Lily lounged atop a grassy knoll and admired the afternoon sun atop a beach towel. She positioned her parasol from off her shoulder so that it blocked the fiercely beating summer sun from burning her dainty complexion to a charred crisp. She lounged atop her little hillock that seemed to sit at the top of the world, as it swooped down descending into the vast valley

She gave a contented sigh as the afternoon wore on dully, and a giant carnivorous man eating bird flapped across the sky carrying a screaming peasant who was not having the best day thus far. But could at least say he'd had worse.

Leisurely she yawned, "This afternoon could possibly be the finest afternoon in the long and critically archived history of afternoons." She announced with haughty confidence to the general hillock, which disagreed and felt it was only a so-so afternoon, but was unable to argue with no auditory organs.

Off in the distance a young suitor of Lily's watched her in deep infatuation from behind a tree. He sighed with forlorn, he did not know if he had the nerve to dare approach his beloved when she could quite easily reject him. Regardless, he steeled his courage knowing that massive humiliation would be worth it if only she was obligated to evaluate him briefly.

Nervously he trudged up the hill muddy hill, plodding his bare gangly feet across the grimy terrain. He reached the summit unceremoniously and removed his bowler hat, which he tugged and pulled at to soothe his worry addled mind. "Ah, ah, excuse me, Lily?"

Lily turned around to see the face that called her. She twirled her parasol and gave a charmed cry of "Oh! It's you, Charles. What can I do for you?" She rested the umbrella against the crook of her shoulder.

"Well, I just had a little think to tell m'lady, if she'll um, let me. I just wanted to say that I love you very much and would like to marry you if it's not too much trouble, ah." He gave an embarrassed toothy grin. He eased up slightly when Lily tittered. "Oh? Is that all you had to say? I've know that for weeks now, honestly."

Charles' leathery dark tanned cheeks turned bright red as he heard these words. "H-h-how did you know this, m'lady?"

"Oh, it's my business to know who likes me. You spend your waking hours staring at me as if I were the only thing in all the world pleasant enough to glance at, and yet you never consider that maybe I'd look back at you? My Charles, you are silly."

"Oh…" Charles grimaced, "Well, I deserve that, I suppose. But will you, my beloved and apple of my eye, orange of my ear, and grape of either nostril (Whichever you may prefer to be as a grape) become my lawfully wedded wife?"

Lily's amused smile, that had filled Charles with such warmth moments ago dropped to a frown. Charles' heart sank as he witnessed this, and was overcome with foreboding.

"Oh Charles, old boy, you know there's a problem to that." She sighed.

"Social orders be darned!" Charles swore remorselessly, and Lily flinched. "Oh, I'm sorry milady, it's only that I am so tired of these wretched taboos that are enforced upon us! I am a male, and you are a female, what is keeping us apart? It is not right! We're all civilized monsters here."

"That's right," Lily said, flicking her serpent's tail uncomfortably. "We ARE civilized monsters, and as such we must adhere to rules to keep us such. I am a highborn, and you are a simple kobold.

Charles' posture slumped, he looked into his oil and ragged hands; his skin was tough and leathery while his long bony fingers pointed into shark claws. His knobby knees supported his spindly frame while amounted to little more than a scrawny torso with a potbelly that had lanky limbs stuck fast to it. His nose was long and crooked, just like his pointed ears. He took in a proud breath, and screwed on his bowler hat tightly. "That's right, I am a mere kobold; a goblin and a peasant for all you care. What do I care? I am not beyond wanting the priceless treasures of kings. Just because some fools of ancients felt that my blood is unworthy of being mingled with yours is no matter to me. I want you to be mine, Lily. You are the most beautiful beast this side of the gelatinous swamp behemoth. I would do anything to have you be mine."

"Hold your tongue!" Lily snapped, "You should not speak of the ancients with such low esteem! They are the reason we are more than brutes, you know as well as I do!"

"They did us a grand service, to a point. It was when they started to enforce such arbitrary stipulations that I began to question them. I may be the least of all beasts, but I still love you; Lily."

Lily furiously twirled her parasol while biting her forked tongue with fuming anger. She was a highborn, as she had said, she was a Lamia; the legs, or lack there of, of a giant snake had been fused to that of a torso of a woman. That is taking the term woman rather loosely, however, as the instant of creature before us was a vivid nightmare version of any woman no matter how homely. Plump muscular arms daintily held her parasol with feminine delicacy between a fistful of clawed fingers. She was wearing her favorite post afternoon sun blouse, which proceeded the post late afternoon blouse. This one had flower print patterns all about it and was buried in mounds of lace borders. Her skin was composed of clammy purple scales, which shelled every centimeter of her body but the underbelly that ran down her snake tail. Her maw was filled with jagged teeth, and her eyes were deep and blank. Long strands of unkempt and messy golden hair draped off her shoulders and face. Her face, the monstrous visage of which was surrounded by a pretty white bonnet she wore around her head like a Christmas present concealing a box of scorpions. She was possibly the most beautiful thing that had ever graced monstrosity and the city of Distopia in generations. Charles looked at her with a yawning longing.

"Listen," Charles pleaded, "Do you loathe me? Am I not dreadful enough for you? Am I unable to inspire even the faintest dread in the human heart? I will leave you be if YOU think I am not worth your time."

Lily eased slightly, taking this in carefully. She could not deny that she was fond of him, but it was still not right. "Charles, you are a splendid monster and if the circumstances were different, I would gladly take your hand, but if God intended us to be together, we would not be born to different orders. That is that, I am afraid."

"Ahh! Hardly!" Charles burst into a wicked grin, "If you do not hate me, there is yet hope!"

"Charles, stop this foolishness at once!" Lily protested.

"I will do no such thing! I will make a grand fool of myself so long as you will be mine at the end. I care not what anyone thinks! If there is a way, I will make you mine!" He then tipped his hat, and backed slowly from his beloved before taking off into the woodlands like a spry rabbit.

Lily watched with a heavy heart, unable to decide whether to spite him for defying the law, or to pray he succeeded. She stared long after he had disappeared into the forest before turning her gaze back to the afternoon sky. Somehow it did not soothe her mind as well as it had before while her goblin suitor was off on a hopeless quest to try and win her hand.

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