Bashira Eclipse 2

While quickly turning away, Bashira hears an earie hissing behind her, out of the darkness where she was a minute ago. Whatever that is, she neither wants nor needs to know more about it, she’s sure about that and Cirith seems to agree. She nods towards the spotted female and smiles knowingly.

«It’s what I told you before, after we killed those birds that attacked us. Some creatures just turn mad lately and we don’t know why. But we’re trying hard to find out. I’m sure Kydos has a plan and everything has a reason.»

Bashira likes the other Kumba, but feels like she’s hiding something from her. Still, she won’t question that for now and just accepts what she’s told. Any information, be it only part of the truth, will help her see the bigger picture after all.

They keep walking through dark tunnels and Bashira isn’t sure if they’re still in the gigantic elephant skull or already in some cave. Cirith confidently leads the way, but slows her pace down to adjust to the newcomer.

Then, the spotted one can make out some dim lights at the end of the cave.

«You’ll get the honor of meeting the speaker now. I’m sure I won’t have to remind you of this but please, be respectful and only talk when you’re asked something. I like you and don’t want you to get into trouble, you know?»

Bashiras fight or flight instinct rises up all of a sudden, but as usual, she chooses the fight option and decides to step forward. The other Saliko looks at her curiously, but with hope in her eyes.

This rockdweller tribe is not too bad for Bashira as she seems to be akin with the local tribemembers. So she wants to try her best to adapt to their culture and behaviour and leave a good impression.

They reach the lights and the female makes out a big throne on the other side of the cave, comprised of a huge pile of bones. The white color of those bones seems to shine in the dark area and makes whatever or whoever’s on top of that throne immediately seem more powerful. And the thing on top of the pile is a giant boar. Bigger than any she had ever seen, even bigger than a Tundra Saliko. Its long, grey fur showed that this creature was pretty old and therefore presumably very wise too. Bashira couldn’t stop wondering what it had seen and how long it had been here. It’s not like boars lived in the desert normally. Maybe this creature knows something about dawn and can help her on her quest.

Drom the corner of her eyes, the newcomer sees Cirith bow down next to her and immediately follows put. She stays bowed down until the boar tells her to get back up and the other female looks satisfied.

The voice of the creature seemed to echo not only though all of the area, but also through the Salikos body. Like it could read the history of her life like that. It has a calm, but thundering voice and for some reason Bashira feels like this boar could be an almost godly creature.

The beast talks to Cirith and asks her whom she brought with her this time.

This time? What’s that supposed to mean? How many have been here before? Was everyone of those before her looking for dawn as well? Snd where were they now?

All those questions rush through the spotted ones head but she keeps quiet.

After the other Kumba explained, the newcomer get’s studied by the mighty creature, which then starts talking about some kind of ritual. Since Bashira does not believe in supernatural things or rituals, she has to keep herself from starting to chuckle and instead concentrates on reflecting Ciriths reactions.

The boar never directly talks to the stranger, but instead pretends like she can’t hear him or like she’s only some kind of object. This puzzles her and makes her a bit angry, but she thinks that maybe she’d have to earn her right to speak to higher ranked tribe members, which was not unusual.

They get sent away to ‘the caves’ and Cirith, softly nudging Bashira onward with her tail, walks into a new tunnel on the right side of the room. The other female follows and once they get far enough away from the boar, she dares to speak again.

«What was that all about?»

«You did very well, I’m proud of you! Tomorrow we’ll see what we’re gonna do about your journey.»

«Okay, but what did he mean with ‘ritual’ and why didn’t he talk to me at all?»

«I’m afraid I don’t have the authority to tell you that. But I’m sure you’ll find your answers soon enough.»

Bashira becomes more and more worried about this place, but she trusts the other one and believes Kydos will protect her.

They reach some small alcoves that are used as sleeping dens for the Kumbas and Cirith shows her the one Bashira gets for the night. It’s padded with feathers and grass and when she lies down, the one that travelled from afar notices how tired she actually is.

«I’ll send someone to watch over you if you need anything during the night. These tunnels can be pretty confusing and we don’t want you to get lost.»

«Alright. But can you stay here for a little while? I wanna know more about your tribe.»

Cirith looks surprised. It seems like no stranger before has requested that of her and she proudly makes herself look a bit bigger and licks her chest fur.

«I’d be very glad to tell you more about our rich history.»

They talk for a while until Bashiras eyes keep shutting again and again. Even then, despite the other female noticing how tired the newcomer was, she kept talking, staying by her side until she actually fell asleep and didn’t wake up.

After some time a tall, strong, male Kumba walks past them and she tells him to keep watch over her. What the spotted one didn’t hear is that she commanded him to not ever let her leave the alcove. And if she’d try, he could do what needed to be done to stop her. In her sleep, Bashira hears faint cries of other Salikos. It’s unclear if they’re only in her dream or in reality, but when she wakes up she doesn’t remember that anymore.

What she does remember is dreaming about the boar. It was sitting on the throne, blue glowing symbols on the bones and walls around it. Its eyes opened up and gleamed blue too and it spoke to her, but she couldn’t make out the words. Its voice seemed both sinister and comforting at the same time though and lulled her deeper to sleep. Then she saw a vision of birds flying overhead and they started to attack her but didn’t dare to touch the boar. Does that mean something? Did Kydos send her some sort of message? The last thing she remembers dreaming about are the empty eyes of a bunch of Salikos, all seemingly blind. Bashira had never seen a blind Saliko before, so she didn’t quite know what to do with that information.

After laying awake but with closed eyes for what seemed like an eternity, thinking about the night, Bashira decides to get up. As she yawns and stretches, she notices the strange male close by but doesn’t start to talk to him. Instead, he speaks but doesn’t look at her.

«Good to see you’re awake now. Cirith was here a while ago but decided to let you sleep. She’ll be back soon, but until then you’ll have to stay here.»

The female is a bit confused by that but silently waits. It takes a lot of control of her to stay so patiently and polite as she’s usually very bold and loud, but she knows this is important.

When Cirith comes back they both leave together and the other one asks her how she slept. Bashira isn’t sure if Cirith might have seen her move around during the night, but says she slept well and dreamless and the other one accepts that reply without question.

This whole place is weird and Bashira is completely unclear what’s gonna happen, but she’s in too deep and set her mind on finding dawn, no matter what. But in the distance, somewhere in the complex net of tunnels, she can hear Salikos calling for help.