I returned to the hills surrounding Mahn Tor, continuing my observations of the minotaur, by necessity, from a distance. Learning early on that my presence was unwelcome in their midst, I have created a bluff from which to watch their everyday workings, without them knowing any better. I am uncertain if the herd (if that is what a group of minotaur are known as) is xenophobic to outsiders or merely agitated by the presence of drow. Likely tis more apt to be the second reason as the first. (It certainly has nothing to do with the minotaur corpse that I was studying a few days ago. Again, I shan't speak on how I came to acquire it.)
The daily patterns of minotaur are largely innocuous and tedious. At first glance, they seem to mill about aimlessly from one space to another, much like the surface cattle or the Underdark rothe that they resemble. Yet, if you look closely, there seems to be an inherant pattern to their ambling. Each member of the society has contact with all of the others in the herd, owing to this strange pattern of movement. Does this strengthen the beasts' sense of unity, of wholeness? Perhaps this is part of the reason by which they were so quick to discover the absence of one of their own. Perhaps I just give them more credit than they deserve.
The children, or calves, are not permitted to fall outside the perimeter of the adult movement, kept within an unseen corral by the protective minotaur adults. They go about their adolescent games with nary a care, butting heads and raking the ground with their hooved feet in imitation of the older specimens. The warriors converge along the outside of the herd regularly, enveloping the whole of the herd, before once again moving to another locale. To my eyes, it is all obvious, the workings of an intelligent group to protect the weakest, and present a strong front against any predator that may attempt to strike.
There is yet more upon which to observe and write, yet, for now I have run out of time. The milling group is slowly making its way this direction. It seems necessity requires that I find a new roost from which to make my observations.
Posted by Zayne at August 20, 2004 09:19 AM