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Description
June 20, 12973 BCE; Colombia

Her skins swayed in the hot breeze as she walked out onto the grasslands. She wiped the sweat from her brow as the sun beamed down on her when she exited the shade of the trees. This was the one thing she was never prepared for. Not the distance, not the beasts, not even the giant pits of tar that she had come across halfway through her journey. It was the heat.

To think, all her life she had spent her time bundled up in layers upon layers of furs and skins in a desperate attempt to push away the icy air and stay warm. Now, after her year-long journey south, she longed for even a whiff of that cool breeze.

Nonetheless, she persevered and carried on. These grasslands and the mountains that peaked in the distance looked identical to the ones she had ran through in her visions. If she wasn't at her destination, she was definitely close.

First though, she needed a rest. She had been walking since last night determined to clear as much distance as possible in the shortest amount of time. She had ridden her horse most of the way, but once they had come into contact with this abominable heat, it tragically passed on to the realm of the Spirits, leaving Arktalaki to make the rest of the way on foot.

Now she felt good about the progress she had made, the geography’s familiarity giving her a sense of comfort. She hoped she would come across some of her people, the blossoms of the seeds she had sent out from the ice all those years ago. She had run into a couple along the way, but most of her adventure had only granted her the company of beasts and flora. She was longing for some company.

But while she waited for another episode of human interaction, she decided to sit and rest. She scanned the grasslands until she spotted out a lone rock sitting in the faded green plain. She smiled. That would work just fine, she thought. She crossed the grasslands, pushing through the reeds until she found herself at the rock, and she immediately pushed herself onto it. She sighed as she laid on her back and closed her eyes for a moment, enjoying the rare chance to relax. It was a rather beautiful landscape, she thought, despite the heat. The rolling mountains and the lush green environments that stretched far beyond the horizon. It was a stark contrast to the land of ice that she was used to. She hoped that the tribesmen she had sent here found it enjoyable.

She almost ended up falling asleep, fatigue from walking finally catching up with her. But then her moment of bliss was interrupted, because of course it was. The thing that interrupted her though was hardly something she expected. The rock below her started shifting and wobbling, rising up a little bit. She panicked, jumping off before the think could knock her off and rolling to her feet. She spun around, eyes widening as she realized that what she was sitting on was not a rock at all, but some sort of massive armored beast. She gasped as it grunted and snorted in irritation, no doubt not very pleased at being used as a bed. Arktalaki quickly grabbed one of her spears. The creature stood up on it's stubby legs, lifting it's hulking body into full view. Arktalaki immediately cast her eyes towards its long tail, which was tipped with a massive spiked club that could be nothing but bad news.

And in fact, it wasn't. The creature grunted and, with surprising speed for a beast of its size and dimensions, spun around and swung that deathly tail weapon straight at Arktalaki. She jumped out of the way just in time to avoid a bad end to this lengthy walk of hers. She rolled back to her feet and got her spear ready. She ran around the beast, ducking below another tail swing, and as soon as she thought she had a good angle, she thrust her weapon forward into its side.

Only to have it immediately bounce off with only a scratch to show for it. She gasped, and the creature used her failed attack as an opening for another tail swing. Thankfully she was close enough to only get smacked by the side of it's tail instead of its spiked end, but it still resulted in a painful trip to the ground. She clutched her bruised chest and quickly ran out of range of another attack. She hoped her rib wasn't broken. She needed all the health she could afford if she had any hope of conditioning the screeching shadow demon.

She looked this grunting beast up and down, trying to find a weak point. But she saw none, which horrified her. How was she going to defeat this beast if she had no means of penetrating that armor?

She tried her best not to panic. The two circled around each other, the beast trying sloppily to land another blow that would break Arktalaki in half like a twig if it got the chance. She had to find its weak point. There had to be some soft-unarmored part to it.

She didn't get much chance to give it a good look though, as one of those careless swings ended up shoving her back to the ground in the same way as before. She clutched her side as she struggled back to her feet. She looked up, and gasped as she saw the thing raising its tail up for the killing blow. She didn't want to accept this was it. But in that split second she knew there was no way she could dodge it. She squinted her eyes tight as she heard it bellow one last time and…

“Push!”

Arktalaki opened her eyes when she suddenly heard human voices and the frantic moaning of the beast. She looked up, and she saw a group of hunters rushing up and pushing as hard as they could on the creature’s side until it tipped over, revealing it's soft hairy underbelly. It flailed and struggled until the hunters grabbed spears of their own and used them to send the beast back to the realm of the Spirits.

