An old long taming : Teryx

Teryx, the black Devilsaur


The Barrens, the place in which began my relationship with my trustworthy Déinonychus. And also the place in which today I was leaving her for some months. I couldn't prevent some tears to appear as I saw Déinonychus with her partner. Even if I know I would have her on my side again, in just a few months. I wonder how she found this partner in fact. But how could I refuse her some months of "holidays" after the time we spent together ? And she wanted so much to have another nest... Remember her first one has been destroyed ? But this time I've no fear for her eggs. Together we acquired a lot of experience, and seriously, I wouldn't want to be the one that will try to destroy those eggs.

However, I was feeling something I didn't felt for a long time : I was alone. I knew Déinonychus also felt this, but she has got a partner now. So I guessed it was time for me to tame another pet.

I decided to go to the Un'Goro crater in order to find a new companion. This place was said to be really strange. It was so isolated from the rest of the world that there were still species that were extinct everywhere else. It was a good place to find a strong beast to tame. I wasn't really nervous in fact. Of course, the taming won't be a piece of cake but with the experience I acquired it shouldn't be as dangerous as was my first taming.

The trip however would be quite long. Why do you think this place was isolated ? But now I've my own mount : a fierce ram. And there was a fly to Tanaris, which isn't that far from Un'Goro. Hmm... well not so far but there was the whole desert to go through.

Yeah, I know you're thinking something like "It's just a desert, piece of cake with a mount ! At least you have no risk of being killed by nasty creatures !". But no, sorry, you don't know Tanaris. First, I'm speaking of a desert and a ram mount. You know, rams are more used to mountains... So if I didn't want to kill it (which of course I didn't want at all), I would have to go much slowly. And for the "nasty creatures" part... You're right, there's absolutely nothing in Tanaris if you don't take care of giant scorpids, huge basilics, one or two "nests" of silithids, some hostile humanoid tribes (mostly trogs) and of course dangerous snakes. And of course you have to take care of them if you don't want to add another skeleton to the desert. There are already enough no ?

Okay that was for the introduce the situation. Now you can understand why I was in this damn desert, wondering why the hell I kept my whole armor in this heat, seeing my water resources disappearing much faster than I expected, blaming myself for having a such stupid idea and worrying about the fact I was already having problems on the most easy part of the trip. And it was only the first day of the trip. Life ISN'T good.

Well at least I had something to calm down. That's to say shooting at something. It also was a necessity as I had to kill these beasts before they try to make the same thing with me. Eight scorpids and three basilics for the first day.
But I really had been stupid for the night. I thought a tent and my hunter instincts were enough to protect me. The first to prevent some sneaky creatures to bite me, the second to wake up if there was a danger. I realized the tent wasn't enough at all to prevent snakes to enter when I woke up with one on me, ready to bite. At least the instincts part was enough to ensure it was dead before it ever understood I was awake. When I went out of the tent to check if my ram had been attacked, I saw it totally indifferent with three snake corpses at it's feet. Guess I don't have to fear anything for my mount... However I had to fear for myself now. I couldn't sleep anymore.

I was on my way as the sun rose. I didn't want to spend more time than necessary in this desert. But I couldn't go too fast too, there was still two days of trip. The second day looked like the first one. The only thing unusual was that I saw a silithid nest, far away from the path I was taking. Hopefully, I really didn't want to meet silithids.
I also had a lot of luck that night, there wasn't a single snake to try to bite me or my ram.

I was relieved to know this would be my last day in that damn desert. In fact I was so relieved I didn't notice I was near a second silithid nest. I realized it only when a silithid soldier attacked me. By instinct I jumped from the ram, rolled on the sand and in the same movement took my gun. My ram, used to all this, went out of range from the enemy. At least it was safe. And I managed to roll far enough from the soldier to have enough time to shot once or twice at it.
I love that moment of the fight, in which you have to decide which part of the body to shoot and aiming. It's as if the time slows down. And strangely, in that moment I don't feel anything. No stress, no fear, no anger, nothing that could affect my aiming. So now, should I try to slow the silithid by aiming the legs or directly try to kill it ? Hmm the legs are too thin. And it's chitin. So kill it. Head or body ? Body. More chance to hit something important, will slow it down and much bigger. Okay now... Aiming...
BLAM !
Nice, it seems to be severely wounded. And as predicted it seems to be slower. Just have the time to shot a second time, and also the last one. BLAM !
It's also a strange feeling to come back to the whole reality, where you're not only concentrated on the enemy and how to kill it. The silithid's corpse was practically at my feet. If I didn't manage to kill it with the second shot, I would have had problems to dodge it's first attack. Silithids are said to be really tough at melee...

