Within the ancient walls of a Hexoatl training facility, Skinks of both the worker caste and the warrior caste, trained with a variety weapons to prepare themselves for their inevitable participation of war. Two Skinks of the worker caste stood still before a large cabinet of javelins.

"What is the Great Plan?"

"Well that's a really stupid question."

"Your philosophical inquiries of the Great Plan are unproductive. To purge this world of chaos and kill the unworthy… that's all that matters!"

"I…"

"You must be thinking why."

All of the Skinks in the room stood still, leering at the lone skink whom dared question the Great Plan. Suddenly, all of them transformed into horrifying torrents of unorganized blue flesh. Their large golden eyes went missing as their bodies grew large, uncontrollable limbs. In their sickening parody of chaos spawn, they all leapt into the air at the lone Skink whom DARED question the Great Plan.

"THE WILL OF THE OLD ONES, TENX!"

Tenx's orange crested head immediately shot up from his quiet slumber, his heart beating hard against his chest. He looked all around him in frenzy and saw the moist dirt that made his small sleeping crater. Above, he could see the dark, night sky with its countless stars decorating the canvas of it all. It must've been a really horrific dream, for It felt incredibly real as if it happened a few minutes ago.

Tenx tried to focus on getting back to sleep, but the absence of water in his mouth and innards made it fairly uncomfortable. With a heavy sigh, he got up from his crater in search for his body's much wanted water.

All around him laid hundreds of craters the warriors of the army like him used for their uncomfortable sleep. A white tent was propped up among the craters, which was probably Kha'kor's personal quarters.

Tenx went further away from the army's encampment, and further into the humid jungle interior. Ferns were pressured under the slithering movements of his slander tail, and the treacherous undergrowth consented his scaly feet. A small pond appeared in the middle of grey edgy rocks not far away in Tenx's eyesight, making his lust for water nearly unbearable.

Tenx dropped his shield and bladed club near the rocks, before descending his slander body to meet the pond of water and gorge in. Filtering some of it would probably be a good idea, but he primarily didn't care about the unharmful germs.

However, before Tenx could grace his dull snout with water, he heard rustling of foliage somewhere behind him. Tension slightly gripped his mind as he ascended his body at full attention for the origin of that sound. He determined that the cause of the rustling is somewhere to the left in a large myriad of dark green bushes.

Tenx slowly approached the myriad of bushes with a strong grip of his rectangular club, and a fearful mind ready to kill whatever was taking homage in there.

Two brown furred rats with dirty clothing soon sprinted forth from the bushes, and stood staring at the lone blue reptile-thing. The twitchy rats exchanged unintelligible shrills with each other, before charging at their lone target with clean swords hungry for fresh blood.

Tenx immediately braced for their onslaught with his heart throbbing, and shock gripping his mind. Nonetheless, he stood his ground and braced, unsure of what's going to happen next. To his horror, the charging rats split their charges into two directions, and continued their assault on both of his flanks. His teeth grinded at themselves at the fearful sight of such an advance. He'll only be able defend from one at a time, leaving his other flank exposed.

Tenx instinctively lurched backward to gain more distance from his indefensible position, but the rats advanced much faster than he could stagger back. Mentally defeated, he stared into the mad expression of the rats, and sent a silent prayer towards Chotec for protection to survive this.

It would seem Chotec immediately took notice of Tenx's silent prayer, for another Skink almost identical to Tenx's features, swooped down from the darkness of the trees above and bashed one of the rat's heads in with a hard downward swing of a club. It gracefully landed behind the collapsing rat, before leaping onto its new ratty target. Instinctively, the dirty rat shrieked with horror, as it dropped its sword and held scrawny fingers in front of its snouty face. But the club didn't care, as it went above the fingers, and on top of the rat's unprotected head, dropping the rat's horrified face down onto the moist ground.

Tenx lowered his shield and club in awe at his savior. He interestingly noted the Skink's rectangular club had no spikes on it at all, which visually denoted this Skink as the same one from his cohort earlier.

"T-Thanks!"

The Skink turned its nearly identical head, grinning at the heartfelt thanks.

"No problem! But… why did you leave the encampment?"

Tenx embarrassingly grinned at the pond he was hoping he would find peace... and water.

"Well… thirst can often override the instinctual reasoning the living are spawned with, no?"

"Yeah, I've been in those situations before…" the Skink chuckled slightly before continuing again, "Some of them fairly humorous."

The Skinks stood there enjoying each other's company. For Tenx it was like a forgotten experience he had from Hexoatl that was nearly absent when he traveled across the Great Ocean and on to the Southlands. But once again, worry crept into Tenx's mind as he saw the rat corpses twitch lively with obvious signs that they were actually alive instead of being dead.

"The rats, they're still alive!"

The Skink turned around towards the twitching rats with a curious look on its face.

"Of course… you expected them to be dead?"

"Shouldn't we just kill them then?"

The Skink turned towards the rat he just incapacitated. Neither rage, nor contempt entered its mind, even though this vile rat tried to kill its brethren without remorse.

