Podcasts about Smilodon

A Butterfly wants to kill the World?Book 3 in 18 parts, By FinalStand. Listen to the ► Podcast at Explicit Novels.Although Love is both fire and shadow, we often forget to take comfort from the coolness of the memories when the burning flames are absentThere were precisely two things, okay, four things, keeping me alive. The fourth thing would come to her later when her 'furious was replaced by her 'curious' ~ as in how I knew her inhuman lingo ~ which would lead to my legacy with Grandpa.The top three reasons -She had poked my chest. It was a challenge, calling for one of my guardians to come out and play. The avatar knew I was the chosen heir of the Goddess Ishara and my goddess had devoted a good deal of time and effort to my survival and continued service in her cause. If Ishara made an 'appearance', it would be enough reason to not eviscerate me for my foul treatment of her august personage.Nope. It seemed Ishara was busy at the moment.Still, she most likely knew SzelAnya had shown a keen interest in me in Romania, though I'd never told Selena, or any other member of the 9 Clans, the Dragon's Daughter had killed Ajax for me. Figuring out SzelAnya, a storm deity, had helped me and Aya escape from our kidnapping in the midst of a cyclone in the Pacific Ocean wasn't much of a reach.But no bolt of lightning coalesced from my chest to singe her finger. No clap of thunder. Not even a cloud with a hint of disfavor appeared above us.Her obsidian fingernail began penetrating my shirt, touched my skin, then drew my blood, and something 'twitched'.That would be Contestant Goddess #3. She wasn't actually hanging around me. She didn't have to. She'd left me a memento of our last shindig before we parted ways. That was the nightmare-inducing episode where she, the chthonic goddess Sarrat Irkalli, had compressed one man's body into a dagger and then proceeded to suck another's soul into it to use as a power source for an Airbus 350 (a commercial airliner, if you didn't know).I still had that snaggletooth-looking thing at my back. Well who the Hell was I going to leave it with? Honestly, the only people I felt could keep it safe I loved too much to curse with it. Anyway, the second her divine claw touched my blood, the long dormant weapon whispered to me in a somewhat bored, lofty feminine voice from beyond the grave,Do you want me to discorporate this pathetic has-been for you?Quick check. Only the avatar and I, and her priestess-savant heard that. Of course, in downtown, New York City, noon Sunday, how weird would such a declaration be? The avatar's eyebrow arched. Her big bat-ears (still looking human to the normal viewing public) flicked this way and that, figuring out precisely where the threat originated from. Slowly, her once poking hand began to slide across my chest, along my ribs and around my back.She touched the dagger. Nothing.Gingerly, she drew it forth. I'd had a makeshift sheath made. As the blade made its journey around me, she took a half-step back to better observe it."Please don't kill him!" Theddy squealed. "We haven't had sex yet!"Being 'who' and 'what' she was, the avatar did what came natural. Fortunately for Theddy, I'd become accustomed to working with psychopaths.She stabbed the dagger at Theddy. I clamped my hand down on her wrist. The claws of her left hand came down on my constraining wrist. My free hand came down on that hand, trying to pry it free. It was a hopeless struggle, except.Yes, my old friend 'except'. Except the avatar was holding the dagger. As powerful as Ītzpāpālōtl was, she wasn't pushing against me. She was pushing against Sarrat Irkalli.Ītzpāpālōtl was a living, breathing terror machine who killed and received sacrifices on a regular basis.Sarrat Irkalli hadn't been actively worshipped in 3,000 years.Uneven contest? Oh yeah.See, Ītzpāpālōtl had spent the past 500 years continuously fighting against the Weave to keep her fingers on this side of reality.Meanwhile, for the most part, Sarrat Irkalli had sat upon her throne in the Sumerian Underworld with hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of souls toiling under her watchful gaze for eternity. Sure, her version of Hell wasn't getting any fresh deposits, but she knew how to milk the system well.Even the bad karma for the dagger's creation wasn't hers. She'd stolen it from the foolish Gong Tau sorcerers who had meant to enslave my soul, aka one-third of the Baraqu-Alal-Cáel deal she'd worked out millennia ago. It was the Weave giving her a 'freebie' for playing by the rules, if you considered the Weave sentient.And now Ītzpāpālōtl was touching it. Whoops. It wasn't as if Ītzpāpālōtl was stupid. It isn't like there are tons of magic weapons running around, much less soul-munchers like the one I had. Rationally, who would give a novice like me, a weapon like this? I say again, 'whoops'.Once I'd figured this out, I couldn't stop being me."Theddy, do you like girls?""What?" she squeaked. Here was this psycho trying to drive a Smilodon incisor into her bosom and I was giving her a sex quiz.Ītzpāpālōtl was really starting to struggle now."I, ah, are you okay?" she continued."Oh, I'm dandy. I'm serious. You think this chick is hot? I mean, would you do her in a three-way?" I proposed casually."Timothy?" Sovann."Bro?" Timothy to me."It's all good. Sovann, you want to know what my life is like? This lady who came to discuss business with me today is an immortal mass murderer. You give the word, I'll let go and this knife is going to cut her up like a Ginsu blade on market day because just cutting her heart out isn't going to be enough. Worse. Eventually she'll get back up.""Timothy?" Sovann repeated, this time with more concern. He thought I was nuts. I released my left hand. The blade flipped up, twisting in the avatar's grasp. That was the point her minions figured out something was wrong."El Amado?" the priestess-savant called out softly. The three goons began reaching for 'things'."Call them off, or I open my other hand," I cautioned the avatar. She spared me a swift, hostile look. My fingers tingled."Esten quietos!" she snapped. They stopped."Cáel, bad day, or not. This isn't you. Stop it. The girl's in danger," Timothy spoke up. He didn't mean Theddy. He meant the avatar."I'm being a real asshole, aren't I?" I sighed."Pretty much. You never let the bitches get to you before. Girl pops an attitude, you smile and move on. Life is too short," he reminded me. Too true."I'm going to put my hand over the blade," I told Ītzpāpālōtl. "When I do, you can let go."She didn't say anything for several seconds, even after my left hand covered the semi-serrated edge."Why should I trust you?" she sizzled."Because 'me' letting anything bad happen to you would make me a total, judgmental jerk. I don't know you. Whatever you did before you showed up today shouldn't matter to me. I acted stupidly. I should have stopped you. I didn't. I didn't even warn you and I could have. I was angry, and not even at you. Just angry and I apologize. Now, let go.""Why?""Hi. I'm Cáel Nyilas. Can I have my knife back? Please?"Blink. She released it. For a millisecond, it wanted to do something else because bitches are bitches. It didn't, so my palm wasn't sliced open. My right hand took the hilt. I carefully put the blade away."Yes," Theddy gulped."Huh?" Sovann shook his head at the sudden evaporation of the life and death tension. Welcome to my life. Theddy meant 'yes' to the 'girl-girl-guy' thing I had proposed earlier. It pays to keep things prioritized."What is this movie you were talking about?" Ītzpāpālōtl asked. Had she forgiven me for anything which had transpired? Bwahahaha, no way. She was taking the initiative and going with Option 1 from my earlier insane diatribe."Wait!" Sovann nearly shouted. "You nearly, I don't know, threatened Cáel's life and tried to stab Theddy and now you think you can go with us to a movie?""I told you," Timothy put an arm around his shoulder, "life with Cáel is rarely dull.""I thought you meant he was fun to party with, or something like that," Sovann looked up at his lover. "I thought his uncle showing up, and trying to kill him and then being blown the fuck away by those women and federal agents, and that other girl who pointed a gun at us, is this the new normal?""I love you, Sovann," Timothy grew compassionate. "Cáel is my best friend. He'd never deliberately hurt either of us and normal friends are something he has in short supply. Today being a great case in point."Ten seconds passed."The title is 'As Above, So Below'," Sovann addressed the avatar, "and what do we call you?"Since 'if you are not a worshiper and addressing me, I normally am about to kill you' would sound really cool in Olmec-ic, but I might be asked to translate,"How about we go with 'Obsidian', please?" I pleaded with her.She knew I was currying favor now ~ and behaving like a weather vane caught in the wall of a tornado ~ she gave a gracious bow of her head."Obsidian will do for now. Is the Legend of the dagger 'business'?" Translation: it had better not be."No," I smiled. "It's pillow talk." Rancor, 'how presumptuous', followed by 'but that dagger ups the count to three Goddess interested in him', and next to recalling all the trivial babble about me being a sexual dynamo (I prayed my PR was that good) having some relevance. Her chimera emotions allowed me to get a few more crucial words out, because even women who aren't sleeping with me are jealous."Esta mujer fue la primera en ofrecer bienes funerarios tras la muerte dee mi padre," I reinserted Theddy back into my close company. For some reason, Obsidian considered me unreliable thus had to verify what I'd just said."Did you make funerary offering upon his father's passing?" she asked Theddy. Let's think about this. The wacko chick questioning Theddy had tried to stab a huge freaking blade into her not a minute ago. Fleeing in terror while screaming for the cops? Nope."Yes. I baked him some walnut and caramel chip cookies," she nodded. "It is a family recipe." Sovann looked over the three of us, then back to Timothy."I told you 'that's impressive cocking like I've never seen before'," he explained."She may remain," Obsidian 'permitted'. Theddy wrapped up my right arm with her left and gave it a squeeze. She wanted attention/explanation."Obsidian is a Master Vampire, Theddy," I leaned in and whispered. "Before she was turned, she was captured in a raid by the fey, mentally, spiritually and physically raped and made into their sex-slave. Part of her spirit never healed properly. While this imperfection allows her to walk around in daylight, her heart can never hold on to any emotion for long, so she is forced to forever seek passion, no matter how dangerous, from the world around her."Revealing secrets? Ha. I had noticed Theddy had every work done by Laurel K. Hamilton in her place, including the comic book series."You are not supposed to know, so act like I didn't tell you anything, okay?"'Okay,' she mouthed back at me. I could see it in her eyes. My chaotic life suddenly 'made sense' to her because a best-selling fiction author said so.Obsidian thought the movie was; hilarious. She couldn't stop snickering, giggling and poking at me as horrible shit happened to the various actors. She thought the plot was 'insightful' and wouldn't stop whispering to me throughout the entire thing. During the closing credits, I told her I'd get her the DVD for Christmas ~ she knew the concept behind digital technology, but didn't own any ~ she kissed me.The first kiss was fierce and joyous with the added benefit of her tongue doing things no normal tongue could do, it stretched. Not sure how I felt about that. The second kiss was more sultry, longer and came with some accompanying body action which, I'm no virgin. Not even close. She was on my left side, so when she twisted in her seat, her left leg insinuated itself between mine. Her left hand cupped my jaw and held my head in place as her lips played along mine.A dance of the scorpion perhaps? Tender at first, then suddenly stabbing, dominant and brutal. My lips and tongue battled back, using my superior Kiss-fu to nullify her natural strength and agility. She liked it. By her moaning, she liked it a lot. As the kiss progressed, more and more of her flowed from her seat into my seat, body facing me. Her body rose over mine, forcing my neck back to maintain contact."So, Dot Ishara is hovering around somewhere close, isn't she?" I murmured as our lips separated barely a centimeter apart. One chick kissing you to make another one jealous. It's happened to me plenty of times. Obsidian didn't give a damn about Theddy, or any other mortal woman in close proximity so,"Yes," she purred. "Do you mate with her?""A man does not brag of such things, but no, unless heavy petting counts?""What will she do to you when I steal your seed?"'When'? Why was I not surprised? Why was I not surprised another concussion was in my immediate future either? Was it possible I was, learning?"Chastise me for not fighting harder," I breathed across her lips, "and, in case you forgot, I'm on a date with the girl beside me.""Who I care nothing for," she sent a cruelly playful look Theddy's way. Wisely, the girl shivered."Who I am indebted to and how I honor my debts might matter to you," I hazarded. My words hurt Theddy's feelings. That was on purpose. Obsidian took pleasure in me hurting Theddy because she was basically a vicious monster."Yes?" I pressed her gently."Yes," Obsidian allowed, easing up slightly both romantically and physically."And Theddy, if you believe I'm with you solely because of some sense of obligation, you clearly haven't been listening to your recordings," I shot the human girl a wink."Oh.""Am I, or am I not, a sex-obsessed little monkey?" I teased her. Theddy giggled. I paid for my diversion with four obsidian claws to my ribs outside of Theddy's view. After all, it wasn't like Theddy could possibly compete with her for my attention. Considering Obsidian's legendary ability to rip open her opponent's ribcages and feast upon their hearts, I slipped my left hand, the one next to her between her legs and stroked her cotton-slacks covered cunt.Theddy hugged my right arm and put her head against my shoulder. Not to be outdone," Qu  un centenar dee hombres se quemaron vivos como el sonido?" Obsidian inquired with sexually sadistic hunger. Ah, memories of burning 7P Commandos.Whoops. Theddy knew Spanish."No lo s . Ten an respiradores en," I replied casually. "Si lo desea, puedo describir lo que se siente al tirar de una flecha de guerra lanzar mi propio muslo.""Eep," slipped out of Theddy's lips."Why did you do that?" Obsidian looked over us both."Well, I was showing a little girl I believed in her,""And she shot you?" Theddy gulped."No. She hit the target I was standing next to. A co-worker mistook me for a cardboard cutout of a Jehovah's Witness and let fly. Seems she had issues with organized religion as well as a reaction to the oscillation effect of florescent lighting and ceiling fans.""But why did you pull the arrow out?" Theddy asked. "Couldn't you wait until you got to the hospital?""Mosquito," Obsidian menaced, insinuating Theddy was a pest."I wasn't thinking rationally at the moment, I work in an asylum, I had a hot date in a few hours, any of those three will do," I smiled at Theddy."Copil such as Cáel don't bother with petty human conventions," Obsidian turned my gaze back her way with her hand on my jaw. 'Copil's were 'god-touched' in her lingo."More than one girl?" Theddy mused."Four.""Okay," she sighed happily."Theddy, three under-age girls and the police office he was dating acting as their chaperone," Timothy intervened. "He hurried home so he could keep a promise to the children, not for sex." Bastard. He really was my best friend. He didn't mention my post-injury, pre-festivity sex with Odette giving me a few extra, urgently needed Brownie Points to suggest I might be a decent human being."You are a wonderful guy," Theddy ran a fingernail over my free hand. Clearly I was 'wonderful' enough to risk Obsidian's anger over. The screen went blank as the last credits scrolled away and the room was plunged into darkness. Five seconds later, the lights snapped on.Pain!"Fuck," I hissed. It wasn't any extra physical trauma causing me discomfort. No, a metaphysical dam had burst within and my stream of conscious thought had been turned into a white-water rapids. The competing cyclones of thoughts in my mind had stopped cooperating and my hypothalamus was letting me know I was in danger."Cáel", "Cáel", "Bro", and "Ishara" all came in rapid succession. I needed some space both tangible and social."I need to step outside," I eased Obsidian off me and stood up. My sense of my personal danger was ratcheting up. While I had been studying Obsidian, so I could screw her, I had discovered more and more Alal-badness.The light display had ignited a series of pressing implanted memories which had been clamoring for my attention. Things like not all 'divinities' were stewards of the Weave. Some even wanted its destruction, preferring risking all on a chaotic restructuring of reality over what existed now ~ things like Obsidian. They weren't attempting to do so because they thought they had no chance.But there was. A real serious chance to unravel reality existed; and it was staring her in the face. It wasn't 'me' as in 'I was the Anti-Christ'. But with the torrent of memories pouring forth, I knew where the peril lay and I was completely responsible for it. Hell, I was a prime ally of Armageddon and hadn't even known it.'Holy Shit!'I blinked. Timothy was shaking me. We were out in the lobby."Oh my God, Timothy," I nearly wept. "What am I going to do?""I have no idea what you are talking about. Is there someone you can talk to about this?" he suggested. Normal folks were around us. Obsidian was at my side. Sovann was behind Timothy with an arm around Theddy's shoulder."Theddy," I looked at her. "Can I catch up with you later? I just realized I've screwed up something fierce." I put my best 'really don't want to go but I gotta' face on. Her worried look brightened, she slipped around Timothy and gave me a tingling French kiss."I'll hold you to that, Cáel," she murmured when we parted."Timothy, go home, I got shit to deal with," I hoped my grin didn't become as feeble as I felt it to be."I," he started to say something. "Time not to ask questions?""Yeah.""Okay.""Wait." I pulled us to the side and went on to my toes, leaned in and whispered in his ear, "Tell Pamela 'he' sent Ajax to kill the Professor, his family and the sisters. They were the targets all along. It wasn't me, or the other women. Just in case,""Okay," Timothy patted my arm. It was cryptic. It was the best I could do. See, I wanted to cry so badly.{2:09 pm Sunday, September 7th ~ Last day}Where to begin:Every mythology across the globe has some creature, or creatures, which threatens Existence. Usually a God, or a Hero-God, slays the creature and everything is right with the world, except such a being, being older than Existence itself, can't really die, so they are carved up, buried ~ what have you.Illuyankamunus was one such manifestation of this underlying cancerous desire to destroy reality. He'd had a far more real child, SzelAnya, and she's never quite given up on her dad. Of far greater critical importance, she was 'part' of Illuyankamunus, somewhat in the way I was part of Alal and Baraqu. And yes, that meant all the offspring of Bolu, the guy I'd praised a few hours earlier, held the seeds of that malignant deity as well.And Alal knew it. He hadn't been killing off the descendants. He'd left that task up to a group far more capable of the task, the Egyptian Rite, who knew a fucking threat to existence when they saw it. Lest I forget, No secret society are the 'good guys'. Also lest I forget, I alone decided to go after the Arinniti sons to fulfill Vranus' quest. I had no divine mandate I was aware of nor any real world orders.Inadvertently, I had rounded up the last five mortal remains of Illuyankamunus in one place for convenient disposal in a remote Transylvanian town. The only problem was: if someone didn't get to them quickly, I was also about to whisk them into the loving (and heavy-armed) protective embrace of the Amazon Host, where the completion of centuries of culling would have suddenly become a cast-iron bitch instead of a simple disposal.Enter Ajax. Yeah, I bet the Egyptians were trying to figure out how I stopped him as well as Alal. I thought I was being clever by not telling most of the world. In fact, they most likely suspected; and the reality of SzelAnya watching over me was much more terrifying. Ishara had put a serious curse on the Amazons, yet her curse only affected her followers, the Amazons, who were fair game.SzelAnya had killed someone for me, and I hadn't been one of her followers. Thus I had committed a blasphemous act only a magician of some significant ability could have managed. I wasn't a sorcerer, but I had a cornucopia of mystic knowledge rolling around in my noggin. Trying to figure all this out was one of my major headaches.The others?I even suspected I knew who betrayed me ~ kinda. They didn't do it on purpose. At least I hope they didn't, because my odds-on favorite was my Mother by way of Captain Delilah Faircloth. Realistically, there was only one secret society who might help her against Grandpa and that was the Egyptian Rite, and they did send three people to Dad's funeral including two 'somebodies'. I'm an idiot.I'd chatted away in fluent New Kingdom Egyptian and it never occurred to me how odd it was for two of them to also be so fluent in it. Know it, sure, but as fluent as Kimberly had taught me to be? That should have been a Red Flag.The Earth & Sky had sent Iskender, who should have been the benchmark I judged the other delegations by, damn it.Three Condos? They'd killed my Dad and their guys had been flunkies.The 7 Pillars had been nobodies, which they'd proven by their inaction.Now I had to question why I had 3 actual  9-Clans  assassins at my dad's funeral too. Holy Ishara, I wasn't nearly paranoid enough.Anyway, why would the Amazons be aiding and abetting the End of All Life on Earth? Normally, they wouldn't be, but 3000 years ago, the majority of Human life did a colossal dump on the Amazons. And when they needed help, they got it in the form of SzelAnya and her dual-sex followers. I seriously doubt they told the Amazons their purpose was to resurrect SzelAnya's daddy. I imagine the Amazons didn't pry too much either.It turned out almost to be okay. During the 2nd Betrayal, the Amazons betrayed SzelAnya and almost short-circuited