Chapter 53 –  Yer'Zhul's Decision

Upon seeing Yer'Zhul, the Gredidine lowered their heads and spears, stepping to the side to make room for Yer'Zhul and his honorguard to enter. Yer'Zhul inclined his head slightly in greeting, walking slowly into the passageway, followed by his honorguard As they made their way down the dark corridor, the sounds of rumbling could be heard behind them, as the passageway closed up, As the passageway closed, Yer'Zhul and his honorguard stopped, closing their eyes for a minute. After they opened them, they remained motionless for another minute, giving their eyes time to adjust to the dark corridors, then started moving forwards.

They spent five minutes walking through the winding corridors, and as they reached the end of the passageway, a yellow tint of light started to fill the tunnel, and the sound of hissing, snarling and grunts filled the air. As they closed in on the end of the tunnel, the noise started to lower, before dying, and the light got brighter.

They entered a large cavern where Gredidine sat throughout the cavern on smooth stones, that were positioned on on either side of a long, smooth, rectangular rocks throughout the cavern. The Gredidine looked towards them as they entered, and lowered their heads towards Yer'Zhul. Yer'Zhul inclined his head, looking over the Gredidine in the cavern, before calling one out.

"Dur'Rar, come with me."

A Gredidine with dark green scales stood up from the makeshift table and made her way over to Yer'Zhul, as Yer'Zhul flanked by his honorguard started walking towards one of the exits in the cavern. The sounds of the Gredidine behind them started to drift in the tunnel as they walked in silence. Eventually, after a minute, Yer'Zhul spoke.

"The human, how is it faring?"

Dur'Rar lowered her head. "I have not managed to break her yet, Warprince. I was planning to leave her alone in the dark cave for a few days."

Yer'Zhul nodded his head. Eventually, after taking a few branches in the dark passageway, they stood before a rock wall at the end of the passageway. Dur'Rar stood in front of the rock wall, and concentrated, holding up her palm towards the wall, and a brown light coated her body.

The wall started rumbling, then the rock wall split in half, moving to either side, to reveal the a small, dark cavern. Lying on the ground listlessly on her side was a petite female and a tattered black shirt and pants, with her mattered and tangled blonde hair lying on the ground. Yer'Zhul observed her carefully as he walked into the cave by himself, thinking carefully about what to do with her.

The Highest Warprince had ordered him to kill this human. His reason for killing her were valid too....but what then? All that was left was to continually cower in the caverns, hoping they would be forgotten. This wouldn't end once the humans lost interest or the portal closed too. No, this would last for centuries. The other three evolved races on the continent had turned on them, and Yer'Zhul was certain that they would want to ensure the Gredidine would remain suppressed or even exterminate them. It was already a blessing of Uarok that the powerhouses of those races weren't going over the continent thoroughly, trying to find any traces of the Gredidine. That they hadn't, so far, made a move, didn't mean they wouldn't eventually, and the Gredidine were vulnerable. There was only three Gredidine left that could be considered powerhouses, and they were badly outnumbered.

Yer'Zhul felt a shiver of fear run through him as he ended on that thought. Any single one of the three evolved races native to this continent could end their race at any time, if they were to be discovered. The Gredidine couldn't rely on races that had turned on them to spare them either. Something had to be done, to distract or weaken the other three races and the humans. Yet they couldn't do anything openly, for fear of drawing the attention and ire of those races, and possibly causing there powerhouses to take action.

The women on the ground stirred, and started shivering slightly. Yer'Zhul's jaw tensed as he came to a decision.

"Yara, let us discuss a deal."

>>>>>

Ten minutes later, Yer'Zhul walked out of the cave. He inclined his head towards Dur'Rar.

"I want you to bring a table, chair, some light and some food in the cave. Do not harm her any further, unless in self defense. And keep the cave closed and watched at all times until instructed further."

Dur'rar's scales flashed grey before she bowed her head. "...Yes, Warprince."

Yer'Zhul walked down the passageway flanked by his honorguard, following a couple of the forks before entering a small cave, with a yellow orb hanging on the top corner of the cave, radiating everything in a yellow light. Inside, there was a couple of slabs of stone placed around the cave, functioning as primitive makeshift stone benches and stone stone stools. Various weaponry littered the cave, along with books, and a couple of balls with a silver haze filling it, with white specks.

Yer'Zhul sat at a stone bench with a book open, and a as he sat, he noticed his two honorguard, Jur'Jar and Tur'Jar's scales were grey.

"Jur'Jar, Tur'Jar, what confuses you?"

Jur'Jar hesitated, and Tur'Jar took a breath before speaking.

"Forgive me, Warprince, but regarding the human, why....."

"Why is she still alive, and now treated better?"

"...Yes."

"Because I want to make a deal with her. I need her to establish contact with her faction of humans for me. "

"....Are you planning to disobey the Highest Warprince and spare her?"

Yer'Zhul smiled, exposing his pointed teeth. "Of course not. That human must want nothing more then to tear me apart personally, and she knows that I am a Warprince. Once I no longer need her to establish communication with her faction, she will die."

>>>>.>

Jamie kept his eyes trained ahead, ignoring the talk between going on around him. It had been fifteen minutes since they sat out from the truck, and they left shortly after Taylor summoned her Four Ear Deer to look after the fawn. However, the occupants of the other truck ended up tagging along, claiming that they were after the Red Mole as well.

All around him, all he could see was the alien buildings that were spread out, and the brown footpaths. He could see nothing that would make him think some moles, or any creature, lived around him. He did, however, spot the occasionally humans walking around, taking pictures of the housing, and the heat, which only seemed to increase as they slowly approached the center of the city..

"You should see my Four Horn Buffalo in action. It can create a stone wall, and it can use it to block or slam into the opponent, smashing apart anything the same stage as it."

Jamie jaw tensed, and he tried to ignore that drawling voice that kept going on and on. Since they had started walking together, the teenager, Roy, kept going on and on about how awesome his Beast was to him and Emily. If that was it, fine. What made the whole process worse was....

"I bet it can stomp your wolf into the dirt. Don't be a p*ssy, lets have them fight."

That he kept trying to challenge Jamie to a fight with his beast.

"No thanks, I'm not interested."

"Don't be a coward. What's the point of bonding beasts if you don't use them to fight whenever you can?"

Jamie rolled his eyes, and could not resist his urge to answer back. He turned his gaze to his left, where Emily was walking besides him and next to her, was Roy.

"I'll pass. I don't need to use my beasts to satisfy my ego."

Emily let out a small giggle, before she raised her hand to cover her mouth, and Roy's face flushed red.

"Your just afraid of losing."

Jamie shook his head. "To you? No. I just don't need to recklessly throw my bonded beasts into fights to validate my own self worth."

Roy's fists clenched, and his muscles tightened. Jamie chuckled and looked forwards, at the looming building ahead of him drawing closer.

"What do you mean recklessly? As a Beastamer and Batttlepet Master Trainee, surely you expect the beasts you tame to fight, right?"

Jamie turned his gaze forwards, to look at Vincent, who was observing him curiously.

"I do."

"So why avoid the challenge with Roy?"

"Because it is pointless."

"How so? Your beasts can experience a fight. You can consider it training for them."

Jamie shook his head.

"I don't get any worthwhile training for my beasts, since a one versus one is not the same as a real life and death struggle. All I do is throw them into a situation where they can get needlessly harmed."