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Description
Credits and Artist comments:
Thanks in advance for favourites, and comments are always greatly appreciated!
Background characters featured: Sky (snow leopard saber with yellow hair) belonging to pootisman24 , Aurora (snow leopard saber in the back with green armour) belonging to Eevee2343 , Qu'dan (White Eohippus/horse with black mane, periwinkle and yellow cape) belonging to Rammenstien , Thalethu (black Eohippus in the back with the white mane) belonging to Bakinaage , Prophecy (black and yellow Eohippus with red mane), Roberto (leopard saber with shield), and Shia (Borneo Bay cat saber on the ground under Pilu) all belonging to Otackoon
Thank you all so much for lending your characters to be "background warriors"
Stock used from: syccas-stock , TheMaleNudeStock , ELISE-stock , and SenshiStock
Thank you for the wonderful stock, it helped so much with posing the characters properly
And I greatly apologize for the wall-o-text mention you'll all receive haha, sorry!!!!

----------------------------------
It’d been over a week, they were cold, dirty, and tired. The trek back shouldn’t have taken so long, two and a half days maybe. If it wasn’t for a sudden and intense storm, nothing you’d want to walk in unless you were ridiculously foolhardy, they could only travel during times that the winds and lightning would cease, as if they were resting for the next big show. Thunder rumbled and rain poured down in droves, not showing any sign of letting up soon. This lasted for four days. Though after the skies did not clear, still dark grey with heavy clouds threatening to let loose once more at any moment.

Finally, at long last the settlement came in to view. “Oh thank the powers that be, we’re finally home.” Mela huffed, she’d lost much of her graceful elegance, her clothes muddied and torn, her long mane, usually well kept, smooth, and lustrous, was now frizzy, dull, and tangled. Once they neared the camp she straightened her posture from the tired slouch it had been while ungracefully walking down the steep grassy hills, she took a cloth from a pouch tied to her waist with string, and a small waterskin, she poured water on the cloth and used it to try and wipe the rest of the makeup off that the rain didn’t wash away.

Nomminus was impressed, somehow despite how tired this woman was, she was able to quickly fix herself up enough to be considered presentable even after such an ordeal as the one they went through, she followed beside her, quite ready to shed her armour, now feeling heavier than usual, and maybe she could finally have that bath she wanted, she grinned with excitement at the thought, and it helped carry her the rest of the way. Behind them was Khaz, hood still up, hands swaying tiredly as he walked, his posture was slumped, dark circles under his eyes, he yawned loudly, he considered just dropping to the ground and sleeping right where he was, though his legs kept moving. He saw they were close; he could make it the rest of the way to his tent.

Taking up the rear was Alem, she was struggling and lagged behind, not only was she still attempting to figure out her new viscous form and how to move it, she had absorbed a lot of water and muck on the way home, she felt heavy and more liquid than before, which made it harder to keep her current shape.

All this, and the fear of being ridiculed upon returning and everyone seeing what she’d become. She almost wanted to slink back up to that cave, hide away from everything, but she was absolutely sure she’d rather be scorned for her form, than have to live knowing the beast that destroyed almost everything slumbered beneath her.

As they were finally in the village of tents and cabins, they heard a bunch of commotion coming from the central area where gatherings were usually held. They all took up what last strength and energy they had and hurried over.

There were more strange creatures, hairy like the eohippus, but rather than long snouts and hooves, they bore paws, shorter snouts, and huge pointed teeth jutting out on both sides of their upper jaws, these must have been folks of the Smilodon tribe that Nomminus had heard of through story one night. They had a long history of disputes about territory, always wanting more space to support their growing population, and a wider area to hunt for the food they needed. They owned almost the entire southern half of Mammalia, and the mountains as the others had no use or feared them, and yet they still wanted more. Some wondered if it was really to feed and grow, or if they just wanted the whole continent themselves, that they were just trying to push the other tribes away so they could find lands of their own.

A man in thick dark brown leather armour worn over a chainmail suit was yelling at Shimmering, the short golden furred Eohippus kept backing away as he kept trying to step closer.

