Chapter 13: Strange Creatures

"Looks like we found a source of food," Seth stated. "And a place to safely rest. Though, it remains to be seen if we are welcome or not. At the very least, we can explore and hunt in the forest. It seems as though something exists in there." 

The sounds ruminating through the forest and the clatter of people living their lives, pulling carts, working fields, trading goods, and corralling animals or riding them reminded everyone of home. These animals were very strange. A giant creature, twice the size of an elephant with tusks like a boar that curled upward and a sabretooth's long, sharp canines that stretched to the knees of the beast within the confines of the tusks, was being fed a purplish meat. The creature had giant ears that resembled an elephants but had six legs instead of four. A tail extended out behind it, much like a tigers furry soft tail, save for the spike protruding. The was covered in a thick, velvety soft patterned mosaic of colors, and oddly enough, the feet ended in not hooves or paws but rather eagle-like claws. 

The purplish meat dripped purple blood as the creature munched on it, but which creature did it come from? They scanned the other creatures and found one that seemed to be their equivalent of a pig. It was four times the size of a hog! This creature, though, had a hard scaled exterior with sharp protrusions across the back and on both sides, extending all the way and across the tail where a big, bulbous, barbed protuberance hung on the end. However, the creature was very docile and seemed to eat anything. 

Continuing the scan, they spotted another creature that was sleek and elegant with eight pawed legs as thick and furred as bears, but the paws resembled those of a mountain lion. The creature cantered around showing off its strong smooth back where someone rode as though training a horse. The difference between this creature and a horse seemed even more immense than what has previously been described. The creature's tail for instance was that of an uncurled and inverted scorpions tail with the barb pointing towards the ground. Another defining feature was although it had the neck resembling that of a horse, the head resembled something more like a seahorse's snouted face, and to top it off the thing had bat-like wings that remained furled up to its body.

There was yet another creature being guided down the fields or being milked for udders similar to a cows, but much larger. The rest of the creature, however, resembled nothing short of chimera from mythology with its three heads and a serpent for a tail, which in fact was also being milked for two very different colored fluids. One was a bright venomous green and the other was a shimmering gold. The three heads, however, were nothing like the chimera from mythology. One head had the shape of a frog head, the other the shape of a raven, and the center head the shape of an orangutan, but the shapes were where the similarities stopped. For instance, the ravenish head had sharp, black scales instead of feathers. The froggish head was constructed of what looked like stones for skin and boulders for teeth in the colors of clay and limestone, respectively. Yet, the tongue of the creature was still sticky and long as it flew out to devour the flies that buzzed are the farm yards and pastures. As they were walked up and down the fields in groups, they devoured all pests that attack the agriculture. From the distance, the pest could be seen, but the way the large purple tongue shot out and swiped around the plants was indicative that it was feasting. The center head matching that of an orangutan was even more interesting. For from the sides of is long trunk, tusks as long and as large as an African Elephant but being the color of white marble. The trunk also had weird coloring and texture as the skin seemed to be as thick and rough as tree bark, and as elephants trunks can do, this creatures trunk trailed the ground searching for grasses, fruits and vegetables as well as bugs. The rest of the body was even more odd. To start, the snake-like tail had wings, feathers instead of scales, and fangs that gleamed brightly in the shine as though made of gold where their venom or whatever it was dripped viscously. The body now was muscular and fierce, having spotted fur like a leopard only purple, but the feet were an ever more intriguing aspect. Ten-toes circled the feet that dug deeply into the earth with each step, seemingly to absorb something, and before the creatures foot left the soil, it ground its feet into the earth. This process seemed to nourish the plant life, for with every step, the nearest plant life glowed and sprouted at an alarming rate with a heightened vigor to match. This event seemed to be how the locals fertilized and strengthened the crops throughout the fields by a seeming magical process. Once the feet left the ground, one could observe the shape of the toes, and to the surprise of no one, it was another shape. Each toe resembled that of a centipedes legs but much, much thicker. This allowed the creature to burrow into the soil deeper than would normally be possible and granted it the capacity to nourish the plant life within a larger scope than the creatures size. 

The further one looked the more creatures could be spotted some were the size of cats and dogs, which wondered the streets, but at this distance, they were too far to make out. The town looked inviting, but the party stayed wary as they trudged onward toward the yet unknown town.