The woodland known as Yarikan was a vast jungle. Palm trees towered above the band of slavers. From them hung coconuts as large as boulders and mangoes as red and ripe as a setting sun. Vast green leaves repelled the light of the sun, and shrouded the forest's insides in darkness. Vines dangled from trees like hanging snakes, and a cacophony of calls could be heard from within. Tigers roaring, birds fluttering and squaking- and Jamal screaming.
"You're taking us in there!?" The children were tied to a long, wide poll, which was being carried by Bei and a nameless slaver. Whatever species she was, she ignored the young boar.
It wasn't hard for Surya to understand his classmate's plight. The jungle was black as night, and even some of the slavers seemed hesitant to enter into the unknown.
"B-but you can't!" The boar continued to protest. "That place's haunted and there are ghosts an-and-"
"Shut up Jamal!" Snapped Ravi. "You'll get everyone to hear you."
"There's far worse than ghosts in there." Said the Weeper, wearing a massive grin that made the scarred side of his face that much more terrifying. "The Forests of Yarikan… an expanse of jungle left untouched by the Gods. You won't find ghosts in there- just more creatures like that bear. And they won't let you ride them." He leaned in close to the children- who tried their best to pull away. "Everything in there hungers for flesh. Everything there is simple-minded. Everything there exists to hunt or be hunted." He pulled back and pointed at the trees. By now the other slavers were listening in with rapt attention. "Even the trees are hunters. Some eat flesh, others the mind. Spend too much time among them and you'll end up no better then your prey."
The band shivered as one, and the Weeper- who liked the attention- continued. "Life is a simple rule. We in the Kucha knew it and obeyed it. Everything exists to be devoured. We do not pretend, like you, that we are civilized. We are as we were meant to be. Predators and prey at once. " He jabbed a claw forwards. "In there that is all, all of us are. We are bags of flesh and blood and bone and muscle- powered by instincts and strength of mind alone."
"So do you or do you not believe in reincarnation?"
For a second the Weeper had to pause, the young elephant's question had taken him by surprise.
Bei used this opportunity to dispell the aura of fear amidst her fellow slavers. "We're not going through there anyways. We go around it- like always."
Jamal breathed an incredible sigh of relief, and Surya wiped at his forehead with his bushy tail.
"Actually." Came Quillus' voice. "We're going right through this really narrow bit here." He was holding a map that showed an incredibly narrow part of the jungle. "Much quicker you know. Plus who doesn't like a pleasant walk through the jungle, am I right?" He pointed at the trees behind him- ignoring the random and ominous lightning bolt that flashed behind him.
Many slavers began muttering mutinously.
"What if we get lost?" Demanded Bei, her arms crossed and her brow furrowed.
"We won't get lost coz there's this nice little stream we can follow, see?" He pointed at a raging river a few feet to their left, one filled with hundreds of sharp, jagged rocks.
"How about no?" Snapped Bei. "You're going to risk our lives for a slightly quicker journey? No thanks, we're going the usual way."
"Bei! You're being ridiculous! We just need to be slightly North of Ashtar so that I can get rich!" He jabbed a fat finger at another line on the map.
"Because Putana said so?"
Quillus growled, it was quickly drowned out by the roar of his mighty stead, who once more stood up, ready to deliver a mighty blow to any who should try and strike her beloved pet.
"Because I say so! Now if you're scared I'll just take my slaves and go my way. And when I get to Ashtar none of you are getting so much as a mango!"
"They're our slaves too!" Snapped one slaver.
"Yeah, we helped you raid fatty!" Shouted another.
"Who's the fat one, eh? Come a little closer and say that to my face! I dare you!" Quillus glared at his group. As usual it was Licky's gleaming fangs that actually got the point across.
"I think Quillus is right." To everyone's, and especially Quillus' surprise, the Weeper stood next to him and leaned casually against his bone spear. "Even half a day's march is worth the risk. I was born and bred in jungles like that. There is safety in numbers and as long as we stay together none can make us prey. But we should cross the river here, that way we can loose our scent. A desperate hunter may just decide that we're worth the risk." He eyed the children, all of whom were frozen in fear at the sight of him licking his chops. "Especially when we carry such-"
Licky gave the leopard a light smack. "Alright, you hear that guys? Safety in numbers so stick together. Cross the river now or you'll get every hungry thing for miles around chasing your tail." Quillus lead by example. Or rather Licky did. The bear took the porcupine in her jaws- being mindful of his spines and safety- and effortlessly waded through the river. Once on the opposite bank she shook herself dry and delicately placed the dripping wet Quillus on her back.
