Chapter 63

The day after the expedition killed the Tyrannosaurus Rex like beasts, or as the men named it, Great Maw Lizards, Chieftain Dhun tasked Grud to stay at camp to rest and take care of the wounded while the other men split up into teams and headed in all directions but north to see how big a territory these Great Maw Lizards carved out for themselves.

The Eastern and Westen teams were the ones who came back first in the late afternoon, saying that around noon, they managed to run into the territory of other beasts and looked to be properly populated with proper sized game to hunt.

By the time the Southen teams returned, it was already evening, and they reported that as far as they walked, there were no predators. But they also mentioned that just before they had to turn around to return to camp, they noticed decent sized prey animals starting to populate the area.

So the following day, the expedition packed up and continued south, and day after day, the Eastern and Westen teams reported the same thing, the only difference was the distance they had to travel before they entered the territory of a beast was getting shorter by the day.

As for the Southen team, they started encountering more and more prey animals until on the fifth day, they encountered the first signs of beasts' territory.

With this information, it was clear to all the hunters that the Great Maw Lizards were pushing north in search of more abundant food and the void they left in their wake was gradually being filled back up.

On the afternoon of the seventh day, Grud picked up a scent he had never smelled before, he notified Chieftain Dhun just in case and continued with their journey.

It was the next day after picking up the smell that the rest of the expedition picked up the same smell that Grud did. A few of the hunters did recognize the smell and it smelled like a place deep in a cave near their tribe, turns out said cave has valuable salt veins that they can dig up in limited quantities.

On that day, late afternoon, the expedition finally broke out of the treeline onto a sandy beach, and beyond said beach was water as far as the eye could see. This was the first time any of them saw the sea and they were cautiously excited at this new view, the experience was novel to them and got them chatting about everything they observed.

"That is a big lake! Water goes on forever!"

"What strange water, bubbly, and big like sky."

"Water makes loud noise. Like a hungry beast."

"It's cold! Different from river."

"Water tastes like the salt from my tribe's cave"

"Look, there is small land in the distance." One of the hunters said as he pointed to a small island around a kilometer off the shore further down the beach.

Grud looked around and pondered about something as he thought out loud, "If this is where the trail ends…. Did the Great Maw Lizards come out of the big lake?"

Dhun who was standing next to him replied, "For all we know, maybe? But that is a question for tomorrow, we will set up camp for the night and search tomorrow."

—

The next morning as everyone was just finishing breakfast, one of the sentries burst into camp, "A path has appeared in the big lake that leads to the small land!"

This got the interest of the men and they quickly packed camp and went to the beach to see what was going on.

And just as the man said, further down the beach, there was a land bridge that connected where the expedition was to the island around a kilometer off the shore.

As they walked towards the land bridge, Grud noticed something weird, "Is the water lower today than what we saw yesterday?" Grud asked out loud.

After the men looked around, one of the hunters sounded off and pointed to a stick that stood upright in the beach sand, "Yeah, I think it is, that stick over there, I planted it in the sand for fun, it was where the water came upon the land. But now the water is much further away from the stick."

Hearing this, the men started discussing theories among themselves, until Dhun brought it to a stop and got them back on the objective to explore the island off in the distance.

Within half an hour, the expedition was across the rather narrow land bridge and onto the island.

"Alright, split into your usual groups and search the land. It looks quite small, so when you are done, meet back here." Chieftain Dhun said, and the hunters broke off and started their search.

When the expedition gathered back after the search to discuss their findings, they were shocked to see the land bridge they used to get to the island was now gone.

Some of the hunters started to panic, worrying that they would be forever cut off from the mainland because almost all of them had never swum in their lives, and even if they knew how to swim, they had seen what beast lurked in rivers and even lakes, they did not even want to think about what lurks in a body of water as big as this.

That was when one of the men piped up, "Wait, my group also saw a path that led off this land to the south, that path seems to go towards anothe small land in the distance." The man's group led the way to the other land bridge that they saw, only to find that it too had disappeared.

After Chieftain Dhun quelled the small panic that was taking place among his men, he said "Before anything else, let us focus on what we know, teams, report."

After all the teams reported, they found that the island was round with no outstanding protrusions, the length and breadth of the island were both roughly five kilometers, there were Tusk Pigs, deers and other smaller animals on the island, and there was no source of fresh drinking water. 

The only thing they found drinkable were these big green or yellow fruits with hard husks, but when the hunters managed to crack them open, they found the water in the fruit was safe to drink and there was white flesh within to eat also.

After discussing the situation a bit more, they came up with a few theories about the land bridge disappearing, after reasoning that it may be only an occurrence that happens in the morning. So the expedition spent the rest of the day hunting, gathering, and exploring to pass the time before they made camp near where the land bridge was supposed to be.

—

It was a couple of hours after midnight on a cloudless night's sky, that a sentry broke into the camp again and woke Chieftan Dhun up, "The path back to the mainland has opened for us again!"

Hearing this Dhun quickly got to his feet and roused the camp, soon, a train of torch-bearing hunters made their way back to the mainland before setting up camp again to rest.

—

The next day, they noticed that the path to the island was visible again, Chieftain Dhun gathered the whole expedition to discuss their findings, "So, I think it is safe to say that the path to the small land opens every morning and night. Another thing I think it is safe to assume that the Great Maw Lizards came from those small lands using paths between to come to our land."

After a chorus of agreement and discussing a few more topics, Dhun quieted down the men to finish what he wanted to say, "Well, we have killed the Great Maw Lizards pushing the rest of the beasts and monster north, and found the most likely place they came from, I would say we have completed our mission!" Dhun said with a smile while raising his hands in triumph, which was replied to by the cheers of the men.

Once the cheering died down, Dhun continued, "But this does not mean the expedition is over, we still need to get home alive! So keep sharp!"

After that speech, Dhun thought to himself, 'So many of our people died just because five beasts invaded our lands. We are going to need to gather the Chieftans again for another meeting to decide on how to prevent this from happening again.'