Now at least I wouldn't have problems with that one. Or... Oooops... No in fact I had a very big problem. Well as I guess you don't figure what's that problem let me explain a bit. Have you ever tried to shoot in an ant's nest ? You all know they'll try to attack you and that you'll have to spend the ten next minutes to make sure there aren't any ant left on your shoe. Now what do you think about shooting into a red ant's nest ? That's even more stupid as these one are not as harmless as the black ones. And finally now imagine that in fact, those red ants are human-sized and very clever. It's scary uh ? And of course you wouldn't even have the idea to try to shoot in a such ant's nest ? Yeah of course. But now just replace "red ant" by silithid, and you'll have my current situation. So yes, "Oooops", with maybe even more o.

I guess this was the moment at which I decided that yes, walking slowly was a very good idea. Because I really needed my ram to run at it's full speed at that moment. And I don't know if it could sense the Silithids, but my ram refused to stop even when I thought they weren't pursuing us anymore. When we finally stopped, we had reached the border of the crater. I took care of my ram, it needed and deserved it. There was already rock on the ground instead of sand, so for the first time since the beginning of this trip, I could sleep on my two ears.

I woke up fresh and disposed, and so was my ram. Good. After having a light breakfast and my ram some poor grass, we tried to find a path to get into the crater. That wasn't easy, but my ram, used to this kind of exercises, managed to find some safe ways I didn't see.
The first thing I felt when entering Un'Goro was the hard transition. Tanaris' weather was really hot but dry. But here at Un'Goro it was a really heavy heat with a wet air. At least there was water and I could drink a bit, after having check it wasn't too bad.

The jungle was quite silent at the moment, and I could only hear the "Ploc" of my ram walking on the wet ground. It was strange not to hear any bird. But well, in fact I didn't really wanted to discover what kind of bird could live in this place on such huge trees. Seriously, the Nightelves had lessons to take of this jungle. Even in Teldrasil I didn't saw such high trees. They were like... What ? 100 meters high, at least... They literally hid the light of the sun, letting the jungle in a dark-green ambience.

I continued to walk on my ram for a moment. Suddenly, I heard something. In fact I wouldn't have taken care of a such little noise if I were in a normal jungle. But I heard another small "crack" at my side, and another one in a bush in front of me. This is the moment I understood. I would recognize this method of hunting between hundred other one for having studied it so well some months before. I took my gun and got prepared. At that moment, the raptor jumped over the bush and began to charge me. Oh my... I never saw a so huge raptor. It was twice as big as Déinonychus !
I jumped of my ram, which went in a safe place as usual. I really admire how stoic it can stay in such conditions. Then I held my gun, pointed it toward the raptor... and swiftly turned and shot the raptor that was waiting at the side. I had a lot of luck to kill it at the first bullet, and silently thanked Déinonychus for having learned me her hunting tricks. It was the classic hunting technic when they hunt by pair : one charge the prey and distract the prey while the other sneaks at it's side. So at least, I didn't have to fear an other ambush. The problem was just that now I had to deal with a furious raptor which was dangerously near. I charged my gun and rolled at the side as the beast was charging me. That time, I had to slow it down, I couldn't count on luck a second time. At least it was near enough to be sure to land my hit. The raptor roared as the bullet hit his left leg. Nice shot again. That let me enough time to charge my gun and quickly shot. Finally it didn't slowed the raptor as much as I expected... But at that distance, there was absolutely no chance to miss even without aiming. The raptor fell down as the bullet entered his lungs. I swiftly killed it with my sword. I stood there to check if there were other ones, but there weren't. If even raptors are so huge here, what about the other creatures ?