“I’ve ‘ad enough of this!” he shouted in an interesting accent. “Either you all start packing up your lives and move elsewhere, or we’ll kill her.” He said, taking out his longsword and pointing its tip towards Shimmering, “and then burn everything ‘ere to the ground”

“You’ve already taken the southern lands, and the mountains, deprived us of lush jungle, we had to start over everything because of your greed! If you chase us off now, we have nowhere else to go but out to sea, we can’t intrude on the dimetrodons in their bog, just as you will not intrude into our lands and falsely call it yours.” Shimmering argued back. “We won’t leave, but you will if you know what’s good for you.”

“If I know what’s good for ME?!” He scoffed. “Aye lass, you’ve got some nerve. Jus’ like your father before I ripped out his.” He got ready to strike her down. “You’ve doomed yourself and your people lass, you won’t even die a martyr. How sad.”

He pulled back his sword and then lunged forward towards Shimmering. As he was about to run her through he felt a sharp pain from the hand that held the sword and he let go of it, the longsword fell to the ground right at Shimmering’s feet.

The smilodon yowled in pain as he saw a throwing knife lodged through his hand the hilt resting on the back of it, the blade peeking out through the bloodied skin of his palm, as trails of the warm red liquid leaked out in steady streams around it from both sides. “Who ‘as done this!” he cried out “Who draws my blood and denies me my kill?”

“I do!” Khaz called out, everyone’s attention turned to him as he stepped forward, arm still held in position like it had just thrown a knife. With his other hand he retrieved another and waved it back and fourth by the blade like someone twiddling a pencil between their fingers. “And that was with my right hand too, you should see how easy I can hit a target with my left.” He said with a smug grin on his face.

He broke free his arm that was posed, and pointed towards Shimmering. “Now, she asked you to leave, and I suggest you do so, before I make you leave.”

The big tan furred smilodon sneered and growled. “You shouldn’t have done that outsider; this didn’t concern you.” He kept up an angry and tough façade, hoping this creature would back down, run home, he figured this must be someone they brought in, attempting to save their hides from this prophecy he had grown sick of hearing about.

“You made it my concern when you drew your sword.” Khaz argued. “These people have shown us nothing but kindness since we arrived, so I will stand by them when I see someone threatening their lives.”

Mela and Nomminus came up from behind Khaz, standing with him between them, both placing a hand on either shoulder.

“There will be no deals struck today, you’ve ruined that chance.” Mela called out.

“leave and tend to your wound before you lose too much blood.” Nomminus added.

The saber took a few steps towards them, but he stopped, looking in shock. A cream coloured slime beast rose above them from behind, letting out a terrible roar and lunging forward over the three, stopped just centimeters away from him, its heavy warm breath in his face.

He backed up a few steps gingerly as the beast let out a gurgled growl. He then called the dozen or so sabers who travelled with him to fall back and leave. “THIS ISN’T OVER!” he shouted “We’ll return in greater numbers, prepare for war.”

They all left and Alem was able to revert back to her condensed shape once again, expelling extra moisture and muck, so she was able to keep that shape easier, but something still felt off.

Shimmering was the first to approach the returning party. “I’m so glad you’re back.” She looked directly at Alem with a warm smile. “All of you.”

The other from Alem’s hunting party who did not travel with them was next to approach, “My…my brother, where is he?” She asked weary.

“I...” Alem started, even in the enraged bestial fit, she remembered clearly taking him in to her slimy form. She wasn’t sure how her body worked, but he was most likely dissolved or absorbed. “I’m so sorry, but I may have-“ she paused as she felt something moving around inside her, making obvious movements under her form, she could feel whatever it was getting closer to the surface on her front, and it eventually burst outwards, the brother’s arms and head burst fourth from the slime, he took a loud gasp of air, you could almost hear his lungs inflating. He coughed out goop and staggered out as his sister pulled him “you’re…alive?” she thought. She adjusted her form, much easier to keep now without any muck or…well another person to fight against.

“Believe me, I’m just as surprised as you are.” The male said between heavy gasps, and coughs, getting the last of the slime out of his lungs and throat.

Alem went on to explain what she remembered happening to the both of them, and surprisingly was welcomed back much more warmly than she had expected. Despite the threats of war looming overhead, there was cause for celebration that day, all daily work and routine never resumed as they went straight into preparing a party with a large feast for the entire village.

Mela, Nomminus, and Khaz were finally able to shed their armour and tattered clothes for clean, dry and comfortable outfits.

