Rejected By My Mate

Somewhere in the eastern part of the magic realm, Willow and Val, together with Zelix and Drelix, along with the dragon named Syrius, met a group of half lizard-half human hunters with different weapons in their hands. Their race is called Lizardmen. They have the body and skin of a lizard and the face of a human. And now the lizardmen hunters surrounded them. They haven't seen the lizardmen warriors taking part in the war and now they're surprised because their kind rarely goes out in the open since the first great war hundred years ago, which almost wiped out their race. Rumors spread that they've been hiding somewhere and only a few of them came out for food hunting and trading some valuable goods to the dwarves and to the magic users.

Since the lizardmen rarely saw other races and a gigantic dragon in their land, they thought the group was an enemy. That's why they surrounded Willow and her companion. On the contrary, the group looked at the lizardmen with no emotion, which gave a chill to the lizardmen. They are known to be the most brutes and cold-blooded race in the world, but after their race was almost wiped out hundred years ago, their confidence went down the drain. It's the reason they didn’t indulge their race in the war, afraid that their entire race would be put in jeopardy and could never, ever redeem their lost reputation. They wanted to rise again for the better of their tribe.

The lizardmen's leader spoke with authority while all his warriors were still pointing their long, three-pointed double sword spears at Willow and the others. "Are you an enemy?" the leader asked. He was eyeing Zelix and Drelix because of their dark aura.

Val quickly answered, "No. We are looking for something that we've lost in this forest. We apologize for interrupting your hunt. Please let's not draw bloodbaths here.”

"We do not trust you, demons. All that stepped into our land will receive death as punishment.” the leader replied while glaring daggers at them.

Zelix and Drelix chuckled. “Did you say death? You don’t know wh—" Zelix said but got cut off by Willow's death glares, so he shut up immediately. Only Willow could shut him up. He's afraid his mate would never accept him again. Throughout their journey, he was trying all his best to get Willow's trust.

Willow sighed and looked coldly at the lizardmen. "Do you not recognize us? I'm sure you read books," she said nonchalantly.

All the lizardmen creased their forehead in confusion. Few of them stared at Willow and Val because they found them familiar, especially the eye color. Waves of realization struck them upon remembering who the two women were. Their jaws dropped in awe and immediately bowed with the utmost respect, except for the one who didn't recognize the two goddesses.

"We apologize for our audacity, Lady Willow and Lady Val!" they said in unison, which surprised Val, Zelix, and Drelix. Seeing the other lizardmen in surprise, the leader glared at them and they quickly bowed with respect to the two goddesses in front of them and withdrew their hunting spears immediately.

"Please forgive us!" all the lizardmen said in a loud, deep voice in unison.

Willow gave them a small smile, which surprised them, and instantly admired the beauty of the goddess. "You are forgiven, but please let us wander in this forest. We apologized too for trespassing in your territory. If we knew this forest was your hunting ground, we shouldn't have trespassed and asked for your permission instead.” Willow said.

"No need to apologize, Lady Willow. It's an honor to see a goddess in our land, especially the savior of the world. Without your greatness, we must have been all wiped out. And we must thank you for restoring the beauty of the magic realm. Because of it, our hunting has been good and the forest yields us a bounteous harvest. We will never starve for a lifetime. It seems like everything in this forest produces a lot of food for us. This must be your mercy. So we were very thankful for the great sextuplets.” the leader of the lizardmen warriors said.

"You must be the leader of your race," Drelix uttered when he noticed the difference in their clothing.

The lizardman shook his head. "My father is the chieftain of our tribe. My name is Wilton. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"It's a pleasure to see your kind too, Wilton," Val said with a smile. As usual, Zelix remains silent and just observes the lizardmen.

"If you may, can I invite you to our home? I want to introduce you to everyone.” Wilton said with a hopeful tone.

"We'll be glad to accept your invitation. However, is it okay if we will come after we find the thing we've been looking for in this forest?” Willow said.

"Of course, no problem,” Wilton replied while nodding.

"Thank you."

"May I come with you?" Wilton requested.

"Sure."

Wilton signaled the lizardmen’s warriors to continue their hunting and then leave with Willow and the others.

"Hmm, Wilton, may I ask you something?" Willow asked.

"Of course, Lady Willow. You can ask me anything.”

"Well, did your group happen to see a glowing rounded stone?"

"Glowing rounded stone?" Wilton halted and put on a thinking expression and said, "Yes, we found one yesterday. My father has it. Wait—is it the one you are looking for?"

"Yes. It is. Please bring us to your father.” Val said with excitement.

"Sure. However, your dragon couldn't go with us." Wilton said while glancing at Syrius, who has been following them the entire time.