Arktalaki watched in awe as she struggled to sit up. One of the hunters came up and helped her to her feet. He smiled as he let her lean on his shoulder. “Do my eyes deceive me?” he laughed. “Has our Great Chieftess really come to our land?”

Arktalaki looked at him, offering up as much of a smile as she could in return. She recognized him. He was one of her good friends, one of the men she entrusted to lead an exploration team southward. They called him Qambaq, the great hunter.

“I have,” Arktalaki replied. “Though this beast would've cut my visit rather short if you had not arrived. Thank you, my friend.”

“Why have you come here, Arktalaki? How did you even find us?”

“Can we do the questions thing after we can get me a shaman to heal?”

Qambaq nodded. “Of course,” he said. “Once the hunters have gathered the meat and armor of the beast, we shall return to our settlement and get you help.”

“Thank you, Qambaq.”

“It is the least I can do for my favorite Chieftess.”

He helped her rest on a rock, a real rock this time, so that she didn't have to strain herself while she waited. Qambaq went to help his hunters gather up their bounty, and Arktalaki watched them. Despite the pain she was in, she felt rather happy. She was in the company of her people again, people she trusted and who cared about her. To her, that was more than enough to fill her with positive energy.

She had arrived at her destination, and it felt surprisingly good.

------------

Arktalaki took a sip of the herbal paste that the settlement’s shaman had prepared for her. It admittedly wasn't the best taste, but it definitely washed away the pain in her side, as well as all the aches she had acquired over the past year. A large number of the people had gathered to celebrate the arrival of their Great Chieftess, presenting her with gifts that she was almost too flattered to accept. It was a warm welcome, and she was glad for it.

Qambaq sat nearby where she was resting, clearly eager to catch up with his old friend.

“It truly is great to see you again, Arktalaki,” he told her, taking a drink of water. “But I am still very confused as to why. I imagine there must be a serious reason for you to traverse an entire continent on your own?”

Arktalaki lowered her head, quietly dreading this talk. “I received a vision,” she said, her voice lowered slightly. “The Apple showed me sights of the future, not that I asked for them. They showed myself in this place, arriving to confront… a great evil…”

Qambaq’s quiet listening suddenly turned into silent discomfort. “What kind of great evil?” he asked, as if he already knew the answer.

Arktalaki shook her head, not wanting to remember that terrible terrible noise that still rattled in her skull even to this day. “I don't know,” she said. “All I saw was this dark shadow, larger than life but unseeable because of how fast it moved through the grass. It was vicious murderer. It lurked in this dark crevice of death and decay, making this horrible… horrible shrieking noise that echoed through the stones and shook my very bones to the core. I saw it butchering your people here, and I could not stand for that. And so I travelled here to see how I could help.”

For a silent few moments that felt like hours, Qambaq sat with his head hung slightly as he struggled to think of what to say after Arktalaki’s explanation.

“We call it the Terror,” he said eventually, his lips dry with sincerity.

“The Terror?” Arktalaki asked.

He nodded. “A demon, a beast crafted in the deepest pits of the underworld. Twice as tall as any man and lacking a soul of any capacity. It's a beast lost from the time of the Gods, the last of its kind clinging to its evil existence. No one to love, no one to care, and so it is driven purely by the only remaining emotion: hate.” He paused, nervously rubbing his hands over each other. “It has been plaguing my people ever since we arrived… The attacks were few and far between at first but… now it's as if the beast actively hunts us.”

Arktalaki took that in. So her people really were under the threat of a monster…

“Anyone who has tried to kill it has never returned,” Qambaq continued. “It's too fast… too brutal.”

“We can't just sit back and allow this demon to haunt us, my friend.”

“I know… but there is simply nothing we can do…” A small smile crept onto his face. He looked up at his Chieftess. “But perhaps… now that the Apple has sent you here…”

“I will do my best to help you bring this monster down, Qambaq, I promise. Do you know where it lives?”

He pointed towards a distant mountain. “There is a cavern it makes its lair,” he said. “That is where it drags its prey.”

“If we can't catch it out in the open, then that's where we'll have to go in order to kill it.”

“That will be a treacherous journey. There are many other great beasts that roam that way. Many of them are harmless on their own, but they won't take kindly to their homes being invaded.”

“I guess that's a risk we'll have to take in order to keep out people safe.”

Qambaq nodded. “Very well,” he said, standing from his seat. “I shall gather a group of my best hunters to escort us. But we shall give you time to heal first, my Chieftess.”

Arktalaki nodded. “Thank you my friend,” she said.

“No Arktalaki, thank you.” He smiled. “Now that you are here, we actually have hope.”

