[ SPECIAL: Feathered Serpent of the End…! ]
The blackened, volcanic sheet of land that guarded the islands granted them their namesake. Behind it was more of an archipelago.
One rife with fauna that would otherwise bring cities to ruin with a leisurely stroll. Where momentarily hurricanes from the winged ones' flights were commonplace. Where footsteps rocked the earth, and the ones beneath split it outright. Where gleaming eyes in the dead of night were brighter than the moon itself.
Growths were as alive as they were infallible by only the toughest of claws. Deserts devoured ponds' worth of moisture in minutes. The sea roared and moaned endlessly, butchering shores with its wrath and only quelled by the flat-headed plateaus that cleaved through the clouds like sentinels. Islands moved and shattered in disputes, only for the volcanic will of the stretch to replace them in colossal storms. Forests trapped spirits, and spirits trapped rage to release onto the living.
Above them all, mythic beasts that shaped and embodied the forces of nature, and for some, the mystic cosmos from which they emerged from. Even the largest of creatures revered them as the isles' gods.
Wisdom was a trait hoarded by the strongest. And the strongest knew but one meaning to "wisdom":
Knowing that the strongest hold all right.
By no means should the pack-hunting lesser primates have been able to advance in such treacherous lands — only by pure, ever broken, reforged, and strengthened way of spirit had they managed to survive at all.
So with that same spirit, they created means of their own.
In one great moment of anger, one of no spectacular name or standing ignited their spirit. It ascended past their body and, lighting them ablaze, granted them the strength to pierce a mighty megafauna. By way of inherited teachings alone does that warrior still exist, as the earth swallowed their vacant body in time.
This sudden, magnificent burst of sheer willpower was granted a name by those after it — Tlatla. A fire breaking out from the pit of the soul and spreading past the body, transcending the boundaries of the flesh with a ceaseless energy.
Very soon, there was a shift. Those lesser primates began to advance. Awareness of the inner flame was proliferated amongst them, and was honed continuously through trial and error, countless losses and sparse, quintessential victories. Awareness of the primates' growth spread like wildfire — if not by means of word, then through bearing personal witness. Lesser beings were taking power into their own hands. As such, the wisdom of the Stretch came into play.
The primates that'd earned the right of a distinct name – Humans – became the enemy of the strongest. Wisdom, power, and numbers, they held all three in their dexterous hands.
Weapons became forged en masse from the obsidians once only salvageable as collateral from the megafauna's destructive battles. Spears and their launchers, both serrated and smooth-bladed clubs, and strange instruments beckoning forth long-angered spirits with plane-transcending calls, among other weapons, were enhanced by the inner flame's kindling. Beasts that would've taken 20 humans to drive off now required five to slay. And the humans had long-been allowed ample time to populate as an additional prey animal. With black forge and a newfound strength, the humans established themselves as a contender.
But in turn, they had taught the creatures of the islands the strength that lay beneath the flesh. Though many greater beasts were complacent with their standing and sought merely to wipe them out as anomalies, some grew weary. Some grew ambitious. Soon, innate energy became more coveted across the archipelago than the rarest delicacies, the toughest minerals.
The method by which to uncover this energy, however, was yet unknown. In its pursuit, a bloody warring period ensued. Islands were destroyed, one after the other, ravaged by conflict between other species vying to unlock this flame within, with only the exploits of those like that warrior set ablaze to study. In such days, so frequently did the South Stretch erupt, no trace of the sky was anything other than ash-laden.
In those days of turbulence, few among man and beast alike had the foresight to look inward, to the source itself.
{ AGE 201BA }
"These are… carvings beneath the earth…!"
They wore flayed robes of animal hide and plant fibers, etched with obsidian. In their fiber belt, a thick, flat slab of wood, cloth, and the same obsidian etchings, complete with smooth blades on opposing ends, a pointed tip at its peak. Awe-struck, the young human's mahogany eyes drifted across the cavern, across the carved art of which was both distinctly inhuman and mesmerizing all the same.
