TLoS: Warlord Takeo Ch. 1

The last three days have been rather uneventful.  Takeo and Hunter trailed across the forest, river and over a never ending field of grass.  While beautiful at first, Takeo wished for a change in scenery.  However, he kept quiet about his complaints and he enjoyed making conversation with the cheetah.  

"Amazing..." Hunter murmured.  "A great war, opposite sides and you are all together.  Haven't you tried to kill each other?"  Takeo had been telling about his past and his relationship with the other three humans.

"We've thought about plenty of times.  Fortunately, neither of us, even Dempsey, are stupid enough to kill allies when facing hordes of the undead." Takeo chuckled and drank from his canteen.  It was nearly empty.

"Undead you say..." Hunter looked ahead, both curious and horrified by the concept. "Is it evil magic?"

"We don't have magic.  The only magic we can do is pull a bunny from a hat or cause cards to fly out from our sleeves." Takeo picked up a little speed to walk next to Hunter. "And those are merely illusions.  The undead demons are the result of science."

"Science.  A concept here that few pay attention to." Hunter said.  They continued across the field until the night was sinking in.  

They laid their stuff on the ground and made a small camp.  There was little wood so Hunter made a fire using nothing but dried grass to which there were plenty of.  

"I'm amazed you can keep a fire like this alive." Takeo stated, watching the fire.  Hunter had made it rather big for something only fueled by dried our grass.

Hunter chuckled and placed his bow and quiver next to his leg.  "As a hunter and a gatherer, I've learned many things.  The most important is to live off the land when hunting trips or gatherings have gone awry."  

"So I see..." Takeo gazed into the fire.  The night air wasn't cold, but it was cool enough that the fire provided welcome heat. Takeo then felt a rumble from his stomach.  He hadn't eaten at all in four days.  

"Here." Hunter handed him a piece of red meat.  Takeo took it gratefully, but paused when he saw Hunter take another piece out and eat it raw.

"You eat raw?"  Takeo asked, his face contorting a little.  

"Occasionally.  I normally eat cooked, but I perfer to eat the sheep that many dragons are fond of, raw."  Hunter took another bite and swallowed the piece whole.  Takeo impaled his meat on his bayonet, attached it to his Eviscerator, and held it over the fire.  After fifteen minutes of roasting, the meat darkened and the odor of it flowed into Takeo's nostrils.  His mouth watered and he took a bite.  The taste was different than the sheep he had back on Earth.  This meat was more sweet and tangy.  He liked the new flavor and devoured it.  Takeo smiled, content with his meal and laid back on the grass.  

"What about you Hunter?  I don't know your past." Takeo inquired, still gazing at the twinkling stars.  

"There is not a lot I can say about my past.  It is rather uneventful.  I was born to father, who was a hunter like myself, and a mother from another village.  Cheetahs aren't united as much as dragons are.  Each village tends to have their traditions, territory, and breeding rites.  Some of them are extremely friendly towards each other and dragons, while others are very hostile.  With the rise of the Dark Armies, more and more cheetah villages have been turning against the dragon race as a whole."  Hunter gazed up as well.

"Why?" Takeo sat back up and looked at Hunter.

"Well because the Dark Master himself is a dragon."

"Oh, that's right." Takeo suddenly remembered his meeting with the Chronicler with Richtofen and Spyro.  

"Hush now...it's time to sleep." Hunter insisted, laying on his back and closing his eyes.

Takeo did the same and soon they were both snoring softly.

--

Torches lit the remote village.  Chief Prowlus looked at the papers on the table in his hut.  They were scout reports of varying information.  None of them had the information he was looking for and he stood up.  Frustrated, he headed to a wine cabinet and pulled a bottle out.  Taking a quick drink, he sat back down to gaze into the reports again.  

"Blast it!" He growled.  "Where is that fool Hunter?  I need him back here.  The raids against our village have been growing and we're losing too many people."

