"Daaad George and Ryan are bullying me again"

"Tom nobody likes a tattle tale. now you three stay in the park and keep an eye on each other Ryan's in charge. I'll be in Grandmas and Grandpas house across the street if something happens. Got it?"

"Yes dad" we said somewhat in unison and we watch as Dad walks away.

"You hear that Tom I'm in charge so now you have to eat it"

"I'm not eating a worm that's gross"

He proceeded to hold it close to my face  "come on don't be a sissy"

I shove his hand away and began running yelling "I'm not eating it!"

"I'm faster than you! You can't run away from me!" Ryan yelled back and started following me with more of a jog then a run

I then decided to go through two parked cars to get them to lose sight of me. I then saw a car appear seemingly out of nowhere. I had ran too far into the street causing me to get hit. my leg had slid under the car and got run over causing both my lower leg bones in my right leg to break.

"Oh sh*t, kid are you okay" the man said as he got out of the car 

I wasn't able to say anything for about 10 seconds I was too in shock to do anything before I just started bawling my eyes out.

Ryan came running over saying "O my God Tom please don't tell dad you're fine it's going to be fine"

"I don't think you can keep this a secret kid he has an extra joint in his leg." the man said as he rummaged through the glovebox to get his phone. hey you go run and get your father or whoever is looking after you."

George silently nodded and turned around to get him

**

Sun light began to illuminate the room causing me to slowly wake up.

Ugh why did I have to dream about that. I could remember the aftermath well I was brought to the hospital and after the surgery my parents scolded me and I wasn't allowed to play video games for the rest of the year. Like not being able to walk for six months wasn't enough. That's why I've gotten into reading so much. It was the only thing I could do for half a year and I've never gotten out of it. To be completely honest it's embarrassing that's the reason I got hit by a car should've just eaten the worm.

..... Wait a second, this wasn't my room. I quickly looked around before remembering. "Oh right lizard thing." I said returning to being half asleep.

I drag myself out of bed and grab my satchel. I needed to look around and perhaps learn more about this world. I also needed a way to make more money what I had wouldn't last long.

As I went outside the sun rays hit my skin and it felt wonderful like how you'd expect waking up from a good sleep should feel like.

Was this because I was cold blooded that would make sense I was technically a reptile. I really need to learn my biology. If I'm cold blooded does that mean I can go longer without eating. 

I shake my head and begin walking I have to stay on task. First I should look around and get a general understanding of the layout maybe find places I could work.

..... is that a library I mean I also need to learn about the world and it's not like the town's going anywhere and from all the signs and people talking it was probably in English, ...for some reason, well at least I don't have to learn a new language. 

I quickly heard over to the library. As I'm about to enter I hit my head on the top of the door frame causing me to quietly say "oww god damnit! why is everything so short." I then duck my head to enter properly.

The library was pretty big though because of my tail I wouldn't be able to turn around easily especially when I'm between the shelves. As expected everything was in English though I didn't really know where I should start I guess I should just start browsing.

***

Meline was sleeping on a pile of books with a couple of pillows that were thrown far away due to her writhing around.

Ever since she started working at the library, around one and a half years ago, she has secretly been living in the attic that nobody had been using. Using old books that she was supposed to throw out as furniture. She did all this to save as much money as she could perhaps travel and see some of the places she had read about.

Meline slowly wakes up hearing movement below "ugh why is someone here so early." She thought "I guess I better get down there and make sure we're not getting robbed." 

She gets up her body sore and stiff from the "bed" of books which is only slightly better than the floor if at all. 

She silently left the attic, to prevent anyone from discovering where she's been sleeping. Grabbing a pile of books she has to put back on the shelves she begins to pretend like she's been working for a little while.

She then begins to look for whoever is here without looking like she's looking for them. It wouldn't take long the library wasn't big but the bookshelves made it easy to loose sight of people.

When she looked between two rows of bookshelves she immediately froze and almost dropped the books she was carrying. It was tall probably as tall as an ogre though much less round and bulky so ultimately not nearly as intimidating as an ogre but it was still massive compared to her.

She knew it was a lizardman she has seen one before. they were the only non mammalian race of people but it looked so different from the drawings and the one she's seen in person. 

"Was it one from the mangroves" she thought to herself. "Everyone know there were tribes of lizardmen in the mangroves but no one has actually seen one of them before. Can they even read why is it in the library"

She knew that it wasn't from the rainforest or the archipelago that made up Saares because it's scales would be green or blue and besides they only get a little bit taller than humans. 

Meline, after gaining some composure, quickly hid herself from it's view and placed the books down on a little table. She then quietly walk down an isle to get behind the lizardman to have a smaller chance at getting spotted while observing it.

***

I looked at the books examining each one but haven't really found one that would give me much information or at least didn't sound like it'd have anything important. 

As I looked at the books I was surprised by the amount of fiction. I don't know what I expected but I didn't really expect fairy tails when fairies exist, well at least I think I do. Well I guess it'll be fun to learn about what kind of fiction is written here when I'm settled down and know what's going on.

I get to the end of the isle finding nothing of importance. Hopefully I don't search this entire library and find nothing that'd be a waste of a day.

I spot a small pile of books on a table the bottom one being the biggest book I've seen in this library so far and I look through the books. 

• "Undiscovered mysteries of the tundra" (folk lore)
• "Ancient bones"
• "Islands in the sea of dragons"
• "Early witch craft"
• "History of all sentient species"

The last one was perfect. It at the very least explains the different peoples I can expect to come across. It also most likely will tell me about different countries and regions.    

