Member-only story
Fragment: Lizard Bath
A short fiction fragment
He was a scraggly lizard — about 27 percent smaller than all the other lizards in his posse. Worse of all, his skin barely reflected blue like the others, so he was constantly targeted by other lizard posses because his offensive skills were so visibly limited. He wasn’t close to Claude, the Boss Lizard, who radiated metallic topaz blue when he was preparing for a fight; nope, he was closer to a clear day blue fade.
Sitting around with the posse got boring, though, and that’s what often got him into trouble: wandering off from the posse. He couldn’t help it though. Laying around on rocks all day, balanced with an occasional swim in the creek, just wasn’t working for him today. Or any day after the first few hours.
He tried to sneak away, but Quarx spotted him. “Don’t get into any trouble,” he said.
“Yeah, Phlex,” piped in Frung, “we don’t wanna have to save your tail again.”
Phlex looked over his shoulder at them and flicked his tongue twice. They closed their eyes, accepting his response but not believing Phlex would be able to stay out of trouble.
In a posse of outcasts, Phlex was at greatest risk of being tossed out because he kept getting into trouble. Many of his lizards had scars they’d received in rescuing him — and they never let him forget it…
