Y'SHAATI'S BEGINNINGS: CHAPTER 4 - A REVELATION

Y'shaati continued on her journey of self-discovery throughout Amazonia. Thanks to her survival instincts learned during all her life, she managed to live without anyone's help. Whenever she was hungry, she climbed for fruits in the top of the trees, or she searched for an ant colony and used a stick to eat them easily. She also knew how to hunt large animals, however, she never liked the idea of killing other creatures to feed on them, so looking for prey to survive was always her last alternative in a situation like this. A peaceful ideal, but one cannot always deny the law of the jungle...

Whenever she felt tired, she searched for a good and safe place to sleep without the risk of being attacked by some wild creature.

The monkey-girl traveled to many places of Amazonia, extending her knowledge of the entire Jungle; However, no other place surprised her like the strange cave she found days earlier. Due to an unknown reason, she felt attached to that place, like if her heart and soul were telling her that she belonged to that odd site. She started to consider to return to that cave, but she didn't find the strength and will to do it. She was just recovering from the sadness and sorrow from the recent events, so she wasn't prepared to face more nostalgic and blue feelings.

Instead, she decided to go and visit the Tahuayos, Y'shaati's beloved second family.

During her travel to the Tahuayo territory, she began to feel strangely tired. Her whole body was trembling a lacking the strength to jump from branch to branch and swing through the tree vines; Y'shaati stopped for a moment to recover her breath. She didn't know what was happening to her. She inspected her own limbs to see if she was stinged by some poisonous creature, but that wasn't the case. She wasn't feeling hungry nor battered, just exhausted... very exhausted. She thought that maybe she hadn't had enough sleep during her journey.

Thinking about this, she looked for a branch wide enough to lay on it and have good nap. Y'shaati rarely slept during daytime, so she thought that it was going to be hard for her to fall asleep. Once she found the ideal branch, she sat on it, letting her legs to hang and crossing her arms. Just in the moment she closed her eyes and relaxed her body, she surprisingly fell asleep profoundly.

A few minutes passed... then Y'shaati opened her eyes. She couldn't believe what her vision showed her: She found herself floating at the bottom of the deep Amazonian river, astonished to see the depths of the river. She was being surrounded by all kinds of submarine species. She deseperately tried to swim towards the surface, fearing that she would drown in any moment, but it was futile.

Just when she thought she was about die... nothing happened. She realized that she was breathing under water and her lungs weren't lacking air. Her body was numb, so she couldn't move an inch.

Then, when she least expected it, a blinding light appeared in front of her. It was so bright that she couldn't stare at it for too long. Soon, the light faded and she finally saw what was behind it's scope: Y'shaati was shocked...

An strange human-fish hybrid creature was staring at her. The creature's white skin was glowing in an intense green aura that illuminated all the place. The monkey-girl was scared; in all her life she had never seen such a majestic but otherwordly creature. Then, the creature started to talk to her in an incomprehensible language. The sounds of its voice echoed in Y'shaati's mind like shockwaves. The poor girl couldn't understand what the creature was telling her.

But then, in the blink of an eye, Y'shaati started to have visions of what the creature was speaking her. Through images, the creature showed her a human couple with a baby living in the Jungle, then changing into the Sun and the Moon fusing into one whole body.

Finally, the creature showed her an image of herself glowing in the same green aura as the creature, but suddenly being involved into a cloud of darkness, giving result to an image of an altered version of her. A sinister form. That wasn't her anymore.

Just when she was about to say something to the creature, a thunderous sound caused everything to go pitch black.

Then silence... deep silence remained...

Unbeknownst to Y'shaati, the creature that appeared before her was no other than Yacuruna, the Goddess of Life. The images shown to her telepathically by the goddess were images of her past and possible future. The images of the Sun and the Moon merging were a representation of Kuarah'y & Aras'y, the entities that created Amazonia, Yacuruna itself and the whole world.

This contrast with the images of the human couple, her parents, holding her just a few moments after she was born. Yacuruna also told Y'shaati that she is the vessel of it's essence... it's reincarnation.

Of course, all this was too much to dig for the poor monkey-girl at the moment, but the answers she was looking about her origin now are buried within her subconscious... waiting to be awakened.

Y'shaati suddenly woke up... Confused, she noted that all she experienced just a few minutes earlier was just a dream. However, it felt so real to her. After thinking about what happened, she realized that her strength returned to her body more powerful than ever. She wasn't feeling numb anymore. She felt some kind of energy flowing through her veins. While she tried to remember what just happened in her dream, she closed her eyes, and concentrated all that energy in her mind. When she opened her eyes, she observed that she was glowing with the same green, beautiful aura that the creature had in her dream.

