seen you around before. But then again, I only have one eye, so maybe I missed you. Haha!”

The lizard turns to the side, stretching itself up on its hind legs as it reaches for some low hanging berries that dangle out from the thin underbrush of the forest. “I don’t have a name,” explains the lizard. “I’m just little old me,” it adds on with a quiet laugh. “Just a little lizard that lives all by itself on the nicest beach in the whole world,” it finishes, before chewing on the thick, juicy, pink berry that it plucks from the bush.

“…My help?” Swallowing, it looks around, listening to the sound that it hears. The sound of water, not from the ocean, but from the falling tears that it hears in its head. “Woah, woah, easy there, friend. What’s the matter? Huh?” The lizard listens to the desperate voice in its mind. “You want to find the person you love?” At hearing this honest plight, the lizard can’t help but feel a little embarrassed and it runs its claws through the hot, soft sand beneath itself, as it fidgets a little, lowering its head down against its side for a brief moment. The voice has such a strong feeling to it, Iyumi’s words have such strong, honest feelings behind them. The lizard likes that a lot. But…

“They’re on the other side of the mountain?” The lizard turns around and looks through the forest, staring up towards the highest peak in the entire world. “I’m just a little lizard, friend. I don’t know if I’m the right guy for the jo-… ah! No, wait! Don’t cry!”

The lizard sighs, looking around the warm, comfortable, safe beach that it loves so much. It listens to the sounds of the droning ocean, it listens to the warm singing of the sleepy birds and the cicadas. It listens to the crying of the distraught, heartbroken voice in its head, the voice of someone who has lost hope, the voice of someone who has nothing left to believe in and is not even able to feel the light of the sun, having no body.

For some reason, this makes the lizard very angry. It’s single eye twitches, almost spasming a tiny bit, as its blood pressure rises. Noticing its agitation, it lets out a deep, long breath to calm itself. Someone needs its help, how could it ever sleep at night knowing that it had said no? How could it ever sun itself on its rock during the hot afternoon, with the gnawing doubt in the back of its mind, that it had let someone down who needed it. The first person who had ever needed them.

Someone who needed a hero to help them, to save them.

It’s just a little one-eyed lizard that lives all by itself out on the nicest beach in the entire world. It’s not very strong or fast or smart or beautiful, it knows that. But it also knows that it has one thing, one driving force that keeps it going through those lonely nights and those fish-filled days, one particular characteristic of which it is more proud than anything else. It is something that makes up for all of those flaws which it holds to be true, yet it also holds them to be unimportant when weighed against its one, best quality-

Conviction.

The lizard takes one final look back towards the beach, smiling not because it has to leave, but because it had had the chance to live here at all. It hopes the beach-master will understand. Facing forward, it stares up at the highest mountain in the world, gazing towards the apex, yet as it does so, as it gazes up towards that distant, impossibly far away peak that it has to surmount, its smile doesn’t leave its face.

A wind, surging from the ocean pushes past its back, as if a mother’s hand were gently nudging it forward. The soft frill that runs along its spines almost feels like it is billowing in the breeze as if it were loose fabric. The lizard takes a step forward.

Then another.

Then another, as it runs off towards the adventure that awaits it. It’s single eye shimmers brightly in the afternoon sunlight, as a tiny twinkle begins to form inside of it.