Chapter 2 – Just in Time for a Bloom.
Tom's thoughts… Goblins and Orcs are considered separate species in fantasy due to their distinctive size differences with Orcs being above two metres in height on average and Goblins being half a Human in height at around a metre or slightly more, as well as Orcs being usually depicted as being greatly more aggressive with frontal confrontations than the Goblins which are shown as being opportunistic and cowardly with most fleeing if a battle cannot be won. However, in some fantasy settings there is a species that bridges the gap between these two humanoids being called the Hobgoblin and having a similar height to a human with similar mental capacities which results in a talk about convergent evolution for Hobgoblins and Humans to occupy the same niche in an ecosystem, which can also be applied to Halflings and Goblins since both again occupy a niche of small hunters and gatherers. Also, a good question is at which point is a tall Goblin considered a Hobgoblin?
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An additional three months later and Tom has spent a grand total of two hundred and thirty two days in this life as a lizard.
'Life is tough, but I know it's going to get worse before it gets better especially with Autumn bringing in a new set of challenges as the leaves fall off trees and most insects go into hibernation along with birds migrating and suddenly everyone has less food and shelter.' Currently Tom has to spend a lot longer on his sunbathing rock in the clearing every morning to get the required body temperature to move at full speed, with it taking longer to wake up and move to the clearing and his underbrush hiding spot becoming a pile of leaves leaving Tom with a lot of worries about his home in winter. The temperature is becoming unbearable on Tom and his instincts bring attention to need of a warm hiding place that is either underground or a crevice somewhere that can hide his entire body. 'There are three options for a home, find someone with it and live there with them similarly to a grizzly bear cave or some magical creature that wont bother him and few will bother it, find a home where he can fit, or kill some creature and take its home like a rabbit or a rats home since the field mouse found around his clearing are a tasty meal but not housed in burrows large enough for a 3 horned lizard.' With a plan in mind I must say goodbye to my now rather brown patch of a clearing and go find a new home preferably before it snows and I get frozen, so I climb the nearest tree and finally get a view of my surroundings without just leaves getting in the way, the view was stunning with large mountains seeming to go on forever on one side and the other a field of large trees with no leaves and some Noble Fir evergreen trees.
'The journey is harsh as a small lizard with all the new scents and prowling predators still stocking up on fat for winter, which would probably confirm that it will in fact snow very soon and I need to find a hibernation home, the forest is littered with felled tree but most are not rotting so I can't dig through them and the others are made of wood comparable to wet cardboard with how they are easily ripped apart by me but at least in such cases I can refill my belly and keep my nice chunkiness on the various grubs and insects that had such low standards for their homes.' It was a week before I found a suitable home in the form of a rabbit running around in some bushes, and then I found some more so this home will have to be shared accommodations but that will be fine considering the error in my Judgement as all other three horned lizards are by now no where to be seen and its very cold, should have went towards the mountains as that is probably where I could have found a crevice to hide as it would also fit my colouration scheme of being grey and having good climbing claws but poor digging claws, but then again I should have also realized this sooner and maybe listened to my instincts rather than gluttony for mice and beetles, was a bit of a shame how fast the Cicada went away in summer. As I approach the entrance of one of the burrows at middle of the day I see the rabbits spring up in panic as they raise on their back feet, but I care little for their worries of being eaten even if they look rather juicy I have my priorities and I will be damned if I have to stay outside in this cold any longer, as I near to the entrance there is a sound.
*Thump *Thump *Thump
The sounds of rabbit feet on the packed earth are loud as I can only see five above ground but clearly hear more from my approaching hole and as I enter I come face to face with a real big bun. It blocks the entire passageway and is clearly intent on making me leave *Grrrrhm *Grrrrhm the grunts do little do move me as I move down and bite on his nose causing the rabbit to pull away leaving fur and nose in my mouth and a retaliation strike to be aimed at my head as the large incisors bite down, however my horn takes the brunt of the attack and smashes into the rabbits large front teeth allowing me to quickly pull away before aiming for the top of the head at around the eye level causing a lot of noise and thrashing.