She felt surprised but happy to see that all her body was involved in the resplandescent aura, from to the top of her head, to the point of her agile toes. Once the aura vanished, she smiled and felt in harmony with herself and the environment of the jungle.

When she was about to descend from the tree branch she was sitting, she hung upside down from the branch just to see something that left her pale: a group of tribal humans were gazing at her from below, surprised to see the white-skinned naked girl hanging from the tree.

Startled, Y'shaati quickly jumped from the branch and started to climb to the top of tree hide herself on the foliage of the leaves. Some of the humans started to climb the tree aswell to see her closely, but they couldn't do it as fast as Y'shaati did.

Noticing that the humans spotted her and were getting close to her, she jumped from branch to branch across the treetops to escape from them. The humans who were in the ground, started to run towards her direction, but soon lost trace from her due to the speed she was swinging through the trees.

Once the humans gathered, they began to discuss between them what they just saw: they couldn't believe a wild, naked blonde girl was living alone in the deep Jungle.

Y'SHAATI'S BEGINNINGS: CHAPTER 3 - SOLITUDE

 

A few weeks passed since Y'shaati rescued the four little monkeys from the great swamp, home of Mai D'goa, the Titanic-toothed Serpent. During these days, the monkey girl was depressed; she still couldn't find the strength to overcome the death of the little ape, victim of the giant anaconda. Guilt flooded her heart, at every moment she thought that this misfortune could have been avoided if she had told the elders of her intentions to go and meet the human tribes. But it was too late for that...

Her monkey brothers and sisters tried to comfort her and encourage her so that she no longer felt sad, but every time she turned around to see the faces of the little monkeys, she couldn't help but remember that horrible image of the bloodstain next to the great swamp.

Even the elder Naka'i, who had already forgiven her days ago, constantly approached her to make her feel better with their life teachings. However, after thinking for several days, she made an important decision: she told the elders that she wanted to leave the rainforest for some time, thinking that maybe being away from home could help her mature and overcome her grief. After meditating it, the elders accepted the decision and granted her permission to go out and live beyond their territory.

And then the day of her departure arrived. The Naka'i gathered in the great Naka'i tree to bid farewell to Y'shaati and wish her luck on her personal journey of self-discovery. She appreciated the gesture of her monkey family and assured them that she would return one day, beating her chest in a sign of promise.

And so, she turned around, grabbed a vine and went away swinging through the treetops of the jungle.

Thus began Y'shaati's great journey throughout Amazonia...

For several days, the monkey girl traveled to all the corners of the jungle, finding on her way different animal species, some friendly and others not so much. At the same time she also took the time to carefully observe the human tribes that inhabit Amazonia, so that she could learn more and more about them; all this of course without being discovered.

Thanks to this, she learned that humans lived in many places in the jungle, and each settlement was different from the others. Some tribes were more numerous than others, just as the tattoos of their bodies were different among others. Another thing that she realized, is that when she used to take sunbaths, her own skin reflected the sun's rays, so that her body was surrounded by a green and shining aura that matched the beautiful blue color of her eyes and her blonde hair.

All these discoveries allowed her to see the hidden beauty of life and to understand that the world is governed by the spectrum of the darkness and the light of all the living being's souls.

Without realizing it, her sorrows had vanished and she regained her inner peace. Y'shaati finally smiled again.

One of those days, Y'shaati discovered a particular place in Amazonia. After swinging constantly among the trees, she went down to the ground to drink some water. Jumping between rocks that protruded from a small flow of water, Y'shaati bent down and put her hand in the water to get a handful and drink from it.

While quenching her thirst, she noticed that the flow of water moved downhill, leading to a small spring with a beautiful waterfall.

When she saw the spring, she couldn't help feeling the urge to swim a little in it, so she ran quickly to the waterfall, wetting her beautiful white-skinned feet and jumped out of it to make an extraordinary dive worthy of a professional athlete.

Thanks to the teachings of the Toninaas, the dolphins from the rivers of Amazonia, she was able to dive into deep water and hold her breath more than usual, which was very useful for her to explore underwater places without the danger of drowning.

After enjoying the goodness of the place, Y'shaati came out of the water and shook her body and head to dry her skin and hair quickly. however, while doing this, she could notice that near the waterfall, there was a small cave.

Without thinking twice and letting herself be guided by her monkey curiosity, she quickly went to that place. Holding tightly with her hands and pretty toes, Y'shaati quickly climbed the rocks that served as a staircase to climb into the cave. Once she arrived at the entrance, she noticed how the holes inside allowed the entrance of light into the cave, illuminating it warmly.

When she went further into the cave, she was surprised to find several objects that she had never seen in her life. A backpack, a notebook, some glasses, some pencils, some clothes, a tent, lanterns and other common for humans, but strange objects for Y'shaati.

