This man, only in his early forties, maybe less, pushed himself through the faded doors of some long away inn, the ones you see along those lonely and dark roads, those that can boast to serve merchants from all across Illarion, a welcome sight, but a lifesaver for a man stuck in a unnaturally harsh storm. With water flowing off his brown cloak in waves, he stomped to the center of the room, though not able to see, what with his brimmed hat creating a pseudo-waterfall in front of his face. It was late, and he did not expect a warm welcome of any kind, but he was quickly ushered over to what he felt to be a bar, a friendly voice and hand helping him along, while asking if he was alright. The man could only nod, and upon removing this hat, show a grizzled smile for his helpful compatriot. But that beaming grin soon gave way to a look of confusion, for who he perceived as a fellow human instead wore the face of a reptile. In all honesty, if he looked anywhere but at this stranger's face, he would have trouble calling him anything else but "Human". He was covered, in every-way possible, with leather, cloth, thread, and somehow he had managed to wear a set of mud clasped boots over his feet. It was if everything that represented his race was shunned, hid away, and malformed till finally only the most needed and necessary parts of him laid untouched.
The lizard-thing was unabashed at his new friend's stunned expression, and promptly shot out a hand, gloved of course, "Something wrong?" He asked with a stern voice, not a hint of the usual accent or dialect that plagued the rest of his race.
"Hmm? Oh..." The man replayed slowly, "Nothing...Uhh, say, thanks for the, uhmm, help." A dizzied laugh escaped him then, as he regretted his own hurried words and bare reaction. Relief came however in the lizard's pleased and peppered attitude. The imbalanced man took a fleeting glance to the otherside of the bar, only to find it devoid of bartender or owner, the answer instead coming out of the air, expectantly from his default host, the lizard, "Hes asleep...its rather late after all."
He focused then on the rest of the room, nothing special about it, a few chairs and tables here and there, and a steadily burning fireplace against one wall, but even with such inviting surroundings, the man found himself standing, and moving towards the exit. His left arm was caught however, by the hand of the lizard, "Are you sure you're alright? Lost maybe? Sit down," He pulled the manner-less human back to his seat, "You want to hear a story, yes?"
The man did not want to hear a story, but as the lizard slowly let his grip of the man's arm go, felt that he had little choice, and with a cringe, gave a small nod, "Al-alright."
"Good," smiled the lizard, "I'll tell you a story, the story of my wife, and her son..." The lizard then shifted his weight on the stool and focused away from the man, adopting a faraway look as he spoke again, "I met her, on the outskirts of Shar'eria, its a settlement not far north from Gynk..."
The man gave a smug grin, "A lizard town eh?" It was obvious from his expression he cared not for what his company had to say, however the lizard continued to shock the man by answering back calmly, "Yes...right next to the sea..." He closed his eyes, a quiet coming over the room, leaving the rain buffeting the roof as the only backdrop.
"She was foraging along the tall grasses and shrubs that creeped out from the line of trees that overlooked the city, like some natural wall that hid it from the rest of the world. But she, certainly wasn't...sheltered, or pampered... no matter how much the natural beauty of the area betrayed her appearance. I was a trader back then, as I am now, and even though I've visited Shar'eria many a time before, she was a new sight, and...well...I'll spare you the little details," The lizard let out a longing sigh, displaced by the listener's snipping chuckle, along with his sudden rise to leave "No no my boy, I'm sure you'd love to share...wouldn't you?"
The lizard gave the man a sorrow filled stare that secured the man's place, but a humble listener. "B-but...my story isn't over..." The lizard could barely contain the smile the grew across his snout as the human so obediently danced to his emotional manipulation, for this was the tools of the trade for a successful merchant. "Now, where was I? Oh yes, her name was Asardi, and we soon fell in love. Between each time I left Shar'eria to travel the trade routes, she always promised to write to me, but a letter once came to me, as she could not write. I would return many a time, to her little mud hut at the edge of the sea, only to find her crying on the floor, crumbled up paper littered all around her. And it is at this time, we would embrace, and she would profess for what seemed hours on how much she missed me." He seemed troubled at this point, but pressed on, "It goes without saying, that after three short years of spending mixed time with her, as much as my busy life as a trader permitted, I promised to settle down permanently." He shock his head painfully, "What an idiot I was! I thought the money I had made over my entire career would be enough to support us for at least in till I could find another job, or...or something."
The lizard continued, "Soon though, she laid an egg, and I stood with her, even as the money began the dwindle, I stood with her, even as the Zelphia Temple guards tightened their grip on our lives, I STOOD with her. Even with the urges to just give in, to allow all the vices of overcome us both, to stoop down to the level of lesser creatures, the thieves, corrupt shopkeepers, and smugglers. I once considered smuggling myself, if only for the extra coin, but my Asardi was stronger then I was, and refused to let me undergo such activities."
The man took the moment to ask quickly, his interest suddenly peaked, "Do you mean you never noticed this sorta thing before? I mean, didn't you know what you were getting into?"
The lizard slowly focused his luminescent yellow eyes upon the man, his maw almost curling into a nasty snarl, "When someone is that blind with love, everything seems brighter...Those trees I mentioned? They no longer seemed to shelter this land, but contain it, block it off from the rest of the world."
To the man, this lizard seemed either insanely foolish, a near madman who clung to unattainable dreams of happiness and paradise, or such a stalwart and dedicated individual that the passion existing within could never be matched or compared with anything from his own experiences. The man choose to stay.
