The Ruby Empire

Jasper the Lizardfolk

You wake with a start, thrashing your arms out as you try to knock the cannons away. You scream, your voice escaping out as a tiny sleepy squeak. After a moment and the smoke in your mind cleared you opened your eyes and lowered you arms slowly when all you see above you is dusty rafters, spider webs and vines decorating them.

You turned your head left seeing a window covered by burlap curtains and a chair covered by the blood-stained cloak and your shoes in the seat. Turning to the right, you saw a door, it was stained red with a bronze latch. Sitting up and looking around the room that smelled like dust and autumn leaves. It was clean, just unlived in. You slip from the bed, feet touching the cold stone floor. You were in your underclothes and were unsure where your dress was or how you came to be undressed.

You about slowly, unsurely. Was this a dream too? Standing before the window and pushing the burlap aside you peer outside, the light was blinding at first, but you saw beyond the glare to a path winding through rows and rows of trees. You heard a river babbling and trickling near by. There was a horse tied near the side of the house, he tossed his head and whinnied.

"That's right," you think as you walk away from the window. "He came to my room." You touch your lips with chapped fingertips. "He came to me, drunk and crying and covered in blood. He stole me away. He took me away from the war and the soldiers..."

You sit down in the chair, unsure if you were happy and relieved or if you were even more terrified than before. Lord Jasper was no knight, he was a killer, a brutal one at that, but just one of many kept at the palace. He belonged to the King's so called 'Beauties Regiment', a group of supposed knights who were all monsters. Lord Jasper was a lizard monster who claimed to be the son of a blacksmith and a dragon. Even with this against him, half his face was melted and gnarled by fire. He didn't have a story for this. Unlike most of the men in the King's service, he had shown you some tenderness before. He was frightening yes, but of all the blackhearts at the castle, LOrd Jasper was the only one who touched yours.

The door opened and you quickly cover yourself as Lord Jasper comes inside. He had a bundle over his shoulder and another in his hand. He tossed the smaller one on the bed. "I got your clothes from the dress I sold," he snarls as he points to the bundle. "Change into them when you're ready."

"Ready for what?" You whimper quietly.

His gray eyes scanned you for a moment. You look down, wondering what he sees. "When you're just read," he scoffs, leaving and closing the door.

You sit for a moment longer, remembering now how you had run. You had traveled all night and into the morning. You nearly fell off his horse you were so tired and weak. He had stopped just long enough to pick you up and place you in his lap. He had been warm and he held you so strongly. You reminded of when you father would take you on horseback sometimes and hold you in his lap as you held onto the reigns.

There was a strange hollow thwack that came from outside, it made you jump. It sounded like when the king ordered the command at your father's execution. You stood and looked out the window, seeing Jasper with an axe, chopping logs of wood. His armor was gone, you had never seen him without armor before. You watch for a long time as he chopped the logs. He seemed to split them with such ease, but he still sweats and heaves with the effort. You had only ever seen Jasper swing a sword and even then only then at people. It was almost funny to watch him chop wood. Like watching the knights use their swords to slice butter and cheese.

You open the package he had dropped on her bed, it had two dresses inside and a pair of plain shoes. You change into one of the dresses, it was a pale peachy color with a black skirt and leather belt. You leave the little bedroom and look around the first room was quite large and warm with the sunshine. There was a massive stone fireplace with a cauldron inside. Before it a large wooden table with a bench on each side. The package Jasper had been carrying was laid on the table along with a basket of apples and a jug of wine. To the other side of the room was a small nook with a window and shelves on each side. A door stained green, Jasper's armor laying beside it. Everything was dusty and on the stone floor, you could see every footstep that had been taken.