Chapter 437: The apparent Rules of the Watering Hole

The first thing Joshua noticed about the watering hole was the massive size of the place. Usually when you thought of a watering hole you would think of a rather large pond or maybe an extremely small lake. That wasn't the case when it came to the source of water they had all just found themselves looking at. It was around the size of a lake but not a small one. The lake itself took up more area than the entirety of James Town and had its own source of life in it from what Joshua could feel from his aura sense as it reached out to the water. There were all types of fish large and small that lived inside of the lake, but luckily none of them seemed to be a threat considering they had their own ecosystem that involved only them instead of having giant fish that tried to eat anything that came close to the area.

There didn't seem to be any alligators or crocodiles in the water so the area was fairly safe for beast to drink from without worrying about getting their heads chomped off or getting dragged into the water. The only conflict that could possibly occur at the watering hole would be between the different beasts that arrived at the area to drink some water. Joshua couldn't tell how that would go at the moment, but he was soon going to find out as the elk started to approach the water's edge.

Joshua's group didn't follow right behind the elk like they had been doing for most of the day. Now that they were close enough to the watering hole where they didn't have to worry about getting lost in the tall grass or getting targeted by predators in the nearby area. Instead they found a hill near the lake that was a bit high up to where they could see the entire area. It wasn't too far away from where the elk had walked up to the water, but it was a good enough distance that they wouldn't have to worry about disturbing any of the beast that came to drink water. Once they set up the area to where Vince had an illusion around them that would prevent the beast from spotting them out in the open Joshua started to examine the beast in the area a bit more.

The first group he noticed was of course the elk that they had followed all of the way to the area. They were taking turns drinking water while the others ate some of the grass in the nearby area. While watching them Joshua took notice of the fact that there were a few plants around the lake that he hadn't seen before and he knew that he was going to end up having to pick some for the garden later. After observing the elk for a bit Joshua turned his eyes to the other group of beast that he had seen at the edge of the water not too far away from the elk.

These creatures were even bigger than the elk and stood a good story taller than the elks even when you included there massive horns. These beast dwarfed the size of even tank and the fact that they came to the edge of the water in a herd just like the elk proved that they were probably one of the more powerful groups of creatures in the prairie. These creatures looked like giant bison with massive horns that looked even more deadly than the ones Joshua had seen on the elk. The horns weren't as long as the ones on the elk but they were much thicker and seemed to be made of a harder substance. They had large heads that looked like they could be used as battering rams and even with all of the fur covering their bodies you could still see the massive muscles that laid just underneath. The humps on their backs only made them seem even bulkier.

Joshua quickly observed one of the larger bison of the group and saw that it was level eighty-seven with four stars next to its name. Judging from its position in the group Joshua could see that it wasn't even the leader of the herd since it was on the edge guarding some of the younger bison. That's when he saw what he assumed to be the leader of the herd start to stand up and make its way towards the water's edge. The bison towered over the rest of the herd standing a couple of stories taller than the others and with a much bigger frame that made it look as if it could easily stomp Tank into the ground if given the chance. Even its horns were bigger and more dangerous to deal with.

Observing the herd leaders level brought a frown to Joshua's face. The beast was the highest level creature Joshua had seen in the prairie up to this point at level eighty-nine, but the fact it only had four stars next to its name told Joshua that it still wasn't the strongest beast in the area. Everyone else in the group looked at the massive creature in awe. It lowered its head into the water so that it could drink and didn't seem to pay the elk any attention at all. Joshua wasn't too surprised by this since even before the evolution phase herbivores tended to ignore each other when it came to these types of situations.

What did surprise the group however was the fact that the bison did turn its eyes in their direction while it was drinking away at the water. It seemed to be a bit weary of the hill they were on even though they had the illusion up which hinted at the creatures intelligence. Joshua could only shake his head at this fact since he knew that it was going to be impossible for his group to approach any closer if it was already paying attention to Vince's illusion from this distance.

While the bison were drinking away at the water a few more creatures started coming out of the nearby tall grass or other areas around the watering hole. There was a large group of prairie chickens that were off to the side making their way towards the water, there were some large prairie dogs that made their way over without digging a bunch of holes all over the place, and there were some giant squirrel like creatures with large tales that raced over to get a drink as well. All sorts of beast were drinking from the water's edge at the same time without causing a ruckus with each other.

Up to that point it wasn't all that surprising that no conflicts were being caused by the lake, but then more beast started showing up and Joshua was surprised by the fact the bison and elk along with the other creatures didn't seem worried at all when a large pack of coyotes made their way to the water's edge. They only looked in the direction of the coyotes for a moment before returning to drinking away at the water without a care. The coyotes did the same and only focus on drinking some water. This pack of coyotes was much larger than the previous one that elk had come across with around a dozen of them, but even so they didn't seem to be a threat to any of the creatures at the water.

Soon enough the coyotes weren't the only predators around as a large snake made its way out of the grass to grab a drink and it was soon followed by a pair of bobcats that stayed off on their own as they drank from the lake. It was clear to Joshua that there was some kind of truce going on when it came to the watering hole. There wasn't any killing intent or threatening force being given off by any of the creatures while around the watering hole. In fact it was as if this was the only location in the prairie where they all decided to let bygones be bygones and rest while getting water. Hell the Bison and elks were even grazing the nearby grass without a care. Their grazing was probably the reason why the grass around the lake was cut so low in the first place.

"Are you guys seeing what I'm seeing here?" Adrian asked a bit surprised by the situation. "I'm fairly sure that the last time we saw the coyotes and elk near each other they were going at each other's throats."

"Honestly this isn't out of the ordinary." Henry said grabbing everyone's attention. "A water source is always an area where animals tend to be less confrontational, especially when it comes to one this big. In a situation like this where there aren't any beast around that use the water to their advantage to ambush or lure out prey it isn't all that surprising that this is how things go here. Especially when you look at the intelligence a lot of these beast show."

"That's about right. This is one of the few times that these beast don't have to worry about looking for food and water or worry about if another predator is out to get them. It's no surprise that they've created this kind of rule to keep things civil." Isabella said with a nod. "The issue is the fact that a powerful creature like that bison seems clued in on the fact that something weird is going on when it comes to Vince's illusions. If there is an easy going beast that can figure it out around then there is likely a powerful predator that can do the same."

Ever since the owl Joshua had a feeling that would be the case so he only nodded in response to Isabella's warning. That's when he took notice of some more creatures approaching the range of his aura sense, but this time around the creatures weren't coming from the ground or the water itself. Instead these beast were flying in from above grabbing everyone's attention as they glided down towards the lake not too far away from the rest of the beast.

When they landed they let out loud screeches and flapped their wings for a moment before they started pruning themselves without a care for the other creatures around. These beast looked like giant vultures and sort of reminded Joshua of a creature from a game he used to play all of the time from their size and looks. It was just weird seeing such a creature in a wide open prairie area like this instead of a dried out dessert. These large flying overgrown rats looked as ugly as you could imagine giant vultures as they picked away at their black feathers before lowering their heads to drink some water.

Joshua observed the vultures and could see that they were all level eighty-five or eighty-six. They had three stars by their names which meant they were fairly strong but not quite in the same league as the owl that Joshua had seen last night. They weren't in the same weight class either judging by their smaller frames in comparison. Even so they stood at around five stories tall with large wings that were twice as long as they were tall.

The fact that all of the beast seemed to just ignore them as well only proved the point that there was a rule about causing trouble at the watering hole and all of the beast adhered to it.