her plans by exterminating her lineage.Except for the Arinniti elders and Bolu. Good old 'except'.I can imagine when the Egyptians heard about the 2nd Betrayal, they figured they were 'okay'. Those wacky Amazons had inadvertently done the world a favor. Except an act of maternal love kept a slender hope of Illuyankamunus' return alive. By the time the Egyptians realized they'd been prematurely hopeful, Bolu's descendants were all over the Balkans and hunting them down had proven difficult.But, it gets worse. Much worse.When those Gods shattered Illuyankamunus, they scattered him in the relative certainty no one would ever gather the parts back together.His flesh was scattered across the land, modern day Turkey, but encompassing everything from Pakistan to Italy and Egypt to Poland. The flesh became soil, then plants, the things that eat plants, then food for humans. Get the picture.Whoops. SzelAnya had been doing just that for centuries upon centuries every time she mated with a mortal of Illuyankamunus' line and had offspring, they accumulated his energy, which made hunting down the few remaining ones easier to find, since they were 'beacons of badness', except...There were two key pieces missing which SzelAnya could never get. After all, you would think burying them on the far side of the world would matter, right?The 'breath of Illuyankamunus' ~ his cosmic fire ~ they buried in a volcano in a distant land far across the Great Sea. His spirit 'body' they imprisoned in a great river, again, across the Great Sea.But wait, it gets worse.The being standing next to me knew precisely where the 'breath of Illuyankamunus' was. Seems Mesoamerica is laced with volcanos. They'd discovered 'the breath' long ago and used it as a weapon called Xiuhcoatl. Better yet, Alal suspected she and her buddies were more than happy to reunite it with the rest if they thought the Weave itself wouldn't annihilate them for daring to do so.In their current, weakened state they were vulnerable to such a karmic backlash. In theory, a reborn Illuyankamunus would have access to power beyond the bounds of the Weave, older and more terrifying. Still, without the mortal remains to anchor the energy, giving it to the spirit would be pointless.Alal knew where the spirit body was (in general), but that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was where it was,Of all the places the Arinniti sons could have fled to, they had to choose Brazil, the burial place of the restive spirit body of Illuyankamunus. Mother-fucker.And Ildiko 'Alkonyka' aka Dusk Lovasz had sworn she'd travel to Brazil to fulfill Bolu's side of the quest in the same way I was holding up Vranus' end. If I tried to stop her, SzelAnya would know something was up. Fuck.I was processing all of this when Obsidian violently yanked me out of the way. A cabby had swerved to avoid a flurry of trash and nearly run over us. It was the third near-concussive experience in the past five minutes she'd help me avoid while she had walked by my side. I'd been mumbling like a madman."That would be my Goddess wanting to talk with me," I looked her way."I know," she gave me a clever smile."She's really not going to like that," I shook my head."I know that too," she kept smiling. "Where is your mind?""Five lives away from making the world a safer place," I sighed."Safer for who?" she purred. Where were all the bimbos? Not only was it an insightful question, it cut straight to the heart of my dilemma.What decision could I make? If I elected to help my fellow Amazons, I risked screwing with the world. In truth, I was risking everything even if I did nothing. Well Dad was always clear that things didn't change by themselves. You needed to do something that would have an effect. So, 'What are you going to do?'More to the point, I wasn't Grandad. Killing the last five of the line of Illuyankamunus wasn't 'me', so it wasn't going to be something I'd worry about.SzelAnya wanted to bring back her Dad, I could understand that. I'd have to figure out a way for her to believe this world sticking around was more important. How? Well, I had a goddess-like creature right in front of me to probe for ideas."You are an immortal," Obsidian commented. She'd been weighing her opinion for some time. I could tell by the wonderment with which she gifted each word."What? No. I can die.""No. I don't think so. Your wounds. Normally the wounds I inflict flow freely for some time. Yours have already scabbed over," her eyes flickered to the various minor scars she'd imparted to me in the few hours we'd been together.Of course, her idea was insane, Oh God No! I was in Grandad's body. Well Duh! His body was supposed to be immortal."Are you sure?" I looked deep into her eyes."You are a young immortal, the youngest I've ever met, but you are an immortal," she seemed to be convincing herself as much as me.Stupid Assumption (on my part)! I wasn't in Alal's body. I was in Cáel's. Because the Cáel soul shard was young, Alal hadn't been able to find it because it had moved through Time, to me, sonofabitch! 'I' hadn't been around for him to find. No! I was making yet another damn assumption.What did I know? When Pamela found Baraqu, it had been in an object, not a person, though she had been short on details. When the Alal-shard went to the Land of the Endless Black Sands to bring Saku back, the Cáel-shard had been in reality, so it had been allowed to create a body, 'me'. Still, the curse Sarrat Irkalli placed on Baraqu was on Alal and myself as well, which meant I might just be immortal.My Alal-mind agreed with Obsidian's assessment. In his first years, his healing had been slow, still taking days for what took mortal people weeks. I'd stupidly attributed my swift recovery to Amazon medicines, ugh. Because I got wounded more than most Security Detail trainees while concurrently entertaining two and three sex partners."Can you talk with Dot Ishara?" I asked her."Yes, but why would I?""Sex?""We are going to have sex anyway," she smiled. I'd tricked her. Set her up with the right so I could now drop her with the left."I can bring the mbo  tat  back to life," I pledged. That was not what she was expecting at all. "If you bring the Xiuhcoatl, I can bring the flesh and we can unite the three." Mbo  tat  was the Tupi name for the legendary 'fiery serpent' of the Amazon Basin. In Portuguese, it had become Boi-tat , a will-o-wisp with a confused, Christianized mythology ~ a serpent dwelling in darkness, devouring the eyes of corpses, glowing in the forests at night."Where is the flesh?" she whispered."In his mortal children," I replied."Who?""You are a monster, Ītzpāpālōtl. I'm not going to tell you and you don't have the time to drag the information out of my mind before my allies drop on you like a nuclear detonation," I drew my body tightly to her."Why would the Amazons do this?""They are not. This is a deal between you and me," I kissed her lips. I pulled back. A few seconds later she kissed me back."Why?""My grandfather had my father murdered and I would avenge him. In the end, despite my father's Amazon heritage, my 'Sisters' will let his death go unavenged for the greater good of the Host. He was a man and they will never look beyond that ~ they will never value his life as they would that of a woman.""Your mother's father?""Yes. Cáel O'Shea of the Illuminati.""We are not at war with the Illuminati," she murmured. It was a casual observation, not a protest."You are at war with Cáel O'Shea.""He was slain.""He didn't stay dead.""You know much more than you are saying," she was finally catching on."Absolutely.""I need much more than a few names to convince my kin to help," she purred, a cocktail of sexual immersion and flesh-flaying pain."I don't work for you. You are agreeing to work for me," I was hard as iron in more than one way. Why? Boundaries. She lived in a world where only the fundamentals of reality constrained her. Having a human, no matter how polished my pedigree, or how much I might appear to be 'special', tell her 'you are not the boss' in a reasonable fashion was new and very unwelcome."What would make you think that?""My mentor taught me knowledge is a curse. It is our inability to forget, and I can see into your soul, Ītzpāpālōtl. You care not one wit for the life of an assassin. But the thought of the other 'Factors' of the 9 Clans treating you as an equal galls you almost as much as the crushing reality that you need them."You have lived 500 years in chains and I'm offering you a desperate grab at freedom," I added."Your brief glimpse of immortality gives you no insight into my existence," she bristled."Oh, how many have given up? How many have decided the fight was no longer worth it and faded from the Sunlight to make their final trip into the Underworld, never to return? Do you even visit them?" I spoke with a voice tinged with compassion and loss. I pulled upon the pitiless, blank memories of a childless Alal all those centuries and imprinted on them my own fears of fatherhood and failure."How do you know so much?" she let her fa ade crack, then blow away, in the hollowness of her own sorrow. How could I pity such a monster? I could because I was me and I wouldn't surrender that to the barbaric past and most likely horrific future. I pulled her close, resting my chin on the top of her head."You are not the first, wonderful, very bright woman who has stepped into my life, Obsidian," I whispered. "You are not even the first divinity. For all the millions of differences enforced by power and time, I think love, hate and the conflict between the two wear upon us all. If anything, you face an endless parade of hope and misery. Even if you chose to ignore it, you have seen it and perhaps it leaves its marks ~ water scarring the rocks of a riverbed."We paused. I was able to peripherally scan about and realize we'd made it to Central Park ~ the Ramble and off the beaten path."Your Goddess is a fool for not keeping you closer," she murmured."She does keep me close. You have been actively keeping me from her," I reminded my guest. "She also plays by the rules, so is of limited help in my plans for vengeance."Translation: I could enlist Ītzpāpālōtl's aid while still remaining loyal to my matron Goddess. Ishara could not provide what I needed and my Amazons wouldn't agree with my scheme, so I needed her. Three hours ago, she wouldn't have considered me a worthy supplicant, much less an allied equal, yet here she was conspiring with me to shake the foundations of Creation.Personally, I was thanking Mamitu, Destiny. Had I not been having my worst Sunday ever when we first crossed paths and then acted like a total cockhead, pissed her off and led her to holding Sarrat Irkalli's dagger, thus putting her life in my hands, and not had Timothy as a best friend, I wouldn't have taken her to the movie, and my mind wouldn't have wandered down those dark corridors of Alal's memories to piece things together.Whatever itinerary Obsidian had approached me with, my abrasive behavior had forced her to it cast aside. Dagger, movie, revelations, I was now so much more in her eyes than she had envisioned."Share my need and share with me an ounce of your sorrow," I murmured to her as I gently curled my fingers in her hair and directed her head up until she faced me."The dagger," she rumbled. While she was stroking my hard-on, I knew she was using it as a double meaning."I was pinned to an onyx sacrificial table," I began my tale. We worked off pants to mid-thigh then 'got busy'. Penetration was only going to be possible by turning her around. Ground-breaking was her ready acceptance of my instruction. I leaned against a tree, then pulled her onto my lap. She guided my phallus home.One locomotion and I sunk in deep. It was warm molasses until I hit and pressed against her cervix. For a second Obsidian trembled, then her muscles clamped down tightly, gripping my manhood firmly in a vise, keeping me still."Ah," I groaned. Obsidian had her neck twisted, so we were kissing with eye contact as I described my adventures with the Gong tau sorcerers. She shot me a quick twinkle of delight, a connection. She'd relayed physical pleasure in the way I was giving her cerebral gratification, aka hope.I rolled up her shirt, and gave both nipples a brutal tweak in response. She gasped. I was applying a little 'rough' with my tender intercourse. She rolled her tush against my groin, an invitation to double-down on my nipple-play. I kept my left hand working over each tit while working my fingernails down her abdomen. As I described the terror in old Tsu's face as he shouted out 'M iyǒu! (Mandarin for 'No!') as he recognized too late the curse he was invoking. She relished the visual of the Han necromancer's terror.'Me' smacking two fingers down on her clit earned me a squeal and a small gush of fluids on my nut-sack. Her look of astonishment was something I'd always cherish. Before me, sex was something she demanded from her followers/victims and definitely orchestrated. Her partners being fearful/worshipful must have limited their initiative."A-a-a-ah, we are being observed," she groaned, her lips less than an inch from mine. It took me a second."Which direction?" I kept pumping her, strumming her clit and treating her tit like taffy on a hot Coney Island summer afternoon. Her hooded eyes flickered to our right. I gave it ten seconds. I had to get Obsidian refocused on what I was going to do to her next, in case this was innocent voyeurism. Nope. It was Chaz.Why Chaz? See, I'm an idiot. My cryptic warning to Timothy for Pamela had been good for all of one minute. He'd called her and she'd gathered what she could and come looking for me.Why was she concerned? I was babbling to Timothy then wandering off with a 'beyond-freaky' chick I had just met named 'Obsidian' who came my way courtesy of another chick with the name of Estere.Let me see, Estere was Hashashin and for Timothy to describe someone in my life as 'beyond freaky' was bad news. Timothy was seriously worried about me and Timothy was an emotional rock ~ he didn't panic. Lest we forget, I was in a federal taskforce. A quick peek into New York traffic cameras revealed me and Obsidian wandering into Central Park from the south, so in the rescue party went, splitting up and Chaz 'lucked-out'.I still had two, no, three problems. I was really enjoying my sexual excursion with Obsidian and she was seeming to truly enjoy her experience with me. Oh, and Central Park is big, Pamela had been pressed for people, so she had pressed some unlikely participants into my rescue party."He's," smooch, "my brother, by adoption," I headed off the whole idea she'd been briefed on me already."Visual, Peacekeeper Six, OS2, L-11," Chaz muttered into his headset before taking up a casual stance on the path overlooking our trysting spot. Sex with an audience didn't bother her, so, we worked out as much action from twist, turns and two inches of in-and-out motions (she liked to keep our bodies tight) as we could. Obsidian was humming along in no time. Her vaginal walls were undulating, wearing away at my self-control.Panting, not from us,"Is he o, are they, who is she?" huffed and puffed a trio of voices from Chaz's locale. Oh. Pamela had recruited my 'Hounds'.I accidently (from a timing perspective) took that moment to grind my nails into her left nipple, pinched her clit and hammered her as hard as I could. Obsidian howled. Her vocalization exited the human realm in a cataclysmic manner.The noise scared avians a mile away into terrorized flight. Cats hissed, then raced for cover. Dogs tucked tail and ran. Streetlights a hundred yards away shattered in sprays of glass. Better yet, for the entertainment of my viewing public, she lashed out with her right hand at the closest Black Cherry sapling, exploding it into a mist of sap and pulverizing the bark and wood fiber into pulp.On the downside, her cervix gave my balls an ultimatum ~ release my seed at once, or she was going to twist off my head. My cock and balls have a long history of making decisions without me. I began lavishing her. Before I finally got the feeling I was out of the danger zone. She was back to rubbing against me and purring in blissful satisfaction."Onun g zleri," whispered Belgin, one of the Turks. 'Her eyes'?"Cáel, are you aware of the alternative nature of your liaison?" Chaz coolly cautioned me. Translation: 'mate, do you know you have your cock in a demon?'"Yeah," I coughed. I had a face full of her hair. I was working on some post-coital nuzzling along with slowly helping her get her pants back up."Ininzqueoccehpa," she hummed to me, ignoring our gathering. That was 'let's do this again'."Tehuatlcochitlehua," I replied with some fondness. She studied me for a second before deciding my term was one of endearment, thus 'you are what dreams are made of', not 'nightmares'.Obsidian had another issue to deal with. Timothy would call it a righteous cocking. Whatever it was, her hold on her human mein had slipped and her inhumanity was slipping through, mainly in her glass-like, black, multi-facetted eyes and her fingers which now ended in molten obsidian talons. On the subconscious level, her predatory nature was setting everyone close-by on edge. I could also make out the high pitched, ultrasonic pipping of her chiropteran cries ~ purpose unknown.Obsidian made her way off farther into the underbrush leaving me a few precious seconds to appreciate her retreating posterior while holstering my equipment. More people were arriving. I had one more thing to take care of before, oh look, Nikita had brought her Mom along, the NYPD Sergeant."Chaz, I need to have a quick chat with Dot before I can explain things. She's been waiting and that's unwise," I looked to the Brit. He nodded."Cáel? Mr. Nyilas? Prince?" all came my way. I relaxed as best I could. Chaz went to a body blow to stagger me, then an epic upper cut to send me to Lullaby Land.Dot & the DragonessDot and SzelAnya, in dragon form, were waiting as I tumbled forward. By the state of my haziness, I knew my unconsciousness wouldn't last long."You gave her your seed," came the accusation."Yes," I staggered, "and now you should be able to track her," I pointed out the bonus part of the arrangement. No comment."I've got to make this quick, SzelAnya, I've found your father, geographically speaking," I dropped the bomb."Don't," Dot Ishara commanded. After all, she and her divine cohorts had done the killing and corpse-dividing eons ago. Undoubtedly, they'd executed their own oaths to one another to 'never reveal what they had done' as well."Too late," I shook my head. SzelAnya's attention was magnetized. "I owe you and I'm paying my debts. I'm not blind to the dangers, believe me.""You have no idea what power you are invoking," Dot's undercurrent of displeasure was the worst I'd experienced."Wrong. I've got thousands of years of Alal boiling around in my head, Plus the rest of you betrayed her 2600 years ago. It doesn't mean I have to. And now, given the chance, I'm not. Even if you kill me, she's got enough toBack in the Ramble"Really expect me to believe," Nikita's mom was growling."Man down," I waved a weak arm skyward."Mr. Nyilas, what is going on here?" the Sergeant addressed me. I was reclining in a circle of my 'Hounds'; most were kneeling. Chaz was in a tiny bit of trouble for having clocked me."Umm, thanks for coming out and looking for me. I assure you, Mr. Tomorrow did what he did as a matter of his professional duties ~ intelligence gathering." As I struggled to stand, my ladies helped me. I saw Pamela with three Hounds coming up fast from one direction and Virginia with three more coming from the other. The gang was all here.The mutterings in non-English tongues suggested a bit of explaining was already going on."You've been bleeding," Nikita pointed out with an unspoken 'again'."This?" I pulled my shirt out and looked at the first bloodstain of my encounter. "This is the just the start of the bad news." I shed my windbreaker and then t-shirt.The professionals shouldered aside the others to take a closer look."All of these are from noon and less than an hour ago," I identified the damage. Sarge was skeptical. Chaz, Nikita and Virginia less so."They look older," the senior lawman noted."I've been curious about that," Chaz frowned."I've inherited my Grandfather's curse. My soul fragment was in the 'Here and Now' twenty-three years ago while his was, 'over there', so I was allowed to come into creation. According to my recently departed guest,""You are immortal," Virginia mumbled to finish the thought. Had the speaker not been a member of the FBI, who knows how the thought would have been received."From the memories I've been gifted with," I tapped the tiny divot on my forehead, "his healing abilities started out rather slowly too. I certainly don't want to test this theory, so no worries there," I scanned the group."How do you explain seeing your Grandfather in Hungary and again in Rome?" Virginia wondered."Again, that woman who just left," I got out."Was no woman," Nuray, another one of my Turkish Hounds interrupted. "Her eyes..." she tried to explain, "and look what she did to that tree," she pointed to the greatest piece of evidence of supernatural wrongdoing. The other two witnesses nodded."We all saw the same thing. Her eyes were, bottomless, definitely not human," Belgin affirmed. The veteran players looked to Chaz."She had a collapsed nose-bridge, lacked a blink response, her dental work was carnivorous and her tongue was extremely clipped and showed prehensile qualities," he reported calmly. Pause. Chaz was a freaking intelligence operative, after all."If her hands were a type of glove weaponry, I've never seen it s like before. While I know it is possible for a human to exert the force-pounds necessary to snap a two inch diameter tree trunk in one blow, it is a rare skill and requires intense discipline. This appeared to be done spontaneously, without preparation of any kind and as a reaction to other stimuli," he added."It was also your assessment he needed to be knocked unconscious?" Nikita's mom countered."Mr. Nyilas' psychological constructs are something the whole team has to work around. At times, he seeks 'insight' from his mind in a deliberately unconscious/non-sleep state," he replied."He claims to be talking with spirit powers. I know when he returns to consciousness, he delivers useful intelligence. I'm not a psychologist, psychiatrist, or psychic. I don't know why his mind functions that way. I do know results. And I know I work with people who would achieve those results by other means if it were at all possible. Since we haven't found another method, we accept that from tim