The porcupine was used to his partner's taking the lead at some points, and standing up, began to tap his foot against his mount's back. "Come on. We haven't got all day!"
The Weeper was next and made the crossing look just as easy. Back on his homeland be had waded through far worse rivers.
The next slaver was not as skilled as the leopard, as tough as the bear or as lucky as Quillus. He'd stepped on a sharp rock, lost balance and was promptly swept away. His screaming, thrashing form seemed to bounce from jutting rock to jutting rock with horrible sounds of cracking and snapping. By the time his form had vanished most slavers had lost their confidence and the waters downstream had turned slightly pink.
Bei however, was not so unnerved. She grabbed Surya by the scruff, ignoring the fox's desperate squirming and the protests of his peers, shoved him under the water for a minute or two, before she spun round once and launched him at the opposite bank. Licky caught the fox in her jaws, and gently placed the dizzy, dazed and panting kit upon the ground. Bei and the bear proceeded with this technique until all the children had been hurled across the river- where they lay in a groaning pile upon the ground. The black mammal was the next to cross, but she did so by hopping from jagged rock to jagged rock with the speed and grace worthy of a feline. She hadn't gotten herself even slightly wet.
She may have been against the idea to begin with, but she sure as hell was not getting left behind.
The three watched as the rest of the slavers made the crossing one by one. There were no more losses until the last one- a type of goat none present knew the name of, had the misfortune of trying to copy Bei. She had gotten about halfway across the water when her hoof had slipped on the wet rock and with a scream she'd fallen inside. Her head had hit a rock and Quillus- or rather Licky- had covered the children's eyes so they did not have to watch. Somehow, despite the missing blood, the goat was still alive. A shoal of fish seemed to pounce out of the water, and pulled the screaming slaver down under. The water went red and a few moments later a pale white skull was bobbing along downstream.
Crotos Quillus was not a brave mammal and swallowed audibly. "Maybe… maybe we should go the usual way. Yeah, okay, I've changed my mind. We're going the normal way- everyone back across!"
He edged closer to the river, but lost courage upon seeing all the grinning fishes that waited under the clear water- all seemed to lick their lips at the sight of his pudgy form. He swallowed again.
"So we lost two slavers." He shrugged. "Who the hell cares? None of us were friends with them anyways."
The slavers nodded begrudgingly. None of them liked each other and that wasn't exactly a secret.
"And besides." He said, climbing onto Licky's waiting head. "More money for us right?"
At this the remaining raiders and brigands grinned, and with the Weeper in the lead, they advanced into the dark jungle that was the Forest of Yarikan.
"I wanna go home now." Padma said, very quietly, as the darkness of the jungle descended around them.
Surya frowned and awkwardly patted her tail with his own. It was the most encouragement a mute could give at that point.
"Can we take a break?" Blacktooth whined, his companions already a few well-placed paces ahead of him. "We've been running since morning. And grandma says if I run too much I'll burn fat. And I don't wanna burn!"
"Secrat," said Splintnose running besides the she-wolf. "He can't keep it up much longer. We should take a break. Rest up a bit, the food won't move."
Secrat would have objected, but crashed into a tree, this of course ground her to a halt. The other bandits took this as the signal for 'stop'.
Blacktooth practically dropped on his face, his chest heaving from exhaustion as he breathed in lungfuls of air, tongue sagging on his open jaws. Splintnose sat down heavily besides him, stretching his aching limbs. Being smaller the marathon had been considerably harder for the pair of sables. After all, wolves were built for endurance- well, every wolf that wasn't Green-eyes.
"How-" pant- "much-" pant- "further?" He collapsed on top of both sables- having not noticed them. Although the pair proceeded to try their hardest to shove him off they weren't particularly strong. And Green-eyes was too tired to budge.
Secrat pulled herself out of the tree and glared viciously at her companions. "If you three idiots could do half of what I do we'd already be rich! But nooooo, you're all small and helpless. Get up you lazy dogs or I won't get my revenge!"
"It was half a nail." Splintnose complained, squeezing his head out from under his leader's torso. "Noone notices them anyways."
Secrat's face looked red enough to be an inferno. She opened her mouth to release, not only her fangs- with which she could bite the offending sable's head off- but also the power of one hundred thousand verses on how spectacular that specific nail had been.
She never got the chance however, as a very ugly toad- at present trying to rip her own face off appeared. Her face seemed to light up at the sight of them all. Much more desirable than any of her own ugly toads! Even if toads were still by far the best species.
"I have found a sacrifice!" She pointed a shaking webbed finger at the bandits. "Get them!"