Continuing to survey the sub-landscape, they took a step. Immediately, they crashed to their hands, leaving drops of red and handprints of matching color. "... ah…!" They struggled to their feet, completely upright in spite of broken bones — a common feat amongst its species, a stipulation of their honed spiritual strength. Having renewed their spatial awareness, and their dulled senses with that, they could finally heed the colossus within the cavern.
It had no scent. Its only sound was that of a bone-rattling heartbeat, of which it could now hear and feel rumble across the subterrain. Humid mist traveled across the tunnels through winds that blew in all directions. The power they sensed was being tempered, and yet was so far beyond anything the human had known, save the isles' gods. In spite of themselves, they walked toward it, in order to see it for themselves. All it took was the turn of a corner, and there it was.
The beast was nestled behind a calm, wide waterfall that never hit the ground, instead becoming the very mist pervading the cavern. It radiated like the sun, coiled, clad in the same inner flame that had been passed along humans for generations. Its turquoise, feather-like scales jut outward like the tips of massive spears. In size, it was like a great winding river that had become flesh.
Before anything else could be said, a giant, slit orb burst open, like an amethyst inferno. It partially uncoiled, raising its horned head to the human's horror, before descending upon the mammal at a speed unnatural for something so massive, pressure falling upon the minuscule creature. Despite the human's dire stare, they took up a stance against the goliath that stared down upon it. With a maw trapped between crocodilian and serpentine, it spoke.
"Yeah, no, can you leave?"
It took the human a second.
The serpent had spoken without talking, its thoughts projecting into the primate's mind.
Said thought also sounded more like a village adolescent's griping than… from what they could see, a dragon. Minus the voice itself, much-more suiting of the appearance.
"Hello? Mammals have language, too, right? You're looking at me all lost, this ain't ancient tongues, kiddo."
"... How?" The human slowly cobbled together words before reconstruing them altogether. "Do I see a mirage?"
"... no?" The serpent poised itself. "Look, I'm in the middle of something right now. I've been at this for about a thousand years now, an' if I break this streak, that's everything out the window."
The small mammal kept staring at it like a moron. "(... screw this. It'll croak any second now, anyway.)" The serpent folded in upon itself, returning to its-
"PLEASE!"
"WHAAAAT!?" The serpent popped its head out again, frustrated. "WHAT!?"
The human crashed upon their knees, bowing. "RESTORE PEACE TO THE LAND! I BEG OF YOU!"
"... I'm sorry, 'peace'?" The serpent reared a dismissive eyebrow muscle. "There was NEVER any peace up there."
The ape's head tensed on the ground. "The skies have been dark for longer than our oldest elders can remember! The lands have grown so ashen, hardly anything can grow! Even the seas are grey!"
"So?"
The young human broke from their prostration. "So!?"
"Yeah, so? None of that crap happened before your 'human' pals started using life force."
"But… we only did so as a means to survive!"
"Ok? So keep surviving. You made your floor, lie in it."
"Kh…" The human's palms slammed against the ground again, and their head followed, this time shattering the rock below. "I BEG YOU! THE LIFE ABOVE NEEDS YOU!"
The great serpent seemed to cringe, momentarily showing its rows of fangs before concealing them once more. "Tell you what? Ten years."
The human's head shot up, inquisition painting their bloodied face.
"If you can return to this exact spot in ten years, then I'll think about it."
Pain stained the hominid's face. "Ten years…"
"Yeah, ten. Now leave, before I get angry."
Though wrought with despair at the request, the human stood to their feet. "Thank you." They dragged themselves out of the cavern.
The serpent sneered. "That'll keep you out…" It recoiled in full, returning to its meditation. "So little time to live, and THAT'S how you choose to use it… idiot."
A few moments passed.
"AS YOU WISHED!"
The serpent shot back up in disbelief.
There the human stood, scarred and taller, more built than last it saw. Its former clothing had been replaced with the hide of a greater, spotted beast, yet looked rugged. "TEN YEARS!"
"... ten years?"
The human dropped to their knees and slammed their head onto the earth. "PLEASE! RESTORE PEACE TO THE LAND!"
The serpent's glance grew uneasy. There was no room for doubt; he was staring upon the same human. After a stretch of silence, he came up with something.
"Twenty years."
