[Zoophilos]

This story is continued from Lambastia World Bridge

       Lacertos sat silently for a while, watching buses come and go, and people get on and get off.  He eyed the passengers carefully to see if any of them might be battlehearts in disguise, keeping his head down so they wouldn't notice.  He caught scent of one who smelled strongly of the zoo.  Many of the passengers had come from the zoo, and so smelled of it, but this one smelled like the inside of one of the dragon barns.  He lifted his face carefully, scanning the crowd and sniffing softly to identify the one with this scent.  There, that one with the blond - no, light brown hair.  Had he seen him before?  It was tricky to identify humans he was used to seeing at a greater height.  Lacertos studied him, trying to remember.  When Anthony turned to look up at the bus driving off, Lacertos got a look at the back and top of his head.  Yes, he had seen him before... in the dragon barns... one of the delivery boys!  Who was friends with that Hollowheart, Magnos.  Lacertos snorted before he could stop himself, but the human didn't notice.  As he turned and marched down the street at a brisk pace, Lacertos decided to follow him.  He evidently was familiar with the neighborhood, while the battleheart wasn't.

       Lacertos couldn't have been trailing him for more than a minute before some other human gave a shout.  Turning around, he saw a child waving his arms at the sky.  A void Battleheart was flying low over the city.  Lacertos was careful to show no outward response, but his heart skipped a beat.  He needed to find cover immediately.  He glanced back at the human he was trailing.  He too had paused to watch the dragon fly overhead.  Lacertos took advantage of this to quickly step up to him.

       "Hello, friend," he said casually.  "Do you remember me?"

       Anthony was caught quite by surprise.  He could only manage a sheepish, "Um, no?"

       "Oh, surely you remember me.  Take a closer look!"  Lacertos opened his coat just enough so Anthony could see the wing hidden under it.  For a long moment, Anthony stared blankly, but finally recognition dawned on his face.  "You're the B-" Lakratouss stepped on his foot.
       "Whoops, sorry about that, so clumsy of me!  I must be worn out from my travels.          I guess I need some food and rest!"  At this last statement, he wrapped his good arm around the back of Anthony's neck, transforming just enough to make his eyes glow a brilliant green and to grow a claw he scraped along the young man's throat.  All the while he glared at him meaningfully.  Anthony eyed him warily for a moment, then said, "Alright, my apartment is pretty close, but-" he added in an undertone, "you don't have to be thuggish about it!"  The injured Battleheart merely tightened his grip in response.

       It seemed an dangerously long time before they reached the apartment building to the Battleheart, but in reality it was only a few minutes.

       "Here's my apartment," Anthony said.  "Try not to terrorize Mike - he's just a harmless geek."  Never tell a Battleheart what to do, thought Lacertos.

[Zoophilos]

In the days that followed, Anthony quickly came to regret bringing the Battleheart home.  He had done so not because of Lacertos' subtle threats, but because thug or not, he was strongly inclined to help someone in obvious great need.  Also, he overestimated how much Lacertos' injuries would dampen his ability to cause trouble, and furthermore planned to call the zoo staff to help out once he got home.  However, Lacertos quickly made it clear that helping a thug, even one in need, simply wasn't wise.  Not only did he terrorize Mike, but he strained their budget demanding expensive meats for his diet, and made threats against Mike if Anthony told anyone where he was.  He forced Anthony to answer some embarrassingly personal questions to demonstrate that he could make Anthony confess if he did tell anyone.  Despite his bad-mannered guest's truth serum capabilities, Anthony resolved to tell Magnos the whole situation.  He figured the Hollowheart would know how to handle a Battleheart.

       At the zoo, however, he couldn't seem to find Magnos anywhere, and no one seemed to know exactly where he was.  Everyone promised to tell Magnos he wanted to talk when they saw him, though.  After staying at the zoo after work as late as he dared,  hoping to find the dragon, he was finally compelled to return home.  At his stop, he stepped off the bus disheartedly, not really looking forward to having to deal with Lacertos again - and almost jumped out of his boots when a dragon's deep voice sounded in his head.