The ape raids have been getting more viscious, but them seem to be more so after the Well of Souls mysteriously collapsed.  They had just fended off one earlier that day, losing three warriors.  

Prowlus looked out the window.  It was silent and there wasn't a hint of life, except for the occasional night guard making a patrol in the village and the adjacent land.  They needed to always be aware, especially with the raiding.  However, other cheetah villages would start resorting to raiding.  From scout reports, several cheetah villages have been destroyed and it's people assimilated into other cheetah villages.  One particular group, led by Chief Shadus, was raiding apes and cheetahs.  

Chief Shadus had a reputation for being a short-tempered, tough, but respectable leader.  Chief Prowlus had few dealings with him, but they got along well enough for them to respect each other.  Chief Shadus had only killed opponents if absolutely neccessary or if they were not cheetahs.  One problem Chief Shadus had was that he hated dragons completely.  He is notorius among the dragons as a viscious killer when they went to war a few times.  Much of his hatred came from the fact that his three sons were killed by dragons when they had a border conflict a few years back.  As a result, he is likely to attack any dragon he sees.  

Chief Prowlus didn't like or trust dragons, but even he felt that killing them from simple hatred was too much.  The recent events of the growing Dark Armies seemed to have driven Chief Shadus to raiding others to survive.  Shadus's force has been growing from assimilating other villages and Prowlus had a feeling that his village may be on the list.  If not now, then later.  

"Should I appease him?" Prowlus murmured to himself.  "That would make me look weak.  But if I fight, I will be crushed utterly."  He sighed and looked down on the table.  

He got off the chair and stepped outside.  The cool breeze blew through his fur.  He looked up at the seperating moons and sighed.  

"Looks like I'll have to place my faith in this purple dragon that seems to be the talk of many.  I can't believe I just said that." Prowlus shook his head and went back inside.  He laid down on his bed and closed his eyes.  Merely minutes later, all that could be heard was his gentle snoring.

--

Chief Shadus paced his hut back and forth.  He just added one more village population to his force.  He kept justifying it to himself by saying that it was for the common good of all cheetahs.  He looked at the map and crossed out another village with his.  Observing the map, he found another sizeable village that belonged to Chief Prowlus.  

"Chief Prowlus is here..." Chief Shadus eyes opened up a little with interest.  He heard so many stories about Prowlus.  Of all the chiefs, Shadus respected Prowlus the most.  Prowlus was a tough leader and could be ferocious if angered, but he always cared for his people.  Shadus definitely wanted Prowlus at his side.

"He will understand.  I'm doing this for the common good." He made a note to send a messenger as early as possible to Prowlus.  He had no wish to fight Prowlus and hoped to secure his alliance with no bloodshed.  Shadus then turned his attention to a much bigger map of Avalar, showing every major landmark including Warfang and the Well of Souls.  

Shadus growled as he looked at Warfang.  The infernal dragons lived here.  

"Not for much longer.  Once I deal with these apes, I will take your city and make you become the nomads.  You will see how hard of life we live."  He ripped the map off of the wall and underneath it were portraits of the Guaridans.  

"Ignitus, Volteer, Cyril and Terrador." He murmured as he looked at each one.  He had different opinions about each one.  

For Ignitus, Shadus had saw him to be merely an old fool who was weak willed.

For Volteer, Shadus thought of him nothing more than a bumbling idiot who didn't know silence.  "I will have to stitch your mouth shut."

For Terrador, Shadus respected him as a competent dragon and a warrior, despite Shadus's hatred for all dragons.  He hadn't decided what was to be done with him, perhaps peaceful exile.

For Cyril, however, he growled at.  Cyril was directly involved in the Surok Border Incident ten years ago.  This was when Shadus was a Warlord, a very powerful general that serves a Chief, and it was Cyril himself who killed his three sons.  He planned to mutilate Cyril and flay his scales off to make a new set of armor.  


"Cyril, when you and I meet, you will die!" Shadus growled and sliced his claws through the picture of the Ice Guardian.