There came a great groan, and no less than thirty toads emerged from a rainbow-coloured Banyan tree fort the bandit quartet had somehow missed. All were itching themselves. Backs, arms, faces, and in the case of one- ass cheeks.
"Sacrifice them!" Snapped the toad priestess, growing impatient.
Another groan came and very slowly the toads lumbered forwards.
"Sacrifice them or be sacrificed!"
Now the toads seemed filled with energy, and drew blades from out of thin air. Then they charged the bandit quartet, who screamed very, very loudly.
But luck was on the side of the wolf and sable pack, for their combined screaming had dislodged a coconut from a nearby tree. It came down heavily on the ass-scratching toad, who for some reason wielded a butter knife.
The brief pause in which all the toads stopped and stared at their fallen comrade was enough time for the foolish foursome to make like cheetahs and sprint away- before coming to a halt, panting and clutching stitches ten feet away.
"Wait!" Snapped the Prophet, before her slaves could give chase. "You four fetch me my palanquin! A messenger of the Gods should not have to walk upon the ground."
Meanwhile the bandits were bickering.
"The toads ate all the food, didn't they?" Whimpered Blacktooth.
"There was never any food!" Snapped Splintnose, before pointing an accusatory finger at Secrat. "You lied!"
"Noone likes a conspiracy theorist! Stupid!" Snapped Secrat.
"I think they're zombies." Said Green-eyes seriously. He pointed at the band of slowly charging toads. "Do they look alive to you!?"
"Zombies aren't real!" Splintnose protested. "They're called the Undead, nincompoop."
"Stop making up words!"
"So wait… if all they eat is brains… they can give me food?"
"Blacktooth." Said the albino sable with a facepaw. "There wasn't ever any food, bro."
"So no food?"
"None."
The fat sable took forever to figure out what that meant. By which time the band of toads were gaining on their unmoving targets.
"I think we should fight." Said Green-eyes. "Together we are much stronger than anything. Together we can do anything. If we stand together we are invincible. So no matter what we must stand together!"
"Do you really think that?" Came Splintnose's patronising voice.
"Yes!" The wolf said fiercely.
"-and I want the big wolf's fur coat. I need a new blanket and the Gods know that sleep is extremely important. Plus it looks good for cuddles, am I right?"
"No!" Green-eyes hated cuddles- he was scared of them. And with speed and force that would have put to shame every Greek Olympian of the time, he ran away. Secrat and the sables soon followed.
The tracks vanished at the foot of a forest. A gigantic jungle with palm trees so high not even monkeys could enjoy their fruits.
Tian Yi was sweating, Sanjay was uncharacteristically quiet and even Dianbo felt a chill rush through him. Only Shade seemed unphased by the darkness of the forest.
"Poor kids." Said Sanjay at last. "They must be terrified."
"Y-yeah. P-poor kids." Tian Yi stuttered. "Good thing we're not scared, right guys?"
"Absolutely."
"Of course not."
"The tracks disappear over here which means they either crossed the river or entered directly into the jungle. Personally I think the latter is a better idea due to this river's ill reputation, however, we have no way to prove this and their is a chance they decided to cross. Even so, they'll have to follow the river as it's the only landmark this jungle has. So we should be able to catch sight of them." Explained the black jackal matter-of-factedly.
"So we definitely have to go through the deep, dark woods?"
"Positive." Shade marched casually forwards, becoming almost invisible amidst the shadow of the trees. Dianbo and Sanjay followed suite. Tian Yi hesitated a moment longer before she too, made her way forwards.
Footnote: Much like the Feral Islands, the Forest of Yarikan is a kind of feral hubbub. The prologue of Feral Islands gave all the history and stuff- but I'll summarize it here for your sakes.
It's a tract of land where animals never became anthropomorphic and therefore all prey species behave as they do in our world and all predatory animals are blood-lusted to the extreme. Oh, and though it's not as powerful as on the Feral Islands the same kind of magic that drives animals into ferality is at play here. It's less powerful because I only need it to affect one character, but it's still there. The Weeper kind of mentioned this in his speech but you may have missed it so here it is for all to see.
An in-universe explanation for it being less powerful is that it's situated on a mainland rather than far out to sea.
This is also the point where this story earns it's T-rating. It's still not going to be as dark as something like The Feral Islands (as an example) but it will have it's moments of tension-mounting horror- like the crossing the river scene for example. I didn't go into too much detail obviously and arguably the overall rating of this is K+ but it's better safe then sorry.
Originally the Forests of Yarikan were inside a canyon- but I changed it here for the sake of plot. So I kept the crossing but not the climbing part of this chapter. And yes, as you probably guessed the bandits are still at play.