Birds fly out of the harsh dense treetops of a woodland area as a loud horn sounds. In the dense trees next to the river, the tribal villagers scramble to their wood and stone homes as the ground shakes. A roar from an unknown creature is heard. People push past a young boy. He's standing there oblivious to the up rise in panic. The young boy holds his hand out, a bright red and green leaf in his hand. A gliding lizard lands on his hand and crawls up his arm chewing on the leaf. The boy laughs and pets the lizard with his finger. The hurried sound of footsteps are heard when next to him a hardened young man kneels down. His voice very strong and commanding.
"Xen, are you OK?" the young man asks.
"Yeah, why?" Xen asks curiously, his voice is playful. Xen looks around and sees everyone running around. "What's going on?"
"Didn't you hear the horn? Stay right here." He demands patting his shoulder harshly, "I will be right back."
"OK Shu!" He says giggling trying to keep the lizard from crawling on his head.
Shu steps up to a small gathering of the village elders.
"Oh, there you are Shu. We were just talking about you." The shaky old voice from the village chief perks up. His eyes heavy, he looks to Shu. "We know you have some kind of plan! Are you taken Xen with you this time?"
Shu angrily interjects. "No, he's not ready." He gets defensive with a furrowed brow.
The village elders laugh, "You would be surprised!" One says in the huddled group. "Look how much you've grown since that age." Another remarks playfully. "We've all come a long way..."
"This isn't some kind of game!" Shu says, touching the scar on his arm. He rubs his shoulder. "Xen is still too naive." He glances over his shoulder and sees Xen with the lizard and now a giant blue flying horned beetle. "He doesn't understand the kind of danger these creatures contain."
The horn sounds again but closer now.
"OK Shu, what's the plan?" The village elders ask with urgency.
Shu nods and they discuss actions to take if the city is breached. Xen is keeping a watchful eye on Shu and in that instant he rolls into the bushes nearby.
After explaining the next steps to take Shu looks up and notices Xen isn't there, but at this point he has to hope he will fend for himself in the village walls. He has everyone's lives to think about.
Xen also begins to run, after seeing Shu was distracted he was able to sneak away. Xen begins running to a small ruined house. The lizard jumping and gliding keeping up with him. Slowly trailing behind is the big blue beetle.
Shu begins to run towards a large tower on the towns outer walls, two young warriors following him trying to keep up with him. A chubby warrior slowly trailing behind.
Xen jumps through a bush and does a sloppy roll. He gets up and dusts himself off. The lizard landing on his shoulder and the horned beetle hovering over him. He stands in front of a large ruined temple with old faded paintings. The paintings show humans with large creatures.
Shu jumps over a wooden fence and does a stylish roll hopping up to his feet and doing a running jump over a wall. He begins to enter a massive building with large spikes and large monster bones.
Xen enters the ruins casually. He directs the lizard to the wall. It glides to the wall and disturbs a string mushrooms. The mushrooms are very large and damp. The sound of rushing water can be heard as the trickling of water can be seen dripping through the wall and onto the mushrooms. The mushrooms shake releasing a small cloud and as the spores spread a light blue hue illuminates a path down a long dark hallway. The mushrooms glow with a light blue intensity allowing Xen to see the way.
Xen cheerfully hops and skips down the hallway walking past imagery on the walls. The pictures depict a time from so long ago. Crude pictures of humans interacting with a large variety of beast ranging from small to insanely huge. The mural is some what of a scale and as Xen nears the end of the wall it shows a large beach with a large creature as if to guard the shore. The creature has a colorful set of feathers. Off in the distance in the ocean is a massive white and blue water dragon. Only a portion of it is displayed due to the massiveness of it. It's half covered in the ocean.
Xen meanders past and gets settled into his little hide out. He walks into this large room. It's the epicenter of a large temple. The cathedral style has an open roof, but plants and earth have covered up most of it, letting only some spots of natural light in. The bright leaves of a vined plant bares a fruit. Xen picks the fruit and collects the bright colored leaves from it. Xen gets comfortable on a hammock made from an old flag. He eats the interestingly shaped fruit and lays the leaves on his belly. The lizard and the beetle climb to him snacking on the colorful leaves.
Shu enters the warriors guild catching his breath as he walks past a long row of monster trophies. All types of monster bones on display from jawbones to horns and even claws. Shu grabs a spear that is fashioned with a large colorful feather. The hunters guild opens up from that large hallway to a staging area outside the village. Shu and other warriors are gearing up to go on a scouting mission to see what the alarms were sounding for. A handful of hardened villagers are selected as Shu readies a party to move out. They follow the river up a large cliff face as a way to see over the forest of trees. The high ground has always been the starting point to every mission. It allows them to see creatures before they decide to fight. They live deep in the forest because it acts as a buffer from most creatures. They do not go near the riverbed where the village stays. The river leads to the ocean and the village is next to a beach.
Shu looks over the horizon to see if there's anything. A roar is heard. Shu's eyes widen. The image in his eyes show a younger version of himself. He flashes back in his mind. The same roar is heard again. He is breathing heavily as he's frantically looking around. "What do I do? What do I do?" He says to himself under his breath as he's standing there holding a spear. A piercing scowl of a large creature is heard. It filled him with fear. It sounds like a bear and a cougar. The slam of a giant gray monster claw next to him. The thick leg crushing a wood and stone house next to him with little effort. He is brought to his knees by the tremors. He looks at his hands. They are scratched and bloody. Tears flowing from his eyes. He begins to yell.
