Creatures Of Sonaria: Sands Of Time

Part 8: Survive

       Dune, Arche, and Armolten were striding through the thick mud. Most of the Murky Lands have never really been fully explored. Nobody cared to go live there. There were no herbs, it was too muddy, and it smelled of gross mucky water. 

       Dune did not like any of this. 

       But she did seem to be getting through the mud easier than Amrolten and Arche. They were more used to hard land that didn't shift under their feet every step, making them sink. Dune was though. Walking through the mud was like walking through stickier, smellier, squishier sand. 

       The trees above them seemed to block out half the sun, leaving only trickles of light shining through. Despite the lack of sun, though, plenty of ferns manage to grow quite well. 

       Dune turned to look at Arche and Armolten. Armolten seemed to be glancing around, looking for basically anything to set fire to. Her mane flared hungrily at the sky, reaching for anything that seemed flammable. 

       Arche, on the other talon, looked worried. He kept glancing around, looking at every shadow and crevice in the swamp. His back spines prickled with worry as she strode closer to Dune's side. 

       "Why are you acting like a paranoid kiridian?" Dune asked, giving him a smirk of bravery while she had the chance. 

       "I think something or someone is watching us..." Arche replied silently, looking left again. Suddenly, there was a rustling above them, and the three creatures paused to try and spot whatever it was. 

       Dune saw the movement of a fern to her right. Then something sounded behind her, then to her left. The pieces clicked inside her brain that very moment. They weren't being watched, they were being hunted!

       "RUN!" Dune shouted, sprinting through the muck and mud like it was sand. Armolten and Arche were behind her, following her steps. Dune turned to see what was hunting them. Multiple nymphasuchases were emerging from the water, the mud, and the plants and sprinting at them. There were dozens of them, all the color of the mud and moss that matched their environment. 

       Armolten stopped in her tracks. "You run! I'll set them on fire!" She shouted. But Arche only stopped to throw mud at her. Armolten hissed at him.

       "We can't burn this place," Arche stated, waving his tail to tell Armolten to keep running while talking. "This place is sacred, untouched, unchanged land! If we burnt this all, we'd be destroying the only part of Sonaria that hasn't changed once over the thousands of years!"

       "Like any of that matters more than our lives!" Armolten shouted, fueled with fiery rage. Her mane flared angrily, turning a few fronds of a fern black when she ran past them, not setting them aflame. The nymphasuchases were gaining upon them, their little legs pacing at a shocking speed. One managed to latch its jaws onto Dune's tail, its teeth sinking between her scales and piercing her muscle. 

       Dune bit down the urge to roar and draw more attention to themselves and swung her tail and the nymphasuchas's weight at a large tree. The nymphasuchas let go and retreated to one of the small pools of water. 

       Blood trickled out of her tail while she ran to catch up to Arche and Armolten. 

       The sound of footsteps skidded to a halt. Dune turned her head to see that the nymphasuchases were backing up and running into pools and behind flora. Dune's friends stopped as well. 

       "Did they get tired?" Arche questioned. He lifted his talons to shake mud out from in between his toes.

       Armolten shook her head. "No, They were dead set on killing us." She raised her snout to the air. "Something must have scared them."

       A deep, bubbly, growl sounded from right behind all of them. The three creatures turned toward a pool with large ripples of water. A silhouette was seen in the water, huge and closely shaped like a nymphasuchas. Two pairs of amber eyes rose from the water and a deep emerald and pine green body and snout began to lift and crawl its way out of the water. 

       Dune was frozen in shock. This thing's growling sounded too kendyll. It made her legs numb thinking about the bulky, large bipedal lizards with their tough jaws and-

        "I'LL KILL IT!" Armolten suddenly shouted. She opened her jaws got ready to shoot flames before Dune jumped onto her to stop her attack. The two of them stumbled around on the mud before getting up and hissing at each other. Arche pulled Dune back by the spines of her neck. 

        "What are you doing?" Arche scolded her. 

       Dune lashed back, "I'm protecting that creature!" The crocodilian creature was just sitting there watching them duel. 

       He stamped his foot on the ground and crushed mud in between his claws. "Protect it? For what reason would you want to protect it!? It's a tier 5 creature, fully capable of ripping our heads off and using our hind legs as sticks to pick our flesh out of its teeth."

       "Well he's not doing it now, Arche," Dune said, looking over Arche's shoulder at the creature. "What are you, anyway?"

       The tier five creature yawned and blinked at them before replying, "A kendyll, as shocking as that may be."

       Armolten stepped forward and made her mane brighter and hotter.  "You're lying," she hissed. "You're not a kendyll."

       "My name is Jekyll, and I assure you, I am." The kendyll tilted his head to look down at his curved claws. "I'm just as confused as you are. I miss my old body. I was perfect."

       Dune stepped forward and rested her tail on his large claws. She looked at Arche remorsefully. "Stop hurting him, Arche." She said. "I thought you were better than this."

       Arche glowered at Dune and hissed. "Are you defending him over me?" He snapped. "I thought you loved me?"

       Those words impaled her. Dune looked down and crushed mud in her claws. "I don't," she replied coldly. Everything went silent, the only noise was the faint whisper of wind brushing against the leaves of the tree leaves above. 

       "W-What?" Arche stammered, sitting down. He gave Dune a pitiful look. "You said you did! Were you lying this whole time?"

       Dune nodded. She heard Armolten 'ooof' and the strange kendyll huff. "I'm sorry, Arche. I only love you as a friend, nothing more. It's just... you're not my type, ok?"

       Arche lifted his head. "Well, then what is your type?" He said in a desperate tone, standing up and puffing his chest. "I-I can change to whoever you want! Anything! What do I have to be?"

       Dune glanced at Jekyll, then back at Arche. "Well, strong and big?" she said. Armolten broke down into laughter while Arche looked down and back up at Jekyll with an angry glare.

       "Is that why you defended him?" Arche flicked his tail tip at Jekyll. "Because he's your type?"

       "No!" Dune retorted. "I defended him because you were attacking him!"

       Arche stomped on a twig and snapped it. "Fine, if you don't want me around, I'll just go." He turned and went in the opposite direction. Dune stepped forward, wanting to follow him and convince him to come with her, but Jekyll rested a claw on her shoulder.

       "Let him go," he said. "He'll come back." 

       Dune nodded and sat down. She looked up at Jekyll. "Can you take us through the swamp? I'm kind of in a hurry." 

       Jekyll nodded. "Yes, come along," he said, turning and heading southwest, toward Molten-Build Volcano Dune gestured her head at Armolten and signaled to follow. She did so, and off they were, trekking the Murky Lands alongside an elderly kendyll. The whole way, Dune couldn't help but worry about what would happen to Arche if he goes to find and kill Gher on his own.