Chapter Ten
Aladar had scurried along with everyone else when both the raptor pack and Little Beast came to take another bite out of the herd. However, then he called out to his grandparents, he noticed he wasn't hearing anything from them. "Grandma, Grandpa? Where are you?" Aladar asked when they didn't reply to his initial call. He searched around, calling again and again, but could not find them until finally, Kron came along.
"Kron, what's happened to my grandparents? What have you done to them!?" he demanded. The older iguanodon merely smirked and chuckled before calmly making his reply to Aladar.
"I didn't do anything other than talk them into realizing the necessity of falling behind before the attack. Thanks to you, your grandfather was enduring an infection from those crocodile bites he got before you rescued him, I had to stop the contagion before it spread. So your grandparents agreed to sacrifice themselves to slow down Little Beast, the next time we needed to put a move on it," Kron said. Aladar was almost ready to explode, having no reason to believe a word Kron said even if there was no reason not to mistrust him.
"So you killed my mother, smashed my siblings to bits when they were still eggs, put my grandparents to the fringes of the herd, tried to get me to let my grandfather die, and now this!? How dare you, Kron!" Aladar exclaimed. He's angry... good, perhaps now he'll challenge me without provocation or support Kron thought. But Aladar did something that surprised him, something he couldn't have seen coming with all his plots and schemes. For Aladar did challenge him but not under the circumstances that he was hoping for, to escape punishment.
"Everyone! Listen up, listen to me!" Aladar shouted, making sure his voice was heard across the entirety of the herd. The ones closest to them immediately listened, including former Kron-ally Landen, who had become disillusioned in Kron's strength since his brother's death. After all, Noah sacrificed his life so that Landen could deliver the message that One-Eye's family were on the herd's tail and what did Kron choose to do? He chose to flee when the herd had stood against four times the number of carnotaurs there were now under Bruton's command.
Still, Aladar waited until there were listening members of the herd as far as the eye could see, even repeating his command to make sure. When he knew he had the attention of as many as he could readily get, he then continued. "Kron is a coward and a fool who has no vision for our survival if he can avoid making sure we escape with our lives. I state my grievances as following: he let my father die when he defended the herd from One-Eye's carnotaur family! He killed my mother when Bruton gave his life so that my family could live, deposed my grandparents, and smashed my siblings when they were still eggs in an effort to wipe out Bruton's line!" Aladar began.
By Old Gotama, he's listing his grievances with me and rallying support for a challenge before issuing it! If he even gets one vote in his favor, he will have the right to fight me with the approval of the herd! Kron stated to himself. This was frightful because this was the way that challenger's traditionally obtained approval and he knew his supporters were dwindling without this. If Aladar went by tradition for this, the herd may even be willing to help him put Kron down if he tried a dirty trick of some sort during the fight. Kron would have to defeat his challenger, beast to beast, dinosaur to dinosaur, if he wanted some margin of approval back.
Nonetheless, it got worse as Aladar continued to talk, not because his words were scathing (though they were) but because they were true. He had no interest in letting very many herd members survive, believing only the strongest and fittest deserved to live unlike his predecessor. "At the crocodile crossing, Kron ordered I let my grandfather die when the crocodiles came for him and now he says he ordered them to fall behind! He says it was because my grandfather experienced an infection from the bite that could be contagious!" Aladar continued. He's falling into a trap, he could lose support here, good: let him finish his piece! Kron hoped mentally.
"But really, when has a bite ever been so contagious it infected the whole herd without mingling blood? When has there ever been a bite so serious there was an actual need for such containment measures? For these reasons, I declare that I shall challenge Kron to a duel for leadership and the loser will be banished forthright! If there are any opposed, speak your piece now!" Aladar exclaimed. By Gotama, he's covered his tracks good! Even the slowest members of the herd will get that he is right about that! Kron told himself, afraid.
And he was right about that, as there had been no bite-based contagion so bad that more than one member of the herd not bitten was infected anyway. There might have been more than one member of the herd who was bitten and got infected but they succumbed at different rates. Besides that, the only thing that traditionally happened with such herd members was that they were given permission by the alpha to stay behind if it was bad enough on their well-being. Only when the alpha approved and the herd had tried everything were they normally allowed to die. Confirming that he had done a worse job of covering his tracks than he initially thought, not even Landen (who had been a staunch supporter at one time) refused to speak up.
"Then what say you Kron? Will you fight me or will you admit your shame and accept your exile?" Aladar asked when there was no vote against him. Kron knew that if he didn't accept, he would be disgraced and Neera would quite possibly need to join with Aladar to save grace! That was just it, now that he thought about it: why hadn't his own sister, his own flesh and blood, spoken up for him as well!? It didn't matter now but what did matter was the challenge needed to be accepted lest he take on a worse shame than being defeated.
"So be it, when do you wish to fight me?" he asked. It was all he could do to say that in the face of such overwhelming support for Aladar and his challenge. But Aladar made one crucial move that could yet prove fatal, something Kron took delight in.
"Anytime you're ready, fight me now if that's what it means. Are shall you rescind your acceptance of the challenge?" Aladar replied. It was then that Kron smiled and rather than delay, he positioned himself ready to charge and face his younger adversary. Aladar positioned himself to meet the charge and when Kron released his fury, the younger iguanodon readily met it. The two wrestled, standing on the hind legs to test another's strength without the usage of their thumb spikes.
