They were all fighting over a single piece of fish left in the trail. Not even trying to grab the next one, just clawing and biting each other for that one fish.
The deep hissing and gurgling sounds were horrible to hear. Their hunger-fueled strength was sloppy but still very destructive.
And clearly, they had no concept of kinship. One of them bit off another's front leg and ate it like that was the prize.
They acted purely on instinct and hunger, stupid, mindless, and still deadly.
FUCK! What kind of House sends their kids to hunt these monsters, alone?
Terry wondered what Merrick was doing right now. Then he glanced at Kiki, and felt seriously grateful to her. Without her, he would've walked right into their nest and died horribly.
One of the stupid lizards, the biggest one, who clearly had a horn on his head but now half broken, finally won as he gulped down the fish.
Now that the reason for the fight was over, they started to look for food in all directions. All of their eyes landed on the next fish on the trail.
And the same fight over a single fish repeated.
Terry got bored after the fourth fish, wondering how long these stupid creatures were going to play it out over a single fish.
After a few more fish fights, they finally reached the grand prize. However, just like Kiki mentioned, they detected the quicksand and didn't approach, but used their long tongues.
At first, Terry thought their forked tongue was nothing special, but then suddenly it shot out like a frog's tongue, and instead of sticking to its target, it pierced it.
That was too fast for a sloppy creature. They all stood side by side like a firing squad and shot their tongues and started looting the grand prize.
This time they didn't even fight over each other; there were plenty of fish to go around.
However, their range started to get shorter as the pile began to shrink. They needed to move closer, but they knew about the quicksand, so they did what any creature aware of the danger's range would do.
They went around the perimeter and started shooting their tongue the moment they were in range.
"WWWWAGGHGH!" Suddenly, the first trap triggered as the lead lizard fell, and from his scream, it sounded like the spikes worked like a charm.
However, the others didn't even bother to check or react as they kept on looting fishes. Suddenly, one fish was forked by two of them, and they started fighting over it with each other.
"GRRRAHAHWAAAHHH!" Both fell down in the second trap, and the spikes worked on both? Now that was hard to tell.
Terry now felt like this was turning into a bigger gamble than they anticipated.
Three of them out of five.
The fishes were running out when the broken horned one triggered the last trap and fell down.
"GGGAAAARRAAHHHH!"
The last one now was the sole survivor... and it was the one whose limb was torn off. He enjoyed every last piece of the fish, slowly and with savor.
And then Terry's eyes went wide with shock. That torn limb, it trembled, and like a tree, a new limb grew out, new.
Terry looked at Kiki to see if she knew about it. Her calm expression said it all.
Does that mean they have limited time until others in the trap get healed and walk out of the trap?
The newly grown-limbed, dark, spiky-scaled lizard lifted its mouth, its snout, as if trying to smell the air, and it found a new smell.
It took the direction of that smell and started moving towards it.
Terry didn't like the direction it took because it was coming towards their position.
Terry looked at Kiki to see if she knew what was going on. Kiki rubbed her skin and then glared at Terry. It was their bug-repellent balm.
FUCK! Terry wanted to curse at himself, but he couldn't undo it now. Unrub the balm.
"Don't panic," Kiki whispered. "We have more fish, and we can use that to throw them off our scent and our chase."
Yes... that's a good idea. Terry still has Gobullu, not one but at least seven of them.
"Their weak spot is their soft underside and inside the mouth when they shoot their tongue. If I time it right, then we can kill it."
That lizard kept on sniffing and hissing until it reached their tree and looked up.
"Remember! They have weak eyesight but a strong sense of smell. We need to take advantage of that."
Terry nodded. Kiki took the lead and went a little bit downwards for a clear shot.
Terry was observing it, and then, to his unexpected surprise, the lizard started to climb the tree.
Its sharp claws dug into the wood like hooks, and it climbed like a clumsy creature, like a fish trying to climb a tree, and yet very securely because of its claws.
As it reached close enough, it noticed its prey. Its dark beady dead eyes now focused straight at Kiki.
It opened its mouth slightly, as if preparing to unsheathe its weapon, its forked tongue. A slow guttural snarl and a very terrible smell escaped. Terry had to pinch his nose or suffer suffocation.
It opened its mouth immediately wide open, and Kiki immediately shot her spear straight for the target, inside the mouth.
However, no forked tongue shot out, and it snapped its mouth closed immediately. The spear sparked, hitting the scales on its head, and bounced off, flung into the darkness.
HUH? Terry's face was wide open. This dumb creature can trick us too?
It let out another guttural noise as if laughing at us, as if it knew. It slowly opened its mouth again and BAM!
Without any warning, its forked tongue shot out. Kiki was ready as the forked tongue shot past her and cleanly shaved off a branch.
Not only was its forked tongue good at piercing, it was good at slicing too?