27.1ᴘᴀᴛʀᴇᴏɴ.ᴄᴏᴍ/sᴛʀᴀᴛᴏᴛʜʀᴀx

Rain stumbled to his feet exhausted, each footstep leaving a blood red mark in the grass.

He turned around looking for enemies but none appeared. He was alone. Looking up at the domed cavern ceiling overhead he realized he must be in the center of the cavern. It seemed the jungle stopped at the center and was replaced by a wide field of grass.

The clearing did not appear uninhabited. A cluster of Goblin tents was at one end verging on the tree line. At the other end was a long barn like building crudely made from wood. In the center was a cluster of wooden buildings.

He began walking toward the buildings in the center. He figured if he wanted to kill the leader of the tribe then now would likely be a good time as it seemed that what remained of the Goblins and Half-goblins were out hunting for him in the jungle.

As he neared he began to hear voices. A deeper voice along with a scratchy female voice that sounded somehow unnatural and awkward.

He slunk up to one of the buildings leaving a trail of blood in his wake and ducked to peek through one of the glassless windows.

A back faced him, a very muscular back, one leaning back in a chair. Five uneven horns protruded from its head, bull horns. A horse-like mane of hair ran down its neck.

Rain didn't have any difficulty recognizing a Minotaur when he saw one having killed and eaten one recently, though the mutated horns and angular ears poking from the sides of its head were new.

"This creature, you say it came from some lake a few floors down?" said the Goblin-minotaur with a predictably deep voice.

"Yessss. The ancestral memories are fragmented but the description fits and I know no other creature which might pass as it. I know something terrible was done at that lake. I know the ancestors dreaded a return of what was put down there," said the scratchy female voice.

Rain couldn't see much else due to the angle so the owner of the voice was out of view.

"It seems unlikely a monster would return from over a thousand years ago, still it is just another monster, nothing to worry about."

"My witch's memories say otherwise. They feared these things like no other, especially their ruler, their king. This may sound insane and beyond belief to you, and I would not speak of this knowledge to any other, but to stop these things monsters and levelers fought together on the same side."

"Bullshit. That did not happen. Not possible."

"It's true, though it is hard to imagine a situation desperate enough where that would have come about. Just speaking of such a thing would anger any monster who heard it in this era so I will not repeat this outside of this room."

"Faulty memories, it's happened before, not everything survives the generations intact."

"The most traumatic memories do, and this one scarred generations of Gobbos."

"Fine. I'll humour you. We have a resurrected, or whatever, monster from an age past running around in our cavern. Theoretically, it's pretty strong. Isn't this a good thing?"

"...I don't follow."

The Minotaur leant forward. "It's obvious, isn't it? We want strong monsters to grow our power, we capture this beast and have the regular Gobbos breed with it, they fill it with halves or themselves pop out a few halves, and they're on our side. Hell, if it's as scary as you make it out to be then we'll be unstoppable. We'll be able to take over the dungeon and then we can conquer the surface. It can all be ours, we can take everything."

The scratchy voice hissed in annoyance. "We can barely keep what we have, look what happened to the Harpy Queen, she escaped and lives on the cavern ceiling forming her own faction with her daughters, a perpetual thorn in our side forever demanding more influence. A monster like this would surely be uncontrollable and its spawn chaotic. Far from ideal."

"You don't know that. Our Cavebear half-breeds are placid, unless you do something to anger them, but no ones stupid enough to do such a thing. Besides, if it turns out to be a problem we can always just kill them. Remember the Slime-gobbo disaster? Same thing."

"Yes, I remember, and if I ever see a tentacle again it will be too soon." There was a rustling sound of movement. "This thing is not like other monsters Cairn. It is something from a more savage era when rivers of blood were the norm. A time when few tribal monsters could speak as the ancestral memories were not as developed as they are today. We would likely be doing the dungeon, no the world, a service by ensuring it does not leave our cavern alive."

"Pah, fuck the world. This is an opportunity to seize power like never before. Hell, I'll fuck a few kids into it myself if it's female."

"Bah, I've had enough of this idiotic Minotaur bravado."