She sniffed the objects before touching them, having no idea what they were. When she opened the notebook, she saw drawings of creatures that she knew perfectly well. The sheets of the notebook felt different from the leaves of the bushes that she was used to rub against her naked body. Seeing that the sheets broke when she pulled them, she started frantically tearing off the pages of the notebook and throwing them up, while she was spinning and dancing amused, watching the leaves flutter.

Afterwards, she directed her attention in the backpack. After inspecting it, she noticed that there were things inside the object, but she didn't know how to open it, so she decided to bite it until she broke it with her teeth.

When it finally opened, a lot of objects fell to the ground. Y'shaati sat on the floor and began to see each of the objects. Seeing that there were too many of them, she decided to hold several of them with her feet and hands at the same time to be able to see them up close. She quickly learned to use pencils to draw on the walls; she even drew several scribbles using only her talented toes while doing other things with her hands. Then she checked the clothes that were hanging on the edge of the cave. She realized that they were similar to the clothes that tribal boy wore several days ago. She didn't like the texture of the clothes, because she had always been naked all her life. She also didn't like the objects that served to cover the feet, because that would only hinder her walk.

When she began to lose interest in the objects, she decided it was time to leave and move on. However, before leaving, she observed an object very different from the others: a peculiar doll made of twigs. When she held it in her hands, she couldn't help but feel an attachment to the object. As if her soul told her that she had held that object with her hands long ago.

Maybe it was nostalgia, maybe it was something else...

Whatever it was, Y'shaati left the doll on the floor and exit the cave.

After descending the rocks and climbing a tree to continue her journey, Y'shaati turned to see the cave one last time, gazing at it for a few seconds, and then swinging again into the deep jungle.

Y'SHAATI'S BEGINNINGS: CHAPTER 2 - AFTERMATH

 

Several hours after her peculiar incident with that young tribal boy and the assault of the wild uturuncu, Y'shaati still couldn't believe what had happened... the kid talked to her in an unknown language. She had never heard anything like that before. The boy looked so much like her, but he was definitely not a monkey. The anatomy of his body was similar to hers, but his skin color contrasted completely; the boy simply ran away, losing himself deep in the jungle, moving in a different way from her... these and many more ideas fluttered inside of Y'shaati's mind.

The doubts caused her desire to meet these strange creatures to vanish that same day. Y'shaati felt saddened and preferred to leave the place to return home.

The poor girl traveled through the jungle at night again, disconsolated to know that her journey had been in vain, and worried to know what punishment the elder Naka'i would impose her upon realizing that she left the rainforest without their permission.

Later in that same night, just when she was about to take a quick nap in a tree branch, she felt something odd in the environment. Her instincts told her that she was being watched by someone... or something... She even could hear something slipping in the branches of the tree she was sitting.

Startled and without thinking twice, Y'shaati decided to leave that place quickly, because she knew better than anyone that there could always be someone stalking at any time in the jungle.

The next day, after crossing the border of the Madre de Dios river, Y'shaati finally returned to the great tree of the Naka'i.

Just at moment of her arrival, she noticed that the monkeys were upset, some bouncing from one branch to another, rampant and howling loudly, while others sobbed as if they were mourning a tragedy.

When Y'shaati approached her brothers and sisters monkeys to find out what was happening, they were surprised to see her back. All the monkeys surrounded her and embraced her, as if they were relieved to know that she was safe and sound; however, it also seemed that they were begging for help as well.

At that moment, seeing that the elder Naka'i also approached her slowly, the monkeys cleared the space around her so that they could stand face to face with Y'shaati. The expression on their faces denoted great anger and disappointment.

Y'shaati bowed to them, lowering her head in respect to the elders. Then, they told her what had happened during her absence.

—"Ooh-ooh ah-ah... ook-ook, ooooh ooooh...?" (Where have been... in these terrible moments of anguish, young lady...?)

—"Ooh-ooh ohh... ah... ooh..." (Y'shaati... Y'shaati went out... Y'shaati wanted to know...)

—"Ooh ah-ah, EEEK EEEK EEEK!! AHH-AHH OOH-OOH OOOOOH!! OOK-OOK EEEK EEEK, OOH-OOH-OOOOOHH!!" (We understand, BUT YOU SHOULD HAVE REQUESTED OUR PERMISSION!! THOSE ARE THE LAWS OF OUR TROOP, YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW DANGEROUS IT CAN BE!!

—"..."

—"Ooh-ah-ah... ook-ook, oh-ah-ah..." (Five of the youngest have followed your example... and now, lost the youngest are...)

—"Ook-ooh-ah!?... Ooh-ooh, eek eek!?" (Lost!? The little ones... have followed Y'shaati?)

