Dinosaur Hunter Diaries #027: The Slave of the Merciless Monsters
Turok: Son of Stone #17
Andar lands in some Lilliputian shenanigans.
Our heroes find a curious sight on the jungle trail — a herd of tiny triceratops! Not just babies either, there are fully-grown little things! Curious if there’s more creatures like them out there, they start following them, but have to take shelter from rough weather. Andar’s certain he hears voices in the night, and goes off to investigate… only to be set upon by a gang of tiny humans!
Try as they might, their attempts at murdering Andar come across like mere roughhousing, so they steal his bow instead and disappear into a narrow cave entrance.
Inside, the group marvel over the giant weapon, and the leader Zug can’t go five seconds without wanting attention. He claims Andar’s appearance wasn’t just idle happenstance — Zug summoned him here! And Andar’s a god, actually.
After instilling fear over this random stranger, Zug proves he’s the biggest dick of all and stands steady before Andar the giant, and begins ordering him around. Andar sees no harm in this and plays along, thinking he’s doing the man a good turn, and making new friends for good measure. And now they’re bringing him free drinks! This day keeps getting better and better!
Little does he know that Zug’s drugged him, and intends to make him their slave for… reasons? It’s not exactly clear what his goal is, beyond being a power-hungry little twerp. It’s not until Andar mumbles in his sleep does Zug realise he can use him to lure out Turok, and have two giants to do his bidding.
Turok happens upon the scene, and seeing his friend in danger, has no choice but to do as Zug says. His first order: attack their enemies! Show them no mercy! And use this giant novelty club, it wouldn’t be as satisfying with any other weapon!
Zug leaves his servant to them, where Turok makes a point of only causing half-hearted chaos. Once Zug is out of earshot, he leads the rival tribe back to the camp and lets them pick on someone their own size. Turok frees Andar in the skirmish, but the two are nearly captured again by the rival tribe, who know a good idea when they see one. Our heroes escape, and know never to judge anything by its size — big danger comes in small packages!
Young Earth teaches its readers about the Asia-America land bridge, formally known as Beringia, but it primarily focuses on the prehistoric animals that lived on it, and how migration and climate change forced them to adapt, evolve, or die out.
For some reason this panel makes me chuckle, yet also feels strangely melancholy. Where are they going to…?
After meeting the friendly fun-size triceratops in the last story, T & A run into a king-size killer! It pins them beneath the branches of a fallen tree and moves in to initiate goring…
A spear changes the triceratops’ tune, flung by a helpful stranger and his son. The beast turns its attention to them, striking the man before succumbing to its wounds. Turok and Andar are most gracious for the save–
— but Raf’s days are numbered. He and his son Dal were on their way back from the “magic mountain”, a rite of passage for all who become chief in his tribe, and Raf asks for Turok to take him home. Our hero can’t deny a dying man’s wish, so he agrees, taking the tearful Dal under his wing.
They set out on their journey and find themselves in the thick of a rainstorm. It must be bad if the honkers pay no notice to them, all in a hurry to get out of here — and it soon becomes clear. A flash flood! It tears the earth apart and uproots every tree, forcing them to hold onto a savaged trunk as the tide carries them away, thrusting them through a dingy cavern…
… and out into a vast, dry desert! Everyone is just as clueless as to how this happened, but that’s no reason to stop in their quest; little Dal still needs to reach his destination!
The trek is long and hard, and fatigue gets the better of them — Turok thumps Andar to prevent him from chasing mirages, and they ultimately collapse from exhaustion, knowing fully well they may not have the strength to get up again. But in the night, they see steam rising from the ground…
… and after a spot of digging, uncover an underground passage where all the flood water has drained to! Rejuvenated, they arm up on torches and follow the trail, using their flames to ward off the various beasts that reside within the cave…
… until they finally emerge into the daylight, with Dal’s village on the horizon! They soon deliver the child home, who informs the populace of his new position as chief, and regales them with his exciting journey. All in a day’s work for Turok and Andar!
