User blog:Redknight910/WWYD Salamander ChiangLu

Prompt: On the Run

I look up at the firey lizard girl, and give her a smile.

"Well, I suppose I owe you and your friends for saving my hide there." She gives me a confident smirk, shifting the saber she had resting on her shoulder.

"Great. Follow us." She turned and started walking away. "You girls got this, right?" The others nod, giving first her then me smiles. As we travel into the forest I can't help but get a good look at my saviour's rear. The way she sways her hips makes me think that's exactly what she wants.

"So..." she says, slowing down, "I hear you were quite the soldier before hiding away out here in our lands." I look up to see a smiling face looking back at me.

"I had a reputation. Much of a smith as anything, though." I heft the halberd off my shoulder, running a hand over the head.

"So, how many weapons did you make?" I chuckle, putting my weapon back into it's sling.

"More than one, which is too many. This was my best, though. My best, and my last."

"Do you know how to use it?" I look up, the playful glint in he eye telling me all I needed to know.

"What's going to happen if I say yes?" He lips turn in the beginings of a smile.

"Oh, not much. A little bit more talking, some fun for everyone." I saw her arm tense, and shot myself back just in time to avoid a swing of he blade. "And a friendly sparring match." Once more pulling the polearm from my back, I square up, levelling the point at her.

"I'm warning you, right now. This is made of steel, and if I hit you, you're going to bleed." She stops for a moment, considering her options, before giving me a irm nod.

"I understand. But that's awfully optimistic of you." Without another moment she charged me, her fire burning bright as battle began again.

I opened with several jabs, trying to drive her back, but as she got closer to my guard, I swtched to a series of back and forth swings, taking a ew steps backwards, before lunging forward with a deep thrust. The sudden change caught her off guard, and she barely avoided the sharp point of my halberd.

Taking her chance, she took several savage swings at me, her sword finding only air as I ducked and rolled out of the way. I made for another charge, but at the last moment brought the back of my weapon across, enjoying the feeling of a solid strike against my oponent.

My pleasure at making solid contact was short lived, since she recovered all but immediately, her saber catching me suare under the ribs. I managed to pull back before it bit deep, but the numbness of the wound was reminding me of it's new presence.

She charged again, her savage roar bringing her forward. I moved on instinct, ducking low and brining the head of my halberd up to pierce her. Realising what I was about to do, I tried to avert the blow, but it wasn't enough.

She shrieked in pain as the pointed tip of my halberd sunk deep into her shoulder, he sword dropping to the grass below us. My eyes widened, and I pulled back, dropping m own weapon and grabbing her as she collapsed, holding her tight as I reached for my pocket.

"I told you, I told you it was steel, not demon silver." I said in a panic, trying to calm myself down as much as her. I pulled a small piece of cloth from my pocket. I hold it to her shoulder, folding it over a ew times to pad the wound.

"Y-yeah... yeah you did." She groans, taking several deep breaths. "But, this isn't going to be my first scar." She gives me a pained smile, and I can't help but shake my head.

"You monsters are something else, aren't you?" I feel something warm and thick wrap around my waist, looking down to see the salamander's tail coiling itself around me. "So, what do I owe you for this?" I gesture to her shoulde, getting a brief sigh.

"Well, how about dinner? We'll have some nice food, some good drinks, and maybe some proper fun afterwards?" She said this last part with hope in her voice, and I can't help but smile.

"Well, if a man's gonna take a woman out for dinner, shouldn't he know her name first?" She blushes slightly at that, giggling nervously.

"Well, if I must, my name is Leandra. Leandra the Inferno." I nod, introducing myself. We sit there for a few minutes, quietly calming each other down, before some of her group arrives, gasping when they see the bloodstained cloth and polearm.

As they reach for their weapons, the salamander just holds up a hand, shaking her head.

"He warned me before we started that this might happen, and I went along with it. Now could someone grab me a bandage? Please?" They all hesitated for a moment, before grudgingly following the order. Leandra sighed, leaning even more against me.

"They're good girls, but they worry about me a lot." I huff, nodding my head.

"With how you fought, that doesn't surprise me. You charge in without a care for your own saftey, you don't care about the possiblity of being hurt, and you seem to have a knack for finding danger. You're a walking health hazard to yourself." She barks a laugh as the othes come back with the first aid supplies.

"And you're a reckless salamander's wet dream." She kisses me on the cheek, whispering ,"I should know." Before giving me a wink and standing up, letting one of the others take care of wrapping he wound.

"You said you have worse scars." I say matter of factly, standing myself. "I've earned a few good ones myself." Lifting up my plated jerkin, I reveal a wound just above my waist, in my left side. "Got that one fighting off a pair of spearmen. Impaled one and his friend got me right there." She smiled, bringing up her uninjured arm, revealing a missing finger I'd failed to notice before.

"Lost it to a soldier with a pair of shortswords. I blocked once, he swung twice." I nodded, removing my jerkin completely to reveal a small knot of scar tissue on my chest.

"Arrow, went straight through, took me two minutes to catch the bastard." She smiles, resting a hand on the left side of her abdomen, patting a similar knot.

"Bolt, took it from point-blank range, had to take care of five more atfer him." I smile and hold my hand over my heart.

"My dear Lady Jane. When I defected, she took to report me, rather than come with me." Leandra gives me a sad smile. She walked over to me and put her own hand over mine.

"A wound like that takes time to heal." She leans in and breathes against my neck. "Perhaps I can be the balm for your pains." I wrap a hand around her, feeling both a hand and her tail doing the same.

"I think that would suit the both of us. A balm for the wound weary, and a guardian to watch the reckless." She looked up at me with a smile, leaning in for a kiss. We stood there for all of a moment, before all around us erupted into wolf whistles and applause. We seperated laughing, looking at the collection of lizardmen around us.

"Well, what are we standing around or, girls? Those prisoners aren't going to deliver themselves!" There's a concentrated cheer, and Leandra takes my hand, giving me a smile, before leading me back to the battleground. Whatever may come, however reckless she may be, I'll be there to watch her back. And I know she won't hesitate to return the favour.