Okay ppl, here is the 1st chapter of a new story. A story of mine I like most ))) Yeah, it's 'bout Tilian...what did you expect? lol

Well, first of all: You start kinda in the middle of the story. Before this chappie there was a rather short "story" I left out coz I was too lazy to write it xD Nah, oj. Would have been a rather short chapter anyway.

The Alpha Teens follow a hint of Axel's father he had left in the journal. They take the A115 and follow the journal's description into the swamps. Of course the Mu-Team interferes and make the vehicle of the teens land (quite hardly...). As they crash down the A115 splits into its 5 parts and Alpha Teens as well as Mu-Team lose consciousness. (No major injuries, just to calm you down...lol, I'd never hurt Tilian! Well...not that much...XD)

Ahem...In the meantime a reptilian girl sees everything and takes a group of hunters with her to look after the "new dudes" in their territory. They find the teens and their clones and put them into the prison in their village. While they decide about what to do with the intruders the first guys in the prison wake up, not knowing where they are. And just a few moments afterwards this chapter starts. Enjoy!

Reptilico

"You", the guard pointed at Tilian who sat in the corner. "Come with me." Tilian stood up and walked to the guard. The others looked at him. He knew that there was no sense fighting. They'd just catch him again and make him pass out for the next hours. The guard closed the door again as Tilian left. Darkness fell over the prison again.

"Great", said someone sarcastic in the darkness.

Three guards led Tilian through a small town of buildings made up of white stone. Lots of traditional clothed people here, looking like they lived in the last century, stared curiously at Tilian as he passed by. They had never seen something like him before, he guessed. They came closer to the centre of the town, a temple on a hill. It was like all the other buildings here, white.

In the great hall of the temple stood a throne, on it sat the leader of the clan here. The guards kicked Tilian's legs away so he fell to his knees. The guards bowed to their leader. Tilian looked at the old man on the throne, he looked wise and friendly, but Tilian disliked him. Just because he was a prisoner without reason. And that made this man not very likely to him.

"What is he?", asked the leader.

"A Reptilico", replied a guard. "Like the prophecy said, there were two. This is the second one we needed."

"Yes, right..."

"Um...sorry? What are you guys talking about?" Tilian looked at them, confused.

"You're not supposed to know that. At least not yet. Bring the other Reptilico here!", ordered the leader. A guard disappeared. Seconds later he came back, on his side a girl, clothed like all the others in the town. But she was different.

The upper part of her body looked like the one of a normal woman. But from her belly down she had green shimmering scales, her legs were covered with reptile skin, like her forearms and her shoulders. She had bright ginger hair, yellow eyes like a snake and an elegant face. Her top was dark blue, her skirt reached her knees. Tilian saw she had a reptile tail.

He stared at her for a long time, not realizing the leader watched him carefully and studied his face. "This is Eliza", said the leader and caught Tilian's attention again. He squinted and looked at the leader.

"What is that prophecy you were talking about? What is a Reptilico? And why am I here?", asked Tilian, perplexed.

"Eliza's gonna tell you."

She bowed to the leader.

"You'll stay here for the following time, you two have to talk a lot, I guess. But I can understand you want to run away, so..." He clapped his hands. A guard wrapped a silver shimmering rope around Tilian's waist. Then he gave the other end to Eliza who wrapped it around her own waist, tying a thick knot. The two were now connected, he wouldn't be able to escape with her hanging on his waist.

"That rope is made up of a special metal. It is flexible like a usual rope, but you won't be able to tear it." The leader waved with his hand, Eliza bowed to him again and walked away. Tilian followed her wordlessly, the rope between them was three meters long. So he had at least some free space.

"C'mon", she smiled. "I wanna show you something."

He looked at her back. Her hair reached the end of her shoulder blades, her scales began a hand wide under them. She didn't move her tail while she walked, she simply pulled it after her like it was dead.

"What is that-"

"Wait with your questions", she interrupted. "I know you wanna know everything, and I'm going to tell you, but not here. I will show you a place where we can talk undisturbed."

Tilian growled quietly and followed her. This day didn't start very well. It was actually really bad. He was tied to a girl he didn't know who brought him to a place he didn't know as well. He had something to do with a prophecy he didn't know and was something like a Reptilico, he didn't know what that was, too. He knew nothing. Just that he was stuck here, in the middle of the swamps.

"What's your name?", asked Eliza on their way. She led him out of the town, deeper into the swamps.

"Tilian", he replied.

"Like in Reptilian? Sweet name", she said and smiled slightly. "I'm Eliza, as you know, but you can call me Liz."

"Sweet name", he smiled.

