Across The Savannah
by Ayn BlackFox

The silver jeep pulls to a stop behind a tall hedge that stretches in between two trees like a guard fence. A black and white vulpine stands up in the jeep and tries to peek over the hedge, which is tall than the jeep. It’s easily 8 or 9 feet tall. The vulpine standing the jeep is Ayn, invited along for a ride across the lush grasslands of the middle lands. He tries to peak over the bush but on his safari hat and ears make it over. He leans down and opens his back and pulls out a homemade para-scope and use it look over the hedge.

Also in the jeep is "Safari Tour Master" Greg and his navigator and first aid person Sal. Greg is a tan and white colored wolf, wearing the scars of his last encounter on his right arm. He was attacked by a female liontaur from one of the tribes that live in hot grasslands. How he managed to escape no one knows for sure but apparently Sal and a PSG1-T helped him out. Sal is a Salamander. A former hunter of the wild game that the tribes use for food and clothing. Blunderbeast, the eight eyed, buffalo like creature and other large game is his specialty. He has an encounter with a tribe's person but not a violent one. He met a more docile, cheetahtaur whom let him stay with the tribe for a couple of months.

Ayn looks down at Greg and Sal and shakes his head. "Nothing but Blunderbeast." He said staying stood up in the jeep. "Of all the artificial wild life here, they have multiplied the fastest. I have not seen a Moor-cat either. What else could feed on them things?"

Greg looks up to the fox and grins. "Any of our relatives." He joked before clearing his throat. "But serious, there would have been some Arolf around here or even the Wild Gengo." Two more of the mutant animals that were released on the planet some 90 years ago before settlements were made.

Ayn looks up in the sky to hearing the shrill cry of the four winged avian raptor, Axceprex, noted for its scaled, spooned shaped tail. "Axceprex in the area. There may have been a kill." He notes and starts look around with the para-scope again. "But where?"

Sal uses the scope from his rifle to look around as well. "Ah, about 300 yards northeast." He said with a point. "A couple of Moor-cats are circling something." Moor-cats are large cats of mainly a tawny color. They have whip like tails with fangs and claws that would scare most others away.

Greg shudders a bit. "Dangerous. They hate jeeps."

Ayn sits back down and sighs a bit. He drinks a bit of water and nods slowly. He drinks a bit more and closes the bottle. Greg puts the jeep in reverse and backs away from the hedge slowly not wanting to make too much noise and cause a scare. He closes the bottle and puts it down on the seat. He watches as Sal looks at the map he has and Greg keeps rolling backwards until he stops by a tree. The jeep idles quietly as Sal and Greg talk quietly amongst each other.

The jeep starts to move again and Ayn watches at the go back to the main road and head towards Lake Ramaha. He takes off his safari hat and lets the wind wave through his hair. He pulls out a notepad and takes a few notes though the bouncing jeep makes it a little hard. He sighs a bit but writes still:

Day 2 - We still have not come across any one of the tribes since we left the Ranger Outpost yesterday. Of course, Sal stocked up on ammo, though it is only tranquilizer darts for his gun. One of the rangers told us that we should head east if we wanted to see any of the tribes but that has proven to be.......

Ayn looks up and spots three figures in the distance. He pats Greg on the shoulder and the points. Greg gasps and quickly brings the jeep to a stop and the engine stalls out. Sal pulls out the scope from his rifle and looks ahead. He gives a very subtle thumbs up and looks over at the two canines.

"Three lions. 90 yards." Sal said as he watches them through the scope. "They have spears with them."

Ayn grabs a pair of binoculars and looks out at the figures confirming that they are indeed liontaurs from a tribe. He swallows a bit as he sees that they are looking at the jeep. "Greg. Sal. They are looking dead at us." He passes the binoculars to Greg.

"I think we may have just scared off something they were hunting." Greg said looking at them as Sal arms his rifle. "And they are coming towards us." He passes the binoculars back to Ayn and starts the jeep back up. He puts in reverse and drives away from the lions slowly at first.

Sal leans out the window aiming his rifle at them watching through the scope. "Um. They are charging at us." Sal said and pulls the gun back in.

Greg swears under his breath and makes the jeep do a 180. He floor the gas, spinning the rear tires out kicking up dirt and rocks back at the charging liontaurs and takes off. Ayn looks back at the dust cloud and blinks seeing that they are still coming. Suddenly there is a thunk on the back of the jeep. Ayn looks back to see an arrow stuck in the spare tire. He gasps and ducks down the seat as more arrows fly towards the jeep which is not gaining speed as fast as he thought it was. He sits and sees that Sal has turned backwards with his gun aimed at the liontaur. Sal fires a shot and gets on in the foreleg but it keeps charging. He chambers another dart and fires again hitting a different one in the upper torso stomach but yet it keeps running. Sal blinks and tries again and hits the last one in the shoulder but it chases still.