The human shot up. "WHAT!? THAT'S ABSURD, I FULFILLED MY TASK AND YET-"
"TWENTY YEARS!" the serpent roared back. "If you have a problem with that, you can bite it now, I don't care. If you want even a chance of me doing whatever up there, you'll do what I tell you. Now get lost."
Forsaken and outraged, the human shattered the ground, standing upright before taking their leave.
The serpent returned to its channeling. "(What a weird little creature…)"
"As you wished."
Its eyes bulged open. "YOU JUST LEF-"
The human now had strands of grey across their hair. They limped as they walked, as they had as a youngling, yet there was no blood upon them. Their prior clothing was replaced again by another hide, one even more worn than the last — only now, they wore an ornament of bright-red feathers around their neck. They were also missing an eye. "Twenty years."
"... were you really so sure that I'd keep my word?"
The old human shook their head.
"Say… you're not certain of anything. Are you?"
Another shake of the head.
"Why's it so special to you? The world above you?" The serpent raised its head. "If I do get off my bum and save your people, do you know what'll happen?"
Another shake of the head.
"You'll repeat the same things you all do since you were born. You'll just wait to die, struggling in vain to delay it by flinging your weight around and eating. Just like everything does."
"... would you be any different?"
The serpent chuckled, as if elated that something would finally ask. "You serious!? Look at me! Compare me to any one of the idiots outside and you'd see for yourself. At one point, I was just like you, struggling with my shitty attachments. Once I figured out how stupid the others were for 'eating their own tails' all the live long day, I decided to chase something greater: immortality!" It rose high like a cobra, parting the falls before it. "I've net myself an extra millennium of living, while my kind can barely pass five hundred years, and that's if they somehow never get themselves killed before then! I'm cheating death itself while the rest of you run around without a clue! Idiots!"
The human looked around the cavern. "Is this enough to sate you?"
The serpent misread what'd been said. "Duh! I broke the cycle. I'm beyond the need to eat, or drink, or sleep. I made myself a greater beast, all the way from the bottom of the totem pole." Its voice oozed with pride, even within their head. "I'm becoming a dragon again, like my ancestors."
"Should dragons not fly?"
Silence.
"... perhaps it's my short-sighted nature as one who will know death. But I believe that life ought to be experienced in full, joys and sorrows in tandem. To live forever, knowing nothing beyond the dark, content with an eternity without effect… I can't see the point." The human stood, wobbling but able.
"...! Say, human…"
They paused.
Ire filled the room like a flood. "If I had you cut your neck open right here and now, in exchange for returning your shitty cyclic world, to the way it is,"
The serpent could not finish its challenge. The human had already sunken to their knees.
"WH- STOP!" it yelled, with an externalized roar to boot. The human froze, bladed club already drawing a trickle of blood at the neck. "IDI-... DO YOU WANT TO DIE!?"
With a slow shake of the head and head drenched in sweat, the human responded. "Of course not."
"THEN WHY!? WHAT'S DRIVING YOU TO RUSH YOUR OWN DEATH!?"
"... I wish for a different outcome."
Raising its head without dropping its gaze, the beast incited an elaboration.
"My sole ambition is a brighter future for my people. One not spent in endless turmoil, or under a treacherous sky that sullies the soil and waters. As long as there's hope that those after myself can live a better life than myself, without fail…" The human smiled hollowly. "Then I can die."
"Is that right…" The snake gave a soft glare. "Fifty years. If you can appeal to me in fifty years, then by then, I'll've made up my mind."
Vague joy appeared across the human's worn face. They bowed respectfully, and took their leave.
"... idiot." It stewed in its thoughts.
Alone.
Among the wildlife of the South Stretch, the plumed serpent laid claim to the least. It was a scheming reptile that lied beneath rivers and lakes, for what it couldn't overwhelm with size, it had to constrict. The manes of feathers it possessed meant nothing outside of finding mates — there was a time when it soared with great wings that turned the sun's rays into dotted spokes across the ground, but greater winged beasts culled the stubborn giants in time, leaving only the small and meek willing to subject themselves to the ground. What were once dragons, shaping the winds and rains in their flights, had long lost all regality.
