CHAPTER 1 – ANGRY KOMODO DRAGON

Outnumbered and surrounded, the King’s blue-belly lizards fought bravely. They had been ambushed in a terrible turn of events. Their enemies, the chameleons, knew they were no match for King Scelo and his blue-belly army, so they turned to deception . Masters of color change and disguise, the chameleons had convinced the island’s only remaining monitor lizard, Komo, that King Scelo was his enemy.

Fooled by the chameleon’s lies, Komo came upon King Scelo’s troops from behind. The lizards could not hold out against Komo; he was squashing five and ten lizards at a time under his clawed feet.

“We have to fight through them,” King Scelo commanded. He and his top commander, Talis, rallied the army to fight through to the hilltop at their right.

The chameleons fought hard. They knew, if they just held their ground, Komo would eventually come through. Nevertheless, little by little, the lizards fought their way to the hilltop.

“Form a circle around the King,” Talis shouted. The courageous blue-bellies did their best. The chameleons couldn’t break through.

The chameleon general, Cramstack, yelled for Komo. “Take that hill and you’ll have your revenge! The King is up there!”

Komo turned.

With the large monitor lizard approaching the hill, King Scelo turned to his commander. “Talis, take ten of your best soldiers, fight your way down the backside of this hill and get to the castle. Take the prince and move him to safety. Now!”

Talis knew this was it; he would never see his King again. Talis hesitated to leave the King he had so faithfully served for all these years.

Their eyes met. King Scelo knew what his commander was thinking. His training was to protect the King at all costs. What he was asking Talis to do went against every instinct his commander had ever known. “Do it for me. Do it for the future of our kind, do it now, hurry,” King Scelo said softly. With the love of a father in his eyes, he put his hands on Talis’ shoulders. “Tell my son I love him.”

With steely eyes, Talis saluted his King. He quickly picked ten soldiers and began fighting his way through the chameleon force on the other side of the hill.

Meanwhile, Komo was at the base of the hill. “Today you will pay with your life and your kingdom!” Komo shouted.

Komo has been confused by the chameleon’s lies; I must find a way to get through to him, King Scelo thought.

“What is your complaint, my old ally and friend,” King Scelo shouted back.

“You know what you have done! Don’t play dumb with me!” Komo fumed. “Your assassins killed my son, and now I’m the only monitor lizard left. You broke the treaty, my trust, and our friendship. All to make sure your son would rule this island unchallenged. Your evil will be judged this day!”

“But those were not my assassins,” King Scelo replied.

“They had your royal seal!” Komo exclaimed.

Oh those chameleons are good, the King thought. How can I get Komo to see the truth? His son is dead and he believes I did it.

Komo began up the hill, crushing blue-belly warriors beneath his feet. Anger and pain in his eyes, he was moments from reaching the King.

What can I say to convince him? The King thoughts raced as he watched his own warrior’s futile attempt to hold Komo back.

Komo’s large clawed foot came down swiftly, pinning King Scelo on the ground. “I will crush you slowly, painfully,” Komo seethed.

King Scelo, gasping for air, saw it. In a moment, in a vision flashing through his mind; assassins coming in at night, catching the young monitor lizard asleep. The tails, that’s it! King Scelo tried for one good breath, “the tails, did you see the assassins tails?”

“What?” Komo paused. He let up a little on the King.

“The tails, did you catch a glimpse of the assassins tails?” King Scelo cried.

“They came in too fast and left even faster. Yes, I saw their tails, lizards, with curled tails.” Komo was confused.

“We blue-bellies have straight tails, look around you. Chameleons have curled tails, they stole my royal seal and made it look like we did it. But we have always been your friends and allies. I would not break your trust. We are not liars like the chameleons.”

Komo began to feel sick. But the chameleon general had seen and heard too much. Cramstack had hidden some of his best troops in the tree on the hilltop. With a single command, these chameleons pounced on the monitor lizard and began stabbing him with their little swords.

Overcome by the sheer number of chameleons, Komo fell to the ground. “I’m so sorry, so sorry,” he breathed. “I didn’t know.”

King Scelo, crippled and near death himself, shouted to his remaining troops, “Retreat! Retreat!” Then the chameleons quickly overcame him as darkness fell.

 CHAPTER 2 – NEW PLANS

Too exhausted to notice their wounds, Talis and his remaining three soldiers ran to the castle gate. “Let us in! Let us in! By command of the King!”

The gate guards barely recognizing Talis, opened the drawbridge. He stumbled inside and called for Prince Louie. The wall guard ran to get the prince, who was only three years old.

What could the prince understand at his age? How could Talis explain all that had happened and all that it would mean? The time for explaining would have to come later. For now Talis had to move Louie out of the castle, but where?

“The chameleons will be coming soon. We don’t have the troops to defeat them. Take the prince and some supplies, we will head for the forest,” Talis commanded.