Greg calls for evasive action and makes the jeep do a 90 degree turn, sliding off the road and in the grass area. The liontaurs follow still they race through the grassland passing back a cheetahtaur who simply stares at them. Ayn looks back to see if the liontaurs are still chasing them but they seem to have stopped by a group of trees. Greg slows down a bit and stops next to a river. The jeep's engine bay starts to smoke and it stalls.

Greg gets out the jeep and opens the hood. He greeted by a large puff of white smoke. Sal and Ayn chuckle a bit. "Yea it's over heated." He said looking at the coolant bubbling in the reservoir. "I guess when they 60 was max they meant it."

Ayn gets off the jeep and walks over to him. "And how fast did you get up to?" He looks over the large straight block engine before looks out over the river.

"About 90 before the turn, held 80 until I started to slow down." Greg said sitting on the bumper.

Sal snickers and gets off the jeep with his rifle in hand. "Well it the tranquilizer took effect on our chaser hence they catch up." He looks out back the way they came. "Man they are tough. Most of have dropped in about 15 seconds."

Greg looks at Sal. "Everything is tough out here." He said with a bit of a scuff behind the statement. "If they don't want to stab you with a spear, it wants to eat you. The tribes people do not eat us, just are just extremely territorial, especial those of the Ecsio tribe, err, the lions."

Ayn blinks and looks at Greg. "So was done here when the first explores got here?" He asked looking to get some info out of Greg. Looking for a good story to tell for when he went back.

Greg drinks a bit of water and wipes his muzzle. "According to the records I have, they found them dying, the tribes had very little food and cannibalized the other tribes at the most desperate times and was just on this continent. There are four others. There were anthro tribes but they seemed to be stable with plenty of wild game to hunt. All of them mutant, Old Earth animals before we normal anthro and taurs came along." He drinks a bit more. "The avian tribes being the most dominate in areas. They are not as much in this area because it's too hot. But further north like in Acombie and Jut there more avian tribes."

Sal nods and smiles a little. "They didn't accomplish a lot in the 6 years they were here, though." He also drinks a bit of water. "It took what, 50 years for the forced migrate animals to get stable in the area?"

Ayn nods and drinks the contents of his thermas. "All reports I read said the same. I came here about 6 years prior to this visit and Blunderbeast still had a low population count as compared to others. I wonder what caused such a population boom."

Sal looks at Ayn and shrugs. "Do not know. I have been here 9 years and I could not tell you anything about it."

With a nod Ayn goes over to the river and peers into the crystal clear water able to see all the fish swimming underneath the surface. He has read the water in this river is so clean that you can drink it without having to boil it. The springs from the southern hills feed the rivers the run turn the grasslands of middle Pandria before ending at the Finger Lakes to the north of the grass lands. Ayn dips his thermos into the water and waits for it to fill up. He looks up hearing something and spots a ripple in the water. He blinks a bit before pulling his full thermos out the water. Walks over to the jeep and grabs the other two and fills them back up. He hears the plop again and looks up and sees a ripple in the water. We shakes his head and goes back to the jeep where Greg and Sal and looking over a map, again.

Ayn stands on the rear bumper and looks over the river using his binoculars this time wondering what was causing the river the ripple. A fish? No, it was not that loud sounded like a pebble was dropped into the water. He takes off his safari hat and scratches his head with the brim before putting is back on. He scans the river looking to see if there any signs of something or something along the other side of the river. He sighs a bit unable to find anything and puts the binoculars down. He goes back over to where Greg and Sal are and looks at the map briefly and peers out over the river.

"Hey Greg, what's just beyond that hill?" Ayn asked pointed to a small grassy hill in distance. He could not tell on the map what it was but has pegged his interest.

Greg looks out towards the hill and looks at the map. "That would the Luxia Clan Territory. Very fertile land, perfect for growing crops in this part of the country since it is in between this river and Bangez River which is 40 miles to east of this point." He said with nod.

Sal looks over at Ayn. "This river, the Lazy River, is the border of the Ecsio and Luxia tribes. Both tribes seem to get along but you never know."

Ayn blinks and looks back over the river. "Think we should cross over and keep moving?" He gets a strange feeling at the statement but ignores it.

Greg nods. "Yea, just in case the delayed return of the hunting party has raised some suspicion and there is a much larger group coming. There is a bridge just to the south of here on a new marked road."

