An encounter with a strange beast left me with a new scar that festered with poison. I thought I was doomed to meet an early end when word of a miraculous healer who lived in an isolated marsh reached my ears. So, I ventured forth and found a lone hut nestled within a grove, where I came across a Lizardfolk medicine woman who was the healer in question.

Her name was Rayla, an exile from the Great Marsh where her kind had long lived since the time of the Ancient Wars. She could smell the poison belonging to a predator that they often hunted, meaning she knew of a cure and would prepare it to cleanse me before it could claim my life. That was, if I was willing to pay the price.

Said price was to lay with the Lacerian, which she yearned for after living in isolation for so long. She hoped that, with our bodies entwined in a mating ritual that would leave us both fertile and in the throes of lust, it would sow the seed of life into her womb and grant her a child. I found myself not exactly opposed to the bargain as I followed her inside…

A simple tale set in a fantastical world, where the gods had long since shed their avatars and left the mortal races to fend for themselves. But as life continued to flourish, so too did stories endlessly unfold. This is just one of those stories—of how desire and longing can bring isolation, but also the chance to seek fulfillment.

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