All they could cling to was their intellect. And for many, it was reduced to cunning.
During the Greyed Century, many resorted to killing the lesser primates before they amassed more power. But their already-meager numbers dwindled far faster than they could stunt the growth of the humans. Enough intellect, after all, sprouted ego.
One serpent lost his own outright, in a brush with death so close that it was blinding. A single human had threatened its life with a light that sprang from their core. Unlike its kin, which sought to grow ever craftier in order to pick them off at their weakest, it traveled below. Met first-hand with the prospect, surrounded by those too haughty to give heed to its inevitability, it longed for a way to escape death entirely, and to seize that innate power for itself.
A millennium had passed since then.
The titan sat, coiled, eyes half shut.
Its inquiring with the human left it with answers it once hadn't dared seek, questions that sprouted long after the time to ask had passed.
"(One thousand years, huh...? I don't even feel close...)"
It was no longer certain that its quest for immortality was bearing the desired fruit.
"(What if this whole damn cave just closes in on itself? Whatever's waiting on the surface... could I even take it on? If I can't, then all these years will've... will...)"
It considered all factors.
"(... will I ever fly?)"
Like sudden flashes in the void. It forgot when it had asked each question.
The weak, three-legged footsteps of a lesser creature slowly pattered across the ground, and the attention of the serpent was recaptured. Whatever manner of creature that would dare disturb its thoughts, it would without fail-
"... you?"
There was no mistaking it. Rounding the corner at a steady, deliberate pace, was the human.
"Ah… still here, hm?" They wielded a large, tapering stick that held their weight as they uneasily marched along, a long robe draped across their body that told a story etched in traces of obsidian — one of which detailed the head of a great serpent. "I'm elated…"
"... hey, human." The plumed snake looked down with mournful eyes. "Are there any more serpents like me, above here?"
The elderly human's head fell low, and it shook. "I'm afraid the last died out years ago."
"Mh." The serpent raised its head, to the murals that it itself had carved so long ago — the fall of the feathered dragons that ruled the skies, so long ago, forever a means of keeping it focused. "It's… high time I uphold my end."
The elder human sighed happily, slowly taking a seat.
"Your time's running out, huh? Geezer?"
"Mh."
"... did you really cling to life, all this time… just for this moment?"
The elder wheezed a chuckle. "I have seen many things, learned many things, during the time I've held you in mind, great one. However misguided or fruitless my road might have been... I have not wasted a moment, I feel. Though you no-doubt feel otherwise, o' wise thousand-year serpent. But I can pass on peacefully, knowing the young will own a savage, beautiful land teeming with life once more."
The dragon thought out his next words.
"... One last deal."
"D'YA HAVE A DEATH WISH, YA SHITTY SNAKE CHICKEN!?"
Despite an outburst that sent even the great serpent recoiling backward, the old human cooled quickly, even seeming to find it funny. A light burned from within them, and they got to their feet, and then picked up their walking stick. The light faded, and they became feeble once more. "Oh, alright. I should have another hundred years in me, if I'm stubborn as the chiefs say."
"... no. It's not like that." A soft bellow shook the cavern. "... I'll give you my spirit."
"Hm…!? Surely, you would know better than to grant such a thing to one with so little time...!"
"I don't mind. It won't matter." The dragon's head descended upon them. "Absorb it, and let it absorb yours. They'll become one, and everything I've gained will carry on through you. Once you're gone, I'll dissimilate from your soul so that you pass on, and I'll live over and over again through your generations, until I grow the wings my ancestors ruled with. If it's only in spirit, that's fine. I think... I'd just like being able to see what it's like to have all this mean something."
"... What do you ask in return?"
The dragon chuffed. "Before my consciousness fades, I wanna fly... just as much as I wanna see you shut up about the surface. So I'll help you save it yourself." It reared itself upward before descending toward them, presenting the top of its skull.
The human smiled warmly, and smacked their own onto the dragon's. The two locked grit-infused eyes.
"Very well."
A violet flame entrapped the two, shattering the ceiling and spiraling past the sky.
A dragon's roar rang across heaven and earth, emanating from a feeble old human. A silhouette shot into the air from within the flame, purging the volcanic ash in a blaze.