Sal nods and folds the map up. "We should hurry."

The three of them pile back into the jeep and Greg starts the engine which turns over normally. He turns and heads south not going as fast as he was before. Sal looks back at Ayn as he turns the rifle's safety on. "This is not normal at all. Normally we don't come across a hunting party this early in the day. It's only 0934 hours and they normally don't start hunting until about 1100."

"I wish I could agree but I do not know enough about any of these tribes to do so." He said as the jeep bounces up and down some before racing the newly made road where there is a large steel bridge.

"But that's why we invited you." Sal said. "You wanted to know what happens and well you got it. We were supposed to meet with another time but they have not called in so we are moving on. Ayn... just looking for a story is not enough, we want to go back with a whole experience that you will not forget."

"Well you are doing well so far." Ayn said leaning back in the seat a bit as the jeep crosses the bridge and continues down the much smoother road way.

They travel across the grassland with only wild animals in sight. No sign of the Luxia tribe people anywhere. Ayn starts to become restless, wanting to be able to at least start righting something about one of these tribes and so far he's only gotten chased by angry Ecsio. Some story I have. He says to himself as the jeep bounces up and down a bit. He pulls out his notepad and starts writing. He sits the long way in the seat using his legs as a prop to hold up the notepad.

After several minutes of writing recapping what happened just earlier he puts the note pad away and sits up right. He looks around a bit rubbing his chin in thought. The jeep slows down to a stop but neither Greg nor Sal say anything. Ayn stands up and looks over the jeep to see if he can see anything. There is a slight wind from the east which brings the scent of the Savannah with it. Ayn inhales deeply and sighs a bit as he looks over what seems to be an endless sea of grass. No movement seen or heard.

Ayn sits down and with a bit of a huff. He looks at Sal and Greg who are talking amongst each other. Sal's rifle pointed right out the window. It makes Ayn wonder if they have seen anything, so he grabs the binoculars and peers out the right side of the jeep. He looks over at a small group of trees seeing some of the native avian game fly away from the trees. Rubbing his head he keeps watching as an arrow flies from the grass following the birds.

The jeep goes quiet as Greg and Sal look in the same direction. Sal readies his rifle, his hand shaking slightly. Greg watches turning the jeep off. Ayn blinks and watches as the grass parts and shows the head of a Leopard and the upper-torso He watches as the leopard walks over and picks up one of the wild birds that has an arrow stuck in its body. He keeps watching and ducks down in the jeep when it looks in his direction. Ayn looks over at Greg and Sal who are still looking at it. Greg starts the jeep back up and keeps looking in the direction of where the Leopardtaur is. Ayn watches as the Leopard ducks back in the cover in the tall grass. He grits his teeth and lies back down in the seat.

"Greg. Let's get... out of here." Ayn said staying ducked down. He puts the binocular in his bag and gets a nod from Greg.

The jeep rolls down the road as Greg keeps his rifle pointed out into the grass. He seems focused looking through the scope. Ayn sits up and looks in the same direction again. They do not seem to have been followed but Greg speeds up anyway not wanting to take any chances. At least they know it is not an Ecsio that may be following them. Greg suddenly tells them that the Luxia may be more docile than the Ecsio but they can temper-mental during a hunt. He keeps the gas down pushing the jeep up to 65 mph and cruises a bit.

Suddenly Greg fires off a shot and sucks his teeth a bit muttering that he missed. He chambers another dart and keeps aiming out into the grass. "We are being chased."

Ayn blinks and pulls out his binoculars and looks in the same direction as Sal. He spots the Leopardtaur dashing through the grass keeping up with the jeep. The Leopardtaur even takes aim at the jeep with an arrow. Ayn ducks down as there is a loud thud just seconds afterward. Sal's gun goes off and he mutters another miss. Greg turns with the road but slides a little. The tires squeal lowly as the jeeps slides from the paved road to the dirt. He straightens out the jeep and continues to drive as Sal looks around the jeep with nothing but grass around them.

35 minutes pass and Greg stops the jeep in a clearing where the grass is low. All three of them look around not seeing the Leopard anywhere. Ayn get out of the jeep and stretches a bit and takes off his Safari hat and rubs his head hair a bit. He looks at Greg and Sal and chuckles softly.

"Well we lost 'em." Ayn said walking to the front of the jeep seeing the river in front of them. He smiles a bit.

"Yea. At least we made it to the Bangez River." Greg said but sighs. "We lost the main road so I guess we’ll wait here until we can figure something out."

