The lands left behind after the fall of the Saharliard were quickly reclaimed, though not by their destroyers. Instead, the empire itself turned feral and demanded freedom from its would-be rulers. It quickly became apparent that the lands were more trouble than they were worth, and only the most pigheaded and determined spent more than a few months attempting to subjugate the children and flocks and other denizens left behind by the Saharliard. Even those eventually left behind their plans of subjugation, given the necessary resource expenditure if the lands’ inhabitants were to be defeated, and a successful subjugation of the inhabitants would leave the victors exhausted and ripe for domination by another. How the Saharliard had dominated such a brutish, ferocious land remained a testament to their power for centuries and millenia.
-From the Treatise on the Return of the Saharliard by Iyanna di’Viertaal
“It’s coming on the right!” Foire screamed, and the flanks of the swarm bristled and prepared for battle. Before his words could fade, a shadow lunged from between bushes. It was much larger than the bushes should have been able to hide, but even so, the damned beast had hidden itself masterfully. Its jaws snapped, and a keelish wailed as it was yanked out of the line. With so many of my swarm rushing back and forth in a panic, I couldn’t detect the creature’s passage with [Tremorsense], and it seemed like it could effectively disappear completely while in shadow.
The unfortunate was yanked outside of the range where her fellows could support her, and the crunching of bone swiftly answered the attempt to rally to save her. I caught the barest hint of the creature’s silhouette–long and sinuous like a snake, but with two forelegs and a strangely blurry outline. It didn’t appear to anyone’s thermal senses, and when it stepped, it made no sound.
“Nievtala curse it, there’s another on the other side! It’s going for the herds!” Foire shouted. I heard the shuffles of fear from keelish and oxfiend alike, and shouted a command of my own.
“Loose the hyenas on it! If they can take it down, it’ll be their food! If they can’t it’ll take some of the more difficult from our herds!”
Joral grunted in reply, and the nervous laughter of hyenas transitioned to a more menacing, excited cackle. I watched the hyenas dash out of the protective circle offered by our keelish, their ears, eyes, and snouts perked up and watching for the approach of the shadow beast. Many of the rest of the swarm, myself included, hoped to reach the opposite flank in time to support the rest, but we were too slow. The hyenas were quickly rewarded when one yipped in a sort of a command to the rest and the pack lunged into the shadows of a bush much too small to house the terror that was the shadow beast.
The second beast, even larger than the first, burst out of the shadow and hesitated for just a moment, just long enough for the hyenas to lunge out with jaw and paw. Their attacks phased right through the creature, their bodies flying through the shadowy flesh. Once the initial assault passed through, the beast changed, somehow. Its silhouette became more firm, less inconstant, and its inky flesh solidified while it suddenly registered to my thermal vision as a cool blue, only slightly warmer than the ground it stood on.. Before the hyenas, still reeling from their thwarted assault, could press the attack, the nightmare creature lashed out with its jaws and caught one of my creatures.
As its form became more apparent, I finally saw it fully for the first time. Its leathery, smooth body was at least thirty feet long and four feet in diameter. The two legs tipped with three businesslike talons that supported its body sprouted maybe three quarters of the length up its body, supporting only its long neck and head. The head was like something from my formless nightmares, eyeless, while its mouth sported three parts: two massive inky fangs on its top jaw while its bottom jaw split in the middle. That jaw distended and dislocated to be at least three feet across and chomped deeply into the hyena it chose as its prey.
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Agonizing yips and cries for rescue filled the air as the shadow monster dragged the hyena into the shadows from whence it came. The rest of the pack of hyenas, though, rallied to protect their own. Their jaws flashed, and, for some reason, now they managed to pierce the beast’s flesh. Before more and more of the prey turned predators could rip into their attacker, the creature dropped its prey and roared a low, basso roar. Many of the hyenas shuddered and weakened under the sudden sonic assault. Then, with its attackers briefly weakened, its silhouette flickered once more and the giant body melted into the shadow of the bush with a soft plop.
Only then was I able to get close enough to see the remains of the nearly instantaneous assault. The wounded hyena continued whimpering in pain, its body sporting four deep puncture wounds where the cavernous jaws had punched deep into its torso. Two of the keelish were pulling it back into the general protections of the swarms’ presence where Vefir and his healers could take a look at it. With nothing I could do to help, I instead looked at the shadows where the terrifying creature had appeared from.
To my [Tremorsense], [Raptor’s Eyes], thermal vision, smell, and hearing, there was nothing noteworthy or interesting about this shadow in particular nor this bush. It wasn’t colder or warmer or darker or lighter or anything. I couldn’t tell if the creature remained in these shadows or had fled. My mind raced, trying to be sure that it wouldn’t be able to ambush me.
“It’s the shadows!” Silf suddenly shouted. I glanced at him as I backed away from the pool of darkness I already stood near.
“That much was obvious. What do you mean?”
“They travel through the shadows. Everywhere they’ve attacked us thus far is from the shadows, and the shadows here are mostly all connected. With the rising suns, the shadows are long and connect with each other all over. Once I realized that, I could barely track their passage as they ran away. When they’re in that shadow, it gets a bit… darker, I guess.”
“You think you could track them as they ran? Could we follow them?”
“I…” Silf dragged off, seeming to consider it. “I doubt it. They move as fast as I can, and they’re very difficult to see. Tracking them would be especially risky because if they decide to turn and attack us in return, I couldn’t guarantee that I would realize it in time to warn the rest.”
“And they work together. Who knows if they’re just a pair or if they work in a full pack.” I added, my frustration mounting while my curiosity did as well. I’d never imagined a creature like this, and I’d never heard of a monster like this, even in the tallest, least believable tales told by the most excitable child. With a sigh, I turned to go back to the main body of the swarm. There was no reason to stand out here like bait when we couldn’t say for sure if they were even still here. I strode through the throngs of worried keelish, I spoke aloud.
“We’ve found some dangerous creatures today. Like the wolfstags in the Martanimis, or the ishabaak in the plains of the indlovu. Yes, they are predators, and they consider us to be their prey. And what happened to the ishabaak and the wolfstags?”
“We ate them!”
“We conquered them!”
“We defeated them!”
The chorus of cries fought to be heard over each other and I raised both hands high to quiet the clamoring hordes.
“That’s right! We’ve overcome every creature that thought itself capable of defeating us! Do these mere beasts compare to the High Speakers that tried to hunt us? Can they pretend to be as powerful as the indlovu or as vicious as the Moonchildren?”
“No!”
“Of course not! They’re not our priority! They’re a mere beast to conquer, a mere memory to be forgotten! Don’t worry about the mere beasts that dare to threaten us!”
The swarm rallied around my words and retreated back to stand near each other. They still were cautious about these beasts, but now they saw them merely as dangerous prey instead of a predator. I walked forward with projected confidence, needing to speak with Vefir. Before long, I stood before him, the suns rising behind him and casting everything in a warm light that was contrasted by the severity on his face.
“You need to see this,” he said as he gestured at the hyena’s trembling body. Then, before my eyes, the creature breathed its last, shuddering breath and stilled. “These shadow monsters are even more dangerous than we feared.”