—"Eeek eeek, ooh-ooh. Ahh-ahh-ah, eek eek..." (We searched nearby, without success. We lose hope...)

—"...ooh-ooh ah!" (Y'shaati will help find them!)

Suddenly, she ran out of the rainforest at full speed, and jumped to grab a vine to swing back into the depths of the jungle again.

As she traveled through the treetops as fast as she could, she couldn't stop thinking about what the elders told her: the morning after she escaped in the night to travel to the village of the Terena tribe, five young inexperienced monkeys disappeared. During the next two days, the rest of the Naka'i went looking for them in the vicinity of the rainforest, but they could not find them. Noting also the absence of Y'shaati, and thanks to their great wisdom and ability to deduce events, the elders came to the conclusion that the five little monkeys probably saw her go and decided to follow her, but due to their young age, once when they lost trail of her, they didn't know how to return home and ended up lost. The elders scolded Y'shaati for her imprudence and ordered her to go out and find the missing little monkeys.

She couldn't help feeling guilty for what happened, so she immediately accepted to go to look for them. She began to fear the worst about what could have happened to the helpless monkeys, however, she didn't let herself be overcomed by fear and determined herself to find them... even if it would cost her own life.

Y'shaati spent all day looking for the poor lost monkeys everywhere, without any success. When the sun was about to set, she reached a big swamp. Y'shaati deduced that the monkeys couldn't had gone beyond the Madre de Dios river because young Naka'i can't swim, so she decided to search somewhere around that place. She descended from the trees and started to crawl in the muddy soil, trying to find a trace of the monkeys.

But then, a few minutes later, she suddenly stopped her movement... she felt that something wasn't right... it was the same feeling she had the previous night, like if something were watching her. She proceeded to keep looking with extreme caution.

Then, all of a sudden, among the uncertainty, she heard a familiar noise... little ape howls. Y'shaati had hit the spot on her deductions. She quickly began to run around the place, guiding herself with the sounds. On the spur of the moment, Y'shaati looked above her, and finally breathed a sigh of relief... she at last found them; the little monkeys were right in front of her, hidden inside a hollow tree.

She rapidly climbed the tree and went inside it to meet the little ones. The monkeys were scared, but once they recognized her, they jumped onto her and hugged her, happy to see their big monkey-sister. She was also happy to see them safe. However... there was a problem... there were only four monkeys.

"Ooh-ooh ook... ah-ah, ooh-ooh?" (Where the other little one be?), Y'shaati asked.

"Ooh-ooh ohh, eek eek ook!" (Brother left behind while running away!), one of the monkeys replied.

Y'shaati asked the young monkeys where their lost broher was, but they told her the last time they saw him, they were by the skirts of the swamp. Without hesitation, Y'shaati ordered the monkeys to stay hidden inside the tree. Then, she started to climb up higher until she reached the top of tree. Once there, she watched on the horizon, hoping to find the last missing monkey. When she gazed at a puddle of mud, she noticed something... a little black spot on a rock.

Thinking that that point could be the lost monkey, she jumped from branch to branch down and ran quickly to that place. The feeling of being observed, felt increasingly overwhelming.

Once she got there, she finally knew what that was... her expression changed from one of hope, to one of complete horror... that was a fresh stain of blood with ripped fur. Y'shaati sniffed the fur to confirm what she feared: it had the same smell like the Naka'i 's fur.

Trembling with sorrow and the horrible sensation that had been invading her senses, Y'shaati glanced at the swamp water to see if she could see the poor little monkey's body. But, from one moment to another, that "something" appeared...

From the depths of the water, the head of a giant anaconda came out and attacked Y'shaati. Thanks to her good monkey reflexes, she was able to dodge the lethal bite of the snake, quickly back-stepping away from the wild animal. When she saw the complete body of the anaconda, she understood who that huge, fierce beast was: It is called "Mai D'goa, the legendary Titanic-toothed Serpent".

Y'shaati, now with an enraged look on her face, quickly adopted her Tahuayo battle pose, crouching and planting her knuckles firmly on the ground while letting escape a great ape growl. Mai D'goa also snarled at her, showing it's long sharped teeth.

In her irrational animalistic reaction, just when she was about to jump and fight the titanic anaconda, she remembered that the four little monkeys were still close from there. She wouldn't let anything bad happen to the young apes... so, instead of launching herself to attack, she turned around an quickly sprinted towards the hollow tree where the monkeys were. The titanic anaconda followed Y'shaati at demon speed.

When she reached the tree, Y'shaati told the young monkeys to jump on her back and hold tight to her body. Once the little monkeys were ready, she jumped from the tree, landing safely in the ground and rapidly started to run on all fours, carrying the little monkeys on her back. The giant serpent charged at the hollow tree, destroying it completely.

