Saraen the (Ex)Mercenary

Saraen received a mission from one of Sikario's messengers, Tecumseh: to scout out the land beyond the Obice Moutains and bring back any useful information and herbs. They also received a reward for arranging Velius's death on their previous mission -- a set of rib armor crafted from the bones of a smilodon. Yuura overheard the entire exchange, so when Saraen came to Lazarus Peninsula, they were already destined to fail.

After exiting the caves, the hyaenadon met a cave lion named Wayra, who was painting strange pictures on a rock nearby with berry dyes. Wayra lead Saraen out of the ice caves, and also hinted at a thing called "The March", which Saraen thought might be important information. However, the mercenary did not see Wayra again.

A few days later on an expedition into the Obice Mountains, Saraen encountered Yuura again. After a brief conversation in which the hyaenadon tried to bluff their way out, not knowing that the smilodon was already aware why they were here, Yuura attacked and drove Saraen down the hill, where they jumped over a log and tripped on Zian, concussing the juvenile sivapanthera and making it impossible for themselves to escape. Yuura knocked them out and dragged them and Zian to the Silvestre den, where she ripped her saber teeth through Saraen's leg to prevent them from escaping when they awoke.

Saraen finally woke up during a time of horrible chaos in the den: Zian, badly concussed, had woken up and believed Yuura to be his mother, the terror birds were wreaking havoc, and Yuura was hiding in a corner away from all the chaos. Saraen's waking only added more to the hell because they were incoherent and driven out of their mind with pain, growling and foaming at the mouth when anything tried to come near.

After Saraen came to their senses and the chaos subsided, Yuura forced them to answer questions in exchange for food and water, since they couldn't walk and access either of those things on their own. To add insult to injury, Saraen was harassed multiple times by Slayer, Sadia, and Mukki when they were too weak to do anything about it. Eventually, Yuura gave the mercenary an ultimatum: tell her something really good, or Saraen would be silenced. Saraen didn't know anything important, and to make matters worse, they blurted out that Yuura smelled like Velius, meaning that Yuura couldn't allow them to go back to Sikario. Saraen was given a choice between losing their eyes, their tongue, or their life. They chose to have their tongue ripped out.

A few days later, when Saraen stood up again for the first time in many days to go eat, they encountered the wolf Aleese, who tried to speak with the hyaenadon and discovered that they were now mute. Saraen was unable to figure out a way to tell her who had done it, though she asked. 

Several days were spent mostly exercising their injured leg muscles and getting used to life without a tongue. On one day they overheard Yuura talking to Senemora about moving the whole pride. Shortly afterwards, the feline Cinoli was found close to the den and surrounded, when she made the mistake of clawing at one of the terror bird chicks and incurring the lizard Amadahy's rage. Amadahy beat the intruder past unconsciousness, much to the horror of many looking on, including Saraen, who felt lucky that they had been captured by Yuura and not the megalania. After the incident, they were harassed by the terror bird chick called Mukki into giving up the food they had taken from the den to him. 

A few days later, Saraen was going out to exercise again when they saw a small feline, Zian, that they recognized to be a hanger-on of the Silvestre Pride, lying unconscious on the ground while a young thylacosmilus shouted nonsense at him. Knowing that Yuura would rip them apart if she knew that they had left an ally of the pride for dead, the hyaenadon approached the limp feline, and encountered a foul-mouthed kangaroo mouse named Koric who insisted on examining the injured sivapanthera. After Koric left, Saraen dragged Zian back into the safety of the den and went back to sleep.

The hyaenadon awoke one day to find that Yuura had moved the Silvestre at last. They decided not to follow the scent trail she had left into the jungle, but rather find someplace in the plains to live.
- * -

Their journey took them to a flowering meadow next to a large pond, where an empty den that smelled only faintly of dire wolf occupation tempted them into staying. Saraen assumed that even in their injured state they would be able to fight off dire wolves, if necessary. The creodont had a brief encounter with a lone smilodon cub, Maji, who attempted to speak with them before running away a few minutes later. Because Yuura's scent clung faintly to the cub, Saraen worried that his presence here was a sign that the Silvestre pride was not far behind. They eventually dismissed this notion.

