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...