Tales From Necropolis: Hot Springs Bathhouse by lizardman22, literature
Literature
Tales From Necropolis: Hot Springs Bathhouse
Diobella slumped in her wheelchair, floating in the limbo between consciousness and sleep. Dimly the werebuffalo heard her brother's voice and tilted her head up to look at him. "Did you say something, Melancott?" "I said, we're almost there," the weredeer replied. Diobella glanced about, the fog currently clouding her mind making it hard to think. "Where?" she asked. "The Hot Springs Bathhouse," Melancott said, gently pushing along the wheelchair. "Today's your hydrotherapy appointment, remember?" "Of course I don't remember," Diobella snapped tersely. "I wouldn't have asked otherwise." The Necropolin buffalo sighed, immediately regretting the outburst. "Sorry, Mel," she said. "I didn't get a good night's rest last night. I'm just..." Melancott placed a hand gently on his sister's shoulder, used to her moods. "It's OK, sis. Once we're done here I'll get you home so you can try and sleep." A groan rumbled from Diobella's throat as a thought came to her. "Did you say the bathhouse?"
Lizard Origins: The Pandora Express (Part 2) by lizardman22, literature
Literature
Lizard Origins: The Pandora Express (Part 2)
Fey glanced out the window as the Pandora Express raced along. The scenery outside was wonderful, with rolling green fields dotted occasionally by groves of trees. At one point she saw a herd of sledge-beaks running along, the giant flightless birds wheeling and flocking about as they easily avoided the lone saber cat trying to hunt them. "This is amazin'," she said. "I've never traveled so fast in me life." "Dwarven design and manufacture," said Hamsting, the lycanthropic dwarf smirking at the gnome. "Ain't nothin' compares to it. Especially them human locomotives." Lizard closed his eyes, feeling the train rock beneath him. It reminded him of the time he had visited a more modern city, and experienced his first car ride. He smiled privately to himself. Unlike then, this time there was little chance he would be drawn into a race, or be involved in a high speed crash. The Necropolin opened his eyes and looked at Maria, the human enjoying her trip alongside her dwarven friend. "Have you
Tales from Necropolis: The Reporter's Beat by lizardman22, literature
Literature
Tales from Necropolis: The Reporter's Beat
(Part 1) As the sun rose over the Shadow Mountains, Trick stepped out onto the balcony of his home and stretched, a quick breakfast already in his stomach. Today was beat day, the day the Necropolin secretary bird visited all the major locations and districts of Necropolis to gather potential stories for the Necropolin Post. This was half of how he earned his bread and butter, the other half being turning those potential stories into written articles. Patting himself down to make sure he had his note-taking essentials, Trick climbed up on the balcony's railing and spread his wings. A hop and a flap, and he was soaring over the cityscape. His first stop of the day, as usual, would be Market Keep, to gather material for his Beyond the Blackstone column. The Tigris fighting instructor-- who'd introduced himself earlier as Master Ojoku-- threw kicks and punches in rapid fire. Trick stood firm against the onslaught, holding one of his wings in front of him as a shield. Not one blow made it
Lilaa's Memoirs: Tanuki Talk by lizardman22, literature
Literature
Lilaa's Memoirs: Tanuki Talk
(Part 1) A featherdasher darted across the desert sands, the tanuki Hiroshi Yotokama holding on tight to his reins. Hiroshi was a shapeshifting tanuki, one of many youkai that inhabited the hidden city of Sakurai; he was the head librarian at the Sakurai House of Books, and took pride in making sure that every book and scroll within its walls was right where it needed to be. Today, he had taken the week off to travel and catch up with an old friend. And here her home came now: an innocuous temple in the middle of the desert. The featherdasher screeched to a halt in front of the temple door, his claws kicking up sand. Hiroshi dismounted and, reaching into the fluff of his tail, produced some beef jerky as a tip for the ride (he'd paid the base fee up front). "Meet me back here at sundown. I'll want a ride back," the tanuki instructed his taxi. The featherdasher nodded, already chewing on the beef jerky, before dashing off. Hiroshi glanced into the canvas bag he was carrying
Merchant's Travels: Paying The Toll by lizardman22, literature
Literature
Merchant's Travels: Paying The Toll
Garnet paused as she came to the edge of the ravine, peering down over the edge to the rapidly flowing river ten meters below. Nearby was a rickety looking rope bridge. "That looks safe," she murmured to herself. "It's the type of bridge I'd expect to see in some corny adventure story." The weremouse sighed. The bridge was the only way across the gorge, unless of course, she wanted to lose a few days travel by backtracking in search of another route. Garnet shrugged to herself. She couldn't afford to lose too much time, and so she resigned herself to the crossing. Slowly and carefully she stepped out onto the structure, her hands gripping the rope railing tightly. To her surprise the bridge felt sturdier than it looked. The wooden planks that made up the deck were thick and firm, and the rope supports seemed new and unfrayed. It was almost as though whoever built the bridge wanted it to look old for aesthetic reasons, while remaining relatively safe to cross. "Probably built for
