Castor was not used to running.

Nearly fourteen feet at the shoulder, he was without a doubt the largest dobuwana within the Fringe. Since he matured, Castor did not need to worry about his safety. Few creatures dared to get within sniffing distance of a mature dobuwana and his kind, in turn, quickly ceded the best feeding grounds to him. His great strength, however, came at a steep price. Whereas most bulls only had to endure musth once a year, some genetic quirk permanently locked Castor into that state after he reached adolescence. Constantly afflicted with temporin induced migraines, the huge bull flew into murderous rampages at the slightest provocation.

Naturally, he wasn’t very popular. Until now, his sheer strength ensured that loneliness had been the only consequence of his pariah status, but not even he was mighty enough to tell an entire horde of luddites “no”.

“Run faster, you stinking lummox, it’s gaining on us!” one of the neanderthals riding the sled he pulled shouted.

“This is the fastest I can go!” Castor gasped raggedly. “Dump more meat!”

“We’re out!” the same neanderthal cried.

“No, we’re not,” another man said.

“Well, get rid of it then!” The neanderthal quickly regretted his choice of words. He toppled backwards with a scream. Seconds later, a hot, reeking gust of breath bathed Castor’s back. The disgusting sensation convinced his aching legs to put on an extra burst of speed.

“Hak, you bastard!” a third neanderthal shrieked.

“Shut it, you murderous frothing dog! You have no grounds to condemn me!”

“Erik and me had nothing to do with the massacre!”

“You didn’t stop your sister tribe from flaying the blackfoots in exchange for Viros’ aid. Your cousin has repaid that sin.”

“They did that to defeat the dragon!”

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“And they failed!”

Castor grit his teeth as a wave of pain throbbed across his skull. “Would you two shut up! Is the monster still chasing us?”

“Keep going a little further, Castor,” Hak grunted. “It looks like it has finally had its fill, but I don’t want to tempt it.”

Castor peeked over his shoulder. He let out a sigh of relief as he watched Kaaslithe curl up and lay his head down. He put another mile between him and the slumbering monster before his aching legs gave up on him.

“Don’t rest for too long. That thing won’t be napping for long.”

Castor was about to strike Hak, but Erik’s brother beat him to it. Hak took two more blows to the face before he caught the other man’s wrist and wrestled him to the ground.

When the fight petered out, Hak sported a bloodied, bruised cheek and a busted lip. His half-conscious opponent’s injuries were considerably worse. Three of his teeth were missing and his eyes had become bruised slits.

“Pathetic,” Hak spat. “You ready to go yet, Castor?”

“If I was, I would already be up,” Castor growled. The dobuwana tuned out the lecture that Hak launched into. The man was droning on about how the fate of all luddites rested on their shoulders when the dobuwana’s keen hearing picked up faint rustle.

Hak noticed his ears twitch.

What is it?”

“Something is heading our way.”

A tall lanky woman and several other neanderthals emerged from the tree line

“It’s just us.”

“Finja, what are you doing here?”

“We got tired of waiting for you.”

Hak tossed a dismissive look Castor’s way. “Well, you can blame that lazy lug for the delay.”

“When this is over, I am going to flatten you!”

“You just need to keep it up for one more sun,” Finja assured the dobuwana.

“We were supposed to keep the beast's attention for another three,” Hak argued, earning a glare from Castor.

Finja shrugged. “The other shamans are afraid that the Silent Death will slip into the ocean if we keep teasing it with morsels. They think that we’ll have to gather the rest of the horde to lure it all the way to the dragon’s palace.”

“It only surfaced two months ago. It will remain on land for at least another month. Tell them to stick to the original plan.”

“You’re probably right, but we can’t take any risks.”

“You’re risking hundreds of lives right now! We're still half a week away from the dragon’s fortress! The horde will not outpace that monster for that long!”

“It would be a tragedy if we lost so many lives to that monster’s appetite, but if Kaaslithe doesn’t deal with that dragon, we’ll all be dead within the decade.”