       "Anthony, is that you?  Heard you've been looking for me."  The Hollowheart loomed near the bus stop.
       "Magnos!" Anthony exclaimed.  "Do you have to scare me like that!?"

       "I wasn't trying to scare you!"

       "Well, I didn't think I would get to see you today!  Where have you been?"

       "Following and watching that Sauria battleheart you''ve been boarding.  He giving you problems?"  Anthony blinked.

       "Uh, yes.  You've watched us too?"

       "Had to, since he was living with you.  Threatened to eat Mike?"

       "And the Viral Velix, and destroy the teleporting machine.  He doesn't want me to tell anyone he's with us.  He... can make me answer his questions, when I don't want to."

       "The Dragon's Gaze.  We Hollowhearts can do it, too, but we use it a lot less because it tends not to work very well on people who aren't afraid of us."

       "That's a relief to hear!  So, I just have to learn to not be afraid of that crazy guy.  Somehow.  Speaking of which, he's probably harassing Mike now, wondering where I am."

       "You just leave him to me, Anthony."

[Zoophilos]

Lacertos wasn't actually harassing Mike at this time, as Mike was hiding in the bedroom on the pretext of looking through his notes on the teleporting machine, and Lacertos was feeling too lazily comfortable on the sofa to get up and go after him.  He still didn't leave Mike alone entirely, though, occasionally hollering at him from the sitting room just to let him know he wasn't out of the Battleheart's reach.

       The rattling and clicking of the front door announced Anthony's return.

       "There you are!" the Battleheart called to him.  "I was starting to wonder where you were!  Since you took so long returning, did you at least buy me some more prime ribs?"

       "No," Anthony replied shortly as he came in.

       "Then where have you been?"

       "At the zoo."

       "You haven't told anyone about me, have you?  Have You?!"  As the dragon in disguise repeated his question, his voice deepened and became louder, and his eyes turned even brighter green, till they looked like they glowed.  Anthony then found it hard to look away from his eyes..., or to keep silent.

       "Yes, I have."  Lacertos really hadn't thought Anthony would dare to do so.  He sat up suddenly, his eyes flashing emerald.

       "You have!?  Who?!"

       "Me."  This new voice spoke not in human, but in the dragon tongue.  The owner stood behind Anthony - a miniature Hollowheart!  "Of course, he didn't tell me anything I didn't already know.  I saw you when you first accosted my friend on the street."  The mini Hollowheart glared over Anthony's shoulder.  Though way smaller than any adult Hollowheart could possibly be, he still stood almost seven feet tall at the shoulder, and had to keep his head low to keep from knocking his horns on the ceiling.  The surprised Battleheart glared at him for a moment.  Then he threw his head back and laughed.

       "I've never seen a dwarf Hollowheart before!  You Hollowhearts are so enamored with your humans, now you're bringing yourselves down to their level!"  Magnos curved gracefully around Anthony to swoop up to the couch.        

       "Look who's talking," he replied, his nose inches from Lacertos' face.  "How's your wing, by the way?  Lacertos stopped laughing promptly and scowled.

       "Fine!"

       "Good!  Then it will be no problem for you to move out of my friends' apartment!"

[Zoophilos]

Despite their displeasure with the Battleheart, Anthony and Magnos still didn't have the heart to just throw him out on the street. Not quite, anyway.  The other Battlehearts were still looking for him, and Lacertos had no hope of fending them off in this form.  So the Hollowhearts arranged for a safehouse where Lacertos could hide until his wing healed.  Lacertos didn't relish returning to being nursed like a baby by humans and the human-loving Hollowhearts, but he could see he had no choice.  Even he wasn't so arrogant as to pretend he had a chance on his own now.  Anthony couldn't understand why he was unhappy.

       "I don't get it," he said, following as Magnos walked Lacertos to the car that would take him to the safehouse.  "You say you can't stand having 'puny humans' play nursemaid to you, but you're obviously quite comfortable with running me and Mike ragged attending to your every desire.  What exactly is the problem?"