"I don't want to kill them."

Tenx's already wide eyes shot even wider to the Skink's revelation.

"Huh?"

"The constant spilling of blood has taught me the preciousness of life…" The Skink noted Tenx's predictable bafflement grow more, "So, I swore to my soul, that I will never take another's life… Ever."

It took Tenx several seconds to fully take in what he heard, but even then, this strange Skink wasn't completely nonsensical in his eyes

"I've never heard of anyone not wanting to kill… not even in self-defense?"

"It's a lot more common than you think," The skink replied back whilst looking at the unconscious bodies, "Constantly killing with no end in sight… I can't speak for the Sauri, but that would drive me crazy!"

And now Tenx was finding this Skink frighteningly similar to itself. He remembered how it was hard to celebrate his first battle's victory, even though they suffered no casualties.

"What's your name by the way?"

"Yolotli."

"Mine's Tenx."

Yolotli smiled at Tenx before heading off into the direction of the encampment.

"Don't make me have to save you again."

A cold breeze swept through Tenx as he saw Yolotli and his slender tail disappear into the ferns and trees. Yolotli's last remark made Tenx's stomach churn in embarrassment as he remembered his begging to be saved. Somewhat pathetic, he admittedly thought.

In his mind, Tenx sought to drench his thirst, but the rats came first. They are for the most part, motionless, and it would seem they were even sleeping peacefully as if nothing happened to them. He grimly remembered the terror these vile rats caused to him when they were as lively as ever with their swords. Gripping his club harder, he was unsure of what to do with them. If he doesn't kill them here, they will just become a dangerous threat to someone else!

Tenx stood there presiding over the unconscious rats' fates with his club seemingly sharpening itself. He should just kill them and end this quickly. But as minutes of staring went by, the more his resolve withered away, until the sharpened club, hungry for its blood, started to dull itself. He stepped forward, finding his arms unable to power through this feeling and drive the club onto two easy kills before it.

With a heavy sigh, his body peacefully turned around, moving his tail from side to side.

They're only slave rats after all.

Conquatza with his colored feathers crested from various parts of his skink body, was among a field of craters. In each of them was a warrior from Kha'kor's expedition. It felt pretty unnerving for there to be so many craters dug in on the jungle floor, but he discarded that feeling anyway. He needed to meet Kha'kor urgently!

Conquatza was fairly shocked when he heard the reinforcements weren't from Zlatlan, but rather from Hexoatl. It would seem the Slann of the Southlands somehow contacted Hexoatl across the Great Ocean and asked for an expedition of sorts. Whatever how, Conquatza was happy for the reinforcements anyway.

A white tent registered in Conquatza's eyesight, and so did the sound of metal being stricken at with lots of strength. Conquatza's curiosity powered him to meet Kha'kor even more. Upon entering the tent, Conquatza immediately saw a Saurus Scar Veteran crouched down, striking a spear's tip with a sharp rock. Other than that, there were many other weapons surrounding the Saurus Scar Veteran.

"Kha'kor of the Hexoatl Sun Raiders?"

Kha'kor instantly stopped what he was doing, and turned around to meet his Skink chief visitor.

"Yes?"

"The Slann of Zlatlan orders your expedition to travel along the border of the Yuatek River, and attack any Skaven hordes that may be preparing their assault on Zlatlan."

Kha'kor growled in approval before starting his work anew on his spear. But Conquatza spoke up again, for he wanted Kha'kor to accept something else.

"By the way, I brought a gift of my appreciation for the reinforcements earlier." Pedestals of different hues decorated a medium sized basket and Conquatza gestured it forwards with a wide grin for Kha'kor to take it.

"Roasted grubs of Zlatlan's cooking caste, and two potions of Kroxigor's Might!"

But Kha'kor took his disgruntled glance away from the gift and continued on his spear.

Conquatza's excited expression contorted into confusion as Kha'kor completely ignored his gift, and simply worked on his spear as if he wasn't there. He would love to just place it near him, but Kha'kor was wielding a spear almost the same height of his own, and was completely surrounded by weapons. Fear is preventing him from doing so, and he sadly knew that.

"You're still standing there… why?"

Conquatza's heart immediately got pierced by that lowly grumble of Saurian by the Scar Veteran.

"M-My…"

"If you have no further orders for me, return to your assigned duties."

Kha'kor returned to seemingly the only thing he cared about, his inanimate reaper of ratty lives, his spear. With a defeated sigh, Conquatza waltzed out of the tent with his roasted grubs and utterly wasted excitement.

After a while away from the encampment, Conquatza peeked at the deliciously roasted grubs and two large flasks of Kroxigor's might with pure rage. With his claws shaking uncontrollably, he remembered the losses his garrison had to endure, and the many whom will never return to this world.

With a mighty grasp on the basket, he threw it down onto the jungle floor repeatedly until the whole thing was finally an unrecognizable, forgettable heap of mess.

Ear piercing roars reverberated throughout the dark trees as the enraged Skink departed its sense of logical thinking with blood boiling hatred.