Swords and Scales | Part 1

A bonus story for the Flower of Light readers

Here’s a short story set during the events of Flower of Light, narrating one of the adventures of Ulrich’s team of sellswords, facing a bunch of lizard men.

The events happen right before the start of chapter 5 of the Fire section — if you want to read things in chronological order!

The story was written by Mark Wade, so you’ll notice a slightly different style, more action-oriented and with no magic involved. We hope you enjoy!

The chief lizard man, made in Skyrim with the help of a ton of mods :D

Year 665 of the Bluand Era

Month III, day 28

Sitting on a mossy boulder, Ulrich was sharpening a wooden stick. One after another, thin curls of cellulose fell to the ground as he rhythmically moved the dagger, applying the final touches to what was becoming a rather sharp point.

“You’ll ruin the edge of your blade from doing that,” said a female voice in an accusatory but also rather bored tone.

“It’s sharp enough,” Ulrich replied, giving a shrug that made the rings of his chainmail jingle.

A typical big, northern man, Ulrich had medium-length blond hair that was slowly turning white, slicked back. Tall and sturdy, his shoulders filled out the chainmail and plate armor he wore, but the area around his belt appeared way too full; a sign that his raids were not limited to the battlefields but extended to lavish banquets as well.

The younger warrior, sitting cross-legged on the ground not far from Ulrich, grimaced. “If you keep playing with it like a child, before long you won’t even be able to cut a piece of cloth with that little knife... let alone the tough hide of the enemies we have to face today.”

Ulrich looked up and answered her with a smirk. “I was thinking of using my greatsword against the reptiles, but now that’s a great idea! It could make for a much more interesting confrontation,” he said in his boisterous voice, wielding the wooden stick and dagger as if they were tableware.

“Knowing you, you’d probably even give it a try,” Inka remarked, rubbing her green eyes in frustration with the fingers of one hand.

Unlike her commander, she was a native of the lands south of the Imperial Island. With bronze skin and a defined jaw, the mercenary woman preferred not to use metal armor. Instead, she dressed mostly in dark clothing and armor of molded leather with steel reinforcements and, in colder climates, a padded doublet as an additional garment.

“Hey, look who’s back,” Inka said, glancing at the hooded figure who had just emerged from the shrubs bordering the small, grassy clearing. “What took you so long?”

The newcomer, a wiry man known by the nickname of Natrix, removed his hood and revealed a middle-aged face with lively, watchful eyes, a few days’ dark beard, and slightly disheveled, straight hair. The long, brown cloak he wore had barely noticeable streaks of dull green, seemingly made on purpose to make the wearer disappear into the thick brush or beside the trunk of a tree.

“No tea?” he asked his fellow adventurers with a puzzled expression, his inflection devoid of emotion.

“The chief said no fires,” Inka replied.

Ulrich returned Natrix’s gaze and shrugged again. With a resigned sigh, the latter went to sit on the ground next to his companions, without being able to hold in his hands a cup of hot liquid to sip, and began his report.

“So... the lizards are a ten to fifteen minute walk from here. There are no actual pathways to the edge of their lair, but the bush is not very thick, so we won’t have any trouble moving at a good gait... Not even you, Ulrich,” Natrix said, taking the opportunity to throw a jibe. “Judging by the way they’ve organized themselves, they must have settled down there for at least a couple of months. They have a wooden palisade running around an open clearing, backed by a rock formation. There is a lookout armed with a bow at the top of the ridge, and another stationed on a low watchtower of sorts, near the entrance,” he went on, making a long dagger appear from under his cloak and using it to draw a rudimentary sketch of the enemy camp on the ground.

“We know well that lizards like to take shelter underground, so...” interjected Inka.

“Yes, I also think that the cliff is concealing a cave or some other kind of hiding hole.”

“You think?” asked the northern warrior. “You didn’t even look inside to check?”

Natrix shook his head. “It’s not very tall, but the stockade blocks most of the view inside the camp, and there are no other significant rises to climb up and peek inside... And no, I’m certainly not climbing a tree like a monkey, just to be a target for the sentinels’ arrows.”

“This seems a rather scarce amount of information, compared to your usual,” the team leader complained again. “Number of enemies?”

“Two lookouts with short bows, as mentioned earlier, and I counted at least three other different lizards going back and forth in the visible parts of the camp.”

“Anything else worth reporting?” asked the warrior woman after a moment of silence. “Is that all?”

“Nat is losing his edge; he’s no longer the sneaky snoop he used to be,” joked Ulrich, while Natrix shook his head in disapproval. “Or it’s just that you are not very keen to accompany us on this little errand?”

“You know that I’ve dealt with my fair share of lizards before,” he replied, recalling the very first mission when he had teamed up with Ulrich’s group. “I prefer to hunt more traditional animals: deer, boars, humans...”

Ulrich gave a chuckle and got back on his feet, stretching his arms and neck to loosen up his muscles that had been stationary for too long in the dampness of the small clearing. “On march, then... Kara, wake up your sister and let’s get a move on.”

