They only hesitated for a moment longer before releasing Chronos.
Standing up he motioned for Gregory to release the young Matriarch. Then stepped back to the cage placing himself between the lizardfolk and his sleeping companions.
The young Matriarch swiftly slithered over to the Eldest Matriarch with a hand to her throat where the wire had been coiled around it.
"Is it really safe to let them up Eldest?" She questioned the Eldest Matriarch.
"It is never safe to be the enemy of an Ulv. They are strong and relentless, if you ever see another werewolf with that unique fur pattern make sure to show them respect."
She informed the younger one while gesturing at Chronos' gray fur that had blood red markings in it.
"Then why did you have us release him!?" The largest lizardfolk hissed at her.
"Because you would have died if you didn't. Even without his friends' help he was almost free of being pinned, once free none of you would have lived beyond 3 minutes. Now young man, can you tell me how you ended up in this corner of Dracon Fen? It is almost as far from your home as one can get in this swamp."
Staring at her Chronos deliberated whether to tell the truth or lie, hm, well it wouldn't hurt their position any more than threatening their young Matriarch had.
"We entered northern Dracon Fen to fight the dark beasts and tears together with the dragon paladins. While at the main village a tear in the center of the village exploded and we were dragged inside of a void space. After fighting for several days, we managed to shatter the crystal at the center of that space, and it collapsed.
Apparently when the space collapses it spits you out randomly at a land that was connected to the space. That could've been anywhere that a thorn or tear came from to form the void space."
Chronos gave her his theory about how they had ended up here. While it might not be perfect, he was certain that it wasn't too far from the truth.
"I see, in that case it is our blessing to have you here. When the dark beasts travelled north to fight the paladins the trolls and their minions invaded from the wastelands. I'm afraid that this war has only just begun."
Sighing Chronos said, "That's what we were worried about, we saw tracks from one of their war parties during our travels. How are you holding up?"
"We can discuss that when your friends are awake. If you will carry them, I will show you to my den."
She turned and slithered down the hallway, only pausing for Chronos and Gregory to pick up the girls and follow her.
As they went down the hall, she gestured for the lizardfolk to disperse and for the young Matriarch to follow them. Hissing in frustration the lizardfolk turned down other hallways, returning to their duties.
As they walked Chronos sniffed the air at each passage that they crossed. He smelled crops being grown in swamp caves, supply storage down another, and caught the scent of blood coming from one of the deepest hallways.
Down others he smelled cooking from pots and heard the groaning of the injured, but the most prevalent smell was that of cast-off skin. He assumed that it was some sort of secret shedding healing method, given the amount of new skin he saw on those they passed.
After walking for a time, they turned into a slightly larger room with a cooking pot in the center. Its magic flame gave off heat suitable for naga to sleep comfortably.
"Please sit, Vessin pour some tea for our guests."
"Yes, Eldest." Responded the young Matriarch.
While she prepared the tea Chronos shook Lyla to wake her up, Gregory was much gentler with Sariah.
"Hmm, uh wha-what what are you d-doing? Stop shaking me."
Stopping, Lyla was now glaring at him before she realized that they were no longer in the tent. Looking around she saw two naga's and Sariah rubbing her eyes as she woke up.
"What happened?"
"Well, you should drink as I explain. We.....and then Gregory captured Vessin and the Eldest stopped us before anybody was hurt." Chronos told them everything that he remembered about the situation.
Confused, Sariah asked, "How did you not wake up before we ended up in the middle of their den?"
Vessin cut in, "He did wake up, twice. We managed to put him back to sleep before he could understand what was going on the first two times. But how did you stop us from putting you to sleep the third time? Nothing we did seemed to work."
"I kept expelling aura from my throat to force the smoke out and breathed whenever my head was away from the smoke. It's not a good method and it wastes a ton of aura, but it keeps me awake long enough to fight back. If your guards had pinned my head down when we were wrestling, I would have lost. Now can you explain where we are and what is going on in the southern Dracon Fen?"
Looking at the Eldest they waited as she sipped on her tea before beginning.
"Shortly after the tears appeared we began to find goblins and kobolds wandering through our territories. There were only small groups at first, but as more dark beasts appeared we were unable to hunt them. It was only later that I realized they were scouting parties looking for weaknesses that the trolls could take advantage of. And then one week ago they invaded with thousands of weaker monsters and hundreds of trolls.
Thankfully the lands of southern Dracon Fen are primarily islands separated by rivers. The massive Averest river forms these swamps but this far south it has dispersed into a large number of distributaries and deep pools until it enters the Central Ocean further south.
Using the islands as bases we have been fighting a guerilla war against the invaders, but it is not going well. We can handle the weaker monsters easily enough, but the trolls and other strong monsters can move over or through the water almost as easily as we can.
On top of that merfolk have come out of the Central Ocean to claim some of the southern islands in the last few days."
That was a lot to take in, especially as they had just arrived in these lands. Chronos' worst fears had been the trolls invading, with the merfolk invading Dracon Fen as well; they were going to need more help than just the Dragon Church.
"Are we safe at our current location?" He asked.
"Yes, this is a fortress created in a previous era that we have adapted for our use. It exists on one of the largest islands in the south and has thick walls to hold off any invasion. These tunnels we dug into the island later for comfort."
It was quite warm with the fire going, above ground that heat would likely be lost either to the fortress or wind blowing through the fortress.
Thinking about their current situation, they needed help. At the very least they needed to get a message out to the church, if they didn't then the church would be taken by surprise when the trolls attacked after killing the lizardfolk and nagas.
He still had the message bird even if it wasn't working, maybe Eldest knew what was wrong with it.
"Can you make this message bird work?"
Taking it from Chronos, Eldest turned it over several times as she examined every part of it.
"Oh, this is a clever little tool, but it is not damaged. It simply has a short range, once it is back in range you can send a message once more."
"Then can we get one of the lizardfolk to take it north and send a message to Vice-Commander Adam about the invasion?"
"You aren't going to send the message?"
"No, I think I can be of more help here than in the north." Chronos said, pretending that he wasn't avoiding his family.
Nodding Eldest hissed down the hallway and instructed the lizardfolk that arrived to take the bird north and ask for help. He didn't look happy about asking for help but didn't complain as he ran off.
By this time much of the night had passed and the Eldest Matriarch was nodding off so they decided to move the meeting to another room to let her sleep.
Once there they started to ask for more details about what had happened in the south these past two weeks.
"How much of the swamp has been lost already?" Lyla asked
Vessin answered, "We have lost 1/3 of the swamp in the east, that includes several old watchtowers and a poorly maintained fort. We have also lost 1/5 of the islands in the south to the merfolk but so have the trolls."
"Were any high value targets lost to the merfolk?" Chronos continued.
"No, every major building in the south collapsed into the ocean over a century ago. Unfortunately, they did manage to steal some of our fish farms during the first day of their invasion. But it wasn't enough to affect our food supplies in the short term." Vessin said.