Y'shaati kept running as fast as she could, alternately and acrobatically jumping between branches and swinging through the vines. Mai D'goa kept chasing them closely, obliterating everything in it's path.

In just a couple of minutes, the titanic serpent suddenly lost sight from it's preys. Everything stood silent for a couple of minutes. Frustrated, the anaconda snarled and began to slowly slide back into the swamp. Y'shaati, with the young monkeys, had hidden in the thick foliage of the treetops... staying quiet... until they saw the large anaconda retreating...

They were, at last, safe...

Later at night, Y'shaati finally returned to the Naka'i rainforest with the little monkeys. When they arrived, all the monkeys received her like a heroine, grateful for having rescued the defenseless apes... but Y'shaati wasn't smiling.

When the elders approached her, they asked her why she returned with only four monkeys. Sobbing, she explained them the terrible fate of the fifth young monkey and then walked alone towards her bed of leaves. With tears on her face, she layed on her bed to sleep, crying the loss of the little monkey.

Y'SHAATI'S BEGINNINGS: CHAPTER 1 - FIRST SIGHTING

 A few weeks later, after her first interaction with human tribes, Y'shaati was still absorbed in thoughts and doubts about what she observed the other day.

The young Naka'i she grew up with noticed this. Y'shaati was known for her always cheerful and playful attitude with the other monkeys; however, the last days, she isolated herself far from the great tree where all the monkeys shared quality time together. She looked quite meditative and thoughtful. Y'shaati couldn't stop thinking about those strange creatures that were similar in appearance to her.

The uncertainty was taking her to the point of despair. She simply could not find a reason that would explain why those beings looked so much like her. The other monkeys were worried to see her like this, so they allowed her to have her space and wait for this bad moment to pass.
However, one of those days, she made up her mind: it was time for her to return to that unknown part of the Jungle and find the answer she was looking for... without asking permission from the elder Naka'i.

All members of the Naka'i family had to ask permission from the elders to leave the rainforest and explore on their own, without exceptions. But this time, Y'shaati knew that the elders wouldn't allow her to return to that place in a long time, so she decided to leave at night, while everyone slept.

And so she did. Once she noticed that all her fellow monkeys slumbered soundly, she left the rainforest.

For any normal human, to travel from the Naka'i homeland to the territory of the human tribes would take a lot of time and effort, without mentioning that could be extremely dangerous; however, this wasn't a problem for Y'shaati. Thanks to her monkey skills and acrobatic abilities, she was able to travel swinging through the vines and treetops of the Jungle rather than walking, making her way more faster, easier and safer, even during night-time, thanks to the Uirapurú's teachings.

It only took Y'shaati one night to reach the other side of Amazonia. When the sun began to rise the next morning, she was already close of reaching that same village where she saw those strange bipedal creatures for the first time.

However, just before she introduced herself into that unfamiliar place, her stomach began to growl, mainly because she hadn't eaten anything or taken time to rest during her nocturnal trip. So, Y'shaati decided to search for something to eat.

While she was resting on a branch, she saw some favorite delicacies of her: some tasty and juicy mangos. Y'shaati's face lit up just by looking at those delicious fruit, and immediately started to climb towards them. Once she quickly reached them, while hanging from a branch with her arms, she used her talented feet and agile toes to pull one mango from it's leaf. When she fully grabbed the fruit with one foot, she sat up and proceeded to delight it. She was so hungry that she finished it all in the blink of an eye.

But just when she was about to pull another mango, she started to hear some strange noises. As if something were lurking around below where she was. Y'shaati quickly hung upside down from the branch, to see what was moving beneath her. What she saw, left her shocked... a young tribal boy, was walking exactly below her.

Y'shaati gazed astonished at the young kid for a few moments, until the boy began to move away, without being aware of her presence.

Filled with curiosity, Y'shaati decided to follow him closely, moving cautiously through the branches of the trees. The kid never noticed that he was being followed from above.

Y'shaati noticed that the boy was holding a weird object with him. It was a basket in which he carried several types of fruit; nevertheless, she had never seen anything like it before.

After following the boy for a while without being noticed, they both arrived to a small pond of water, where the boy stopped to drink from it.
Y'shaati descended from the trees and hid among the foliage that surrounded the pond, without taking her sight from the boy.
While the boy continued to drink, Y'shaati was not sure how to proceed. The same doubts that had bothered her the last few days came up again, and she was unsure if she wanted to make herself known to the boy.
Who was that kid?
Why was his skin darker than hers?
Why did he wear that strange garment on his waist?
Why he was walking using only two of his limbs?

She really wanted to know all of this, so she convinced herself to finally show herself to the kid. However, just at that moment, her plans were ruined when she realized something terrible...