I guess I had some kind of answer later in the day. I don't know what for a creature was that corpse, but it was huge. However, there were large marks of teeth in it, and really, I wouldn't want to meet the one that caused them. The marks were more than half as large as I'm high (okay, I'm a dwarf but that's still huge !), and the teeth were as long as my fingers. That was a predator... I guess that's when I had the stupid idea to decide I would tame this one and no other one. I mean, I don't regret anything but at that moment, it just looked a bit suicidally no ?

So I spend the next days to track him. Even before seeing the beast I learned a lot about it. First, it didn't feared to hunt vegetarians I thought to be bigger as itself. Second, it didn't seemed to have a particular territory. Or it's territory was the entire crater, depends on how you think about it. It really behave as if it was the king of the crater. Which may be right since he went through the raptors territory without fearing anything. If even the raptors don't attack it...
But the third and more important thing : his patrol were really regular. Which meant I knew when and where he would be at a precise time. Perfect when you want to set a trap...

There was a place in his patrol, just near some water geysers, in which there didn't seemed to be aggressive animals. The beast couldn't suspect anything there, and it was a perfect place to hide myself, with the rock formations near the geysers and the smelling covering my own. I finished to prepare the trap just some minutes before I expected the beast to come... which it did.

When I saw the beast, I couldn't help to gasp. I thought devilsaurs were extinct since a so long time... That was ironical, I wondered why I didn't thought about it earlier. Of course, if there was a single place I could expect to see one, it was Un'Goro.
The beast was 4 meters high. I felt like a gnome faced to it. It's huge rear paws were in complete contrast with his ridiculously small front paws. I even wondered how he used the front one... I guess that's also why it walked on two paws, like us. It's leathered skin was black overal, except under it's belly were it was of a light brown. It also had teal strips on the head, the rear paws, the back and the tail. And it's eyes were of a glacial ice blue. Well, overall it was terrifying. I can now understand why even raptors didn't attacked it...
And the roar it made as he walked straight into my trap was also terrifying. I guess you're wondering which kind of trap I used. Maybe you're imagining those kind of traps that you use to catch wolves when you want to kill it. But just don't be stupid, I didn't want to harm my future companion. Or maybe you're figuring I put a huge hole which I hid. But again, don't be silly. Could you imagine the time I would have spent to dig a hole for a 4m high creature ? No, no, it definitively wasn't that at all. I just prepared an ice trap. Yes, that kind of trap which puts your feet in a huge ice block. The best way to ensure it won't move for a while without harming it at all. Or, at least, just his self-pride.

As I went out of my hiding, the devilsaur turned his head toward me with a glacial expression on his face. I guess I severely hurt his self-pride. Sure that for the king of this crater, being trapped so easily... I opened my mind to communicate with him. He really was so furious I wondered if I would manage to convince him. But his furious rage became a more calm one as he had to admit I trapped him. And I could sense he was wondering why I didn't kill him. There was my chance.
I told him I didn't killed him because I wanted him to be my companion. His face took a curious expression, wondering if I was serious or not. But I just stayed and fixed him in his eyes. I was serious. The devilsaur leaned his body as far as his frozen leg allowed him, so that his face was just some centimeters from mine. I could sense his hot wet breath on my face. I knew he still could bend his neck enough to kill me. And he knew I knew. We stayed like this for more than two minutes.
He finally nodded his head and stood up. He, the king of Un'Goro, being my companion ? The crater wasn't wide enough for two predators like us. I quickly rectified. I didn't care about Un'Goro, I was speaking of the whole world. He looked at me with an astonished face. Hunting in the whole world ? Was it more dangerous than his crater ? He really was interested : he found the crater quite boring sometimes. I told him that yes, it was far more dangerous. That was why I asked for his help. He seemed to think for a moment. He was wondering wether exploring the world was worth leaving his territory. Finally, he decided that it was worth giving it a try. In the worst case, he wouldn't have any problem to regain it.
I saw him force and break the ice block in which his legs were. But I wasn't worry anymore : he accepted my proposition. Our mental link strengthened, and I felt his name : "Teryx".


