Born of Fire: The Dawn of Legend (94 page)

“EeNox, you know how to live off the land better than any of us,” AnaSaya said. “Is there anything around here that we could perhaps eat?”

“Aside from some of the flora, not really,” he replied, sounding disappointed.

“What’s wrong with that?”

“I don’t know about you, but the thought of eating anything that wasn’t once walking around makes my stomach turn.”

LyCora was about to say something but stopped and considered his words. “You know, he’s actually right.”

“I am?” he replied in surprise.

“I’ve never had any problem eating anything grown from EeNara, but now the very thought literally does nothing for me. In fact…it kind of disgusts me.”

“It’s like you said before,” explained Rex, “we each turned into something strictly carnivorous, so it stands to reason that none of us are in the mood for a salad.”

“So what do we do?” EeNox asked.

“We could always try to seek out carrion,” ShinGaru offered.

“Or hunt,” Rex added.

The thought of running down prey was a strange one to them at first, but seemed more and more natural as time went on—an indication that their instinct had transformed as well as their biology.

“Well,” LyCora said. “Which one is it: hunt or scavenge?”

“And what would we hunt?” ShinGaru asked.

“I hate to say it, but this is wild country, right?” Rex said. ShinGaru nodded. “So according to VayRonx, everyone is fair game out here.”

“Including us,” LyCora added.

“I hear what you’re saying,” said EeNox. “It’s just…hard for me to look at a DyVorian and see food.”

“I know what you mean,” Rex recanted with a sigh. “Hungry as I am, I have a hard time reconciling with the idea of eating something I have loved my whole life, even if I am apparently one of them. Do SaVarians ever eat DyVorians?”

“Not usually,” EeNox replied. “Only ones who die for one reason or another and offer their flesh to their tribe. Otherwise, the bulk of our meat comes from fish, amphibians, and herd mammals we raise.”

“We have to eat something or it’ll be us offering ourselves as a meal to someone who isn’t so picky.”

“We do have these new keen noses that I feel might come in handy for this sort of thing,” ShinGaru declared, raising his snout in the air. “I say we try to catch a scent of something that smells edible and see where it leads.”

“Fair enough,” Rex replied, raising his boxy head high up and breathing in the air through his nostrils. One by one the others followed suit until they all had their muzzles raised above them, trying to locate anything that could fill their now bellowing stomachs. They plodded on for close to an hour, all the while trying to pinpoint something, anything to eat, when suddenly Rex caught wind of something that made his stomach growl ravenously and his mouth salivate like a river. “Anybody else smell that?”

“Yes,” LyCora replied enthusiastically.

“It smells so good,” AnaSaya said, wiping a long string of saliva from her lower jaw. “If not a bit ripe.”

“Indeed,” ShinGaru agreed. “It defiantly smells like something already in the process of decay.”

“I suppose that makes things easier on us,” LyCora said, stepping forward.

“Shall we?” Rex asked.

They followed their noses until they came upon a hulking mass, unmoving, amongst some shrubbery. Glancing down, they saw a trail of dried blood that appeared to have come from whatever fallen creature lay ahead of them. As they drew nearer, ShinGaru suddenly recognized what it was. “Oh my, that’s a KarVora.”

“Wow, you’re right,” EeNox exclaimed, peering ahead.

“Looks like he’s seen better days,” Rex said, cocking his head to the side.

“Agreed,” ShinGaru said as he moved around to the other side of the body. “And this would be why.” They all made their way around to where he was standing and saw a large and deep bite wound around his neck. “It appears he was attacked by a predator.”

“Not without getting a piece of them himself,” Rex said, eyeing the dried blood on the dead KarVora’s horns.

“They probably both staggered off and died of their wounds,” ShinGaru said.

Everyone was silent for a time, each one of them knowing what the others were thinking but unwilling to be the first to come out and say it. At last LyCora sighed and took a step towards the carcass. Slowly, she began to lower her head, but she was suddenly stopped by the sound of AnaSaya’s voice.

“Wait,” she said, “shouldn’t we say something first?”

The others looked at one another. “Like what?” EeNox asked.

