[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-saya-and-the-dragon":3,"chapter-saya-and-the-dragon-saya-and-the-dragon-chapter-181":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Saya and the Dragon",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1705168,2177,"Chapter 174: Lizard Meat","saya-and-the-dragon-chapter-181",181,"\u003Cp>The lizard wasperfectlygrilled. I mean, the skin crackled. The spices popped. And it came with pickled mango chutney and crispy locust chips. A once-in-a-decade roadside miracle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So of course, he takes one look and recoils like I just served him orphan stew.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You expect me to eatthat?” he hisses, nostrils flaring.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes?” I blink. “It’s lunch.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That,” he says, pointing with one dainty claw like it’s contagious, “is areptile. A cousin. A scaled sentient being. Practically kin.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Oh my gods, you eatpeople.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He does a whole dramatic full-body shudder. “Only when necessary.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You once ate a virgin and asked forseconds.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“She was stringy and lacked seasoning.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And this—” I hold up the lizard tail like it’s a prize— “this is too far?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He glares. “Would you eat a monkey?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Depends. Fried or stewed?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You wouldn’t.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“They’re cute. Lizards aren’t.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Lizards are adorable!Have youseentheir little toes? Their blinky eyes? Their basking posture?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Your standards for cute are extremely broken.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ihave standards.Which is why I draw the line at cannibalism.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You arenota gecko!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I am a proud descendant of the First Flame, not a slithering jungle peasant with googly eyes!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I take a bite, very slowly. Chew obnoxiously. “Tastes like chicken.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His eye twitches.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I point my half-eaten lizard at him. “You devour sheep, cows, oxen, horses, orcs,people. Butgods forbidwe roast a little jungle creeper?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He puffs smoke. “You lack moral architecture.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You lack culinary courage.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I have ethics. You have sauce stains on your tits.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s mango chutney! And I happen to be providing flavorandfan service.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fan—what?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Never mind.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He turns away with the dramatic flourish of someone preparing a eulogy. “You’ll get gout.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You have gout.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Iearnedit nobly, through centuries of hoard-protection and bloodshed. You’re just a greedy, meat-munching harlot with no reverence for herbetological lineage!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I pick the last bit of tail clean and lick my fingers. “Delicious.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He makes a wounded noise like I just stepped on his childhood trauma.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I throw the bone over my shoulder. “Next time I’ll eat a frog and tell it your name.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He starts listing obscure draconic oaths and curses. I lie back on the warm rock, belly full, grinning like a villain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mmm. Crunchy, forbidden, delicious kin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I stretch out on the rock, rubbing my belly like a smug lizard myself. “I ate a spider once,” I tell him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He freezes mid-glare.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Big one,” I add. “Fat and hairy. Stuffed with herbs. Crispy legs. Delicacy in Delvida.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You areterrible,” he says, voice a full octave higher than usual.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I waggle a finger. “Says the flying furnace who once swallowed a priest whole because he mispronounced your name.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“He left out three syllables and a glottal click! It wasinsulting!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So’s you judging my protein intake.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And frogs,” he continues, ignoring me. “Let’s not forget your prolific massacre of innocent amphibians. Dozens of legs. Frying pan carnage. I saw the pile.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“They’re tasty.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You ever think,” he says, now in hiswise and tragicvoice, “that you might’ve missed your chance?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I blink. “What?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“One of those frogs could’ve been a prince.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I snort. “That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Your kiss might’ve broken his curse.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“My teeth might’ve broken his spine.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He exhales dramatically. “Think about it. You could’ve been royalty.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I already am,” I say sweetly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He rolls his eyes. “You’re not.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I wink. “Partnered with a dragon. Which is objectively better than some cursed swamp boy with a moist personality.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You have no sense of romantic destiny.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Please. If a prince wants to win me over, he better come bearing cheese and clean laundry. Preferably shirtless.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He groans. “You disgust me.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You adore me.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Tragically.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We sit in silence for a moment, surrounded by bones and banter and the faint scent of roasted spider oil still lingering in my memory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gods, that was a good spider.\u003C\u002Fp>",635,"2026-06-06T14:39:25.900Z",1,"novelbin.me","e9769f707c1c1f82c223a79a311dfa2d40d8a3333aadff50cee988dd2b6a8ecf","saya-and-the-dragon-chapter-182","saya-and-the-dragon-chapter-180",228,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsaya-and-the-dragon-cover.jpg"]