At the other side of the pond, a beast was stalking and was about to pounce the poor boy... a wild uturuncu. Yes, one of the same feline creatures that taught Y'shaati how to hunt other animals.

The uturuncu slowly prowled towards the boy, letting a loud snarl escape from it's jaws. When the boy heard the sound, he looked behind him and instantly panicked. The boy was so suddenly terrified from the uturuncu, that he didn't know how to react and stumbled to fall on his back. The wild animal was about to have a feast with the defenseless kid.

By seeing this, Y'shaati's feral instincts woke up, as if some inner force told her to protect the young kid at all cost.

And just in that moment... the uturuncu sprinted towards the young boy to attack him. The kid covered his body with his arms and closed his eyes for the inminent strike... a few instants elapsed... when the boy opened his eyes, he saw a naked, white-skinned girl in front of him... Y'shaati had jumped from the foliage she was hidden and charged against the uturuncu, making it fall to it's back.

Y'shaati stood in front of the knocked down feline, with a serious look on her face. The uturuncu regained it's attack position and growled at her. Y'shaati, in the same quadrupedal prowling pose as the beast, slowly crawled towards it, showing her bare fangs at the animal. She remained in this position for a few moments, producing threatening ape-like growls, until the uturuncu changed it's behaviour.

Surprisingly, from one moment to another, the savage beast looked frightened, as if the animal had realized the superior being he was dealing with.

Y'shaati kept doing the ape-like howls, while she smashed the ground with her fists several times and started to pound her chest furiously, just like the tahuayos taught her a few years ago in order to scare her foes.

Completely terrified, the uturuncu turned around itself and finally ran away into the Jungle.

Y'shaati, relieved to see the danger was over, she turned around to see the scared boy and walked towards him. The young tribal boy was startled to see Y'shaati approaching him walking on all fours, like if she were some kind of wild animal, just like the uturuncu.

The kid was still trembling in fear on the floor, but then he noticed something that made him look at the naked lady with a confused reaction: once she was next to the boy, she started to inspect him, touching his skin, hair and limbs with curiosity. She sniffed the boy, trying to understand what made him so different from her. The boy didn't know how to react to this. She kept sniffing and touching the boy until she reached her lower part of his body, and just when she was about to have a look of what was behind his cloinloth, he screamed and quickly stood up on his feet.

The kid began to slowly walk away from Y'shaati, but she kept gazing and following him, desiring to know more about the boy. Then the young tribal boy stopped and finally spoke to her:

"N-nahá, p-pyta tapykuépe!! (N-no, s-stay away from me!!)" the boy said. Y'shaati looked at him, confused.

"Guyje rehe sálváre... k-katu areko hina ir... (Thanks for saving me... b-but I have to go...)" the boy said. Y'shaati made some monkey noises, as if she were trying to communicate with him.

"Peve vokói... (Farewell...)" the boy replied to her. Shortly after, he picked his basket and ran away. Y'shaati didn't follow him this time.

After the boy kept running towards his village, he suddenly stopped to observe the young naked girl he had just met, one last time. Through the foliage of the leaves, the kid saw the monkey-girl running on all fours and leaping over a big log, just before he lost sight of her. The boy finally returned to his village, to tell his people about what had happened.

That young boy was one of the Terena, one of the first human tribes who later claimed to have witness the arrival of the Spirit of Amazonia in the Jungle. However, if this encounter was the origin from where that tale spreaded, that's still considered a mere rumor...

LORE PART III: LIFE

Perhaps it was fate...

Yacuruna, the Goddess of Life, allmother of every living being of Amazonia, had chosen Itatí and Francis's offspring to be the vessel of her essence, the embodiment of nature itself.

When speaking of a divine spirit, one would think that this being would arrive, announced as one all-powerful supreme being, which everyone would instantly recognize, just by gazing at him. Nevertheless, the universe would exhibit it's twisted sense of humor by privileging of said blessing to an recently orphaned baby girl.

The ancient prophecies of the Icamiabas, believed to be the primordial human tribe of Amazonia by all the present tribes, tell that her second coming in the waking world, would mean a change in the natural course of existence and a spiritual balance in the souls of living beings.

This change would bring the harmonization and linking of the disparity within the souls of humans, fusing Tesa'pe & Py't into one single entity, just like it used to be, before the fateful event. No Light, nor Dark... just perfect equilibrium.

Most of these fables were oral stories, saved from oblivion by some considered hand. They were stories that were told in the heat of the fire in the villages to bequeath the wisdom of the elders. It's meaning created a bridge between generations and was the vault where the experiences and beliefs of the inhabitants of Amazonia rested. But, above all, they were a link with such a beautiful and colossal environment, as well as dangerous and overwhelming.

But even so, several secrets and questions remained unanswered in this legends... until now.

The mysteries behind the Spirit of Amazonia, unfolds...