The first thing Teryx did after all this was to bath a bit in the geysers pools that were near us. After that time in an ice block, his legs were cold and that was a feeling he really wasn't used to. He seemed to have regained his self-pride. Enough, at least, to decide that I didn't smelt good, and to send me a huge quantity of water with his tail as soon as I went close to the pool. And he dared wonder why I looked at him with a such furious face...
But he was right, a bath wouldn't hurt. I put my armor and my clothes on a rock to make sure they would get dry, and entered the water. Surprisingly, the hot water was still enjoyable under this heat. I felt fresh after that bath.
After having put my clothes and armor again, I reached my ram. Teryx looked at it with a strange face, but as I mounted it, I was sure he won't try to eat it. Though he snarled at it, thinking that a creature that let itself get mounted wasn't worth his attention. But I also could sense Teryx was disturbed by how stoic my ram stayed faced to him.

The back-trip was the easiest part of the trip. Mainly because the single presence of Teryx was enough to afraid all creatures from Un'Goro. I feared he won't be as fast as my ram, but he sustained it's speed easily. We reached the border of the crater in the evening. As I set down my tent to sleep, Teryx stood on the border of the crater and roared. From our position, I guess it could have been heard in the whole crater.
We entered the desert in the morning. I made sure to avoid the Silithids that time, and we walked the whole day without many bad encounter. It was kind of training for us I mean. I learned to predict when and how Teryx would charge his prey, he learned how to place the pray so that I could shoot it. We were a great pair when we finally reached Gadgetztan.

When I first arrived at this goblin town with the intention to tame a beast from the Un'Goro Crater, many just laughed at me. That wasn't really pleasant... And some goblins seemed to recognize me when I came back to the town.
"Eh eh look there, isn't it our silly hunter ? So, still alive ? Did you at least reached the crater or did you got lost in the desert ?"
He was so focused on laughing at me that he didn't saw Teryx sneaking behind him. I must admit I really enjoyed seeing the goblin as Teryx roared right in his ears. And when the afraid goblin turned back to see my 4m high companion, I would have bet that Teryx was laughing. I think I impressed them, as no one tried to joke at me as I was drinking a beer at the tavern. Mmh, well, all things considered, I didn't. It's more probably Teryx who did. I guess goblins were not used to see a devilsaur drinking coconut juice in a bar. No comments please, he just wanted to have one. He told me it reminded him Un'Goro (and I also could sense behind this nostalgia some hours of pain after having tried to open a coconut), but I was sure he did it on purpose. Though, if you could have seen the goblins... As we went out, we looked at each other and began laughing without stopping. After that little vengeance, we took the fly toward our next adventures.


Some months later, I was back to the Barrens. I didn't really knew how I knew Déinonychus wanted my company again, but I knew it. Teryx just behind me, I headed toward her nest. As I saw her again, after so long, I couldn't help some tears to appear. And she also was pleased to see me. She roared and (literally) charged me to nibble her head on my chest. Then, she turned toward her partner and I saw her children. They were so cute, with their 30cm high and their big head ! Hard to imagine those cuties would become one of the most fearful predator of this world...
Déinonychus turned toward Teryx and started to inspect him. That was the moment I feared : I didn't know wether she would be jealous or not. But it seemed that no. I sensed Déinonychus wondering about something, but I didn't managed to understand what. Then Teryx answered, and I realized she wasn't asking me. They were using my mental link to each one to chat ! This lasted a good minute before they both told me they were ready. I would never know what they were chatting about.
Déinonychus went toward her partner, and seemed to talk with him a bit. Then she went toward her children and nibbled each one. When she came back to me, I sensed she was proud of them. They were ready. We headed toward Ashenvale, me on my ram, Déinonychus on my right and Teryx on my left. I didn't knew why, but I had the silly idea that with a sunset and a "The End" panel, it would be a perfect picture. Though it wasn't an end, it was a beginning.