Chapter 48 – Gathering of the Warprinces

Deep in the underground tunnels, stomps rang out as three creatures ran through the narrow area, one in front, two behind, in the pitch black dark. The creature were all three meters tall, with a humanoid figure, covered with glistening, green scales. It had spikes jutting up from the back of it's arms, a crocodile like head, and a large tail. They each had a single, horn on the top of it's head, the one's behind had black horns, and the one leading them had a glistening red horn.

As they approached the end of the tunnel, yellow light could be seen at the end, lighting up the dark brown tunnel they were running on. Eventually, they got to the end of the tunnel, reaching the end, and entering a large, spacious, cavern saturated in yellow light where a large black pyramid structure with glistening silver lights was sitting in the middle of the massive cavern. The temple had a long staircase at the front of the temple, leading halfway up the structure, to the single entrance it possessed.

Crowded around the temple, rudimentary, makeshift shelters made of stone were erected around the large temple, and hordes of Gredidine were crowded around outside. The sounds of snarling, hissing, grunts and the occasional screams filled the air as the Gredidine went about their business, some gathering energy, some engaging in mock battles, and some eating creatures captured from outside and looking after the young.

The trio slowed down, looking around at the sight, their eyes growing slightly misty at the sight. Steeling himself, the one in the lead with the red horn let out a mixture of grunts and hisses, his green scales flickering to a black color, before switching to green. The two Gredidine with black horns collected themselves, and the three walked towards the stairs of the temple.

As they approached the temple in the middle, they could not help but look around seeing the Gredidine all around them. Noticing their approach, Gredidine started pointing and bowing to the Gredidine with the red horn as he led the trio to the Temple.

Standing at the stairs, there were two Gredidine dressed in glistening black plain leather, covering their legs and chest. The leg piece had a hole at their back for their tails to poke through, and the leather piece covering their chest had no sleeves, leaving their arms free. At the center of the chest piece, had a head of a stag like creature, with black fur, and silver antlers, and silver, plain orbs, that seemed to look right into anyone who looked at them. The Gredidine had plain brown, scaled gauntlets on each hand, and had plain brown gauntlets on their hands, and upon seeing the trio approach, they tilted their large heads downwards, holding the posture for a brief second, before their heads lifted. Once the trio reached the stairs of the temple, one of them spoke.

"Warprince, you have been summoned and permitted entry to the temple, but your honorguard has not."

The Gredidine with the red horn snarled. "Honorguard have always been permitted to walk with Warprince's wherever they go."

"Forgive me, Warprince Yer'Zhul, but these are my orders from the Highest Warprince, Der'Kar."

Yer'Zhul snarled, his scales turning red, taking a step forward and glaring at the guard who had spoken. The guard lowered his head slightly, but maintained contact. After a tense few seconds had passed, Yer'Zhul's scales turned back to there green color and he took a step back. Yer'Zhul tilted his head.

"Fine. Jur'Jar, Tur'Jar, remain here."

The two Gredidine behind Yer'Zhul lowered their heads in acknowledgment. Yer'Zhul started walking up the stairs, unimpeded by the guards.

Once he reached the top, he entered the arch door to the temple. Inside, was a spacious, plain, hall, with a pristine, gray floor and yellow lanterns on the side, and in the middle, near another door, was a large figure of a stag in bronze, standing tall on four legs, with it's eyes looking towards the entrance of the hall. It had a spotted coat, and had one horn on it's head, prodding up from it's head close to it's two antlers, and a small horn prodding out of the side of each of it's legs.

Yer'Zhul walked up to the statue of the Uarok, and he knelt at it's feet for one minute, tapping his claw at each thirty second interval on the pavement lightly, before he got up, heading for the entrance behind the statue of the Uarok.

Yer'Zhul followed the black passageway with silver spots down it's winding corridors, ignoring the branches, until he reached the end. Taking a deep breath at the silver door at the end, he opened it, and walked inside.

Inside, was a spacious black hall illuminated with silver, with a circular black stage in the middle, with a circular crisscrossing pattern in silver, standing out on the black floor. Spread on the stage, were five large silver podiums, with three of the podiums having Gredidine standing behind them. Yer'Zhul hastily made his way over to one of the empty podiums.