       The disguised dragon glared at him haughtily.  "I am a purebred Sauria Battleheart, bred by purebred Sauria battleheart parents who were born from purebred Sauria battlehearts.  We eat humans like you.  As such, it is inappropriate that meal prospects care for me as if they were my parents and I was a newly-hatched baby!"  Anthony just stared at him blankly.  "But you had me and Mike caring for you like a "newly-hatched baby'"!

       "No," Lacertos snarled, "You were serving me as slaves do their master, not like parents caring for a helpless baby!"

       "Ohhhhhhh," Anthony intoned, "it's okay to be waited on hand and foot when you're forcing people to do it unwillingly, but not when people are volunteering to do it willingly."  Lacertos rolled his eyes.  "A little human like you couldn't possibly understand."

       "I guess not," Anthony muttered, partly under his breath.  The Battleheart got into the car without another word to him, and Magnos slammed the door shut.  Anthony watched as the car drove away.

       "Good riddance," he muttered again, and turned toward the apartment.  He had scarcely taken two steps when a loud crash whirled him around again.  A huge Void Battleheart had flown down and slammed its foot on the roof of the car.  Anthony stared, frozen in shock.  The Battleheart let out a loud, harsh cackle.  "Think you can just hide from us in a man-hole, Lacertos?"  He set both feet on the car and began trying to fly off with it.  Magnos whisked out of the car and attacked his feet, causing him to drop the car.  It hit the pavement with a sickening crash.  The Battleheart turned on his attacker with a growl Anthony found terrifying.  For a moment, he wondered why Magnos was still in his mini-form.  Then he realized that Magnos wasn't able to transform back to his true size.  

       Oh great, thought Anthony, Magnos is stuck at mini-size and facing off against - a shadow passing over his head caused him to look up, and his heart skipped a beat - FOUR full-sized Battlehearts!  He dashed up to the car, trying to peer through the cracked windows.  The driver was shaking his head repeatedly, as if trying to shake off unconsiousness.  Anthony couldn't quite see Lacertos, though he appeared to be moving around a little in the back seat.

       "Here," the driver said suddenly, "take the wheel.  I have to help Magnos."  With that, she threw open the door and flung herself into the air, transforming into a Hollowheart.  Anthony stared after her a moment, blinking.  Lacertos brought him back to the moment.

       "What's going on?!  It's that hyrashreeeen Tenebraun, isn't it?!  The #%^$@&!"  Grimacing at his language, Anthony jumped into the driver's seat and revved the engine, wheeling the car away from the fight.  The battleheart snarled about that, too.

       "I should be charging into the fight, not running away like a Rattegan!"  Somehow, Anthony managed to stifle groan of disgust, reminding himself this was par for the course with this guy.  He merely said politely, "Would you like me to turn the car around and drive back to the fight?"  Lacertos growled, "Just shut up and drive!"  Anthony could drive, the only question was where to drive.  Anthony didn't know where the safehouse was; he hadn't originally planned to go with Lacertos.  It had been enough to have the crazy battleheart out of his apartment.  He thought about going to the zoo to fetch the other Hollowhearts, but quickly recognized that as a bad idea.  Keeping the fight away from there was the whole reason the Battleheart left the zoo in the first place.  Hearing a loud crash and an angry screech from behind, he thought, I suppose it doesn't matter where I drive as long as it's away from the fight!

       His musing was cut off by a loud, metallic thud.  At the same time, he was thrown forward onto the steering wheel (he had forgot to put on his seat belt).  Lacertos hissed and swore.  "They've grabbed the car again!"  Anthony, fumbling in his seat, could see a huge gray, knobby Battleheart foot beside the car.  He finally managed to click his seatbelt in position, and slammed his foot down on the pedal.  The car roared and lunged forward.  The dragon barked in surprise, but then pressed his foot down harder to keep the car from escaping.  There was a rather disturbing metallic crackling sound as the roof crumpled further down.  The pointed tip of a dragon claw appeared at the top of the windshield as the Battleheart focused the pressure toward the front of its foot.  Anthony hunched down in his seat and turned the steering wheel this way and that, trying to "wiggle" the car free.  It did no good.  The windshield, already cracked, finally shattered from the stress.  Anthony closed his eyes against the flying shards, muttering a prayer, and put the car in reverse.  Another surprised grunt, but this time the dragon lost his grip as the car's change in course through him off balance.  The foot on the roof slid down onto the hood.  The rear wheels leapt into the air as more glass somewhere shattered.  Then, with a shuddering crash, all four wheels were back on the pavement, and Anthony revved the car away and wheeled it away.

