“It is over, Philandro.” Leopard-headed Kotiya crossed his brawny arms and bared his fangs at the prisoner. Around him, the man-handed hyenas of the crater valley cackled evilly.
Philandro knelt, his thick, gray legs chained and bent uncomfortably beneath him. A second set of shackles wrapped his forelimbs, linked to his tusks, and even circled the midpoint of his trunk. He breathed heavily through his mouth. Wounds from the battle split his hide in a dozen places. The buzzing of flies and the scent of burning savanna surrounded him like a miasma.
Above, Kotiya and his hyenas laughed.
“This land belongs to the predators,” continued Kotiya, beginning to pace around his hulking captive. “We have taken the waterfall and the crater as far as the hills.” Kotiya ticked off victories on one hand. “Your unicorns have been slaughtered, the baboons own the forest. And my kin have burned your pachyderm villages.”
Philandro pushed against his chains, angry at his failure. The shackles were thick, meant to hold a massive warrior — a hippo, a unicorn, maybe even a pachyderm. The hyenas saw his movement and took up their cackling again.
Below their yipping laughter, just on the edge of hearing, a slow rumbling began.
Kotiya leered down at the prisoner.
“Fool, you are beaten! Your own kin have fled, running for the hills the moment fire touched their homes.” The muscular warrior with the leopard head gestured toward a gash in the crater wall. “Why, your three elders even surrendered, and were led willingly down into the mines! Are you ready for death, or would you rather yield and join them?”
Before Philandro could answer his tormentor, the rumbling gained in volume. Its origin seemed to be the hills behind them. All cackling ceased, and the predators’ ears perked up.
“Find out what that is,” snapped Kotiya at his hyenas. Two dashed off to investigate. Kotiya started to pace angrily, his captive momentarily forgotten.
In his chains, Philandro calmed. The vibrations felt very familiar. He realized they actually came from two directions, the hills behind them and the crater wall to the side.
Philandro smiled.
“What are you smirking at?!” roared Kotiya in his face. “I will pluck out your tusks! I will perforate your ears and fill your trunk –”
“Master!” called the returning hyenas.
“What?!” Kotiya snarled.
From the tree line behind them, a tide of gray flesh charged down the hillside.
“Pachyderms!” the frightened hyenas giggled.
Sheathed in the ancient armor of their oliphant ancestors, the pachyderms came on, gleaming and trumpeting war cries.
From the mine entrance in the crater wall, more trumpeting answered. The three elders stomped out of the mine, an army of smaller herbivores fanning out around them.
The predators yipped and snarled, confused and turning to face two forces at once. Kotiya roared for order, but his panicky minions ignored him. The leopard-headed leader aimed wild eyes at Philandro.
“You should not have forgotten,” Philandro rumbled. He burst apart his chains and bellowed, “Elephants never submit!”