It was late in the evening, in a few minutes or so it will get completely dark. Tiramisu was sneaking around the walls bordering prison ruins. She was wearing a dark robe to blend in the darkness. She wore no footwear so she can be as quiet as possible.

Tiramisu waited for two hooded humans to leave the side entrance leading to the ruins. Tamia gave her an accurate schedule of when and who left the place. Just as the humans left she sneaked inside. She did not know the layout of the place; she had to be very careful. The lizardwoman remained in the shadows and carefully scouted the place.

The ruins were not empty, there were people here and there, all of them were rough looking thugs or robed humans. She managed to avoid getting noticed so far. She scouted enough to get a rough feeling of the place. Now she had to find an entrance leading underground to the dungeons.

“I think it is here.” She whispered to herself. “This is no good, there needs to be another way.” The entrance had two guards watching it.

Tiramisu circled around the ruins, she was looking for a manhole or something like that. It did not take her long to notice a grate covering a hole which led deeper underground. It was a drain for excess water, leading to the city’s old sewer.

She had only one chance at it, she hoped it will take her to her final destination. Tiramisu kicked the rusty grate in. It clanged making an awfully loud noise.

“What was that?” a man heard it and was walking to check it out.

It was now or never, she risked getting stuck but she had to do this. She squeezed her lean body though it and crawled deeper inside the narrow hole.

“Huh, must have been wind or something.” The man dismissed it as he could not find a trace of anyone. He did not bother to check beneath his feet and poke his head inside a small hole.

Tiramisu crawled deeper and deeper inside. The small tunnel was very dirty and dark. She did not know where she was going, she could not see at all; there was only darkness. She crawled and crawled, few minutes felt like an hour. If she happened to reach a dead end or something like that that would mean that she would get stuck; there was no space to turn around. She feared such an outcome but kept crawling deeper.

Finally, the drain led to a wider tunnel. She heard water drops making splashing noise. She hoped the filthy water she was about to jump in was not too deep. She pushed herself out of the drain and jumped down. A loud sound of splashing water echoed through the tunnel.

“Shit!” She did not expect it to be so loud.

“Which way is it?” She was disoriented and had no idea which way to go. If she made a mistake she could be lost in the sewers for days. She still could not see a thing and she regretted not bringing a torch with her. The torchlight would have given her location away anyways, so maybe it was for the best. She chose a random direction and pressed forwards waddling through the drain water. It was not too deep, it barely reached her ankles. She was as silent as possible, carefully moving her feet so that she does not splash the water. She was touching the wall with her left hand to know where she was going.

After some time she felt that a tunnel was turning sharply to the left, so she moved towards the turn. As soon as she did it she noticed something; it was a huge blob of fluorescent green light, slowly crawling towards her from the distance.

She wanted to scream thinking that she saw a ghost or something. She put her hands on her mouth stopping herself from doing so. The light continued to move towards her slowly. Lizard woman just stood there frozen in fear.

Nothing happened, she was still alive. The glow was there, and it was getting closer, but that was it. She was the master of her fate so she braced herself and tried to calm down. Tiramisu squinted her eyes trying to judge what the source of that unholy green light was. It was just a slime; a huge glowing slime.

She let out a sight, there was no reason to get so scared. If she did not go towards it she will probably be fine. Tiramisu turned around, pressed her left hand on the wall on a different side and continued her sewer adventure.

She walked through the filthy water making random turns whilst following the walls. Then her ears picked a noise; a distant noise of people talking. She let go of the wall and went towards the sound of people talking. The voices got stronger and stronger. She approached the source of it, it was coming from a small grated hole.

Lizardwoman was happy, she had finally found a prison dungeon. Now she had to find a way inside it. Breaking inside will not be an easy task and she knew it. It was a prison dungeon, after all, it was designed to keep the prisoners inside, same applied to the outsiders who wanted to get in.