*Screee *Screee
The rabbit thrashes and squeals as it tries to pull back further into the burrow but my teeth don't let go from their purchase on his skull, the serrated teeth are soon followed by my front claws as they tear blindly at what I assume to be a rabbit in front of me in this messy tunnel fight until after a long while the screaming dies down and we are back to a peaceful atmosphere and the scent of a fresh kill. I push the rabbit down further into the burrow to a T intersection where I leave the body for now and go left in the tunnel where I reach what appears to be a brooding room filled with fluff, straw, hair, feathers and twigs making for a lovely and warm bed along with a meal that I left just behind me. With a good stroke of luck I eat the rabbit in 2 days and finally head off into a deep slumber hoping to avoid the bitter cold and any other unwanted violent renters for the burrow, although that is rather hypocritical considering that I am the said unwanted company but you never know if one of the other rabbits will want revenge as they don't hibernate like I do but here is to hoping the bones outside my new suit are enough deterrent for them. But before the hibernation the lizard prays again, "I pray to the dragon God so that I don't have to live in this small tunnel and so that I may grow into a fearsome beast someday, but I will take an uninterrupted hibernation too, good night." As the lizard falls asleep somewhere far away and yet in a very familiar area a seed falls from a flying beast and hits a stone bouncing from it before quickly rooting itself in the soil, what it is and what it does is unknow but that is a mystery for later.
*Raaaw *Raaaaw *Grrrrr
*Scrrrr *Scrrrr *Scrrrrr
"Oh, dam it not again," the lizard says as it wakes up. Tom has not had a good hibernation yet as waking halfway through due to the sounds of the long-legged foxes is not fun and neither is the sounds of burrowing coming from above. As the little lizard looks up it sees the ceiling drop dirt down on top of it and has to shake its head to clear to dirt and close the slit eyes to blink the dust away but as It looks up again there is a snout popping into the lizards room and heaving in and out, so it gives the snout a good bite causing a *raaar and as the fox jerks its head up the slightly larger lizard than the hole gets stuck, quickly letting go before it can get pulled out of the hole and dashing out of the chamber past a pile of bones the lizard moves forward past the exit and further into the maze of this rabbit warren, as in a slowed down run due to still being cold. After making it to another chamber the lizard finds a nice spot with some fluff and curls in on itself to go back to hibernating into a deep slumber.
The lizard is only awoken again after a restful slumber and once it exits out the same way that it came by following its scent the outside world has already begun to bloom. It is the middle of the day as the burrow has only just now warmed up enough on the inside, but it looks like the rabbits decided to relocate and for nothing because now Tom has to go all the way back to his rock and territory a whole week away, luckily this time it should be much safer, and Tom would be much faster in the rising spring temperatures. The journey back is put on hold for a day though as Tom hunts a mouse and some insects to get rid of his starvation from hibernation before setting up a record for getting back home in under 3 days with a few large fuel stops at rotting logs that were packed full of larva like insects that were almost ready to leave their rotten homes, they were a bit like meal worms with long bodies combined with a tiny head and a few legs at the front resulting in their back halves almost snaking after the front in the rotten tunnels of the logs. However as the lizard reached the edge of its clearing it spotted something that did not know what it was, as it looked over at its basking spot there was a flower that looked like a dragon orchid, such a rare plant with a mesmerizing aura that immediately caught the lizards eye as it was just beside its now second favourite thing in the world, before the lizard even knew what had happened it had crossed the clearing in but a moment and the flower was gone, eaten whole in a single bite as all that was left was the stem and roots around the rock that held no interest of the lizard. Power slowly filled the lizard until a new equilibrium was reached in its body, however what changed would not truly manifest itself until later when Summer fully finished. In the meantime, the lizard said a prayer of thanks and left its basking rock to go out hunting for more food as it felt a need for more sustenance causing Tom to smirk inwardly, inadvertently causing a large toothy grin to appear shortly after on the lizards face for the rest of the day.