Description
June 20, 12973 BCE; Colombia

Her skins swayed in the hot breeze as she walked out onto the grasslands. She wiped the sweat from her brow as the sun beamed down on her when she exited the shade of the trees. This was the one thing she was never prepared for. Not the distance, not the beasts, not even the giant pits of tar that she had come across halfway through her journey. It was the heat.

To think, all her life she had spent her time bundled up in layers upon layers of furs and skins in a desperate attempt to push away the icy air and stay warm. Now, after her year-long journey south, she longed for even a whiff of that cool breeze.

Nonetheless, she persevered and carried on. These grasslands and the mountains that peaked in the distance looked identical to the ones she had ran through in her visions. If she wasn't at her destination, she was definitely close.

First though, she needed a rest. She had been walking since last night determined to clear as much distance as possible in the shortest amount of time. She had ridden her horse most of the way, but once they had come into contact with this abominable heat, it tragically passed on to the realm of the Spirits, leaving Arktalaki to make the rest of the way on foot.

Now she felt good about the progress she had made, the geography’s familiarity giving her a sense of comfort. She hoped she would come across some of her people, the blossoms of the seeds she had sent out from the ice all those years ago. She had run into a couple along the way, but most of her adventure had only granted her the company of beasts and flora. She was longing for some company.

But while she waited for another episode of human interaction, she decided to sit and rest. She scanned the grasslands until she spotted out a lone rock sitting in the faded green plain. She smiled. That would work just fine, she thought. She crossed the grasslands, pushing through the reeds until she found herself at the rock, and she immediately pushed herself onto it. She sighed as she laid on her back and closed her eyes for a moment, enjoying the rare chance to relax. It was a rather beautiful landscape, she thought, despite the heat. The rolling mountains and the lush green environments that stretched far beyond the horizon. It was a stark contrast to the land of ice that she was used to. She hoped that the tribesmen she had sent here found it enjoyable.

She almost ended up falling asleep, fatigue from walking finally catching up with her. But then her moment of bliss was interrupted, because of course it was. The thing that interrupted her though was hardly something she expected. The rock below her started shifting and wobbling, rising up a little bit. She panicked, jumping off before the think could knock her off and rolling to her feet. She spun around, eyes widening as she realized that what she was sitting on was not a rock at all, but some sort of massive armored beast. She gasped as it grunted and snorted in irritation, no doubt not very pleased at being used as a bed. Arktalaki quickly grabbed one of her spears. The creature stood up on it's stubby legs, lifting it's hulking body into full view. Arktalaki immediately cast her eyes towards its long tail, which was tipped with a massive spiked club that could be nothing but bad news.

And in fact, it wasn't. The creature grunted and, with surprising speed for a beast of its size and dimensions, spun around and swung that deathly tail weapon straight at Arktalaki. She jumped out of the way just in time to avoid a bad end to this lengthy walk of hers. She rolled back to her feet and got her spear ready. She ran around the beast, ducking below another tail swing, and as soon as she thought she had a good angle, she thrust her weapon forward into its side.

Only to have it immediately bounce off with only a scratch to show for it. She gasped, and the creature used her failed attack as an opening for another tail swing. Thankfully she was close enough to only get smacked by the side of it's tail instead of its spiked end, but it still resulted in a painful trip to the ground. She clutched her bruised chest and quickly ran out of range of another attack. She hoped her rib wasn't broken. She needed all the health she could afford if she had any hope of conditioning the screeching shadow demon.

She looked this grunting beast up and down, trying to find a weak point. But she saw none, which horrified her. How was she going to defeat this beast if she had no means of penetrating that armor?

She tried her best not to panic. The two circled around each other, the beast trying sloppily to land another blow that would break Arktalaki in half like a twig if it got the chance. She had to find its weak point. There had to be some soft-unarmored part to it.

She didn't get much chance to give it a good look though, as one of those careless swings ended up shoving her back to the ground in the same way as before. She clutched her side as she struggled back to her feet. She looked up, and gasped as she saw the thing raising its tail up for the killing blow. She didn't want to accept this was it. But in that split second she knew there was no way she could dodge it. She squinted her eyes tight as she heard it bellow one last time and…

“Push!”

Arktalaki opened her eyes when she suddenly heard human voices and the frantic moaning of the beast. She looked up, and she saw a group of hunters rushing up and pushing as hard as they could on the creature’s side until it tipped over, revealing it's soft hairy underbelly. It flailed and struggled until the hunters grabbed spears of their own and used them to send the beast back to the realm of the Spirits.