“I don’t really know,” she admitted somewhat sorrowfully. “It’s just that this was someone’s son, or father, even mate. Someone out there is grieving because they’re gone.”

“I understand,” ShinGaru said as he stepped up beside her. “Still, there is nothing that can be done about that now.”

“He’s right,” LyCora said. “This is nature’s way. It’s far from always kind, but always necessary for the sake of balance.”

“I know,” AnaSaya replied with a deep sigh before walking up next to LyCora and giving her a nod.

The two glanced back at the others, who after a pause also joined them in front of the large belly. AnaSaya looked over to the open eye of the fallen KarVora, unblinking and milky white. “Thank you,” she said before turning back to the bounty before her, and then parting her jaws, she lowered her head. She felt her teeth sink easily into the hide, now made softer from the early stages of decay, and closed around soft, warm flesh. Immediately she was overwhelmed by an instinctive drive to tear it away and swallow it whole. Giving in, she pulled her head back, taking with her a hunk of flesh, and with three quick head bobs back and forth, forced the hunk of meat down her throat before quickly going back down for more.

The others, at first taken aback by her sudden ravenous aptitude, soon followed suit, biting off mouth-sized pieces of flesh and swallowing them whole. It was a curious sight to behold, for they each had a uniquely different way of eating. Like AnaSaya, ShinGaru gnawed off chunks of meat, throwing them back down his throat with rapid head and neck movements, while LyCora used her razor-sharp teeth to effortlessly slice off chunks, which she swallowed with little more than one or two bites. Rex and EeNox, on the other hand, would spread their jaws almost impossibly wide and take massive chunks out of the KarVora, often taking bone with it, and swallowing it whole. Several times one or the other would toss a piece above their head and let it fall back down where it would slide effortlessly down their throats.

All of them were now possessed by the urge to fill their stomachs, the idea of eating the decaying remnants of someone no longer even an afterthought. At last they began to feel the sense of satisfaction and appeasement that came only from having a full stomach.

ShinGaru was the first to step back, with AnaSaya joining him shortly thereafter. Several minutes later, LyCora rose up, licking her teeth and taking three steps back from the carcass. The other two boys were the last to get their fill, with EeNox breaking off first. Rex, however, much to their surprise, continued to feed ravenously, not even so much as slowing down long enough to take a breath. None of them had the courage to ask him if he was almost finished, but instead just stood by silently and watched him begin to take the KarVora apart with his powerful jaws. The sound of bones snapping and being chewed echoed throughout the sparse woodland area before at last the young TyRanx rose up and let out a throaty growl of satisfaction.

“I was beginning to wonder if you were going to eat all of him,” LyCora said.

“What can I say? I was hungry,” Rex replied. “Besides, it just seems like a waste to leave any.”

“Don’t worry,” EeNox reassured him. “None of him will go to waste out here. Another two days or so and there probably won’t be anything more than a skeleton left. His death will help fill the stomachs of many of this area’s inhabitants, big and small.”

High above, unbeknownst to them, circling from the cover of the dense low- hanging clouds, PeroDay and VorTak watched. The two DraGons had been picking off solitary DyVorians all over the general area and leaving their bodies in the hopes of luring in the quarry who they knew would be in need of food by now. Still, as they had already learned many times before, even a solitary DyVorian of considerable size and power could prove to be a dangerous foe, and so they had targeted the very young, old, and even sick. Beginning to fear that they would come up empty handed, they were pleased to at last spot the five teenagers from above shortly before they had found the carcass. They had allowed them to eat their fill in the hopes that full bellies might slow them down somewhat and make them easier to deal with. In truth, it was Rex they were truly concerned with. They had no real indication of just how powerful the others were but had seen what he was capable of back in KaNar.

“So, how should we go about this?” VorTak inquired, eyeing the five of them curiously. “The Grand Marshal was curiously vague on that matter.”

“Afraid, VorTak?” PeroDay chided.

“Cautious is more the word. Something you should consider exercising more of, if you don’t want to get half your face bitten of this time.”

“Your concern is touching, if only motivated by current events.” His eyes glided down to VorTak’s left thigh, which showed the remains of two deep puncture wounds that his flame was still in the process of healing. “How’s the leg?”