“I’m Inka, she’s Kara!” lamented the woman of the Desert, pointing to her twin sister, asleep on a flat rock not far from her, her head resting on a travel bag.

Yawning, Kara stood up and looked around as if she had forgotten how in the world she ended up in that corner of the Imperial Island.

She was wearing comfortable, sturdy clothes like Inka, but Kara had a breastplate of bronze-colored scales in addition to the usual boiled leather on her arms and legs.

The plaque in the center was larger than the others, decorated with a complex carving of intertwined brambles and flowers.

“Have I missed out on something?” she asked, running her hands through her dark brown, shoulder-length hair.

“You have missed everything, but this time Natrix has not been very helpful in retrieving information about the enemies.”

“Listen, if you think you can do better, ask him to send you ahead next time, and we’ll see how you do,” grumbled the man from the Snake Kingdom, before disappearing among the branches and shrubs, followed by Ulrich, who was still snickering.

“Anyway, Natrix said he saw at least five lizard men at the camp,” continued Inka.

“Uh, not too bad. So, are we going back to the Court to call for backup?” the twin sister asked.

“I have a feeling that Ulrich has decided to take all the glory for ourselves...” concluded Inka, checking that her whip and sword were properly secured to her belt, before following the others into the thick of the woods.

* * *

Eyes the color of stone peered through the surrounding shrubbery and trees. Shiny orbs cut in half by a jagged vertical pupil, nestled in a reptilian head the same size as that of a full-grown man.

Sand and mud-colored scales covered the tall, muscular body of the saurian standing on two legs and wearing crude garments of hides and cloths, sewn together without any real, rational pattern.

The creature posted on the turret detected a rustle among the grass, less than twenty meters from the palisade.

He gripped his bow, placed beside him, and drew an arrow from the quiver.

With quick twitches, the reptile moved his head from left to the right, scanning the exterior of the camp. When he thought he detected another movement, he poked his forked tongue out of his mouth a few fast licks to taste the air. Finally, he nocked an arrow and shot it into one of the many bushes.

Narrowly missing, a wild hare jumped out of the vegetation and scampered away quickly, leaping further away from the lizards’ camp.

The archer nocked a second arrow, stretched his bow, and a crossbow bolt plunged deep into his skull, making him instantly collapse to the ground. Much closer to the turret than the hare, another bush came alive and took to climbing the low fence of the camp, until it reached the walkway where the lizard’s lifeless body lay.

Natrix, well concealed by his cloak and infiltration capabilities, had managed to crawl all the way under the reptile’s nose and was now yanking his corpse to let it roll down, outside the enclosure.

Ulrich, helmet on his head and greatsword resting on the metallic shoulder plate of his armor, emerged from the thick of the underbrush and briskly made his way to the entrance of the camp. Whit Inka following closely behind, Kara spent a handful of seconds reloading her crossbow and raced to join up with them.

Natrix hoisted himself over the parapet with fluid movements and promptly hid, kneeling behind one of the structure’s support poles. He finally managed to peer inside the camp and quickly realized that perhaps he had been a tad optimistic in estimating the real number of enemies.

The northern chieftain ran through the gate of the entrance, a simple door made of branches bound together with strips of leather and plant strings, and smashed it to pieces with the impact of his body mass alone.

He then clutched the hilt of his sword with both hands and stepped forward with a confident stride. A smug grin was barely visible between his blond beard and the metal of the half-mask helmet that protected his eyes.

Several pairs of reptilian eyes set their gaze on the three mercenaries who had broken through the camp’s defenses, still unaware of Natrix’s covert maneuvers on the turret.

The lizard closest to the trio, with greener scales, was unarmed and hauling a small pile of firewood. He tossed the logs to the ground and sprinted toward the interior of the camp – certainly in search of a weapon – but Inka cracked her whip and the saurian found himself face down in the dust, his ankles bound by a tightly braided leather rope.

Four more enemies drew swords and spiked clubs. They set off on their attack, hissing like furious snakes, exposing rows of sharp teeth to the invaders.

The second sentry was equipped with a bow and posted on the rock that bordered the back of the camp. He saw what was happening near the entrance and prepared to aim at the invaders, but Natrix had already taken possession of the first sentinel’s bow. He shot one arrow, but it went off target, then a second, which lodged in the wood of the structure that the lizard was standing on.

At that point, the reptile had spotted him and drew his bow, but by then Natrix already had the chance to adjust his aim and become familiar with that opportunity weapon. With a third shot, the lizard let out a hiss of pain, giving up the fight to take care of the arrow that had just lodged into his left shoulder, very close to his neck.

Natrix reverted his focus back to the enemies at ground level, but he was only able to loose a couple more arrows before the two groups of fighters clashed together in melee.

Ulrich was holding two reptiles at bay by striking violent sword blows, putting a strain on their defensive stances; a third hostile tried to attack him from the side, but Kara thwarted his attempt with a crossbow bolt shot from a very short distance.