No Longer An Enemy.Book 3 in 18 parts, By FinalStand. Listen to the ► Podcast at Explicit Novels."My Sister wished to know if you speak Mandarin," the brother translated for me."Hi, I'm Cáel," I greeted him. "Who are you guys?" He looked to one of the two goons holding on to me. I received a painful kidney punch. I discovered a whole new super-power. It hurt for about two seconds then nothing."I asked you a question," he repeated."No, I don't speak Mandarin," I lied so well it came across as a dour confession."Yet you know the secretive language of the Earth & Sky," he stated."Yes, I do. I have a thing for dead languages. Maybe in a few more years, I'll pick up your Mother Tongue as well," I bantered.No punishment was immediately meted out, so I suspected no one close to me, besides him, spoke much if any English. Jian Bob (my new name for him) didn't relay my insult. I wasn't worth it. He went straight for the reason for our get-together."You are going to die, Mr. Nyilas. That is a given," J B began."We both know you have done enough damage to our cause to be worthy of elimination a hundred times over. I'm going to show you respect by not lying to you about your possible fate. What you can do is save your young companion. We understand you two are close," he appealed in a very polite manner. Aya snickered."Cáel, these people are mentally challenged," she giggled to me, "or hideously misinformed.""I know, I know," I smiled down at Aya. "Still, they have gone through a great deal of effort to insult our intellect today, so let's humor them a little longer." Jian Bob issued several casual orders.In short order, a third man had hold of me by the jaw with one hand while trying to hold my eyelids open with the other. One guard held her by the shoulders. A second held her right hand, extending her ring finger. A third man held a knife to her top knuckle. A forth stood close with a small blowtorch."She may be a small person, Mr. Nyilas, but she can still die by the Death of a Thousand cuts," he explained."I love you, Aya," I told her softly."I love you too, Fehér mén," she succeeding in keeping most of the fear from her voice.Neither one of us could stop this. Aya certainly didn't expect me to compromise the Host for her benefit. She was as much an Amazon as the first Epona."First, I wish to know what alerted you to the attack at the Summer Camp," Bob began the interrogation."We know you were responsible. We want to know what happened." I looked into his eyes and waited patiently. He nodded to the guard, who shoved my face toward Aya's extended finger until I was less than a foot away."Do it." The Order came in Mandarin.The guard cut the top part of the digit off, one knuckle. I looked at the flesh and bone being cut away. In a clinical manner, I noted how sharp the blade was. I saw the blood shoot forth and heard Aya's little voice cry out in pain. I was pulled back and pointed at Jian Bob again."Do I need to repeat the question for you?" he said."No, I caught it the first time," I grimaced. "It tells me that you haven't the slightest idea who you are fucking with." Bob made a slight hand gesture and the blowtorch cauterized Aya's stump. Her little lungs belted out a terrible screech that wound down as her feet gave out and she hung limply in the guard's grip."Revive her." The blowtorch guy, clearly not his first day on the job, snapped some smelling salts under her noise. Aya revived, sobbing and in a great deal of pain."Cáel," she whimpered. "I have found my stillness. I'll be okay now." Her sobs subsided."Shall we try this again?" J B remained coolly polite, almost urbane."Nah," I joked, "we are both pretty good over here.""Again." The Mandarin order came. Off went another digit of her ring finger. This time her scream was much more exuberant and forceful. We all know it hurt like Hell, but the world had turned."He's going to kill all of you," Aya snickered while she sobbed. "You are all going to die.""Mu, what is the little girl saying?" she asked Jian Bob, real name Mu."She is stating her belief that Cáel will somehow kill us all," he and his sister shared the joke. "Let us see what her tune is when they start in on her left hand," the woman smiled at her sibling.That implied they'd cut off her right thumb and fingers, digit by digit, until one, or both of us cracked. The man nodded and Aya's nub was burned again. Her scream was more of a cleansing shout."Cáel, do you think I will have a nice horse to ride when I join Epona's herds, or will I get a pony?" Aya whimpered."Not a clue," I began before Mu had the face-hugging guard apply a finger strike to my solar plexus. Alal's gift had allowed me to partially organize my brain functions. Coping with pain was a whole lot easier now, but I had to be careful to monitor it because pain was Nature's way of letting you know that there was something wrong with your body."What color would you like me to pick up and have waiting for you," punch, "when you finally take yourself to the cliffs?""Again.""This is accomplishing nothing," the senior bald Mo Fo grumbled. "He clearly cares nothing for the child and has been trained in counter-interrogation techniques.""There is nothing to indicate that," Mu bristled."Xiàsh, burn the tip of his left forefinger," senior necromancer commanded. The guy holding my face coordinated with the men holding my arms to free me of my bonds and wrestle my left arm forward. I didn't bother resisting.It didn't take the commandoes long to figure I had stopped caring. On came the flame and the pain. Oh, I screamed. The pain was real. What had changed was my ability to shuffle it off to an isolated memory file to be tackled later. The bald creep stepped into my field of vision. His eyes were windows to the abyss. My "spirit" sight opened my eyes to the truly inhuman sections of his mind and soul."See, normal techniques will not be affective. We will do it, " and they realized the enormity of their mistake by assuming I was paralyzed by the pain. I broke free of the guy on my left and began twisting around the guy on my right. I wasn't getting away, I was going for his QCW O5. I knew their favorite martial arts styles and their weaponry now.The guy I was rolling behind realized what I was doing (going for his gun), but mistook my intentions. I wasn't trying to get away, or steal the gun (still strapped to his body). That cockhead even helped me out by lurching ground-ward. I swung the gun up, hit the selector and fired two quick bursts.The first three rounds hit Mr. Blowtorch in his right thigh, shredding it. The second burst caught Mr. Knife guy in the crotch, a triple 21mm castration. Had Blowtorch Guy not been busy trying to keep the strands of his right hip connected to his right leg, he could have stopped the blood fountaining from his buddies shattered groin. That was the end of my joy.I was born to the ground and the guy whose gun I'd borrowed pulled away. I hit the concrete surface hard. That was only the beginning of my issues. Radiating from the floor was cold beyond cold. I had the sensation of falling into the heart of a cold, dead star. How I even knew what the felt like was an impossibility."He feels very cold," protested one of the two guards, in Mandarin; pulling me back to my feet groused."If your incompetence has led to his terminal condition," the male twin threatened. I felt the approach of the female twin, her reaching for me. A new intense pain seared me to the cores of my bones. Before she yanked my hair up, my body reignited.I found myself stared into her pitiless eyes that regarded me with the casual callousness of a veterinarian preparing to put down some rabid stray dog. She ran three fingers over my cheek."What are you babbling about?" she snapped at the two commandoes. "If anything, he is feverish.""Zhen, have him sedated," Chief Necromancer demanded. "Mu, now we will do this my way." Once more I was bound. Someone stabbed a needle into my right triceps. That was a mere discomfort. If I had any consolation, it was hearing Mu ordering the execution of the two men I'd shot.They didn't have the time and facilities to tend to their immediate emergency needs and taking them to a trauma center wasn't going to happen. Those two went into body bags. I had to assume they would be joining us on the plane, though they'd be in the cargo compartment."What are you smiling at?" I heard Zhen snapping before my world collapsed down to a pinhole of light."Lady, I don't know what you said," Aya declared happily. "You are probably angry that Cáel has already killed two of you and we haven't even got off the ground yet." I heard a sound I couldn't make out followed by another and finally a third. That resulted in an Aya-squeak. Ah, she'd tried to hit Aya and Aya had dodged the first two blows. Good girl."Cáel isn't going to like you doing that," Aya chirped."Aya's a winner," I mumbled. I wasn't in control of my senses when they dragged me onto a waiting jet. I wasn't worried. With Aya at my side, I was invincible.DreamingI looked at her face, so youthful, beautiful in her own way, yet far from innocent. She bore a terrible weight. The armor she was wearing, that of a heavy horseman of the steppe, was a leather coat, chain links over her vulnerable regions (throat, underarms and skirt), with the rest being covered by darkened bronze plates.Her iron helmet was open-faced with mobile plates covering her cheeks as well as the sides and the back of her neck; it bore a white horse-hair plume, it was the only feature of her panoply that would draw any special attention her way. She carried no shield. Instead, she wielded a powerful horn & sinew composite recurve bow. She used her knees to rise up on her mount and fire over the mare's head.Similarly attired women rode close to either side of this young woman. Both were older; one in her early forties and the other ~ late thirties. The one to the left bore a lance, not in the couched fashion most people today are familiar with, but used in a double-handed over-head fighting style.The woman to the right fought with a strange blade. It wasn't saber ~ an ancestor of that blade perhaps. It was about a meter long, no hand guard, single-edged except for the top 4 cm on the back side which was equally sharp. Her left hand remained free. I think I saw her purpose. If the young woman got into difficulty, her guardian on the right could pull her horse away and lead the woman to safety.Behind and beside those three rode perhaps three hundred of their sisters. Those in the center were as heavily armored as those three. On each flank were the lighter, faster bow-women, on smaller steeds. The women in the center rode larger mounts that were good for carrying weight and pushing home a charge, while the flanking steppe ponies were virtually tireless.In the center, identified only by her long golden-mane helm, was the Golden Mare ~ War Leader of the Host. The Amazons didn't fly pennants or carry banners. They judged the course of battle by that woman's head movements (the mane was quite long) and the shrill horn blasts unique to the Amazons.Let the barbarians have the all too common deep booming horns calls and their totems raised high for the world to see. Let the Romans keep their trumpets and Legion standards. Amazons had been putting those fools in their graves from time immemorial. Right now, those horns had summoned the Host to a trot.The Hun, Attila, had tasked the Sarmatian Chieftain, under whose banner they rode, to deal with another crisis, the third this short day. Once more, they directed their horses over Catalaunian Fields. The Ostrogoth had gotten themselves into a world of trouble, those filthy, stinking Germans (why was I even thinking that way?)First the Amazons had ridden forth on Attila's right, reinforcing the allied Germanic tribes on the Right Wing in their attempt to force a wedge between Aetius' Romans and King Sangiban's Alans. They'd shown the fools the way, but the supporting Gepids cavalry was too timid and by the time they began to approach, the Golden Mare had been forced to sound 'retire'.The Roman auxiliary cavalry, though of poor quality, had plugged the gap. The Host were too few and too valuable (in their estimation) to die holding a position that their 'allies' might not rescue them from. Next, they had been directed to attack the center of the Alan cavalry line in support of the Huns.Despite the cowardice of their king, the Alans were hardy fighters and too accustomed to the style of steppe warfare that the Host practiced to be lured away from their position. Arrows were exchanged and brief, brutal skirmishes developed, but no advantage was gained. With their mounts exhausted, the Golden Mare had ordered the Host to retired to their camp to water their horses and refill their quivers.That bit of common sense and tactical wisdom placed them in their present crisis. Their Ostrogoth allies had been beating themselves against their Visigoth cousins all afternoon, charging up the same cursed slope that any sane commander would have found a way to flank. No, the Germans had failed seven times using the same plan, so they tried an eighth.Miraculously, they had gained a toehold on the ridgeline and killed the Visigothic King. Like a mob of mindless farmers, the Ostrogoths stopped to celebrate their 'victory' and taunt the Visigoths with the mutilated body of their fallen leader. The Visigoths had been properly incensed and counter-attacked. That's what Princes were for, to avenge their fallen Sires.As the Host exited the Hunnic laager, they'd seen the calamity unfold. The wavering Visigoth infantry had stiffened their line. Believing the Ostrogoths would press forward, the Horse-tail banner of Attila himself broke away from the central Hunnic body, pivoted to his left and thundered into the Visigoth's exposed flank.In the din of battle, it may have looked to the Great Warlord that he had a vanishing opportunity for victory. From the valley below, it was much clearer to the Amazons that the moment to break the Visigothic infantry had passed. The Huns were too tired; their mounts frothing from a long, hot afternoon of battle. Without a swift follow-through, the attack was doomed.At that point, headlong flight for the Amazons wasn't possible. Their long term survival hung on the Hunnic King keeping his Germanic 'allies' in line. They were still somewhere in eastern Roman Gaul, with the Rhine to ford and a land thick with perpetually vicious, blood-thirsty, crotch-scratching, flea-bitten Germanic barbarians to cross before they saw the green rolling hills of home again.No, the Golden Mare, and that young lady knew they had to do something to stem the tide of this disaster for another hour, then darkness would force the combatants to separate so they could try their hand at battle the next day. As the Golden Mare rode to the Sarmatian Chieftain, a rider came through the dust from Attila. The Visigothic cavalry had returned with a vengeance and the Ostrogoths were folding up.The Sarmatians (with their attached Amazons) were to 'somehow' repair the situation. As the Chieftain, the Golden Mare and three Sarmatian tribal leaders hastily discussed the actions. They saw the Hunnic Right, under hard pressure from the Roman attack, beginning to disintegrate. Of immediate concern was the rift opening up between the retreating Hunnic Gepids and the Hunnic horsemen holding the center.King Sangiban had finally discovered his manhood. The Alans attacked through that gap in the Hunnic lines and a rout was in the offing. The Sarmatian Leader decided he had to answer Attila's call. The Golden Mare offered to take her Amazons and whichever tribal leader volunteered first to ride with her against the Alans.She drew her sword and held it aloft then motioned the Sarmatians to look at her shadow."We will hold them off until the length of our swords double (the shadow). Then we are all on our own," she offered. There was no further discussion necessary. There was nothing else to say. The Host and their allies had the fresher horses and full quivers.The Alans had numbers but no heavy horse present, yet. The Host had answered Attila's call to war and now, nearly a year away from their homes in the forested steppe lands of modern-day Bukovina. At that moment they were wondering how few of them would ever see their horse herds roaming free this side of life.That was where my vision came in ~ that woman was 'Ishara', the last of my major bloodline of the first Ishara and this was the last hour of her life. The other two women were the only other two members of that vanishing bloodline. One was her aunt and the other a cousin. Despite the dire peril to their lineage, they joined their sisters in battle.Even though they were outnumber 2 to 1, the Amazons swept aside the first burst of Alans, scattering their bands and hunting the slowest of them down. Rushing alone to fill the gaping hole in the main battle lines was to abandon all tactical sense. Eighty Amazon heavy horse and perhaps twenty more Sarmatians ~ they were integrated now ~ alone simply weren't enough.For the roughly 300 lightly armored horse-archers, it would be a pointless suicide and that was not the Amazon way. Instead, they scattered the initial Alan rush then gently trotted back down the slope. Of course, the Alans regrouped and followed. It was the battle pulse of steppe skirmishing.By simply existing, they turned the rushing wave of that first Alan charge into a slowly strengthening tide. The Alans' mounts were tired and in need of water. Their quivers were nearly empty and some were seen at the top of the slope looting the quivers of the fallen. Whenever they could, the Amazons killed those clever souls.Killing an archer closer to you who only had two arrows left wasn't as economical as killing the one who was both dismounted, thus an easier shot, and about to have fifteen bolts to use against you. Without the constant harassment, the Gepids were able to keep their retreat orderly. In turn, the other Germanics farther to the right kept their mobs relatively intact as well.Their success earned them the inevitable enemy reaction. From his vantage point, the Roman Aetius saw the vulnerable and unsupported position the Amazons held. If he could push past the Amazon screen, he could still achieve a route instead of accepting a mere victory for his side. The solution was a force of