Sal gets out the jeep taking his rifle with him. "Stay on guard Luxia are tricky." He said walking over to the river.

Ayn puts on his Safari hat and slips back into the jeep and starts to write a bit more. He sighs a bit and closes his eyes and places a bed sheet over the open top jeep keeping the sun off of him. He relaxes a bit letting the sound of the wind relax him. The bed seat that is normally a make-shift pillow works a great shade. The now comfortable fox dozes underneath the artificial shade while Greg and Sal are down at the river clean themselves up a bit.

Ayn wakes up to a cool breeze blowing against him. He stretches a bit and opens his eyes as he looks out the window. The sun is setting. He moves the bed sheet off the top of the jeep and looks around a bit. There is no sign of Greg or Sal but there is the PSG1-T. Ayn scratches his head and shrugs a bit wondering where they went off too without him. He finds a note addressed to him.

Ayn, me and Sal are off hunting for food. Be back shortly. Greg and Sal.

There is no time written on the sheet so he sighs a bit and sits down on the seat with the PSG1-T in his hands. He figures that Greg and Sal will be OK because they have a real gun with them and not a dart shooter. He looks around a bit using what sunlight is left to see what is around him. He seems to be alone with in binocular sight. He shrugs a bit and starts to write in his notepad again. Since the jeep is not moving it makes writing a lot easier.

He suddenly stops having only covered half of the events that happened so far, most of it being a dream he had about meeting a tribe's person. He gets a feeling that he is being watched and cocks the rifle loading a dart in the firing chamber. He figures that anything that hear that cocking action would figure out that some bad could happen not knowing that the gun is just a tranquilizer gun. He looks around a bit and the grabs the flashlight from his backpack and ten turns it on. He gets the blue tape from the side pocket and tapes the flashlight to the bottom of the gun. He looks around a bit more before relaxing a bit. He pulls out the notepad and starts to write again.

A few minutes pass and Ayn finishes writing. He put the note pad back in his backpack and sighs a bit wondering where Greg and Sal are. The sun has set and they have not showed back up. Suddenly there is a rustle in the bushes. Ayn looks around to see where the rustle came from. "I have a gun and cop and I am not afraid to use them!" He calls in an attempt to scare off whatever is around. He scans around him but does not see anything. "Good."

He zips up his backpack and put it on just in case he has to make a fast get away. He keeps looking around the area a bit more until hunger strikes. He looks in the side compartment next to him and finds the box of super sized cereal bars. He smiles and pulls out one of the foot long bars and starts to eat it. He stuffs the box into his backpack and blinks hearing the rustle again. "I have warned you once!" He said holding up the rifle. He scans around and seeing that some of the grass has been stepped on and it leads to into an area of much taller grass. "Gotcha!" He finishes off the cereal bar and takes aim and turns the light off. He fires into the grass and hears an outcry. He quickly chambers another and keeps an eye on the area he shot.

A short time later he looks away from the spot and sighs in relief. He turns the light back on and looks around just to make sure that is alone again.

It's quiet. He can hear the slight squeak in the suspension of the jeep as he moves around. He chuckles and bounces up and down playing with the squeak before sitting down. Suddenly something grabs his shoulder and pulls him over the jeep, knocking the flashlight out. He hit the ground with a bit of a roll. He moves around and quickly gets to his feet pointing the rifle at the large dark figure in front of them. The figure, which is in the shape of a taur, starts to circle him but Ayn follows its movements not letting it out of his sight.

The standoff continues for a bit until the taur charges in. Ayn blocks with the gun like it's a sword bashing at the charging taur bumping it in the chest. The taur jumps back and tries again but Ayn flips the gun around and points it barrel first at the taur which stops an inch from the tip of the gun. A Standoff again as the two move around in a circle.

"Keep trying me and I will shoot." Ayn said acting as threaten as he can with his tranquilizer gun hoping this "enemy" would not know it was just a tranquilizer gun. Just then the taur ducks under the gun and tackles Ayn making him fire a round off into the air. He falls to the ground and is pinned by the taur. He can feel its claws digging into his shirt as she tries to get the gun to chamber a round.

In a flash, he feels his left arm grabbed and pinned the ground. "Eo nan fario osa si eo fusé vanstodo." The taur said to him with a bit of a growl. The voice sounds male but female at the same time.

Ayn blinks now totally confused. "I don't understand." He replied trying to free himself but the taur keeps him him pinned.

"Eo nan fario osa si eo fusé vanstodo." Was the reply followed by an even angrier growl. "E deixor de loatir camego."

