Battle For
Dinosaur Planet
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2012
by Jody Studdard
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be sold or given to another person. If you would like to share this eBook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this eBook and you did not purchase it, or if it was not purchased for your use only, please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.
This eBook is a work of fiction. Any similarities to actual persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental.
Cover design by Jody Studdard, copyright 2012.
For my family and friends
The Gateway
Captain James Bowman sat in the command chair at the center of the Phoenix’s bridge. He spoke into a small audio recorder in his left hand.
“Command log, November 24, 2428. We’re in orbit around Antos, the fourth planet in the Morna system. Our research and scientific teams on the planet’s surface have finally completed their work, and as such we are making final preparations to test the Manani gateway. Two preliminary tests have already been run, using unmanned probes, and both have been a complete success, so we are now preparing the Phoenix for an attempt. If this experiment is a success, we will have redefined interstellar travel as we know it.”
The Phoenix’s communications officer, an attractive, young lieutenant named Ashley Martinez, adjusted her headset, then glanced over at James. “Captain,” she said, “all preliminary checks have been completed on the surface. They’re about to activate the gateway.”
“On screen,” James said.
An image formed on the screen at the front of the Phoenix’s bridge. It was the planet Antos, as seen from their perspective in orbit. The lush, tropical planet appeared absolutely normal at first, but a few seconds later, an enormous beam of light shot from its surface. James had to blink his eyes to help them get used to the beam’s brightness. The minute the beam reached orbit, it coalesced and formed into a massive, spinning, circular gateway that, in many ways, reminded James of some type of interstellar whirlpool.
“Do we have full formation?” he asked.
The Helix’s science officer, Lieutenant S’ondra Ala Ola, answered his question from her work station at the back of the bridge. “We do,” she said. “Everything checks out, with readings exactly the same as the first two attempts. And we’ve got a green light from the surface.”
James turned to his chief navigations officer, a lieutenant named Curt Williams, who sat at his work station at the front of the bridge, just a few meters away from the view screen. Williams was an athletic man with dark skin, brown eyes, and a shaved head.
“Take us in, Mr. Williams,” James said.
A second later, the Phoenix’s massive engines sprang to life, and the Alliance battleship moved forward, heading directly toward the center of the spinning gateway.
“Three seconds to entry,” Curt said. “Two, one.”
The journey through the gateway was an experience like none James had ever experienced. It was like traveling through a long, spiraling, psychedelic tunnel, one that wound its way first to the left, then to the right, then up, then back down. At one point, it made him dizzy and a bit disoriented, but the sensation did not last for long. Within a couple of seconds, it was over, and the Phoenix had once again returned to normal space, and it was now in orbit above a large, rocky, red planet.
“Report,” James said. “Location?”
“We’re in the Gorlandu system,” Curt responded, reading the printouts on the console in front of him. “We’re in orbit around the third planet, Odava.”
James smiled. He could hardly believe it. With the use of the Manani gateway, the Phoenix had traveled, almost instantaneously, from one side of the galaxy to the other.
But their experiment was not yet complete. They still had to make certain they could get back safely.
“Is the gateway still open?” James asked.
Curt nodded.
“Take us in.”
Less than five seconds later, they were back in the Morna system, once again in orbit around Antos.
“Send word to the surface,” James said. “The experiment was a complete success, in every way. The Manani pyramids, and their gateways, are the discovery of a lifetime.”
The Devite
Archbishop Falleen stood on a dais at the front of a large congregation, in a temple on his home planet of Devite Prime. He held a book in one hand and a staff in the other.
“Blessed are the Devite,” he said. “And all who follow them.”
Archbishop Falleen was a Devite, the major race indigenous to the planet Devite Prime. Like most Devite, Archbishop Falleen was humanoid in appearance, with deep, black skin and a matching pair of cranial horns, one growing from each side of his forehead, just above the corners of his eyes. He wore a long, flowing robe that covered the majority of his body but had a slit in the back that allowed his long, forked tail to wave freely from side to side.
“Blessed are the Devite,” the congregation chanted, repeating his words.
“It is easy to stray from the path of righteousness,” Archbishop Falleen said, “so one must always be wary. Temptation and wickedness await us around every corner.”
He was about to continue his sermon when another Devite entered the room and rushed immediately to his side. It was one of Archbishop Falleen’s highest ranking aides, Priestess Anahira. Unlike Archbishop Falleen, who had deep, ebony skin, Priestess Anahira’s skin was crimson.