Nomminus, accompanied by Mela and Shimmering, was at long last able to visit the bathhouse like she so eagerly wanted. Being in company of the leader and her daughter, she was well treated, not only with a hot cleansing soak and scrub, but even full massage, more than one masseuse had to work on her at first, her thick skin and muscles hard and tightly knotted from years of travelling, plus her larger size proving difficult for the small hands of the Eohippus, but eventually with much rubbing and kneading her muscles relaxed and she felt pleasantly numb.

Afterwards they attended the party and huge feast, the celebration went well into the night, once the fires died down, the villagers all returned to their homes, save for Mela, her daughters, Nomminus, and Khaz. They chatted and were able to laugh now about their difficult and terrible journey back, all of them wrapped up in blankets except Shimmering and Alem, feeling a hint of a chill returning as they spoke of their adventure. Alem sat close to the fire, it seemed other than physical appearance nothing had really changed, she still wanted to be as close to the warm fire as she could. She pondered on why she was turned into a slime beast, she would expect something more aligned with fire perhaps, giving her love for its warmth. But at the same time, if she was the fire, she couldn’t curl up beside it and feel that warm toasty feeling. Once the fire had burned away to nothing more than faintly glowing embers they all left for their tents, dousing the last bit of heat with a bucket of water, and the camp was soon quiet, with only the night’s ambience and the occasional loud snore to fill the silence.

Khaz awoke early the next morning, his vision still blurry from the thin layer of rheum around his eyes, he reached out to readjust pillows and return to sleep, soon realizing there was no pillows, he was asleep on a hard cold stone floor with bits of straw scattered about. “What?” he asked as he sat up, rubbing his eyes and clearing his vision, he quickly stood up all the way, realizing he was no longer in his tent, but in dank prison cell. “HEY!” He shouted, and ran up to the thick iron bars. “What is going on? Where am I?”

The tan furred saber from yesterday stepped forward, his hand bandaged tightly and arm in a sling so he didn’t wave it around and injure it further.

“You are in my prison, under my keep. Get used to it, you were brought here in the night as a prisoner of war. Once it’s over, if you haven’t rotted away in your cell by then, you will be killed.”

Khaz growled and tried to reach through the bars, trying to claw at him, he wore prison rags, someone must have stowed away his gear, or even left them back at the camp. So his only weapons remaining were his hands. No knives to throw or daggers to use. The saber stood just out of reach and laughed at the attempts.

“You want to go to war so badly?” Khaz questioned with a snarl. “There are bigger things, MUCH bigger things you need to worry about, that prophecy, it’s true, the beast is larger than anything you’ve dealt with before and you’d rather war over land, than prepare your own people for evacuation so no lives are needlessly ended in a battle that already has the outcome written in stone.”

“The prophecy is hundreds of years old, no creature could live that long.” Argued the saber, he kept his head about him, though he got slightly concerned for a moment, was this ridiculous thing actually true? No of course not, nothing can live that long. He dismissed the thought, probably tricks to try and convince him to let him out.

“I’ve seen him slumbering under the foothills by the north west mountains. A giant eye of blue and gold from the depths of a pool of water, curse by his very presence there.”

The saber looked in thought then approached Khaz. “If you are so sure, you’ll be escorted by armed soldiers, you’ll show us this beast, and I’ll kill it before it awakens, the other tribes will give up their land in thanks to my heroic action, we’ll have the whole continent to ourselves.”

He was almost about to reach for keys in his pocket, but then another saber came rushing in. “Sir! The Eohippus have already entered our territory and are approaching the jungle entrance.”

The tan saber growled and followed after the other. “Then we’ll send warriors to meet them there, send every able-bodied individual with a set of armour and a weapon. We’ll slaughter them with greater numbers on our side.

A small group of Eohippus charged the entrance to the jungle that surrounded the main keep of the sabers, right into an ambush, the sabers lunged out from behind plantation and rocks, at least a hundred of them, eager to make quick work of the five armed fighters the approached. Suddenly there was a rumble, and from seemingly out of nowhere a huge herd of Eohippus came charging in, anyone who was well enough to fight. The ambush had been ambushed and the Sabers seemed outnumbered, they were quick to even the odds over the span of a half hour, the battle paused once more as a loud horn sounded and the ground shook as if an earthquake was happening. The Eohippus all took cover as sabers got trampled by 10 mammoths stampeding through, steered by more Eohippus, as others jumped off their backs and took to the fight, these mammoths were called in along with their riders from a tribe on the very northern point of Mammalia, a small settlement that was able to domesticate wild mammoths to use as farming help and transportation.