Arktalaki watched in awe as she struggled to sit up. One of the hunters came up and helped her to her feet. He smiled as he let her lean on his shoulder. “Do my eyes deceive me?” he laughed. “Has our Great Chieftess really come to our land?”

Arktalaki looked at him, offering up as much of a smile as she could in return. She recognized him. He was one of her good friends, one of the men she entrusted to lead an exploration team southward. They called him Qambaq, the great hunter.

“I have,” Arktalaki replied. “Though this beast would've cut my visit rather short if you had not arrived. Thank you, my friend.”

“Why have you come here, Arktalaki? How did you even find us?”

“Can we do the questions thing after we can get me a shaman to heal?”

Qambaq nodded. “Of course,” he said. “Once the hunters have gathered the meat and armor of the beast, we shall return to our settlement and get you help.”

“Thank you, Qambaq.”

“It is the least I can do for my favorite Chieftess.”

He helped her rest on a rock, a real rock this time, so that she didn't have to strain herself while she waited. Qambaq went to help his hunters gather up their bounty, and Arktalaki watched them. Despite the pain she was in, she felt rather happy. She was in the company of her people again, people she trusted and who cared about her. To her, that was more than enough to fill her with positive energy.

She had arrived at her destination, and it felt surprisingly good.

------------

Arktalaki took a sip of the herbal paste that the settlement’s shaman had prepared for her. It admittedly wasn't the best taste, but it definitely washed away the pain in her side, as well as all the aches she had acquired over the past year. A large number of the people had gathered to celebrate the arrival of their Great Chieftess, presenting her with gifts that she was almost too flattered to accept. It was a warm welcome, and she was glad for it.

Qambaq sat nearby where she was resting, clearly eager to catch up with his old friend.

“It truly is great to see you again, Arktalaki,” he told her, taking a drink of water. “But I am still very confused as to why. I imagine there must be a serious reason for you to traverse an entire continent on your own?”

Arktalaki lowered her head, quietly dreading this talk. “I received a vision,” she said, her voice lowered slightly. “The Apple showed me sights of the future, not that I asked for them. They showed myself in this place, arriving to confront… a great evil…”

Qambaq’s quiet listening suddenly turned into silent discomfort. “What kind of great evil?” he asked, as if he already knew the answer.

Arktalaki shook her head, not wanting to remember that terrible terrible noise that still rattled in her skull even to this day. “I don't know,” she said. “All I saw was this dark shadow, larger than life but unseeable because of how fast it moved through the grass. It was vicious murderer. It lurked in this dark crevice of death and decay, making this horrible… horrible shrieking noise that echoed through the stones and shook my very bones to the core. I saw it butchering your people here, and I could not stand for that. And so I travelled here to see how I could help.”

For a silent few moments that felt like hours, Qambaq sat with his head hung slightly as he struggled to think of what to say after Arktalaki’s explanation.

“We call it the Terror,” he said eventually, his lips dry with sincerity.

“The Terror?” Arktalaki asked.

He nodded. “A demon, a beast crafted in the deepest pits of the underworld. Twice as tall as any man and lacking a soul of any capacity. It's a beast lost from the time of the Gods, the last of its kind clinging to its evil existence. No one to love, no one to care, and so it is driven purely by the only remaining emotion: hate.” He paused, nervously rubbing his hands over each other. “It has been plaguing my people ever since we arrived… The attacks were few and far between at first but… now it's as if the beast actively hunts us.”

Arktalaki took that in. So her people really were under the threat of a monster…

“Anyone who has tried to kill it has never returned,” Qambaq continued. “It's too fast… too brutal.”

“We can't just sit back and allow this demon to haunt us, my friend.”

“I know… but there is simply nothing we can do…” A small smile crept onto his face. He looked up at his Chieftess. “But perhaps… now that the Apple has sent you here…”

“I will do my best to help you bring this monster down, Qambaq, I promise. Do you know where it lives?”

He pointed towards a distant mountain. “There is a cavern it makes its lair,” he said. “That is where it drags its prey.”

“If we can't catch it out in the open, then that's where we'll have to go in order to kill it.”

“That will be a treacherous journey. There are many other great beasts that roam that way. Many of them are harmless on their own, but they won't take kindly to their homes being invaded.”

“I guess that's a risk we'll have to take in order to keep out people safe.”

Qambaq nodded. “Very well,” he said, standing from his seat. “I shall gather a group of my best hunters to escort us. But we shall give you time to heal first, my Chieftess.”

Arktalaki nodded. “Thank you my friend,” she said.

“No Arktalaki, thank you.” He smiled. “Now that you are here, we actually have hope.”