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“Screw it. You are not the first animal to bite me while I care for it.”

She laughed when she started to unwrap it from the towel. As soon as it was free, it tried to run, and she grabbed it by the tail and pulled it back before it fell off the edge.

While grabbing its face, she held its mouth shut and a hiss resonated from it. She tucked it into her armpit and started undoing the cloth she wrapped its wings and torso in the night before. It tried to flap them, and it struggled harder when she began rubbing ointment onto each one. She also smeared it over its scratches until it was completely covered in a slippery film of medicine.

While she was still holding it, she walked outside and sat on the front step to her porch to hold it in the sun.

“Would you just stop struggling?” she groaned at it while digging her fingers in so it couldn’t get away. “I have never met an animal as stubborn as you. Eventually you all calm when you realise I am not trying to hurt you, but you are just being a rude prick now.”

It did, in fact, stop squirming. She noted that it was staring up at her.

“Once you are better, I can let you back into the wild where you belong, but you need to start behaving or it's going to take longer.”

It kept its body still, but it did start tugging its head so she would let it go.

“Promise not to bite?”

She knew talking to it wasn’t going to matter, nor was she expecting an answer. She always felt if she talked to an injured creature it would start to calm.

She released its face and its head shot back before it turned it to her like it was assessing her. Careful of its injured wings, she held its sides and let it bake in the sun, hoping the sun sap would help it to heal faster.

Bala came up to sit at her ankles to watch them both.

She should have known he was up to something because he swatted the lizard in the snout.

“You cretin!” She booted him away, and he hissed before running off. She tilted the lizard a little towards her face. “Sorry about that. He has absolutely no manners.”

Figuring its back had spent enough time in the sun, she flipped it over. It looked horrified and squirmed its little legs in the air.

“Be patient. The ointment requires to be in the sun to work best. When the scratches underneath you are gone, we will only have to work on your wings.”

It continued to squirm with its legs but wouldn’t move its back since her hands were pressed against its tender wings.

Once they’d spent enough time in the sun, she took it back inside and placed it on the towel. She forced it to drink more tea.

“What do you eat?”

She kept a close eye on it while she went to the kitchen and grabbed a handful of different food. After offering it some carrot, potato, and celery, to no avail, she tried some fruit. It huffed at the food before turning its head away, but behaved by staying on the towel.

“Perhaps you eat meat?”

She dug into the basket she’d taken into town and grabbed the other piece of fish she’d bought.

“This is a secret between me and you, okay?” It blinked at her with a lack of understanding. “Fish is Bala’s favourite. I am sure he would be upset if he found out I was giving you the second piece I got for him.”

It started to eat it raw, and a small smile curved her lips.

“So, you are definitely a carnivore. Tomorrow I will go into the town and buy some food for you. Hopefully you will not have to stay here long though.”

It eyed her when she leaned closer. She inspected its dark purple scales, and strangely enough, its silver eyes.

“Even with your mangled broken wings, you are rather cute, are you not?”

Only Amalia would find a biting, sharp-toothed creature adorable.

She went to pat it again, but it stopped eating and snapped its jaws at her while grasping the fish tighter in its foreclaws. It slid it closer to its chest in protection.

“Stop being a pain, Mr. Lizard. Or is it Miss Lizard? I cannot tell.” It continued to eat again. “Hmm, since you are such a pretty violet, I am going to call you Lady Lizard.”