My Life as a Lizard was Short
"Come on Shortcake, sit down for me," Keira, the mother of the household, says to the family's mangy dog. As the dog spins around in a circle, Keira calls out for it to sit again. Finally, on the third time, the dog sits down and looks up at Keira. "Good job, whose my good girl," Keira says as she pulls out a treat and hands it to the dog.
'I can sit when told, so where is my treat?' Kio thinks to himself as he stares out from the glass prison he has been encased within. Kio is a horned lizard that was taken in by this family a few years ago, but before that, he was traveling the world with a man from Australia. Life with the Losna family hasn't been all bad, but the mother seemed to have a strong disgust for Kio. Only the father and the little boy seemed to like hanging out with Kio, but they were both out at the moment.
Watching the dog do a few more tricks, Kio came up with an idea. Most of the time, when he did a trick no one would notice because he was so small, but if he played dead then the family was sure to notice.
'How does the dog do it?' Kio wonders to himself as he watches Shortcake get up on her hind legs before falling over backward. 'Oh, so it is like that,' Kio thinks as he stands up and falls over onto his back the same way the dog did. After a few seconds, Kio realizes that he is now stuck and can't get back onto his stomach. His horns had caught on some of the vines that surrounded his prison, and he couldn't reach them with his claws. After struggling for a few more minutes, Kio ends up passing out from the blood rushing to his head.
...
"I'm sorry, Carter. Kio has already died and needs to be sent to lizard heaven so he can play with the other lizards," A female voice enters Kio's ears, causing him to gain consciousness once more. Looking around, Kio notices that he is being held in the air over a white bowl of no return. Standing next to the bowl of water is Kiera, who is using her telekinesis to carry Kio, so she doesn't have to touch him. Next to her is a young boy who is around eight, silently crying as he watches Kio dangle above the water.
'Wait, I'm still alive!' Kio screams internally as he struggles to move, but Kiera's telekinesis is holding on to him too tightly so he doesn't fall to the floor. Unable to move, Kio opens his eyes as wide as he can and stares at Carter, hoping that he will notice Kio moving his eyes. However, Carter is crying too hard at the moment to be able to notice that Kio is looking at him.
"Okay mommy, in that case, let me be the one to send him away," Carter says as he gains a bit of courage ann walks over to the handle of the toilet, ready to flush it as soon as Kio is dropped. Kiera pats her son on the head and releases Kio into the spinning vortex of water.
"I'll remember this!" Kio squeaks as he is sucked under the water and through the pipes, but no one heard him over the sound of the water. The water around Kio rocks him back and forth inside the pipe, before dumping him out in a larger one. As he is pushed under the water by the force of expulsion, Kio hits his head on a rock and ends up dying deep in the sewers beneath the city.
...
"Wake up, Kio," A soft voice calls out to Kio as his soul drifts around an empty space. Although he was resting peacefully on something that felt like a cloud, Kio felt a light tug from the voice and opens his eyes. Standing in front of Kio is a tall woman, with long golden hair and light blue eyes. She has a kind smile on her face as she bends down to pick Kio up in her palm. "Ah, you're finally awake,"
"Who's this woman?" Kio says aloud, before realizing he can talk, and looking surprised up at the kind face in front of him. The woman giggles and pats Kio on his head with her index finger.
"My name is Willa, and I am the goddess of all small creatures who have been treated poorly by the humans. I have gotten tired of their mistreatment, and I decided that we need to do something about it. That's why I have called you here, so you can be my champion and fix the wrongs of the humans. What do you say?" Willa asks as she calmly looks at Kio, who is deep in thought about what she said.
"I'm sorry, I don't really feel like the humans were that bad. So why choose me?" Kio says as he looks around the woman's hand for a way to go back to the fluffy thing he was sleeping on before.
"I choose you because I think you can handle the pain of the others. I'm sorry for what I am about to do, though," Willa says as she brings Kio up to her face and presses her forehead against his. As their foreheads touch, Kio gets a rush of memories from countless small creatures that had been mistreated and abused before being tossed in a toilet or a gutter. Most of the memories being injected were filled with pain, which turned to hate over time, before finally ending at nothing.
Feeling a sense of rage consume him, Kio quickly looks around for something to take it out on. The only thing he could see was a thumb, and he quickly darts over to it and bites it. As the taste of blood enters his mouth, Kio regains some of his common sense and realizes what he has done.
