Pascal swung his sword and cut down the vines that were obstructing him, he had walked deep into the forest beside the city, much deeper than anyone had. Here, the trees were damper and the vines were thicker. After receiving the quest, he immediately went to find people that would explore the Forsaken Lands with him, he petitioned Morgana and Ronan, and both of them came with their own people. Morgana brought her uncle, Fredrick, along, while Ronan brought Conrad and Duma. They were also followed by Damon, his reason; boredom.
Pascal had initially wanted to come alone – with Zahir accompanying him, of course – , he had wanted to take the baby he was now responsible for along as well because he didn't want to keep him with anyone else. Even though he hadn't shown any dangerous characteristics Pascal didn't want to take a risk, but Old Angus assured him that he would be able to take care of the baby.
That was two days ago, they had been in the forest ever since. Because they wanted to reach the end of the forest quickly, Pascal proposed that they walked in a straight line, with no detours. They all walked relatively close to each other so as not to attract unnecessary attention from the beasts that live there. But even still, some beasts still attacked them when they trespassed in their territory. Since they had a mission, they would always retreat quickly when attacked, most of the beasts let them leave. The ones that didn't, they had to kill.
"Damn bugs." Duma grunted as she stomped on a particularly ugly insect that had crawled up her shoe.
The bugs were a bit of a problem in these parts. Now and then they would be assaulted by different kinds of bugs. It was worse at night, then the blood-sucking ones would come, and in large quantities too.
"I thought Sarah said this forest isn't that big? We have been speedwalking for the past two days and still haven't reached the end." Morgana complained.
"We should be close to the end." Pascal said. Since he and Zahir had a connection, it was able to send information to him if it was close. Zahir had flown ahead of them and had returned an hour ago to tell him it had found the edge of the forest, now it just hovered above them.
Even without Pascal's reminder, the group had noticed that the vines had practically disappeared, and the grasses were becoming more prominent. They walked for 30 minutes more before they emerged from under the shade of the trees and walked into a vast prairie. They stood under the afternoon sun and squinted their eyes from the sudden brightness.
"Damn. How big is this place?" Pascal muttered.
Since they were no longer under the trees, they could now clearly see Zahir, he looked extra majestic as the sunlight was reflected on his polished scales. He let out a low roar and flew ahead of them, ready to scour ahead for hidden danger.
"Alright, let's not dilly dally. We're in an open plain so we would be able to see any attackers from afar." At Pascal's words, they continued walking.
The prairie was a refreshing sight, none of them had seen such a wide expanse of land. The grasses and shrubs spread as far as their eyes could see, the openness of the prairie gave them an inexplicable feeling of freedom. They could see hills, both big and small in some areas around them. When they focused their sights on the horizon they could see the vague figure of a majestic mountain, its sharp ridges were covered with snow while the summit was hidden in the clouds. They heard a soft sound and looked to their left; an elk stood there, watching them cautiously. After it noticed that they weren't trouble it slowly bounded away into the forest.
"Wow, who knew all this was here?" Fredrick said as he surveyed the prairie.
"Yeah." Morgana chuckled along.
"Has no one from the former Cliff Town ever stumbled upon this place?" Pascal asked.
"No, Overlord. We barely left that town, and when we did it was to leave the Forsaken Lands to go trade our crafts. We haven't even seen any other settlements, at least not anyone I know." Fredrick replied.
"Are we going to walk to that big mountain?" Duma asked with a sigh, subtly announcing her fatigue.
"No, don't worry. We're going to stroll around for a bit, if we don't see anything then we return." Pascal assured her.
"Do you feel that?" Ronan asked unexpectedly, everyone stared at him in confusion before pausing to concentrate. They had been traveling together for two days and knew to trust each other's instincts. At first, they didn't feel it, but it didn't take long for their feet to feel a faint rumbling in the earth. Then, their ears picked up a sound akin to galloping horses, a fear of being trampled gripped them.
"Everyone, run up that hill!" Pascal yelled. They all bolted straight to a hill not too far from them, the rumbling was more prominent now and they could see a hint of dust forming behind the hill. They rushed past a small field of flowers, disturbing a kaleidoscope of butterflies that scattered in different directions.
"Why does it feel like we are running directly towards the noise?!" Duma yelled.
"No. If we climb the hill we will be on higher ground and be safe from whatever is coming." Pascal said.
"And what if they climbed the hill too?"
Pascal didn't answer, but his silence confirmed what they were all thinking; he was just betting on the possibility that they wouldn't.
It didn't take long for them to reach the top of the hill; from there they could see what was causing the noise and were astonished. A herd of bison was running towards them, with one at the front leading them in their frantic race. They were running from Zahir, that much was obvious. At the side of the herd, slightly covered in dust, was a figure riding on a bull and swinging a rod and yelling incoherent words. They were trying to control the herd but the bison had been consumed by their fear.
Pascal decided to help them, and with their mental connection he told Zahir to fly to the front of the bison and make them stop. In a flash of gold, Zahir dropped right in front of the hill. It dropped the bison that it held in its mouth and let out an ear-splitting roar. All the bison came to a screeching halt, kicking up dust that obstructed their visions.