VorTak glanced down and bared his teeth momentarily. “Still there, thankfully, considering that old beast was trying for more than just it.”

PeroDay smiled. “It wasn’t the first time I’ve had to save your sorry hide in battle.”

“You’re one to talk! It was I who killed the last three!”

“Which would have counted for nothing had I not stepped in and stopped that one from killing you. In any case, none of that matters now.”

“Right you are,” VorTak replied begrudgingly. “Now we can finally do what we were sent out here to do, and get back.”

“I would have thought you anxious to get off that tower and stretch your wings a bit.”

“I would if it didn’t mean having to come out to this savage land! Everything about this world is positively dreadful: the smell, huge blood-sucking insects, not to mention the lack of anything civilized.”

“It’s still better than the alternative—what we came from. Never forget that.”

VorTak sighed. “I know, and of course you’re right. Still, this world has a rather serious pest problem to say the least.”

“Well, that’s why we’re here, is it not?” PeroDay replied with a grin as he turned his attention back down to the five DyVorians whose feeding was now slowing.

Below, Rex and the others were feeling a great sense of relief after having finally satisfied their appetites. The urge to lie down and rest was overtaking all of them but was ignored for they knew they had much ground to cover. Still, they now had new energy to burn, which they hoped would help them pick up the pace.

Rex allowed his nose to drift upward as it instinctively began to drink in the air. He had not been aware of anything out of the ordinary primarily because his senses had been preoccupied with the bounty they had before them and the overwhelming instinct to feed. Now that his appetite was satisfied, his senses once again began shifting their focus outward to everything around him. At first it was only a gut feeling, a tickle from his senses, but soon he began to feel a sense of unease, as if they were being watched. Scanning the air with his nose confirmed this growing suspicion, for no sooner had he picked up a scent that was quickly increasing in proximity then a ball of fire exploded to the right of them, sending them all flying through the air.

One by one they hit the ground with a painful thud. Rex was the first to get to his feet, and saw the others doing the same, albeit a bit slower.

“Is everyone all right?” EeNox inquired.

“We’re alive, if that’s what you mean,” LyCora replied.

“What the hell was that?”

“Take a guess,” Rex growled as he looked up.

The others followed his gaze and were startled to see two DraGons hovering several meters above their heads, staring down at them with looks of contempt.

“DraGons,” EeNox cried out in surprise. “Where the hell did they come from?”

“A better question would be how did they find us?” Rex asked.

“Well, the first question would probably take a bit too long to answer,” said PeroDay. “However, the second one is easy. Being the simple beasts that you are, we knew you would not be able to resist the allure of food.”

“So we littered the surrounding region with bait to lure you in,” added VorTak. “I won’t lie, though, we were expecting to find you much sooner with the amount of kills we laid out everywhere for you.”

“You mean the KarVora?” ShinGaru asked.

“A KarVora? Huh, so that’s what they’re called? We’ve just been calling them three-horns this whole time.” The two laughed, amused by their own lack of respect.

“So you mean…you killed him?” AnaSaya asked in a trembling voice. “Just to get to us? He died for no reason at all?”

“I wouldn’t say no reason,” PeroDay replied. “We managed to find you, after all. Besides, he was hardly the only one. We must have littered several dozen others in this area alone. Wouldn’t you agree, VorTak?”

“Something like that,” the other DraGon replied casually. “To be honest, I stopped keeping count after twenty or so.”

“Damn you,” Rex growled, baring his teeth, but was interrupted by AnaSaya’s soft voice that sounded almost wounded.

“How could you?” she said, her small voice now filled with more emotion than she could contain. “You wanted us, so why harm them? What did they do to deserve what you did to them?” She did not look at them, rather, her eyes were down in front of her, staring blankly at the ground.

“Deserve?” PeroDay replied in surprise. “You speak as if they were somehow exempt from any fate we deem necessary.”

“Any fate…you deem necessary? Is that truly what you believe? That you are better than any of us?”

“Belief, for once, has nothing to do with it. We are sentient beings. Your kind, on the other hand, are just animals without pure flames. Why should we care about your well-being?”