The Lizard Wars

I got up and started another pot of coffee while I thought about how to answer Ariel.

"It looks like your people have two wars on your hands. One with the armies of Earth and the other inside your own rank and file. For your peoples own sake I hope they win the inside war." I told Ariel.

"I have another secret to tell you and it's even more important that no one knows about it including my troops. On Saturday Princess Yazear is coming here to visit me. I would like you to be here too. I will pick you up at your home at 5:00 AM and walk you here. Ok?" He said.

"Why would you want me here if it's a secret?" I asked not really wanting to get up that early on a Saturday.

"I want you to meet her for one thing. The other is she also likes coffee, but not when I make it." He said smiling at me.

"OK, then you'll pick me up at 5:00 AM and point me in the right direction so I can sleepwalk here." I jokingly told him.

"I know it's early, but it's for her safety." He said.

"Ariel. From what you told me about your people, I believe you were trying to also tell me that if we don't watch Anna and Private Shia, they could go beyond the point of friendship. Could he if that happens, well, could he get her pregnant?" I asked hoping for a no answer.

"YES. The possibility is very real. Even with anyone of my troops and any other female in this town. I don't want to scare the women of this town by telling them, because my men know I won't be happy about it. And if one of my men forced any woman, and I mean RAPE especially, I would have that man torn apart in front of the other troops and the town's people. I've already told my men this and they know I mean it to." He said.

"In that case I'd better not make a typing error I guess." I joked.

"I guess you'd better not then." He smiled at me.

  The Lizard Wars

By Miss Dreamer

Chapter 3

Very early Saturday morning, Ariel knocked on my door at 4:45 AM.

"Morning Ariel. I said as I handed him a paper cup with coffee in it."

"Thank you, Tina I need this on this chilly morning." He smiled at me as he took the coffee.

"It is a little cold for a spring day isn't it." I replied.

We started our walk to the town hall.

"Tina, yesterday I looked at that list the farmers gave you about the fertilizer they need for the crops. Do you think if I gave them a list of natural elements that they could mix themselves that will grow their crops faster and give them a better yield they would try it?" he asked.

"If you can show the farmers a better and faster way to get their crops and it works. I think they just might put up a statue of you in the center of town." I told him.

"Good I'll give you the list of ingredients and instructions for it, but please, NO STATUE, ok." He said with a little laugh.

"OK, no statue." Smiling as I said this.

When we got to the town there were no guards on duty as normal, only Corporal Lem standing in the road in front of the building. Ariel talked to him for a minute and then singled me to come inside with him.

Inside we went directly to his office. The woman standing in his office was looking out the window when we entered. From behind she looked more like a model out of a magazine than what I believed a lizard Princess might look like. Her legs looked as human as any earth woman. She had 4 inch high heels on with stockings too. The dress looked like a designer dress that fit her very nicely shaped body. She had shoulder length light brown hair. She turned around towards us and I could not have believed how beautiful and human like her face was.

"Ariel! How nice to see you again." She said in perfect English.

Ariel giving a small bow towards her. "It is also very nice to see you to Princess Yazear." He said with great respect.

"Ariel you are still far to formal to your old friend." She told him. Then she placed her arms on his shoulders and kissed his cheek.

"Princess Yazear, this is Mrs. Tina Foster." He said to her as he introduced me to Princess Yazear.

I started to bow to the Princess but she stopped me saying.

"Don't do that Mrs. Foster, Ariel, is already too formal to me, I would rather be your friend than a Princess any day." She said with a big smile.

"Ya , yes Princess Yazear I would like that." I told her.

"Please when we're not in front of any of my people, except of course Ariel. Please just call me Yazear. And may I call you Tina?" She said

"Of course Yazear, I would like that." I told her.

"Would you like some coffee Princess Yazear?" Ariel asked her.

"Your coffee or Tina's?" She said to Ariel.

"Tina's coffee Princess Yazear." Ariel said and I'm sure his face turned a little red even.

"In that case the answer is yes." Yazear told him.

