Rhinons. 22

With Domina safe and Goren sworn in as their new chief, there was only one thing left for Astan to do. It was time he said Myumbo and found Sakura and got back home were they would both be safe. At least that was what he thought at that moment. Be he was forgetting something. For just that moment he had forgotten the person who had started all this war, to begin with. Somewhere out there Mulu Amin was still piloting some way to bring both the Pantherans and the Tigars down.
As Astan looked around he smiled at the Gorillas they were celebrating all around him. The fruit had been gathered and wine was poured. The whole city was bright with the lights of celebration. There had been speeches made by the elders and the leaders of many other clans. Grey and mountain gorillas attended the festival along with the Orangutans of the south and three Human villages from the north. Everyone came to celebrate the downfall of Igoro and the new Chieftain Goren.
As Astan lifted a glass of wine in salute, Goren came over and sat down beside him. He had the face of fear on him. It was all the thanks the people had heaped on him.
"You look worried my friend." Astan pushed a glass of wine into his hand. "The time for worrying is behind you. Igoro is gone and you are the new chief who is going to lead his people into a bright new future."
"I never really thought about what would happen after my father was defeated." Goren said with a nervous look, "I never planned to take the leadership myself."
"Then who did you propose to be the leader? No one has done anything like you did. You deserve the position. The people will  look to you for what they should do."
"And want about you?" Goren said. "What are you going to do? I could use your help here."
"Oh no!" Astan smiled waving the thought off. "I have to go home. I have to find Sakura. He must be worried sick about me."
"Alone?" Goren said. "You can't go alone. The jungle is a very dangerous place.
"He won't be alone." Palas said as he dropped down out of the sky. "I will be at his side."
"So will I." Nyo said as he placed his pack down. "Igoro killed my family. I have nothing holding me here. Nothing but sorrow and memories. It is time I got to see the world."
Goren had thought about it for a minute. The idea of roaming the jungle and the savanna was inciting.  There was still a lot of Aspana that hadn't been mapped yet and he did still feel the urge to be out with his friends exploring. But that would leave Domina without a leader and that could be trouble. It was up to him to steer them in the right direction away from slavery. Now without Igoro, this Domina was moving away from trouble to a more honorable life.
"You all be careful, all of you." Goren shook all of their hands and hugged Nyo. "If you need us, call me. I am forever indebted to you. I will hear you and hurry to your side."
As the walked out of Domina's gates, Nyo turned to Astan with a question.
"Do you know where your mate is?"
"Not at the moment." Astan said with a smile. "But don't worry, I will find him. Or he will find us I should say."

As day turned into night, Mulu Amin stepped out of the shadows outside of Domina's gate. He had seen Igoro's battle with his son Goren. He thought Goren should have been an easy victory. Igoro knew spells more advanced than anything a novice like Goren should be able to stand up to. He didn't understand how Goren had beaten him.
[It does not matter.] Said a deep voice in the Demonic hyena's head. [All will be set right very soon. Igoro and his son will meet again. The end of that battle will be much more to our liking. I want you to go north spreading your demon seed all over Aspana. Let them know that Xuthulu is coming.]
A flash of lightning ripped through the night sky as Xuthulu barked our a maniac fiendish cackle of a laugh. Mulu smiled as one hundred different possible ways to rip Xuthulu's power from him ran through his mind.
"My day will come." Mulu sneered. "And I will be ready."
With a flourish of his cape, Mulu disappeared in a cloud of dark smoke. and a horrible smell.

As Sakura slept, his mind ran through the endless miles of empty dreams. First, he was back at home in Atrua watching a parade from one of the balcony's of the royal palace, then he found himself running through the jungle screaming for Astan. He searched from Atrua down through the savanna, and up into the jungle outside of the Tigaress walls. Sometimes he saw a shadow that resembled Astan, and sometimes he heard his voice calling from somewhere out beyond sight.
His mind started to twist and turned. He saw a vision of his father trapped in some pit while Demon dogs teased him with short bursts of power that burned deeply as he tried to limp away. In his mind, he heard him calling for him.
[Sakura!!!]
[Where are you father? I will come and help you get free.]
[Find Aggar and Akani. They will lead you to me.]
[Who?] Sakura said confused, [Who are there? Where are they?]
[Friends my son.] Msia said weakly. [Find them and they will bring you to me, but you have to hurry Sakura. Time is running out for us. Aspana is soon to become very dark, If we want to stop it we must hurry.]
[I will find you, father, Hold on and have faith. I will find you.]
As Sakura sat up, he looked around the campsite to see Deja busy on watch sharping her knifes. Dar'yl was snoring off to the side, while Sky and Quynn lay quieting wrapped if each's arms. Quietly Sakura threw the blankets off and picked himself up off the ground. Last night they had no direction.
They were on course to find Astan, but somehow they had been turned around. Sakura could feel his mate out there waiting for him but something had turned them in another direction. I wasn't long before Dar'yl woke up and came over to join Sakura.
"We're heading south again." He said. "Where are we going? Astan and the Gorilla city is west of here."
"Yes." Sakura said with a strange look in his eyes. "I know. But there's something else we have to do."
"There's something more important than Astan?"
"Not something." Sakura said as he threw his pack over his shoulder. "Someone. I know you're going to think I'm crazy, but I think my father is out there being held captive."
"Msia?" Dar'yl said surprised. "It's not possible. He's been gone twenty seasons. If he was alive, he would have come home."
"Not if he was being held to weak to even move." Sakura turned to face Dar'yl. "I know what you're thinking. But I felt his call. It was the same as when I was a cub and he wanted to speak with me privately. It was him Dar'yl. I felt him."
Dar'yl looked into Sakura's eyes where he saw the truth coming from his heart. With a smile, Dar'yl had one more question.
"Which way do we go?"