“I need to speak to you,” Priestess Anahira said. There was a look of great excitement, and extreme urgency, in her eyes.
“I assume this is of great importance,” Archbishop Falleen said. “As you know, Priestess, interrupting prostration is sacrilege.”
“I assure you, your eminence,” Priestess Anahira said with a slight bow. “It is.”
Archbishop Falleen nodded, then turned briefly to his congregation. “I apologize for the interruption. I will only be a minute.”
At that, he turned and followed Priestess Anahira into a nearby hallway. Priestess Anahira was so excited she could hardly wait to make her report.
“Our reports have finally been confirmed,” she said. “The Alliance experiment on Antos was a success.”
Archbishop Falleen’s eyes grew large. “So it is true?” he asked. “The Manani gateway is fully operational?”
Priestess Anahira nodded. “And it’s everything we hoped for, your eminence. Instantaneous travel to the furthest reaches of the galaxy. With it, we will finally have the means to spread our beliefs throughout the cosmos. The number of followers we will amass will be boundless.”
Archbishop Falleen’s heart raced. The Devite were a highly spiritual race, and the one thing they cherished above all others was their religion. Massive temples had been built in every city on Devite Prime to pay homage to their many gods and goddesses, and large churches could be found in every neighborhood. Every aspect of Devite life was affected by their religion, and their government was little more than a puppet controlled by the church. The Devite religion itself, like most religions, was complicated, with many tenets and beliefs, but the most important was the Tenet of Continuance, which espoused the belief that the only way evil could be defeated was if the Devite themselves defeated it, and the only way the Devite could defeat it was if they converted enough people to their religion so as to overwhelm evil by sheer might itself.
As such, over the eons, the Devite had sent many missionaries into space, and they had spent the past five hundred years converting as many people as possible, but their efforts had been slow and only partially successful. They had met many races with their own belief systems, each more absurd than the last. But the greatest problem the Devite had faced had nothing to do with competing religions at all. Their greatest problem was strictly logistic — Devite Prime sat on the edge of the galaxy, far from the most densely populated solar systems. As such, travel to other planets, and to their peoples, had been almost as difficult as the conversion process itself.
But that was all about to change forever. Recently, there had been a discovery in the Antos system of a means of travel that would allow the Devite to spread their beliefs easily and quickly throughout the heavens.
“We must gain control of the Manani pyramid immediately,” Archbishop Falleen said.
“It will not be easy,” Priestess Anahira said. “The humans have a battleship in the system, the Phoenix, commanded by a man named James Bowman. He realizes the value of the gateway, too, and he will not surrender it without a fight.”
Archbishop Falleen grimaced. He had dealt with humans on numerous occasions in the past, and he had never liked them. They were an arrogant, hypocritical, pagan race from the third planet in the Sol system. Although they were one of the galaxies younger races, their power and influence was undeniable.
“Blessed are the Devite,” Archbishop Falleen said. “Damned are those who oppose them. Ready my ship for immediate departure. If Captain Bowman and the humans resist, they shall be destroyed. Claiming control of the gateway is the will of the Devite.”
“As you wish, your eminence,” Priestess Anahira said. She spun on her heel, turned, and rushed away.
With a smile, Archbishop Falleen returned to his congregation and continued his sermon. As the two Devite departed ways, neither of them noticed a tall, hooded man, who had originally been part of Archbishop Falleen’s congregation, but had arisen and followed them stealthily into the hallway. The man stood in the shadows near a small archway, still within earshot, but just out of sight. His name was Michael Cruise, and he was an operative in the Alliance’s top secret intelligence agency. He was actually a human, but he was disguised as a Devite peasant and, as such, was virtually indistinguishable. As soon as the conversation between Archbishop Falleen and Priestess Anahira concluded, he pulled a small, metallic case from under his robes. The case held a high-tech, deep-space communicator, and he removed and activated it.
A second later, he had sent a warning to the Morna system.
Trouble was on its way.
The Dauphins
Archbishop Falleen sat at a desk in his personal quarters aboard the Devite warship, Conquest. He watched carefully as a series of schematics appeared on the monitor in front of him. His concentration was broken temporarily as a chime sounded.
“Come,” he said.
The door on the far side of the room slid open, and Priestess Anahira entered.