I went off and made coffee while Yazear and Ariel talked, sometimes in their lizard language and sometimes in English. I brought the cups of coffee in on a tray with sugar and cream so anyone could prepare it as they liked it.

We all talked about things in general as we drank our coffee, just like old friends around the coffee table. This gave me some time to take a better look at Princess Yazear when she was talking to Ariel. I now could see some signs of lizard about her. On the top of her feet and at her wrists there were very faint small scales. Just above the helm of her low cut dress on her breasts were the same very smalls scales. Her skin was a little lighter than mine but it was skin the same color as any human.

"Ariel, I'm sure I'm keeping you from your work so why don't you leave me and Tina alone for awhile and then we can have some girl to girl talk. OK?" Yazear told Ariel.

"Of course Princess Yazear. I do have a lot of work to do this morning." He told her and left the room.

"Ariel is one of the nicest men I know. Do you agree Tina?" She asked me.

"I would definitely have to agree with you. I have found him to be very kind and concerned about not only his men, but the people of this town." I told Yazear.

"I'm glad to hear you say that. He told me that at the start of this stupid war your husband was killed, and I'm very sorry for that. That is correct isn't it?" She asked me.

"My husband was reported killed within the first month, we had been married only for two months." I sadly told her.

"My husband was also killed in the first month of this war too, so I know how you feel." She explained to me.

"I'm very sorry for your loss Princess Yazear. I'm afraid many women from both our worlds are stuck in that situation now." I told her.

"Did Ariel tell you that he is my third cousin?" she asked.

"No. I didn't even know you were coming here until he told me the other day. That means he is then part of the Royal family, correct?" I asked her.

"Yes and no. Anything greater than second cousin is not considered of the Royal family." Yazear explained.

"That's too bad, I think he'd make a very nice knight in shining armor." I told her smiling at her.

"Yes he would be that, I'm sure." She said.

"When did Ariel tell you about my husband, Yazear?" As I didn't think they had enough time to talk about it earlier.

"Ariel wrote me a letter, mostly about you I might add, asking for help checking on your husband. I haven't found anything yet, but I do have friends in high places." She told me.

"A letter about me?" I questioned.

"Yes Tina. Mostly about you. Ariel has been for as long as I've known him devoted to his career in the military. I think he's always tried to prove to everyone that he is more than just almost Royalty, but rather a very good soldier and man. So I was very surprised at how much he talked about you in his letter. Since I was making a tour of our hospitals just south of here I wanted to meet you for myself. I can understand now why you have impressed him so much." She told me with a large smile on her face.

I know my mouth was wide open and the shocked look on my face showed my surprise to Princess Yazear.

"Tina I'm sure you know that you're a very beautiful woman. I'm sure men who were not your husband have watched you before. Sometimes you, just as I, don't like it, but I believe any woman would like it a lot less if no one ever looked either." Yazear said to me which brought me back to the real world.

I couldn't answer Yazear. I could only nod my head yes, as I remembered how on my honeymoon my husband teased me about all the men we passed on the beach boardwalk who looked at me with envy of the man she was with. I was both embarrassed and also flattered at the same time.

"Don't be embarrassed Tina. My late husband was so shy when I met him I couldn't get him to talk, but everywhere I was at this party we were at if I turned around he was watching me like a sick puppy." We were married for 22 years and he was still shy to the end." Yazear said both sadness and joy showed on her face.

"Yazear, there is this girl in town, she 17, Private Shia, who is 18, had saved her from a fire it seems she may now be attracted to Private Shia and he to her I think. Ariel has been worried about this. I want to bring her to work in the office because Private Shia has no problems talking to her in perfect English and she can teach him about our computers. I told him we could both keep an eye on them. Now from what you've just said I'm wondering if he's right about them and if maybe I might need someone to watch me too." I said not too sure of what I was feeling in this situation now.

