“-AND DOWN WITH THE CHAINS! Liberty is CHAINED DOWN by this COURUPT and SELFISH GOVERNMENT! All the while, OUR CHILDREN CHOKE ON FACTORY FUMES, COMING BACK HOME WITH COAL IN THEIR THROAT’S! WILL WE SIT IDALY BY, OR STAND, AND MARCH?”
“DOWN WITH OPPERSSION, CHILDREN SHOUNDENT WORK!”
Tina watched.
Watching from the alleyway across the T-line street, she wasn’t totally uninterested, agreeing on some points, but the way she thought was that shouting and whining about change would do nothing but distract Tina from the mold on her bread. Tina watched as the starving people wasted their energy shouting.
The crowd was only big enough to barely block a street, maybe fifty people if Tina gave them a little less doubt. But the crowd was closer to thirty, surrounding a town home that look just like the neighboring apartments. The riot leader was on his balcony shouting through a newspaper, and he used a low-level magic item to make his voice louder. He looked out of breath, but kept going, his voice even cracked a few times, and the starving loved him. Called him brave. Called him a savior.
A man worthy to stand up to Liberty.
Land of the Free. Dark clouds blanked over the Land of the Free. The Tears of freedom softly poured on the Free People.
Unnatural Clouds. Cursed, and poisoned;
Rain.
Tina just watched. It rained so often in liberty that most didn’t wear rain protection. They were used to it. Her eyes drifted from that boredom. To a puddle. A corpse of a Dog sunk in the mud, it died two days ago. The water wasn’t safe to drink any more, especially when it rained. Its weak muscles cramping to each of the puddles, it cringed every time it gulped the water.
And eventually its body gave up.
“What are you staring at swamp thing? Looking for a bite to eat?” Spit on the ground, only joined the mud. Tina didn’t mind those names; the people around here weren’t fond of her kind. she only wished they were more creative.
Tina was lizardman, or Lizardkin, she was small for a Llzardkin, being 16, but that has its perks. Her entire body was coved in a pattern of natural armor. Her face was not like a normal lizard, it was rounded and thick at the nose. It was more like a Tyrannosaurus. Her tail was thick as a Schwarzenegger arm at the base and thinned down to the thickness of a pencil. She worked out, but it helped that she already had natural muscle. Her fingernails we also natural, being black, sharp as a razer and shaped like arrow heads, she used them to pluck her ukulele.
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A song for the rain.
After a while, turned to just rain.
The alley she was in was placed with wooden beams so water could seep through to the mud below. Tina was still small enough to inch herself though those crawl spaces to find loose change. If she was lucky, sometimes people hide money in their shoes and socks, she got good at snatching things from the cracks. But it was raining now, those crawl spaces only work on sunny days.
It wasn’t getting sunny any time soon.
Across town bells started to ring out. “Shit, I’m gonna be late.” Tina got up, strapping her instrument to her back, and slapped her tail to the ground. and leaped. Gripping a lose brick 8ft above the ground gradually latching her fishhook nails on to a clothesline, thrusting onto the corner balcony and turning around to jump across the alley and climb up to the roof tops.
Her hair stuck to her face as the cold wind blew across her, she didn’t flinch. It was weird for lizardmen to have such hair, her hair in particular was blond, which didn’t contrast well with her green, black and white scales. Because of those scales her hair parted weirdly at the top, but it was a full head of hair. Hair on a lizardman was surely possible with interracial relationships, but to have hair at all was still a rarity.
Tina parted her bangs so she could see better, matter a fact “better use this.” She got a leather strap and tied her hair back to a wet ponytail, most of her hair was the same length, she didn’t get hair cuts that frequently, although it did help that she only grew hair at the top of her head, no sideburns for her.
She got into a running position. “Oh-kay, no fuck ups this time, got to make it before my shift starts.” With barely any momentum she was already aft full speed, maybe 3 seconds to get to that point. She jumped from the roof and rolled using her tail to gain a head start on speed. the roofs were wet but that barely mattered, Tina had made her own treads, being able to grip onto the surfaces under the puddles.
The buildings were laid out with modern city design in mind and were easy to traverse. Most of these buildings were long French styled apartments, usually two floors, that wrapped around. It helped Tina too that most were either made out of stone, wood or brick. Easy to latch on to. They were walls, with the inner streets being extremely long, and mostly narrow enough to jump across.
Leaping from building to building, then, the main street she'd been worried about. Arsenal lane. Tina stopped. Arsenal lane was a market street with enough room for four 6 person carriages to pass though, as well as a trolley and sidewalks. It was impossible to make the gap but climbing down would take a few minutes.
However, if Tina could jump to the lamp posts, she could make it to the street sign, and jump off that to the trolley, run across the Arsenal Lane arch, balance and jump to the lampposts, and get to the other side. In theory that’s how it worked. In practice. She has attempted only twice and failed. “Come on, come on Tina, you can do this. Third times a charm.”
With that, Tina leaped, and grappled her left hand and tail on the tall post. Un raping her tail to, SLAP to the next, swinging off and plating her feet onto the trolley. That stirred up a crowd. Onlookers gasped as Tina in the air reached up to the arch and climbed on. the arch’s function read ARSINAL MARKET PLACE, a 2-inch-thick green copper arch with intricate designs, was being balanced on by a lizard girl. However.
It was still raining. A gust of wind bowed directly to Tina's right side. “WoAH, SHIT!” into the mud.