As expected she struggled to find an entrance. Now and then, she would notice a hole or two in a wall, a faint torchlight would find a way where she was. However, unless she knocked a wall she could not get it. Tiramisu did not want to give up, not with what was on the stake. She wanted that date with Guardian, so she kept looking for a way in.

It took her a few hours of exploring the tunnels. She had to come back and start over multiple times, the sewers were like a maze. But she found it, this was it.

“This has to work.” She breathed out all of the air from her lungs.

Tiramisu found a hole in a wall with narrowly spaced grate cowering it. It would be a challenge but someone like her should be able to squeeze through. It was good she was slim and completely flat, her upper body fit through it with no problems. Her hips got stuck at one point but she managed to squeeze them through.

She was inside the base Guardian mentioned, she knew it because the place was lit with torches; someone clearly was living here. She was inside an old storeroom of sorts. It had weird robes with a red insignia of a human handprint. She put one of the robes on hoping to have an effective disguise. Then she carefully sneaked out of the storeroom, doing her best not to draw any attention.

She found herself in a narrow corridor, It had multiple doors on its sides leading to small rooms. They were prison cells. She peeked through the door hole to have a look inside.

“No, no, no! Please no!” A sickly looking beastman reacted to her presence.

“Shhhhh!” She tried to shush him and moved away from the door. She needed a moment.

Tiramisu did not expect to find prisoners here. The prison was supposed to be retired a long time ago. Whatever these robed people were doing with the captives, it was bad. She carefully peeked at a few other cells; they all had prisoners.

She was curious about what was going on in here and pressed on through the corridor. Then she heard some sort of a chanting coming from a distance. She went towards it. Tiramisu stopped and pressed her back beside the doorway leading to a room where the chanting was coming from. She wanted to peek in but this was very risky.

She sneaked to the torch illuminating the corridor and put it out using a special cup beside it. She hoped that no one would suspect any foul play about one of the torches burning out. The corridor was dark now and she could peek inside unnoticed.

Liazardwoman stepped towards the entrance leading to the room so she could see what was going on.

She peeked her head to see what was happening inside. The room was filled with robed humans, they wore robes just like hers, all of them had the same red insignia. She quickly realised that her disguise would not have worked. The robed ones were all human, where were no beastmen within their ranks, and they were clearly mages. She knew that because they were shooting beams of blue light from their hands, only a mage could perform flashy tricks like that. All of the beams converged towards the table. The table had a very young man bound to it, he was naked and covered in blood.

One of the mages held a leather-bound book in his hand. He was reading it and chanting a magic chant. This was a ritual of sorts. Each word he said sounded more powerful and loud than the other. The entire room was filled with blue magical light.

The mages stopped and slumped on their knees. The blue light dimmed all of the sudden. Tiramisu was wrong to assume that the young man was dead. The mage’s victim started to scream his lungs out. The scream was deafening and full of agony.

The screaming stopped and then the man’s body started to shrivel, his skin turned sickly black and clung to his bones. A blue ghost-like figure formed above his wilted body. It vaguely resembled him. Then the room was filled with unpleasant noise again; the ghost let out an unholy screech as it was pulled by some sort of a force towards a crystal mounted beside the mage with the book.

The crystal sucked the apparition inside and became black in colour.

“We did it. We finally did it!” An old mage shouted out in glee.

“Fuck this shit!” Tiramisu has had enough and darted back towards the storeroom.

She has never been scared like this before. She saw an actual ghost or maybe a soul leaving a humans body. The lizard even soiled herself, leaving a puddle of evidence where she once stood. But she did not care about that, she was running for her life.

She ran into the storeroom, squeezed through the grates and continued to run haphazardly through the sewer tunnels. She ran and ran, in complete darkness until she slammed her head into the wall.

“Auch!” she shouted rubbing her sore head.

She needed that hit, it broke her fear induced sprint. Tiramisu realised that she was now lost in dark sewer tunnels and all alone.

Tamia has been waiting not too far from the prison ruins. She stuck there for couples of hours, but Tiramisu was not coming back. It was time to head back and report to the Guardian.

