The Nazbas

"ALELELELELEL!" Mythos cried

As he jumped through the top of the Feral forests he homed in on his pray. Jumping from tree to tree he extended out a rope from his hand that wrapped around each branch.

"Being a Feral is amazing!" Mythos screamed. "I can't imagine moving through the Jungle any other way!"

As he swung across a giant tree following an animal, a giant flower with lips and teeth grinned at him with malice.

"SHITT!!!" He said as he swung by

The giant flower bit down, trapping him in it's stomach, and nearly swallowing him whole. It gulped him down, pushing him down its throat.

"First focus your essence" Mythos said from inside the flower.

He began to channel his energy through his hand.

"Then allow it to flow past your fingertips!"

The energy flowed past his fingers expanding in a bright blue light from the flowers mouth.

"Then reach! Reach as if the energy is apart of you! Become the essence! Feel the flow of the stream of life! Then Finally! Release!"

A giant Blue spike penetrated through the flower tearing it to shreds. Mythos jumped through the flowers lips and continued tracking his target.

"Heh, guess I've learned alot in these four years" Mythos said.

Landing on a tree, Mythos closed his eyes, and pressed his hands into the bark of the thick branch he had landed on.

"Every being has essence..." Mythos said. "And that essence flows from place to place! If you connect your essence to the stream..."

Mythos's eyes began to glow as he saw a vision of his target in his mind. "You can connect your senses!"

Hoping up into the air he spotted his pray far in the distance.

"If I use a powerful spell he'll definitely sense it!" Mythos thought. "So... I'll use a small one instead!" Channeling his energy Mythos concentrated on the animals position.

"Air Magic! Great Current!"

A strong breeze blew Mythos towards his target carrying him over its head. As he began to close in, a tiny rabbit hopping around came into view.

"Gotcha!" Mythos said grabbing it by the head.

He skidded on the ground crashing into a group of plants. After gathering his prey he returned to camp to meet redface.

"Good Job Mythos" Redface said as he handed over the rabbit. "Over these last four years you have grown tremendously, Very good job with this Veporidae" He said patting it on the head.

He placed it on the ground letting it hop along.

"Why did you let it go!" Mythos screamed. "I worked so hard for that! What are we going to eat now?"

"We do not eat Veporidae! This is against our ways! How many times have I explained this to you Mythos!" Redface said shaking his head.

"Damnit" Mythos thought. "My human ways still haven't been washed out... I need to embrace the way of the ferals..."

Redface placed his hand on his head.

"You are smart, brilliant and and incredibly strong for your age! At this point you could probably become a Zalzi even!" Redface said.

"But you do not know our ways! It is very important to honor tradition Mythos, The tribe will not promote a hunter who is selfish or goes against our traditions! You need to understand that!" Redface said.

"I'm... sorry" Mythos said. "I still have much to learn about our culture...Please, train me become a powerful Zalzi"

"Power Power! That's all you ever talk about!" Redface said. " A Zalzi needs to be more than that! That is why I have brought you here!"

"What are you talking about!" Mythos said.

"Follow me" Redface said.

Redface brought Mythos to the edge of the forest to a place that looked no different than any other. As he sat down, he ordered Mythos to join him.

"Do you notice anything strange about this place?" Redface asked

"No.... Should I?" Mythos said.

"Try using your essence, follow the stream and show me where it leads."

Mythos closed his eyes and followed the trail of essence through the forest. He saw trees plants and animals, like he always had encircling all around him.

"I don't see-"

Suddenly there was a break in the essence, and then a continuation, it was as if an area of the forest was dark, or was absent, he used his senses again trying to find it, but yet again, he came into darkness.

"Wait a minute" Mythos said standing up.

Redface bowed his head looking away from Mythos.

Mythos swung through the trees until he came to that void in his search. As he landed on the top of a tree branch he looked on in horror.

"What... What is this!" Mythos screamed.

Down below where he had searched, their was an area of the forest that was complete;y black, dying and decaying. For miles and miles, a land of dark and dreadful presnce roamed further than the eye could see.

Inside the darkness Mythos could see shadows moving about, creeping closer and closer to the land he stood on. He watched on in fear as the dark place slowly took over the land he was standing on.

"It is called The Nazbas" Redface said. "It is a product of the human world."

"Human world?" Mythos said. "What does this have to do with them?"

"Do you remember when I first showed you my essence? There is a flow, essence flows from my body to my hand to the air to the plants correct?"

"Yeah what about it!"

"One day someone in the human world opened a void between our world and theirs allowing the flow of essence to cross over our worlds. This allowed humans to use essence for a process called Magic."

"Magic comes from here?" Mythos said.

"That's strange" Redface said. "I don't remember ever telling you about magic." He said eyeing Mythos down.

"Uhhh That boy Lihzin, he said Mythos, the man I am named after used magic!" Mythos explained.

"I see, well yes Magic comes from here, we ferals are unaware of how humans do it exactly and we have never done it ourselves... but it did not exist in the human realm until the opening of the void." Redface said.

"What does that have to do with the black land?" Mythos said.

"What happens when the flow of Essence isn't circular? What happens when it flows from one place into another? When our Essence is taken and used by the other world?"

Mythos's eyes flashed as he put it all together.

"There's now ay!" He thought. "We've been stealing the Feral's essence? That's why they invaded! I was not taught this!"

"The Essence is taken from our trees and land and then is used in the human world and instead of coming back, it becomes tainted, it seems things that pass through the void do not come out the same! This is why many of us have our skin changed when we pass through."

"I see... Mythos said "So your Redface..."

"Yes... it's from passing through the void gate too many times, I am at the point where it will not return back to normal."

Mythos looked down at his hands contemplating everything he had put the Ferals through. "This is my fault..." He thought. "I was the one who made magic available to everyone! I had no idea... I was killing the Feral world!"

As he spoke he saw another shadow jump across the black land.

"What are those shadows?" He said growing frightened.

"We Ferals have essence correct?" Redface answered

"Yeh..."

"When we die we go back into the soil and trees we came from right?"

"Yeh... what are you..."

Mythos's eyes grew wide as he realized what Redface was saying

"That's right" He said. "Inside that land is where we go, when we die across the void... My brothers and sisters are trapped to this day! This is why we have customs! this is why we have traditions! This is why we pray when we devour our animals! It's to prevent this from happening, this is why we cannot find peace with the humans, they must pay for what they have done! The have created a disease that will one day destroy my people!"

Mythos fell to the floor overwhelmed with sadness.

"Humanity..." He said falling to the floor. "Humanity caused this?"