After the last mammoth passed, the Eo tribe fighters rallied behind them, easily mowing down more sabers with a burst of strength and adrenalin. Nomminus was somewhere in the middle of the fight, fending of a light brown saber in chainmail and leather, sharing a striking resemblance to the tanned one they met before, perhaps a relation of some sort. She managed to knock him away, he didn’t get up at first, so she stepped back before turning around. As she stepped however she bumped backs with someone. They both turned around.

“Pilu?! What are you doing here?” Nomminus asked, surprised to see the teal velociraptor here of all places.

Pilu breathed heavy, she’d been fighting for quite some time. “Khaz sent me a letter, saying you were headed across the great divide, I decided to follow, and got attack by some…thing! With those big fang teeth.” They both heard sabers coming up towards them, and delivered killing blows. Nomminus running her previous opponent through, and Pilu knocking hers to the ground and piercing a soft spot in her armour with a dark bladed dagger. They both returned to their chat in the middle of the battle field, fights going on all around them. “Where is Khaz?” Pilu asked.

“Gone” Nomminus answered. “He angered the leader of the smilodon tribe, and he stole him away during the night, he’s most likely sitting in the prison in the chief’s keep.”

“Then we have to go rescue him!” Pilu demanded.

“We will! But we still need to get there first.” Nomminus said, the two stayed close by each other and continued to fight their way through the droves of sabers.

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TL;DR: The group returns home, to find sabertooths (smilodons) threatening the Eohippus tribe, Alem gets welcomed back with open arms, Nomminus finally got that bath she wanted, war breaks out and Khaz gets imprisoned for arguing with and injuring the chief of the saber tribe. In an unexpected fluke of chance, Nomminus finds Pilu during the battle, and they have to fight together through droves of sabers to rescue Khaz.

First: Tavern (1/16)
Previous: Ooze (9/16)
Next: Reunited (11/16)

Saurian Information Center

Background characters belong to their respective owners
Nomminus, Alem, Pilu, Khaz, Shimmering, and Mela are mine
image drawn by me
please respect the character owners, and the artist by not reposting/altering/heavily referencing/copying without permission, thanks!

Description
Credits and Artist comments:
Thanks in advance for favourites, and comments are always greatly appreciated!
Background characters featured: Sky (snow leopard saber with yellow hair) belonging to pootisman24 , Aurora (snow leopard saber in the back with green armour) belonging to Eevee2343 , Qu'dan (White Eohippus/horse with black mane, periwinkle and yellow cape) belonging to Rammenstien , Thalethu (black Eohippus in the back with the white mane) belonging to Bakinaage , Prophecy (black and yellow Eohippus with red mane), Roberto (leopard saber with shield), and Shia (Borneo Bay cat saber on the ground under Pilu) all belonging to Otackoon
Thank you all so much for lending your characters to be "background warriors"
Stock used from: syccas-stock , TheMaleNudeStock , ELISE-stock , and SenshiStock
Thank you for the wonderful stock, it helped so much with posing the characters properly
And I greatly apologize for the wall-o-text mention you'll all receive haha, sorry!!!!

----------------------------------
It’d been over a week, they were cold, dirty, and tired. The trek back shouldn’t have taken so long, two and a half days maybe. If it wasn’t for a sudden and intense storm, nothing you’d want to walk in unless you were ridiculously foolhardy, they could only travel during times that the winds and lightning would cease, as if they were resting for the next big show. Thunder rumbled and rain poured down in droves, not showing any sign of letting up soon. This lasted for four days. Though after the skies did not clear, still dark grey with heavy clouds threatening to let loose once more at any moment.

Finally, at long last the settlement came in to view. “Oh thank the powers that be, we’re finally home.” Mela huffed, she’d lost much of her graceful elegance, her clothes muddied and torn, her long mane, usually well kept, smooth, and lustrous, was now frizzy, dull, and tangled. Once they neared the camp she straightened her posture from the tired slouch it had been while ungracefully walking down the steep grassy hills, she took a cloth from a pouch tied to her waist with string, and a small waterskin, she poured water on the cloth and used it to try and wipe the rest of the makeup off that the rain didn’t wash away.