       Thus the chase was renewed.  Squealing around corners, dodging other cars and the Battlehearts landing on the road, it occurred to Anthony that this would probably make a great car chase scene if this was a movie.  Somehow it seemed a lot less entertaining in real life!  From the back, Lacertos growled, "We'll never outrun them this way."

       Somehow, Anthony found himself driving through a parking garage, winding up the ramps as angry Battlehearts stuck heads and clawed feet inside trying to get at them.  As he drove to the next level, leaving them behind, inspiration struck.

       "Lacertos," he said, "what if you get out of the car and hide in the garage, while I drive on as if you're still in here and lead them away?"  Lacertos just stared at him.  Not that Anthony knew that, being too busy driving to glance behind him.

       "Didja hear me?!"

       "Yes, I heard you!"  This puny hors' doeuvre willingly risking its own life to save that of its eater made less sense to him than him switching to a Vegan diet.

       "If you're gonna do it, then do it now, because we're running out of time, quick!"

       "Fine," Lacertos huffed, shifting toward the car door.  The car rounded another corner, and the watching Battleheart following them was out of view.

       "Now!"  The human-shaped dragon rammed open the half-crushed door and dove to the ground, rolling under a parked car.  Once Anthony saw he was clear, he then turned the car around to head back to the ground.  The last thing he needed was to be trapped on the roof of a parking garage with hostile Battlehearts hovering overhead.  Just as he completed the turn, the car suddenly jolted to the side with a crash.  Anthony flailed at the wheel in a panic to regain control.  He just caught a glimpse of a scaly, clawed finger in the rearview mirror.  With another crash, he clipped one of the parked cars, and finally got back on course.  Shaken, he stomped down harder on the pedal.

       On the ground level, he ran into more problems.  There were only three exits, and there were Battlehearts waiting at all of them.  He drove around in circles trying to figure a way out. Each time he passed near one of the exits, the Battleheart waiting there would lunge and grope inside the garage trying to grab the car.  It would make more sense to just hide in the garage, where the dragons were too big to follow, but he wanted to lead them away from here where Lacertos was hiding.  He was just going to have to bite the bullet.

        As he again approached one of the exits, he muttered a quick prayer (not that he hadn't been praying for a while now, but this was the first time he was more specific than "Help, God!").  He made as if to continue the loop and again pass the exit, but when the dragon lunged, he wheeled the car about.  The Battleheart's flailing clipped the car, but miraculously, he managed to keep the car going, pressing the pedal flat against the floor to screech madly out the entrance.  The Battleheart howled in surprise and outrage.

       Once he was clear of the garage, Anthony had no notion of where he was going.  It was all barreling down roads, screeching around turns, and sidewinding to avoid charging dragons, all presumably at well past the speed limit.  So it was perhaps inevitable that he squealed around a corner and found himself at a dead end.

       He stopped the car just in time.  Before he could do anything else, a dragon foot slammed on the car roof.

       "GET OUT OF THE CAR!"  No way, thought Anthony, trying to swallow his heart back down before he choked on it.  Not that it was likely any safer in the car than out of it.

       "THIS IS THE POLICE!"  What!?  He leaned toward the window, but stopped himself.  It might be a trick!  Just inches from the window, though, was the white nose of an Imperial Hollowheart.  Tracing his gaze from it's nose back toward its horns, he saw the red banner tied to its horn bore the sign of the Aldrect police force.

