And there we are. The legends are true. The soldiers and me were speechless. We really have been watching these lizard people for a few days now. They’ve probably been watching us ever since we were stranded on this cursed land. Their yellow eyes twitch in the shadows of the trees, they are swift and hardly visible.
We had to take off our armour. The heat and the rust are killing us. Slight wounds become infected and fill with ooze. The field surgeon is busy, we’re running out of bandages and alcohol, not a good sign.
The lizards have a strange colouring. Sapphire blue to light blue, also with yellow and pink scales. We also saw some white ones. You’d think they’d be easy to spot in the green thicket, but the exact opposite is the fact. Yesterday Rodrigo was dragged into the jungle in his sleep. Probably too paralysed by the frog poison to scream. Scary when you consider that we sleep in the wilds, or rather, under the canopy of hell. Presumably these blue lizardmen mainly operate at night, which makes them even more invisible than they already are.
This morning I was woken up by loud noises. A crashing and stamping. It sounded like a steam tank ploughing through the Drakenwald…
And then it was standing in front of us. A giant lizard, the biggest I’ve ever seen. Tukutetcha calls it a bastilodon, or as the locals say, terror sol. He explains to us that the object on its back can focus the sun’s energy so strongly that it cuts through stone like a warpbeam and destroys everything in its path.
The giant lizard seems to have spotted us, but it passes by and disappears just as quickly as it was seen. It appears that the lizardmen are busy preparing for something, probably a battle. They’re just using us as a quick snack in between. I’m in favour of turning back…
Day 25
Carlo Ibanez, scriber of the Marco Colombo expedition, 1492 Lustria