Ayn stop trying to break free and stares back at the taur who simple looks at him. The flashlight on the gun flickers back and showing a leopard style fur color. There are other markings so this is a member of the Luxia tribe and is female? Ayn tilts his head and looks at the female. "Huh?" He lets out not knowing what to say.

With a roar, the Luxian female glares down at Ayn. " Oqui asta ral contyge? Uesta diosa me matordao?" She said taking the "huh" as insult since there is no such "expression" in the Luxian language.

Ayn shakes his head figuring she said something negative from the tone of her voice. "Look. Miss. I do not understand you. I am not from here. I am just here to write a....." He bites his lips not wanting to say story. "A report. Yea. A report about the tribe of my choice." He said hoping she does know English or did just waste his breath.

"Entin min vir temir os nasos nanos lenxi?" She said much softer than before. She looks away for a bit and looks back down at Ayn. "Sentimolo." She lets go of Ayn and takes a step back.

Ayn sits up and blinks. He wonders why this once fierce female has become so sad suddenly. "Um-mm. So you can understand me?" He asked her keeping the distance between them.

She nods and looks at the gun and back up a little more. She seems to have a fear for the gun even though it is just a tranquilizer gun and not a real one. "They come from up north. They take our kids away from us. Months, years at a time." She pleads at him. "They are all dressed up like you. They smell bad and talk like they are one of the village idiots. They always come in a "car" like yours some bigger. They have same weapon as you. Some kill our best soldiers. Other sleep for days."

Ayn looks at the tranquilizer gun. "Well this is the one that makes them sleep for days. It does not belong to me but the other two that were with me." He said standing up. "Don’t worry; I am not going to shoot you." He takes out the magazine and shots the chambered dart into the driver seat of the jeep. "There empty. Do you have a name?"

"My name is Nerari." She told him but looks around a bit. "We need to leave. The takes him by the hand and leads him away from the jeep. "Bad things come out around this time."

After being pulled for about an hour they stop at a village near the river. There are several large stone bowls that have a fire burning on them like large torches. Nerari take Ayn to a stone hut that is a bit further away from the others. The village seems quiet and Nerari puts a finger over Ayn lips to keep him quiet. She takes off her saddle bag and quiver and leaves the hut. Ayn blinks and takes the time to write down what has happened so far. He stays as quiet as he can as he writes, stopping when a shadow passes in front of the leather door flap.

He finishes writing and sips a bit of the water from the bottle his bag and scoots back against the wall of the stone hut. He takes his backpack off and uses it as a pillow and lies down. He looks up at the ceiling watching as the candle light flickers against the ceiling. He closes his eyes letting the sounds around him relax his tensed body. The smell of bread and other food fills the hut. He inhales and exhales slowly just as Nerari walks into the hut. She looks over at Ayn and smiles somewhat.

"The village chief will see you at dawn." She said moving over towards Ayn. "He seems to be... interesting in you." She lays down next to him and yawns.

"Well I will be happy to go see him." Ayn said turning to face the wall a bit. He closes his eyes and slips to sleep with Nerari not far behind.

During the night Ayn dreams off what the chief would do. He dreams of being accepted into the tribe learning there ways and having a great story at the end of his adventure. Then he dreams of the exact opposite, torture and outcast in the unforgiving wilderness alone. Thirsty, hungry and on the verge of collapsing. The dream fades to black.

Ayn springs awake with a gasp. He pants and looks around the hut to see that Nerari is still sleeping. He crawls out of the hut and dash to the outskirts of the village and stop. He slumps over a berry bush and shakes his head not wanting to believe was his dream showed him. He knows that he has good intentions just will be hard to show it. He feels as if someone has put a heavy weight on his shoulders. He shakes his head a bit and rubs his face a bit. Looks over at one of the torch lights watching the flame wave in the wind.

A hand touches his shoulder making him tense up a little. "Can't sleep Ayn?" Nerari asked him in calm soothing voice.

"Yea. A lot is on my mind." He replied turning to look back at her. "Not sure what I should do." He sighs softly.

Nerari nods a bit and places a hand on the fox's shoulder. "About what I said earlier?" She asked him, getting a nod in response. She smiles and rubs his cheek softly. "I understand. Just... relax."

Ayn simply nods knowing that relaxing was easier said than done, at least for his situation. He goes back into the hut and lays back down, using his backpack as a pillow. Nerari follows him and watches at the black vulpine starts to go back sleep. She blushes a little and walks over to her bed. She lies down but faces Ayn and watches him. She closes her eyes and drifts back off to sleep with dawn soon to come.

Story © to Ayn BlackFox