Chapter 52- Tribal Ascension

Savage Land- City of the Sun, Capital of the Sun People, Date Unknown (Mid-Afternoon)

Zala Dane-             

“What are you talking about?” Mal-gato asked in a harsh snarl.

Zala pointed up at the massive stone man outside of their building. Its back was to them, but still, because of the gaps in the roof, everyone could see it. "You told us the trials were issued from Him. That they were false gods, and that they must be tested. So you issued a challenge of Strength, and the outsiders killed the God-lizards." Zala added another finger pointing towards the statue before she added. "And now today, they passed a trail of Cunning. Don't you dare sit there and lie to us that La-erf did what he did without your prompting? Why else would everyone already think us dead, before even our escorts reported our failure to return?"

The High Priest squirmed on his chair as the gathered priests all turned their attention to him and awaited his answer.

Mal-gato’s snarl deepened and opened his mouth to lie, but another one of his men repeated the inconsistency. “It was strange that you knew them to be dead, despite none of her warriors or champions returning.”

While another added. “You said that they had been murdered under a flag of truce. Yet the two of them are still alive, and the only one that is dead was only a priest in name only. Since he couldn’t finish a spell’s chant, without biting his own tongue.”

A senior priest stepped forward. His headdress consisted only of the horns of the massive boar he killed. Since its head was too big to wear. He even pointed at the Mal-gato when he pointed out. "I also found it odd, that the visions for the trials only came to you after, your brother and our War Champion were slain under your orders."

Zala smiled for a second before she steeled her face and loudly asked. "What was to be the next trial? Is a trial of the Gods next? Was your plan to awaken the Petrified Man and send him after them? And how would we fair after such an action was taken, huh?" Zala had more questions that might have hammered the point home but figured it better to save those for later.

The High Priest growled in frustration. That was clearly his next plan.

Seeing that, she took the risk and drew her flint knife and stomped her foot on the floor. As she spoke she cut a line into the palm of her left hand. “Priest and Outsider of the Sun People, Zala Dane challenges High Priest Mal-gato of the Sun People for his headdress and right to lead the Sun People!”

He began to laugh at her, as she technically couldn’t as she wasn’t a senior priest. But then a normally quiet senior priest slammed the butt of his staff into the ground of the chamber floor. He was a beast of a man, swelling with muscles and his headdress was more of a crown of tyrannosaurs’ teeth. Then his deep voice said. “I second her.”

Mal-gato blinked at the sudden turn of events. Hor-naf stepped towards his chair to help the older man to his feet but instead asked. “Your staff, sir.”

The High Priest of the Sun pulled his staff away from the other High Priest, muttering. “What?! No, just because she doesn’t have one, doesn’t mean I need to give up mine.”

Hor-naf smiled as he stated. “Actually, tradition dictates that seal of office be used. Namely, your lava-stone dagger is used. We only let it slide the last two times because both parties agreed.” Mal-gato snarled yet again. Then the moon priest added “If you think yourself so weak, you can buff yourself before the battle if you wish, there is no law against it. But I will have your staff for the duel.”

Mal-gato snarled and spit, as he stood up. Zala could feel him draw mystical energy into his muscles before his arms and legs swelled and his wrinkles faded a touch. Then he handed over his thick decorated staff to the other High Priest. Then he drew the lava stone dagger.

It was thicker than she expected it to be and had a far longer blade than her flint knife. He threw off his outer robes. So he was only dressed in a dino-skin skirt and various bone bracers and necklaces. As he cut a line into his own left palm he stated. "I am not so old that I need someone else to teach a young whelp a lesson."

Various senior priests began to cry out, “Clear the center area.” As they ushered their fellow priests to move away from the coming battlefield.

Zala stepped back a bit. Her best bet was to use the word magic that she had mastered. It only worked because of her magic knife, but it would be faster and safer than fighting up close with the man. However, she frowned when she noticed that his lips were moving. It was subtle but her kid sister once dated a ventriloquist's son, and they had gotten to go to a show once.