       "That's right, young man," the dragon boomed, evidently having human speech as well as thought-speech.  "You're in big trouble!  Now get out of the car!  Or do I have to take the door off?"  Anthony was still uncertain and hesitant, though; with all the shape-shifting and magic abilities dragons had, he wondered if this was some kind of Battleheart illusion.  He hesitated too long for the police Hollowheart.  A loud metallic crack announced the door had been removed.  "I said, GET OUT OF THE CAR!"  Anthony flinched and complied more quickly.  Then the Hollowheart's head exploded into flames, and a great explosion behind Anthony flung him forward into the wall of the cul-de-sac.

       "Thanks, copper!  We've been chasing this car for a while now!"  Anthony was just able to roll over to see a Blaze Battleheart dragging the wrecked car away.  Looking up at the smoking head of the bewildered police Hollowheart, he said, "That's why I was speeding."

[Zoophilos]

Meanwhile, a Common Battleheart joined the Blaze in dragging away the car.  Flying quickly, they brought the car to a Void Battleheart waiting impatiently on a low roof.

       "Snagged 'im easily from the copper," the Blaze boasted.

       "Good," the Void, Tenebraun, said hastily, grabbing the car.  He seized the car roof in his teeth and, with amazingly little effort, tore it off and threw it away.  For a moment, he stared at the car in disbelief, but then roared, "He's not in here!  You let him get away!"

       "What!" the Battlehearts yelled simultaneously.  "That can't be!" the Common protested.  "I would have noticed if he got out of the car!  I never took my eyes off it!  Except..."  His eyes narrowed.  "That parking garage.  That's the one place he could have left the car without my seeing him."

       "The same garage where Calid let him escape?"  The Blaze growled.

       "That's the one!"   Hearing a bellow, the Void Battleheart turned to see the police Hollowheart flying toward them.

       "Calid, since you were so good handling the cop earlier, you take care of him.  Me and Rall are going back to that garage."  Calid didn't look too happy at being left behind with the police Hollowheart, but the other two were already flying away.


       Lacertos hadn't entirely trusted Anthony's offer to mislead the dragons away from him, and had originally intended to flee the area as soon as Anthony drove away.  In reality, though, the rigor of diving and rolling out of a car was more than his wing could handle, and he spent some time lying very still in a daze of pain under a parked car.  After a length of time, he revived enough to realize that he had been there longer than he wanted to be, and began carefully crawling out from under the car.  However, he had scarcely managed that when he heard the swooshing flap and thud of a dragon landing, followed by the thunderous growl of an angry Battleheart!  Evidently Anthony hadn't done a very good job of leading them away!

       Lacertos growled angrily to himself, but then stopped, lest they hear.  He could hear Tenebraun telling Rall to watch all the exits closely.  He crawled back under another car before they could see him.  He was in a fine mess, hiding under a car like a terrified Rattegan while his enemies searched the building for him!  There was nothing he could do but hide, though; he couldn't fight, and he was finished if they found him.  He lay fuming over his helplessness, listening the other Battlehearts snuffing as they sniffed for him, the scraping of their claws on the concrete, the raspy sounds of their voices barking orders to each other.  Occasionally the scream of a surprised human countered the deep rumblings of the dragons.

       Those accursed humans... and those Hollowhearts, too!  This was all their fault.  If they hadn't stuck him in the zoo, announced his whereabouts through the media, or insisted on dragging him from Anthony's apartment, this wouldn't have happened.  Of course, this also wouldn't have happened if Lacertos hadn't tried to fly during a violent storm, or if he hadn't even gotten into a fight with Tenebraun in the first place, but that didn't occur to him.  What did occur to him now was that he couldn't escape, and Tenebraun wouldn't stop looking until he had found him.  This must be the end.  He wished to at least meet his death fighting, but transforming would hurt so much he would be incapacitated again, and he was too weak as a human.  He cursed the humans and Hollowhearts again in frustration.

       Eventually, a huge set of black claws reached between the floors of the garage and begin tilting the cars up, one by one.  As Tenebraun began approaching the car Lacertos lay under, he got out from under it on the side furthest from his enemy and braced himself to charge - and transform.  He hoped that by transforming at the same time he charged, he might at least have his jaws clamped onto his enemy before the pain immobilized him.  It wouldn't save him, but at least he could go down fighting, in a way.  