"Well," the lizard began again after clearing his raspy throat, "The time I spent with her payed off, and the egg was hatched. Never before in my entire lifetime could I name one thing that was strictly "Mine", something that came from myself, but all that, all the effort and pain we both endured, well, it was left in the face of his, our little hatchling. His expression filled eyes, droopy ear flaps, of which I still can't say with confidence who he inherited them from, and just his overall boundless energy, it all seemed like a climax to our will and perseverance." A vague smile formed along his snout then, and with pride filled eyes concluded, "I was happier then I had ever been before, but even that did not last..."
No matter how hard the man tried, he could not help by jeer, "What? Your wife left ya for a younger lad?"
"Course not," The lizard replied back slowly, "I left her..."
"Let me continue. We named our child Sssari, I thought it was...you know, girl-ish, but Asardi protested for its soft spoken punctuation. I might admit, it was fitting for a lizard. Now of course, time passed, and we raised Sssari the best we could, trying to be as supportive and loving as possible. But there was something off...something...not right about him." He swallowed roughly and spoke out with deadly percussion, "He was mute...completely and utterly mute..."
"To make matters worse, from the moment our child was born, the Temple wanted control of him. They sent guards weekly to express the need to enroll him in one of the Temple run schools, and by his sixth year, against our greater judgment, and with money running low, we gave in." He took a moment to gather his thoughts before launching back into his drawn out history.
"I still remember the days he would come home, after a day of school, crying, only to latch on to his mother; It hurt us more, even that by this age, he had yet to speak a cohesive word.
My fears of Temple run schooling finally were justified when, after a year of pestering from fellow students and the complete frustration of the teachers, he was, well, kicked out so to speak. No one had the patience to teach him, and from that moment on, the Temple Guards went from a tolerable annoyance to a flat out hostile force in our lives. They wanted to use Sssari for all sorts of horrible rituals, to either cure him of what they called an "Impurity" or leave him outside to die, as they said. It was t-terrible. But we, as so many times before, persevered."
"From then on, things only become worse. With no one to teach him, Asardi resorted to home schooling Sssari with what little knowledge she had. She was a loving women, but in no was a scholar or teacher, yet somehow she made time in her already shrinking opportunities for when she could gather food or work at the marketplace. To teach Sssari all she could, and try desperately to help him grasp the concept of speech became her only goal in life."
"The taxes from the Temple began to weight heavily upon our way of life; I remember arguing fervidly with Asardi for the right of going back on the roads to trade, but I knew she couldn't deal with the long absences she had in the past. Deep down, I was sure the Temple would not waste the chance to swoop in and take them both as long as their wasn't the protector of the house around to stop them...bastards."
The lizard suddenly fell into a mild trance, that even though his eyes were set on the man, he seemed to stare through him, perhaps to another time, and only upon the man's urging and sudden prodding, he brought back to his senses.
A laugh escaped his craggy mouth then, causing the man quite a fright, "Ah....ahaha...ahhaahh! What was I thinking? What the HELL was I thinking then?" The lizard pleaded at the man, a expression drawn over his face of someone stricken with guilt.
"What...what do you mean?" The man cried back.
"I left them both you fool! My wife and only son...why? Why?!" The lizard took a few calming breaths, before whispering back, "I suppose...you want to hear the end...don't you?"
It was no surprise that the man could not bring himself to answer either way, or to even move, as he was paralyzed in fear. However, the lizard took this as a yes, and proceeded on, albeit it at a slow pace, deliberately broken between raspy breaths of airs, "Sssari was just turning eight, and though I was filled with earnest pride, I felt the winds calling my name. What you humans call a mid life crisis....I may of had that year, every night, every day, I couldn't shake the feeling that this was all that was in store for me, this fledgling existence I lived, begging one day, savaging the next, just to eat, just to let my family eat. I may of felt but a burden to them."
"So, on the tenth year since I settled down with Asardi, the eighth year since my son's birth, I left them. I left my family, and I haven't seen them since. I...I left them in that hellhole...Sir...if you take anything out of this story, please do not repeat the mistake I had made." He stared over to the human man with a coldness of one feeling both betrayed and hurt, "I still haven't forgiven myself...for what I did, and I probably never will."
A moment of silence passed before the man summoned up the courage to ask, "Did...did your son...really never speak a single word?"
"Till the moment I left, the only things I heard from him were hissing, purrs, and snarls, but here's the thing...
I never once felt that I didn't know what was on his mind. We had a special connection, I think everyone that got to know him did, one that allowed you to just look at him, and know what he wanted, know what he wanted to do, or wanted to express. In that sense, he was as intelligent, and as "Human" as anyone else. I was proud of him, always."
The man spoke darkly, "Oh...I see...I see..." But before he could finish his thought, the lizard was already steadily making his way to the inn's door. "W-wait!" He called, unsatisfied with how the night was suddenly ending. But it was too late, the lizard was gone, and now the man sat in that silent inn, completely alone to his own musing. He turned away from the door and rested his head on his hands. He wanted to know more, sure, he had his early doubts about the lizard, but as it turned out, he seemed the tragic character, truly and honestly the downtrodden of this world. He only wished to know if his destination was as he guessed, Shar'eria, and if he could ever begin the arduous journey of healing the hearts of those he left behind.
((Theres come to come! Don't worry!
))