Thanks to Luke for suggesting this week's topic: Smilodon, the saber-toothed cat, AKA the sabertooth tiger! Further reading: Did sabertooth tigers purr or roar? The double-fanged adolescence of saber-toothed cats We don't know for sure what Smilodon looked like, but it might have been something like this: An artist's rendition of an adolescent Smilodon with doubled fangs [picture from second link above]: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I'm your host, Kate Shaw. This week we're going to learn about an animal suggested by Luke, the sabertooth tiger, also called the sabertooth cat since it wasn't actually a tiger, also called smilodon after its scientific name. We've talked about it before, way back in episode 34, but a lot of new studies have been published since then and we know a lot more about this terrifying-looking animal! The genus of the saber-toothed cat is Smilodon, so that's mostly what I'm going to call it in this episode. It's classified as a member of the family Felidae, which is the same family where you find domestic cats, wildcats, big cats, and lots of extinct animals like the cave lion, but Smilodon wasn't closely related to what we think of as cats. There were at least three species of saber-tooth cats in the genus Smilodon that we know of, but it had many other similar-looking relatives. Smilodon is best known from the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles, California, where the remains of hundreds of individuals have been discovered. That's a big reason why we know so much about Smilodon, especially the species Smilodon fatalis that lived in North America and parts of South America. An even bigger species lived exclusively in South America, while both were probably descended from a smaller species that also lived in South America. S. fatalis is estimated to have grown up to 39 inches tall at the shoulder, or 99 cm, while S. populator stood at an estimated 47 inches tall, or 119 cm. That's almost four feet tall. Some full-grown humans are that height! Smilodon was so stocky and heavily muscled that it probably looked more like a bear than a cat. Its had a broad head and jaws that could open much wider than most modern animals, which allowed it to deploy its most deadly weapon, its saber teeth, without its jaw getting in the way. Smilodon's saber teeth were as much as 11 inches long, or 28 cm, although S. fatalis typically had teeth around 8 inches long, or 20 cm. Big as they were, the saber teeth were also relatively delicate. A young Smilodon didn't start growing its big teeth until it was about a year old, and even then it had to learn how to use them so they wouldn't break. Luckily for adolescent smilodons, they didn't lose their baby fangs until they were fully grown. Most mammals only grow two sets of teeth in our lifetimes. The first set is usually called baby teeth or milk teeth. As the baby grows up, its adult teeth start growing in one at a time. The adult tooth pushes at the baby tooth until it gets loose and either comes out on its own or, in the case of me in second grade, I asked to go to the bathroom and then spent half an hour twisting at a loose baby tooth until it finally came out, along with some blood. But I got a quarter that night from the tooth fairy. (Kids, maybe don't do that.) In the case of a young smilodon's saber teeth, they grew in just next to the baby fangs. Instead of pushing the baby fangs out, the new teeth grew alongside them and even had a groove for the baby teeth to fit into. When scientists first discovered preserved jaws with these double fangs, they thought it was a fluke, that sometimes the new teeth came in wrong and didn't push the old teeth out. That happens in humans sometimes too and then you have to go to the dentist to get the old baby teeth taken out. But paleontologists kept finding these double toothed jaws, and only in adolescent smilodons. Finally a team of scientists studied the teeth carefully and made...

Download Swamp Dweller Scary Stories: Apple: https://apple.co/2L7znZp Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2WUFDG8 Check out the Swamp Dweller Merch store! http://bit.ly/32u2eh5 The Dark Swamp: Horror Stories (Episode 861) 

Also, a nearly complete titanosaur was recently found! How long did it take for fossils in Australia to turn into opal? And how much do really exceptional fossil sites skew paleontological research?For links to every news story, all of the details we shared about Zanclodon, and our fun fact check out https://iknowdino.com/Zanclodon-Episode-487/Join us at www.patreon.com/iknowdino for dinosaur requests, bonus content, ad-free episodes, and more.Dinosaur of the day Zanclodon, An archosauriform originally named "Smilodon" because of its dagger-like teeth (but that name was already taken by the saber-toothed cat).In dinosaur news this week:There's a new ornithopod, Chakisaurus nekul, which was much smaller than the titanosaurs that surrounded it in what is now ArgentinaA new dinosaur, Imparavis attenboroughi, is a rare toothless enantiornithine that also likely had very powerful wingsA man out walking his dog found a nearly complete 70-million-year-old titanosaurFossils at Lightning Ridge, Australia took their sweet time to opalizeReally exceptional fossil sites (lagerstätten) are important, but they can influence our understanding of biodiversity and development on a global scale You can dig up real dinosaur bones this summer with Colorado Northwestern Community College! Join them for a two week immersive field paleontology experience digging up dinosaur bones from the Jurassic period in Northwest Colorado. There are two scheduled digs: July 6–July 20 and July 22–August 5. There are also two concurrent immersive lab techniques programs available. Get all the details and register online at cncc.edu/dinodigSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

During the last Ice Age, two noisy neighbours become a nuisance.Written especially for this podcast by Alice. If you enjoyed this story, please do leave us a review. And, if you'd like to suggest an animal for a future Animal Tales story, you can do so by emailing podcast@animaltales.uk. We would love to hear from you. Animal Tales Books!Collections of Animal Tales stories are available to buy exclusively at Amazon. Simply search for Animal Tales Short Stories or follow this link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CLJQZ9C9?binding=paperback&ref=dbs_dp_sirpi Become a PREMIUM SubscriberYou can now enjoy Animal Tales by becoming a Premium Subscriber. This gets you:All episodes in our catalogue advert freeBonus Premium-only episodes (minimum of one per month) which will never be used on the main podcastWe guarantee to use one of your animal suggestions in a storyYou can sign up through Apple Podcasts or through Supercast and there are both monthly and yearly plans available. Discover a brand new story every Monday, Wednesday and Friday – just for you! You can find more Animal Tales at https://www.spreaker.com/show/animal-tales-the-kids-story-podcast A Note About The AdvertsIn order to allow us to make these stories we offer a premium subscription and run adverts. The adverts are not chosen by us, but played automatically by our podcast host, Spreaker. These adverts will be different depending on what part of the world you listen in, and may even be different if you listen to the story twice. We have had a handful of instances where an advert has played that is not suitable for a family audience, despite Spreaker knowing who this podcast is aimed at. If you're concerned about an advert you hear, please let Spreaker know directly at https://help.spreaker.com/en/articles/3803834-how-to-get-in-contact-with-spreaker-s-support-team# As creators, we want your child's experience to be a pleasurable one. Running adverts is necessary to allow us to operate, but please do consider the premium subscription service as an alternative – it's advert free.

