Chapter 125: Going to the south (1)
The wind was cold and menacing as fall came to an end. Leaves began to fall, signaling the beginning of winter.
‘It’s not bad,’ Joonbum thought as he rode through the forest on his Galim. Riding through the forest on horseback was very different from walking. The scouting had been pleasant until now. There were no signs of danger. There were only three of them, but there were five Guardians, not including Galfus who stayed to defend the town.
The birds began screeching at the sight of the strange visitors, but they hushed as the Guardians growled at them.
“Hah, what a bully.”
Joonbum spoke and Gazlow and Doral grinned. Heukgu came up to him. Joonbum’s Galim, Nite, flinched as the giant wolf closed in, but Heukgu did not care and rubbed his head against Joonbum.
“You like it?”
Heukgu growled as Joonbum rubbed his head and the other wolves came closer. Nite seemed to be disturbed by the pack of Guardians circling around them.
They soon stopped to camp near a pond. They began cooking up food, cleaned themselves, and replenished their water storage. The forest was still full of food.
“What is this fruit?”
Joonbum picked up a fruit and showed it to Doral.
“It’s Adraki.”
“It’s different.”
“Yeah, it’s good. It only grows in this part of the forest.”
It looked like a cucumber, but its color was a deep yellow with red stripes.
‘I guess I will never forget how it looks.’
The area was full of fascinating fruits and food. Joonbum remembered what was okay to eat and what was not.
“What is this?”
“That’s going to kill you.”
“This?”
“Stomach ache.”
“This?”
“I don’t know. Hm? Gazlow, do you know what this is?”
“No. Not sure.”
There were now foods that Gazlow and Doral did not recognize. The basket was now full of fruit that could not be identified.
“Take out everything that we can’t identify. They may be dangerous,” Gazlow warned, but Joonbum grinned as he took out something from his bag.
“What? What are you doing?”
“I’m doing the poison test,” Joonbum answered. He began to take out machineries and inspected each fruit. The machine beeped as it inspected each of the fruits or mushrooms.
“This looks good to eat. It has high sugar content. Close to an orange.”
Joonbum started cleaning up as he took a picture of each of the fruits and mushrooms. There was a number of foods that did not include poison based on the testing.
“These don’t have any poison, but we shouldn’t eat them yet. I should do some testing first. We should try it on animals before eating.”
Joonbum was fascinated with finding new things.
“Good job. Come eat!” Gazlow and Doral shouted as they finished cooking.
“It’s really oily.”
Joonbum spoke as he picked up a skewer of lizard meat. They burned a lot of calories as they traveled all day, so they all craved meat. Lizard was best as it was abundant in numbers. The porridge made from mushroom and vegetables was consumed in instant. They finished eating with beer and the Guardians who disappeared through the forest came back after having their fill.
It was after a month of heading south when everything began to change. The south seemed to be much warmer, but the dark atmosphere was everywhere. Danger lurked around and the Guardians seemed to grow tense as they became alert. Deluga, Galfus’ husband, growled from the front. The others sniffed, then began growling at once, signaling that something was ahead.
“It’s a Krakul…” Gazlow spoke quietly as he discovered the footprint on the ground. Doral took up a bow and glanced around.
‘Krakul… it’s the dinosaurs!’
Joonbum remembered what Doral taught him. It was the name they used to call dinosaur-looking creatures in the south. It was the reason why they did not travel down to the south. The south was full of such dinosaurs.
‘Already? I thought we were about a month away?’
Joonbum volunteered to scout to look at these dinosaurs, but their presence wasn’t welcome.
“It’s a carnivore,” Doral mentioned as he pointed at the feces to the side. There were undigested bones and furs mixed in the feces. It looked dry from being left here for some time.
“I thought we still had a long way to go?” Joonbum asked.
Gazlow and Doral nodded as they grew concerned.
“Yeah. Looks they were driven out by something. We should further ahead. Let’s go.”
Gazlow shouted and the Guardians began to move forward. The sound of a Krakul screeching from the distance was heard. The Guardians pricked their ears. Meanwhile, Gazlow and Doral looked like they were bothered by the sound. Joonbum, however, wanted to take a look at them in person. They moved on and found more Krakul tracks. After some time, a foul stench pierced their noses.
‘Something’s rotten.’
It was a smell of rotting flesh. It filled the surrounding atmosphere and they reached the source not long after. There were tens of dead Boduas, rotting away after being eaten. It seemed they were left there for a few days as the rotting corpses were now filled with all kinds of bugs and maggots.
“Coulder.”
Gazlow pointed at the tracks and Doral frowned.
‘Coulder?’
Joonbum thought of the dinosaur named the velociraptor on Earth. The Coulder, however, was different as it had bat-like wings instead of arms. They were notorious for forming packs of tens and they hunted cleverly. The animal used its wings to change its running direction rapidly and soared through short distances in the air at its prey. It even used its wings to propel itself faster through the forest.
‘I heard they have a resistance against the poisons.’
The Krakuls had thick outer skin coating that made it hard to hunt them down with arrows. It also made their poisons work slower.
“There are too many.”
Gazlow and Doral spoke as they came back from searching through the tracks.
“Is it serious?”
Doral solemnly said, “There should be at least fifty of them around.”
Joonbum frowned at the thought of fifty Coulders which were at least nine feet tall.
‘Fifty of such dinosaurs?’
“I think it has a leader too,” Gazlow said as he pointed to the pile of Bodua corpses. Much thicker bones lying around in lying in the middle of the pile.
“Krakul bones!”
Bones of another Krakul. It only meant one thing.
‘It was hunted down with the Boduas.’
The skull looked as big as a pick-up truck. It was easy to imagine how big it might’ve been.
“They run away if they think it’s dangerous. Killing it means that their leader forced them to hunt it down.”
Coulder bones were lying around the area too.
