Still The Lizard King

#107 - All of the land I can see would reverberate with her mighty, yet horrific, scream. It really gives my scales a shake. It would be worth it just one time.

Welcome to Before I Forget . .   

I’m glad you are here. Thank you for your time - and for subscribing. It's free!  

The Lizard King - pt 1

Still The Lizard King 

A new danger has come into our lives. As if we were short of dangers already. The white terror. A Dog. 

She may be a little thing, but she has a generous helping of bull in a china shop in her genes. She’s a digger. She goes nuts. We nest deeper now, in the old gopher burrow, well below the bigger rock underground. 

Guy saw the gopher holes and often the gopher itself, but until it got in his garden, he didn’t mind. 

He had quite the time with the gopher. It tore through his garden last summer in only days. Peas, beans, carrots, and squash all gone just when ready for picking. They just fell over; their roots being eaten. 

It was war, like in Caddyshack. Guy was obsessed with besting the gopher. He thought he could make it just go away. The back and forth between them was entertaining. 

Everything he tried to shoo the gopher away failed. It was always the gopher winning the battle.  

He didn’t want to use poisons in the yard. He tried traps with food like peanut butter and carrots inside.

And smoke bombs. The smoke filled the tunnels below and came up through other holes in the yard in heavy wisps of wafting smoke worthy of Apocalypse Now.  

He stuck the hose down the holes to flood him out. He tried wind chimes - they aren’t supposed to like noises. He tried an ultrasonic pest repeller. The gopher dug a new hole right alongside it.  

Everything he tried was to no avail. 

Then while sitting out in the yard, right before his eyes he saw a beanstalk being pulled underground and disappear. It took less than a minute. That was the last straw. Guy got out his pellet gun and waited patiently. No more gopher. Guy won the war. He hasn’t gardened since.

I recently heard from my distant cousin Iggy - short for Ignatius. He is in Florida. He wants to move out here. He says, “The people here are shooting at me. I bother them for some reason.” He has a bounty on his head.  

He’s an Iguana. I said, “Come on out. You can have the forest to our south. You should be fine there.” He’s twice the size of the white terror and the black blur. And too big even for the death on wings in the trees and the other varmints. 

Boy, oh boy, don’t you know Gal would freak out upon seeing him. All of the land I can see would reverberate with her mighty, yet horrific, scream. It really gives my scales a shake. It would be worth it just one time. 

The white terror rests now, in Guy’s lap, looking over the yard as if it were hers. It might as well be for the difference it makes to us. 

And Guy sits there again, like he has little else to do, spacing out looking here and there, sometimes with eyes closed. Is he asleep?? Or?? - “Hey! Guy!! Take a breath, will you? You look dead. You’re creeping me out, Man!” 

Gal looks out the window every now and then to check on him.

The white terror has provided us one benefit. She has pushed Lonnie and his boisterous gang further to the west, up into the craggy hills. They now have more treacherous ground to cross before they can threaten us. Easy pickings for Dog and Cat and those on wing.  

The Shrike, the Loggerhead, is most feared on open ground. It swoops in, plucks us up, and impales us alive on the bougainvillea’s thorns to come back and eat us at its leisure. At least the other predators make short work of it, unless we are lucky enough to only lose our tail. 

And then there is Larry, once one of my highest officers. We see him daily on the fence top with his growing band of warriors. Border skirmishes are increasing. There have been injuries. We can hear their drums and chants across the distance. War is inevitable. 

We used to be at peace. He has all of the Eastern territories in which to expand and yet, he wants what is mine.  

We used to sit out together, eating ants, lapping up jasmine nectar, and reminiscing about the good old days and those to come.  

But something changed in him. I couldn’t figure it out until Leo, Jr. returned with the news. He will be a fine replacement for me one day. He is a bright lad. 

As one of my lookouts, Prince Leo was scouting among the tall cactus along the fence line and discovered the reason for Larry’s change of heart. In Larry’s encampment, he saw Lilith. She is Queen Lola’s older sister.  

Lilith was always at odds with Lola. Always competing. She wanted me. Oh, she tried. She is a wily one. Devious. But I only had eyes for Lola. 

She disappeared one day. We believed that The Cat had done her in. 

But no, she had gone over to Larry. She is a she-demon. She has wiled him with her ways and though Larry and I were once the best of friends, there is now trouble in Lizard Land. 

So, now what? I told Leo to not speak of it to his mother. Lola would want peace with her sister if she knew she was still alive. That cannot be. 

I could delve deep within, for perchance there is another answer, but I already know what the only answer is. The head(s) of the snake must be cut off. There cannot be peace in my Kingdom until the threat is removed. There is no other way. 

Tonight, before the moon rises, I will gird my loins, and then I will use the cover of darkness, and risk the perils of night, to steal into Larry and Lilith’s encampment and do what must be done. 

The Lizard King - pt 1

Thank you for reading Before I Forget . . !     

Please leave a Comment.  

For my Subscribers new and old - A post from June 9, 2023.  

More posts are in my archive. Check them out.  

Image by Me 

See you next time, my friends.  :)