Chp.17: The frog-lizard

Corgorin, Dyana, Sarah and Carlos made their way to the bank of the underground river. Unlike the rest of the cave, where there seemed to be not a single spot free of fungi and lichens, for about two or three meters beside the river the bank was completely bare, leaving only bare rock. This was probably due to the fact that the river swelled and decreased in size periodically, as evidenced by the fact that this rock was smooth as if it had been continuously eroded by the current of the water. Even if there was no rain underground, there were still other factors that could change the size of a river, such as the collapse of a tunnel, the creation of obstacles or the destruction of a previous block. And considering that the limestone rock of which the cave was made seemed rather fragile, it was probable that such events occurred periodically or at least at regular intervals.

"Do you think there's any fish in there?" Carlos asked. "Or maybe some water mushrooms..."

"Water mushroom? Really?" Corgorin murmured raising an eyebrow, not understanding where the man had pulled such nonsense from.

Carlos shrugged. "Well, we've already seen fish that swim in the sand, giant worms, bioluminescent fungi and so on. It wouldn't surprise me to find that mushrooms have also taken the place of algae"

Amazing to say, that hypothesis didn't even seem too stupid. In fact something had to act as the first step in the aquatic food chain, otherwise fish like sand sharks could not have existed and adapted to the point of becoming what they currently were. Maybe taking a look at the water wasn't such a bad idea. However, getting closer to the river and disturbing the creatures that lived there meant you had a better chance of being attacked. Corgorin thought about it, then decided. "Okay, let's give it a try. One of us will come up close and have a good look in the water, and the others will be behind him to be able to hit anything that emerges from it. I'd say it's best for Carlos and Sarah to stay back, since they they can strike with long-range spells, and Dyana or I approach the river. So, Dyana, shall we draw lots?"

"What's the point? You should go there!" Sarah exclaimed. "You aren't in danger of dying! Even if something goes wrong you will still be alive and unharmed! You are the most expendable here!"

In fact she was right, but Corgorin didn't like the tone anyway. "What do you mean I'm expendable? I'm the strongest of this team and also the best armed!"

"Than you have even more reason to go. Not only are you don't risk to die, but you're more likely to kill whatever comes out of there, or at least distract it long enough for us to escape" Sarah replied.

"Do you want me to act like a human shield!?" Corgorin growled in fury. Although technically it wasn't a bad idea, and if she had been in that situation herself she wouldn't have hesitated for a moment to sacrifice herself to buy time (at least while she was using her avatar, with her real body she would have thought twice... or even three or four), the fact that someone else had asked, or rather, commanded her to act as a human shield was an affront to her pride, which being the pride of a dragon was particularly great.

"Ok, ok, now let's calm down, girls" Carlos intervened trying to mediate. Sarah was already tense from what had happened earlier and Corgorin got irritated easily, and he didn't want to see them fight. "We don't have to..."

"What do you want? Stay out of it!" Sarah exclaimed.

"Yeah! Nobody asked you!" Corgorin snapped backing her up.

Carlos backed away, but in his mind he was triumphant that that had been exactly his plan. If there was one thing she had learned in her life it was that to stop a fight between two women the best thing was for a man to intervene, because in that case the two women would automatically forget any enmity and would have blamed him entirely. It was something he had experienced too many times in his life not to learn. And in fact, within five seconds Corgorin and Sarah seemed to put aside all hatred and ganged up on him, appealing to him with unkind epithets and discussing how some people didn't know how to stay in their place. Carlos was proud to act as a human sacrifice if it meant ensuring harmony at least until the end of the mission.

Dyana was watching the whole scene shaking her head. Although she was used to seeing people acting stupid, since it was basically a common characteristic of all beings with thinking, she believed that at least during missions it was necessary to maintain a certain level of seriousness. Or at least during those missions that could potentially be life-threatening. It certainly wasn't a good idea to act so childish. But while she was wondering how long they were going to go on wasting time, a guttural sound made her cat ears prick up. Corgorin, Sarah and Carlos immediately fell silent as well and moved into a guard position.

