Chapter 201: Mermaid Breasts

The grasslands only had one river. Its source came from the rocky mountains, and the river itself went on for miles, through, and past the grasslands, past the west hills also. Gravity dragged it towards lower elevations, so there was no telling how long it stretched. The water could accumulate and form a lake, hundreds of miles away – it was possible, as the fresh water had to end up somewhere.

The inhabitants of the grasslands didn’t really care how far the river stretched. The river was mostly useless to them, especially since the tribe hadn’t practiced fishing in a while.

Likewise, they grew increasingly ignorant by the day in regards to what animals, what species resided below the surface of the water. When people saw the river, they automatically thought about fish, dinosaurs, and crocodiles, but their subconscious minds didn’t budge past that point, they didn’t explore further possibilities.

In other words, the river was the best place for weird creatures to hide in. Creatures that typically did not take pleasure in running into humans, and even avoided it all together.

One of these creatures, its species an anomaly to common biological facts, poked its head out of the water. Then it watched, or practically stalked these three people, who climbed on top of these two dinosaurs, one humongous, and one simply big.

To the stalker, this was a rather intriguing sight. Unusual no doubt.

It was even more impressive when she noticed that those same dinosaurs were not only docile towards the humans that rode them, but cooperative as well. They dragged, or lifted five whole crocodile carcasses, and carried them across the grasslands, and it took very little to figure out that the humans on their backs were the ones who were going to benefit from those carcasses, even if they didn’t lend a hand in carrying them. With that said, the dinosaurs were more than cooperative, they were accommodating.

“Interesting…” The creature whispered, as it stalked the humans and the two dinosaurs.

Specifically, it was using the camouflaging properties of the moving river to stalk Jimmy, Eni, Zik, and the two pet dinosaurs who were indeed doing all of the work, or the heavy lifting. The dinosaurs were Rampage and Gutaxun.

“Dinosaur tamers…” The creature mumbled, “That’s a craft we haven’t seen in a while.”

Afterwards, the creature disappeared in the river, smacking its long tail around as it swam to the bottom of the river, five meters, or sixteen feet deep.

Using its long, scaly arms, the creature patted around at the bottom of the river, trying to make up for the fact that its eyesight wasn’t the best this deep underwater. She eventually found what she was looking for, a hole of sorts, a three-foot wide hold that survived the passing of time because its exterior was supported by natural, hard stone.

When she felt the water gently dragging her into the hole, she was confident that she was following the right path, so she went in head first.

The hole went on for two hundred meters, or a bit over six hundred and fifty feet, straight down. One would think that while she was in the hole, or the downward tunnel, in this case, the water pressure would help her beam through the long distance of two hundred meters, in seconds, but that was not the case.

The water pressure was barely different from that of the river’s, and since a lake waited for her on the other side, the water pressure through the tunnel was nearly still. She had to swim her way through, just to make it to the underground lake, two hundred meters below the surface.

The science of this hole was worth mentioning, because it was a secret entrance of sorts that kept her (the weird creature), and her people, hidden from the rest of the world for millenia. It kept them away from river crocodiles, humans, and most dinosaurs.

As creatures who preferred to live in the water, her people needed a safe space where they didn’t have to fight crocodiles everyday. The underground lake, two hundred meters below the surface, was their safe space, it was their refuge.

The creature made it to the lake, and saw that most of her people were out of the lake for some reason, which was unusual. Nevertheless, she followed after them, and slowly crawled out of the water. She held on to her breasts as she got close to dry land, covering her privates, and much like in those popular movies back on Earth, she switched her long fish tail for a pair of feet, and then walked across the dry lands, towards her people, her tribe.

“What’s the problem?” She asked. “Why’s everyone out of the lake?”

“A Clawer got too close,” A woman answered, pointing at some trees, a hundred meters, or over three hundred feet away. “Laylania is taking care of it, don’t worry.”

“Oh, so all of you came up here to watch? That’s not very productive, is it?” She pressured them, but no one really paid attention.

Laylania, the name her tribe kept repeating, was one of the greatest warriors around. She was a true force to be reckoned with, because she was a prodigy in their collective branch of magic.

Unlike in those popular movies, Laylania and her people were not mermaids, but they were shape shifters. They were a tribe who enjoyed living in the water, so they grew accustomed to assuming the form of mermaids, or something close to a mermaid, at least.