“Priestess,” Archbishop Falleen said. “Thank you for coming so quickly. I’ve been doing a little research on Antos, and it appears the humans may have the planet protected a little better than I originally anticipated.”
“Surely their battleship is no match for us,” Priestess Anahira responded. “Human technology is impressive, but not in comparison to ours.”
“I’m not worried about their battleship,” Archbishop Falleen said. “I’m worried about the surface. The Manani pyramid is near a large Onduran village, and the Ondurans have been known to ally with the humans. The two forces worked together in the past to defeat both the Drazi and the Jumanji. I’m fearful if we move on the pyramid, the Ondurans will assist the humans in defending it. And they may also gain assistance from another race, called the Iztaza, who allied with the humans and Ondurans during the Jumanji occupation. We simply do not have a ground force capable of dealing with all three of them at once.”
“What will we do?” Priestess Anahira asked. “The only way we can use the gateway is if we get access to the pyramid. It contains the main control panel that activates the gateway.”
“Exactly,” Archbishop Falleen said. “I think I may have found something that will help us. Antos has numerous races, the three most prevalent being the Ondurans, the Iztaza, and the Dauphins.”
A puzzled look crossed Priestess Anahira’s face. “I’ve never heard of the Dauphins before,” she said.
“The Dauphins are an amphibious, aquatic race,” Archbishop Falleen explained. “They live primarily in underwater cities along the continent’s southern coast. I believe they would help us if we asked for it.”
“Why?” she asked. “Do you think they will accept our beliefs?”
Archbishop Falleen smiled. “In time,” he said, “all of the races will accept our beliefs. The Dauphins included. But there is something more about them I think will help us. According to Onduran legend, hundreds of years ago, the Dauphins, led by a great leader named Anela, attempted to invade Antos’s continent. King Anela and his army actually managed to conquer over half of the continent before the Ondurans and the Iztaza allied, defeated them, and drove them back to the ocean, where they have remained, largely in hiding, ever since. My research tells me the Dauphins are a naturally aggressive race, and as such, wouldn’t hesitate to try to conquer the continent again if they were given the chance.”
“What do you want me to do?” Priestess Anahira asked.
“I want you to go to the surface and contact the Dauphin leader,” Archbishop Falleen said. “Give them the encouragement and resources they need. Have them conquer the surface while I conquer the space above it.”
“I know little of these Dauphins,” Priestess Anahira said. “How do you expect me to gain their cooperation?”
“You’re a resourceful woman,” Archbishop Falleen said. “You’ll find a way. Use whatever means are necessary.”
“Yes, your eminence,” she said with a bow. “Blessed are the Devite.”
“Blessed are the Devite,” he repeated.
Archbishop Falleen could not have been happier. His plan to conquer Antos, and its Manani pyramid, was rapidly coming to fruition. Within days, the ability to spread the Devite religion throughout the galaxy would be his.
A New Threat
Captain James Bowman sat in his command chair, reviewing a message that had been sent to them from an Alliance operative working undercover on the planet Devite Prime. He turned to Lieutenant Ashley Martinez, who sat at her communications station.
“This message checks out?” he asked.
“I checked it twice,” Ashley said. “Its access and ID codes are valid. As such, I believe it’s legitimate.”
“Me, too,” Lieutenant Steve Matthews said from his security station. “I ran a check myself, and the identification code matches the one assigned to an operative named Michael Cruise. He’s one of our best agents, and was partially responsible for the apprehension of that group of Drazi terrorists on Clackjon IV three years ago.”
James turned back to the message. “If this report is true, then, we should be receiving unwelcomed guests any minute now.” He put special emphasis on the word ‘unwelcomed.’
Almost on cue, the Phoenix’s chief navigations officer, Lieutenant Curt Williams, spun in his chair to face James.
“Sir,” Curt said. “A ship has entered orbit on the far side of the planet.”
“Dare I ask what type?” James asked.
“As expected,” Curt said, “it’s Devite. Warship-class.”
James was not happy, not to say the least. The Alliance had had numerous encounters with the Devite in the past, and they had all ended in trouble, and some in bloodshed. The Devite religion was inflexible and intolerant, and the Devite had a long history of attacking and conquering nearby solar systems. The Alliance had been forced to come to the aid of many of those systems in the past. As a young lieutenant serving aboard the Odyssey, James had helped liberate the peoples of Kantares Minor, who had been occupied and enslaved by the Devite.