"(Guide me to something nice, in the meanwhile…)"
At long last, golden corona shined across the South Stretch once more in a mighty sunshower, as the elder's body burned away from the outside-in.
"(You deluded, stubborn mammals…)"
Far off in the distance, shielded by the thick of the brush, much like the rest of the islands' animals, a group of humans stared in amazement.
All, save a sleeping toddler.
Who, by the end of the light show…
Woke with eyes like amethyst flame.
On that day, the Nahualli were born. Through them, the fauna behind the South Stretch were granted envoys between this world and the next. Of them…
Those who lured and tamed the spirits of past beasts to combine their strength: the Noumia.
Those who devoured the spirit of select fauna to supplement a greater "super-soul": the Graffia.
And the progenitors, those who forged pacts with greater creatures and, in-turn, became them in spirit: the Orojia.
And the successor of the final Feathered Dragon, who undid the Greyed Century that threatened life on those savage isles…
"DUDE YOU JUST FUCKING SAID IT! HOW'D YOU ALREADY FORGET TO READ THIS ONE!?"
"GOD, WHY'RE YOU ON MY ASS ABOUT THIS ANYWAY!? WHO STILL USES KANJI!?"
"EV-ERY-ONE, DIPSHIT! YOU DON'T EVEN REMEMBER 'MONTH'? 'MONTH'!?"
"I KNOW WHAT A MONTH IS MASHII, YOU FUCKING BITCH!"
Orojia Neoru kicked the desk out from under him and hurled the pen straight through the wall. "CAN'T FUCKING TAKE THIS SHIT ANYMORE, FUCK ALL OF YOU!"
Mashii folded her arms as she watched him storm out the door.
[ Self-Contained ED: Chronic Future ‒ Rocket Science ]
Katlij looked her way. "So… are we just going to let him go, or-"
The Hera raised her finger. "Aaaaaaaah~..."
"..."
"..."
Neoru burst through the door, yanked the pen his way with a gust, and threw the desk back onto its feet. "JSSHSHJJH- F'CK'N' P'SS'A SHIT!"
Mashii gave it not a side-glance's worth of credence. "Now remember, context is king, ok? Now it can also mean 'moon'-"
"Yeah... Uh-huh... Alright."
… is still figuring out Kanji.
Yo! OP Here!
I'd like to dedicated that ED to how much of a fucking journey it's been plotting out Tlatla for about... six... years... now. What is wrong with me?
Mhm. This one's short but for real this time. I wasn't sure at first whether or not to keep this in the actual chapter, but considering how this is more explaining lore and dedicated to Tlatla/Nahualli, as opposed to direct backstory, being a separate thing would be more to the actual chapter's benefit. It'd also give me more freedom to explore Neoru and Zinco, y'know, directly.
I also love folktales and legends written in ways that teach a lesson, so if I can, imma write one out.
So according to Chinese myth, ascension to Yinglong for water snakes is around 2000 - 3000 years — five hundred for the snake to become a jiao, one thousand for the jiao to become a dragon, five hundred for the dragon to grow horns, and in all, one thousand for the dragon to become Yinglong. That's how I'm understanding it. 2500 years. The goal with this is to make the serpent's spirit finally achieve Yinglong through Neo's birth and his own overcoming of... things that I ain't elaborating on here and that you've likely already pieced together, just off last chapter. Also, I'm just expediting the process by making Feathered Serpents qual as Jiao off-rip, considering they were once dragons and had to shed that identity thanks to the Bird Chads stealing their sky.
There's a phoenix inside the volcano btw. Explanation: IDK yet. It's probably just a derivative of a phoenix. Or maybe it's a legit phoenix that simply wanted to be there. In any case, yeah, it's one of the main reasons behind the feathered dragons' recession. It's also connected to Socai.
Anyway, Earth Dragons and Namek Dragons have different processes and whatever. Mythical beasts can be born or animals can cultivate and enlighten to that level. My source is that I made it the fuck up.
Next Chapter but For Real This Time: Neo fights The One. You think I'm being facetious but this is deadass the last time I'll be able to crank out some primo Matrix references.
See ya!