A spear pierces the ground right before my legs, shooting up a cloud of dust. The shaft quivers from the impact, making a low thrumming noise.

That’s when my eyes are drawn to a ridge of sand off to my left, past the airship wreckage and further up the Tarrasque’s back.

Alien, insectoid shapes are backlit by the sun. they climb up over the ridge, standing at the top with weapons pointed down at us.

I spoke too soon.

The air is filled with a clacking and chittering, and the already panicking sailors start running in the opposite direction of the figures.

Kamar just stares at them in fear, bringing up his arms, readying to fight. His hands glow with a metallic katra, and I can only guess that is what the Ironworks Path’s katra looks like.

I can get a better look at them now. They are insectoid humanoids, something like a mix between a mantis and a person. They are missing the large back abdomen characteristic of mantis, and have four arms, a smaller set below their first set. They are covered in a thick sandy color carapace, two large compound eyes on their triangle head, antenna twitching at the top. Two backwards leg, and four arms tipped with four claws.

“Thri-kreen…” The whisper escapes my lips. The illustration of them from the Fiend Folio coming to my mind.

The sailors push past me and Kamer, reaching the other side of the dunes, opposite of the Thri-kreen. They are pushing and shoving each other, scrambling up the incline of the dune.

Then the top of the dune explodes, dust clouds billowing out as more insect figures rise up, sand streaming off their beige carapaces. They clutch weighted nets in their large, four fingered hands.

They draw them back, then fling them forward into the terrified group of sailors. They go down under a wave of weighted nets, too confused to try and escape.

They were herding us!

Once the entire group is imobile, the Thri-kreen move in. In their second set of arms, they all clutch flasks. The flasks run in a line around their belts, sloshing with their movements.

The thri-kreen hunters start dosing the group of sailors, tossing the empty flasks to the sand. Then they methodically move onto the next person, coating them in the green, pulpy liquid.

I watch in disconnected fascination as Adre gets a face full of the liquid as he tries to crawl out from under the large net. He sputters, his eyes wide in terror and confusion, then he starts spasming. A few seconds later, he stops moving, paralyzed.

Surrender, its our best option.

I look to Kamar, where the Katra is becoming thick around his arms, layering itself. He tenses, ready to pounce at the nearest Thri-kreen.

Grabbing his shoulder, I look into his eyes. He is spellbound by the terror induced roar, and I can tell he isn’t thinking clearly. I shake my head, saying, “We have to surrender!”

I put my hands up in the air for example, looking to the Thri-kreen warriors advancing on us from all sides, dual tipped spears in their hands.

Kamar looks at me like I am crazy, but I glare back at him, fighting my urge to grovel. I can hear Tarras in my head, shouting to grow some backbone.

I fall to one knee, then the other, raising my hands above my head to show I have no weapons. Sand puffs up around my knees, and I squint against a whip of wind that sends some up into my face.

Kamar looks torn, glancing between me and the sailors, then the Thri-kreen. His muscles slowly relax, and he seems to deflate. The katra around his hands un-spins itself, returning back to his core.

Crouches down, raising his four hands in the air.

The Thri-kreen are shattering, their mandibles making clicking noises. They close in, surrounding us from all sides. Their twin bladed spears at the ready, but they don’t close in.

I watch for a few minutes at their chattering ranks, as the bristle and hop back and forth. I can see through gaps between them the captured sailors. Thri-kreen are dragging the paralyzed crew members away with the nets, leaving furrows in the sand.

What in the world is going on? Why are there Thri-kreen here? Why is a tarrasque so close to the edges of the desert?

Everything's happening so fast, and I can’t process it. First we crashed onto the back of a slumbering tarrasque, awakening it. Then we are captured by Thri-kreen.

Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire. I crack a smile at my joke trying to make some light of the situation.

I think I’m developing a nervous tick to crack jokes when I feel scared.

The clicking and chattering of the Thri-kreen slowly stops. I have a closer look at them now, and I marvel at their size. They’re almost as tall as Kamar!

They stand at roughly seven feet tall, but with slender and hardened limbs. They are covered in patches of leather and orangey scale armor, ragged and dusty cloths shrouding parts of their persons. Flasks of paralyzer slosh on their belts, along with what looks like three sided shuriken, made of the same orange material.

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The group of surrounding Thri-kreen parts in front of me, but they don’t lower their weapons.

A slouched Thri-kreen with a grayed and flaky carapace waddles through their ranks. His carapace is covered in scratches, one of his antennae missing half way. He leans on a staff, intricate wooden carvings covering it’s length, tipped with the skull of some fanged animal.

He waddles up to us, clicking softly. Each of his slow, methodical steps with occupied by the swish of his grayed clothes, the robe he is wearing covering his body. There are no visible weapons or armor on his person, but I still keep an eye out for any.

It’s an old Thri-kreen, an elder.

With the crunch of sand, he stops a foot in front of us. He is clicking and shifting around his arms more, and it takes me a second to realize he is trying to get me to talk.

I take a deep breath of the scorching hot air, bowing my head, but keeping my aching arms raised, “We don’t mean any harm, we were only trying to escape the slavers.” I motion over to the burning remnants of The Ghastly Skull, some of the Thri-kreen warriors raise their weapons, clacking.

