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Creatures of Ages Past
Balor
Hearing something coming down to the river, Balor turned and saw a creature he had seen many times before. The people of Second Earth had called it "Gastornis" and thought it long extinct. Never would they have imagined that such creatures still thrived in lost worlds and in a world at the earth's core. It was a bird, but not what one of Third Earth would have thought of as a bird, though the Birds still acknowledged kinship with it just as the people of Second Earth had acknowledged a kinship with the apes and monkeys.
Zynatzag was what the bird was now known as and Balor had seen some of his people use the feathers of this avian upon their attire. He couldn't quite understand it, but then again women and girls had the preference for such things a majority of the time, though occasionally men would make use of such things. He had no understanding of fashion a simple loincloth was good enough for him.
Watching as the Zynatzag drank from the river, Balor wondered if the creature could have seen Brigid… But if that was the case, how was Balor to know? He couldn't understand the language of wildlife and yet… It was worth trying.
Walking over to the six foot and seven-inch-tall flightless bird, the Boy Shaman placed a hand upon the leg of the bird, hoping he wouldn't regret it. The Zynatzag stared at him and Balor hitched up his shoulders and his stomach began to feel as if it had vanished from his body. Would the avian attack him?
The Zynatzag turned its head in the direction it had come and Balor believed that the avian understood and knew where Brigid was.
Brigid
Her eyes wide and mouth hanging open, Brigid stared at her double. A place where she could be hailed as the Evabon Princess… Smiling with a stary look in her ruby eyes, the Little Beauty began to think of how wonderful that would be and yet… Did she truly want to be? To be away from the places she called home: Wilusa, the Wilderness, the Valley of the Tombs… To be away from her friends, her family… To be away from Balor, her dearest friend in all the world, her arranged fiancée, the one she loved…
"I can't." Brigid said, staring into the eyes of her very twin. "I can't and I won't."
A sound coming to her ears, Brigid turned her head and saw some of what her people called "Daoine Moncai". "Daoine Moncai" was a blanket term applied to many a strange beast, humanoid, yet at the same time different. They were like the monkeys that had come with the animals from the stars and yet, at the same time not.
The specific creatures Brigid saw were known to the people of Second Earth as "Australopithecus", a bipedal ape standing four feet and seven inches at the most. There were two of them, both staring at her.
"If that is your desire, then I take my leave of you." Her Double uttered. "With this fine new dress and adorable veil of course, and my friends here can do with you as they wish… Oh, and I think I'll take your memory of having ever known how to swim. Perfectly random, but it suits me fine."
Brigid watched as her double walked away into the Wilderness, before fading away like a phantom. She then turned her gaze on the approaching Daoine Moncai, both approaching her menacingly with broken tree branches in hand, grunting fearsomely. Thankfully, Brigid had not been so overcome with terror that she was unable to flee, but alas, would she had been faster before one of the two Australopithecus had grabbed her by the arm.
NOTE
The idea of prehistoric animals returning is taken from "Cadillacs and Dinosaurs", a show from my childhood which has become an additional inspiration for the Evabon's earth in my own independent story. The featuring of Gastornis and Australopithecus here may set the stage for a possible later story featuring a prehistoric type of lion with Lion-O acknowledging a kinship with the creature.