"You're not too sure about you're feelings right now I'm sure. I don't think Ariel is sure about his feelings either. I think your both scared at this time, I could see it in both of your eyes. You lost a husband less than a year ago, Ariel is now for the first time in his life afraid about losing his career goals. Nothing may happen, only the heart can tell you both later what you both want and feel if anything. The two teenagers you talk about are too young to think about possible consequences of their actions now, that only comes with age. No matter how much you watch them or check their reactions towards each other, if it's going to happen it will." She finished saying.

"Do you know what could happen in this town if people heard about something like this being done even if both do it willing?" I said to Yazear.

"I'll tell you a secret that Ariel doesn't know, and shouldn't either, I personally know about a dozen of his troops in this town that I met with them one at a time before I came here. You're both to late it's already happened a number of times in this town. And I do mean consensual and unprotected SEX." She said.

I knew from looking at her it was the truth. I got us both another cup of coffee and we both sat there in silence for a while.

"Ariel was right you do make very good coffee. He said you won't tell him the secret because it's a woman secret. Since it's a woman secret and I'm a woman will you tell me. I promise it will stay a woman secret too." She asked.

"There really isn't a secret, but we woman of this planet tell each other it's the LOVE we put in the making of it for a loved one." I said a little embarrassed.

"Ah. That's like a kind of tea my people make. We tell the men the same thing about it and they have never figured it out to this day." She said as we both started to laugh.

Ariel knocked on the door and asked if he could come in. Yazear told him to please come in and he did.

"I'm sorry for disturbing you Princess Yazear, but I have to send a document from my computer to Tina's computer so I can work on it there, it will only take a minute if that's ok." He said.

He sent the document then he excused himself and left.

Yazear looked at me with a frown on her face.

"I believe that's the first time Ariel has ever lied to me. He didn't need to send that file to your computer did he?" She asked.

"No, no he can excess his computer from mine and he knows that." I said hoping I hadn't gotten him in trouble.

"I thought so. Whenever two or more women get together if they laugh out loud the men will find an excuse to go where they are. I think they believe we're talking about them. Which we usually are!" She said and we both laughed out loud again.

We talked for about an hour and a half after that about everything we both could think about. I really liked this woman. I felt like she was the best friend I'd ever had.

"I hate to stop this, but I better get going before I'm missed." She said with sorrow in her voice.

We went to my office where I believe Ariel was now pretending to be working.

"Ariel, in the box over there are three light blue telephones. Some of my people should be here tomorrow to install them. They go directly to my residence and are encrypted so if anyone tries to listen it will sound like it's a call to or from the King's headquarters that should scare most from spying." She told him.

She than kissed him as she had this morning. Then she kissed and hugged me and asked me to walk her to her car. Ariel led the way about 10 feet ahead of us.

"Tina, remember don't feel guilty if what might happen does happen just go with your heart. OK." She said and again kissed and hugged me.

I had to work very hard to not cry as I saw the car leave town.

"What were you two talking about so long?" Ariel asked me.

I looked at him smiled and said.

"Girl talk is a secret between girls only so I can't tell you." I told him.

"Than I'll walk you home as we really don't have any work to do today." He said and pointed towards my home.

As we walked to my house he'd kept asking what Princess Yazear and I talked about and I would just smile at him and keep walking. At my house he asked if we could have some coffee. I told him only if he didn't ask about what Yazear and I had talked about. He agreed we had coffee and later he left to inspect the troops he said. I think he hoped I might tell him what we talked about but since I wouldn't he left.

I sat down with the second pot of coffee and thought about what Yazear had said about Ariel and me. Could she be right in thinking that we were attracted to each other. How did I feel about Ariel? I'm not sure I can answer that question. I haven't even looked at another man since Frank's death. There were a lot of guys in this town who tried to get a date since then and until the town was taken over by the lizards. Alice's big brother, a sleaze ball, as far as every woman I knew in town felt, except of course Alice, he tried to get a date two days after the news of Frank's death. He tried to tell me I had to go out with him for some fun if I was ever going to get over him, I kicked him in his crotch. He never came around again. Neither he or I told Alice about it but since the occupation of the town I haven't heard from her. She was one of the few friends I had in town, but she hadn't come to my home like she use to.

