Every word he spoke was the right thing to assuage my fears and frustrations. Even so, there was something wrong with it, and I felt my scales prickle right alongside my skin. My discomfort and instincts notwithstanding, I bowed my head at the herdmaster Silumkulo. “I appreciate your willingness to stop and converse with me. I can’t imagine that it is easy to convince your large friend to move or to stop whenever you desire.”
“Oh, our ufudoluk is a great friend, and so patient with our petty desires.” Silumkulo beamed up at the huge creature, and as if it listened to his words, the massive head turned and watched him with a somehow grandfatherly air. A deep rumble, like the grinding of two mountains together, shook my chest and feet. With my understanding of sonic waves from my Sonilphon, I watched the earthshaking power of the ufudoluk’s mere presence. I’d been under no illusions that I or my swarm would be able to slay such a gargantuan creature, but now I was positive that we wouldn’t be able to escape its attention alive.
“I’d heard of such a creature,” I responded, my heart and lungs still quivering from the basso vocalization, “But I never imagined this is what it would be or become.”
“Become?” Silumkulo questioned, his tone even and peaceful. Even so, I felt the spike of enraged curiosity at the question.
“My people and I escaped from the lands of the Veratocracy.” I explained. “There, we encountered one of their Soulspeakers. At the time, we’d never heard of an ufudoluk or anything so inspiring, but we witnessed one that the Soulspeaker had made to follow him. It served as a mount for him and his fellow Speakers as they chased us through their lands. That one, however, was much smaller than your ufudoluk friend. It probably could walk underneath yours without scraping its shell.”
“Under three decades old, then.” Silumkulo mused. “He may very well be Uma’s missing son.” Silumkulo went silent, but Sybil’s tail tapped mine in a preestablished warning that he was speaking to something else with their magic. It didn’t take long for the body-shaking groans to return. Differently, though, this time they continued for well over a minute, growing in intensity and apparent rage, the earth shattering and roiling under the ufudoluk’s body, stone crawling like ivy up her legs. Finally, she raised her head and shouted her despair to the skies.
Meanwhile, Silumkulo rushed to the front of the giant tortoise. The two soldiers that had accompanied him initially remained at his side like as many shadows, their eyes roving the surroundings without any trust or complacency. The herdmaster raised his hands, apparently fighting to acquire the massive beast’s attention, and eventually, she lowered her head enough for the much smaller person to lovingly stroke her snout. Her breaths huffed, the dust under his feet roiling and blowing wildly in her agitated panting.
“He is promising his assistance in locating the kidnapper.” Sybil whispered, her voice quavering with the force of the ufudoluk’s rage. “Her mind is difficult for me to fathom–much deeper and more complex than any other creature’s that I have experienced in my life. However, it is immediately apparent that she is enraged and mournful. The herdmaster continues to promise their vengeance, and she is beginning to listen.”
I flared my frills in acknowledgement, and Sybil continued observing the soldiers. Several minutes later, the pain of our bodies’ forced vibration slowed to a mere discomfort, though the occasional flare of anger from Uma forced my heart to beat in unison with the rhythm of her rage. Several minutes later than that, Silumkulo slowly approached, Uma’s head following him as he walked in a stately fashion towards us.
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“I beg your forgiveness,” the gold-crusted indlovu bowed his trunk to us. “I was not thinking when I shared that news with our Uma. The little one went missing when he had only barely hatched, less than eighteen years of age, and he was from Uma’s first clutch in nearly five hundred years. She had long thought herself a failure of a mother, so to learn that he yet lives, but under the thumb of one of those warlocks,” he spat the word, the first time any emotion other than affable congeniality colored his tone, “was quite upsetting.”
“No apology is necessary.” I responded. “I can understand her distress and anger.”
“Thank you, Chieftain Ashlani. Now, I must ask, what is your purpose within the stewardship of the Inkulu?”
“We are merely passing through on our path towards the remains of the city Nievtra.” I answered. “We have been fortunate enough to witness the beauty of your stewardship on our journey. I see why it can be called the most beautiful and prestigious of the Indlovu stewardships.” I’d never heard as much in as many words, but considering the way that Lukusu had reacted to our inevitable passing through Inkulu lands, I didn’t doubt that such flattery would be deserved.
“That is true.” Silumkulo preened under my praise. “That the Inkulu have been the leaders of the Indlovu for so many centuries is due to the care with which we govern our stewardship. For that reason, I must ask that you explain why you have acted so brashly within our stewardship. Hundreds have disappeared from their natural habitats, and dozens more disappear by day. We have learned that you are the origin of these inconsistencies. Why do you disrupt the natural harmony of these lands?” Though much more subtle than the distaste he had for the “warlocks”, Silumkulo obviously considered our presence to be a blight on his perfect lands.
“For that, I will apologize.” I allowed, the politicking of bowing before this creature necessary to pass peacefully still grating on me. “We have hunted only enough to continue on our path without starvation.”
“That is no excuse for disruption of the natural harmony of the stewardship.” He was uncompromising in his words.
“Predators and prey must live together,” I tried, “and the natural state of the land is a constant flux. When there are more predators than prey, the weakest predators die until the numbers of prey rise to greater heights than before. Do we not exist as an extension of nature’s will? The brief passage of a new predator, one who swiftly leaves and allows for the lands to return to their natural order?”
“That is not what you have done.” The herdmaster replied. “You have devoured mindlessly from every land you have touched and crossed, eating as many as you can stomach while ripping away those who you cannot. You may be closer to saharliard than any in my lifetime, or my grandfather’s lifetime, but you do not understand the plains. There is a delicate balance, and you have fought to upend it at every step.”
I felt my scales flare in my anger at being so dismissed, but before I could do anything that I or my swarm would regret, Silumkulo spoke more. “Hunt no more. If the weak should die and the strong survive, you must see who can make it through our stewardship. Those of your people who die were too weak. Now go. We have other things to attend to.” Then, without another word and no longer respectful to the point of obeisance, Silumkulo whipped around, his robes flapping with the movement. At his movement, the soldiers all around us were suddenly coated with stone that crawled up their legs to fully armor them. All the while, the pillar from before once again rose beneath his feet and flew into the sky to deposit the indlovu where I could no longer see him from this position.
My fangs ground together without conscious thought, but the soldiers began ignoring us, instead watching the grasses around us and jogging alongside the ufudoluk as she turned and began returning to whence she came. Again, before I said anything, Sybil hissed up at me, “There was some sort of a signal that came from behind us. One of their kind sent a message, and that was when he changed. That was not some random bout of anger. It was instead planned.”
“Nievtala, bless. Lead us to victory.” I prayed as I led my small band of keelish sprinting back towards my swarm, back to where the mysterious unintelligible message originated from. Back to where, once we approached, I could hear shouting, screaming, and unintelligible rage and confusion.