Chapter 93: Kings of the hill
Glassing the plateau for the missing Rhino’s turned out to be an intrinsically tranquil activity. Ryan relaxed and panned back and forth in slow, meticulous sweeps. In short order he realised that the grass was indeed greener on the other side of the fence. The area was, by a wide margin, more populated than the Guild’s territory. Sunbirds flittered through the undulating haze hanging above the bush in flittering, glittering crescents. All manner of smaller wildlife, only visible by the disturbances they caused under the cover of the bush, went about their hidden activities. The occasional flash of horns through the vegetation clued him in to the presence of a variety of antelope, Gnu, Oryx, Kudu, Waterbuck and Hartebees shared this valley in equal measure. Ryan reasoned that the area under purview probably lacked the presence of larger predator’s and tentatively assigned this lack to its presumed overlords, the Rhinos.
Of which, after quite some time had passed, he had yet to see anything beyond marked signs of their continued presence. The surprisingly unobtrusive swathes of destruction that he assumed to be their regular paths indicated that the elusive animals were truly humungous, and Ryan was perplexed at his failure to spot the damn things. That was, until, with a start, Ryan realised that one of the hillocks dotting the landscape, was slowly moving across his field of view. Stupefied, he focused his binoculars on the hill to confirm his observation.
What, at first, had appeared like a collection of sandstone boulders proved to be, in fact, a Rhino covered in a thick armour of sandstone. It wasn’t uniform, thick boulderlike growths jutting out at odd angles and smoother sections split by massive cracks. It was in the shape, orientation and position of these cracks that Ryan managed to discover the outline of a Rhino underneath the armour. The Armoured Juggernaut, at Level 34, was nearly two stories tall and as long as a semi. There was no sign of its trademark feature, the dual horns on its nose. Instead, its snout was akin to a massive hammer of stone and Ryan recalled that the horns of all Rhinos in this reserve had been cut off and ground down at regular intervals to forestall any interest in poaching the animals. The giant shape moved at a glacial pace, browsing on the bushes it towered over. Occasionally it lowered its head into the dense vegetation and, now that Ryan was paying attention, he could hear a disturbing symphony of crunching sounds whenever its head disappeared.
Once Ryan came to grips with the surreal picture, he resumed scanning the rest of the area and, lo and behold, spotted another 5 of the behemoths. One of these, Ryan found, was followed by a significantly smaller shape. Ryan assumed this to be a calf following its mother and shook his head in wonder, contemplating whether it would be a good idea to see if Johannes could add it to his menagerie. At Level 17, the calf was at about half the level of the rest of the behemoths, still, if Ryan was judging correctly, it was the size of a pick-up truck and, if Johannes could tame it, would be an invaluable addition to his team.
While Fury lazily rested on a branch below him Ryan continued observing the area and the Rhinos in particular. The animals seemed placid, unhurriedly going about their methodical consumption of bush and crunchy stuff, the latter which Ryan assumed to be sandstone boulders. They were, beyond doubt, the kings of this particular hill and not threatened by any challengers. The fact that any larger predators were absent in this little slice of paradise was however a clear sign that the group didn’t take well to any possible threat to their health and presumably the health of the calf in particular.
Ryan spent a lazy afternoon in the branches of the tree, cataloguing the behaviour of the Rhinos and the variety and levels of other animals he spotted in the valley. Over time he discovered several spots in the area that were nearly devoid of vegetation and covered in crumbled boulders. These puzzled him for a while before he noted down his suspicions for how they came to be. If his assumptions were correct, he’d definitely need to test his hypotheses before the Guild could even contemplate entering into the area, never mind challenging the kings of this particular spot in paradise.
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Ryan made the executive decision that this area was, for the moment, far too dangerous for purposes of levelling, so, while the sun was still at an appreciable distance from the horizon, he shifted the lioness and himself. Ryan had identified the broken line of little hills, with its markedly higher density of bare patches, most of them recent, as the western border of the territory and decided to have a quick look at the area beyond. The duo appeared obliquely behind a boulder lying nearly at the top of the tallest in the line of hills. As Ryan had hoped, they appeared out of sight and hopefully safely out of reach of the wandering Rhino that was contentedly browsing close by. Slowly, avoiding any sudden moves, the pair ascended the remainder of the hill. With the wind at his back and soundlessly stepping up the little slope, Ryan wasn’t worried that the Rhino would identify them as a threat as long as they moved slowly. While Rhinos had notoriously bad eyesight, they would still notice sudden large movements even at a distance so the two had decided to rather be careful. It paid off, unnoticed by the behemoth at their backs they crested the top of the hill and settled behind the summit.
Ryan could immediately see why this particular line of hills formed the boundary of the Rhinos’ territory. The area beyond was far craggier and rockier than the comparatively open area they had just left. The jumble of rocky hillocks and deeper trenches wasn’t a terrain conducive to their size and, judging by the fact that it was absolutely throttled by a sprawling thicket of dense vegetation, few herbivores were present in the area. Slowly but surely the disparate facts were assembling into a comprehensive picture, one slotting into another like pieces of a puzzle until the picture was revealed.
Although Ryan failed to spot the primary occupants of this area before the sun could set, he tentatively decided that it would be a prime spot for the combat team to grind in the immediate future. Both to increase their level and to gather more combat experience. Contemplating what he had seen he initiated a Shift back to base to discuss his observations with his brother, Phillipus and Marc to see if his conclusion would match his own.
The first face, beside the obnoxious smiley face on his Anchor, that greeted him when he arrived was, to his great fortune, Michelle.
“Hey Ryan,” their resident comms specialist responsible for setting up and maintaining their raid chats and guild forum greeted him chirpily, “Carina asked me to keep watch for your arrival. She wants to know, as soon as possible, what you want done with your share of the kills. She also told me to inform you that the other members of the combat group decided to forfeit their share for the benefit of the guild.”
“That’s fine. I’ll do the same.” Ryan answered. “While I have you here could you please let my brother, Phillipus and Marc know that I’d like to discuss some things with them over or after dinner? I’d greatly appreciate that.” Ryan took advantage of her presence to delegate the odious task of gathering people to her.
“Sure, not a problem. Is it urgent?” Carina smirked as she asked.
“No. Why?” Ryan wondered.
Her expression fell. She looked downright crestfallen as she answered him. “I have a new Skill as part of my class. I can forcibly push messages through to a guildmember’s interface if I consider the matter urgent. I wanted to test that functionality.”
“What do you mean forcibly push it through?” Ryan couldn’t help but ask. He’d long since set most off his messages and notifications to what he considered ‘mute’ to be perused at his own leisure. Being distracted while out and about by a badly timed message or notification was one of his secret fears and Michelle’s statement worried him.
“Well, if I send a guild message that I consider urgent the periphery of your vision will flash red and it’ll ding in your auditory perception for a couple of seconds every minute.”
“Wow. That’s concerning. And open to abuse.” Ryan muttered under his breath.
Michelle however had heard him. “Not as much as you think.” she demurred. “I honestly have to consider the message urgent. I tried sending Carina a message because I urgently needed something to eat and couldn’t leave my post but that didn’t work. She still got the message of course but it wasn’t pushed through.”
“That’s a relief.” Ryan replied. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t help you with the test. Hopefully you won’t have the need to send urgent messages anytime soon. Could you still contact my brother and co?”
“Already done.” Michelle let him know. “Care to walk me to dinner?”, the teen mischievously smiled at him.
‘Sure, why not.” Ryan mumbled and fell in beside her as she left for their communal dining area. Silently he resolved to also address Michelle’s issue with testing her new Skill with William while they were talking later.