Nomminus was impressed, somehow despite how tired this woman was, she was able to quickly fix herself up enough to be considered presentable even after such an ordeal as the one they went through, she followed beside her, quite ready to shed her armour, now feeling heavier than usual, and maybe she could finally have that bath she wanted, she grinned with excitement at the thought, and it helped carry her the rest of the way. Behind them was Khaz, hood still up, hands swaying tiredly as he walked, his posture was slumped, dark circles under his eyes, he yawned loudly, he considered just dropping to the ground and sleeping right where he was, though his legs kept moving. He saw they were close; he could make it the rest of the way to his tent.

Taking up the rear was Alem, she was struggling and lagged behind, not only was she still attempting to figure out her new viscous form and how to move it, she had absorbed a lot of water and muck on the way home, she felt heavy and more liquid than before, which made it harder to keep her current shape.

All this, and the fear of being ridiculed upon returning and everyone seeing what she’d become. She almost wanted to slink back up to that cave, hide away from everything, but she was absolutely sure she’d rather be scorned for her form, than have to live knowing the beast that destroyed almost everything slumbered beneath her.

As they were finally in the village of tents and cabins, they heard a bunch of commotion coming from the central area where gatherings were usually held. They all took up what last strength and energy they had and hurried over.

There were more strange creatures, hairy like the eohippus, but rather than long snouts and hooves, they bore paws, shorter snouts, and huge pointed teeth jutting out on both sides of their upper jaws, these must have been folks of the Smilodon tribe that Nomminus had heard of through story one night. They had a long history of disputes about territory, always wanting more space to support their growing population, and a wider area to hunt for the food they needed. They owned almost the entire southern half of Mammalia, and the mountains as the others had no use or feared them, and yet they still wanted more. Some wondered if it was really to feed and grow, or if they just wanted the whole continent themselves, that they were just trying to push the other tribes away so they could find lands of their own.

A man in thick dark brown leather armour worn over a chainmail suit was yelling at Shimmering, the short golden furred Eohippus kept backing away as he kept trying to step closer.

“I’ve ‘ad enough of this!” he shouted in an interesting accent. “Either you all start packing up your lives and move elsewhere, or we’ll kill her.” He said, taking out his longsword and pointing its tip towards Shimmering, “and then burn everything ‘ere to the ground”

“You’ve already taken the southern lands, and the mountains, deprived us of lush jungle, we had to start over everything because of your greed! If you chase us off now, we have nowhere else to go but out to sea, we can’t intrude on the dimetrodons in their bog, just as you will not intrude into our lands and falsely call it yours.” Shimmering argued back. “We won’t leave, but you will if you know what’s good for you.”

“If I know what’s good for ME?!” He scoffed. “Aye lass, you’ve got some nerve. Jus’ like your father before I ripped out his.” He got ready to strike her down. “You’ve doomed yourself and your people lass, you won’t even die a martyr. How sad.”

He pulled back his sword and then lunged forward towards Shimmering. As he was about to run her through he felt a sharp pain from the hand that held the sword and he let go of it, the longsword fell to the ground right at Shimmering’s feet.

The smilodon yowled in pain as he saw a throwing knife lodged through his hand the hilt resting on the back of it, the blade peeking out through the bloodied skin of his palm, as trails of the warm red liquid leaked out in steady streams around it from both sides. “Who ‘as done this!” he cried out “Who draws my blood and denies me my kill?”

“I do!” Khaz called out, everyone’s attention turned to him as he stepped forward, arm still held in position like it had just thrown a knife. With his other hand he retrieved another and waved it back and fourth by the blade like someone twiddling a pencil between their fingers. “And that was with my right hand too, you should see how easy I can hit a target with my left.” He said with a smug grin on his face.

He broke free his arm that was posed, and pointed towards Shimmering. “Now, she asked you to leave, and I suggest you do so, before I make you leave.”

The big tan furred smilodon sneered and growled. “You shouldn’t have done that outsider; this didn’t concern you.” He kept up an angry and tough façade, hoping this creature would back down, run home, he figured this must be someone they brought in, attempting to save their hides from this prophecy he had grown sick of hearing about.

“You made it my concern when you drew your sword.” Khaz argued. “These people have shown us nothing but kindness since we arrived, so I will stand by them when I see someone threatening their lives.”

Mela and Nomminus came up from behind Khaz, standing with him between them, both placing a hand on either shoulder.

“There will be no deals struck today, you’ve ruined that chance.” Mela called out.