Imagine traveling to the coldest regions of our planet and seeing a woolly mammoth walking around. Or watching a Tasmanian tiger running in its natural habitat. Or picture a horse that looks straight out of a movie scene: a Caspian horse! All of these animals went extinct some time ago but what if modern technologies can bring them back? Can some of the lost species become un-extinct? Read more: https://brightside.me/articles/14-ext... #brightside Preview photo credit: Shanghai, China - April 13 2018, Realistic life size replica model of Smilodon saber toothed tiger (or saber toothed cat) at Shanghai Natural History Museum: By AKKHARAT JARUSILAWONG/Shutterstock.com, https://www.shutterstock.com/image-ph... Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music by Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com/ Subscribe to Bright Side : https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook:   / brightside   Instagram:   / brightside.official   Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.of... Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me/ Our App http://bit.ly/3a4dTr5 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Imagine traveling to the coldest regions of our planet and seeing a woolly mammoth walking around. Or watching a Tasmanian tiger running in its natural habitat. Or picture a horse that looks straight out of a movie scene: a Caspian horse! All of these animals went extinct some time ago but what if modern technologies can bring them back? Can some of the lost species become un-extinct? Read more: https://brightside.me/articles/14-ext... #brightside Preview photo credit: Shanghai, China - April 13 2018, Realistic life size replica model of Smilodon saber toothed tiger (or saber toothed cat) at Shanghai Natural History Museum: By AKKHARAT JARUSILAWONG/Shutterstock.com, https://www.shutterstock.com/image-ph... Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music by Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com/ Subscribe to Bright Side : https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook:   / brightside   Instagram:   / brightside.official   Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.of... Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me/ Our App http://bit.ly/3a4dTr5 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's October, which means it's time for scary movies! We're starting with one that is not scary: Sabretooth (2002) is a made-for-TV Sci-Fi channel movie about an evil geneticist and a greedy capitalist who resurrect a Smilodon, which escapes and starts eating teenagers in the woods. This movie has bad CGI, a C- genetics lab, and John Rhys-Davies, who must have taken time off from Lord of the Rings to be in it. Get in touch with us! Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast Facebook: @SotSAPodcast Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/ Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com In this episode: Watch Sabretooth on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxVEANFmfxs Bear Safety: https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/mtn/ours-bears/securite-safety/ours-humains-bears-people How to identify cat tracks: https://www.bear-tracker.com/caninevsfeline.html Josh concedes – there are puppets in the closeups: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0284445/mediaviewer/rm4037833472/?ref_=tt_md_1 Ross' first paper – Barnett et al. 2005. Evolution of the extinct Sabretooths and the American cheetah-like cat. Current Biology, 15(15), R589-R590: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(05)00836-5.pdf American vs. British spelling: https://www.oxfordinternationalenglish.com/differences-in-british-and-american-spelling/ Bats – unfairly maligned? https://www.merlintuttle.org/ebola-bats-prematurely-blamed/

It's October, which means it's time for scary movies! We're starting with one that is not scary: Sabretooth (2002) is a made-for-TV Sci-Fi channel movie about an evil geneticist and a greedy capitalist who resurrect a Smilodon, which escapes and starts eating teenagers in the woods. This movie has bad CGI, a C- genetics lab, and John Rhys-Davies, who must have taken time of from Lord of the Rings to be in it. Get in touch with us!Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast Facebook: @SotSAPodcastLetterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/ Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com In this episode:Watch Sabretooth on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxVEANFmfxs Bear Safety: https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/mtn/ours-bears/securite-safety/ours-humains-bears-peopleHow to identify cat tracks: https://www.bear-tracker.com/caninevsfeline.html Josh concedes – there are puppets in the closeups: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0284445/mediaviewer/rm4037833472/?ref_=tt_md_1 Ross' first paper – Barnett et al. 2005. Evolution of the extinct Sabretooths and the American cheetah-like cat. Current Biology, 15(15), R589-R590: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(05)00836-5.pdf American vs. British spelling: https://www.oxfordinternationalenglish.com/differences-in-british-and-american-spelling/ Bats – unfairly maligned? https://www.merlintuttle.org/ebola-bats-prematurely-blamed/

This week we travel back in time and to the plains of North America to meet one of the deadliest cats to have ever existed Smilodon . In the news we ask the question is that a sun bear or a person in a costume. All this and more the cupboard is open come on in !

Kraj povijesti. Antropocentrizam. Smilodon. Nafta, ovakva i onakva. Kloniranje čovjeka. Rudolf Steiner i kiropraktika. Indijci na Mjesecu. Korado o Zdravku Mamiću... Nas i Rusa... Koje zanimanje izabrati, za što se školovati? Zašto žene pristaju biti ljubavnice?

Das Tier, das wir suchen, lebte etwa 2,5 Millionen Jahre lang auf der Erde. Bis es vor circa 10.000 Jahren ausstarb. Und? Weißt du's schon? Was suchen wir? Ich sag' es dir! Weißt du's schon? - Werbepartner http://weisstdusschon.de/werbepartner Supporter*in werden mit Weißt du's schon? + Apple Podcasts Abo: https://apple.co/3FPh19X Steady Mitgliedschaft: https://steadyhq.com/wds PayPal-Spende: https://bit.ly/3v891w3 Mehr Infos: https://weisstdusschon.de/#support Feedback, Fragen, Rätselwünsche? Email: christian@weisstdusschon.de Instagram: https://instagram.com/weisstdusschon Mehr Infos im Web: https://weisstdusschon.de

Smilodon is one of the most recognized prehistoric creatures because of its massive long teeth. 

In this episode we review the fossil crates Smilodon teeth, 10/10 they are amazing, remember to follow me on instagram @Prehistoric_Life_Podcast

There have been many sabre-tooth tigers, but there's only one Sergio, the smiley Smilodon!Written especially for this podcast by Simon.

DR LARISA DESANTIS is a conservation biologist at Vanderbilt University and vertebrate paleontologist in the department of biological sciences. Larisa studies fossil mammals as a way of determining how they responded to ancient climate change.MARK from Evolution Soup talks all things sabertooth cat with Larisa, delving into the various species that boast impressive sabers, how we know what they ate ... and why they went extinct.#sabertooth #bigcats #smilodonOriginal YouTube Video Interview: https://bit.ly/3qChXriLINKS FOR LARISA DESANTIS:SITE: The DeSantis DREAM Lab - https://www.desantislab.com/RESEARCHGATE: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Larisa-Desantis-2TWITTER: DeSantis DREAM Lab https://twitter.com/desantislab (@DeSantisLab) Ted Talk 'Our Ancient Past is the Key to Our Future': https://bit.ly/2RDlvuTSEE ALSO:Bone Clones, Inc. - Osteological Reproductions: https://boneclones.com Vanderbilt University: https://www.vanderbilt.edu/ (Nashville TN)Wild Life podcast: https://www.is.gd/8dDpbXEVOLUTION SOUPYouTube: http://www.youtube.com/c/evolutionsoupFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/evolutionsoup/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/evolutionsoup/Instagram: @evolution_soupRSS feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/354743.rssSupport the show

(image source: https://www.thoughtco.com/megatherium-giant-sloth-1093238) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Christina Eilert discuss Megatherium, a creature whose full scientific name literally translates to “Great American Beast” but this isn't 4th of July-related due to it not being that America, so sorry, USA-ians. From the Late Pleistocene, this 20-foot ground sloth dope slapped some Smilodon populator to death to keep said Smilodon populator from doing too much of their namesake populating. Huh, maybe I take the meanings of these scientific names too literally. Want to further support the show? Sign up to our Patreon for exclusive bonus content at Patreon.com/MatthewDonald. Also, you can purchase Matthew Donald's dinosaur book "Megazoic" on Amazon by clicking here, its sequel "Megazoic: The Primeval Power" by clicking here, its third installment "Megazoic: The Hunted Ones" by clicking here, or its final installment "Megazoic: An Era's End" by clicking here. 

Happy Anniversary! This episode marks one full year of SotSA, so to celebrate we're reviewing Encino Woman (1996), the made-for-TV sequel to our favourite movie, Encino Man. It's really not fair to compare the two, but this movie has its own message and it does its best to tell it. Or maybe it's just the 90s nostalgia... Get in touch with us!Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast Facebook: @SotSAPodcastLetterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/ Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com In this episode:Watch a VHS recording of this movie on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAAAWSvjRfA Archaeological woven sandals: https://www.sapiens.org/column/curiosities/ancient-shoes/Mousterian bowls make their return! http://www.propbay.com/original/mousterian-bowl-encino-man-1992-movie-prop-5413.html The history of perspective in art: http://www.classicalart.org/blog/a-brief-history-of-perspectiveLucy, the Australopithecus: https://iho.asu.edu/about/lucys-storyBreccia: https://geology.com/rocks/breccia.shtmlRiviere and Wheeler (2005) Cementum on Smilodon sabers: https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.a.20199Antón et al. (2022) Concealed weapons: A revised reconstruction of the facial anatomy and life appearance of the sabre-toothed cat Homotherium latidens (Felidae, Machairodontinae): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107471

Happy Anniversary! This episode marks one full year of SotSA, so to celebrate we're reviewing Encino Woman (1996), the made-for-TV sequel to our favourite movie, Encino Man. It's really not fair to compare the two, but this movie has its own message and it does its best to tell it. Or maybe it's just the 90s nostalgia… Get in touch with us! Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast Facebook: @SotSAPodcast Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/ Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com In this episode: Watch a VHS recording of this movie on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAAAWSvjRfA Archaeological woven sandals: https://www.sapiens.org/column/curiosities/ancient-shoes/ Mousterian bowls make their return! http://www.propbay.com/original/mousterian-bowl-encino-man-1992-movie-prop-5413.html The history of perspective in art: http://www.classicalart.org/blog/a-brief-history-of-perspective Lucy, the Australopithecus: https://iho.asu.edu/about/lucys-story Breccia: https://geology.com/rocks/breccia.shtml Riviere and Wheeler (2005) Cementum on Smilodon sabers: https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.a.20199 Antón et al. (2022) Concealed weapons: A revised reconstruction of the facial anatomy and life appearance of the sabre-toothed cat Homotherium latidens (Felidae, Machairodontinae): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107471

Le Tigre à dents de sabre ou Smilodon, du grec ancien smílê «ciseau» et odoús «dent», était un des superprédateurs du Pléistocène, “l'Âge de glace” (-2,6 millions à -12 000 ans). Ce félin, le célèbre "Gorak" de Rahan, est l'un des plus gros ayant jamais existé. Il chassait les grands mammifères, comme le Bison latifrons, un des grands bovidés de l'histoire, des paresseux géants, des équidés et des camélidés.   Son absence de queue (dont les félins se servent pour équilibrer leur course) et sa morphologie laissent penser qu'il ne pouvait pas courir longtemps. Il devait donc approcher ses proies par surprise.   La puissance de sa  mâchoire est bien inférieure à celle d'un lion actuel et équivalente à celle d'un gros chien. La longueur et la courbure de ses dents de sabre, et surtout leur grande fragilité limitaient sa gamme de proies.   Il ne pouvait ainsi pas les saisir avec la mâchoire comme les félins actuels. il aurait utilisé ses griffes pour les faire tomber, puis tranchait les artères vitales de la proie avec ses “sabres” (les félins actuels étouffent le grand gibier en serrant leur mâchoire sur leur gorge). ________    NB: Tous ces podcasts sont bénévoles et gratuits. Notre but est de faire connaître et de mieux inciter à protéger le Vivant. Vous pouvez nous faire un don sur Helloasso (ou sur Tipeee) ou adhérer à l'asso BSG ? Vous pouvez aussi nous aider sans dépenser un sou en installant le moteur de recherche solidaire Lilo. Merci !   Si vous appréciez nos programmes, si vous les trouvez pédagos et utiles, partagez nos liens et abonnez-vous ! Profitez-en pour nous laisser des étoiles et un avis, ce qui nous rend plus visibles. Grand merci !   Nous cherchons des partenaires. Contactez-nous: contact@baleinesousgravillon.com   Last but not least, jetez un œil à notre compte Instagram qui présente les plus époustouflantes images d'un photographe animalier chaque semaine, sans oublier notre site,et notre chaîne Youtube.  