The next month turned out to be one of the most exciting months in the town's history. Ariel had talked the farmers into planting three weeks earlier than normal with the new fertilizer and a promise to get enough fuel to operate the farm equipment for two crops. Within two weeks the farmers were calling in so excited the crops were growing so fast they all felt they would have to harvest within the next two weeks and the yields would be not three times normal, but four times normal. Less than two weeks later the crops were harvested and a second crop started. The next crops were ready in three weeks and it was more than six times normal. Who knows what would come from the third crop. In two months the farmers had produced more than it would normally have taken ten years to do and they felt they could easily get a total of six crops like this in a year alone. The first crop was canned and the first group of three town's people left to distribute it to our POW's in a camp about 100 miles away. Alice was one of the three. Two days after they came back and made the report to the council. Alice volunteered to bring it to me the next day which was Saturday.

Saturday morning the first Saturday I wouldn't be working in months. I was having coffee in the living room with just my nightgown and bathrobe on. While looking out my front window I saw a shadow of someone next to the trees across the road. As I watched in some fear when the face moved into the light enough to see it was Alice. She seemed to be checking the house looking I think to see if my guards were still watching me. She slowly came closer to the house. I went to the front door and opened it and called out to Alice.

"Alice, it's good to see you. Would you like some coffee?" I said to her.

Alice got to the yard gate looked around than talked.

"Are you alone? Are they still watching you?" She asked me nervously.

"Yes Alice I'm alone and no one except you are watching me. Come in side for coffee." I told her.

She walked slowly to the door still nervously checking in all directions to make sure no one was watching. She followed me into the kitchen and sat at the table. I gave her a cup of coffee and sat down myself. Her hands were shaking as she drank her coffee.

"I brought you the report about the POW camp and the food distribution." She told me still nervous.

She handed me the report and I started to look at it.

"I saw you." She said, "That night when they took you home."

"You did?"

"Did they torture you for information or to teach you not to talk back?" She asked.

"No. They didn't torture me." I said a little surprised at the question.

"Did they," She stopped again to nervously look around, "Did they molest you? You know did they RAPE YOU?" She asked me.

I couldn't believe what she was asking me.

"NO! The commander just talked to me, that's all." I told her leaving out making coffee or anything else that was said that night. It was none of her business, plus she couldn't keep a secret and she had a tendency to expand any story she passes on.

"There something that's not in that report that I found out." She said.

"What is that?" I questioned.

"I found Ted (her husband) there. He has lost all of his right arm and most of his left arm below the elbow. He told me that a bomb landed right next to my brother killing him and wounding him. He was also sure your husband is dead. He didn't see him die, but no one could have left that position which was so heavily bombed." She lowered her head as she finished.

"I'm sorry about your brother and your husband's loss of his arms, but at least he's alive for you." I told Alice.

"I'm happy he lost his arms, and I wished he had died. At least now however he won't be able to knock me around anymore." Alice said half smiling to herself.

"Alice, I didn't know that he was beating you up, I'm sorry." I said very surprised by her admission of the beatings.

"Don't be sorry. Ted was very good at hiding his abuse of me. I myself was too afraid to tell anyone about it." She said.

Before I could do or say anything Alice got up and quickly left my house. I tried calling her later but she never answered the phone.

The report Alice had brought me told of the POW's having very good living conditions and even about lizard doctors re-attaching our soldiers arms and legs when they found them with even complete recovery and no scars in about two months. It also showed that many of our men were mad that our own army doctors had removed arms and legs before there capture so for these men, little could be done since our army doctors had by lizard reports thrown these parts away. The lizard commander of the POW camp asked if the next time they came they could also bring seeds. That way the POW's could also grow some of their food and put it away for the winter time when roads might not be passable for us. He also had three trucks loaded with supplies that we could use for canning the food. Two other trucks had fuel for us to help run our farm equipment. In all a very positive report of our POW's.