Like many fighters before them, including Aladar's grandfather, even Kron knew better than to resort at once to the thumb spikes. Unlike his fight with Yar, Kron couldn't just go against tradition and gut Aladar while he was vulnerable. The herd would surely hang him for that and be without a leader until someone won in all the fighting to follow. Nonetheless, it seemed like wrestling made him and Aladar to be evenly matched which was no surprise. Kron was still considerably young and fit though his adversary was younger and in the prime of his youth.
Not to mention that, in a way, Aladar had trained for this when he would aid his grandmother across dangerous sections of their journey like the crocodile swell. Sometimes, he even carried both his grandparents through, acting to swell the muscle in his body enormously. Plus, because he was younger and more fit, his stamina would last longer than Kron's would and the older iguanodon knew this. So he pushed Aladar off and began swinging his right thumb spikes to and fro in the hopes he could jab it into the younger iguanodon's neck. Instead, the young iguanodon took a chance and turned around, whipped his tail across faster than Kron could act.
It hit Kron in the center of his face's left hand side before Aladar swung back around and hit him on the other before straightening out his tail. The hits had caused Kron to lose a few replaceable teeth but the fact they had been knocked out meant Aladar struck first blood. This would look like Kron was getting weak unless he acted, and quickly, to stop his opponent. I wish you hadn't said exile was what was at stake so that I could destroy you here and now! he hissed silently. Nonetheless, he charged the younger iguanodon at a moment of vulnerability: when his side was turned to face Kron.
Instead, what happened was that Aladar ran past at the last possible moment and Kron fell flat to his chest with a little help from a push from Aladar. But Kron was soon back on his feet, having use his tail to sweep up some blinding dust against his younger opponent. It was all the distraction he need to use one of his thumb spikes, slicing into a bit of Aladar's chest. Though it was a flesh-deep wound, it stung enough for Aladar to notice but not enough to slow him down as Kron had hoped. Still, the younger fighter tried to get a good jab in but Kron whipped his tail in time to knock Aladar to his side.
In the time it took Kron to face his opponent again and prepared to make the final coup de grace, Aladar recovered but stayed on his belly. He waited until Kron was ready to make his next jab and watched to see if he would rise to his hind legs before making the blow. Kron did so like clockwork and at the last moment it was possible, Aladar charged in. He ducked his head and pushed against Kron's belly until he was sure that Kron's feet were off the ground. Once he knew this was so, he lifted his head with enough force to put him on his back when he landed.
The younger iguanodon then belly flopped on top of Kron and pinned Kron's free arm with an arm of his own. Knowing Kron couldn't do anything with his feet once placed on his back, Aladar knew that he had him if he could just hold on for long enough. "Do you yield Kron?" Aladar asked calmly. Kron kept struggling, trying to desperately to get out but Aladar's weight and the strength his vengeance and fury gave him kept the older beast pinned down. The old beast even let out cries of pain which let the herd know that Aladar was gaining the edge on him.
"I won't tell you again: yield!" Aladar demanded. Kron knew there was no way out, that Aladar could keep this hold longer than Kron could possibly struggle. For one thing, it didn't take much for him to simply pin Kron's free arm and he was applying his full weight to his chest. The younger iguanodon was straining a little though which was going to have to be the smallest consolation prize for the old tyrant. Finally, he had no choice, the pain of the hold becoming much too unbearable even for him to take anymore.
"Alright, I yield," he said in his normal voice but the younger dinosaur didn't accept that. Growling, under his breath, he told Kron exactly the kind of proclamation he wanted to hear from the old beast.
"So they can hear you," he hissed. Kron initially kept struggling which was a right of his since he had said he yielded to his challenger. Likewise, that said, it was Aladar's right to ask him to repeat that for the whole herd so they were both in the rights. Besides, what could it hurt if he was going to be banished anyway? He had sown the damage he could and hopefully, that would break Aladar's spirit enough for someone else to challenge him, not too long after this.
"I yield!" Kron shouted, making sure that everyone immediately around them could hear. True to his word, Aladar let go and when he did, he bellowed in triumph, declaring himself leader of the herd. To Kron's chagrin, the herd bellowed back their unanimous acceptance of the new regime change, happy it had fallen back into the line of mighty Bruton.
"Kron, you know the consequences of your failure. You are hereby banished and never allowed to return to the herd!" Aladar declared. He walked off in triumph but Kron wasn't quite done yet: he had only said he yielded because he knew the vulnerability it created. Now, he could take the chance he had been waiting for and strike down his younger adversary while his back was turned. But before he could deliver the blow, Landen rammed him in the ribs with the top of his head and both fell down to the ground as Kron's failed attempt on Aladar's life was ended.
Kron's exile was confirmed in that one glorious stroke of loyalty on Landen's part, a stroke that said Aladar had won fairly and no one was accepting cheap shots. "Fine, I'll go! You can all watch me go but he will lead you to your ends faster than I can! He promises relief from the carnotaurs yet look at what it took to reduce them to just three! Aladar will destroy the herd like his father nearly did!" Kron warned in a last desperate measure.
"When Bruton struck back, it was an acceptable casualty of war. It will be the same again if One-Eye and his brothers come for us once more," Aladar snapped. The herd accepted this and pushed past Bruton as they joined their new leader and his new vision for the herd. No longer bound to the shackles of survival of the fittest, even the eldest were instilled with a new vigor. Zini the lemur, of course, watched all of this with a sense of wonder and pride for the dinosaur his best friend had become in a very short time indeed, smiling from end to end in gloating.