Lying to the Lizardfolks

Ultimately, Jin could only yield to the pressure. He found himself in the lady lizardfolk's living room, sitting on her couch.

She sat down as well, gawking at him.

"I'd like to hear a bit about my good friend Pearl Pierce. But I wanted you to meet my Granddaughter first," she scratched her skin, "You know what, let me hear something about her while we wait for Hara."

Jin rested his hood upon his back to show respect, reclined in the chair, and drawled, "Grandma lives like a robot. She legit does the same thing everyday. I don't know what else I can really tell you…"

"She still works that hard at her age!?"

"Yeah, and you frankly look like you're no different from her."

She laughed loudly.

He leaned forward, "No, I'm being serious. After you've come back home from your daughter's place, the first place I see you again is on your high rooftop!"

She chuckled again, "Yeah, I was just looking at how rusty it's gotten over the four months of me not being home."

"Yeah, but how the hell did you get all the way up there?"

"Ohh, I jumped. Didn't I show off how much higher a lizard folk could jump compared to a human?"

"No, you didn't but I've heard a rumor or two."

"I didn't know people go around telling rumors about how high we lizard folks jump."

"Ah, yeah. All the time, pretty much. At school, other races didn't tell the rumors though. They were rather from the lizard folks themselves."

She erupted into laughter, "That's so?! I guess we lizard folks really have nothing to boast about other than our jump heights!"

Jin then noticed that another figure had walked into the living room. It was a young female lizardfolk. She stood there, with her hands behind her back.

She wore a white dress, a blonde wig, lashes, and pink lipstick. She was tall, and skinny, with a long tail poking out from behind her lower body.

Her skin was rough, and greyish. And her eyes were just as round as Miss Linda's.

Miss Linda then stood, standing next to the other lizardfolk.

Looking at Jin, she then said, "This is my daughter's daughter—my granddaughter," she chuckled, "Hara, Jin. Jin, Hara."

This 'Hara' couldn't look Jin in the face at all, when Jin was in truth the one frightful.

***

Jin sat down next to the younger lizardfolk, and couldn't help but notice how weird she was acting.

Constantly, she would dart her pupils to the corners of her huge rounded eyes and dart them away; just to get a glimpse at him. What's more, she kept fixing her hair, and her clothes.

But the worst of all, was the fact that a fly couldn't pass by without her being the one to quickly trick-shot it with her tongue.

"Sorry for leaving you guys all awkward and silent," said Miss Linda, walking out of another room and into the living room again.

"It's just that I got a call from Hara's mother."

To Jin, it was more obvious that she was lying, than how obvious it was that her granddaughter liked him.

Truthfully, she only left them both there so that they could speak together alone, and hopefully bond a bit. Again, understanding this was no sweat to Jin.

"No problem, Miss Linda," Jin forced a fake smile.

"Okay," she sat down on one of the couches, "You see Hara there? I stole her from her mother, and she's spending all summer here with me. Maybe this'll allow you two to get to know each other."

'Fuck no.'

"Sure thing," Jin replied, contradicting his thought.

Miss Linda smiled back at him.

"The reason why I couldn't help but ask her mother for her to spend time at my place, was because she's so damn cute that I just wanna spend time with her before I shed my last piece of skin, y'know?"

She looked at Jin, "Isn't she adorable, Jin?"

Jin glimpsed at her, "Uh…of course she is."

If this was what they called cute, Jin surely didn't want to meet their ugly.

"Why don't you guys talk to each other a bit? My Hara's a little shy, but I'm sure she'll come around if you try asking her some questions."

Sitting on the couch, Jin turned to face her again, and said, "Hey, Hara. Uh…how are you doing?"

She didn't reply.

"What about school…what subjects do you like?"

Honestly, Miss Linda had no idea who would ask about school on the first day of summer vacation but she simply watched on, letting it slide.

While looking at the lizard weirdo, Jin started to hear a strange sound. He looked around upon hearing it, trying to trace where it was coming from.

The lizardfolk surely noticed how strangely he was acting.

"You guys hear that?" He asked, still looking around.

Miss Linda grimaced at him, "Hear what?"

He looked at her again, "Ah, it's nothing. Maybe I'm just hearing things."

When suddenly, a hovering translucent screen appeared before his eyes, hovering in his field of view.

[Successor Revelation in 3 minutes, 59 seconds]

Jin's eyes widened at the screen. He was staring at the screen, but it came out to Miss Linda that he was staring at her.

She looked down at her body, making sure her clothes weren't revealing anything to the young man. Having seen that her clothes were fixed properly, she looked back up at him in confusion.

"Jin? What's wrong?"

'This means they can't see the screen…it's confirmed now.'

He quickly focused on the screen again.

[Successor Revelation in 3 minutes, 40 seconds]

"My favorite subjects are Math, Chemistry, and PE," finally replied Hara, looking at Jin.

"Jin?"

'What the heck is this thing talking about?"

"Jin?"

'Successor Revelation? It's gotta be something that's going to be revealed…but what?"

"Jin, are you okay?"

