Chapter Text
"Wha-what do you mean, you won't marry me?" The lizard-girl's oval pupils glared upward along the long, shining blade. She lacked even a trace of fear in her contemptuous expression. "You won, idiot!"
Keeping the point of his sword at her throat, the armored knight shook his head in disbelief. "Be glad that I'm allowing what remains of your army to flee, scale-child. I could-"
"Child? Child!" One of her claws pulled at the remains of her form-fitting green leather armor, loosening it to reveal her chest. Not the wisest of things to do with a sword at one's throat, but she seemed to have something else on her mind. Her lightly tanned skin, marked with curving jade lines that undoubtedly meant something to other lizard-folk but nothing to the exasperated human, bore many proud scars. Her plump, perky breasts were also on full display, though she covered their most intimate parts with a forearm. Sweat dribbled down her muscular body, and each panting breath made her breasts bulge against the dark green armor that protected her arm.
The scaly, vicious claws that had torn rents in his armor now trembled slightly as late afternoon sunlight beat down upon the two warriors. Her sword was a short distance away, knocked from her grip in the last desperate moments of the battle. They had fought honorably while their armies jeered and taunted each other on the sidelines, blades clashing and armor shattering beneath their blows, but he had won. Her army of malformed monsters had fled almost immediately, leaving their supposed champion to certain death, while the rabble of peasants and hunters he led gave chase with unexpected valor now that their foes were routed. A fin-like fringe around her ears flared indignantly. "I'm of breeding age! I'm fit to nurse young! Don't call me a child, human, when I was a child I was still more than enough of a warrior to chop down the poachers who tried to steal momma's eggs!"
"Look, miss..." The knight raised his visor and wiped his forehead. It was hot in this armor, even though he could feel the breeze through the many gashes she'd torn in it. On more than one occasion he'd thought he was done for. "I know you lizard-folk are an honorable sort. Just give me your word upon your sword that you won't bother my village ever again, and I'll let you go."
"I don't want you to let me go, idiot human," she grumbled, drumming her fingers against the scabbard at her waist. "I want you to take me. Do you have any idea how many mud-wallowing peasant mobs I've beaten up? How many nobles I've knocked out of their saddles and dispossessed?" Fire flickered in her golden eyes, and her long tongue flicked out. "I've been beaten before, but not fairly, and never in a duel where it mattered. You're strong. It'll be good to have that strength." She started to pull herself upright, but he prodded her armored forearm with his blade until she halted. The lizard-girl's tail waggled behind her supine form, tip flicking from side to side just like a nervous man might pace back and forth. He kept one eye on it, she'd tripped him more than once with that tail. "My kind aren't like you humans, we know a good thing when we see it. You'd better hurry up and accept!"
"No." The knight shook his head, sheathed his sword, and walked away. He didn't have to deal with this. Sure, she was a skilled fighter, and even exhausted as he was he had felt certain parts go stiff at the sight of her full bosom, sweaty abdominals, and wide hips. Her monstrous features were extensions of the human form rather than deformations, giving her a fierce yet feminine appearance. The lizard-girl was certainly more attractive than the fattened hogs in dresses who kept throwing themselves at him back in the village, even with those slitted pupils and deadly claws. But he wasn't about to fall for her tricks. The rag-tag army of abominations she had led was full of horned beasts, slimy goos, and deformed half-men. She hadn't kept that rabble in check without plenty of cunning. As if she would really want to marry him, ha! "Go now, and do not return."
"I've got the rings right here!" she called after him, voice somewhere between a demand and a plea. Curious, he looked back. One claw held up the leather cord she wore around her neck, right next to the chain bearing identification tags which all lizard-folk of scrapping age seemed to possess. Upon the leather cord were two sliver rings, both braided with leather in a manner that prevented them from rattling. "I... I'm sorry they're only silver, I wasn't able to afford gold... but there's real gemstones in them! Um... small ones... you have to look close... H-hey, come back!" She sat upright as he continued walking away. "Don't just leave me here! That's no way to treat your faithful wife!"
"If I ever see you again," the knight called back wearily, "I shall thrust my sword deep inside you and end the danger you pose to the domains under my protection."
The fringe around her ears deflated, and her shoulders slumped. With one hand, she reached up and loosened the green bow that tied back her light brown hair, letting it fall almost to her shoulders. As she stared at the dents and gashes she had made in the back of his metal armor, tears welled in her golden eyes. In accordance with the best traditions of nature reacting to warfare, thunder rumbled in the distance as dark clouds swept swiftly over the battlefield. While the knight mounted his steed and galloped off toward the fortress to give his report to the political officers, trusting the peasantry to see to themselves as they always did, rain began to fall. His vanquished foe hugged her knees to her still-bare chest, rocking slowly back and forth while clutching the two silver rings in one scaly claw. The first drop hit the lizard-girl right on the nose, while the rest hid the water that trickled from the corners of her eyes.