The Warlord and the con mutt (W.I.P)
In a section of a vast dessert land, located to the most southern section, hidden far from any city, kingdom or village, rose a large barren mountain, the size almost rivaling that of the greatest pyramid built, seemingly abandoned by animal and person alike, left to sit alone in the blaring sun light.
A single horse-woman rode up to this large mountain, her white stallion panting it came up finally to a place of rest, a place it knew well. The woman riding this fine horse was a crocodile, her face and body wrapped up heavily in thick, white cream sheets, her head swathed well in similarly colored cloth with eyes nearly covered for protection. The only gaps would be two open folds letting her arms out, bare save for two silver bracelets clasped just below the wrists shining brightly.
She felt some relief as she rode on towards the base of the mountain, heading to a medium sized niche that looked, for the most part, natural from a distance, though anyone who would come close would see it was carved out by hand, though quite carefully, to seem like a naturally flown niche, it was almost artistic, something the horse rider admired about this place.. one of many things.
She came up inside the niche to the far end, getting off her tired stallion and walking in her heavy garb up to the wall, narrowing her eyes as she sought a small indentation in the stone work,it was never quite easy to see and she sometimes forgot it's exact location. When she pressed the indentation a few large stones, looking to be as though they were mashed in by some cave in, slid back slowly a few inches, and to the right of the stones in the stone wall was a cut slit, leading through a very small square tube of sorts. She could never see where it went nor knew where by any other means, but pressed her lips against it and called out a single word, an old word in some forgotten dialect known only to foreigners, at least that is what she was told where the word came from.
She pulled back and a few moments later the stones slid back, and a large grinding was heard as a collection of large and small stones to her left began to slide back as though they were fused, a expertly crafted door that slid about two feet back, then slid to their right, and past the doorway was a small tunnel, with smooth stone walls, bare save for small arrow slits, dug quite deep leading to special mechanical contraptions which could fire multiple bolts through to impale invaders.
From what she knew there used to be real people manning the slits, but they were found to be sometimes too impatient, or just a little too slow, and the "rooms" they remained in.. more like small closets, proved too uncomfortable for them to stand, so in time contraptions replaced them, to the relief of the archers.
The tunnel went on for about six hundred feet, coming up to a steel door, thick and hard, smooth like the walls it watched over. She waited patiently at the door eager to get her protective garb off so she could cool down, wondering, as she always did, how people who came in here were looked over, she had a few times looked for some gap or tube but she never was able to look for long, as people who searched for secrets here were considered hostile, whether they worked here or not.. she could only glance and never search in depth, and it was one of the more mysterious architectural designs she yearned to learn of, if only for the knowledge itself.
A few minutes later the door began to slide to the right, leading into a very large chamber, about a thousand feet squared, with walls painted in bronze coloring and lovely silver lines painted over into vague shapes of woman, swords, jewels and coins spaced out evenly over the walls. The floor was marble tiles with small ovals of silver set in the middle, deep enough that the top was level with the top of the tile. There were many finely lavish pillows set around the room for people to relax with a few mattresses with silk sheets of various colors. The only other door then the one the rider came in was one set opposite it, also a smooth steel. The rider knew despite the comfortable setting of this room and it's use as a lounge for people waiting to go in, it was also another security means, with small sealed holes set at the top of the room, which would spray out poison if the man in charge of this.. mountain palace, decided it.
The exit door opened up, showing a tall rhinoceros male, wearing a steel plate vest and baggy green leggings. To his right hip was strapped a large scimitar, with a silver hilt set with a few blue jewels. He smirked gently, showing a light scar on the right corner of his mouth, speaking in a rough, guttural voice as he looked at the rider, "I thought you were coming back in seventeen days, what's brought you back so soon?"
The rider removed the cloth swathed around her head, sighing gently, she had blue eyes, which narrowed lightly at the thick headed rhino. "I don't have time to waste, I have a urgent message for the warlord about a threat."
The Rhino raised his left eyebrow lightly, "A threat is a good reason to come back so soon.." He debated briefly on having her tell him there to pass on or to let her through, he was generally very tight on security and very cautious, but the rhino knew their warlord would want to see her personally, he always had a lustful desire for her rebellious and fiery nature. "Very well Groya" He answered, "Follow and let's give the warlord the good news."
She nodded and the rhino she knew as Kruhk turned to go down a small hallway, this one more finely adorned then the previous one leading into the lounge, with red painted walls and a few gems inlaid into them in brilliant patterns... the warlord loved to make as much of his mountain palace luxurious as a sign of power to those rare few he let in, personally Groya thought it was overkill. The hallway ended after a little walk into a T intersection, and the rhino went right down to a oak door, another lavish commodity being as oak was impossible to come by in this land and had to be imported. The Rhino opened it up walking into a magnificent underground courtyard, rectangular in shape spanning about 900 feet long and 600 feet wide with the rider and rhino coming into it from one of the long ends.
It was a beautiful underground courtyard, with a large fountain in the middle ,carved stone shaped like a large blooming flower, and the walls lined with stone troughs with various dessert plants, given light by wide tubes, masterfully crafted with mirrors angling light from outside, these were shut down when sand storms came by to prevent things from getting too sandy, though people still had to clean up now and then, but otherwise it was a brilliant.. and incredibly expensive area of this palace.
Groya looked around slowly as she was lead through the garden to another door set at the far end opposite the one they came through, moving a short ways through a smooth tunnel into a cross section, which lead, as Groya knew, to the armory and barracks at her right, and to her left was a medical wing, and straight on lead to the warlord's primary "office", with his master bedroom connected to it. They headed straight on for a minute, past some more arrow slits until they came up to the thick steel door closing off the warlord from the rest of his mountain domain. The door had a beautiful gold plate embedded all over the front, as was one embedded to the back, with etchings and impressions set in of fields of flowers , the center showing a grand scimitar that had a silver lined hilt and red rubies.
The Rhino came up to the door and called out loudly, "This is Kruhk, Warlord Vrihkro! I have brought our scout Groya to relay a message." Several moments passed, then the door was swung open slowly leading into a large chamber.. surprisingly not as large might have been possible, about 400 by 400 feet. It was not surprisingly quite lavish, with artistic grace settled upon the walls in styles of silver and gold etchings, jewels embedded into the pictures, and even a few landscape paintings of great size hanging on the walls right and left of the entrance door. Near the back was a large oak desk, somewhat plain oddly save for two busts of beautiful woman carved at the ends, one of a female tigress, another of a elephant. On the desk was some papers, writing tools and a couple of books.
Seated behind the desk was a male weasel, wearing a pair of baggy blue silk pants and a white no sleeve vest, his body was very toned and well maintained, though his muscles were not bulging, they were quite noticeable on his form. His hair was bleached a little looking light brown, while the rest of the furr on his body was a little darker. His eyes were calm, and calculating, dark brown eyes that looked eagerly upon Groya as she came in with the rhino, a soft grin forming on his lips, nodding to Kruhk, "Thank you Kruhk you may leave us now." Kruhk nodded curtly and left quickly, he was in no mood to see his warlord's affections on Groya, though he felt his position was secure by his actions, he always felt a little threatened when seeing his boss flirting heavily with the fiery crocodile, though she was in no way interested in his wiles.
[WIP] (Sorry This doesn't get into too much so far! I have been trying to get some things done and my pc cleaned, this story is more for writing practice, but it will come to be a full and I hope enjoyable story! I'll try and get much more work done on this as soon as possible . I apologize about any errors or inconsistencies with the descriptions.)