May
2021
Dinosaur Hunter Diaries #133: The Painted Mystery
Turok: Son of Stone #69
The buffalo never wanted this to be its legacy.
While escaping the wrath of an angry honker, Turok and Andar take refuge in a
cave until it clears off and finds better things to do. The cave happens to be
one of the few with homemade decorations, in this case a cave painting of
various scaly monsters... with a buffalo as the curious outlier! It's been a
long dang time since they saw one of the shaggy brutes back in their homeland,
but if one happened to get immortalised in illustration this far from home, then
surely that means there's got to be an exit somewhere around here, right?
Turok regards the picture by saying "there is a suggestion of a
buffalo!" That-- that's a buffalo, buddy. You couldn't ask for a more
accurate representation of a buffalo from people who still haven't invented
proper pants.
The honker has since begun terrorising another group of people, but the pair
slay it and offer them its meat in exchange for answers: who painted the mural?
They claim it was the work of a tribe who have since relocated, but are renowned
for their merciless nature, attacking all strangers on sight. And they'd be
right -- a gang of ne'er-do-wells are lying in wait for someone to bludgeon with
their twin-spiked maces, and aren't giving up without a fight.
It's only when the pair reach a curious hill of standing stones that the mob
simmer down. Why, there's a buffalo horn as its centrepiece! The tribe claim the
horn is a powerful artefact that'll kill them all if disturbed, but Turok uses
the superstition to his advantage by touching it and not dropping dead to get
answers: who killed the buffalo?
Why, another tribe, of course! Even stronger and nastier than this
strong, nasty lot! It doesn't take long to find them, and they know for certain
they've found the right ones -- their leader, Mossa, is garbed in buffalo hide
and wields the other horn as a wand. Our heroes lay down their arms to humbly
ask where he got the pelt. Mossa's not one for talking to strangers, and
launches another assault on them, chasing them into the jungle. If there
was ever a backlog for unwarranted attempts on their life, today's the day they
wiped the slate.
The tribe are feared and respected for a reason, as they're not giving up the
hunt until the trespassers are well and truly cooked, forcing T & A to lie low
and play stealth games, hiding in the trees to leave no trail. Come dusk, the
pair manage to catch them unawares with some explosive tinder, using the
confusion to abduct Mossa and politely squeeze some answers out of him. Knowing
they're not out to kill him, the medicine man becomes surprisingly loose-lipped.
A generation ago, a wall in the Lost Valley's border crumbled, and in that
moment of opportunity a single buffalo entered their domain. The creature
remained on the outskirts of their community and was little more than a
curiosity, but in a time of drought, it was what led them to prosperous new
plains, with water and shelter abounds! Alas, it came a cropper fending off a
honker, but its memory is still respected -- its final resting place is marked
with standing stones, and its horn is believed to grant 'medicine' to whatever
it touches, hence the alleged killing power of the spears during their hunts.
Mossa's men catch up to them and his tune changes in an instant, threatening to
feed T & A to the honkers for doing him dirty like this. Because fragile egos
are such a reliable way of saving their bacon, Turok demands he prove his
medicine is stronger than theirs, by firing two arrows at the t-rex, one blessed
with the buffalo's horn. This, of course, is an excuse to shoot one untainted
arrow and one poisoned arrow, and the tribe leg it when they realise who they've
been messing with. Their search for a way home has unwittingly tarnished the
reputation of a magical buffalo, but nobody said escaping from a primeval hell
realm wouldn't be without casualties.