The small group of soldiers guarding the castle packed some supplies and with the prince, headed for the forest. Once inside the cover of the woods, Talis felt a little safer. They stopped beside a riverbank to rest and plan their next move. Talis was exhausted. The King is surely dead by now and General Cramstack and his chameleon forces are no doubt overrunning the land. Chameleon forces with a monitor lizard as their main weapon. Talis winced at the thought. No blue-belly lizard is a match against a monitor.

Suddenly Talis became aware of movement in the forest. Oh, no. Have the chameleons caught up with us so soon? Talis worried.

But from behind some bushes came a tattered soldier. “Commander, commander, I found you!” the soldier muttered. “Request permission to report, sir.” he said more clearly.

“Report soldier,” replied Talis, not really wanting to hear the bad news.

“The King…the King is dead. Our army is in retreat as the King commanded.”

“How many soldiers left?” Talis asked.

“A few, sir. After the King commanded the retreat, the chameleons backed off. Probably because they didn’t have the monitor lizard anymore.”

Talis was shocked. “They don’t have the monitor lizard?”

“That’s right, the King must have gotten through to him because the chameleons killed him right before they killed…before they killed the King,” the soldier said somberly.

        Talis had a glimmer of hope. With the chameleons left to themselves they had a chance. But then he also realized that most of the army was already crushed by the huge lizard. I need a plan, he thought. The King is dead. Any soldiers I find will be looking to me, at least until Louie is old enough to lead. I need wisdom, the wisdom of a king.

Later that day, after nursing their wounds and collecting a few more stragglers, Talis laid out his plan.

Talking to his soldiers, Talis explained. “First we need to build a base deep inside this forest. This will enable us to start rebuilding our forces and keep us safe from the chameleons, in case they come trying to find us. Chameleons are cowards at heart. If we use the forest as cover, they will be very unwilling to come in and get us.”

“But how will we rebuild our forces?” one soldier asked.

“The chameleons are fewer in number than the lizard folk. So I believe they won’t kill the peasants. They’ll probably use them as slave labor and keep them alive. So from time to time we will sneak into the villages and get young male lizards around fifteen years old, take them back into the forest and train them,” Talis replied.

“Ah, and with them, we will slowly rebuild our army,” the soldier observed.

“Yes! And when the time is right, we will reclaim this land in the name of the King and free the common lizards from the chameleon cruelty!” Talis exclaimed, feeling more hopeful as he heard the words coming through his own lips.

“This sounds like a good plan commander, but our King is dead, so…” replied another soldier.

“You’re forgetting the Prince,” Talis quickly interrupted. “We’ll have to find a good peasant family, one near the edge of the forest so we can keep a watchful eye on Louie. We’ll ask this family to take Louie as their own. He’ll have to blend in as a peasant. He’s so young, that shouldn’t be too difficult. Then when he’s old enough, we’ll take him into the forest as well, train him as a soldier and as our new King.”

“But what if Louie forgets who he is? I mean he is only three. How much will he remember of his father, of being a King, of being a good King?” the soldier questioned.

“That’s a risk,” Talis admitted. “But we have no other choice. We must trust that Louie will be ready when it’s time.”

And with that, the blue-belly lizards that had survived began to put their long and careful plans into place.

Meanwhile, looking over the newly captured castle grounds, General Cramstack was very pleased with himself. King Scelo was dead, the blue-belly army almost completely destroyed, and the land was his for the taking.

“We can’t find the prince anywhere,” reported the chameleon soldier.

“It’s not important now,” replied General Cramstack, rubbing his hands together. The chameleon general had a plan of his own.

Gathering his chief leaders together, General Cramstack gave his directions. “Congratulations soldiers, the island is ours! Now I want you to take the villages that have been assigned to you. Don’t kill the blue-belly peasants, unless you absolutely have to. They don’t have an army, so you are their rulers. To keep control over them, and to make sure there isn’t any trouble, tax them heavily and crush any of them that refuse to obey you.”

“But what about the prince, we didn’t kill the prince yet,” replied one leader.

“We have time to find the prince. He is especially young, and when we do find him, he will be easy to deal with,” replied the general. “Don’t worry about the prince. I’ll have our spies hidden in all the peasant villages. If the prince is out there, we will find him in due time. In the meantime, you take care of running your villages and collecting lots of taxes.”

“So when we find him, should I have him killed immediately?” asked the general’s chief spy.

“No, first let’s try and see if we can convince him to be one of us,” replied the ever thinking general. “Remember his father is dead. He is young and he won’t remember much about his father,” he sneered.

“Ah, so you want to make him one of us?” repeated the chief spy.

“Yes, if we can convert him into a chameleon prince, then he can be our little puppet King, all the appearance of a real King, but without any power. Yes, that would work very well for us. No rebel lizard would dare go against his true King. It would secure our hold on this land for a good long time,” the general said with pleasure.

“As you wish, general,” replied the chief spy. “I will report all to you as soon as we have located him.”

“Very well, leave me now, I have a new castle to move into,” the general responded, a neat little grin on his chameleon face.