Smilodon to wymarły rodzaj kotowatych, które żyły prawdopodobnie od około 3 mln do 10 tys. lat temu w Ameryce Północnej i Południowej. Gatunki smilodonów są znane także jako tygrysy szablozębne (lub koty szablozębne). W pełni dojrzały smilodon ważył około 400 kg, miał krótki ogon, potężne kończyny i dużą głowę. Wielkością i posturą ciałą zbliżony był do dzisiejszego niedźwiedzia brunatnego. Kąt rozwarcia jego szczęk wynosił 120 stopni, a kły miały około 23 cm długości. Materiał realizowany we współpracy z: https://www.facebook.com/muzeum.ziemi.pan

 No Beast So FierceManeaters of KumaonImagesWorld Wildlife fundsome cool tiger sense facts:6x better night vision than us,0.2 to 65 kHz that can hear breathing, heartbeats or swallowing, Special whiskers to sense all kinds of stuff, Padded feet make them nearly silent while they walk. They're like predator. Invisible silent and they'll rip out your spine in one go.Wiki links:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumaon_divisionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChampawatChampawat Tigerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupal,_Nepalhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_attackNews:https://abc7news.com/san-francisco-zoo-attack-sf-tiger-christmas-day/9072741/Youtube links:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0kzdu_wTM0&ab_channel=WildFilmsIndiahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jac_K-XB5A&ab_channel=Unbelievablefactshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f9CsToZpeY&ab_channel=AnimalogicMusic Special thanks for the intro and outro musicFreesound.org usersClaiber7901videogLoose Transcript: (full of typos, but that's okay!)Welcome everyone to Nightmare Now the show where we'll learn about all the horrors of our universe and psyche and hopefully have ourselves a laugh along the way. I'm your host Erik Byrne and on this episode we're gonna take an in depth look at the true story of a killer. A serial killer operating on the fringes of society at the turn of the twentieth century. A killer that dismembered and ate her victims. A killer with a kill count not ten, not twenty, not dozens but hundreds of victims. A killer that was a Bengal tiger. The champawat tiger single handedly killed four hundred and thirty six people in northern India and Nepal in the early 1900s. My main source for this episode was the book No Beast So Fierce by Dane Hucklebridge. It's a good read and if you like the story you're about to hear check out the book in the show notes for a more in depth look. We're gonna start out here with a stat sheet. I want you to see what a tiger is made of. If you have a house cat handy take a look at him right now imagine that but 60 times larger! This is the worlds largest living feline, and second in history overall only to the Smilodon or sabre tooth tiger. They can range from four, five hundred pounds all the way up to seven hundred pounds and extraordinary specimens tipping the scales at over eight hundred pounds. They range anywhere from ten to even thirteen feet long with their tails included. That is a very big kitty. Lets talk equipment. First of all musculature. On our housecat George you can see his clearly defined muscles and he's only 11 pounds or so so when we ramp that up to six to seven hundred pound cat we're talking serious strength. Even without claws a single swipe of a tigers massive paw could knock your head clean f***ing off your body and easily break bones. They have a jaw that can bite down with over a thousand psi which can crack through a water buffalo's head. And wielded with that force are a set of 3 to 4 inch fangs. Big enough to slam into a brain or rip out a spine. On their front paws they have ten claws that are also about four inches long. That musculature isn't just there to knock heads off, it's built for speed and finesse too. Capable of short bursts of forty miles per hour speed and the demonstrated ability to leap thirty feet through the air to pounce. They are fantastic swimmers and comfortable on land and in the water. They are very smart hunters and adaptable when it comes to their prey. They'll cripple larger prey by the legs and drive others towards the water where they are far easier to take down. They're solitary animals generally but the cubs stay with the mother for about 2 years learning all these and other ways to kill. There have even been some recorded incidents of tigers mimicking the sounds of other animals to lure them out. Like predator. The predator comparison becomes more apt when we take into account its spine ripping behavior and spectacular stealth ability. When it wants to be seen and heard though, you'll know. A tiger can roar at a hundred fourteen decibels which is like being next to 25 lawnmowers going at once. They'll eat pretty much anything they want. A tigers diet includes but is presumably not limited tofish, turtles, badger, rabbit, mice, bears, wolves, sandar deer, water buffalo, crocs, pythons, seals, even elephants, rhinos, leopards and of course, the reason we're talking about them today. Humans. We'll get into how the eat a little bit later but suffice to say for now that it isn't pretty.Tigers are basically perfect killers, like sharks in the water they're predatory evolution perfected. But even still they don't usually go after humans. They like bigger meatier game but when certain factors coalesce you have an unmistakable recipe for a man eater. We talked about the tigers' equipment earlier. teeth and claws, jaws and paws. These are all integral parts of it's hunting kit. When there's an injury the tiger has to adapt, maybe it can't crush a buffalo's neck so easily anymore. Maybe it can't keep up with a fleet footed deer quite as well anymore. A national park in india did a fantastic study of tiger attacks on humans in their area from nineteen seventy nine to two thousand six. Some of the conclusions were that sixty six percent of the tiger victims were kind of stooped down with their backs turned. They never see it coming, but perhaps more importantly, I scrooched down human in tall grass looks a heck of a lot more like normal prey than one walking around and making all kinds of noise. Even more incriminating was that most of the tigers that were actually able to be examined displayed injuries to their teeth or paws and in the cases of tigers that actually scooped people right out of their villages. Every single one was impaired like this.  And of all the attacks over all, 90% of them occurred in areas where prey density has fallen and the habitats were degraded. Looking at all this a clear pattern emerges. It's hard to foist a term like motive onto an animal versus a human but lets make the case. These man eaters at the time of their first kill are acting out of desperation. They're hungry, their habitat is being encroached on, and they're unable to get their normal prey. They take a shot at a clumsy primate that's on their turf, and even to an injured tiger, humans are no match. That's when it clicks. We're made of meat. We're readily available. We're weak and we're slow. When a tiger realizes all this after grabbing a farmer by the throat and dragging him into the jungle screaming without so much as a struggle, a very very dangerous animal is born. And of those dangerous animals, there was none so dangerous as the champawat tiger. She was born sometime in 1899 or 1900 in Nepal. We can imagine that she had a relatively normal childhood? Cubhood? What do you call it? I guess it's not important. But at some point she was injured by a hunter or a poacher's bullet. That shot was the catalyst for the better part of five hundred deaths. When a tiger attacks a human usually they don't have a chance. You're just scrooching down to cut some grass or take a piss or something than in less than a second you hear that tremendous roar and you have 40 cumulative inches of claws entering your back before those vicegrip jaws clamp down on your neck and it's over. And that's before even taking into account the sheer force that six hundred pounds of muscle moving at highway speed will do just on impact alone. If by the grace of god someone can survive the split second impact like getting hit by some f***ed up mad max knife car intelligent enough to hit from behind and go for the throat, all the tiger has to do is shake it's big head and tear those claws through you and you're f***.If you don't believe me just do a quick google images of tiger attack autopsy. The hole that one fang can put in a human neck is nightmare fuel. In the book Hucklebridge sources a number of different well documented tiger attacks in all sorts of scenarios. There's tigers that swim out and rip people out of a boat, tear people from trees, literally burst through walls of peoples huts to drag them away screaming like a god damn pitcher of orange flavored, bloodthirsty cool aid man. And a particularly brutal one where two young children watch their father get pounced and dragged away into the jungle, recounting the story having grown up fatherless. Speaking of growing up fatherless I think it's time we looked at the other side of the arena, The hero, so to speak of this story: Edward James Corbett. This dude was a legend. We'll get to know him a little better over the course of the show but let's start with the basics He went by Jim Corbett, which is how I'll mostly be referring to him for the rest of the show. Jim was born the eighth child of sixteen of Christopher William and Mary jane Corbett in Nainital, in northern India, July of 1975. If I'm messing up the pronunciation of any of these places in India and Nepal bear with me. His parents had come over from Britain years before and lived in India for some time. The book goes into a lot of great detail about his family history and the larger scope of British presence in India during that time, but that's kind of beyond the scope of this show for now, so if you're interested check out the book. The short version is that britain was going all over the world to kind of make everywhere like britain. Obviously this model doesn't work for ever and is usually met with some resistance. Violent or otherwise. So the british indian relationships are often tenuous. With all that being said. Growing up as a white kid in the jungle you're gonna take the hand your dealt. Corbett did just that, going to school in the colony and town they were at and at the same time going out and befriending the locals to learn more about the amazing natural world around him. In this unique upbringing he became kind of a missing link between the two cultures where he could rub elbows and play cricket with the rich brits and the next day go out for a hunt with a village elder in the jungle. At six years old his father died of a heart attack so growing up with those connections to local men became even more important to forming the man he would become. His mentor gave him his first weapon and taught him everything he knew about tigers and other wildlife of the jungle. At the time he first heard of the champawat tiger, he was working at a train station likely sometime in 1903. A british friend of his told him of rumors of a single tiger snatching people away in nearby nepal. I'll throw a map in the show notes that gives a pretty good estimation about jim and the tigers movements over those few years. Unfortunately we don't have a lot of great records about the tigress herself in her early days in nepal. Most of the historical records point towards the cat killing two hundred people before being driven out of the country. Bounty hunters were called in, part of the nepalese army, absolutely eveything they had available they threw at her and she evaded or killed and ate all of it. The sources we do have about the tiger leaving nepal are mostly conjecture. But historically tiger hunts were accomplished by a huge amount of noise, guns, elephants and screams driving the tiger into a suitable killzone. The champawat tigress managed to escape all that and finally arrived in india. Now is as good a time as any to talk about the math at work here. An adult tiger needs one hundred twenty five to a hundred thirty five pounds of meat per week to survive. By all accounts the champawat tiger was killing a person a week for eight or nine years. A person in india and nepal is gonna about fit that quota. We can figure one person a week for a year is fifty two people a year, multiplying that by eight years and we get four hundred and sixteen, and by nine years we get four hundred and sixty eight. The math works out well enough with the corroborating sources that the kill count was somewhere close to two hundred in nepal and continued at that pace for for another four, four and half years in the kumaon area of india just west of it's previous territory in nepal.In 1907 Corbett is contacted by another hunter about a tiger that needs to be put down. of  course, it's the champawat. He's surprised that it's still going after he puts together that shwe was the one he heard about back in 1903. When he hears that everything locals or british have thrown at this tiger had failed he agrees to take the job. But with a couple of fun caveats. This bit is straight out of a movie. I'm paraphrasing but he says, I'll take the job but first you need to recall every other hunter or soldier already contracted to go after her, and get rid of the bounty on her head. I'm not doing this for the money, I'm not doing this for the skin, I'm not doing it to be a poacher I'm doing it because it's my duty for the colony. At the time you were a tiger for two main reasons. You were either a british pansy looking for yucks or an indian poacher looking for bucks. So their was the desire for getting a fur pelt from them and what really kicked everything into high gear was bounty hunting. During the british expansion in india tigers were seen as a pretty big problem. Both symbolically as the tiger represented the untamed natural india compared to a civilised british colony and also literally due of course to 700 pound cats eating people and livestock. When turning in a single tiger you could get the equivalent of months and months of pay as a lower class indian it's no wonder why tiger hunting skyrocketed.  Over eighty thousand tigers were killed in 50 years. With both the locals and europeans taking shots at tigers wherever they could, you ended up with a lot of very angry very dangerous wounded cats.  So another thing that's important to consider here is the gun culture in india at the time, I'm not sure that's the right word but lets roll with it. I don't really have time to dig to deep in to the colonial politics of the time, I'm not an expert so if you're interested pick up the book. The short version is that the british show up in india, try to domesticate it and make it more like a proper english colony. The problem with this is people usually don't take kindly to subjugation, revolutions ensue and are subsequently put down, a big one in 1857. After this the brits basically go on a gun grabbing rampage and so functionally nobody has weapons and those that do are generally rusty pieces of s***. Anything beyond the rusty piece of s*** tier is prohibitvely expensive and also illegal.Corbett has just begun thinking about how he's gonna bag the tigress when a man breathlessly runs into the village saying that the tiger has killed another person in pali, 60 kilometers away.  He gathers up the six or seven kumaonis  that he's recruited, packs up his gun and supplies and starts the trek towards pali. The hunt had begun.The group takes off towards pali. And they are hooffing it big time. they carry their gear because keep in mind cars are a long way off at this point. The model T doesn't come out until the next year and rural india wasn't exactly first on the list to get them. So they're hiking at 30 kilometers a day to make it to pali in two days. For us americans that about thirty seven thirty eight miles total and about nineteen miles per day.When they finally arrive they're surprised to find it a ghost town. There is nobody in the square or on the street and they call out basically just to scream if anyone is there. And then the smell kicks in. the whole village smells like p*** and s***. A few of the villagers cautiously emerge from their homes. The whole village has been locked down and everyone has been inside for days. People are literally staying inside their houses s*** their pants with fear. They're too afraid to even go out to dump the human waste or gather more food. So on top of those unsanitary conditions they're also beginning to starve. A few villagers explain that the demon tiger is here and it has been for a few days. At night they cower from it's roars in the jungle. All this makes everything all to real to corbett. If he didn't know it wasn't an ordinary tiger before he sure did now. He asks to see the kill site but nobody in town is willing to go anywhere near that accursed place. Corbett needs to see the tracks and other markings from the tiger to get a better picture of the size of her. Again we're hit with the distrust of whites in india. Even when corbett can speak the language and grew up there nobody is willing to risk going out to the kill site. Corbett takes the message and decides he needs to earn their trust. The first night he goes out alone and sits next to a tree, trying to keep watch all night. Corbett writes down in his own book just how terrified he was sitting out there alone. He says he saw dozens of tigers behind the trees, tricks of the light. His teeth chatter from the terror and the cold and eventually he falls asleep hunkered down under this tree. To him it's a miracle he survives the night. The tiger  was still without a doubt nearby, possibly even watching him that night. To me it's a miracle he survived the night too, especially considering the nighttime capabilities of a Bengal tiger. Their eyes have night vision six times more sensitive than our own, and their radar like ears can pick up the faintest sounds like a breath or even a heartbeat. Couple those with their bigass padded paws that make them nearly silent as they walk, he wouldn't have stood a chance if she was hungry. While the village were impressed with his bravery or stupidity they still refused to take him to the kill site.  He takes off into the bush with a few of his crew for a little while until he finds a few goorahl deer sitting up on a ridge. That's good eatin. He readies his rifle and fires, bam the deer falls down the hill, but the shot scared out two more . BAM BAM he hits both of those at two hundred yards like he's putting together a call of duty montage. All three animals fall and he brings them back to the village. Finally, when given food a villager agrees to take him to the site, and explains what happened. They were all out in the field and the girl climbed up into the tree and got ripped out of it with such force that the skin from her hands still clung to the bark. They followed the trail of dried blood and eventually made it to a clearing. This place looked worse than carries prom night, there was blood everywhere but no tiger, and even more disturbing, No body, at least not intact. Just a few scraps of flesh and bones that would have fit in a restaurant to go box. F***. Looking over the pawprints corbett judges the tiger to be female, around 12 years old. This tracks well with everything we already know about her time in nepal and across kumaon. We get into the feeding habit of the tigers here: So these tigers can basically scoop anything by the neck and just take off. That's how it can snatch people so damn easily. They can drag 500 lb water buffalo around so they can pick up an indian woman like they're playing fetch. The average indian woman today is 5 feet tall and weighs 120 pounds.  tigers scoop their prey and find a nice secluded location to basically gorge themselves for a few days. Once it's in a suitable locale they'll just start chomping and ripping away at the meat starting with the butt. They'll eat for an hour or so, then just lounge till they're hungry again. Is this the right script? Is that my saturday plans or a tiger? They will repeat this cycle until everything edible is consumed. The place is basically gonna look like the set of the thing, just a few shards of bone left and a lotta blood. They have sandpaper-like tounges to strip away flesh, several types of teeth to help tear apart meat and consume everything. A starving tiger can eat a cow in 4 days so estimating the time to eat a person is somewhere in the neighborhood of 2-3 days. When they are done they just leave behind this crime scene and go somewhere else to hunt for the next meal. When they take off like this they can become difficult to track over such a huge territoryTigers in their territory move on a constant patrol while they hunt. After the whole process I just described takes place and the tiger moves to a new location it repeats. Realizing this the village people werent able to track it perse but were able to sort of tell when it was in the area. Mostly because one of them would get carried off screaming. When this occurred, the whole village would lock down until the tiger moved to a new locale.This certainly contributed to the tigresses colossal kill count was that there's a hugely delayed response  when the tiger attacks someone. Nobody really has guns due to some uprisings against british takeover of indian most notably the one in 1857  So they have to send some dude over on foot to a place with british govt, and getting the wheels of government moving in order to even to dispute a goddamn parking ticket is nearly impossible so setting up a bounty and hiring a hunter contractor to go after it will take like a week. By the time the hunter gets over there there's nothing left but splotches of blood and little bits of bone and the tiger is 30 miles away to do it again. If you thought herding cats was hard imagine trying to do it with  govt assistance and the cats are 700 pound killing machines. Back to our story: When they bring home what's left of this girl, they ask around to see where the tiger is now or where it might be headed. Nobody really knows but the consensus is it's going back to champawat village. The tiger operates in a huge swath of land all around kumaon, kumaon itself is about the size of wyoming and the champawat tiger was responsible for 95% of the tiger fatalities in the region during that time.  but the nexus of the deaths and sightings is right in champawat.They pack up and get ready to hike up to champawat. Jim Corbett arrives in champawat on may 9th 1907 with his kumaoni buddies plus one or two extra guys from pali brave enough to try to end the reign of terror. In corbetts memoir he makes an interesting note about the tashlidar, who from what I can understand is some sort of village elder/ caretaker like figure. This isn't a local indian politics podcast. Sue me. He makes a note about how the guy was gonna spend the night at his bungalow and just says screw it and walks home last minute. I've done my fair share of long walks home at night but this is in a time and place where any average dude is afraid to walk the streets without a group of at least four people just in case one of them gets attacked and carried off. This dude just peaces out and walks 4 miles home alone in the dark. He spends the night basically having nightmares of getting ripped apart by a tiger and barely sleeps a wink. After all the research I did on tigers I cant say I blame him. But he's actually going after the most notorious one in history. I'm sitting in a closet just making jokes about it. When corbett wakes up he's chatting with his squad of  six or seven  guys trying to assess where  the tiger might strike next and what their move should be, he's doing the 1907 version of where we dropping boys?” and as if on cue this dude runs down the road screaming that the tiger has grabbed another girl. Victim 436. When he gets to the site of the attack he does a quick interview about how it went down and he's surprised to find that the tiger snatched this girl up in broad daylight, in a field, surrounded by a dozen other people. It was very good at what it did. A little bit more about tiger stealth, A tiger is able to conceal itself in knee high grass, approach almost without sound and jump out with ludicrous speed. They are well camouflaged, you might think orange isn't a great camo color, but look at hunters. They wear bright orange tree camo. Prey animals dont see it. And animals that do, like us would even have trouble picking out the orange from light filtering through the trees. Corbett tells the villagers to stay inside and wait for him to get back. starts tracking after the tiger from the site of the attack and finds a swath of destruction in its wake. There's hair, clothing and blood leading into the treeline. Partway along the course of this blood trail he hears fast footsteps behind him and goes and whirls around thinking he's about to be desert and almost shoots a villagers head off. We have a unique scenario here where we can kind of hear corbetts internal monologue in a way because he recorded his thoughts on the hunt in his books. I've got some juicy bits from maneaters of kumaon in just a minute.Luckily he doesn't unload his weapon on this poor bastard and the guy explains hes here to help because he is one of the only guys in town that actually has a gun. Imagine you're on the trail of this legendary tiger and something comes crashing through the bush behind you without warning. I would have gunned him down accidentally and been thrown in indian prison.  The problem is this dude is an oaf. He's loud and doesn't know much about hunting so he's more of a liability. He makes the guy climb to the top of a tree and just sit there until he gets back. He can't send him back because then the guy would have to go back alone. That's just a little part of the story that's so f***ing funny to meAfter leaving the guy up on top of the tree he finds the tigers feeding zone and hoo boy it's a doozy. From his own words:“Splinters of bone were scattered round the deep pugmarks into which discolored water was slowly seeping , and at the edge of the pool was an object which had puzzled me as i came down the watercourse, and which I now found was part of a human leg. In all the subsequent years I have hunted maneaters I have not seen anything as pitiful as that young comely leg -- bitten off a little below the knee as clean as though severed by the stroke of an axe. Out of which warm blood was trickling.”Jesus. For the record pugmarks are the tiger tracks. While he kneels down to inspect the carnage he hears a growl  in a split second whips around and fires off both barrels of his weapon. This is it. The tiger is f***ing here. In his haste he misses both shots but the gunblast sound alone is enough to give the tiger momentary pause. It dashes off the collision course, drops the body of the girl and lets out a colossal roar. The tiger roars and just takes off with the body in her teeth. And jim just follows right after it even though he's only got one bullet left. But a person isn't gonna keep pace with a tiger under pretty much any circumstance and after a few hours the trail goes cold. And night begins to fall. If you're taking your chances with a single bullet with a murder tiger from hell you're brave, if you're doing it at night you're stupid.He goes back to grab the villager off his tree that he's STILL SITTING on. While the stooge comes down off the tree he looks out at the valley. Jim knows that almost being the tigers next meal and hopelessly trying to keep up with it through the undergrowth is not a winning strategy and would end either with him being ripped apart by the tiger or losing it in the night as it goes off to its next victim which could be dozens of miles away. It has to be here. And it has to be tomorrow. In the movie of this I direct once that fat podcast money comes, this where I put the heist scene where they show everyone laying down the blueprints and also cut to each part of it as it's being planned. I can't remember if that's an oceans 11 thing or usual suspects or what, I guess it's not important.  I'll fix the movie trivia when we do our bank robberies episode. But this is where corbett gets his crew together. All he has to do is convince a bunch of people that are already so f***ing scared they won't even leave their house to take a s*** when the tiger is around, to join him in a hunt, the likes of which they have never done before. Not to mention the fact that they are in an area that has had its fair share of horrors come directly from britain to help out jim corbett the whitey. Easy right?He asks his guide in the town to help rally the troops so to speak, and heads to bed. The next morning he sets up hoping to get a few hundred people to help bring down the beast. This is beowulfs assault on grendels lair, this is going after smaug, this is ahabs white whale, this is f***ing legendary. Annd nobody show up then at ten am his buddy from the village shows up with the oaf from the other day. It's a nice gesture but it's not enough to slay the beast by any stretch. Twenty minutes pass and two or three more show up, then a few more,  five here three more there. And by noon almost 300 people show up. Many of them with illegal guns, the elders in the village hinted that nobody would care about the guns JUST THIS ONCE.So they've put together this literal ragtag army of farmers and craftsman wielding old guns, sticks, makeshift spears, wood axes, basically anything they can pick up. Corbett meets one lunatic with a hammer that had two sons and his wife eaten by this thing. This was a les mis style moment where the people rise to fight against natures tyranny. I want to take a quick second to reiterate that this is a 100% true story. It's unbelievable. The tiger is somewher down in a nearby gorge feeding on that poor four hundred and thirty sixth victim. There's only one way out of the gorge short of climbing the ridges on 3 sides. The team lines up equidistantly all along the top of the ridge. And corbett and his buddy from town hide alone at the mouth of the gorge with his gun ready. All was set up for corbett to give his signal for everyone around the ridge to just start making a f***load of noise from all 3 sides, throw rocks and cause disturbances to flush her out into where corbett was waiting. There was one problem. You guys remember that scen in lord of the rings where the one eyed dude accidentally shoots an orc too early and f***s up the whole seige? That happens, the people on the ridge get antsy and someone blasts off a gun prematurely and everyone else follows suit. The problem is corbett and his buddy aren't in place. He has to run 500 feet to get to his planned position and the tiger comes careening out of the forest like a f***ing bat outta hell. There's no time and theres just a split second of realization likely from the tiger and corbett both that only one of them is getting out of this alive. But he hesitates! His buddy doesn't and takes a shot with his piece of s*** shotgun and misses wide. The panic messes up corbetts shot as well.  It's just enough to throw the tiger off though and she runs BACK into the gorge. They messed up their one chance. … The people up on the ridge however, well out of sight of any of this behind the trees here the gunshot and they all assume corbett shot the tiger. THey shoot off their guns into the air and start cheering. THis second wave of sound is enough to give the operation a second chance. The tigress runs back out from the gorge where corbett is waiting. Corbett sees the tiger fly out of the gorge and raises his rifle and fires off a shot that actually hits her back flank. She twist in a rage and agony and turns to face him and charge. He fires again and hits her in the shoulder. I assume after that he s*** his pants. Jim corbett carries a double barrel rifle. He's got no bullets left. He's got a VERY F****** ANGRY maneating tiger and she isn't down for the count yet. He has one shot insane chance at survival. He has to run to his buddy from the village and get HIS gun. He makes the breathless dash and in doing so the tiger finally sees what all the searing pain she's experiencing is from. Zeroed in on corbett she charges. His partner from the village must have his eyes go wide from shock as it dawns on him what jim is doing. Corbett is gesturing for him to THROW his gun to him while he runs by! He tosses the old shotgun into the air, disarming himself and that gun must have hung in the air for what seemed an eternity in that split second. Corbett catches the shotgun and whirls around with the tiger twenty feet from him ready to leap, moving at forty miles per hour. He raises the shotgun and The champawat tiger is dead at his feet. Upon investigation of the body they could see the cause. The cause of all the mayhem and carnage, of all the literally ripped apart families, all the fear, all of it. The tigress's teeth were wrecked long ago one fang taken clean off and another broken in half. She was unable to hunt her usual prey.  It was some unknowing hunter that had done this to her and set her on this path. Nature isn't evil.In the village people celebrated, they were free from the grip of fear. There's a substantial epilogue to this story though. The champawat tiger may have been the first super maneater in 1900s india but she would be far from the last. THe conditions of habitat destruction, colonial encroachment, industrialization, poaching and all that werent going anywhere anytime soon and many more tigers and leopards claimed many more lives, some estimates put the toll close to a million people over the last five hundred years or so.Jim corbett went on to hunt a few more of these notable maneaters including  a leopard that had at least one hundred and twenty nine confirmed kills. He went on to publish his memoirs and several other books about his time in the indian jungle and those all sold fantastically well. In his later years he dedicated himself to tiger conservation founding a national park to preserve them that now bears his name. In 1907 there was an estimated 100 thousand tigers in the wild and now there's somewhere in the neighborhood of four thousand in the wild. Fur trade in china ( We'll get into china don't worry) and other countries, poaching and tigers losing ninety percent of their habitat presents a bleak picture but not an impossible one. Many governments have put together a pact to try to double tiger populations by 2022. If you want to help out tiger conservation, first, don't kill them. Secondly I'll put in some links to the world wildlife fund in the show notes     