“leave and tend to your wound before you lose too much blood.” Nomminus added.

The saber took a few steps towards them, but he stopped, looking in shock. A cream coloured slime beast rose above them from behind, letting out a terrible roar and lunging forward over the three, stopped just centimeters away from him, its heavy warm breath in his face.

He backed up a few steps gingerly as the beast let out a gurgled growl. He then called the dozen or so sabers who travelled with him to fall back and leave. “THIS ISN’T OVER!” he shouted “We’ll return in greater numbers, prepare for war.”

They all left and Alem was able to revert back to her condensed shape once again, expelling extra moisture and muck, so she was able to keep that shape easier, but something still felt off.

Shimmering was the first to approach the returning party. “I’m so glad you’re back.” She looked directly at Alem with a warm smile. “All of you.”

The other from Alem’s hunting party who did not travel with them was next to approach, “My…my brother, where is he?” She asked weary.

“I...” Alem started, even in the enraged bestial fit, she remembered clearly taking him in to her slimy form. She wasn’t sure how her body worked, but he was most likely dissolved or absorbed. “I’m so sorry, but I may have-“ she paused as she felt something moving around inside her, making obvious movements under her form, she could feel whatever it was getting closer to the surface on her front, and it eventually burst outwards, the brother’s arms and head burst fourth from the slime, he took a loud gasp of air, you could almost hear his lungs inflating. He coughed out goop and staggered out as his sister pulled him “you’re…alive?” she thought. She adjusted her form, much easier to keep now without any muck or…well another person to fight against.

“Believe me, I’m just as surprised as you are.” The male said between heavy gasps, and coughs, getting the last of the slime out of his lungs and throat.

Alem went on to explain what she remembered happening to the both of them, and surprisingly was welcomed back much more warmly than she had expected. Despite the threats of war looming overhead, there was cause for celebration that day, all daily work and routine never resumed as they went straight into preparing a party with a large feast for the entire village.

Mela, Nomminus, and Khaz were finally able to shed their armour and tattered clothes for clean, dry and comfortable outfits.

Nomminus, accompanied by Mela and Shimmering, was at long last able to visit the bathhouse like she so eagerly wanted. Being in company of the leader and her daughter, she was well treated, not only with a hot cleansing soak and scrub, but even full massage, more than one masseuse had to work on her at first, her thick skin and muscles hard and tightly knotted from years of travelling, plus her larger size proving difficult for the small hands of the Eohippus, but eventually with much rubbing and kneading her muscles relaxed and she felt pleasantly numb.

Afterwards they attended the party and huge feast, the celebration went well into the night, once the fires died down, the villagers all returned to their homes, save for Mela, her daughters, Nomminus, and Khaz. They chatted and were able to laugh now about their difficult and terrible journey back, all of them wrapped up in blankets except Shimmering and Alem, feeling a hint of a chill returning as they spoke of their adventure. Alem sat close to the fire, it seemed other than physical appearance nothing had really changed, she still wanted to be as close to the warm fire as she could. She pondered on why she was turned into a slime beast, she would expect something more aligned with fire perhaps, giving her love for its warmth. But at the same time, if she was the fire, she couldn’t curl up beside it and feel that warm toasty feeling. Once the fire had burned away to nothing more than faintly glowing embers they all left for their tents, dousing the last bit of heat with a bucket of water, and the camp was soon quiet, with only the night’s ambience and the occasional loud snore to fill the silence.

Khaz awoke early the next morning, his vision still blurry from the thin layer of rheum around his eyes, he reached out to readjust pillows and return to sleep, soon realizing there was no pillows, he was asleep on a hard cold stone floor with bits of straw scattered about. “What?” he asked as he sat up, rubbing his eyes and clearing his vision, he quickly stood up all the way, realizing he was no longer in his tent, but in dank prison cell. “HEY!” He shouted, and ran up to the thick iron bars. “What is going on? Where am I?”

The tan furred saber from yesterday stepped forward, his hand bandaged tightly and arm in a sling so he didn’t wave it around and injure it further.

“You are in my prison, under my keep. Get used to it, you were brought here in the night as a prisoner of war. Once it’s over, if you haven’t rotted away in your cell by then, you will be killed.”

Khaz growled and tried to reach through the bars, trying to claw at him, he wore prison rags, someone must have stowed away his gear, or even left them back at the camp. So his only weapons remaining were his hands. No knives to throw or daggers to use. The saber stood just out of reach and laughed at the attempts.