Pascal signaled the rest to follow him as they walked to Zahir's side. When the dust cleared, they noticed the person with the rod riding their bison towards them, but as he got closer, they saw it wasn't a person at all. Pascal's and the other's mouths dropped as they tried to make sense of what they were looking at. It wasn't their fault that they mistook the person as human, from afar his dark brown skin and bulky figure gave them that assumption. But as he came closer, they noticed that his skin looked thick and tight, and saw, in absolute astonishment, that he had horns, specifically the horns of a bull.
"Is that… a helmet? It's worn on, right?" Duma voiced out their questions.
He had stopped his bison relatively close to them, and they saw that he also had the ears of a bull. He had blue tribal tattoos drawn all over his open torso and arms. He was yelling foreign words at them while warily staring at Zahir.
"Wow, a bull riding a bull." Damon said.
"Excuse you, but I am not a bull."
All of them jolted when the Common Tongue came out of the creature's mouth, he glared straight at Damon, clearly affronted.
"Umm, my apologies." Damon stuttered. "I-if you don't mind me asking, what exactly are you?"
The horned man stared at them skeptically, "I am a Tauren, or – in a word I hope is more familiar to humans –, a Beastman."
'Beastmen?!' Pascal's eyes widened to the maximum, 'They… exist?!'. As a former prince, he had once had access to the royal library, which was said to be the most informative in the whole kingdom. There he had read about some creatures that had once lived in the Northern Region, even before the Dragonstone Kingdom was established. He already knew Mole People still existed thanks to Alex, but he was pleasantly surprised to find out the Beastman race also hadn't gone extinct. Had they been hiding in the Forsaken Lands this whole time?
Morgana noticed Pascal's bright eyes and chuckled silently; she was sure he knew more about the so-called beastman than any of them did. She watched as he walked forward excitedly, no doubt ready to bombard the beastman with questions.
"I didn't know the Beastmen still existed. Did you people migrate from the Northern Region to the Forsaken Lands?" Pascal inquired.
"What migration? We've always been here. And what is the Forsaken Lands?" The beastman was confused.
"Wait, wait, wait, how can you not know what the Forsaken Lands are?" Conrad shook his hands, "In your previous words you mentioned humans, if you knew we were humans that means you must have met other humans. And if you've met other humans, shouldn't you know where they come from?"
The Beastman scratched his head, "Hmm, I've never seen a human before today, only the great elder has. We have scrolls that depict how humans look, that's how I knew you were humans."
Everyone's jaws slacked at the beastman's explanation.
"Anyway, we're getting off track!" The beastman pointed at Zahir who had finished half of its meal and was slowly savoring the rest, "That… giant lizard stole one of the bison from the herd. My father had finally allowed me to lead the herd to graze, if he knows about this, he would never trust me again."
Everyone watched uncomfortably as the Beastman pouted, but they didn't know how to respond to his complaints. After a quick thought, Pascal decided what to do on the spot.
"What if we followed you to see your father? We could apologize on your behalf!"
"What!" Everyone said in shock, Morgana walked up to Pascal and grabbed his arm subtly, "I hope you are not suggesting we follow this stranger to his home. I know you're excited, but please remember none of us knew what a beastman was until a few minutes ago. What if they're dangerous?" She whispered in his ear.
Pascal gave her a deadpan look, "Morgana, we have a dragon." Before she could reply he walked closer to the Beastman atop the bison and asked, "What do we call you?"
"My name is Tuwhayik Fullbrace." The beastman's face had a hint of pride as he spoke his name.
"Well, Tuwhayik, if you don't mind, we would like to follow you. Not just to apologize but also because we are curious. Just like you've never seen a human before we've also never seen a beastman, so we are very curious."
"Well, if you're willing to take the blame for the dead bison, then why not?" The tattoos on Tuwhayik's body flashed brightly for a second before stopping, it was so fast that Pascal and the rest almost thought they imagined it. Seven bison came forth and stood in front of Pascal and the others, they understood that Tuwhayik could control bison and intended for them to ride them. Pascal rushed up to a bison and mounted it after two tries, to him it just felt like a wider horse. The rest, however, took several tries, with Tuwhayik laughing any time they failed.
When they were all seated, Tuwhayik yelled a few foreign syllables out, then his tattoos flashed again as he controlled the bison under him to run. The bison became the leader and the rest followed it. The ones Pascal and the rest were riding on were closer to Tuwhayik, Pascal sat on his bison with a practiced posture while the rest had to hug the bison so they wouldn't fall off. The bison weren't moving as fast as they were when they were running away from Zahir, if not they would have been thrown off.
"Do you humans live close to that forest back there?" Tuwhayik asked Pascal.
"Yes, we live fairly close to the forest."
"None of the Beastmen have allowed their herds to graze this far out, so maybe that's why they never saw a human. But I heard that some people had tried to find the end of the Wildlands but always end up going in circles."
"Wait, the Wildlands?" Pascal interjected, "That's what this place is called?"
"Yes. From here to as far as the eyes can see, is the home of every beastman." Tuwhayik said. "But all Beastmen live in their separate territories, so tell your giant flying lizard to stay deeper in the clouds so as not to cause unnecessary disturbances."
"It's a Dragon." Pascal corrected him. Tuwhayik shrugged, showing that he couldn't care less.
"So which territory are we going to?"
"The territory of the Taurens," Tuwhayik gave him a sideways look, "My home."