Lyra's Voyages 2: On Strange Tides

by Prince_Staghorn

Escape

We were not the only prisoners of the Lemurians. Sharing our cot was another rock enthusiast, a royal guard, and a hunter.

The geologist was a Quintaglio named Tor-Afdool. He was typical of his kind: an 8-foot tyrannosaur, covered in a soft green down, with pure black eyes. He was the only one who spoke Equestrian, and while he and Maud got along, they were polar opposites personality-wise.

Kik, the royal guard, wasn't even a native, but a Kothrah, a sapient dromaeosaur from Zebes. Covered in black feathers, he was stoic and quiet.

Finally, there was the Horib. Resembling a large upright lizard in a black leather jerkin, he kept to himself, hissing at anyone who approached him.

The Lemurians didn't make us do anything, simply keeping us in a large complex, guarded by creatures called Monseer Hounds. These "Hounds" were amphibians, looking like slimy, hairless dogs with the head of a snakehead fish. We were basically trapped, no way out. The walls were metal, meaning Maud's skill with rock was useless. They were too high for Ocean Wave to fly over, and the Lemurians had clipped Ditzy's primaries, leaving her grounded. To top it, the metal used was Maginite, commonly used in the magic-cancelling cuffs used by the Royal Guard.

As I said, trapped.

***

Days passed. We were in our quarters, and Afdool was talking about something.

"Why haven't we seen any actual Lemurians in here?" Ditzy suddenly blurted out.

Afdool absentmindedly waved his hand. "Because I'm in here. If I see one, I'll just slip into Dagamant."

Dagamant, I had gathered, was basically an instinctual rage felt by most Quintaglios.* It was territorial instinct amped up to 11. Any Quintaglio entered within 10 paces of another, and they became mindless animals bent on killing the intruder. Lemurians looked enough like them to trigger it even without "invading territory", so naturally the Lemurians wouldn't risk it.

I briefly wondered how everyone not aware of my situation was faring with my absence.

~

Princess Medusa had informed the Equestrian Diarchs, as well as the royalty of Concordia, of the failure of the archaeologists to reach her country many months ago. After much discussion, the combined Echidnaean and Concordian Royal Fleets had been dispatched to search for them.

Now, after having found and tracked the path, Captain Agrippa of Her Majesty Medusa's Royal Guard carefully led his squad through the jungle. The greying Cyclops surveyed the area around the river with his one eye. his goat-like horns glowed, and his sword slowly was slowly unsheathed. He began marching across the bridge.

~

We heard the fighting before we saw it. The sounds were horrifying, but finally I saw our saving angels.

Harpies from Echidna. Odd equines, with bird-like wings and pony heads, but no forelegs. They screeched as they dived at the Hounds, pummeling them with the hard hooves on their hind legs. However, it was no harpy that landed in front of us.

"Sorry we took so long," Firefly said. "Those Echidnaeans are really bad at directions."

Author's Note:

*Stemming from a now out-of practice religious ceremony. You see, a special order in the Quintaglio Priesthood are known as the "Halpataars", or "Bloodpriests". In order to prevent overpopulation, a Bloodpriest was assigned to devour seven out of every eight Quintaglio hatchlings a day after they hatch. The Bloodpriest first goes into a trance, then dons a purple robe and enters the nest; there, he chases the hatchlings and eats all but the fastest, strongest one.

Now, this had a semi-Freudian consequence. Imagine: you spend the first few days with your siblings, peaceful and calm. Then, the first time a stranger enters your territory, seven of you are eaten. Now, imagine this process happening over thousands of years, producing more aggressive offspring each generation.

When it was found the bloodpriests were the CAUSE of Quintaglio territoriality about 100 years ago, it was decided that, rather than hatchlings, seven of every eight eggs would be eaten. the "New Quintaglios" and their descendants are distinctly less territorial. Afdool happens to be of the older generation.

Comments

[ZeroChill]

Those Bloodpriests...

Also, intelligent T-Rexes

[Prince_Staghorn]

4859278 Eh, close enough.

fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/052/4/5/mlp__quintaglio_by_princestaghorn-d77gpiv.jpg

There's also an island variant

fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/079/8/5/mlp__island_quintaglio_by_princestaghorn-d7ay7f2.jpg