- Messages
- 11
- Character Biography
- Link
"What is it?" Kraq-Gal growled, orange eyes peering into the shadowy abyss that had been ripped open in the earth. It was like starring into the heart of night itself - so dark that it felt as if even his words were swallowed by the shadows. Even the ooz of the spawning pits were not as perfectly dark as whatever it was that had been summoned by the quakes that'd shattered his tribes original home.
"My people can be crushed under foot of your kind, Trampler. You believe us to be stupid enough to go inside alone?" Tok-Tok answered from his place beside Kraq-Gal, his head just barely past the larger beast's thigh.
"I am in no mood for your talk" Kraq-Gal hissed sourly, his head craning to peer down at the tiny creature beside him. Tok-Tok took a step back and hissed to himself, his scales turning a hot red as Kraq turned his attention back to the darkness. The large Saurag sliced the air with his tongue and recoiled when his senses were bit by the sting of sulfur and a thousand years of rot. "It reeks of death...these shadows are cursed."
Up until this point the land Tok-Tok had led Kraq's tribe to had been nothing less than miraculous. After the destruction of their home, Kraq's tribe had been left with no place to lay their young nor raise their homes. Here, in what Tok-Tok had called The Broken Place, they had found a vast lake filled with the black tar of the ancients and above it the most unobstructed sky his people had ever seen. All of it thanks to the quakes that had shattered the earth and felled the trees of the Boglands. Kraq-Gal had known his ascent to leadership had been chosen by the divines - this new home had proved it to those of his tribe who were to turn against him out of desperation and fear.
But this was different. In the jungle just beside the new spawning pit Tok-Tok had shown him this cavern...a pit of shadow that had been opened into the earth. Jagged rocks protruded from the ground in a crescent shape around a deep opening in the earth. It was as if the bog itself had grown a maw that jutted from the ground and had been left to howl at the sky for eternity.
"Or..." Tok-Tok began, pausing to lick the air himself, "this is another sign from the Sky." by now the small creature had already explained how the quakes aligned with a planetary event the Corag had been studying - this alone had already convinced Kraq of not only his own divinity but of the knowledge the smaller race held about the world.
"Don't speak to me in riddles, tree-climber" Kraq-Gal said, a bite of annoyance in his tone
"A riddle only to the ears of a Trampler" Tok-Tok hissed, moving on before the insult was recognized, "what I mean to say is that the ground has aligned with the sky in ways never before seen. When the Great Eyes aligned themselves in the sky, the earth itself was shattered below our feet. The Spawning Pool I brought you to came from beneath - the ooze of the ancients rose from deep cracks in the earth. Now we find ourselves staring into the Earth itself...perhaps this is a sign. Perhaps the ancients themselves lie below, waiting for us to descend."
Kraq-Gal said nothing. What Tok-Tok proposed was ludicrous. The prophecy handed down to Kraq-Gal by his mentor had made clear that the Eternal Sky was to be the roof that sheltered his people until they reclaimed the station of the Ancients. What use could lie beneath the ground where the sky could no longer be seen? Yet...why would this fissure appear now if it weren't important? The spawning pits had always been tied closely to the earth and perhaps there were secrets beneath their very feet that they were only now ready to discover.
That only he was worthy to discover.
After some time of considering it, Kraq-Gal peered back into the abyss with a new determination. Within the hour he had gathered what warriors were not needed to defend their new home and, as one, they began the long march into the abyss.
One by one the heavy footsteps of the Saurians echoed throughout the Underworld.
"My people can be crushed under foot of your kind, Trampler. You believe us to be stupid enough to go inside alone?" Tok-Tok answered from his place beside Kraq-Gal, his head just barely past the larger beast's thigh.
"I am in no mood for your talk" Kraq-Gal hissed sourly, his head craning to peer down at the tiny creature beside him. Tok-Tok took a step back and hissed to himself, his scales turning a hot red as Kraq turned his attention back to the darkness. The large Saurag sliced the air with his tongue and recoiled when his senses were bit by the sting of sulfur and a thousand years of rot. "It reeks of death...these shadows are cursed."
Up until this point the land Tok-Tok had led Kraq's tribe to had been nothing less than miraculous. After the destruction of their home, Kraq's tribe had been left with no place to lay their young nor raise their homes. Here, in what Tok-Tok had called The Broken Place, they had found a vast lake filled with the black tar of the ancients and above it the most unobstructed sky his people had ever seen. All of it thanks to the quakes that had shattered the earth and felled the trees of the Boglands. Kraq-Gal had known his ascent to leadership had been chosen by the divines - this new home had proved it to those of his tribe who were to turn against him out of desperation and fear.
But this was different. In the jungle just beside the new spawning pit Tok-Tok had shown him this cavern...a pit of shadow that had been opened into the earth. Jagged rocks protruded from the ground in a crescent shape around a deep opening in the earth. It was as if the bog itself had grown a maw that jutted from the ground and had been left to howl at the sky for eternity.
"Or..." Tok-Tok began, pausing to lick the air himself, "this is another sign from the Sky." by now the small creature had already explained how the quakes aligned with a planetary event the Corag had been studying - this alone had already convinced Kraq of not only his own divinity but of the knowledge the smaller race held about the world.
"Don't speak to me in riddles, tree-climber" Kraq-Gal said, a bite of annoyance in his tone
"A riddle only to the ears of a Trampler" Tok-Tok hissed, moving on before the insult was recognized, "what I mean to say is that the ground has aligned with the sky in ways never before seen. When the Great Eyes aligned themselves in the sky, the earth itself was shattered below our feet. The Spawning Pool I brought you to came from beneath - the ooze of the ancients rose from deep cracks in the earth. Now we find ourselves staring into the Earth itself...perhaps this is a sign. Perhaps the ancients themselves lie below, waiting for us to descend."
Kraq-Gal said nothing. What Tok-Tok proposed was ludicrous. The prophecy handed down to Kraq-Gal by his mentor had made clear that the Eternal Sky was to be the roof that sheltered his people until they reclaimed the station of the Ancients. What use could lie beneath the ground where the sky could no longer be seen? Yet...why would this fissure appear now if it weren't important? The spawning pits had always been tied closely to the earth and perhaps there were secrets beneath their very feet that they were only now ready to discover.
That only he was worthy to discover.
After some time of considering it, Kraq-Gal peered back into the abyss with a new determination. Within the hour he had gathered what warriors were not needed to defend their new home and, as one, they began the long march into the abyss.
One by one the heavy footsteps of the Saurians echoed throughout the Underworld.
