[Pyla]People gave us a wide berth as they filtered around us. I stood straight, giving myself as much height as I could get, even though that was no match for her seven and a half feet. Mountain trolls were larger than desert cave trolls naturally and desert cave trolls were taller than lizard people were. It was something that followed me as I grew up with lizard people. I was a little over six and a half feet tall, which was taller than most of the male warriors. It made me stand out even more. Now I was in a community where I was considered short. The positive to that was how people underestimated me because of my height. Small and weak was what I heard over and over again from the male trolls who were trying to flirt with me. I was one of the best warriors in my village and it had little to do with my height. Forrest liked that I was so small and he liked the idea of me needing him. He actually was stronger than I was. I could see in the way that he moved that he was a warrior in his own right. This woman wasn’t a warrior and had never fought in her life. Did she really think she could intimidate me with her size? What was her plan here? Was she going to challenge me to a fight for Forrest? Was she just here to be difficult? “Can I help you with something?” I asked. The woman and her friend laughed. “You can stay away from Forrest Montblanc. That would help me a lot.” She sneered down at me. “I can’t do that. He’s claimed me and I’ve accepted him. You can leave us alone if you don’t like it,” I replied. Her expression changed to one of anger. I assessed the area around us. As we talked, people stopped moving past us. They backed off to a safe distance. “Forrest is mine. He has always been mine and he will always be mine. Once he has his coming-of-age, you’ll see. You’ll look like a fool when he doesn’t calm for you.” “You may have had a previous claim on him, but he chose me, not you. Deal with your disappointment by looking inward. It was something about you that he didn’t like, not something about me that he liked more. Were you ever able to spend time with him without turning it into a ѕexual encounter? When I spend time with him, we talk and learn more about each other.”“I don’t need to learn ѕhit about Forrest. I’ve been with him since we were both kids. We know everything about each other. And, yes, I know exactly how he likes to fuсk. I get it now. You’re a little snake prude. All men love a good chase. Once he fuсks you he’ll get over you.” Shayle laughed at me. My tail drooped. Forrest had more than a few chances to try to seduce me. He never even tried. The closest he ever got was pulling me onto him while we were having a picnic. I wanted him so much that I wouldn’t have fought back if he had tried, but he wasn’t like that. Forrest was sweet and considerate. This woman couldn’t see that. She didn’t see the real Forrest, only her warped impression of him. Sure, it might have been influenced by his past behavior, but that only meant that she never unlocked the real Forrest. He was different from other trolls. “Yeah, that’s right. You’re just a piece of ass to him and he’s going to give you up as soon as he taps your scaly ass. A man like Forrest isn’t some sweet little simp. He needs a woman as strong as he is,” Shayle hissed. She was right. He needed a woman who was as strong as he was, but he also needed someone who could see his softness as a positive and not as a flaw. Knowing that bolstered my confidence. “I’m not giving him up. You can keep screeching if that makes you feel better.” I could see her getting angrier and angrier. That was a troll flaw I didn’t have. Lizard people were called cold-blooded for two reasons, one of which was that we weren’t quick to anger or any other passionate expression. Shayle pulled back and punched at me. I grabbed her wrist and pulled her off balance, which wasn’t hard since she was unstable in her stance. When her head came near me, I drew my hand up and struck her with an open hand strike right on her ear. She shrieked and fell to the ground. I grabbed her hair and struck the other ear with a similar slap. Her hair twisted as I moved around and kicked her in the stomach. I let her go and she collapsed. Turning to her friend, I cracked my knuckles and prepared to take down another stuck-up troll. Her friend put up her hands defensively and took a step back. I turned back to where Shayle was trying to pull herself up to her knees. That hit could disorient a person and I could see she was having trouble. I stepped behind her and ‘helped’ her up by gripping her hair again and pulling her up. I leaned in close and she shied away from me. My father would be disappointed that I didn’t leave it at that, but I couldn’t. “Forrest is mine now. Let go of your little obsession with him. I’m not one to be messed with,” I warned her. “What is going on here?!” A woman shouted. Looking up, I saw the crowd parting and a Sylvan woman wearing a vine crown came forward. She was shorter than me but moved like a warrior. I’d heard about Sylvans in battle and stopped what I was doing. Letting go of Shayle’s hair, I bowed to the woman. She was obviously someone of importance. “Tell me what exactly is happening in my village,” she said with a cold tone I recognized as the same chilled command as the leader of my own village. “Queen Ivy, this is a dispute over a male,” Shayle’s friend told her. “Shayle Stanvale threw the first punch.” “What is your name?” Queen Ivy asked me. “Pyla M’Ren,” I replied. “A troll/lizardfolk hybrid. That’s a rare mix. Who is the male in question?” “Forrest Montblanc.”