Sakurai Tales: Through The Hidden Veil by lizardman22, literature
Literature
Sakurai Tales: Through The Hidden Veil
(Part 1) "Cub Scout cookies! Wide variety of flavors! 750 yen a box!" As the sun rose over the youkai city of Sakurai, Takeshi Uta found his curiosity piqued by the shouts that came from Main Street. Following the noise, the clay tanuki found a small stall set up in the shade of one of the street's iconic cherry trees. Two children in matching scout uniforms, a bearfolk and a painter cat, were loudly advertising the boxes of cookies on display. Seeing the tanuki, the children stopped shouting and addressed him. "Good morning, sir!" "Would you like to buy some cookies?" "They're 750 yen a box!" "All proceeds go to a good cause!" Takeshi examined the boxes, occasionally picking one up and looking it over. For each flavor, the front of the box depicted a youngster of a different humanoid race in Cub Scout regalia, while the side of the box offered a description of that race. The back of each box, meanwhile, featured a blurb about the Cub Scout program. The tanuki looked over his options
Merchant's Travels: Eye of the Tiger by lizardman22, literature
Literature
Merchant's Travels: Eye of the Tiger
(Part 1) The Tigris, the tigerfolk of the eastern peaks, dealt in an unusual commodity: martial arts. It was their belief that anyone could and should learn to defend themselves without a weapon, and prided themselves on providing appropriate training for all races at all skill levels. Tigris training put a heavy emphasis on utilizing one's own natural advantages; they believed any natural advantage, no matter how unlikely, could be weaponized. Broad wings could be used to shield against blows, or carry their bearer quickly in or out of close range with a flap; a long tail could trip or snare an opponent from an unexpected angle; a large body was more resilient, while a small body was quicker and harder to hit; keen senses could keep track of an opponent in situations where normal sight was unreliable. Moreover, the Tigris had a knack for learning a person's physical strengths and weaknesses just by studying them with the naked eye, an ability commonly referred to "the eye of the
Lizard Origins: The Pandora Express (Part 1) by lizardman22, literature
Literature
Lizard Origins: The Pandora Express (Part 1)
Lizard and Fey entered the town of New Pandora, the travelers looking about at the human architecture. A sign greeted them, and Fey pointed, nudging Lizard's leg. Welcome To New Pandora. Home Of The Pandora Express. "See," Fey said. "The Pandora Express. We can get on 'ere, and have ourselves a ride." She hurried off, following other signs in hopes they would lead them to the train station. Lizard smiled, easily catching up to his friend. It had been a month or so since they left Necropolis to head out on another adventure. Lizard glanced about. "Ease up, Fey," he said. "We need to find a post office first so I can send this letter off to Portagaff and Kay." Fey paused mid stride. "Ah, yeah. Ya did say we needed to do that in the next town we got ta." She looked about, trying to get her bearings. "Maybe there's one at the station," she said. "I know some places are set up like that. Makes it easy whenever stuff comes inta town." The pair walked on, and Lizard felt himself being
Lizard Origins: Wanderlust by lizardman22, literature
Literature
Lizard Origins: Wanderlust
The inn reverberated with the sounds of laughter and amazement as Lizard and Fey recounted some of their adventures. Glacier sat forward in her seat, listening intently to the tales, absentmindedly scratching the ears of the fairyrat perched on her lap. "So there I was," Fey said, waving her arms in a wide gesture, "Suck on the back o' an angry fire salamander, while Lizard had it by the head." "It didn't try to burn you again?" Glacier asked. "Oh it tried, Spots," the gnome replied, using her newly coined nickname for the werecheetah. "But it still didn't have enough mucus to combust properly. Didn't stop it from tryin' though. Got meself a few jolts in the process." The fairyrat on Glacier's lap squeaked, giving her finger a few repeated tugs with it's paws. "He wants to know how strong it was," Glacier interpreted. "Pretty strong," Lizard said. "For a while there I was thinking I might need to transform to give Fey enough time to get what mucus she could." "Which I did
Tales from Necropolis: That's Fit to Print by lizardman22, literature
Literature
Tales from Necropolis: That's Fit to Print
(Part 1) Tracy Flashtail deliberately dropped her altitude as she drew close to Market Keep. She couldn't look at the blackstone walls of Necropolis without being reminded of the day she'd gotten attacked by the Praetorian Guard for accidentally entering Necropolin airspace. Ever since then, the mountain harpy was very careful about flying near the walls, and did everything she could to avoid crossing over the walls again. Still, the wooden palisades of Market Keep were significantly lower, and Tracy could comfortably fly over them before coming in for a perch in an empty area. "Flashtail! Over here!" Tracy perked up at the voice. Glancing around, she quickly spotted a Necropolin secretary bird waving to her, and waved back. "Trick! Good to see you again! Wait until you see my latest batch of photos!" Trick was a reporter and writer for one of Necropolis's major newspapers. The secretary werebird (weresecretary bird? Necropolin etymology isn't so clear in these cases) was best known