"XEN!? Where are you?" He gets up and starts to run.
Above him is the belly of a massive creature. The scales were gray and through the smoke he couldn't make out exactly what it is. All he knew is that it was huge. Screams can be heard as smoke billows to the sky. The sound of cracking wood and toppling stone shake through Shu. He scans the area to see if there is any indication of where Xen is.
Down an alleyway between two buildings Shu spots a swaddled child. Wrapped tightly in a flag of the tribes colors he lays crying. A small baby unable to fend for himself. Shu begins to run to him.
The massive gray monster's feet clashing with the surroundings. An unknown creature lets out a growl that stops him dead in his tracks. He looks up at the rooftops and sees the bright glaring eyes of a monster through the smoke. Above that was the massive claw of the gray scaled beast. The massive trunk of a leg was coming down.
Shu started to run and that triggered the eyes in the smoke to slant angrily. His gestures triggered the monster to chase. Through the smoke the creature jumped. It's dark fur and bright feathers around its neck flowing. The massive claw of the scaled dragon comes crashing down. The feathered monster swipes it's claw at Shu, connecting with his shoulder and causing him to be flung against a wall. The wind is knocked out of him. He can't catch his breath as the massive gray claw crushes the building between him and Xen.
Shu looks up and tries to stand holding his spear defensively. The beast no where to be seen. Shu's shoulder is ripped and torn deep. His blood dripping down his arm. He stumbles to his feet propping himself up. The massive gray scaled monster is gone, all that is left is the ruins of the village. He hears the crashing of the waves near by. It was unreal how quickly things had transpired.
He looks around and grabs his spear, using it as a walking stick to look for Xen. The smoke clouds break and sunlight shines through. The light points to a small bit of rubble where a village colored flag sits. Shu hurries to the flag and sees Xen there holding a bright colorful feather cooing happily. Shu checks him for injuries and holds him close.
Shu blinks and instantly knows what he's facing. He shakes off the memory and touches his scar. He rotates his shoulder to remind himself it still works. He scans the edge of the trees looking for any sign of movement. If this monster shows up it could be another catastrophic event.
Xen hears the the what he discerns to be a roar but thinks nothing of it. The lizard gets frightened. Causing a bit of a disturbance with the beetle. The beetle begins to fly away. Xen, enamored with his new beetle friend tries calling him back with clicks from his mouth.
"Tsk tsk." Xen motions towards himself.
The beetle flies and hits against a wall. It's tough shell absorbing the impact. It lands on the wall, using his large horn to create a hole. The beetle crawls through it. Xen follows and is curious about this hole he's never seen before. He looks through it with one big eye. It's too dark to see anything. He begins to unearth this new pathway and as the dust settles he hears the soft growl of a creature.
The growl sounds playful and it tries to roar. Xen slowly peers around the corner. On his shoulder the lizard is also peering over the corner, scared. Xen see's in this small room an old bird nest and in it crawls the beetle.
Xen looks around the room as he slowly walks to the center of it. The room is small and above the nest is an opening in the rough that leads outside. Vines come through the hole in the ceiling and down through the nest. In the room a small little flow of water travels from the river near by. He sees the bright leaves of the fruit that grows on the vine. The threads of vines come through this area as well. On the floor next to the nest are pits from the fruit. The colorful leaves scattered around.
He slowly walks to the nest. The beetles wings can be heard fluttering. Xen's eyes slowly look over into the nest. The beetle is wrestling with a small little catlike cub. The cub is pawing at the beetle. It's hard shell defending it against the cubs claws. The paws of the creature are large and fuzzy. When the paw is raised the claws expand out, on display are these very intense looking razor sharp talons. The lizard instinctively jumps into the nest between, protecting the beetle. The cub retreats into a defensive position. The cubs ears are folded back. It's eyes show remorse.
Xen extends his hand out to touch the cub. It closes it's eyes and growls. Xen doesn't rear back. He keeps moving his hand slowly towards it. Xen's eyes focused on the cub. His hand hovers above the cubs head. For a moment that seems like an eternity Xen holds his hand there. Xen begins to feel nervous. The cub looks up at Xen. The cub moves it's head to his hand and begins to purr. The cub wraps it's large paws around Xens hand and begins to rub it's chin and cheeks over his hand. Xen pets the cub gently with his other hand.
Rubbing it's soft fur Xen notices around it's neck these even more beautiful small feathers. The cub is extremely friendly and enjoys the attention Xen gives to him. Xen begins trying to teach it how to sit, using the clicks. With Xen issuing commands the lizard begins doing the same commands. Xen using hand gestures and clicks easily tames the cub, the cub following the lizards lead. Xen and the cub become bonded.
Xen, thirsty at this point goes to the little flowing river. The clear blue water coursing by, he cups the water in his hands as he takes a drink. He offers some to the lizard, and to the cub. They drink from his hand. The beetle on Xen's shoulder rotating a leaf in it's mandibles.
A bellowing roar is heard off in the distance. The cubs ears perk up and it beings to cry repeatedly. It's frantically looking up through the hole in the ceiling. Xen curiously climbs up the vines with the cub following behind. Xen looks over the ridge into the distance.
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