“This fight is concluded and the champion of Forrest Montblanc is Pyla M’Ren. I want this spread through the whole of the community. No one is to challenge either of them again. A fight between trolls, no matter how controlled, is dangerous to our people. Miss Stanvale, you would do well to learn more about lizard-folk before challenging one to a fight,” Queen Ivy advised. “I appreciate your ruling, Queen Ivy,” I said. “Stand up straight. A warrior such as you should present herself as such.” I stood up straight and raised a fist over my heart. It was a salute my people did to our leaders and a sign of respect. She nodded briefly with a smile. “Pick up your friend and leave the market. You are banned from this market for one month,” she told Shayle’s friend. “Yes, ma’am.” “My mother and brother will be informed of this ruling and this will not be tolerated in the human land village, either.” “That’s not fair. This is how trolls do things,” Shayle insisted. “No, you do this in your own lands. You do this on your own properties. That is how trolls do things. You should be doing things like this away from those who could be harmed. If not for Miss M’Ren’s training, you could have caused damage to people and property. She controlled the fight, how you fell, and all of the movements in order to cause the most damage to you and the least damage to anything else,” Queen Ivy growled. She was watching for longer than it seemed. The fight itself ended very quickly, but she had to have been watching from a higher point. I glanced around and saw a man standing on a balcony who was also wearing a crown. She had to have jumped to get to us so quickly. “I did my best to put her down quickly, ma’am,” I said. “You did well. I will stay with you until these… ladies… have gone. Do you have someone with you today?” “I’m with my mother. I was just going to meet up with her. I believe we are leaving soon,” I answered. “I will come with you. Let’s go.” Shayle’s friend helped her off the ground and she glared at me before they turned to leave in the opposite direction of where I was heading. I opened my bag and pulled out the bag with the stone in it. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t damaged. Of course, I knew that it took a twenty-foot fall onto stone to break the eyes, but I was nervous now that there wasn’t something else taking up my attention. I looked at the stone and it was still perfect. It would make me feel better once I got it put together and gave it to Forrest. The idea of him wearing it made me blush. “Is that a gift for your beau?” Queen Ivy asked. “Yes. I’m making him a necklace. I don’t know if we’ll be true mates, but I want to show him how I feel about him right now. He fought one of his best friends to claim me. I don’t have that opportunity to show him how I feel and I hope this will convey it,” I answered honestly. “I think it’s a wonderful idea and that stone is lovely. Shall we go?” I put the stone back in its bag and put that into the bag slung over my shoulder, then nodded to her. We made our way to the meat seller my mother went to. As we approached, my mother came out with two large bags, one on her shoulder and the other under her arm. “There you are! Are you done with your…. Queen Ivy! What happened? Is my daughter in trouble?” “No, your daughter has acted honorably when another troll was causing issues. She fought for her beau and won against his other suitor. I wanted to let you know that Pyla is not at fault or in trouble for her actions today. Go help your mother, Miss M’Ren, I hope to meet you again in better circumstances.” With that, Queen Ivy turned back and disappeared into the crowd. My mother looked at me for a moment, then held out the bundle from under her arm. I slung it over my shoulder quietly and followed her when she started walking. When we got out of the forest village, she turned to me. I stopped moving and waited for her to rage at me, but she smiled instead. Ever since I’d started seeing Forrest, she had been harder to read. Sometimes it seemed like she was angry at me, but then she treated me well, instead of screaming at me like she had when I first moved into her house. “You fought someone for Forrest and won. You even managed to do it in a place where the softer fae were and you didn’t get in trouble with the royal fae. It’s like water off your scales, isn’t it? Who did you fight?” she asked. “Shayle Stanvale. She threw the first punch. I just tried to get her contained so no one else would get hurt. Queen Ivy declared me the winner of the fight… and of Forrest.” “She declared you the winner of Forrest Montblanc? As in no one else can challenge you for him?” My mother seemed eager. “Yes. She declared that no one else could challenge either one of us,” I replied. My mother did a giddy little dance. She was obsessed with being accepted into the social circle of Forrest’s mother. We were very different people in a lot of ways. She was obsessed with them being the right friends in society and not the right friends to fit her. “This is wonderful news. And your friendship with the half-troll son of Eru Beaumont is still going well? I wonder if there’s any way you could patch things up with Elbio and be his friend, too. That would be perfect. Make up with Elbio. Tell Forrest you don’t want him to be mad at his friend and you want them to make up. Do you understand me, Pyla?” “Yes, mother. I think they already did make up, but I’ll talk to Forrest about it. Is there anything else I can do for you?” I asked. “Drop the attitude. You should be grateful I even let you stay with my mate and me. Come along. I have a lot of work to do for this dinner and I want you to go see Forrest as soon as he gets home from work. Maybe slip in the shower with him and show him how grateful you are that he picked you,” she suggested. “I won’t have ѕex with him just because he picked me over Shayle. Please stop trying to talk me into giving my body away to any troll with a family you consider special. And if you try to kick me out of your home or make me leave, I will make sure that all of their mothers know how cold and callus you really are,” I hissed as I walked past her. “Uppity lizard bіtch,” my mother muttered, but followed along. We would never see eye to eye on a lot of things, but not all families do. It made me miss my father and stepmother. They loved me even though I wasn’t like them. It made me miss my sister and brother as well. I hoped they were all doing well at home and I couldn’t wait to visit them after my coming-of-age was done.