The elder Thri-kreen clacks and hisses even louder, motioning with his two left arms for them to stand down.

Once the warriors have calmed down, he clacks and hisses softly. He started sketching in the sand at my knees.

I stare at the symbols of common as he slowly draws them out. He taps the sand once with his staff, clacking. I whisper the words as I read them, “We are the Va’ura. Do you come in peace?”

I nod my head quickly, looking at the elder thri-kreen.

He brushes the symbols away in the sand, writing again. I read them out loud, “Come, the Queen wishes to speak with you two.”

He draws a line through the symbols, turning his back and motioning with his arm to follow him.

I glance at Kamar, who seems to have calmed down now. He looks at me, then starts standing up. I follow suit, carefully walking behind the elder thri-kreen. I set my hands down, looking at the now following warriors.

They keep their weapons up and the message is clear, Don’t try anything.

The mantis warriors close ranks around us, prodding us forward their spears.

I follow the elder thri-kreen over dunes, my boots filling with sand as we walk up an incline.

I look up at the cloudy blue sky, trying to make sense of what's going on. I can feel the low reverberations of the tarrasque walking, unsuspecting of us being on its back.

We walk for what feels like an hour, climbing up and down dune after dune, the thri-kreen chatter freely now, but still stay alert, watching Kamar and I for any hostile intentions.

We crest a dune, and I can’t help but stop and stare. In front of us, in the center of the tarrasque’s back, is structure. It is the same beige color as the sand, blending in. It’s not very big, a small pyramid of orange sandstone. It is surrounded by an oasis of grass, fruit trees dotting the flat clearing. A large group of thri-kreen stand at its entrance, and more dragging paralyzed sailors in nets, move into the pyramid.

I am shoved pushed by a thri-kreen behind me, he chatters angrily. Stumbling for a step, I righten myself and quickly catch up with Kamar and the elder thri-kreen.

They are living on the tarrasque’s back! It is an absurd thought, and one that I wouldn’t have thought possible.

We walk into the large, flat area surrounding the pyramid. Dune grass pops up from the sand, holding it in place and swaying in the wind from the tarrasque moving.

We walk down a orange brick path, sand granules crunching under my feet. The dune grass makes shifting sounds as it sways in the wind, and I can spot small pools of water dotting the landscape.

This is impossible! Wouldn’t the tarrasque have noticed by now that there are creatures living on it’s back?

I look at the short trees in the distance, where thri-kreen are picking pear like fruits and dropping them in baskets. Squinting, I can’t help but gasp.

A few of the escorting thri-kreen bristle, but relax when they see I haven’t done anything.

Kamar rumbles, “Those are Spirit Fruits.”

I nod dazedly, surprised at the abundance of them here. There must be a massive amount of vital arua gathering here to have changed the trees.

There are “hotspots” of vital arua that dot the land, where it gathers for some reason or another. If enough of it condenses, then it can twist and shape the landscape, most often than not, it’s not a very big hotspot. The most common types of these hotspots are ones were the trees absorb and start cultivating the vital arua, storing the katra they make in fruits.

The types of katra varied, but they were all much like the Sky Gem’s katra, open to conversion and use. They could boost your core, making you temporarily stronger, or even ranking you up. They are incredibly rare, and usually reserved for the rich Houses and Clans.

Spirits fruits are also vital in certain elixirs that can help you rank up and grow more powerful.

And there are so many here!

I look back at the orange pyramid in a daze, still trying to comprehend how these thri-kreen have been able to live on the tarrasque’s back without it noticing.

As we approach the pyramid, I notice something. Curious, I look down at the sand covered path we are walking on.

These aren’t bricks, their scales! I can tell that they are the scales from the tarrasque’s back, but have been glued together somehow, forming bricks.

I look at one of the thri-kreen warriors, specifically his orangish armor and weapons. Their made of scales!

His weapon’s blades are formed of sanded and sharped orange scales, and his armor is formed of the large scales as well, tempered into shapes that fit his body. I had mistaken them for orange stone, but now I can clearly tell that they are scales.

It must have taken incredibly long to make those. Tarrasque’s are famed for their impenetrable and durable scales.

Thri-kreen are famed for their prowess in hunting and fighting. Their already above norm strength and their agility making even the lowest ranked thri-kreen a formidable opponent. There are stories of the mantis warriors being able to dodge around and deflect arrows without glance at where they come from. Their flexibility allowing them to dodge around projectiles and their agility allowing them to run vast distances.

Most people consider them as sacred beasts, or monsters. Even though they are an intelligent race.

We reach the temple, and I look up at it’s blocky surface. The sun shines down on it, baking the massive scale bricks. The thri-kreen that stand guard out front of it wear a suits of the tarrasque scale armor, red cloth draped over their shoulders.

I am prodded into the gaping black maw of the pyramid by the thri-kreen, following the elder mantis warrior and Kamar deep into the pyramid.

We walk down a dark hallway, the thri-kreen unbothered by the lack of light. I can make out branching paths that lead further into the pyramid, but we don’t go down any. There is drapery all along the orange walls, and empty scones for torches.

Instead, we come to the end of the hall, where a staircase leads deeper underground. I look down, my unable to see where it leads.

The elder thri-kreen motions for me and Kamar to go down.

Reluctantly, I start walking down on the steps into the dark depths of the pyramid.