"I'm sorry, guys. I'm okay, I just…recalled something."

"You look worried. Can you tell us what it is if it's not too personal?"

'The screen earlier today showed something about a Successor having fallen. Are these successors people?'

"Jin, did you hear Grandma's question?"

'Are the Successors…'

"Like me?" He thought out loud.

The lizardfolk looked at each other, and looked back at Jin.

"What did you say, Jin?"

Jin snapped back into the present, "Huh? What's that?"

[Successor Revelation in 3 minutes, 12 seconds]

"Never mind. I was just asking if you could…share what you remembered with us…"

"If it's not too personal," added Hara.

"Oh, it's…a tragic memory. I don't feel comfortable about sharing it with you—I'm really sorry about that."

"It's okay."

The lizard girl faced Jin, "What are your favorite subjects?"

"They're Math, Chemistry, Physics and uh…Biology. I'm a science guy. What about yours?"

She looked at him, pursing her lips. Then she smiled and asked, "So you didn't hear my answer a while back? Fine, I'll just tell you again. I like Math, Chemistry, and PE."

Jin quickly looked at the screen to check how much time he had left.

[Successor Revelation in 2 minutes, 37 seconds]

"Jin?"

"Ohh, sorry about that," he scratched his head, "Good choices. PE's awesome for a body like yours. All the lizardfolks at my school are athletic."

Her skin crimonsed, "Yeah, we pretty much all are," she stroked a finger through her hair, "Literally."

"I know."

"PE's the only subject I beat the other girls in my school at. I beat the Elves, Orcs, Hobgoblins, Trolls, and even other lizardfolks. It's the only time I really get attention. I like and hate this attention at the same time though."

"I can relate. But you said 'the other girls'—what school do you go to?"

"It's an all-girl's school."

"Is it Frodmound Girls'?"

"Yeah," she blinked her eyes a few times, "how did you know?"

[Successor Revelation in 2 minutes, 02 seconds]

'I gotta get out of here before I find myself in a compromising position.'

'What if it reveals to them that I have this thing? What would happen then?'

"Jin?"

"Sorry again. What did you ask?"

"My school. How did you know?"

"Just a hunch. You know I go to a school in that area as well. Bishop College."

"You go to that school? I wanted to go there, but I didn't do well enough in my exams."

"Yeah, it's a good School, but it's not what it used to be anymore."

"Why'd you say that?"

"Just anyone could get into Bishop College now. There are Delinquents running all about the school."

"Okay, but I'm pretty sure you'll find what you call 'delinquents' anywhere you go so…"

Jin then stood and sat on his wheelchair, looking at the female lizardfolks. Then, he sighed, and said, "Ladies, thank you a lot for inviting me in and all, but I gotta go now. I haven't taken my pills and such so my mind's straying away every minute or so."

Miss Linda stood as well, "Yeah we understand you. You can leave—the gate's open. Just be sure to come back sometime, would you?"

"Yeah, no problem at all. I enjoyed my short stay here. Your granddaughter's really cool as well. See ya'," he walked through the door.

If Hara could have blushed as a lizard, there would be no stopping her.

***

Jin was hiding behind the very wall he had hidden his wheelchair before; Miss Linda's wall. For the reason that he didn't know what would happen next after the countdown.

Looking at the screen, Jin's heart was crashing into his chest.

[Successor Revelation in 03 seconds]

[Successor Revelation in 02 seconds]

[Successor Revelation in 01 second]

At the end of the countdown, he felt as if his heart would explode. His eyes were widened, he was panting loudly.

Peering at the new screen that appeared, he became even more perplexed.

[You can now be easily detected by Successors]

"What?"

"That's it…"

'The successors are living beings, given that the screen says I can be detected by them.'

Suddenly, a green glowing hovering ring appeared around Jin's neck.

Quickly, he started moving away, but it acted as a part of him now, going wherever he might go. It was around his neck, leaving a lot of excess space, and not touching his body by any means.

Looking down at the hovering green ring, Jin scowled, "What the fuck is this? God, I hope others can't see this. I really hope they can't."

'I mean, the screen only said that successors could see me. Clearly the successors can't be normal people, right? And where did it mention anything about ordinary people seeing me?'

***

In short, the hovering green ring had disappeared from around Jin's neck after a while. It simply disappeared, still not doing any harm to him in its disappearance.

Tired after yet another long day, Jin decided to finally go home. He was in his wheelchair, going in the direction of the house, with his exhausted eyes slit.

Rolling the wheelchair, he could feel just how grim the environment felt. In spite of him being in the broad daylight, it was a dark, cold day as always.

He, eyes partially opened, rolled his wheels in front of the door to his house. Sighing, he put his hand around the doorknob.

With his other hand, he passed his fingers through his jet black, curly hair, and licked his dried lips. Then he finally revolved the door knob, pulling the door open.

His golden brown eyes promptly expanded after opening the door. He stood there surprised.

Before him stood an elf with blonde hair, blue eyes. Wearing an orange jacket, and black skinny jeans.

Raising a brow, Jin uttered, "Dobby?"