{{*wrote this when he should have been doing work*<img alt="&gt;.&gt;" src="./images/smilies/shifty.gif" title="Shifty eyes"/>}}<br/><br/>{{haha, arguing over eating rights. x3 I love vore drama. This discussion should happen IC, not OOC. If the other characters don't want Rihyan to eat everything in sight, one of them has to be brave enough to get in his way.}}<br/><br/>{{If there is combat in the near future, it will probably be on a smaller scale, and it won't be unprovoked. The prominent bellies of the party will be sufficient to make any would-be ambusher think twice.}}<br/><br/><span style="color: green"><br/>Rihyan: 50,500 + 500 bonus = 51,000 xp<br/>Sashi: 60,187 + 500 bonus = 60,687 xp <br/></span><br/><br/><br/>Mero grabs hold of Akkun's arm and pulls him to safety--<span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">*chomp*</span></span><br/>...or not.<br/>The worg continues past with only one goblin in the saddle, and the rider stares back in horror at the sight of his clan-brother being ingested by the ferocious feline. He brings his mount to an about-face halt and quickly runs through his list of options: his prideful heart orders him to avenge Mero by filling this lion with wounding arrows...but his head warns him to keep his cool...<span style="font-style: italic">this battle is already lost, nothing can be done to change that. What matters now is the safety of the clan...</span><br/><br/>As Mero watches, his brow furrowed in anxious thought, the lion does something very strange. Instead of closing his jaws and swallowing Akkun--what would be an effortless action for such a large-mawed predator--he instead parts his jaws and lets the bloodied goblin fall out. Then he holds a paw over him and<span style="font-style: italic">...what?</span>Mero has no idea what to make of this.<span style="font-style: italic">Is he toying with him?</span><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>The Heodo watch the centaur strip the fallen warriors with a mixture of timidity and shame--but not disgust. Their culture has taught them from an early age to expect that everyone gets eaten sooner or later and that being devoured is the most natural and proper last rite one can hope for. (cremating or burying a body in the soil and leaving it to rot, as are the peculiar customs among parts of the Pact nation, is seen as a terrible insult to the deceased).<br/><br/>Of course, this does nothing to diminish the embarrassing fact that fifteen of the clan's strongest and most authoritative have just fallen, leaving the  survivors in disarray. As brutal as Kalsh's violent whims may have been, at least he kept the clan safe by scaring other preds away.<span style="font-style: italic">"When rumors of his defeat spread across Armel, what will those preds do now?"</span>worry the remaining Heodo to each other,<span style="font-style: italic">"Will they see the clan as an easy target?"</span><br/><br/><br/><br/>The observers watch the stranger's bellies with morbid curiousity, trying to guess their maximum capacity. If the fallen are enough to satisfy them, maybe they will just leave afterwards. Otherwise, if they are still hungry...<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>Mero looks to his clan-siblings and notices that many of them are gazing at him as though waiting for him to speak.<br/><span style="font-style: italic">...I guess...until Balcam gets back...I am in charge...</span><br/>He clears his throat, then clears it a second time. When he finally speaks, it is loud enough to be heard by the entire clan.<br/>"(goblin)You have won..."<span style="font-style: italic">no, use common tongue</span>"(heavily accented common)You have won, strangers... the spoils are yours to take."<span style="font-style: italic">...fool! don't make the clan sound weak...</span>"But!" he raises his lance, "The Heodo do not surrender to you! Take the spoils, and leave us...or we will kill you!"<br/><br/>The clan reacts positively to Mero's words, and raise their weapons defiantly.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>Akkun lies frozen in fear beneath the paw of the lion whose uvula he was face-to-face with only a few moments ago. Like Mero, he finds the predator's actions baffling and his only guess is that he is being toyed with. He does not notice Sen, nor does he understand how much he owes to the cleric.