       Both he and Tenebraun were distracted by a sudden loud roar.  Lacertos quickly recovered, but the claws withdrew.  The Sauria Battleheart didn't dare move from the side of the car for fear of discovery, but he could see a flurry of wings and scales, claws and teeth outside.  The Hollowhearts had come to fight Tenebraun and his minions.

       Eventually, Lacertos realized now was a good time to sneak away unnoticed, so he did just that.  Crouching low, trying to keep cars between him and the outside, occasionally having to pause for a breather, he made his way down to the next lowest level.  There he found a pedestrian bridge that led across the street.  He was just congratulating himself on having successfully escaped both the Battlehearts and the Hollowhearts when he heard a shout.  He turned and saw a uniformed human police officer running after him.  At second glance, though, he smelled like a Hollowheart, and his face looked... burnt!

       "Hey!" he said again. "You that Sauria Battleheart?  Good thing you're alright!  The others are worried about you.  Come along, let's get back to the others." the officer added, firmly grabbing his arm and gently leading him back.  How ironic, right when he thought he had finally escaped.  There was no struggling or trying to run, as Lacertos was still too sore and weary from the earlier excitement of jumping out of a car.

       Outside waited a huge group of Hollowhearts, more than 20 of them.  They roared in triumph when the officer led him out of the garage.

       "You're alright!" a Blood Hollowheart screeched happily into his brain.  "We've won," the driver Hollowheart told Lacertos via regular speech, "the other Battlehearts have been defeated.  They won't be bothering you again for a while."

       When the Battlehearts had first attacked, while Anthony ran toward the car, Mike had run inside the apartment.  There he called the zoo and told them the situation.  The zoo Hollowhearts had promptly flown to the rescue, and neutralized the Battleheart fighting Magnos and the driver.  Anthony had driven off so fast, though, it took them some time to catch up with him!  However, they had been able to help the police Imperial hollowheart take down Calid, and then inform him on what was going one.  He had in turn led them to Anthony, who told them where Lacertos was hiding.  So it was they had finally confronted Tenebraun and sent him running.  Tenebraun had escaped, but all three of his friends had been captured.

[Zoophilos]

Anthony had to spend the night in the hospital, but he was released the next day, as he only had some bad cuts and bruises.  Magnos, though, had gotten pretty beat up fighting as a miniature Hollowheart, and so had to stay there longer.  Fortunately, the zoo Hollowhearts got him turned back to his normal size right away.  They also helped the police Hollowheart with his burns, giving him some of the Zoo's healing cream; he in turn gave them a good scolding for not telling him about the situation earlier!   "I would appreciate it if you would tell me about this sort of thing before I'm attacked by a Blaze Battleheart!" he said.

       Lacertos had managed to escape any more injury, despite jumping from a moving car, but the doctors made him transform back to his true form and had to reset his wing so it would heal properly.  He was quite tired for some days after the Battlehearts' attack, but more than that, humiliated that pansy Hollowhearts and puny humans had been the agents of his rescue.  He grouched about how Tenebraun would no doubt tell other Battlehearts how the great Lacertos had to rely on weakling dragons and snack creatures to save him.  Finally Anthony asked him, "Why are you so upset that we saved you?  Isn't it more embarrassing for Tenebraun to have been defeated by humans and Hollowhearts, especially since he had three other Battlehearts helping him?"  That did cheer the arrogant Battleheart up a bit.

       Interestingly enough, Anthony was one of the people who cared for him until he was fully healed, as the grumpy Sauria drove most other people nuts with his snarling and intimidation and complaining.  Lacertos soon found that his Dragon Gaze didn't work half as well with Anthony as it had previously, much to his shock.

       Neither Tenebraun nor any other enemies of Lacertos made another appearance.  The police safely imprisoned away Tenebraun's two minions, Calid and a Void named Vacus, so they couldn't cause anyone any more trouble.  Rall, though, the cunning Common Battleheart, turned into a human and slipped away on the way to the police station, and no one has seen him since.