Night was long in the Secret Lands. Long, dark, and brutal. It
came strong, and it came quick. The day creatures all but
disappeared, knowing full well that the denizens of darkness
would feast merrily upon their flesh. The birds flew up above the
canopy, the rodents dove beneath loose hills. Small lizards
crawled into the knotholes of the jungle's tall trees, and even
the mighty rhinoceros sought refuge within the dense foliage. Not
even the insects dared to march on through the night, quickly
scattering to their respective homes to hunker down and wet for
sunrise. Truly, all day creatures took to the shadows at night,
each with the knowledge that they may never again see light.
Young Brrda was no exception.
Before he was the Savage Savior, Brrda was but a child wrapped
tight in his mother's arms. His father, Orrda, pushed thick stone
slates to cover the sight-holes and entrance. These stones were
important on most nights when Orrda remained awake for many hours
studying the language of their ancestors by the light of captured
glow bugs. Light which could attract undesired attention.
"Why does it matter?" Brrda's mother asked as she held her son to
her milking breast. "You put us in danger to look at those
drawings, Orrda. Cover the glows and sleep."
"I have to," Orrda replied. "I have to know what these mean.
Something happened, Kal. Something that took this language away
from us. Something that took most of our people away from us.
Something like what happened when we were young..."
Kal pulled Brrda away as she lurched onto her feet. Her eyes were
hard, her jaw was tight. "This obsession of yours has already
lost us my brother. I've had enough of this from you, and now you
put our son at risk-"
"Don't you see?" Orrda turned away from the clay tablets then. "I
do this for him. Whatever came for our ancestors, whatever came
for us, it will come back for him. And it will come for the rest
of the jungle. How can I be expected to stop it if I don't even
know what it is?"
"You will stop it," she said sternly, "because you are a man."
Orrda looked his mate, looked deep into her eyes. Brrda watched
from the darkest corner of the room, tears building in his eyes.
"Your father was a man, my father was a man, our uncles were men,
our cousins were men, our neighbors were men, our warriors were
men. Now they are dust. Men alone cannot accomplish all things."
Kal scoffed, then snorted, then spat on Orrda's toes. "You're a
There was a crack as Kal's fist lunged forward, pressing into
Orrda's jaw. The man tumbled back, falling into the structure
which held the tablets and spilling them to the ground. Brrda
hugged himself as his mother's shadow loomed over his father, her
shoulders rising and falling with each panting breath.
"You are a coward," she said again, her voice rising. "You are a
coward, and you are weak, and you family will die because of it.
Your son will die because of it." Her voice broke into a yell.
"You're pathetic. Reading words you could never hope to
understand. Wasting your time, risking our lives. And you have
the gall to insult my father? You are nothing but a lowly worm!"
Kal's foot crashed through one of the tablets. Its shards shot in
all directions, one bouncing softly off Brrda's foot. He pulled
it back, sobbed quietly. Then stopped. There was a sound, like
wind moving the branches. Instantly his eyes snapped to his
father's. There was a frightened look in them that said: "I heard
His mother carried on berating Orrda, stomping the tablets into
dust. Stomp. Stomp. Stomp. SMASH! A black tendril shut through
the floor, coiling tight around Kal's ankle. She screamed and
dove for the tendril, but another snapped up and twisted tight on
her wrist. Brrda pushed back against the wall, kicking his feet
desperately against the floor.
Orrda moved fast, grasping a tendril in his strong fist. He
squeezed, crushing it into a mess of purple and black gel. There
was an ear-splitting shriek which caused the stick shack to
tremble. Four more tendrils burst up through the floor, these
ones thicker than the others. They flailed wildly, roping and
reaching for anything to pull into the darkness. Kal gave one
final shout before she was ripped away into the darkness.
One of the large tendrils slapped over Brrda's body. It was wet
and slimy, like a fish. Before the young savage could utter a
word, the tendril had twisted itself around him. He looked up,
tears clouding his eyes, and reached for his father, but their
hands missed as he was ripped through the floor and sent spinning
through a mass of writhing darkness.
Spinning, tumbling, tossed and turned by thousands of squirming
tentacles. And then at once the jungle darkness opened into a
brilliant, grotesque yellow which peered at Brrda hungrily. There
was a sick splashing as the eye blinked. A roar reached across
the land as the creature's beak spread open. And then-
Brrda rolled to the floor, his head drowning in pain as it landed
with a heavy thump. He darted up, breathing in a frenzy. Retsis
snapped up from her slumber, staring at her master intently and
scanning the darkness around them.
The dream faded. Brrda wiped the sweat from his back and looked
around, remembering where he was. His bandaged wounds burned
slightly, urging him back to rest. And after a moment of
hesitation, he did as they asked, returning the soft cushions and
remembering what it was like to be cradled in her arms.