The group looked at Syrius with a frown. They couldn't just leave Syrius alone in this forest. Suddenly, Syrius glowed brightly, and they quickly covered their eyes. When they fluttered their eyes, a handsome man with a dark complexion appeared in front of them, but the dragon disappeared.

"Who are you? Damn, where's Syrius?" Val uttered, confused.

"I'm Syrius, Lady Val." the handsome man replied with the biggest smile on his face. He stretches his body with glee because it's been a long time since he had transformed into a human form.

All of them gasped while staring at Syrius in disbelief. "Syrius? As in the Syrius that disappeared just now and Alice's dragon? You can transform all along?!" Val said hysterically.

Syrius giggled. "Yes. This is my human form,” he said and turned around.

"OMG! Why didn't you tell us?!" Val said and groaned.

"You didn't ask," Syrius replied smoothly.

Willow, Drelix, Zelix, and Wilton chuckled while Val pouted.

"Oh no. Damn it, I forgot something." Syrius suddenly said with a troubled look.

"What is it?" the group asked except Wilton, who was still surprised.

Syrius facepalmed and said with a groan, "I couldn't transform back into my dragon form for 24 hours at most."

"Whaaatttt?!" the group reacted, flabbergasted.

"I'm really sorry,” Sirius said guiltily.

"Well, in that case, you could stay in our home for a while until he can transform back,” Wilton offered.

The group looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

"I guess we will take the offer. We need to rest anyway and get some sleep.” Val said.

"Phew, finally I could sleep!” Drelix said. Willow and Zelix didn't comment and just shrugged their shoulders.

"Let's go. I can't wait to introduce you to my father and to our clan.” Wilton said with excitement. Wilton led the way towards their home, which was inside a hidden cave. Drelix and Zelix creased his forehead when Wilton led them into the wide waterfalls and stepped into the piled rock that formed a bridge towards the raging water. Willow said nothing since she recalled Alice mentioning this to her before.

"What are we doing here? Are we still going to your home or are we going to swim first?" Val let out with a raised eyebrow.

Wilton and the others laughed. "This waterfall is the entrance of our home," he said and signaled the lizardmen on guard to open the gate.

The waterfalls suddenly stopped flowing and a thick gate made of stone appeared. Then the gate creaked as they opened slowly. Wilton leads them inside and the lights attached to a wall light up one by one. The inside looks like a large tunnel.

"Welcome to the Zardonian Tribe,” Wilton said with a proud smile. “This is a tunnel going to our domain.”

The group had a confused look upon seeing the sturdy wall of the tunnel.

"Your home is still intact after the destruction? How come?" Willow asked quizzically.

Wilton sighed. "Yes, but with the help of the glowing stone we found yesterday, our home was restored like it was before. After the restoration of the entire magic realm, our ruined home vanished and only an ordinary cave was here, and it devastated us, but we remained desperate to build our home back. When we found the glowing stone and it granted our wish, we were all delighted because we redeem our home back." he explained.

Willow and Val frowned. It must be the orbs of life's power. The orbs can grant a wish too?" They thought the same.

Wilton suddenly stopped and pressed something into the wall, and a hidden door opened. "Wow," they mumbled, and Wilton just smiled and entered.

They followed Wilton and stepped inside the room, which was a transportation room because a magic circle appeared when the door closed. In just a blink of an eye, they're transported into the lizardmen domain, the Zardonian Tribe.

Everyone stopped what they're doing and looked at them with a frown and an alarming look, but creased their foreheads upon noticing that Wilton was with the strangers.

The Zardonian Tribe really looked abundant and well proportioned because their place was carved and built perfectly. They made some parts covered in gold.

"I couldn't believe Alice was telling the truth before. This is exactly as she describes what the Zardonian Tribe looks like.” Willow uttered while looking around in awe.

"Alice already went here?" Val asked with a creased forehead

"Yes. But she disguises as one of the lizardmen just to enter here.” Willow said while chuckling. "Alice? You are talking about Goddess Alice?" Wilton said while his eyes twinkled.

"Yes," Willow replied.

"She indeed came here, and I was the one who caught her disguising herself as one of us. Well, I know everyone except her, so I doubt her identity. Since she was cornered, she revealed her real identity to me and I am so damn shocked.” Wilton said while reminiscing about the past.

Willow and Val laughed while Zelix and Drelix just listened to Wilton's story about Alice. "One time, she almost got caught, but I covered up for her and helped her escape. But of course, my father noticed her and thought she was my girl. We almost got married on the spot. So Goddess Alice has no choice but to reveal herself to everyone. So imagine how shocked everyone was at that time. Father still can't get over it and since then our tribe only worship Goddess Alice because she's the only one who came for us and helped us in our hunting.” Wilton said and laughed upon remembering the Goddess.

