Lyra's Voyages 2: On Strange Tides

by Prince_Staghorn

The Mines, the Mahars, and the Morulak

Day 8...

Being put to work in the mines wasn't easy. Nor was the knowledge that in three days I'd be fighting for my life in an arena. Frankly, this sucked.

The mines were well lit with a mix of torches and sunstones, which helped keep some of the more dangerous predators away due to the light, though there were still the bugs, among other things.

Said "other things" were explained to us via pictures. Giant flesh eating worms, leeches as big as dogs, a crab-shrimp-thing with two brains called a Deodath, and something called a Zemadar.

We worked tirelessly. Maud did the best, thanks to her rock-farming background, not even needing a pickaxe, simply using her hooves to smash the rock.

At the end of our first shift, we were allowed to walk around, escorted by two Morulaks, Paj and Ghak.

I was able to find out a lot about the Mahar culture on what breaks we were allowed. The Mahars believed they were not from "this World" in a technical sense. Instead, they believed they came from "the world below", a massive place they called Pellucidar. They said the sun always stayed in one spot there, and landmasses and bodies of water were reversed there, making it, in a sense, larger than this world.

Of course, I had heard ponies who believed in the so-called "Hollow World" theory, and some eccentrics who even claimed to have gone there and brough back proof. Said "proof" was always the dung, tooth, or claw of a known saurian species. The fact the Mahars believed it gave no credence, and was probably nothing more than a relict creation myth.

Mahar society was ruled by the females. I only saw one male, a massive white creature who spoke in broken telepathy and seemed to have trouble with pronouns. Browsing their libraries, I found the ancient Mahars had selectively bred themselves for large, stupid males and smaller, more intelligent females. The males were kept as basically genetic "livestock", more or less only useful for supplying the material the females needed to produce eggs. Males weren't even given the same name as the females. The females were called "Mahar" whereas the males were called "Mazak". It went even further in that the single male I met was simply referred to as "Male 12235", as opposed to our prosecutor, the female Sol-ta-to.

Mahars could live for centuries, but spent up to three days sleeping at a time.

The Morulaks were more difficult to figure out. Whereas I had met Mahars outside Lemuria and learned their written language there, in addition to there being no spoken language barrier, I had to start from scratch for the Morulaks.

However, their language was clearly derived directly from Ancient Equine, giving me a slow understanding as the days went.

***

Day 11...

I had been making slow progress on figuring out our blood-sucking captors. Paj and Ghak had become less like jailers and more like babysitters over their time with us, and had helped us in learning the language. Ditzy picked up on it the fastest, and acted as a translator.

The Morulak's ancestors were Mesohippus who had been brought to Lemuria as slaves for the Lemurians. Some of these slaves had been bred into the Morulak in order to keep non-altered slaves in line. However, when the slaves overthrew the Lemurians, the Morulak fled into the caves, forming their own society, waiting out the time as the Mesohippus became extinct due to various civil wars. Paj explained this was the story, and though his kin were long-lived, no Morulak alive today was alive when this happened.

Each Morulak "Colony" consisted of three castes: Breeders, Colony Guards, and Hunters. Paj and Ghak were Hunters who had been caught by the Mahars, and were basically only higher-ranking slaves than me and my companions.

Breeders, Paj explained, were tall females who were doted on by the entire Colony, and had the easiest life, breeding with whatever lucky stallions they wanted and getting the first choice on every kill. Other mares within the Colony were allowed to breed, but it was uncommon. Colony Guards were bulky stallions who stayed around the Breeders, protecting them from any threats. Ghak also said they were horribly stupid and uptight. Hunters made up the majority of the Colony, and went out to gather food every night.

When a Colony became too large, it split, with several female hunters becoming the Breeders of the new Colony. The new Colony would often keep an alliance with the old one, and would come to their aid should they fall under attack.

The Morulak worshipped the stars, seeing them as the campfires of all who had gone before them. Though the Morulak did not cook their food, they used fire for warmth.

That was the start and finish of Morulak culture. They had nothing more to say.

We enter the arena to fight for our freedom today. As we were led away, though, Paj and Ghak looked regretful.