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...