“You want to go to war so badly?” Khaz questioned with a snarl. “There are bigger things, MUCH bigger things you need to worry about, that prophecy, it’s true, the beast is larger than anything you’ve dealt with before and you’d rather war over land, than prepare your own people for evacuation so no lives are needlessly ended in a battle that already has the outcome written in stone.”

“The prophecy is hundreds of years old, no creature could live that long.” Argued the saber, he kept his head about him, though he got slightly concerned for a moment, was this ridiculous thing actually true? No of course not, nothing can live that long. He dismissed the thought, probably tricks to try and convince him to let him out.

“I’ve seen him slumbering under the foothills by the north west mountains. A giant eye of blue and gold from the depths of a pool of water, curse by his very presence there.”

The saber looked in thought then approached Khaz. “If you are so sure, you’ll be escorted by armed soldiers, you’ll show us this beast, and I’ll kill it before it awakens, the other tribes will give up their land in thanks to my heroic action, we’ll have the whole continent to ourselves.”

He was almost about to reach for keys in his pocket, but then another saber came rushing in. “Sir! The Eohippus have already entered our territory and are approaching the jungle entrance.”

The tan saber growled and followed after the other. “Then we’ll send warriors to meet them there, send every able-bodied individual with a set of armour and a weapon. We’ll slaughter them with greater numbers on our side.

A small group of Eohippus charged the entrance to the jungle that surrounded the main keep of the sabers, right into an ambush, the sabers lunged out from behind plantation and rocks, at least a hundred of them, eager to make quick work of the five armed fighters the approached. Suddenly there was a rumble, and from seemingly out of nowhere a huge herd of Eohippus came charging in, anyone who was well enough to fight. The ambush had been ambushed and the Sabers seemed outnumbered, they were quick to even the odds over the span of a half hour, the battle paused once more as a loud horn sounded and the ground shook as if an earthquake was happening. The Eohippus all took cover as sabers got trampled by 10 mammoths stampeding through, steered by more Eohippus, as others jumped off their backs and took to the fight, these mammoths were called in along with their riders from a tribe on the very northern point of Mammalia, a small settlement that was able to domesticate wild mammoths to use as farming help and transportation.

After the last mammoth passed, the Eo tribe fighters rallied behind them, easily mowing down more sabers with a burst of strength and adrenalin. Nomminus was somewhere in the middle of the fight, fending of a light brown saber in chainmail and leather, sharing a striking resemblance to the tanned one they met before, perhaps a relation of some sort. She managed to knock him away, he didn’t get up at first, so she stepped back before turning around. As she stepped however she bumped backs with someone. They both turned around.

“Pilu?! What are you doing here?” Nomminus asked, surprised to see the teal velociraptor here of all places.

Pilu breathed heavy, she’d been fighting for quite some time. “Khaz sent me a letter, saying you were headed across the great divide, I decided to follow, and got attack by some…thing! With those big fang teeth.” They both heard sabers coming up towards them, and delivered killing blows. Nomminus running her previous opponent through, and Pilu knocking hers to the ground and piercing a soft spot in her armour with a dark bladed dagger. They both returned to their chat in the middle of the battle field, fights going on all around them. “Where is Khaz?” Pilu asked.

“Gone” Nomminus answered. “He angered the leader of the smilodon tribe, and he stole him away during the night, he’s most likely sitting in the prison in the chief’s keep.”

“Then we have to go rescue him!” Pilu demanded.

“We will! But we still need to get there first.” Nomminus said, the two stayed close by each other and continued to fight their way through the droves of sabers.

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TL;DR: The group returns home, to find sabertooths (smilodons) threatening the Eohippus tribe, Alem gets welcomed back with open arms, Nomminus finally got that bath she wanted, war breaks out and Khaz gets imprisoned for arguing with and injuring the chief of the saber tribe. In an unexpected fluke of chance, Nomminus finds Pilu during the battle, and they have to fight together through droves of sabers to rescue Khaz.

First: Tavern (1/16)
Previous: Ooze (9/16)
Next: Reunited (11/16)

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Background characters belong to their respective owners
Nomminus, Alem, Pilu, Khaz, Shimmering, and Mela are mine
image drawn by me
please respect the character owners, and the artist by not reposting/altering/heavily referencing/copying without permission, thanks!