James turned to Ashley at her communications station. “Hail them,” he said.
An image of the Devite leader, Archbishop Falleen, appeared on the screen at the front of the bridge.
“I’m Captain James Bowman of the Alliance starship Phoenix,” he said. “State your business in this system.”
“I’m Archbishop Falleen of the Devite,” Archbishop Falleen responded. “We are here to claim possession of the Manani pyramid and its gateway.”
James responded immediately. “The pyramid and its gateway belong to Antos’s indigenous peoples, the Ondurans and the Iztaza.”
“You’re using it,” Archbishop Falleen said. “Are you not?”
“We’re using it,” James said, “with the permission of the Onduran and Iztaza people.”
“The Ondurans and the Iztaza are primitives,” Archbishop Falleen responded. “They are no concern of mine.”
James did not like what he was hearing, not one bit. Archbishop Falleen hadn’t said much, but what he had said was extremely disrespectful. And somewhat hostile.
“I must warn you,” James said. “The Ondurans requested our assistance many years ago, so they were made an Alliance protectorate. If you threaten them in any way, you will deal with us.”
Archbishop Falleen smiled. “Blessed are the Devite,” he said. “Damned are those who oppose them.”
Without another word, his image vanished from the screen.
“Sir,” Curt said. “A shuttle and numerous dropships have deployed from the Devite warship. They are heading for the surface, toward the continent’s southern coastline.”
James sighed. He could hardly believe what was happening. It had been less than a month since their last altercation on Antos, with the Jumanji, and they had barely survived that altercation. The Phoenix’s chief engineer, Lieutenant Andrei Popov, was still completing some of the ship’s repairs.
Regardless, James knew what needed to be done.
He turned to his first officer, Commander Janine James. Janine was an attractive woman in her mid to late thirties, with long, blonde hair and sparkling eyes.
“Prepare a ground team,” he said. “Take the marines with you. Coordinate things with Chief Mol-vin and Queen Zazu, and protect the Manani pyramid at all cost. In the meantime, I’ll see what I can do up here.”
Janine nodded, spun on her heel, and departed.
James turned back to the rest of his bridge crew.
“Here we go again,” he said. “Mr. Matthews, arm the torpedoes.”
King Haku
Immediately upon entering orbit around Antos, Priestess Anahira took a shuttle, with a pilot and a small group of guards, and set course for the surface. The trip was relatively swift and uneventful, and the planet’s surface was exactly as she had expected — jungle, jungle, and more jungle. She had her pilot keep to the far side of the continent at first, where the human ships in orbit would be less likely to try to intercept them. Luckily, the trip was a quick one, and they located one of the Dauphin cities relatively easily.
But getting to it was another story. It was located completely underwater, and to reach it, they had to enter the water and make their way through the planet’s massive ocean, which was something their shuttle could do, but it made Priestess Anahira nervous anyway. Like many Devite, she was uncomfortable around large bodies of water, and had rarely been around any, let alone in one. Her home world, Devite Prime, was a frozen, largely barren planet, so water, in its liquid form, was almost non-existent.
The first few moments of their undersea voyage were uneventful. They reached the seafloor and made their way through a long, underwater cavern that wound first to the right, then to the left, then back again. After the cavern, they made their way through a dense forest of kelp and seaweed. It was like a massive, underwater forest, and visibility inside it was limited, making the whole place seem somewhat spooky. Just as they made it to its far side, danger struck. A plesiosaur emerged from behind them, seemingly coming at them from out of nowhere. The creature was enormous, at least twenty meters in length, and it had a long, broad body, four flipper-like fins (two on each side of its body), a long, slender neck, and a mouth filled with fangs.
“Avoid it,” Priestess Anahira said.
Her pilot followed her commands, veering the shuttle hard to the right, and he somehow managed to avoid the beast’s massive jaws, but by less than half a meter. Undaunted, the plesiosaur came after them again, and for a creature its size, it was incredibly fast. Within seconds, it was upon them again, and it thrashed out with one of its massive flippers, smashing a portion of the shuttle’s canopy. A seal in the canopy ruptured, spraying small amounts of water into the cockpit. The shuttle’s co-pilot rushed to fix it before it could do any major damage.
In the meantime, the pilot dodged again, this time hard to the left, and narrowly avoided another blow. Seconds later, however, the creature was on them again.