Dinosaurs often challenged their livelihood, and recently, problems of that nature had become more common. Random dinosaurs sought to step into the lake, even though they had plenty of other water sources to choose from, including the small creek that leaked out of the lake! It was annoying, but most dinosaurs were dumb, so they couldn’t be blamed thoroughly, and instead, simply killed.

Laylania shapeshifted into a dinosaur herself, a large Allosaurus Fragilis, so she could fight a Megalosaurus Bucklandii otherwise known as a Mud Back, or Clawer, who in this side of the world, two hundred meters underground, had exceptionally big claws! A terrifying pair that would slice most humans in half in one strike!

Laylania did not budge. Having shapeshifted into a ferocious, and nearly twice as big Allosaurus Fragilis, she clashed with the Clawer, bit its back, and even went as far as to kick it, utilizing her massive legs! She won the battle in minutes, and only suffered a minor injury, a few lost fingers, which was the sort of damage that she could shake off as soon as she shapeshifted back into the form that she was used to, or any smaller form in general, really.

A severed finger was nothing short of a partially spent mana pool to her, and her people. Naturally they tried to avoid battles, and danger all together, because their mana wasn’t infinite, and they could in fact get hurt, but prodigies like Laylania often took the risks and scared away, or even killed problematic dinosaurs. Killing in self defense was sometimes a necessity.

Anyway, Laylania walked back to her tribe, leaving the massive jungle behind her, and was ready to go for a swim. She didn’t like looking like a human, because she had to cover her breasts all the time, so she only remained a human for a short time, enough to walk into the lake without breaking its bedding.

If she walked in here as a big dinosaur, their lake, their pool would collapse, and flood part of the jungle, which would create more problems than they could handle. It was very important to preserve the lake, for a lot of reasons.

After walking in the lake, she assumed the form of a mermaid. The main distinction with her form, or the form that her people usually assumed once it the water, was the fact that green scales covered every bit of their body, including their face, arms, breasts, or penises, depending on their gender. They turned into these long, slender beasts that dominated the waters in terms of speed, if not strength.

They were closer to being reptilian than fish when they assumed their favorite form, but either way, Laylania could finally relax. She closed her eyes as the cold water embraced her scales, soothing her nerves.

’The stalker’ otherwise known as Almara, followed after the prodigy. She followed Laylania, and excitedly shared what she saw on the surface world, essentially breaking the peace and quiet she was trying to experience.

“One of them was definitely a dinosaur tamer, I’m telling you! They even had a pet Fat-neck, Laylania, for goodness’ sake!” She exclaimed. “We need their help, you know that, so how about we get moving before we lose track of the tamer?”

“I don’t think we need a dinosaur tamer right now,” Laylania shook her head. “Besides, how would you even get them down here? Humans don’t breathe water.”

“Are you acting dumb on purpose?” She snapped. “They can breathe water if they mount us, Laylania, you know that.”

“Maybe I don’t want a random man or woman ’mounting’ my people?” Laylania scoffed. “Besides, we have the situation under control. One Clawer bugging us now and again, is hardly cause for concern.”

All of a sudden, as if to spite her, the tribesfolk kept yelling out a name that Leylana dreaded to hear. “Fat-neck!”

Laylania groaned, and started swimming back towards the dry lands. Fat-necks, otherwise known as Argentinosaurus, were the most troublesome creatures to deal with. There was no fighting them, as their species was too big, too heavy, but her tribe did have a way of keeping that particular species away from the lake.

The tribe gathered together to deal with the Argentinosaurus, except for Almara, who was stopped halfway there to dry land by Laylania herself. She was seemingly sick of Fat-necks, and so she gave Almara the quest that she had been enthusiastic to pursue just moments ago.

“Go get the dinosaur tamer,” She demanded, “Getting them here isn’t ideal, as I mentioned, but maybe you were on to something? This is the third Fat-neck we had to deal with this week, so maybe we do need a tamer to step in, and help us? We’ll see how it goes… and oh, if the tamer is a woman instead of a man, I believe you will do what you must?”

“Of course,” Almara nodded. “Don’t worry, we’re gonna fix this stupid dinosaur problem this week!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep