Siberias Lion Riders (Kingdom of Talliareum)

He ordered his men to open his personal safe and bring out 2 caskets filled with gold. The men were unsure of his intentions but obeyed the General willingly. They saddled quickly and galloped passed the Mountains in the East, on to Araves terriotory near the Great Rivers where great caravans pass. After many days they reached their destination and the local merchants were asked to provide him with lions, and he paid 3 times the price for each of the cubs. General Siberias knew the merchants sold these to the Soultanos and the regional Khalifis who paid generously, it was of great prestige to have them in their courts. Such was the incentive that the merchants ventured into the lands of the Dracantropii to try and capture them, and now it seems the Humans of Talliareum wanted the same thing.

And so a couple of months later, General Siberias returned without any gold but with caged lions instead. He left the younger ones breed and took the cubs under his protection. He chose the best of his men and gave them each one lion cub. "You are going to eat with it, sleep with it, make your prayers with it! You are now married to each other and you will remain as such till death do you part!"

As the lions grew stronger, the affiliation with their masters became close and hardened. Strangely enough, the lions never turned against their masters, although occasionaly fought and wounded gravely other humans or lions. "It is your responsability that the lions obey you!", had the General told his men, and he himself was riding the hugest lion there was in the Kingdom of Talliareum.

One shiny afternoon General Siberias came out of his house and watched how his servants perfomed their daily chores, while a couple of Lions were lying in the sun, their masters drinking ale some 30 feet away. It was... normal! "It has taken more than 2 years," he thought, "but we are finally ready..."

History of the Siberias Lions, PART IV out of V.