The Lengthening Shadow
Chapter 8: Karakssass

The conquest of the cape was one of the many evil deeds that Karakssass had committed in his lifetime. He was big for an adder, huge muscles showing under his olive green scales. He had lost his poisonous fangs in battle; they were replaced by jagged silver ones, their hollow insides filled with poison. His crimson eyes seemed to glow under a bronze crown inset with three emeralds. His army was made up of gilas, rattlesnakes, piranhas, groupers, newts, eels, coral snakes, and adders like himself. The soldiers who were native to the water he kept in a large metal tank filled with the life-giving liquid. The army traveled in armored carts pulled by sand lizards. The carts were armed with several built-in rifles, and some had full armories. Karakssass’s preffered weapon was a copper spear, which he held with his tail. Many of the transports had small cabins mounted on them. With these, his horde could travel throughout the land very quickly. They had gained an infamous reputation as conquerors and plunderers, burning and killing their way to the top.

When the adder king saw Cape Bucktooth, he immediately decided to take it over. It was manned by around twoscore beavers, few of whom were fighters. His army had slain most of them and taken over the onshore dwellings as a temporary base. He had assigned gaurds to make sure that the former owners stayed locked in their own dam, with little food or water. His dream was to totally rule this place and everywhere within a day’s march. If he could achieve that, he would be content. But the beavers were still here; they would need to be slain.

One day, a gila sentry called Glafang had reported a fighting force approaching the dam. Having quickly figured that they were here to free the beavers, he grabbed Glafang and went to rouse the barracks. Two newt captains named Dwert and Frillgan took the reptiles at the guard posts to the place where the enemy was most likely to attack. An aspiring eel, Grullgill, had taken all soldiers on underwater duty around to the front of the lake, to stop the tresspassers from getting across. Grullgill was not that intelligent, but he knew how to kill silently, under cover of the lake’s pristine surface. Two adder sentries had taken all projectile weapons from the cart-mounted armories and set them up on top of the dam. More newts and coral snakes had manned them and were sniping at the rapidly approaching horde of Samuel. Dwert’s command had secured all the onshore buildings and were setting up small catapults. Frillgan had taken Glafang and several other gilas to man the special poison guns. These were normal rifles, except that their gunpowder storage and bullet shaft had been replaced by canisters of adder venom. The venom canisters also shot adder fangs, to pierce the skin and let poison in. Glafang was an expert on using them, and therefore was given command of their gunners. The reptiles of Karakssass had already sniped out several of the lizards and snakes. Croglaw and Gaitert had dived into the lake and were confronting the underwater adversaries. Grullgill flopped back onto land and slithered to the headquarters of the attack. Karakssass, Dwert, Frillgan, and a coral snake captain known as Stilith were discussing possible attack moves and battle strategies. He burst through the door, yelling and panting.

“They’ve got crocs, Sire! They’re absolutely destroyin’ us down there!”

The snake king leapt up and dashed to the door, yelling “Come on! Dwert! Frillgan! Sssssssstilith! We’ve got to go check thissssssss out!” The three captains and Grullgill followed him out the door, rushing to keep pace with him.

On the other side, the fight was already in full force. Samuel had twenty sand lizards bombard the dam sentries with their rifles. He had fired a few shots from his bow, then went to check up on the croc partners. Croglaw and Gaitert were extremely satisfied with their task. The two had not eaten in a while, and the enemy were surprisingly tasty. He walked off after a while, to see how other parts of the battle were going. Swoop had been picking up some Sandraiders and dropping them off inside the foebeasts’ ranks. They had mounted an assault from behind, and some had broken the defense line. Morgan was leading a charge in an attempt to smash the protective wall into oblivion. It had sort of worked; the reptiles were falling back. Losses on their side had been light, while the enemy had lost about fifty-five more. “We’ve taken out a hundred and two of theirs!”, he yelled to Morgan above the clangor of battle. “Wait, my bad, a hundred and three.”, he added, as one of his well aimed shafts struck a newt between the eyes.

During all the time that this was happening, the beavers stayed stock-still, trying not to breathe too loudly. They knew that a fight was taking place, and were hoping that Karakssass lost. Two times, Glafang had come to check on them to make sure that they were not up to something. He had been satisfied, and left them in relative peace and quiet. However, Tradd had guessed that the rescuers had underwater helpers, and had continued working on his project: a hole in the dam floor. His plan was that since they had already tried that, the guards would not be so vigilant. If there were aquatic allies, those could help keep the piranhas and eels away while they escaped. Either way, it was foolproof. No beaver could find a flaw in the Verdancer’s reasoning. Jeb went first. Squeezing his considerable bulk through the small aperture, he popped out like a furry cork and was lost to sight in the depths of the lake. Girft, the other wizard, went next. As he was going out, he used a small spell to enlarge the hole for his remaining companions. Reblet went after Girft, followed by Roblot. The rest continued in similar fashion; going through the hole then signaling a friend to come next. Tradd was the last one out. He went through the escape hole, the boarded it up with driftwood. After he did that, he swam off into the murky green lake, to victory or death.

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