Untitled,so far
an excerpt

I put the clock on the table and made sure it said the same thing as the watch. The grandfather clock in the hallway downstairs was still ticking loudly when we came in, and I compared it to the watch and discovered it was keeping pretty good time. It had lost a minute or so, I thought.
“Ready?” I asked Sandy.
“As I’ll ever be.”
We threw open the doors and allowed ourselves to be drawn through.
This time, the wind was back up, but the clouds had been blown away, as I saw, looking up as I stepped on the ground.
“Hey! Watch it!” a shrill voice cried out from around my feet.
“What?” I staggered, clutching at Sandy for support. We swayed aside and looked down. It was the reptile I’d seen before, sunning itself on the branch of a tree.
“Why don’t you look where you’re going?” it shouted, backing away from our feet.
“Well, I am sorry. I didn’t expect there to be anybody … or anything … right in front of the door!”
“I’m not a thing!”
“Well, what are you?” Sandy demanded.
“What’s it to you?”
“I guess we’re just not used to being talked to by a lizard. We are sorry if we startled you.”
“Lizard! I’m no lizard. I’m a desmatosuchus.”
“Well, Mr. Desmatosuchus, do you have a name?”
“Of course I have a name,” it said, scampering up a nearby tree.
“None of your business. Oh! You’re the princess!”
“Princess? I’m not a princess. I’m just a woman.”
“No, no, no, no. You’ve got to be the princess. The princess is expected, today, by the prophesy. And you must be the judge.”
“Judge? Me? Never! I’m a librarian.”
“What ever that is,” it scoffed.
“It has a lot to do with books, as a matter of fact. Why do you think Sandy is a princess and I’m a judge?”
“By the prophesy, of course. It is prophesied the princess and the judge will appear on this day.”
“But that doesn’t mean it’s us.”
“But who else could it be? You’re supposed to appear, here, today. And you’re the only people to appear, and I’ve been here all day. So far.”
“Um, how long does a day last here?” Sandy asked.
“How should I know? Do I look like a clock?”
“No. Of course not. Anyway, we just came to look around. Explore, you know. We weren’t expecting a reception committee, even if it’s only one desmatosuchus.”
“Oh, there’ll be more, you can count on it. I’ve already summoned the rest.”
“The rest of what?” I asked, looking around. “And why do you need a princess and a judge?”
“You’ll find out when we get to the city.”
“What city? I don’t see any city.”
I turned to Sandy. “This is silly. Do you think we’ve breathed in some sort of weird gas or pollen and are having hallucinations?”
“You mean because we’re talking to a talking lizard?”
“I’m not a lizard!”
“Yes, pretty much,” I said. “I mean, how realistic is this situation? You, a princess, me a judge?”
“Not very, I agree. Although … I’ve always thought it would be nice to be a princess, if only for a little while.”
“You just wait! You’ll see, as soon as the rest get here,” the lizard said.
“Well … you don’t look much like a princess right now,” I laughed.
“You don’t look like any judge I ever saw either! But what does a princess look like?”
“Like you! Like you!” the lizard shouted. I guess he didn’t realize we were trying to ignore him … or her … or it … I mean, how do you tell what sex a lizard is?
As an aside, in retrospect, I am amazed at how easily we accepted a talking lizard as something real. It can only have been the exposure to all the science fiction shows and movies we’d watched over the years.