I went over to a table in the corner and opened the book I knew I was definitely not going to read the whole thing but I knew where I wanted to start. 

Reading it was fairly interesting the archeology was definitely more advanced than I'd think it would be in this era. Though I guess things advanced differently than in my world. 

According to the book evidence of lizardmen goes back 600,000 years. Compared to the next race of people who arrived at most 400,000. 

It then just talks about the theorized culture and life styles. And how they got pushed out of many habitat from the arrival of other races such as humans, orcs, and renard's a short fox like species.

But what I was most interested about the more modern history.

"There are 2 separate populations of lizardmen, perhaps some more in unexplored regions. The rainforest/ archipelago in the east known as the country Saares and a smaller population in the Great mangrove swamp in the West though they've been separated for more than 100,000 years it would be highly likely that they've diverged into two separate species. But with the very low amount of information about the mangroves we cannot say for certain."

The country Saares it is made up of a tropical archipelago as well as a large portion of the Eastern rainforest. A fairly recent country formed just 200 years ago by a former tribal chef a lizard man named Usk meaning iron because of his strange silver colored scales on his arms.

As he grew up he heard about the many nations on the mainland and desired to form something similar with the other lizardmen tribes. He feared the chance of foreign powers taking control of his land so as soon as he got to power after his father's death he quickly made his move.

He swiftly conquered his island, the largest one within the archipelago, then using ship's bought by a northern human kingdom of maaKiefer. He began his famous expeditions hoping from Island to Island gifting cooperative tribes and destroying any who stood against him. Being the first of these tribes to trade with the outside world gave him a large advantage. Arming his soldiers with metal instead of wood or leather he received almost no casualties in all of his conquest. 

Then there was the mainland rainforest after uniting the archipelago he only had there to go in order to unite all the known lizardmen but it was not nearly as easy. these tribes have already dealt with many outside intruders for thousands of years and thus had experience with enemies with metal armor.

 In his first attempt he had lost 3/4 of his troops around 9,000 to the tribes 500 reported casualties a humiliating defeat. 

His second attempt was only slightly better at 12,000 lost to the enemies 2,000 

He did not attempt again until 10 years later with 22,000 troops where the entire expedition team never returned including himself 

After 2 months without any messages from king Usk. his oldest child a daughter later called spear took the throne and quickly quelled the instability caused by the kings death in less than a month.

She like her father wanted a strong United nation but unlike her father she was very traditional. She did not wanting to copy the nation's on the mainland she saw those large cities as disgusting and against the goddess of nature, so much of the construction of modern buildings stopped throughout the nation.

Regarding the rainforest she still desired to incorporate it into the kingdom but she decided to focus on internal affairs. First gaining more loyalty from all regions making the nation much more united and less likely to collapse with the slightest bit of pressure. She traveled and met with the Lord's and the people making herself more known and connected to the regions.

7 years after her father's last attempt at gaining control over the rainforest she finally decided to make her attempt. She first sent out an expedition team to map the coastline and perhaps find a friendly trib. In hopes to find a safe place to land without being attacked. 

She successfully landed constructing a defensive fort. The first proper fort Saares had ever constructed called fort avo, a rather lackluster name, it was named this because it was the area they  first encountered the avocado fruit. This fort very quickly became the military capital of the nation.

It wasn't long after this when she'd unite the rainforest tribes under Saares. Pinning the strongest ones against each other and destroying uncompetitive settlements putting people loyal to the kingdom in charge. in the end the land area of the country had tripled and most modern borders have been agreed to.

The spear of Saares was by far the most influential ruler in the the nation's history with almost every policy she created still being in use .Saares thus has the most unique cities I've ever seen with so much trees and vegetation you couldn't know how far away from the end you were until you were there.

Thought I must admit seeing this backwards species in person was unsatisfactory. they are ultimately a primitive species whose extinction should have reached them a long time ago that I can only imagine they only avoided because of their devotion to the nature goddess. Their only achievement have been through impersonating modern species and....."

I close the book it was ... informational thought I would probably have cut the racism at the end. Well that wasn't my decision 

I flip threw the page reading some of the other species sections and there was much more details there was lists of major battles important generals the lizardmen section was definitely half assed. well that's disappointing 

I pull out of mirror hesitant to look at my reflection again. physically everything feels real but mentally it just all feels fake like how is it possible it just couldn't be.

I open it and the only thing I noticed was the human girl standing behind me looking over my shoulder. 

I immediately jumped up and turned around causing my tail to knock the chair over. She also gets startled by my sudden movement backing away from me.

How did she sneak up on me like that I thought to myself I could easily see both walls from the corner I was sitting in. was I that focused on the book. 

"Oh um, hello when did you get here and how did you get so close to me."

She didn't reply. She just fiddled with her necklace looking embarrassed that she got cought.

"Well I will need an answer" I say trying to sound like I'm not completely baffled and confused 

She points to her mouth then shake her head 

I tilt my head "what?" 

She makes a talking motion with her hand and then uses the other to stop it.

"What does that mean?" 

Her embarrassment quickly turned into annoyance at that. Pointing at her mouth she mouthed "I... can... not... talk"

At that I closed my eyes and covered them with my hands. Oh God I was stupid she was obviously mute I had met a mute kid in elementary school. My parents told me to stay away from him because he's "weird".

As I was about to say something everything became blurry and very wavy before I collapsed onto the table.