So she knew what to look for, and knew he was cheating, starting his chant before the start of the battle, but she didn’t feel much energy shifting, so she wasn’t that worried.

Boar tusks held up a smooth stone, before saying. “When it hits the ground the battle begins. It will continue till one of you yields or the other is rendered unable to fight or killed.” He didn’t wait to ask if they understood he just reached back and tossed the stone.

As soon as it left his hand and moved through the air, she pulled and willed energy into her knife but held it there. At the sound of it impacting the stone floor she lifted and aimed her knife. She was startled to see Mal-gato's swollen muscles deflate as he pulled energy from the enhancement spell.

Luckily her technique gave her choices his didn’t. “Helles Licht!” she shouted before she dropped and dodged to her left. An orb of light exited her knife before it expanded and exploded harmlessly in a brilliant flash.

As she did this Mal-Gato raised his own dagger at her as he finished his chant. "Burn me a tunnel." It unleashed a snake of fire the size of a black lab that ran towards where she had been. As he closed his eyes and looked away the snake stayed on course and ran out the chamber doors.

Zala stayed in a crouched position as she blinked her own eyes clear. When she could make out the chair and an outline of a man before it she aimed will more energy into her knife before calling for her next spell. "Speer des Lichts!" fragments of her knife flew and broke away as a person-sized spear was fired from her weapon.

However, her aim was off, as the spear didn’t impale her target, but instead burned away his right arm at the elbow, and the spear of light also incinerated the chair behind him.

Mal-Gato screamed once the pain hit his nervous system only a second before his severed hand and forearm hit the ground. His stubbornness must have given him some power, as he ripped off one of his various necklaces and wrapped it around his stump, as he did he chanted in a language. It was not the Sun tongue, the language of the Sun people, but a more primal deeper language.

After about six words, enough time for her to reach and pull out another smaller used flint knife. ‘I might have enough for a spell apiece with these.’ She thought. She aimed with one, but as she was about to fire. Zala saw the necklace flash and bind tighter than any bandage from the outside world. Stopping any blood loss from the lost limb.

Mal-gato held his left hand over his severed limb and muttered in Sun tongue. "Come to me."

As she watched the dagger float back up to him, she knew the fight wasn't over so she steeled herself and finished aiming not one but both knives. "Speer des Lichts!" both knives exploded in her hands. The obsidian tore several minor chucks from her fingers as they flew away from the blast.

She could see Mal-gato smirk at her as the first larger spear flew towards him.

As Zala predicated another of his necklaces flashed and fell away as a barrier of light appeared between him and the spear. The large spear hit dead on, punching a hole into it, but was otherwise absorbed by the defensive spell.

However, the second smaller spear flew true, and as the magic relics detected no hostility towards its wearer it faded away. Mal-gato frowned at the vanishing spell and then went wide-eyed as the second spear impacted the lava stone dagger.

The light and fire energy in the magic item fought and struggled. The high priest tried to dive away, but it was too late as the ten feet surrounding the dagger were ripped apart as fire and light energy poured out into the world.

Mal-gato's back was peppered and melted from the ensuing blast before he was thrown into the wall he was running towards.

Zala stood and reached into a pouch tied to her belt. She pulled out a folding knife that she had taken from a dead passenger on the cruise ship. It had saved her a few times, but not enough, not while she was here in the Savage Lands.

It took her a couple of tries to unfold the blade with her numb fingers. Zala frowned when she felt energy come from somewhere and begin to heal her fingers. Needing to finish the fight, she put that mystery to the back of her mind before walking over to the bloody mess of a High Priest.

She rolled him over. His nose was busted on top of the damage to his backside.

“Vhat havv you done?” He asked through broken teeth and a bloody face.

She leaned in and pressed the steel blade to his throat. “Yield or die. It makes no difference to me.” She said down to the broken man beneath her.