“Enough of this foolishness,” Priestess Anahira said, growing impatient. She had not traveled all of the way from Devite Prime to Antos to be stopped by some strange, aquatic, primeval beast. She raised her staff into the air in front of her and closed her eyes. Instantly, the gemstone on the end of the staff began to glow.
“Blessed are the Devite,” she said. “Damned are those who oppose them.”
A second later, there was a bright flash of light, and a bolt of lightning jumped from the end of her staff. The lightning raced through the shuttle (amazingly, causing it no damage whatsoever) and struck the plesiosaur, blowing the beast completely backward and frightening it so badly it turned and swam away.
“That’s more like it,” Priestess Anahira said, opening her eyes again. “Now we can continue our mission.”
Less than twenty minutes later, they arrived at the Dauphin city, Laku Ulu. It was an impressive place. It was much larger than Priestess Anahira had expected, and it was built along a massive reef. The buildings themselves were stylish and unique, and they were unlike anything Priestess Anahira had ever seen. They were made largely of coral and kelp, and they were built on, around, and in the reef itself.
“Our destination?” the pilot asked.
“Scan and find the largest building,” Priestess Anahira responded. “It’s bound to be their palace.”
Minutes later, they were escorted by a group of Dauphin soldiers into a large room with a dais on one side. Sitting in a throne on the dais was the Dauphin leader, King Haku. Like most Dauphin, King Haku was humanoid in appearance, with numerous aquatic and amphibian features, including bulbous, fish-like eyes, gills on each side of his neck, webbed fingers and toes, and deep green scales that covered the entirety of his body. The Dauphins were armed with crude swords that appeared to be made of coral or stone, and King Haku himself was armed with a trident.
“State your business,” he demanded.
“We come seeking your assistance,” Priestess Anahira said. She hesitated for a second, still trying to get used to speaking underwater. The helmet she was wearing, to put it mildly, was less than comfortable. “We propose an alliance.”
“Who are you?” King Haku asked. “I’ve never seen your people before.”
“My name is Priestess Anahira,” she said, “of the Devite.”
“Blessed are the Devite,” her men repeated from behind her.
“We come from the planet Devite Prime, in the Omega Danti System,” she continued.
“We do not deal with offlanders,” King Haku said. “In our experience, offlanders have always proven untrustworthy.”
Priestess Anahira smiled. “You may want to reconsider that position,” she said. “We need your assistance, but we offer much in return.”
“Such as?” King Haku asked.
“Control of the continent,” Priestess Anahira said.
“The continent is controlled by the Ondurans and the Iztaza,” King Haku said. “As we learned long ago, we are no match for them.”
“Maybe not on your own,” Priestess Anahira said. “But with our help, you would be. We can supply you with ships and weapons. Not a large amount, but enough to get the job done.”
“And what do you ask in return?” King Haku asked.
“For now,” Priestess Anahira said, “only one thing. Once the continent is conquered, we get control of the central Manani pyramid. The rest of the continent is yours to do with as you please.”
At that point, one of King Haku’s advisors, a man named General Akamu, who had been standing at his side during the conversation, leaned over to say something to him. Priestess Anahira raised an eyebrow as she noticed something peculiar about him. Clearly, he was a member of a Dauphin subspecies of some sort. Unlike King Haku, General Akamu had an oversized, crab-like claw for a right arm.
“I do not like this,” he said. “Not one bit. We know nothing about these people. How do we know they can be trusted?”
King Haku smiled. “General Akamu,” he said. “As always, you are ever so cautious. Priestess Anahira and her people may have just offered us the opportunity of a lifetime. Finally, after all of these years, we can seek our revenge against the Ondurans and the Iztaza.”
“That war happened hundreds of years ago,” General Akamu said. “Let it remain where it belongs, in the past. We Dauphins have moved on. And we have thrived. Look at our cities here in the ocean. We have no need for the continent. If anything, we should be working to re-establish relations with the Ondurans and the Iztaza. We should not attack them.”
“I disagree,” King Haku said. “We Dauphins can never be great, and we will never be able to realize our full potential, until we control the entire planet. Hiding under the waves, as we have done for hundreds of years, is for cowards.”
He turned back to Priestess Anahira. “I will accept your offer,” he said. “However, I want a showing of good faith. You claim you have the power to help us defeat the Ondurans and the Iztaza. I want to see an example of this power.”