What's that? You wish you could learn even MORE about the smilodon than Morgan taught you back in episode 4?  You're in luck! Tune in to learn even more about this prehistoric cat!

In this episode we talk to Professor Christine Janis about mammal palaeontology, and her career. Christine is one of the world's foremost experts in mammal palaeontology and mammalogy. She has authored dozens of scientific papers, and has been co-author of the major textbook Vertebrate Life for the last 20 years. Christine has had a long and distinguished career, and is currently a researcher at the University of Bristol in the UK. Her work is particularly focused on mammal locomotion and ecology. We'll be talking about some of the research Christine has led, including on hoofed mammals, sabre-toothed South American ‘marsupials', and Australia's extinct giant kangaroos. We'll talk about the use and limits of comparative anatomy, the importance of direct observation of specimens in the discipline of palaeontology, and how things have changed for researchers during her lifetime.

I so often hear the terms “emotionally triggered” and “gut feeling” used interchangeably. But, while they’re both associated with powerful internal experiences, there is a stark difference between the two. How can you tell them apart? Imagine you’re an early human. One day, while out hunting or gathering resources, you spot a saber-toothed tiger on the horizon, walking down your path. You feel fear. Are you experiencing an emotional trigger or a gut feeling? Why does the distinction matter? In this episode of the Trauma Hiders Club, I draw wisdom from the superstar-wizard of understanding and integrating trauma, Dr. Gabor Maté, to parse out the distinction between gut feelings and being emotionally triggered. “How glorious that as humans we get to experience it all, including emotional triggers and gut feelings. After all, emotions make us human; without them, we are beasts.” - Karen Goldfinger Baker This week on the Trauma Hiders Club Podcast: Gabor Maté on emotional triggers and gut feelings What it means to be emotionally triggered The roots of emotional triggers Gut feelings and their relationship with your environment Where High Achievers Get Through Shit - TOGETHER Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of Trauma Hiders Club ‘The Podcast’ with Karen Goldfinger Baker. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | GooglePlay | Stitcher | Spotify | Amazon Music Be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media to help me reach more high achievers, like you. Join me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and visit my website to discover the rules of Trauma Club and grab your free download: Discover 5 Ways Your Fuckery Is Getting In The Way of The Next Level of Your Success.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I so often hear the terms “emotionally triggered” and “gut feeling” used interchangeably. But, while they're both associated with powerful internal experiences, there is a stark difference between the two. How can you tell them apart? Imagine you're an early human. One day, while out hunting or gathering resources, you spot a saber-toothed tiger on the horizon, walking down your path. You feel fear. Are you experiencing an emotional trigger or a gut feeling? Why does the distinction matter? In this episode of the Trauma Hiders Club, I draw wisdom from the superstar-wizard of understanding and integrating trauma, Dr. Gabor Maté, to parse out the distinction between gut feelings and being emotionally triggered. “How glorious that as humans we get to experience it all, including emotional triggers and gut feelings. After all, emotions make us human; without them, we are beasts.” - Karen Goldfinger Baker This week on the Trauma Hiders Club Podcast: Gabor Maté on emotional triggers and gut feelings What it means to be emotionally triggered The roots of emotional triggers Gut feelings and their relationship with your environment Where High Achievers Get Through Shit - TOGETHER Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Trauma Hiders Club ‘The Podcast' with Karen Goldfinger Baker. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | GooglePlay | Stitcher | Spotify | Amazon Music Be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media to help me reach more high achievers, like you. Join me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and visit my website to discover the rules of Trauma Club and grab your free download: Discover 5 Ways Your Fuckery Is Getting In The Way of The Next Level of Your Success.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode we’re joined by Dr. Advait Jukar to discuss the 2002 classic Ice Age, the story of three unlikely Pleistocene mammals who team up to rescue a non-adult Homo sapiens, and in the process discover the value of family. If you like Cenozoic mammalian taxonomy, then you’re going to love this episode! Find Advait on Twitter @amjukar and at https://advaitjukar.weebly.com/ In this episode: We geek out over the scientific names of prehistoric mammals, including: Wooly Mammoth – Mammuthus primigenius: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolly_mammoth Sabre-toothed cat – Smilodon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smilodon Scimitar cat – Homotherium: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homotherium Ground Sloth – Megalonyx (Bonus – where are sloths' nipples?): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalonyx Long-nosed llama – Macraucheniidae: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrauchenia Glyptodont (giant armadillo relative) – Dædicurus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doedicurus Ancient proboscidean – Moeritherium (It's not a tapir!): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moeritherium Not actually a rhinoceros – Megacerops: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megacerops Not actually Bigfoot – Gigantopithecus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigantopithecus Dodos don't get enough credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo Scrat was real all along! Pseudotherium argentinus: http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/pseudotherium-argentinus-07533.html We also discuss: Burrows dug by giant ground sloths: https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/get-lost-in-mega-tunnels-dug-by-south-american-megafauna GABI – Great American Biotic Interchange: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_Interchange People – what a bunch of bastards! https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-happened-worlds-most-enormous-animals-180964255/

This week, Better Than Human tackles the Saber-Toothed Tiger which are most known for their large upper canine teeth. This animal is actually not closely related to a Tiger and is actually called the Saber-Toothed Cat, or Smilodon. The common house cat is more closely related to a Tiger than the Saber-Tooth Cat. Saber-Toothed Cats were specialized hunters, which may have made them wimpy or alpha predators (depending on how you look at it). First, in this week's best and worst news, Jennifer talks about stupid jackasses swimming with sharks for attention, and the renaming of a moth to a less offensive name. Amber tackles Republicans having a temper tantrum because they couldn't have fireworks at a sacred Native American Site. Saber-Toothed Cats went extinct during the Quaternary extinction event which ended around 10,000 years ago, and may or may not have been caused by humans (we probably caused it). Saber-Toothed Cats were more stocky than modern day tigers and lions, imagine a BullDog type Tiger. However, they are normally depicted in modern media as Tigers or Lions with long front fangs. Their habitats ranged from North America to South America, and they hunted large prey, like Bison and camels (yes, there was a species of Camel called Camelops which lived in the Americas, who knew, right?). Not a lot is known about the behavior of these animals, but there are a lot of different theories.Listen now as hosts Amber and Jennifer dive into unknown mysteries of the Saber-Toothed Cat.For more information on us, visit our website at betterthanhumanpodcast.comFollow us on Twitter @betterthanhuma1on Facebook @betterthanhumanpodcaston Instagram @betterthanhumanpodcasthttps://www.tiktok.com/@betterthanhumanpodcastor Email us at betterthanhumanpodcast@gmail.comWe look forward to hearing from you, and we look forward to you joining our cult of weirdness!#betterthanhuman #cultofweirdnes

It is the most recognized predator from the "Ice Age". These large cats had the longest teeth of any predator of its time. 