The morning brought a dire wolf by the name of Kouden back into the territory, searching for his missing packmates. His howl woke Saraen and they initially stalked out of the den to threaten him away, but found him reluctant to attack. Through gestures they managed to signal to the dire wolf that they were not the cause of his pack's disappearance, and the wolf joined them in the den with an offer to tend to the hyaenodon's wounds. Kouden added new herbs to Saraen's injured leg and bandaged it, and Saraen was able to communicate to him that the smilodon, Yuura, was the one who had mutilated them. Kouden later told a tale of how he got his gemstone necklace from humans, and Saraen fell asleep while he talked.

The next day, Saraen awoke to see Kouden dragging a scavenged elk carcass back to the den. They were grateful for the wolf's help and gorged themselves on the days-old corpse before submitting to more treatment from their new den companion. Their wound appeared to be healing better, though the bandage the hyaenodon was forced to keep on it lessened their mobility greatly. Kouden expressed concern that Saraen was dehydrated, and together they traveled to the pond for water.

Once there, they were both startled by a loud wail -- the cub, Rin, was crying out due to starvation and a recent near-death drowning. Kouden rushed to the cub's aid while Saraen approached more slowly, as the noise had put them on edge. They were right to do so, because the one attending the cub was Yuura herself, and Saraen didn't want to encounter her again. The dire wolf gave Yuura advice on caring for Rin while Saraen crouched, paralyzed, in the reeds, before Yuura noticed them, called their name, and expressed her disinterest in attacking. As Yuura left with the cub in her mouth, Saraen felt resentful of their helplessness against her, and just about everything else -- it seemed to them that lately, they had been able to do nothing to help themselves at all. Kouden knew the hyaenodon's name now, but Saraen wasn't interested in talking to him after seeing him help Yuura. They were still shaken up by the event, and proceeded to ignore his questioning glances and drink from the pond on their own. They reflected on how much they had took others knowing their name for granted, and on how little to alleviate their stress and restlessness when their leg was so badly injured. Eventually they made it back to the den to fall into a troubled sleep.

Saraen woke up one day to observe a squabble between two wolves; Aleese and a member of Kouden's pack. After they both ran off, Kouden proposed that Saraen strike up an alliance with his pack, to which the hyaenodon tentatively agreed. However, an encounter with the kangaroo Estavan forced Saraen into a panic attack when he said some things about them that he should not have known. Saraen fell further into depression.

The hyaenodon was attacked by the feline cub, Tundra, who was trying to take their den, despite not being strong enough to even knock Saraen over with a tackle. To scare the cub, Saraen picked him up by the scruff and tossed him several yards away, but as a consequence, Tundra's paw was broken. Feeling guilty, Saraen gave the cub some willow bark for the pain before he went on his way with his sister.

Brief encounter with the wolf Nymeria. Saraen assumed that she was part of the dire wolf pack.

Later that day, many creatures congregated at the wolf den. Xbalanque came seeking refuge from the rain, and the deaf cub Akamu was left by his parents just outside. Saraen discovered Lath lying near the den and, after realizing she was blind, picked her up by the scruff of her neck and brought her into the den before confronting the two felines outside. Xbalanque became irritated after no one in the den spoke to him, but the cub Akumu remained in the den and acquired the habit of tossing leaves around from Lath. Saraen allowed Lath and Akumu to eat the scraps of food that were left in the den, and then Corsair came by, initially with the intention of stealing food, but ended up staying to rest and talk to Lath after realizing there was no food left. Saraen was irritated by all these newcomers but couldn't do much about them without risking injury, and knew they were all to small to do them much damage. They became fearful, however, when the machairodus Zicara and the huge smilodon Carnage paid a brief visit. Saraen knew they couldn't easily fight off two large felines in their state and didn't trust a smilodon named "Carnage" as far as they could throw him...But fortunately Lath took offense at the pity Zicara offered to her and coldly dismissed them both, so Saraen was able to relax...temporarily.

Arjana and Muura began fighting right outside the den, and Saraen became worried as Akamu threw leaves on them, thinking that it would provoke both of the fighters into trying to drive everyone out of the den. Fortunately that did not happen, and the fight ended in a draw, but the tension increased when Muura decided to join them in the den for a rest. The smilodon fatalis attempted to ingratiate herself to Saraen, noticing that they were nervous, but Saraen feigned sleep rather than make it even more obvious how scared they were of armored smilodons...Soon after, Lath's singing actually did make them fall into a genuine sleep, even with the motley group of "guests" still sitting in their den.

