No sooner were the Greater Sauropods pacified, then the
Dactyls emerged. Previously Tyrannosaurs had frightened them from hunting the
plains; now, without the king lizards, the winged beasts descended. They roamed
in flocks, each able to carry off a bison or hogbear for its lunch. They possessed
ceaseless hunger and soon ravaged Frontier farms and set about eating Munenori
platoons.
Zhanjee the Butcher was already in the Old Valleys
for the incursions against the Sauropods, and so he intervened. He climbed to
the tallest peaks to observe. The Dactyls nested low rather than high,
cherishing water sources. Above human or khimeric flesh, they loved the fat of
the Cloud Seals who played along the high waterfalls. Whenever a Cloud Seal
would dive from a waterfall, a Dactyl would swoop in to snap her up.
Zhanjee waited atop the most popular waterfall. He watched
as one Cloud Seal dove, and a young Dactyl struck. He watched as a second pup
dove, and was similarly struck. He bided his time until all the young had Cloud
Seals, and it was only the mother who remained hungry in the skies. Then he
flung himself off the falls.
When her jaws attempt to catch him, he jammed the great
Deviltongue between them and propped them open. Sheathed as not to slay the
beast, he rested the endcap into the soft flesh of her lower mouth, digging it
deeper whenever she resisted his steering. Then he mounted her neck and forced
her to ground her young. Within the evening, he became the first human to break
and teach a Dactyl mount.