"Since all the Warprinces are here, let us begin."

"There is still one Warprince missing."

The one who had spoken, with a grey horn on his head, turned his black orbs to gaze at Yer'Zhul. "There is not. There is simply no other Gredidine at a high enough stage left to take the vacant position."

A hiss broke out from Yer'Zhul and one of the other Gredidine. "One human Battlepet Master managed to kill 18 War Marshals?"

The grey horned Gredidine shook it's head. "No, Len'Zar, she did not. Not by herself, despite what some humans think. From what I was able to find out afterwards, the Kretret, Goxuboon, and Sherot helped provide the location of our stage 8 and above members, and even took action to kill some of them themselves. They even helped cover up some of our War Marshals deaths afterwards, and promised support against the humans, giving my predecessor the confidence to have the frontal, decisive clash, that cost him his life."

Snarling broke through the air. Yer'Zhul scales turning red, and his tail lashed out against the floor. "HOW DARE THEY! They should....."

The Gredidine with the grey horn let out a harsh guttural laugh, that exposed it's razor sharp fangs, interrupting Yer'Zhul's rant. He turned his gaze towards Yer'Zhul when he finished, eyeing Yer'Zhul scornfully.

"Why wouldn't they dare to? Those Gredidne they killed were stationed around their races specifically to watch those races, and install fear in them. We have been pressing them too hard in the last fifty years. We have forcibly snatched land. We have made up offenses just to give a false justification to attack prominent members of their races. We even attacked the Sherot's High Priestess, simply for disagreeing with us, in an open manner. That they bit back when given the chance is to be expected."

"He attacked her to keep everyone on this continent in line. Her arguments were convincing Gredidine and non Gredidine alike not to invade the lands past the portal....."

"For good reason. Look at the pathetic state of our race now, if only more had listened. And all his action against the Sherot High Priestess did was give them the resolution to attack our race, helping to drive us to this state where we have to cower underground."

Yer'Zhul tail slammed into the floor, and he snarled. "Those cowards would never have dared turn against us if that human.... "

They grey horn Gredidine shook his head. "We ruled through fear and power, forcibly taking from them and ignoring their objections, refusing to compromise. Even without the human's intervention, they would have lashed out against us if things had continued, although we would have been able to quell it. My predecessors strong arming, warmongering and legacy chasing habits have cost our race dearly."

"DER'KAR, DO NOT INSULT MY FATHERS WORK. THE GREDIDINE WERE UNMATCHED THROUGHOUT THE YEARS OF HIS LEADERSHIP!"

"You are acting like a simple minded child, enthralled by an illusion. Humiliating and strong arming the other races on this continent might look impressive, but what we did greatly pissed them off, forcing us to keep powerful Gredidine nearby to keep them in line. Once you put your foot claw on someone's neck, forcing them to kiss the dirt, you need to maintain the pressure and keep it there, because no one wants to be in that position. Starting a war with the humans while putting ourselves in such a position over the other races on this continent was a stupid thing to do."

Yer'Zhul glared at Der'Kar. "He did it to expand our races lands, to give our race more fertile grounds to....."

Der'Kar started laughing. "Don't be a child. He did it because he sought more glory and power for himself, nothing more. He wanted to enter Hanet, and grab the Everstone he kept muttering about for himself. He wanted to enter the annuals of our races history, as the Gredidine who led us to conquer another planet. And he picked an opponent we could not afford to provoke to do it while we were not in any position to do so."

"How was he to know that a human would be that strong? The cowards remained on the other side of the portal, doing nothing until we attacked."

"Prudence, not cowardice. Only a fool would provoke everyone around them blindly. It's a pity that we had such a fool leading us until now. Now, we need to think about how to get us out of this mess, which is why I have summoned you all here today. Our immediate concern is to stop the humans from swarming our land above ground. We need the creatures above ground that they are slaughtering and capturing to feed our race, and we need to help the members of the Gredidine that remain above ground."