The next day, Lath scared Saraen as a prank by jumping out of the leaves and screaming when they came back from a drink at the pond. Saraen was extremely irritated, but warmed up to Lath slightly after the blind mesonyx told the creodont the story of her past. Saraen fell asleep once again as Lath sang her lullabies.

THINGS TO ADD:
-saraen talks more with lath, they become friends, saraen brings back a huge stinky whale carcass
-tez sneaks in one day and puts his mushroom brew on the carcass, kouden and saraen eat it and start to hallucinate, aleese comes by and is really confused and tez laughs at them when they both pass out
-saraen brings back a moose they killed and wonders where lath went, corsair appears and they eat the moose together, the snake terentios shows up and asks corsair to scratch him to get his dead scales off and ends up sleeping in the den with them for the night while saraen goes and talks to some weird elk
-more random creatures come to the meadows! the two deer make a brief return with the doe (maybe) in labor, saraen doesn't get near them because the stag looks aggressive. two ghosts, aero and zopyros, show up but zopyros doesn't do much after saraen backs away from him. aero enlists saraen in helping him find his father. zotikos, lath's son, shows up and doesn't say anything but shows his merchandise to saraen. saraen asks for a pelt but is too afraid to kill a smilodon to get the mesonyx one in return so zotikos gives up and allows them to collect feathers and gemstones as payment, and gives them a necklace as a gift. he also tries to warn saraen of an ominous faction coming into lazarus.
-GHOST QUEST!! saraen, aero, and kouden go out hunting for aero's missing father, saraen finds a ptarmigan and kills it to give to zotikos, aero is told he is dead and scares the crap out of saraen with illusion weather (again). they enter the caves and encounter estavan, who destroys saraen mentally! kouden leaves, saraen promises to look for lath (aero agrees to help), and the ghost quest party walks out of vorso humiliated, only to meet velius and get OWNED X2 COMBO
-kouden tries to persuade saraen not to listen to estavan's words, with mixed results. saraen returns to the meadow to find zian and maane, who they allow to stay the night at their den. kouden returns as well. aleese comes up and tells the embarrassing story of how saraen and kouden tripped like hell while zian watched and saraen curls up in the back of the den in humiliation.
-saraen gets harassed by a tiny smilodon, finds out that kouden allowed a fatalis to sleep in the den, curls up with aleese for a bit afterwards, but finds kouden spying! suspicious of him already because of his betrayal, saraen approached and tried to confront him. aleese made things worse by mentioning yuura, and saraen decided that they would rather spend their time alone - and ran out into the jungle.
-encounters aero again, tries to see if erebos is in the silvestre den across the swamp and gets caught by yuura, who thinks they're spying - fortunately, aleese, the gracilis twins, and aero try to come to their defense, confusing the golden smilodon. kumo toka appears, strikes up alliance with yuura while saraen slinks away
-after wandering the jungle a bit with aero, they return to the meadow and play hide and seek, and saraen tries to take the opportunity to hide zotikos's scent in the den...but kumo toka appears and threatens them into informing him about everything they know about the merchant and his location. saraen is left with the assurance that they will be watched...and a venomous spider lurking in the den
-the venomous spider in question later decides to bite feliciano and kouden to make things awkward for aleese! saraen feeds terentios half their food supply, then comes over and knocks out both kouden and feli in a wild attempt to "fix" them, gets bitten by a startled terentios in the process
-saraen spends the rest of the night in hell, kouden wakes up and saraen is grumpy at him
-the next day, grape and raisin come back and talk to kouden in japanese, saraen is annoyed and walks out to see a painted feline doing something with a horse corpse. this later turns out to be tezcatlipoca putting the Yellow Flower in the food! kouden brings the horse carcass back and he, aleese, and feliciano eat it, with disastrous results that end in feli passing out and saraen throwing both aleese and kouden in the pond.
-saraen, aleese, and kouden chase after tezcatlipoca and, after a lot of fighting, manage to drive him up a tree, where kouden scolds him and the jaguar hisses vague threats back.