The race of monkeys who took care of the poor, defenseless baby girl, named by the Tupí-Guaraní tribes as the Naka'i, carried the human infant to their native rainforest, one of the most inhospitable places in Amazonia, even for the major human tribes.

This place, known only by rumors as Petaity, was said to be located in one of the farthest corners of the Amazon Jungle, far beyond the limits of human territories.

This is the home of the Naka'i... and soon, would become the home of the baby girl as well.

When the group of monkeys finally reached their destination, the rest were suprised to see that they brought a human newborn with them. This originated a big debate between them; some were reluctant to accept the baby as one of them, while others immediately found the need to protect her. This discussion took them all night, until dawn. When the burning sun arose from the horizon and it's light beams touched the baby girl's soft skin, the monkeys noticed the miracle... a beautiful, spectral green aura covered the infant's body, reflecting the sun's light like a precious jewel.

All the monkeys promptly understood the truth... she was the Spirit of Amazonia. Without having second thoughts, the monkeys swore in front of the baby, to raise her as one of the Naka'i and to teach her the ways of the Jungle. Short after, they saw the need to put a name to the infant. They named her Y'shaati, due to her particular white-marble skin and golden hair, characteristics that, interestingly, are quite similiar to theirs, as the Naka'i have golden & white fur.

And so, the legend of the Spirit of Amazonia became a reality, and the story of Y'shaati's incident spread all across the Jungle...

Through her early years, Y'shaati was kept safely in the Naka'i rainforest and breastfed as if she were another monkey in the group.

Due to her condition as a growing child, she was limited to stay always within the monkey's domain, only allowed to play with the other monkey pups; during this period, she developed the basis and foundations of her growth and locomotion. She learned to walk upright quite easily, but by observing the way the other growing monkeys moved, she began to imitate them, thus starting to walk on all fours, which she adopted as her main form of motion. Her animal instincts took the reins of her mental ability to think and act more like a monkey than a human. She also learned basic skills, such as climbing, running, jumping and many other natural abilities.

However, it wasn't until past her first decade of life that she began to demonstrate her talented skills and prowess, learned thanks to her upbringing as a monkey. By this time, she was able to swing through the vines, branches and treetops of the rainforest with acrobatic grace. She could run on all fours without tripping at top speed, rivaling those of her fellow monkeys and other felines.

She could also manage to get her own food without depending on anyone, whether climbing to get fruit from the trees, digging places to find and eat insects, or even stealing quickly the food of some distracted creature.

In the same way, she had already perfected the communication language of the monkeys, being able to reproduce the unpronounceable sounds of their tongue.

During this childhood days, the elder Naka'i agreed to let Y'shaati explore beyond the rainforest's outskirts, because she had proved to be intelligent, cunning and clever enough to cope on her own self. They concluded that this could be beneficial for her, as she could learn even more things from other Amazonian species.

The moment she was informed about this, her spirit filled with happiness, and she immediately headed to her adventure, eager to know new horizons.

She was absent from home for several days, but thanks to her well-developed sense of survival, she managed to thrive in territories unknown to her.

It was in these days, when she met several creatures of the jungle that taught her unique abilities that her monkey family could never have. One day she was hanging around the river Madre de Dios, main artery that separates Petaity from the rest of Amazonia, she met some particular beings: the Toninaas and the Uirapurú.

For the human tribes of Amazonia, this creatures were mythical sacred animals that served as guardians of the Jungle, preventing the humans to traverse further into the most dangerous parts of the jungle, for their own safety. Both of this species are noble creatures, and once Y'shaati met with them, they immediately acknowledged her as the holy Spirit of Amazonia, and felt more than honoured to teach her some of their main abilities. The Toninaas, creatures similar to dolphins, taught her how to swim and dive in the water, while the bird-like Uirapurús, trained her to whistle and emit echolocation sounds to lure predators and travel safely during night-time.

Once she fully mastered this skills, Y'shaati returned to her rainforest, grateful with the Toninaas and Uirapurús for their valuable teachings. Since then, ever day was a new thrilling adventure for her, until she reached adolescence.

from this point , new challenges and concerns emerged before her, marking a step forward in her life...

Y'shaati, no longer being a little girl, but a young lady, had completely developed all her monkey skills and abilities. She was now capable of performing everything a Naka'i could physically do, and even surpass them. Her feet and toes became impressively dexterous, to the point that she could use them as well and effectively as her hands; she could use them to pick up objects from the ground, grasp the vines of the trees hands-free, hold on herself from the foliage and edges of objects only with her toes, and many feats more. Whatever she imagined possible, she was able to do it.