After several more minutes of silence Tilian decided to do something. He was far away from the town now and perhaps would find the way back to Landmark City. He grabbed the silver rope and pulled on it, trying to tear it. It didn't work. Like he was trying to tear a two feet thick metal plate. Only in form of a very thin and flexible rope which laid around his waist now.

He started a try to run away. But after some meters the rope around his waist pulled him back, he fell into the mud and landed on his belly. Angry he wiped the mud out of his face and stared at Liz who stood behind him, smiling triumphantly.

"You cannot escape", she said. "Because you're not supposed to."

"Not supposed to? I don't even live here! I'm not supposed to be here!"

"How do you know?"

"Huh?" Confused, he stared into her face and stood up. "Because I gotta go back to Landmark City! Far away from here!"

Liz shook her head. "You'll have to learn a lot about destiny and its mostly not clear ways."

And this sentence caused an even more confused expression on the clone's face. "What are you talking about?!"

"You must stay here", she explained. "Because of the prophecy!"

"What prophecy?!"

"If you follow me I'll explain it to you!"

"So why don't you explain it to me here, right now?!"

"This isn't the right place. Follow me, we can reach the right one in five minutes."

He growled and folded his arms. He didn't move an inch as Liz walked on. She turned to him and placed her fists on her hip. She tried to pull on the rope, but he was too heavy to get him away from there.

"Come on!"

"I don't want to." He grinned slightly as he noticed she was not strong enough to pull him with her. Liz sighed and walked slowly towards him. She looked deeply into his eyes with a look that made him feel strange. He couldn't do anything except for staring back into her somehow beautiful yellow snake-like eyes. She walked around him one time, he didn't look away, still staring at her.

Tilian didn't notice the rope on their feet wrapping slowly around his legs. As she stood in front of him again she began to smile evilly and pulled strongly on the rope. It tore Tilian's legs away, he fell backwards into the mud again. Liz laughed quietly as he glared angrily at her, wiping the mud out of his face. She offered him a hand to stand up. The clone took it, and pulled her into the mud as well.

Snapping for air Liz sat up and looked surprised at Tilian who simply grinned and stood up. Now he offered Liz a hand. She took it and he pulled her up to her feet.

"Are you coming now, or not?", she asked, looking into his face.

"Lead the way", he replied. She had won. It had been like a battle between them and like they had known the rules without even talking to each other. She had managed to play a trick on him, she had won. Now he had to follow her.

Liz turned around and went on, he followed her, pressing out a quiet sigh.

Minutes later the muddy ground of the swamps became harder, grass grew here. They seemed to be getting away from the swamps and entering a new area. The green grass reached their knees, trees grew everywhere and made it hard to see farther than five meters. After a long way through the thicket they finally reached a clearing. There was a big spring and a kind of small lake. It ended in a river.

"This is the place I wanted to show you", she said and pointed at the waterfall-like spring. Lots of rocks lay around it, building something like a bay. "This spring is older than everyone in the town. Some of us even say it is older than the history of the people here. The shaman says magic is around in the water and in the air, because this is the only place where there are no crocodiles."

"And what else is so special about it? You can find old springs everywhere in this area." Tilian looked bored at the quickly floating water.

"That's what I'm going to tell you now."

The two of them sat down on a rock close by the spring, Liz wrapped her tail around her scaly legs and looked at it for a long time in silence. Tilian followed her look but got bored of watching the water falling and falling and falling...His look went back to her. Carefully he studied her elegant looking face, her snake-like eyes and her fine features. She was so different from the girls he had seen yet.

Except her reptile skin and tail here. It was something in her face. It looked finer, more different. Although he stared at her for a long time he couldn't tell what it was. As Liz looked at him and smiled he squinted and forced himself to a smile. He didn't want to be there, he didn't want to stay there. He just wanted to go back home.

"Since ancient times my people lives here. And since ancient times the couples come here, drink some of the water and build up a special bond for the rest of their life. We usually celebrate it with a big ceremony here, afterwards the couples will stay together until they die. Nowadays it happens very rarely, because we don't have enough children around. Most of them die when they're young, only a few of them grow up and found families."

Tilian looked at her. "You mean they marry here? That's what is so special about this place?"

"This place is holy for our people", she smiled. "You'd understand if you saw such a ceremony." She sighed a bit sadly. "I've seen just one ceremony because I'm here for a year now."

"For a year? Where do you come from then?"

"The leader explained to me that they found me on their hunt. I was just lying somewhere in the swamps, not knowing where I came from, who I was. They thought the crocodile god sent me down here." She laughed a bit. "This is surely not true. Nonetheless, I was allowed to stay with them and became part of their civilization. They gave me the name Eliza and treated me like one of them."