The sound repeated itself several times, almost rhythmically. It sounded like someone was constantly inflating and deflating a large bag of air. After each repetition of the sound there was also a very long whistle similar to a breath, but decidedly more intense. The group took up their weapons and walked towards where it came from, making sure to remain well hidden among the rocks. Carlos even crawled to minimize the chances of being seen. The source of the sound was eventually found on a small corner of the river bank, where two creatures were facing each other and wagging their heads almost comically.

The two animals looked like lizards, the classic lizards found everywhere on the street, but they had six legs and their color was speckled green; their head, finally, looked like that of a frog, with large eyes clearly adapted to see in the dark and a throat that stretched and inflated continuously making that loud guttural sound, followed by a whistling sound as they deflated it. The impressive thing, however, was that they were at least seven meters long and over two meters high.

"Wow. They look like great basilisks, but without the armor and with the head of a frog" Carlos murmured. "Do you think they are carnivores?"

Corgorin shook his head. "No, they aren't"

"How can you say that with such certainty?" Dyana asked, not understanding how the dragon could know without even having seen the teeth of those two animals.

"Because this is clearly a territorial fight" Corgorin answered. "When animals try to intimidate an opponent, they show all their weapons. If we talk about carnivores, they always show their sharp teeth. But those animals aren't showing their teeth"

"She's right. Take a good look" Sarah said, pointing to the two creatures. The strange frog-lizards were constantly banging their tails on the ground and lifting their legs, showing their claws in clear threat, but they never opened their mouths.

Dyana rubbed her chin. "If they're herbivores, then maybe they can be raised" she said. After all, their job was to look for food sources of any kind, and those frog-lizards seemed perfect. They were large enough to provide plenty of meat and didn't seem too difficult to manage. "I propose to capture a live specimen"

"It's a good idea. We wait for them to finish fighting and then as soon as they split we attack one of them" Corgorin said. When a predator saw two prey fighting, the best choice was always to wait for them to finish and then attack the more injured one.

The two lizard-frogs continued to give each other intimidating signals for a while, inflating their throats and constantly showing their claws. Then one of the two took the initiative and headbutted its opponent hard, knocking him back. The other lizard-frog tried to fight back, but its enemy struck it again, this time with its claws, before it could even get close. At that point the lizard-frog decided that it was no longer worth fighting and that its opponent was far too strong, so it turned and dived into the water, quickly disappearing into the river and swimming downstream. The winning lizard-frog remained on the shore for a while still emitting its guttural sounds, as if to make sure that the opponent escaped, then it finally stopped and walked towards the mushrooms that grew nearby and began to feed.

"You were right, Corgorin. Is it herbivorous… or fungivorous? Does it exist as a term?" Carlos said. "Where do you think the other one went?"

"Probably in another cave. Almost certainly following the river one can find another one" Corgorin answered. The existence of other caves like that one was basically sure because otherwise the sand worms would not have found enough food, and moreover in that case those strange frog-lizards would have decreased in size since such a small area could support at most one at a time (probably why they were so fiercely territorial). "Now let's think about capturing this one"

"We can't throw ourselves head-on at it, we don't know what it's capable of" Dyana said.

"The lioness is right. I propose a multi-pronged attack" Sarah murmured as her hunter's mind began to race. "The main danger is almost certainly its legs and tail, but it's possible that it also has poison sacs or something like that. In any case, first we need to immobilize it"

"I have ropes with me. If someone distracts it by standing up, I can run around its paws and tie it up" Carlos said. "But the tail would be a big problem..."

