Unto the Ages

As Chieften Dhun and the expedition went deeper south encountering heavy resistance, something weird happened after a few days, they started running into fewer and fewer predators, prey, or anything bigger than a raccoon that could not fly, burrow, or climb a tree.

 

The sounds of beasts and monsters clashing no longer sounded, and it felt weird after being in a highly agitated forest for months.

 

That night when they set up camp, those who kept watch reported that, for the first time in months, there was nothing stalking them from the darkness, only the gazes of curious small creatures.

 

This sets Dhun and the older hunters on edge, “Something about this forest just doesn't sit right with me. It's too peaceful, too quiet.” Dhun started off as he sat around the morning’s campfire with the older hunters.

 

One of the older hunters said, “We've been thinking the same thing. We've been looking for tracks the whole of yesterday, and there's not even any signs of anything bigger than a fox. It's like the bigger predators have all gone into hiding or ran north.”

 

“Exactly. Usually, by this time, we'd have come across at least something that wants to eat our face. Fresh tracks, scat, maybe even the distant roar. But here, it's like the whole forest is holding its breath.” Another of the elder hunters chipped in.

 

Dhun frowned his eyebrows and asked, “Think the thing that is causing all this trouble for our tribes is nearby, and the cause of this?

 

The other hunters around the fire gave Dhun a grave nod in agreement, which meant they were about to fight something that was strong enough to screw up the ecosystem.

 

It was late morning when a scout came back with the first bits of information on what may be causing all the problems up north.

 

One of the hunters from Dhun’s tribe burst out of the foliage toward Dhun and almost caught a few throwing spears for coming in so suddenly, Dhun looked at the scout and asked, “Anything to report?”

 

The scout nodded while catching his breath, “Chieften, about a few hundred meters into the woods, I spotted three massive beasts.”

 

Dhun raised an eyebrow, “What kind of beast?”

 

The scout drew his knife and crouched down to start drawing in the dirt, “Never seen anything like it before, it is hunched over but is still twice my height and more than four times as long as I am tall, its head looks like that of a lizard head, all its teeth were as big as the fangs of a Big Tooth Cat’s, and its mouth seems big enough to easily bite a man in half. It walks around on its huge hind legs, but the weird thing is that its forelegs look so small that it probably cannot even touch its own head.”

 

When the scout was done describing what he saw in words and drawing on the ground, What Dhun and the others around saw was the side profile of what we would know of as a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

 

Dhun looked back up at the scout and asked, “What were they doing when you saw them?”

 

“They were feeding on an especially big Tusk Pig. The last I saw, it looked like they were a quarterway through it. But with their size, I would not be surprised if they were done by the time I reached you.”

 

Dhun hummed in acknowledgment as he thought of the expedition’s next steps, ‘If these are really the beasts that are causing the problems, then they must be really tough, we are going to need to hit it with everything we got.’

 

Grud looked back to the expedition and saw that they were all ready, he turned back to the scout and said, “Lead the way and stop around two hundred meters away.”

 

Dhun sent a few more scouts forward to confirm the locations of these beasts as he followed the scout who reported the beasts.

 

—

 

A few minutes later the scouts he sent forward came back with the report that the three beasts were resting after their meal. ‘Good, this will make killing them easier.’

 

Dhun then split the men into four groups led by the scouts that came back to report. After another few minutes of closing in on their targets as silently as possible, Dhun finally saw for himself what the scouts described, these beasts were truly huge, especially the huge head of the beasts which Dhun thought would look good on his wall.

 

When Dhun’s group was in position, he waited for another few minutes and then nodded to his scout, the scout then started imitating bird whistles while keeping an eye on their target in case they caught on to them.

 

One by one, three similar bird whistles came in response, signaling that the other three groups were ready. Dhun once again nodded to the scout who let out a different songbird whistle, which was replied to in kind. Upon this whistle, Dhun, along with the rest of the hunters in the group brought up their spears in a ready position to throw.

 

After a few seconds, Dhun gave the final nod and the scout let out a loud normal whistle, this was followed by all the hunters in all the groups throwing their spears at the three resting beasts.

 

Only one of the beasts opened their eyes to see what bird made that loud whistle, but it was too late to react to the rain of spears hurled at them. In less than five seconds, the three beasts were pin-cushioned by a bunch and the three beasts let out roars of anger at their surroundings.

 

As the beasts scrambled to their feet, Dhun noticed that none of the throwing spears had sunk very deep, the only serious blow they got was one of the throwing spears destroying the eye of one of the beasts.

 

“AIM FOR THE EYES!” Dhun called out before the second volley of throwing spears was sent flying. By the time the hunters ran out of throwing spears, two of the three beasts were totally blinded while the last beast managed to preserve one of its eyes by hiding its head behind the bulk of another beast.

 

“Group one to three, engage and distract the targets. Group four, recover as many throwing spears as you can” Dhun commanded as he and his group charged in to target the beast nearest to him. Fortunately, it was one that was totally blind.

 

As the hunters engaged the beasts, they fought them with the experience and caution that had been drilled into them from months of fighting beasts and monsters that could easily end them with a simple swipe.

 

The two blind beasts were blindly flailing around trying to hit the hunters but ended up hitting each other with their tail swipes. As for the beast that still had one good eye, the hunters that were engaging it were taking it on a chase around the trees in the area while others came around to its blind side to stab it and retreat before the beast retaliated.

 

When the fourth group collected all the throwing spears they could, they called out to the group that was entertaining the beast that could still see. The older hunter that was leading around the beast that could still see, saw that the fourth group was ready to spring an ambush with the throwing spears and called out for his group to go toward the fourth group.

 

As the beast mindlessly chased them towards the ambush, the fourth group jumped out from hiding and pelted the head of the beast with all the spears they recovered, while most of the throwing spears scratched or bounced off the beast’s head, one throwing spear managed to finally blind its one remaining eye.

 

After all the beasts were blinded, the task of taking down these huge beasts was just a matter of time.

 

One by one the beasts were brought low, leaving the last beast that was weakly sweeping its tail at any sound it picked up, it was bleeding from dozens of deep spear wounds and knew it was the last one because it could no longer hear the struggles of its siblings.

 

That was when he felt a spear penetrate deep into its chest, and it felt strength leave its body as it soon collapsed on its side.

 

“Wow, these beasts are tough. Never seen anything take such a beating before going down.” said a hunter as Dhun pulled the spear that used to belong to Grud out of the beast’s body ‘It's a shame we lost Grud before encountering these beasts’ Dhun thought as he looked at the metal-tipped spear than at the downed beast that was shallowly breathing.

 

“Better finish this beast off fast in case it tries to lash out before its death.” Dhun said as he walked toward the beast.

 

Hearing the footsteps approaching him, instead of roaring in defiance, let out a mournful wail that carried into the distance and lingered in the air before Dhun ran his spear into where he assumed the beast’s heart was, and apparently he guessed correctly as soon after, the beast slumped to the ground dead.

 

Dhun pulled his spear out and started to organize the men, “Alright men, check for wounded and–” his sentence was cut off by a loud and angry sounding guttural roar, which was followed by a second similar roar overlapping the first, and those roars sounded similar to those of the three they just killed.

 

“That… sounded alot bigger than what we just killed… What are the chances that these three are just juveniles and what we just heard were the parents?” one of the older hunters asked out loud.

 

To which Dhun could only reply, “Very likely.”