Tilian cleared his throat as Liz said nothing for some time. "What is that prophecy you were talking about?"

"It is nearly as old as this tribe. The prophecy says there are two reptile creatures, bodies of human beings, skins like crocodiles, tongues and eyes like snakes. A male and a female creature that will stay with the tribe until one of them sacrifices himself for the other. Then, so says the prophecy, will resurrection come."

"Resurrection?"

"The prophecy is written in an old language, the shaman tried to translate it as well as he could. We're not sure about it. And about the interpretation either. We believe that when one of the reptile beings gives his life away to save the other one, our tribe will come to life again."

"But you live! You're not dead", Tilian said confused.

She laughed sadly. "True, we live, but what kind of life is it? We're dying slowly. Our children die when they're young, the adults become older and older and die some day. Without children we're lost. We hope that we will get better times when the prophecy comes true."

"Even though it could be you to give your life away?"

"I'm prepared to do it. I'd do everything to save the people who saved me." Liz looked into his eyes with a secure look.

"Oh, so you want me to get in danger so that you can save my life and die?" He frowned.

"No, it isn't that easy. That situation must happen itself and when we don't expect it. It has to be destiny", she explained.

"Uhu..." He stood up. "This is too freaky for me, I'm outta here."

"Wait!" She jumped to her feet. "You cannot go, you mustn't! We have to stay here till-"

"This is not my business", hissed Tilian. "And it isn't supposed to be mine."

"You can't go, I got the job to look after you", she hissed back. "Now it is your business, if you want it or not. First I hadn't wanted it as well, but meanwhile I wish to die for this tribe."

"How dramatic", he spat. "I'll call you when I wanna have a depressing atmosphere around me."

"You don't understand!"

"And you don't understand that I don't want to be here", he growled. "I'll take the very first chance to get away from here!"

"Fine", she hissed. "I wanted you to stay here voluntarily. Now it seems like I have to force you."

"You weak creature cannot force me to stay here", he spat back. "I could simply knock you out and loosen that rope."

"Then do it", she said coldly and folded her arms. "Do whatever you like. No one is gonna stop you."

Tilian growled deeply and showed his snake teeth. Furiously he spat some of his venom at her, Liz took a step aside and the green paralyzing venom splashed on the rock they stood on. She raised an eyebrow, looking into his eyes. "Is that all you’ve got? Some green stuff?"

He wanted to attack her, she avoided it faster than he had assumed and stood suddenly behind him. Confused he whirled around, missed another time. She was weaker than him, but much faster. Now Liz stood next to him, her arms still folded in front of her chest. She looked at him with an expressionless face. Growling he attacked her another time, she ducked, he missed again.

The game continued this way, she enraged Tilian even more. After some minutes he stopped, a bit out of breath, panting quietly. Liz didn't seem to be tired. She took the rope around her waist with one hand and pulled on it as strong as she could.

Tilian felt that the rope had wrapped around his whole body during their fight, it wrapped now tightly around him, pulled his legs away and made him land on his back hard. He was tied up, couldn't move. And each movement he did made everything worse. Liz loosened the rope around her waist and threw the end on Tilian lying helpless on the ground like a turtle on its back.

Growling he struggled to get free. However, he gave up as he noticed it had no use. Liz stood over him and smiled slightly. "Don't mess with me", she said triumphantly. "Strength is not everything."

"Silly snake", he hissed angrily, having some wild curses in his mind, but not wanting to enrage her. Not in his situation.

Moments later some guards of the temple appeared around Liz, she told them to bring Tilian back to the others until she had talked to the leader. They lifted him and carried him back to the prison where the others were. They opened the thick door, threw him in and closed it again. Dust rose as he landed on the ground, he tried to get rid of the rope around his body.

"See who's back", laughed Firekat derisively. "Seems you had a funny trip."

"Haha, very funny", hissed Tilian. "I thought your claws can slice through metal, why didn't you escape yet?"

"We tried, but were caught again. There are too many guards around us, they use narkose arrows and gas to make us pass out. As we woke up we had been lying here again", explained King.

"Did I ask you?!" Tilian struggled to get free. Firekat laid her claw on the rope and cut it easily. At once the clone was free again. He muttered a quick thanks under his breath and rubbed his aching wrists.

Axel, standing in the corner of the small room, his arms folded, leaning against the wall, looked at his clone and smiled derisively. "What happened?"

"They said something of a prophecy and that I play a role in it or so", replied Tilian. He didn't want to mention his time with Eliza. "Means we have to get away from here as fast as we can."

"Clever idea", said Lioness sarcastically. "And how?“