Hello Model Clubbers! Well somehow we made it to a year of doing this stupid little show! Thank you everyone for the support, encouragement, kind words, funny photoshops, emails, entries, donations and everything else that has made year one of Model Club TV so great! We appreciate each and every one of you! After our little celebration we take a quick look back at some of the hobby magazines that inspired us through the years. I am on the road again this time in South Dakota, Scott has something on the workbench and I mumble my way through emails again...good times. We have a bunch of giveaways this episode! For the Cyclops, the Taurus and the Invisible Man, comment below letting us know which one, two or all three you are interested in. We will pull names from the comments next episode.  For the Smilodon, email us at modelclubtv@gmail.com with Smilodon (or sabre tooth tiger) in the subject line and I will get you a ticket number. If you are interested in getting any of these kits the information follows - Cyclops sculpted by Onyx Digital studios https://bit.ly/3doTYFJ To get something printed by Jamie Saj send him an email jsaj1975@gmail.com or find him on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/jamie.saj Invisible Man Sculpted by Tony Cipriano and produced by Mike Reagan To purchase your own or one of the other Classic Monsters in the series contact Mike Reagan on Facebook Messenger https://www.facebook.com/michael.reagan.77 or by email mikethemodeler@hotmail.com Taurus sculpted by Mick Wood produced by Escape Hatch Hobbies find them here - http://www.escapehatchhobbies.com/ Smilodon and Imhotep produced by Typhon Studios find them here - https://www.facebook.com/TyphonStudios If you are interested in the Ozzy kit talk to Dale Mattingly https://www.facebook.com/dale.mattingly.12 Don't forget we are on YouTube and you can watch this dumb thing over there Model Club TV on YouTube Jason Walker on YouTube https://bit.ly/2YPSaOA

In the Mean Pleistocene series we talk about some of the creepy and now extinct (we think) creatures from our past that us Humans would have tussled with in our formative years as a species. In today's episode we cover the giant Haast Eagle, real life Hobbits, and the fearsome Smilodon!

Part two of our interview with Dr Larisa DeSantis of Vanderbilt University on the 'dietary ecology' of Smilodon. Smilodon is probably one of the most iconic mammalian apex predators with its extended upper canines and robustly-built forearms. In fact, when we compare Smilodon to modern cats (felids), we don't see these same characteristics. So what were they used for? Was Smilodon specialised for any particular behaviour? Owing to the unique preservation of the tar seeps at Rancho La Brea, Los Angeles, USA, we can find an overabundance of predators, including Smilodon fatalis, Canis dirus, Panthera atrox and Puma concolor. This allows researchers to reconstruct the predatory landscape of the area in the Pleistocene. Who was eating what? Was there any competition between predators?

Smilodon is probably one of the most iconic mammalian apex predators with its extended upper canines and robustly-built forearms. In fact, when we compare Smilodon to modern cats (felids), we don’t see these same characteristics. So what were they used for? Was Smilodon specialised for any particular behaviour? Owing to the unique preservation of the tar seeps at Rancho La Brea, Los Angeles, USA, we can find an overabundance of predators, including Smilodon fatalis, Canis dirus, Panthera atrox and Puma concolor. This allows researchers to reconstruct the predatory landscape of the area in the Pleistocene. Who was eating what? Was there any competition between predators? All of these questions feed in to the ‘dietary ecology’ of Smilodon and here to discuss that, and more, is Dr Larisa DeSantis of Vanderbilt University.

Smilodon was a powerful precision killer with wicked teeth, capable of taking down mammoths. Find out what caused this beast-slayer to kick the bucket. Plus, our season 3 round up!

Morgan wants to be sure that you know that a Smilodon Is NOT a dinosaur. But she still wants to tell you all about this prehistoric mammal!

This week we gather in for a special episode that discusses another possible Lazarus Taxon, the Smilodon. From Africa to the Americas, sabertooth cats are being reported all over the globe, but what are these fanged felines really? A remnant of a more primal world or simple misidentifications?

(image source: https://igws.indiana.edu/FossilsAndTime/Sabertooth) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Lexi Ryan discuss Smilodon, the famous saber-toothed tiger, except it wasn't a tiger, but then again a starfish isn't a fish either, so it's all just semantics. From the Pleistocene epoch, this 7-foot cat prowled the prairies of both North and South America as a participant of the Great American Interchange, which sounds either like some boring financial conglomerate or something far dirtier.  Want to further support the show? Sign up to our Patreon for exclusive bonus content here. Also, you can purchase Matthew Donald's dinosaur book "Megazoic" on Amazon by clicking here, its sequel "Megazoic: The Primeval Power" by clicking here, its third installment "Megazoic: The Hunted Ones" by clicking here, or its final installment "Megazoic: An Era's End" by clicking here. 

Dinosaur George gives an easy to understand explanation as to how the evolutionary process works. He also answers questions from listeners about Allosaurus, The Short Faced Bear, Dire Wolves, Smilodon, Concavenator, Spinosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, Megalodon and much more.

Dinosaur George gives an easy to understand explanation as to how the evolutionary process works. He also answers questions from listeners about Allosaurus, The Short Faced Bear, Dire Wolves, Smilodon, Concavenator, Spinosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, Megalodon and much more.

Evolutionary Biologist, Dr. Devin O’Brien talks about his research into the evolution into the canine teeth of the saber-toothed cat, Smilodon. Dr. O’Brien is a Postdoctoral Researcher from the Biology Department in Colby College in Waterville, Maine. The main focus of his research and study is the Evolution of Extreme and Bizarre Morphology in Insects. […]

Evolutionary Biologist, Dr. Devin O’Brien talks about his research into the evolution into the canine teeth of the saber-toothed cat, Smilodon. Dr. O’Brien is a Postdoctoral Researcher from the Biology Department in Colby College in Waterville, Maine. The main focus of his research and study is the Evolution of Extreme and Bizarre Morphology in Insects. […]

In which I return, something changes, and it turns out I can't do accents.   Talking points: My absence, Jurassic World, Evolution's lack of imagination, the Flintstones, and abusing the elderly AND horses.   Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v6RgWfSs16gr2QisTEtIBn8MDqAXH7xrHA_wGzIFhUs/edit?usp=sharing   Big thanks to Alec Reid ( https://soundcloud.com/alectricitynz ) for the amazing new theme, check him out! And eternal thanks To Underfoot for the cool logo. That's not new, but it's still cool.

Smilodon and dire wolves (drawing by Robert Horsfall, 1913)Running time, 1 hour. File size, 69 megabytes. This is an assembly of the episodes in the original series from 2014 that are about Cretaceous and Cenozoic vertebrates. I’ve left the references to specific dates in the podcast so that you can, if you want, go to the specific blog post that has links and illustrations for that episode. They are all indexed on the right-hand side of the blog.Thanks for your interest and support!

Aaron and INO track the deadly Smilodon and answer questions from Adam and Zachary. View full episode show notes at www.MyDogRocket.com

This week we’ve got a heaping helping of animals with big pointy teeth! Whether you spell it saber or sabre, you don’t want teeth of that description biting you. Smilodon is the best saber-toothed cat: Thylacosmilus’s weird chin bone: Thylacosmilus might have looked something like this when alive: Kolponomos might have looked something like this when alive: And the sabertooth fish is still alive! Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. For this week’s episode, we’re looking at saber-toothed animals. The animal people generally think of as THE saber-tooth cat, or saber-tooth tiger, is Smilodon fatalis. Smilodon and its relatives were members of the feline family, although not very closely related to the big and little cats living today. We have a whole bunch of Smilodon fossils, many from the La Brea tar pits in California. Smilodon was probably descended from a saber-tooth cat called Megantereon, which lived in North America, Eurasia, and Africa. It might have still been around only half a million years ago, was definitely around as recently as 2.5 million years ago, definitely around as long as 4.5 million years ago, and recent finds have been tentatively dated to 7 million years ago. So Megantereon was a very successful animal. It was stocky with strong forelimbs and neck, with long upper canines—not as big as Smilodon’s, but certainly saber-toothed. It wasn’t a giant cat, probably close to a jaguar in size, with males probably being around 5 or 6 feet long (or around 1.5 meters) not including the tail and a little over 2 feet high at the shoulder, or 72 cm. It probably killed its prey by leaping on it and biting its throat. Megantereon probably acted a lot like a leopard, including climbing trees, but its descendant, Smilodon, was too heavy for tree-climbing. Smilodon was a big, tough kitty about the size of a modern lion. It lived in North America, and migrated into South America at some point too. It probably looked more like a bear than a cat since it was stocky, heavily muscled, and had a broad head and jaws that could open much wider than modern cats’. Smilodon cubs didn’t have saber teeth. A cub only started growing its big teeth when it was around a year and a half old, and by around three years old the fangs were fully grown, about 7” long or 18 cm. Very few remains of young Smilodons have been found in the La Brea tar pits, so researchers think cubs were mostly fed and cared for by their mother until they had fully grown fangs and had learned to use them. For a long time researchers thought Smilodon lived in forested areas, but recent studies show that it probably preferred open areas. One 2016 study compared carbon and nitrogen isotopes found in collagen samples from bones of Smilodon and other predators with those of prey animals in South America to find out what they were eating. It turns out that Smilodon ate a lot of Megatherium and other giant ground sloths, as well as a camel-like ungulate called Macrauchenia. There’s even some evidence that Smilodon may have hunted in family groups. Overall, the finding suggests that Smilodon lived a lot more like modern lions do than like other big cats. The first Smilodon fossils found date to around 2.5 million years ago, but remains found in Florida dated to 5 million years ago have recently been described as a related saber-toothed cat. Smilodon lived until only 10,000 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene. It preyed on ice age megafauna and researchers think it may have died out when its main prey animals went extinct. Humans probably had something to do with their extinction too. Smilodon wasn’t the only big predator in North America during the ice age, though. It wasn’t even the only big feline predator. It shared its territory with the American lion and the American cheetah. Neither of those had saber teeth but they’re awesome so I’m going to tell you a little ...

In this episode we discuss the interesting extinct and extant mammals that Darwin collected in South America during his voyage on the Beagle. James makes an argument that it was the mammals that Darwin collected that stimulated his idea that species evolve. Sarah talks about why there are so many large mammals in Africa and not in South America, which Darwin thought was odd since vegetation growth is much more dense and thick in the rain forest of South America compared to the plains of Africa.Some of Darwin's unique species he collected on his voyage.From Darwin's journal where he realizes species transmutate"In July opened first note book on 'transmutation of Species'—Had been greatly struck from about month of previous March on character of S. American fossils—& species on Galapagos Archipelago. These facts origin (especially latter) of all my views."  From Darwin's Journal July 1837.Darwin was struck by two interesting aspects of the mammals of South America. The first was that there was a strong correspondence between the mammals that he shot, collected and ate in South America with the fossils he collected in the same area. Three major kinds of mammals intrigued Darwin during his exploration of South America. The first is the sloths,  a slow moving herbivore mammal that are adapted to feeding on leaves and fresh buds of the cecropia tree. The first mammal Darwin collected was giant bones from the megatherium, an extinct species of giant ground sloth.https://media.mnn.com/assets/images/2017/01/Sloth-Hanging-Tree-Branchhttp://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/m/megatherium.htmlhttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AMegatherium_americanum.jpgThe other mammal type that intrigued Darwin was the fossil giant Glyptodont which looks similar to the extant armadillo still found in from South America up through Central America into the southern regions of North America.http://media.npr.org/http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/index.htmlThe other two interesting mammals Darwin collected as fossils was the Toxodon and the Macrauchenia. Here are some reconstructions of the animals by talented and imaginative artists.http://prehistoricpark.wikia.com/wiki/ToxodonFollow this link to a wonderful National Geographic article that discusses some of these amazing prehistoric mammals. http://darwin-online.org.uk/graphics/Zoology_Illustrations.htmlDuring the discussion Sarah mentioned the diversity of form prehistoric mammals exhibited in the fossil record. The image below collects some of the various forms of elephants that have evolved over the past 65 million years. Note how diverse the tusks, modified teeth, have developed in the various species. https://www.natgeocreative.com/comp/05/682/457127.jpgJosh mentioned how impressive it is to watch vampire bats feed. Here is a link to cool video from National Geographic that shows interesting bat behavior but the narrator tries to hard to be cute.The opening and closing theme to Discovering Darwin is "May" by Jared C. Balogh. Interlude music is Suede Head by Red Star Martyrs

With a massive cathedral and countless giant encampments looming in the distance, the party must tangle with a pair of savage prehistoric beasts and their oversized handlers. Become a supporter of the podcast at our Patreon page: http://www.patreon.com/glasscannon You can help us unlock goals for the future while unlocking fun GCP exclusive rewards for yourself!

With a massive cathedral and countless giant encampments looming in the distance, the party must tangle with a pair of savage prehistoric beasts and their oversized handlers. Become a supporter of the podcast at our Patreon page: http://www.patreon.com/glasscannon You can help us unlock goals for the future while unlocking fun GCP exclusive rewards for yourself!

Sista podden 2016. Taxen och Terriern gästas av PODDTÄVLINGSVINNAREN Josefine Fri. Vi pratar om tjockhet, kropp, fulhet. "Vildare, Värre, Smilodon" av Minna Lindeberg och Jenny Lucander är sista boken i bokpodden. Om att vara arg och besvärlig. Vi försöker reda ut skillnaden mellan konflikt och konfrontation. Oklart om vi lyckas. Vi avslutar med att hoppas på att 2017 blir ett bättre år. 2016 satte ribban lågt. Puss och kram, ses på stan!