There is great division amongst the mortals of Earth Realm. Tribes kill one another for supremacy of their kind, and gift themselves the land of another's ancestors. Gold, blood, spirit, and water have all driven them to separation, but as I step foot back in this treacherous realm, I realize it is not unlike Outworld.
As a deity in this realm, it is my duty to tend to my people, those that have named me Buluc. The Mayans would welcome me, and beg for my assistance against the tribes that have since attacked them during my absence. Though it is my duty, and my time here in Earth Realm must be spent amongst my people, there is a wolf that stalks the borders of the jungle and the plains. In that divide, between warring worlds will I find the answer to reuniting with Jade.
The air was dense, humid and stirred up by the rustle of the leaves beneath my bare feet as each step took me closer to the temples of my people. Men and women, all warriors, all Osh-Tekk if only to me, would await me with great celebration, sacrifice, and the filling of wombs.
The trail from the portal to the first temple was far, miles even, and these jungles were stalked by deadly creatures. Animals that would strike the big cat should they be given the opportunity. However, few creatures dared to tempt the big cat when, though it hunts alone, is followed by the spirits of those that worship it.
My feet carried over land, and land morphed into hills and the trees rose as the air lifted in temperance, built high over the land and sea. A stone pillar of earthen might would guide me to where I could find the village that had taken me in many, many Earth moons ago. There, on the flat stones that rose with steps to the gods above, my people would wait for me, they would see the sign of the deity of war returned to them.
The jungle pushed back, but my will was greater. Leaves, bark, jagged rocks and impasses nearly impossible for a mere mortal to traverse, all nothing for the Kahn of Outworld, and the deity of war, but as the last bush bent to my will, and the air swept its musk across my bared chest to cool the paint that had cracked between the lines that marred my very being, it was not the jungle that stopped me, but the sight beyond the horizon.
The Earth curved like a gentle arc, the trees folded like bushes and grass that ruffled like fur over this tender horizon, but beneath the hair, toward the dry skin of the world itself, the city I had once ruled, the stones I had once stepped, all were silent. No beacon lit at my presence overhead, no children screamed in the streets my name in fear and wonder, and no men beat their drums for battle.
The trek to this point had been too easy for me to reach, but the journey toward the ruins of a long lost city that I had once built was almost as hard as losing Jade. To my left and right, ahead and behind as I stepped through once beaten paths, the planet had reclaimed these stone monuments of a once great society.
What happened here?
The air was stale and there was an ominous wind that swept into the once lush streets, now graves of memories. It touched each stone, each doorway, each pillar to ensure no life remained, not even spirits. As it passed through me, I could feel its teeth, its hatred, it's pure dark energy. Quickly, my chest caved in on itself and my knees buckled. It would not break me, not Buluc, not Kotal Kahn!
It gnawed on my flesh and dug into the ground, but it as the people that once thrived here, was carried away on the winds of time.
Perhaps the answers to the death of the Mayans and the resurrection of my heart can only lie on the wind that climbed the mountains north toward the dry plains where the lone wolf waits.
Unable to stay, even for a night, my feet carried me forward. There would be no rest, no celebration, no blood spilled and no life left here. The big cat knows when danger is near, and will travel even beyond its territory to find safety until the great storm has passed. Still, the trek north is not without uncertainty of its own. It is something to state that Kotal Kahn had become a god among mortal men, but that is to say I have only seen these lands, and never stepped foot beyond it.
The Earth curved, not just along its horizon, but bent by water as well. The trail along the sea was long and unknown by me at its most northern point. The ground stretched outward to form jagged mountains that claimed much of the land and scarred the planet itself. Beyond these mountains, west of the river that split out into the plains I would find the wolf.
Much as the big cat knows when another predator is near, so can the wolf. It guards the border of its land from the big cats in the jungle that threaten to cross and feed on the land the wolf had carved so carefully. The whispers of its ancestors carried up over the mountains and down through the rivers until the ears of the wolf would be warned of my arrival. Of the big cat that sought the lone wolf.
When we finally meet, I will find the answers, or I will find ruin.