Willow and Val chuckled. "Alice was whining when she came back that day and told me everything. She said she went hunting with you and accidentally cut all the trees and all the animals with her overflowing power. And she quickly restored the forest and because of it, you deem her as the most powerful goddess and started worshipping her." Willow said.

"Yes. That's true. Also, we worshipped Goddess Alice because she’s our hope and savior when we were all facing despair.” Wilton stopped and the big double door in front of them opened. Willow and Val gasped in awe when they saw a giant statue inside an enormous hall. The statue is none other than their sister, Alice.

"You made her a statue?" Val uttered unbelievably. How lucky Alice was? She couldn't believe that her sister had a lot of worshippers. She pouted because she only has a few.

"She's our goddess, so it's natural for us to build her a statue,” Wilton said with pride.

"Who built the statue? It looks fantastic and real. I feel like Alice was with us." Willow said while admiring the statue.

"It was me. I admire her greatness a lot so I built her a statue.” Wilton said with a wide grin. The group smiled and gave credit to the talented lizardman in front of them.

"Darling!" a lizardwoman called, and they all looked at the newcomer. Val and Willow stared at the lizardwoman in awe.

"Lilac! Come and welcome our visitors.” Wilton said. The lizardwoman looked at Willow and Val with eyes widened in surprise.

"Darling Wil, did my eyes trick me? Has Goddess Alice become two?"

Everyone chuckled. "Darling, they are Lady Willow and Lady Val, Goddess Alice's great sisters, the members of Great Sextuplets.”

"Oh, I apologized! Welcome to the Zardonian Tribe, Lady Willow and Lady Val, and to your companion. My name is Lilac, I'm Wilton's wife.” the lizardwoman enthusiastically introduced herself. Her eyes sparkled in awe while staring back at Willow and Val.

“Nice to meet you, Lilac.” they all said and Lilac beamed a smile.

“Wow, you are a beautiful lizardwoman,” Val uttered, and Lilac smiled shyly.

"Of course! My wife is the most beautiful lizardwoman in our tribe.” Wilton said proudly and Lilac nudged him with a wide smile. “Come. I want you to meet the chieftain of our tribe.” Wilton added and led them to another door.

They entered another big double door, and the place was even more extravagant inside. They couldn't believe that there's a paradise hidden in the deepest part of the cave.

When the chieftain saw the visitors, his eyes widened in surprise. He quickly recognizes the two members of the great sextuplets.

“Lady Willow and Lady Val, we didn’t expect your presence. Welcome to the Zardonian Tribe. My name is Zordon, the chieftain of this tribe.” he greeted and walked closer to their visitors. “Please have a seat,” he ushered everyone politely onto the long black sofa. The chieftain welcomed them warmly, contrary to what they're expecting.

“Chieftain Zordon, thank you for the warm welcome. Let us get straight to the point. We are here to take the glowing stone or the orbs of life in your possession that your people saw yesterday.” Willow said, wasting no time.

The chieftain was stunned. “The glowing stone? Yes, I have it. But may I know your reason?” he asked.

“The glowing stone or the orbs of life belonged to our sister, Alice, and when we restored the entire magic realm, all the orbs scattered everywhere and our task was to collect all the orbs again and bring them to Alice. It's for the safety of everyone. Will you give it back to us?” Willow said.

The chieftain gasped and nodded in agreement. “Sure. Since it belonged to our goddess. I will return it. I hope the goddess will bless us more.” he said and walked towards a wall and pressed his hands. A small door opened, then he went inside.

“What's with the lizardmen with their hidden door in the wall? Just how many doors are in this place?’ The group thought in amazement.

The chieftain went out with a small box in his hands and brought it to them. He opened the box, and a glow seeped through the hole. When the thing inside the box was revealed, the entire room glowed brightly, and they saw a golden, glowing orb of life.

“The orb of life!” Willow and Val said in unison.

Willow took the orb, and it entered her body through her palm, which surprised the chieftain and the lizardmen couple.

After they talked about what happened in the magic realm for the past few days, the chieftain invited them to stay for a little longer, which they gladly accepted, because Syrius couldnt transform back into a dragon for a few hours.

Then the chieftain ordered a feast for them, and everyone celebrated. All the lizardmen perform a dance and song for the two goddesses and their companions. Now, the group is having a good time in their life with some good drinks and foods prepared by lizardmen cooks. Their day became eventful and fun. Willow and Val couldn't wait to tell their sisters about their experience.