Tonight in the Jabari Mountains, it snows. These mountains happen to be on the right side of a rain shadow.
In Jabari Village, there are trading posts. And essentially, there are outfitters.
Alex Wilder can't seem to get away. He's too busy going gaga over all of the vibranium-based tech that the outfitter has on sale. There are a LOT of outfitters, back in the NAU, who'd pay more than a shiny bar of bullion for some of this. OTOH, those outfitters are a bit conservative, so they probably wouldn't...
But then, from what Alex has heard, they're a bit more socialist in New Mexico and Colorado... Alas, the mountains aren't as tall there as they are in Wyoming, Montana, or Idaho... Not that Alex would know. He's more of a beach guy, himself... Or rather, he WOULD be more of a beach guy, if he looked better in a speedo...
It takes a while...but the outfitter FINALLY gets him outfitted. He's much bulkier, now. Alas, he probably won't get up a sole mountain slope, with his pack still on.
The people here seem distant, to Alex, for some reason... He can't imagine why... But then, Alex also has NO idea who their tribal leader is...as much as he only thinks he wants to...
Alex takes a ski lift up into the mountains. Or rather, it only works and looks like a ski lift. Most people who use it don't necessarily go skiing. They just need a quick and easy way up into the mountains. And Wakandan tech, naturally, is all about "quick and easy." Hell, hover-taxis are a real thing, here.
Now in the alpine wild, Alex roams around, in snowshoes. Around him, the snow keeps falling. At least it's not coming down too hard.
High above, the dark grey sky looks sepulchral. It'll be pitch black soon.
Somehow, Alex finds his way to a spot under a sheltered rock. Once there, he stocks his smartphone with some vibranium-based batteries, and video-chats with his new wife.
It's Liz Toomes. (She's Liz Wilder now, naturally.) She waves her ringed hand back at Alex, and blows him a kiss.
"I wish you'd just come home," she says to him. "I've been missing you here."
"We've talked about this, Liz. This means a lot to me."
"I know, but..." She looks around. "It's not easy being the girl whose father is a supervillain who tried to rob the Avengers in midair."
"I imagine not. I really like your dad, BTW. He seems like an interesting guy."
"Yeah, well, don't fall TOO much in love. His lawyer struck out at his most recent parole hearing."
"Look, I'll be back as soon as I've found what's here. You know I love you, Liz. I just need a life away from..."
"I get it." She shrugs. "It can't be all paint and pillows ALL the time, right? We'd both take it for granted. Anyway, the Seahawks are playing tonight, and the neighbors are having a party."
Alex laughs. "Okay. Just don't get too drunk. I'd hate to come home, and find divorce papers in the mailbox, and locks on the front door that don't match my keys."
"You know me, Alex. I never get drunk. In fact, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be half as secure about marrying me if you thought I got drunk easily."
"You'd be surprised. I suck at relationships. That's why I don't analyze them; ours especially not. Anyway, I gotta go. The weather's getting worse. If you do go to the Seahawks party, though, you've my permission to drink a few cold Coors beers, in my stead."
She laughs. "Okay, Alex the Explorer." She kisses her hand, and shows him her half-Toomes, half-black palm. "See you later." With that, the screen goes blank.
Alex smiles, shakes his head, hangs up, and keeps hiking...
In some of the rifts between peaks, it gets darker. And it gets spookier, as some of these paths lead down into darker and darker chasms...
Spontaneously, atop a bluff, a portal opens. Mystical shadow seems to lurk, and whisper, within it...
From it, a magical creature emerges. It looks like a unicorn...only with two horns, in lieu of one. I know what you're thinking, if you've seen Really Wild Animals; "it's an Arabian oryx, not an actual unicorn." But first of all, Arabia's nowhere near here. Second of all, Arabian oryxes can't do magic.
The bicorn looks around...and shape-shifts into a goat, for convenience. In this shape, she descends down a slope...
In a cave below, a pack of white wolves sleep. A lone alpha sleeps in the center, surrounded by his many pack females. He seems happy.
As his females sleep, they seem a bit abused... But then, polygamy can be hard on any animal, regardless of species...
The bicorn arrives. She stops, and smells the air within the cave. Sadly, this little family of ancient Egyptians forgot to paint their doorways with lamb's blood last night...
Except this time, it won't be their firstborn child they'll lose as a consequence...
The alpha snorts, and wakes himself up. He sees a shadow in the cave opening, and lifts his head.
From the opening, he watches the bicorn's eyes, as they glow with eerie light. The alpha barely gets a chance to bark an alarm...before he starts whimpering, as he senses his doom is now inevitable...
Like sparks flying, some of the females wake, in the night. They look around. Their man is missing. And there are bicorn tracks in the snow, leading both to and away from the cave opening...
Up the canyons, there's a tent pitched. Light snow falls around it. A light shines, from within it. The silhouette of Alex's shadow is cast against the tent walls...
With a small table set up, Alex pulls up a laptop computer. He's got it hooked to a power generator.
He pulls up the software for his diary, and starts typing in the most recent entry, which makes itself available to him by default. He types away...and smiles several times, when he does...
Outside, a magical creature with bad vision approaches. She lays eyes on Alex's tent. She sees it...and she sees Alex's shadow...as small-bodied as Alex still is. She licks her chops, and circles the tent...
Inside, Alex still types. He's oblivious to the wedding ring on his hand...or the dangers that lurk in the Jabari Mountains...or the dangers that wouldn't lurk there, if not for certain loopholes in reality that usually aren't there to allow very dangerous magical creatures to just wander in from a certain bicorn colony in the Hebrides, all the way to Wakanda...
Outside, a twig snaps. Alex freezes. That was WAY too close... He saves his progress on his diary entry, closes the laptop, takes up a pair of nunchuks, and creeps outside...
He doesn't make it very far, before he bumps into something. He looks down, and has a startled reaction.
It's the bicorn. She's standing half as high as him, and looking right up at him...with seductive eyes.
"Hi, little girl," Alex looks down at her, smiling. "Are you hungry?"
And then, it happens. And the bicorn watches, through her half-drunk vision, as Alex's expression gradually changes from an amused one, to a screaming and panicking one. He screams like a little African girl, before it all ends for him.
Like a bezoar, Alex's wedding ring falls into the snow, now-ownerless. Licking her chops, the bicorn wanders down another mountain path. She senses that there are PLENTY of married men in Wakanda that need devouring...
On the desk in Alex's now-abandoned tent, his smartphone rings. They'll keep calling him...but he'll never answer.