"Hahh… Agh… Ugh…"
The chief began eating a few leaves he had, which were special leaves that calmed down pain, if eaten in excess, they might cause hallucinations, but in small quantities they were a good pain killer.
"Dear, are you okay? You pushed yourself too hard…" said his wife.
"I am okay… don't worry about it. Let's continue… Before it gets dark, we have to get there." He said.
Despite his wife's concerns, Kraxka had no time to slack off and he knew they had to continue with their journey. They had to reach the area where he had promised his people that there wouldn't be many threats.
His daughter saw her father's efforts, as she sighed and waved her head, she felt that her father always was sacrificing himself for everyone else, and sometimes hoped he would be a bit more selfish, perhaps taking care of himself wouldn't hurt him…
Over time, the lizardmen crossed through the jungle at a fast speed and had to cross a large river and circle around a lake filled with crocodiles that were quite territorial and ferocious.
However, at the end, they finally reached the place…
The moment they began to step into this territory, the eerie aura of something within this place quickly took over everyone's senses, many people started to instinctively tremble, and a few were reluctant to step any further, but the chief had to show them that it was safe, so he was the first one to step forward, leading everyone else behind him, he crossed through the completely emptied jungle surrounding this strange area, which didn't even had a single bird around, as he reached the depths of this uncharted jungle.
"…"
It was very… normal.
"Huh? There is really nothing here- Agh!"
SMACK!
Kraxka fell over his own butt after he hit something very hard which he wasn't able to see, when he opened his eyes and looked in front of him, he found a large crater that was several meters big, where all the crushed trees and even some corpses crushed alive remained there.
He touched the invisible wall, and it felt very cold, like touching the snow that sometimes fell in winter around the grasslands…
"This is the barrier, isn't it?" he wondered.
He looked into the barrier directly, and found that whatever was there, it was completely invisible and transparent, anyone could see through it to the other side… It was truly quite bizarre, and he didn't knew exactly what to make out of this entire situation.
"This is definitely weird… Just what is this place?" he wondered.
After checking it for a while, he made sure it wasn't dangerous, and then moved back.
Whatever it was, it seemed harmless, but it somehow scared away all life, so it was the best place for his tribe to settle down for the moment.
He called back the tribe and everyone made their way inside, some were scared but they were forced to enter as they saw the rest doing so.
It was already night when they finally finished setting up some small camps to stay the night, Kraxka made a fire and began to grill salted fish with his wife, while his daughter had just come back from picking up edible mushrooms.
"There's a lot of these around the area, not even a single animal has been eating them… So they're all for us." Said Miminga. "We'll have mushrooms for a while."
"That's all good for me." Said Kraxka.
Lizardmen were naturally omnivorous, although they preferred meat for their high caloric intake, and fish was their preferred meal, they had learned to balance their diet with other things, such as algae that grow sin shallow swamps and rivers, herbs, fruit, and mushrooms, and sometimes even tubers.
In times where food was scarce they would often eat these things to survive, so they ended becoming part of their diet, so they don't end up eating all the meat and can satiate themselves with some of the more abundant food such as plants and mushrooms, and sometimes wild fruit.
While eating with his family, the group of orphans he had beaten some sense into approached him, as they brought to him a lot of fruits they had stolen.
"Chief, we wanted to share some of the oranges…"
"Can we eat too?"
"Maybe we could plant the seeds of the oranges, I had not thought about it!"
"Oh, of course. Please, come here you kids." Said the chief.
The orphan kids sat around the chief, as they began to eat the food he and his family were eating, while the chief was given an interesting idea, planting the seeds of the oranges in here and using his life magic to make them grow faster… it didn't seemed too far-fetched…
While the lizardmen finally settled down from danger, the wild tribes from the depths of the jungle were gathering together, with weapons in hand and wearing armor made of even harder scales that their Scaled God gave to them, they began to scout the areas around the jungle, looking for the perfect time to attack the Orange Village.
After all, their lord only wanted one thing, and that was expanding his influence across the land, endlessly… he wanted to acquire all things and once more reign above the land…
Now that he had woken up from his slumber, this was the natural choice of actions that a being as mystical as him should do… Yes, that's what he thought, and he would do so without hesitation.
Meanwhile, Drake enjoyed a day in the Orange Village, completely unaware of these events, although Fuyu sitting over his lap quickly alerted him of something…
"Drake! Some lizardmen just settled at the side of my body… What do I do?" she asked nervously. "They seem to not fear my presence for some reason, and think it is a safe place to sit at my side… Ah! They're even settling down… I think they might even build a village in there…" said Fuyu.
"What? That's weird…" said Drake. "But that gives me an idea… Perhaps we could make some new allies from these jungles and learn more about their situation…" Drake seemed to have a plan.