~i don't remember what goes here~
~the events after these tildes may or may not be in order~



-at some point in time, akamu returns to the meadow and saraen takes him in and tries to teach him how to swim. during this, yuura arrives, intending to interrogate saraen about why they were in her territory. saraen tries to hide the cub behind them while they shakily answer her questions through gestures and drawings, telling her they were looking for erebos. yuura says he's in the desert before she leaves
-GHOST QUEST! saraen leads kouden, aleese, corsair, aero, and hohnihohkaiyohos (+ his ghostly mate, mysteria) into the desert. they stop by the oasis, then fight BRIMSTONE, a mother indricotherium who was desperately trying to protect her dead son, unable to accept that he had died. they all sustained many injuries, and saraen breaks their smilodon ribcage armor. the next day, they catch erebos's scent in a small group of dens out in the desert, and the scent trail leads, infuriatingly, back to vorso.
-outside vorso, they finally encounter erebos, accompanied by the thylacoleo assassin as he gathers herbs for sikario - but she stays out of sight as aero has a tearful reunion with his father, which ends in the ice collar around his neck melting away. aero decides to stay with his friends for now, rather than passing on. a success
-the blind doe and angry stag come back to the meadow with their new fawn, who is very curious about saraen. a tense situation follows, with saraen, surrounded by terentios and a spitting cobra, is investigated by a fawn while the protective father looks on and saraen fears a painful death. the stag seemed to have deemed saraen as unthreatening by the end of it, however
-yuura comes by chasing a gray smilodon, stops to try to apologize to saraen, saraen is afraid and pissed off and decides to roar and growl at her until she leaves, assuming she is just trying to manipulate them into doing something for her. yuura leaves, but not before shouting out to them that sikario was going to invade lazarus
-velius comes to the den, looking to manipulate saraen into giving them information, but saraen does this willingly out of guilt for what they had done to him. at the end of their conversation, the dark jaguar xolotl appears, looking his son - saraen angrily tells him all about what his son, tezcatlipoca, did, before directing him towards the rocky grasslands where they last saw the painted jaguar
-at some point in time yuura returns, and saraen snarls at her more, but is distracted by the appearance of the bird, afiel, and then the horrific sight of tezcatlipoca and xolotl standing around a burning object in the middle of the grass. saraen rushes at them, only for them to explain that they were burning the body of a dead spy - but yuura, in the midst of a flashback, believes the burning body is her dead friend and knocks xolotl to the ground, giving him a concussion! alarmed, saraen lunges at her instinctively, and gives her a huge bite as she passes them. once order was restored, tezcatlipoca gave them snippets of information about sikario as an apology for what he had done, and suggested that they work together in the future.

-SIKARIO INVADES

-the meadow is taken; saraen tries to run while carrying akamu, but terror birds are running them down, and they are forced to hide him in the reeds of the pond while they leap into the water to escape capture; unfortunately, the birds find akamu anyway, and he becomes imprisoned, despite the help of several random bystanders who took pity on the cub (one of them also got captured).
-once in the jungle, they hear soldiers chasing someone else - kouden! unwilling to leave another friend behind, saraen launches themselves into battle to attempt to distract them into letting kouden go free, but this results in getting trapped in an extended battle. the jaguars tlazolteotl and chiuacoatl rush into help, but even they aren't enough against a two terror birds and two irish elk. one of the terror birds knocks kouden unconscious and tries to run away with him with saraen in hot pursuit, but once they knock the bird down, an american lion drags kouden away and saraen is assaulted by viciously by teratorns. this might have been the end, but at that point the jungle rebels heard signs of a battle - a large group of warriors rushes in to help, though not in time to save tlazolteotl, who is crushed under an elk's hooves. an extended battle begins, and the rebels win - saraen returns with them to their den for healing.
-saraen feels immensely guilty about losing their friends to sikario, and feels obligated to fight and free them. however, they end up freeing themselves...kouden persuades ametrine's hyaenodon pack and rowtag's swarm to defect, and they all rejoin the rebels in the jungle
-quetzalcoatl........
-ok that is quite enough writing for one night!!!!!!!!