"No, I can hold it down. I have the strength of a level adamantium with this body" Corgorin said. "If we coordinate well enough we can do it. Sarah, you using a wind spell could carry you and Dyana on top of that creature and distract it. As soon as the time will be right, I will pin its tail and Carlos its legs. At that point that big lizard will turn its head and if it has any poison, acid or anything else it will try to hit us, but Dyana will take advantage of its distraction to throw herself on its head from above and hit it hard enough to make it pass out. After that we will be able to tie it up completely without effort"

Carlos, Dyana and Sarah looked at each other, then nodded. "Sounds like a good plan" Carlos said.

"But it will be a delicate thing. You will have to be very careful, if that thing were to notice you before you tied its paws, you would be in grave danger" Sarah pointed out. "Do you think you can do it?"

"I'm sure of it" Carlos answered with a proud smile. "Besides, I trust you can distract her well enough"

Sarah smiled. "Good. It's good to know that at least there is someone who trusts me" she said, glaring at Corgorin.

The dragon didn't take it well. "Seriously, what's your problem today!?"

"Okay, not now, girls! We have to get that beast, remember?" Carlos said before a new fight broke out. "I'm ready, I already have the ropes in hand. The sooner we act, the better"

The two women looked at each other angrily, but those words were enough to curb the hot spirits. Wordlessly, Sarah grabbed Dyana and then conjured a wind spell, hovering over the lizard-frog. The animal initially didn't even notice their presence, but as soon as Sarah started hitting him with some spells, it immediately became furious and stood up on its legs trying to grab what, from its point of view, were probably annoying flies.

Carlos got into position, already with the ropes in hand. Then he looked at Corgorin. "Seriously, you two should talk. You can't continue like this. I have a sanity that I wish to keep"

Corgorin was about to reply that Sarah was the one who continued to annoy her and offend her, but Carlos didn't give her time to protest and went on the attack. Very smoothly he wrapped the rope around the first legs of the frog-lizard, but soon had to get close to those next to the tail. Corgorin then leapt out of her hiding place and grabbed the tail, immobilizing it with her level adamantium strength; the frog-lizard squeaked in surprise, but Carlos was quicker and in one movement he fully wrapped its legs and pulled, using his magic to tighten the rope tightly. The frog-lizard squealed and fell to the ground with a thud. It tossed its head violently and tried to wag its tail, but Corgorin still held it still. The frog-lizard, furious, tried to move its head to reach her, also letting a long tongue emerge from its lips. That was the moment Dyana had been waiting for: without wasting time she let go of Sarah's grip and threw herself against the animal's head, hitting it full on the forehead with a punch at her maximum power. The lizard-frog looked dazed, then it fell unconscious to the river bank.

"Wow. That was easier than I thought" Dyana murmured. "I expected a little more resistance"

"It's so big, but it's all appearance" Corgorin grumbled as she looked at their prey. She too was a little disappointed. "Come on, let's also tie its mouth and immobilize its tail"

"Head first" Carlos said as he approached the creature's mouth and lifted it slightly, then he touched its teeth. "Mh. These are undoubtedly the teeth of a herbivore. And they would seem to be suitable for chewing various types of foods. It shouldn't be difficult to make some of these creatures survive in captivity and... AAARGH!!"

With a flick, something like a rope emerged from the animal's mouth and bit hard on his hand. Carlos immediately yanked it out of the lizard-frog's mouth and shook it, and the creature that was biting him let go and fell to the ground, revealing itself as a brown snake with wisps of smoke emerging from its mouth. It opened its jaws and generated a gray cloud, perhaps trying to confuse those who watched it, and then tried to escape, but Corgorin was on top of it and crushed its head with a kick. "What the hell was a snake doing in… CARLOS!"

Carlos' hand was filling with what looked like purplish pustules and his fingers were rapidly swelling and moving in a clearly unnatural way. The man had already extracted a healing potion and had drunk it and then also smeared it on the affected spot, but... "It doesn't work!" he said in a pained voice.

Corgorin panicked. "Quick, call the others!" she ordered Sarah, who immediately fired a blaze up to warn the others of what had happened, then she rushed over to her friend to try to... well, do anything she could think of to stop the strange infection.