Priestess Anahira smiled. “Power,” she said, “is my specialty.”
Without another word, a bolt of lightning jumped from her staff and struck General Akamu squarely in the chest, sending him toppling, head over heels, from the side of the dais. He wasn’t hurt badly, but it did take him several long minutes to climb back to his feet and recover.
“Excellent,” King Haku said. “Excellent indeed.”
“Blessed are the Devite,” Priestess Anahira said. “Damned are those who oppose them.”
Fu-va
Lil-rel was on top of the world. He had wanted a pet his entire life, and, after what had seemed like an eternity, his parents had finally allowed him to get one. But it hadn’t been easy, not at all. He had managed to convince his father, Fa-rel, first, and his father had eventually even tried to help him with his mother.
“It’ll be good for him,” Fa-rel said. “Having a pet will teach him responsibility.”
But, despite being one of the strongest, most courageous warriors in the entire tribe, they all knew who held the real power in his family.
His mother, A-donna.
And, like all mothers, she was overprotective and cautious. “He’s only seven,” she said. “What if he gets hurt? What if he falls off? What if he gets trampled?”
It had taken weeks, and some additional assistance from Lil-rel’s grandfather, Chief Mol-vin, but they had finally persuaded A-donna to let him get one.
And he got a good one. A pentaceratops.
The beast was impressive. In many ways, it resembled a triceratops, but it had five horns instead of the triceratops’s three (the two additional horns were on opposite sides of its head, just below the corners of its eyes). It was still a juvenile, so it was far from full grown, but already it was at least four meters long, and its neck frill was enormous, at least as far as Fa-rel was concerned. Fa-rel got the pentaceratops from one of his friends, whose father owned several dinosaurs, including a female pentaceratops who had hatched some eggs awhile back.
“Quite impressive,” Chief Mol-vin said as he watched Fa-rel climb onto the creature’s back and ride it around the village. “Quite impressive indeed.”
“Magnificent,” Fa-rel said, as he stood to Chief Mol-vin’s side. “It’s rare you see one with that coloration. The gold frill is stunning.”
“Indeed,” Chief Mol-vin said.
“Please be careful,” A-donna said.
Lil-rel shook his head. His mom was so silly. He knew exactly what he was doing. He had ridden many dinosaurs over the years, but none that was quite as impressive as his own, of course.
“What are you going to name him?” Fa-rel asked.
Lil-rel smiled. “That’s an easy one,” he said. “I’m gonna call him Fu-va.”
They all laughed. Fu-va was the Onduran word for ‘Spike.’ The name wasn’t that creative, by any means, but at the same time, it made perfect sense.
Lil-rel spent the rest of the day riding Fu-va around the village, showing him off to all of his friends, including a really cute girl named U-vanna, then decided to get a little more adventurous and head into the surrounding jungle for awhile. He told his parents he would only be gone for a few minutes, but instead he ended up having so much fun riding Fu-va he completely lost track of the time. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, he had ridden all of the way from the Onduran village to the continent’s coastline (roughly a two hour voyage), and he stopped momentarily to look out over the ocean and admire the gorgeous sunset, which was a brilliant combination of reds, oranges, and yellows. He was just about to turn and head back to the village when something caught his eye. In the distance, on the beach far below him, was a large group of men. The men were coming from the sea, in groups of about twenty at a time, and they were armed with swords, spears, and tridents made of coral. Lil-rel was only seven, but he knew enough to know they were an army of some sort. But what alarmed him the most was the appearance of the men themselves. He had never seen anyone like them before. They were an aquatic race, some with emerald scales, others with crimson, and they had oversized, fish-like eyes. Some of them, the larger ones, had pincers instead of right arms.
Could it be? Lil-rel thought. Years ago, while sitting around a campfire in the Onduran village, his grandfather had told him stories of a race of men who had once battled the Ondurans and the Iztaza. The men were called the Dauphins, and after their defeat, they had returned to their underwater cities and had rarely been seen again.
Lil-rel wasn’t exactly certain who these men were, or if they were indeed the Dauphins, but he knew one thing for certain — he needed to get back to the village and tell his grandfather. His grandfather, as experienced and as wise as he was, would know what to do.
With a tug on his reins, he turned Fu-va hard to the left, and the two of them headed back toward the Onduran village.