However... along with this improvements, she also started to notice differences that distinguished her from the other monkeys. She only had hair on her head and her womanhood, contrary to the fur the Naka'i had, that covered all their body. Her breasts were growing voluminously bigger than the other female monkeys, whose mammas were sagging and pointing downwards. Even though she prefered to walk in her knuckles, she noticed that she was the only one who could endure to walk in two legs for long periods of time without effort.

This and many things more led Y'shaati to think something was wrong with her. The elder Naka'i knew she would start to notice this fact, but agreed to keep the truth hidden from her knowledge for a few years more.

During her travels to distant lands of Amazonia, she continued to meet new species of animals that taught her more insight and skills. During this journeys, she no longer needed to return to the Petaity everytime. By that time, she was adapted to sleep almost anywhere she liked to. She even could travel during the night without being detected by other creatures. In one of this nights, she met with a particular feared and respected animal throughout the Amazon Jungle: the Uturuncu.

This cat-like creature awakened a primal, wild instinct within Y'shaati that she didn't knew she had until now... her appetite for the flesh...

The Uturuncu teased Y'shaati by showing her how he hunted and killed a fish for eating. The feline rubbed the hunted fish on Y'shaati's face to unleash her natural killer instinct and to teach her how to hunt in the wilderness, under the codes of the Jungle.

It took many days to Y'shaati to successfully achieve this skills, but once she made it, she now had a serious look on her face, as if she had matured by being aware of the concepts of death and survivalism. Her senses of smell and sight sharpened.

On another ocassion, she introduced herself into the plains, domain of the Tahuayos, the biggest apes of all Amazonia. This gorillas, found an uncanny resemble of the monkey lady with the ones of humans, being them the first animals of the Jungle to spread the rumor about the Spirit of Amazonia being a human female. This confused Y'shaati to a level she never experienced before, but also made her have good thoughts about the Tahuayos and their honesty.

These animals taught her one of the most important skills she could learn in her life: fighting. The art of combat is an essential prowess for all the living creatures of the jungle, whatever the species they belong to... and the Tahuayos were the undisputed masters of this discipline in all Amazonia.

The tests of strength and endurance the Tahuayos put in her way, were the most challenging she had in all her life, but eventually she stood triumphant at the end and finally achieved outstanding combat techniques and power as a reward.

Even though the gorillas were strict with Y'shaati during her teachings, she ended in good terms with them, having the pleasure and honor to often visit them whenever she liked it.

Y'shaati now had everything she needed to prosper in the Jungle, without having to require the help of any living being. Certainly, the Spirit of Amazonia was getting close to gain her godly appearance, just like the legends of the Icamiabas told.

In time, Y'shaati entered to her first stages of her second decade of life, and this time, she was completely determined to answer the questions about her origin...

One day, the Spirit of Amazonia, now a fully developed young woman, approached to the elder Naka'i to finally ask the question that has been bothering her the last couple of years: her origin. She already had the suspect that she wasn't a monkey, but she at last decided to confront her truth.

The elder Naka'i didn't answer to her question, but rather gave her a few hints, so she could discover the truth by herself. They told her to search for the land beyond the heart of Amazonia; there she may find the answers she was looking for.

Y'shaati didn't hesitate to decide to go immediately to the mentioned land, parting right away from home.

In the course of a week, she found an interesting place like no other she had saw before: a labyrinth of leaves. She discovered that this natural structure served as border for Amazonia. Crawling around the place, she began to sniff something she had never smelled. Then suddenly, she found the source of the smell: by jumping through the branches of trees, she saw a grey cloud.

Y'shaati descended from the trees and sneaked around to see what was causing all of this. What she saw, left her absolutely shocked...

There were this stranges creatures who had this uncanny resemblance with her, just like the Tahuayos mentioned a few years ago. They were burning something.

She took a long gaze at them, while hiding a herself in the leaves.

This animals looked just like her, however there were some variances: the color of their skins were darker than hers; their bodies were covered by some odd symbols and figures, while Y'shaati had none; they were wearing some kind leather around the lower part of their waist, whereas Y'shaati had been fully naked since her birth; but the most notorious thing was still left to be reasoned by her...

The strange creatures were walking erect in their two legs, while Y'shaati used her four limbs to move. The poor, confused girl didn't know what to think, so she decided to return to the Naka'i rainforest, feeling completely awkward about what she just saw.

In her retreat, one of the creatures noticed the figure of Y'shaati running away, confusing it with one of an animal, and left to wonder what that weird shape could had been.

Once she arrived home, she didn't want to interact with anyone of her monkey family, secluding herself far from the trees to meditate about the puzzled situation.

Y'shaati may have found the roots of her existence, but she still isn't sure about it.

But if she wants to fully understand her origin, she may have to return once again to that strange place... that place populated with those peculiar unknown beings... those beings, unbeknownst to Y'shaati called... humans...