“I veild.” He says before collapsing back onto the floor, the admission seemingly more draining than the battle.

“Hail the new High Priest. High Priest Zala!” T-rex teeth priests cried out in his deep voice. The other priests all cheer and greeted Zala anew now that she outranked them.

As they did she moved to where the remaining debris from the lava dagger lay out on the floor. As she stood over them she motioned for them to calm down. Once they did, she addressed them. "Now is not the time for celebration. Now is a crisis for us and we need to get to work. Start with treating Mal-gato, he may yet prove useful to our people."

T-Rex Crown nodded and added in his low voice. "We also need a new target for our warriors. After getting their blood all up, we will have riots if we just cancel the war. Especially our champions.”

Zala hadn't thought of that, of course, her mind had been on taking over, and solidifying her rule here. She thought back to the meeting at the mage's tower. They would need to earn their favor somehow. So she tried to recall anywhere they could easily send their men that might do that.

"What do we know about the tower near the large lake in the middle of the Savage Lands?" She asked as she recalled one of the human tribes asking about it being attacked.

“It appeared overnight some sixty-five or sixty-six years ago. Its original rulers were some odd gold-skinned humans, but they were eventually taken over by some outsider blessed. Oddly, unlike most outsiders, he didn't come from the sea to the far south or far west. But from the beyond the ice wall to the north." A wolf headdress-wearing Sun priest answered.

“I suppose we have some sort of treaty with him if you know that much about it.” Zala halfheartedly wondered.

"Not officially. But one of the southern settlements does trade with his servants." Boar tusks answered.

Zala wasn’t going to start stepping on the toes of her middle management right out of the gate. She wanted to see how capable they were first. So she brought up the other target mentioned during the meeting. “What is our standing with the Man-Apes?”

"We have none, they are on the other side of the Stone Singers and the Zebra people's territories. The most we have done to each other is skirmish." Hor-naf answered.

“Why those two as possible targets?” T-rex crown asked.

“They were mentioned as possible enemies by the mage’s spokesman. Given our previous actions, I felt it best to try and earn some favor with them. And since we must send our men out anyway, why not aim them at a foe that will also earn us some clout.” Zala explained. The senior priest nodded in agreement.

“It may be easier just to send that at the Zebra people.” Boar tusks suggested.

“Do we have any of their people among our slaves?” Zala asked them.

An elderly senior priest looked over a stone slate with some sheepskin parchment attached to it, before answering. “Just over a hundred, judging by the last count, we may have lost a few, to grudges, or work.”

While they were talking, Hor-naf walked over towards Zala. After hearing the priest's answer she snatched up Mal-gato's staff and waved it before ordering. "Gather up thirty of the least useful Zebra people slaves and return them as an offering to their people. Then we will send our forces after the Man-apes. Our justification, if our troops need it, is to deal with the dangerous outsiders that the gorilla men have granted shelter to." Then she slammed the staff's butt down to signal the matter settled.

The various junior and unclaimed priests all immediately left, but a few of the seniors remained to congratulate and measure her as a person before leaving. In the end, only Hor-naf and Mic-la remained. Mal-gato's chosen champions had even entered and reclaimed the wounded man as some junior moon priest had healed him during the war debate.

“You were supposed to capture the dagger not destroy it.” Hor-naf commented on the shards at their feet.

“I know, but once I felt the light energy not dissipate around him, I knew that he had a shield spell ready, so I had to win in the next exchange.” Zala agreed as she knelt down and ran her hands over the fragments. She frowned when she still felt much of the fire energy still active in the bigger pieces.

“What is it?” Mic-la asked at her frown.

"These are still charged. I think I can reform them into something, and not use them like the knives, but maybe just maybe, still use them to talk to the Gaint… I need a needle and some raw obsidian." She explained. As she channeled the faint energy together and back into the large two pieces.