Chapter 126: Going to the south (2)
Doral and Gazlow, who were troubled by the findings, spoke to Joonbum.
“It happened a long time ago. Do you remember that the elders were concerned?”
Joonbum nodded.
“It looks like there is a leader among the Coulders.”
They began finding more evidence of the presence of a leader amongst the Coulders as they traveled deeper south. But it was impossible to actually track the Coulder down. There were traces of hunted Boduas as the Coulder pack looked like it was traveling further south, following the Boduas.
They sped up their pace to catch up to migrating Boduas and it was in the second month where they finally found the Coulder pack. Gazlow was the first to notice. Joonbum took out his binoculars as Gazlow pointed them out silently and he finally took a look at the elusive monster.
It looked very similar to the velociraptor, but it had a pointy head and there it had two folded wings at the side. The weird crying sound from the Coulder could be heard as they closed in. It had reptile-like skin and the smell was awful.
“They just finished hunting.”
Gazlow pointed to the forest. There were two dead Boduas being eaten by the pack of Coulders.
“It’s him,” Doral whispered. There was huge head poking out from the bushes that made all Coulders back away. It was twice the size of a regular Coulder. All other Coulders backed away from the meat and let it eat the meat first.
‘Are they here in search of food?’ Joonbum thought as he watched the leader of the Coulders.
‘It’s at least fifteen feet tall. That’s more like the size of a T-rex.’
It was huge. It didn’t look like one to be driven out from its habitat. At the sound of another screech, about fifty Coulders moved into the forest. After their disappearance, small animals and monsters began to gather to feast on the leftovers.
At that moment, Deluga growled at the side of the forest and the other Guardians growled. A head popped out of the bush.
“Wow!”
Joonbum let out a gasp of astonishment. It was a beautiful Guardian with silver fur. It walked toward them, casually wagging its tail.
The four Guardians walked up to it, wagging their tails. Deluga also seemed to be happy. Then there were more Guardians. After they all came out from the forest, there was a total of fourteen Guardians. Four of them seemed older and stronger and six of them seemed to be the same age as Galfus. The other four were young like Heukgu.
A brown female Guardian who looked to be the oldest walked up to Gazlow, Doral, and Joonbum, circling and sniffing them. It was an eighteen-foot-long giant wolf sniffing a small human, but neither the Ainos nor Joonbum were afraid. Joonbum began petting them as the Guardians walked up to them. After they moved down, more Guardians joined them. They now had 164 Guardians with them. Two and a half months later, they arrived at a great plain.
There were many animals moving about in packs. It was full of animal grazing and hunting.
“Wow…”
Joonbum could not express his feelings with words. The plain he hunted the Boduas on was miniature compared to this. Thirty-foot-tall dinosaurs roamed the field and the other dinosaurs were hunting.
Gazlow frowned, “It’s a problem.”
“Yeah. There’s too many of them,” Doral answered. Joonbum came back to his senses because of their comments. He began to observe the plain with his binoculars and began looking at details.
‘There really is a lot.’
There were too many carnivores hunting the herbivores on the plain. If this continued throughout the winter, it would definitely cause a problem. On one side, there was a group of Keroxes hunting down tens of cows and other herbivores. There were also cat-like predators hunting the Keroxes as they lost their prey to them.
The most vicious ones were the Coulders. Hundreds of Coulders roamed the plain, circling hundreds of deer at once, creating a massacre. All the herbivores ran away at the sight of the Coulders and it seemed like other predators were trying to avoid getting close to the Coulders.
‘As I thought…’
Joonbum looked at the giant, gray Coulder through his binoculars.
‘He’s like a master.’
It was ordering the other Coulders. At that moment, a loud roar came from the side. Coulder packs flinched and turned to the sound where there were three giant Krakuls, about the size of T-rexes, walking toward the Coulders.
“Whoa.”
The Coulders must’ve run under normal circumstances, but they did not run away this time. The three giant Krakuls seemed to notice this strangeness and they began to hesitate. At that moment, the gray Coulder let out a screech, signaling all the Coulders to get ready for an attack. The giant Krakuls also roared, threatening them. It seemed like the fight was imminent, but the giant Krakuls backed away at last.
“Hah.”
Joonbum felt his tension falter just by watching.
“WHAT.”
Joonbum, who was watching the Coulders, found a gigantic Krakul standing next to trees in the distance.
‘How big is that thing?’
There was a gigantic dinosaur that looked to be taller than sixty feet. It was not just one. There were tens of them coming out of the forest. It let out a small cry and its babies moved in a circle. The other giant herbivores joined as they moved toward one direction.
“It’s a lake!”
There was a huge lake at end of the plain. It was larger than any lake Joonbum had ever seen. He could not see the end of the lake even with his binoculars.
The Guardians began to move. More Guardians throughout the plain gathered as they howled at each other. Hundreds of Guardians gathered, greeting one another in low growls.
“They found their mates,” Doral commented, and Joonbum nodded. Heukgu and Urlook darted off to the pack. There were males from the newly-appeared pack closing on Baekgu and Gumdong.
“There are too many carnivores.”
Gazlow talked as he counted the number of carnivores in the area.
“Is it?”
“If we can count this much in plain sight, there should be multiples of them in hiding.”
Doral explained, “It will spell disaster for the southern kingdoms outside the forest.”
Joonbum asked as he frowned, “Which kingdoms?”
“There are the Galia, Dentrion, and Benzen Kingdoms to the south. Benzen is an especially good place for Coulders to roam as it’s warm country,” Gazlow said as he pointed to the Coulder pack. The number in the pack was growing as more Coulders joined the pack. Under its leader and the numbers, they did not fear any enemies.
“We can’t stay here any longer. It’s becoming dangerous. We should return now.”
Doral and Joonbum nodded. It was suicide to stay here without the protection of the Guardians.
‘At least I get to see them in person. Should I bring the Marauder here?’
Joonbum thought about it, but soon shook it away. The vehicle was strong, but it was not certain if it could stand against such gigantic animals.
“Baekgu! Gumdong! Come back with good mates! Deluga! Take care!”
Joonbum shouted at the Guardians and rode back to town on Nite.