As day turned into night, and night into day, a dread sorrow spread all through Aspana. Demondogs ran wild attacking everything that moved. Elephants were captured and taken to Mancoro where they were branded and kissed by the darkness that is Xuthulu. Their bodies were changed, corrupted and molded into something dark that Xuthulu could control.They retained their massive form but Xuthulu made their thick skin into armored plating. Their ears and trunk were fashioned into a mass of tentacles and stingers that hung down and stabbed out at their victims. Their body was made slender so they ran and hunted easier. The only thing that did not change was their tusk though they did seem sharper and more deadly. Standing at their side was the brown elephants. Almost completely overwhelmed by what he had seen stood Tyrax Greyside, the elder son of Tyrox of the southern Rhinon tribe.
After hearing his fathers call to arms, Tyrax gathered warriors and weapons and hurried out into the jungle to give aid to as many of his people as they could find. Armed with heavy clubs and enough ammo to drive the Demondogs all the way back to Mancoro, Tyrax ordered his warriors armed themselves for a very long fight quietly spread out through the thinning jungle. As the Demondogs slowly came bounding out chasing the Rynon young, Tyrax and his warriors attacked. The physical force did nothing in battle, the explosive pellets that shot from their horns did. Dropping their clubs, Tyrax grabbed his sword and ordered the young to keep them supplied as he waded into battle.
The first Demondog had red eyes and smoke steaming out as he huff and puffed toward Tyrax. With a sneer it screamed out as it advanced on the Rhinons. Tyrax pounded his chest and sent five stones at the Demondog. As the stones hit him he screamed out in pain.
"How dare you strike out at one of Xuthlulu's holy one's!!" The dog yelled at them.
"You can call yourself anything you want." Tyrax raised his sword and readied himself for the attack. "As far as I am concerned you are nothing but Mulu's lapdog. Come, attack me if you dare!"
With a howl, the demon leaped out to swat Tyrax down. Spinning on his heel, Tyrax came in with his first sword. He jabbed and hacked at the enormous beast cutting into his chest and his arms With a loud scream, Tyrax dived in and leaped on the Demondogs back. With his short sword, he stabbed down again and again. As he stood over the bleeding Demon, two more came rushing in at them. With a great huff, he sent a volley of stones at the Demons. One by after the other the Rhinons little sparkling stones streaked through the air and slammed into the Demondogs. Clubs had been useless against their Demonic, they just glanced off but the blaststones were completely different. There was something in them that was deadly to the Demondogs. Spit, Rhinon gases, or maybe their DNA.
With a refill of stones, Tyrax and his warriors shifted to full Rhinon form and charged at the Demondogs. Tyrax stabbed a demon in its chest, then tossed it away as he charged at the next one. Laughing hysterically, Tyrax charged blasting that moved. Two Demons fell as he turned to find a new advisory. As one of the little's ones poured the remains of a bag of down his gullet, four Demons appeared in front of them. They each grabbed one of the young and held them out in front of them with sharp claws at their neck.
"Drop your weapons or they die!" Tyrax shifts back to his human form and throws his swords down.
"Our weapons are down." Tyrax snarled. "Please let them go."
"See this is why you will fail." The Demon laughed. "You care about these, these worms.  You take no joy in killing."
The Demon walked closer dragging the crying Rhinon behind him.
"This thing means nothing to me." The Demon held it as it started to squeeze. The young Rynon's eyes bulged as it tried to get its breath. It kicked and it beat at the hand that held. "I learned my lesson well, and so will you. Soon you will be as bloodthirsty as I am,"
Tyrax watched as the boy died right in front of him. His small group was surrounded how so there was nothing he could do. But they weren't dead yet. One day Mulu or whoever this Xuthlu is, they will slip and there will be a minute where Tyrax will have his chance and he would be ready.

"You may subvert my mind until there's not much left of me, but there is something you should know. I will never be anything like you. Should I tell you why,"

The Demon snapped the boy's body in two and tossed it down at Tyrax feet. The anger at what he had witnessed in the past few days had his brain pulsing like an erupting volcano. Smoke and steamrolled down off his face. Tyrax had felt this feeling once before. It had been three years ago during a squeamish the Rhinons were having with a fleet of Orcs from the north. The Orcs he slipped in five ships at a time during the wild moon season that affected all Aspanins like a wild rage spreading through their blood.
"Yes, brave one." The Demon laughed. "Tell me what makes you so special."
"I have honor." Tyrax said as sparks started to spark from Tyrax eyes. "You kill for and pleasure. You love the blood and gore of battle. We Rhinons only kill in self-defense, or for love and to protect or revenge."
"And exactly what is that suppose to mean?" The Demon asked.
"It means I will do anything to free my people. Even if it means my life."
That was the last thing Tyrax said before he set off the last weapon he had that exploded are in the demons face. Standing off to the side, Xuthlu watched as the demons died. He walked out to where Tyrax and kicked him over. He was still breathing with smoke froing from his nose and mouth.
"Sleep well." Xuthlu said, "When you woke. I will make you the master of my horde.