The northern warrior swung his greatsword and managed to momentarily stun a lizard, striking his snout with the weapon’s guard and gloved fists of leather and metal. He immediately thrust the sword forward and to the side to stab the other foe in the chest, piercing his heart. He ultimately shifted his weight to the opposite foot and pulled out the big blade from the saurian’s body with a swift motion, using the momentum to slash the first enemy’s chest as well.

Two dead lizards collapsed to the ground at nearly the same instant, while Inka drew her curved sword from its scabbard to deal a merciless lethal blow to the reptile she had immobilized earlier with her whip.

Ulrich and the twins resumed their advance. The sole remaining lizard interrupted his charge and threw worried glances at the corpses of his fallen comrades, uncertain of his next course of action. Suddenly, an arrow shot from the front turret whistled within a millimeter of his head. The reptilian mercenary decided to bolt away at full speed and disappeared inside the cave that the group was using as a nest.

“This turned out to be easier than expected!” proclaimed Ulrich, as he placed his bloody sword on one of his spaulders and proceeded toward the center of the camp. “Let’s just flush out the last of the forked tongues and then we can go back to the village and get paid.”

“Ahem... Maybe we’re not done yet,” Natrix contradicted him, observing the rock from his vantage point.

From the darkness of the cavern, the silhouettes of three more saurians emerged; the middle one, visibly larger than the others, towering over his companions by at least a foot. With one hand he was gripping the long, wooden handle of a battle axe; the other hand clenching the neck of the lizard that run from the group of humans shortly before. The regular-sized reptilian was trying to free himself from the beast’s grasp, flailing in terror, but there was no way to loosen the grip of those sturdy fingers covered with solid dark green scales.

“There’s the head of the pack,” Ulrich commented. “He’s the biggest one, so he’s in charge.”

Dropping down to ground level with the others, the slender Natrix was about to remark that size was not always indicative of an individual’s levels of power or fighting efficiency, but he avoided opening his mouth since, in this specific situation, both sides were led by the biggest one of the group.

The chief of the lizards first directed his attention to the subordinate who had fled the fight; he lifted him up so that he could stare him straight in the eyes while uncovering long rows of sharp teeth. “Worthless coward,” the saurian ruled with a deep, grim voice, opening his maw wide and sinking his sharp fangs into the underling’s temples.

A hissing cry of pain was nipped in the bud as the big lizard man cleanly bit off the upper portion of the other’s head, amid noises of crumbling bones, torn flesh and blood splattering around. Attached to the victim’s neck, all that remained was the jaw and part of the back of the head, the forked tongue dancing between the spaces of the lower teeth.

The beast spat the repulsive morsel to the ground and dropped the lifeless body of the other reptile, whose tail and lower limbs were still throbbing with involuntary muscle spasms.

“Heck, this one is no joke at all,” remarked Natrix, pondering the fact that he had only two arrows left.

“Humansss!” shouted the reptile, thrusting his axe forward with just one hand. “Invade my domain, kill my sssoldiers.”

“Things that happen, when you are the first to strike human villages, and here on the Imperial Island, nonetheless!” snickered Ulrich in an equally powerful voice. “Simple hazards of the trade, lizard.”

“You people are in hazard... Come on, let’s flay these thin-ssskins!” with more battle cries, the three animals charged at the humans.

Kara did not falter in hurling a crossbow bolt at the enemy commander, but unlike the first ones they had faced, these saurians wore a variety of metallic protections in addition to the usual animal skins and furs.

With a lightning-fast movement, the giant managed to make the dart impact against a crudely crafted and somewhat thick steel shoulder pad. It was unquestionably too heavy to constitute viable human armor, but the massive reptile could wear it without detriment to his agility.

“You weak,” he said, revealing sharp teeth as the dart ricocheted away.

 At that point, Natrix attempted to use his bow, but the foe shielded himself with his bare arm and let the arrow stick itself between his scales.

“You cannot hurt me!” he shouted, eyes burning with rage, as he tore the arrow away and threw it to the ground. On the metal tip, not even a hint of blood.

“I guess we shouldn’t have tackled this mission, without having the full crew...” remarked Kara, gulping nervously.

“Nonsense,” rebutted her sister. “We can do this even without that guy.”

“Of course!” the northern warrior reassured them. “Chop that big guy’s wings off while I keep him busy,” Ulrich concluded, outlining a combat strategy. “Then we will take him alive.”

On either side of the bigger beast, armed with shields and spears, the two normal-sized saurians played a role in supporting and protecting their commander while he set off to attack the humans.

The lizard man’s weapon might have been called a halberd, but the head was definitely more intricate: composed of a curved axe blade and a spear tip, it also featured several sharp rostrums and hooks, resembling forked reptilian tongues. A complicated instrument of death that well-represented the barbaric and chaotic nature of his user.

Ulrich tightened his fingers on the grip of the two-handed sword and braced himself for the saurian’s first, violent attack, that nearly cost him his life: the metal absorbed most of the blow and resounded like the single chime of a huge bell. The northern warrior bent his weapon sideways to let the energy of the impact drift away and was forced to take a step backward. He had barely enough time to resume his fighting posture when his opponent came forward with his second assault, then his third, then many more.

End of part 1

Read the final part here!

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