“Got what you have deserved, bitch.” Tamia assumed that Tiramisu got herself killed or at least captured. She knew this will happen and she was happy to be right.

She limped towards her new ‘home’, the place where she was held captive. She did not like to call that place home, it felt like an open prison.

Guardian met her at the doorway “So?”

“As I have predicted. That lizard failed. She did not come back.”

“This is most unfortunate.”

“What now?”

“You will continue your previous efforts. I need to know what is going inside those ruins. Maybe it is time for you to start questioning some people?”

“Yes, Master.” Tamia had no other choice but to accept this. She was well aware of how dangerous it was; if she could she would not do it.

…

“Knock Knock Knock.” Someone was banging on the door loudly.

Guardian got alarmed, he was not expected any guests this late in the evening. He opened the door ready for whoever it was. A stinking lizardwoman stood in front of him. She was very filthy, her skin was clinging tightly to her lean muscles showing bulging veins. Tiramisu was severely dehydrated.

“It is you!”

“Yes, I got slightly lost... Can I have some clean water please?”

“Come inside and tell me everything that has happened.”

Tiramisu told about her adventure but she did not tell about seeing a ghost in the ritual room. The reason was that she did not want to remember it and if she had to remember it she would rather get rewarded for it.

“I had originally planned to get someone to become one of them. infiltrating their ranks. But getting inside through the sewers might work as well.”

“I doubt about that. Sewer tunnels are like a maze. I doubt I would be able to find my way back to the prison dungeon.”

“I will take care of it. There must be a map. Did you find anything interesting inside besides prisoners? Like some magic artefacts or something like that.”

“Yes, there was magic. Very dark and scary magic…”

“Tell me all about it!” Guardian was anxious to hear it.

“Not before, I get my reward.”

“How much money do you want? Name your price” He was ready to empty his coin purse. The information she might have sounded juicy; this was what he wanted.

“Did you forget? It is a date I want, not the money.”

“Oh… Ok then. Shall we go now?” He was very keen to get it over with.

“What are you talking. I can not go now, not like this. And I want a proper date, so you better think things through properly.”

“I will.”

“Pick me up tomorrow afternoon. I will be at my place.”

Tiramisu left his house, she had to make herself ready for tomorrow. A lot of self-care and hygiene had to be done.

Guardian had no idea how a proper date should look like. He did not want to disappoint Tiramisu fearing that she will withhold the information from him. He asked Tamia to help him out.

“I have never been on a date. I can’t help you.” She lied not willing to help her tormentor.

“Oh, are you a virgin?” He teased her.

“Of course not!”

“Then you were lying! Better do not lie to me.”

“Okay, Okay, I have been to a couple of dates. But the thing is that humans and beastmen date differently. The whole dating experience varies in between different races.”

“I see, this makes sense. Yet there must be some similarities. There are things what females like regardless of their species.”

“I cannot help you. Oh, look it is about time for me to go and do the surveillance. I better go.” Tamia excused herself leaving through the door in a rush.

“She is so useless. It is time to ask Cynthia for another favour.” He was abusing this friendship thing.

In the morning Guardian went to Cynthia and asked what this dating thing is all about. He deeply regretted asking it. Cynthia was talking nonstop, pushing her ideals of the perfect date. A lot of money and effort was involved in her picture of dating. Guardian did not have that sort of time or money.

“Cynthia! There is nothing going between me and Tiramisu. I want just a simple date, but good enough to please her.”

“How typical of men. You want it easy, don’t you!”

This was a spot on description of what he aimed for, he wanted to have it easy.

“Hmmm let me think… You have to take her for a dinner, that is a must. Also, you need to get her a present, something she likes. As for the activities you could just talk and walk around the better parts of the city, or do something you both enjoy.”

This was not helpful at all. He did not know what she liked to eat, he did not know what she likes to do in her free time or what she would enjoy as a gift. All he knew about her was that she worked as a fisher and ate fish. He will have to improvise.

“Thank you for this, Cynthia. I owe you one”

“You owe me a lot. Make sure to come back and tell me how it went. I am so curious.”

