//------------------------------// // Lemuria // Story: Lyra's Voyages 2: On Strange Tides // by Prince_Staghorn //------------------------------// Day 7... I don't know how long we ran. The Captain I never learned the name of was dead, it was storming, and we were in unfamiliar territory, and a bunch of blood-sucking sub-ponies were probably hunting us. (Huh, it just occured to me that those ponies had three toes on each foot. That places their presence on the island back to at least the Oligocene...) We rested in a tree. Ocean Wave and Ditzy had wings, I had my "Hooves to Hands" spell, and Maud... well, I have no idea how she got up there. The storm soon passed, and the sun filtered through the branches. Below me, a distinctly non-feathered dromaeosaur* was foraging in the leaf litter. It was 8 feet long, colored deep red with black stripes. Its prehensile tail was studded with small scutes. I recognized it from a book. Obsidianychus helveticus, a Blackstripe, from... I couldn't remember, but it was an island of some sort. This one was wounded, limping heavily. I heard the footsteps before I saw the beast that was hunting it. 20 feet long. Jet black. Seven horns. Covered in purple scutes. A blood red mouth, studded with white teeth. It wasn't a tyrannosaur of any kind, as its arms showed. It was as if someone had directly attached the beast's hand to its elbow. This was an Abelisaur, one of the great southern giants of the Cretaceous. It snapped up the raptor, turning around and leaving. We got on the ground and headed the other way. The large predator saw us, but didn't do anything. Why would it? It already had food, so why waste the time and energy on such smaller prey?** It became apparent we were in a saurian-dominated ecology as the day progressed. This also allowed me and Ocean Wave to guess the size of the island, based on the creatures.*** "Those sauropods**** have to weigh at least 24 tonnes." I looked as we walked. The tan and green plant eaters were browsing on leaves. Each one was very large. I nodded. "So we're on a landmass at least as big as the Crystalline Raj."***** "Yes. But only one land in these parts matches that size. That would mean we're on..." We entered a massive clearing... and stared up at the towering, megalithic ruins, built untold millenia ago. I knew my lost civilizations. Shetlantis, Mu, the Civilization of the Elder Things... and the oldest of all. The information and journals I had read over came back as I said its name. "Lemuria..." *** Lemuria is a large island located between Hosstralia and the Unnamed Southern Continent. it contains a fair population of extant dinosaurs, as well as several non-native mammalian life forms, including a species of hemophagic three toed equines called the Morulak, who we had met on our first night here. However, Lemuria is also home to many different civilizations, such as the Quintaglio (sapient tyrannosaurs located on the southern half), the Mahars (sapient pterosaurs who stay by the sea), and the Horibs (mammal-like reptiles who roam the jungles). But the ruins we were looking at belonged to what might have been the first empire in the world: the Lemurians themselves. This was an incredible archaeological find, much more than what we could have found on Echidna. Lemuria had barely been explored, and the Lemurians were believed to be extinct, unlike their neighbors, so the ruins were a historian's dream! I was so excited, I didn't notice we were captured until I was grabbed in a pair of scaly talons and lifted off. *** I awoke in an open space. behind me was a large, winged creature, bright green with an orange crest and a tooth-filled beak. In front of me were smaller winged forms, reddish, with white heads and long tails. I recognized them. Out of all Lemuria's inhabitants, these were the only ones who made regular contact with other lands. Mahars. They stared at me, their black eyes full of ancient intelligence. I felt as they stared at me, figuring me out. /Why are you here, Hoofbeast?/ The words were in my head, in a hissing, ancient, and distinctly female voice. Mahars had no ears, and made no sound, communicating on an entirely telepathic level. Thankfully, this was communication only, and Mahars couldn't read minds. /Well?/ I had no choice but to explain my situation. They stared, and I could tell they were reading my lips. Two of them kept looking at the third, and it became clear she understood what I was saying, and was acting as a conduit between my verbal language and her companion's telepathic language. When I finished, they had a "private" conversation, looking at each other and "talking". /Your story matches that ot the other three, though at least the grey one with the crooked eyes was able to tell us directly without need of a translator./ Huh. So Ditzy was partially telepathic. Who knew? /For trespassing on the Forbidden Land of the Dragon Kings, you four have been sentanced to fight for your lives and freedom in the Arena in three days. Until then, you will be slaves in the mines./ My mouth hung open as a Morulak shackled me and led me away.