"I am so sorry, I don't know what came over me," Kio apologizes as he lets go of the thumb, and looks up at the grimacing face of the goddess.
"It's okay, I understand that was a lot for you to take in at once. But now do you understand why I need you to teach the humans of their wrongs?" Willa asks as she pulls a tissue out of thin air and wraps it around her thumb.
"I do, the humans have caused much suffering and pain for small creatures and need to be taught a lesson, but I'm not sure I can do anything about them," Kio says as he waves his tiny claws around in the air.
"I have a plan for that. I will be giving you the shape of a sixteen-year-old boy, but you will be able to harness the powers of all small creatures that have suffered at their hands. Your job will be to infiltrate the Ramson Academy and kill the humans that have brought this pain on themselves. Each human that you kill, that has killed or mistreated an animal, will bring you a new power. For example, if you kill Thomas, who threw rocks at birds when he was younger, then you will gain wings, and be able to fly. However, it won't be easy because humans have powers that they can use against you. That is why I'm allowing you to keep your spikes, to use as weapons, as well as giving you the power of a chameleon, so you camouflage yourself as you move around," Willa said as she pulled out two small grey orbs and gave them to Kio to eat.
"Why not just give me all the powers of all the creatures, so I can easily finish the humans off?" Kio asked, wondering why he couldn't just go back into the world overpowered.
"Because each power that you gain comes from the life of a creature that has been mistreated. Until you satisfy their desire for revenge, you can not use their powers. Also, if you get caught killing the humans, you probably won't be able to survive for long, so I recommend doing your best at being discreet," Willa said as she set Kio down on the ground and began to change his appearance, so he would look like a boy in his sixteens.
"I understand, I will do my best to get justice for the deaths of all my brethren!" Kio exclaimed as he tried to lift up his now human fist. Moving his body around took a few minutes for him to figure out, but before long Kio was able to run around the room he and Willa were in.
"By the way, we need to get you some clothes, and also an identification card. We can't be having an unregistered citizen running around the city naked, now can we?" Willa said as she lightly blushed at her own handiwork. Kio was now a lean young man, with short dark hair and piercing blue eyes, but he was also packing a lot of heat.
"What for? I prefer to go all natural!" Kio said as he jumped into the air and practiced using his spikes. He was able to create spikes that went up and down his back, for protection, as well as out of elbows and hands, for attacking. Using the spikes came naturally to him because he had always had spikes, but becoming invisible was a lot more difficult. Every time he moved, Kio would need to change the way his body looked so he could blend in with his surroundings.
"Keep practicing with your camo, while I go get you the items you need," Willa said before she left the room. Looking around, Kio noticed a multicolored wall on the left side of the room, that he could use to get quicker at changing his skin color as he moved. Walking over to the wall, Kio noticed that he had the ability to see three hundred and sixty degrees around his body, so he could change his entire body to match the area around him.
Around an hour later, Kio had become slightly more proficient in manipulating his body's color to his surroundings, and now there was only a slight lag as he moved around. Nodding to himself, Kio wondered where Willa had gone for so long.
'She said she was just getting clothes and an ID, so why is it taking so long?' Kio thought as he opened the door and looked out into the hallway. The hallway was long, with multiple doors on both sides that led to various rooms. Above each door was a small plack that told people what the rooms were used for. 'Hmm, I should look for the room that has identification on it," Kio thought as he walked down the hallway. Reading the doors, Kio was surprised by the uniqueness of each room. There were rooms used to send people all over the place, such as the demon realm, heaven realm, anime realm, big-chested waifu realm, and all other sorts of places.
"I wonder what big-chested waifus are," Kio said as he passed the room and kept walking. Eventually, he stopped in front of a room that said identification, and there were multiple people walking in and out of it. A few stopped to glance at him, as he was still undressed, but he had managed to hide his bottom half with his new camo power.
"Kio? What are you doing here?" Willa asked as she appeared next to Kio and handed him a red hoodie and some jeans to put on, there was no underwear though. Once Kio had put the clothes on he was handed some shoes and socks to put on as well.
"I just came to find out what was taking you so long, sorry if I'm not supposed to be here," Kio said as Willa tied his shoes for him. 'Never going to untie these things again, that looks too complicated' Kio thought as he watched Willa tie the other shoe.
"Well, I got your paperwork and everything, so all you need to do is go to the academy now," Willa said as she handed Kio the paperwork and ID and tapped him on the back.
'Poof'