Firstly, Guardian went to the market. He was looking for a good spear Tiramisu could use both for fishing and for self-defence. He did not want to be cheap, but spending a fortune on it was not an option either. He has found a good one which was not too expensive; the spear's wooden shaft had carved patters, it made it stand out from others. Also, the spear's tip was made of metal, it was sharpened well. Since it had a metal tip he had to pay a single gold coin for it; this was within his budget.

Next, He had to think of a good place to take her out. Inn probably was not an option. Instead, he bought varied see goods and packet them in a basket. He did not have to buy a lot since he won’t be eating much. He had his fill beforehand already.

Finally, he had to go and get Tiramisu.

He let himself into the warehouse and asked the random lizardman for her. Soon after, the lizardwoman has found him. She looked a lot better, her scaly skin had regained its lustre.

He gave her the spear. She did not expect a gift at all and seemed awfully pleased with it.

“I have always wanted something like this, thank you.”

“Now we will go to the seashore to have some food.”

“Will we be fishing?”

Guardian regretted of not thinking of that beforehand, he could have saved some money on food.

“No, I have bought some already.”

The pair walked towards the sea and talked idly. Once at the shore, they sat on a flat rock and he took the food out. There were various fishes, squids, shrimps, and oysters. The food was raw, but it was fine with the lizard.

“Wow, that is a big variety. There are some of it I have never had before.”

“I put a lot of effort in finding all of this.”

“This… is… so… good.” She said through her stuffed mouth.

Tiramisu took some of the food and brought it to his mouth.

“What?”

“Say ahhh!”

He opened his mouth and she put the food inside. She was feeding him. Guardian did not understand why she was feeding him like a child, he could have done it himself. The ritual of flirting was alien to him.

The pair finished their food, but contrary to Guardian’s expectations the date was not over. It dragged on because Tiramisu was tactically not letting him go. She wrapped her hand around his and pressed her body close.

They sat like that and talked for a while. The lizardwoman looked somewhat restless, her tail was constantly in motion. This was because Tiramisu was waiting for him to make a move, like a kiss or something, but it did not happen.

She stood up and leaned close to his face.

“What?” He said unsurely. He did not know what she wants.

“Oh come on, do it. This is your chaance.” She encouraged him.

“Oh ok. So what sort of magic did you find?”

“Eh!?”

“Was it an artefact, or what?”

This threw Tiramisu off slightly. She assumed that Guardian wants the rest of the information before they get naughty, so she finished telling what happened.

She mentioned mages, book, sacrifice and the ritual.

“That is some amazing magic. I want it.”

“There is something I want too.”

“What do you want?” He was wondering if he could use her to get that book.

“I want you, you silly.”

“What? What do you want from me exactly?”

“Are you really this dense or just joking? You are teasing me aren’t you.”

“Maybe.” He was not teasing her. He really did not know what she wants.

“You are so mean. This is embarrassing… Fuck me. Here, I said it.”

This was one of the things he would never expect her to say. It was so sudden it made his brain crash for a moment.

“Amm… Ummm… I can’t, not like this. This is too soon”

“Sorry... You are right. It is just that I like you so much it is hard to control myself. The minute I saw you I fell in love with you.”

Again, this word ‘love’. He still was not sure what exactly it meant. Aiu’s explanation (actually a demonstration) was somewhat lacking.

“Really? Why?”

“You are so big, strong and manly. It feels like no one can stand in your way. There are this power and confidence emanating from you and I find it extremely attractive.”

“Oh. I see.”

If she liked him that much maybe he could use it for an advantage.

“I want to know... Would you go and get that magic book for me? I really want it.”

“I can’t, it would be impossible to do alone. But if you came I would assist you.” She did not mind risking her life in helping to get that book if it meant she can win him over.

“I will take you up on your offer.”

“Only if we make out now. That should not be too soon.” Tiramisu added, she was way too hot and bothered to go home with nothing.

“Fine, I guess.”