“But why are you going?” Aarav asked. He was sitting beside Enoch in the shade of a tree, holding one end of the rope she was winding. He gazed at her in mild concern, as if he suspected she was joining the expedition group to avoid him. 
Enoch just smiled. “Why do you think? I want to see more of the world.”
“But, why?”

Enoch couldn't help but laugh at his expression. “Aarav, this has nothing to do with you. Stop looking so offended.” Aarav closed his mouth, but he continued to stare at her. “I am not full-blood I'nik, you know. My father was a traveler. Its in my nature to travel. To see things.”

“But your mother was no traveler,” Aarav argued softly. “Being a mother and a wife is also in your blood. Its safer. Why not choose that? Why not choose ...”
Enoch looked up when Aarav fell silent, the end of his question vivid in his eyes. [i]Why not choose me?[/i] Pausing in her task, Enoch lowered her hands and sat up. “Its not a death sentence, Aarav. Sadr is in his fifth decade. And Meda is due soon for her first child. Just because I want to travel does not mean I don't want a family.”

“Do you, though?” Aarav asked, looking very unconvinced. 
Enoch leaned back with another sigh and resumed her rope-making. “I don't know yet, Aarav. Maybe being out will help me make a decision.”
Aarav clicked his tongue. “Unless you're slaughtered by something.”
“Please.” Enoch scoffed. “What out there could kill me?”
When Aarav opened his mouth, Enoch felt the ground shake slightly, and Aarav raised his eyes and stared in awe. “How about that?” He asked, dropping her rope and rising to his feet. Curious, Enoch turned around to look behind her as a she heard the resonating boom. As Aarav did, she stood and raised her hand to shield her eyes as the massive object fell from the sky. 

Staring in alarm, Aarav and Enoch were silent in contrast to the echoing sound of the objects impact in the sand. Enoch felt the sand vibrate beneath her feet and a few seconds later the rush of air flew over them, and all who had come out of their huts at the noise turned their backs and covered their faces.

“What by the Gods [i]was[/i] that?” Aarav asked, stepping up beside Enoch. 
“God of Shadow!” Another village cried out in fright.
“Goddess of Strength, stand with us!”

Enoch wasted no time on prayers, however. She bent and scooped up her ax and started toward where the thing had fallen. Aarav groaned and picked up his own weapons to follow her, his bow tight in his hand. Several others had picked up their weapons and were marching forward, leaving the frightened children with their mothers as they went to investigate. 

Speculation traveled back and forth as they walked through the sands. Was it dangerous? Of course it was dangerous. Was it alive? It fell from the Heavens. Would it be wounded? It would likely lash out at them. They should be cautious. Move slow. Spread out. Confuse it. If it couldn't be killed, then what? Enoch focused ahead, the sun setting beyond them, which she knew was another hazard. They'd be blinded. Nervous, she swung her ax in her hand, warming up her arm and flexing the muscles. 

In a half an hour, they reached the large crater of the creature, the sand rising upward. The I'nik's spread out, their feet quiet on the sand, and together they began to climb, bending low and resting on their bellies near the top to peer over the peek. 

It didn't look like any creature any of them had ever seen. It looked like it was made of stone or metal, its shape resembling the head of some massive beast. There was no blood, but pieces of strange things littered in the sand, made of the same tissue. What Enoch assumed were veins were spread around here and there, and its slanted, dim eyes were still. 
“I think it is dead,” Someone said to her left.
As if in answer, the head let out a loud breath of steam and the I'nik's recoiled, their heads disappearing behind the sand dune. All save Enoch, who wasn't as frightened by the sound.  She lowered her head as a cloud billowed away from the beast, her eyes focused on what she assumed was its face. Barely, the sunlight hindering her sight, she could see past the eyes of the decapitated head and, [i]faintly[/i], she could see what appeared to be the shape of a human. 

“Someone's inside it.” She whispered, and heads rose to peer at the beast again. 
“So? It ate someone.”
“And died for it. Whoever it is is venomous.”
“Eating venomous things doesn't make your head pop off, Terec.” 
“What are you doing?”
Enoch had risen onto her feet and climbed over the sand dune, approaching the head slowly. It never moved. Never breathed. Every few steps, Enoch paused to look it over, waiting for any sort of change of shift in its appearance, but nothing ever moved. 

When she was close enough, Enoch stuck her foot out and tapped the muzzle of the head, then at once retreated a few paces, anticipating its ire. But again, it never moved. So Enoch stepped forward again and nudged it once more, boldly leaning her foot against it and thrusting her weight against it. Nothing. So, even more boldly, she raised her ax and tapped it against the hard skin, tilting her head when it clanged.

Puzzled, she turned around and glanced at the others and shrugged, which made more rise up and step over the peek of the crater. Aarav stepped up beside Enoch and peered at the create curiously. “You're right, someone's inside.”
“Yeah.” She said, crouching down to peer into the eye at the man inside. He didn't look alive. He was still, and even as Enoch got on her knees and pressed her face to the see through scale, she couldn't see him breathing. 

A hunter swung his ax against the back of the skull and Enoch jumped, the sound shaking her hands as she leaned on the head. “Warning!” She scolded, rising to her feet again. Aarav bent down instead and peered inside.
“Can we harvest it?”
“Why would we want to?”
“The God of the Hunt has given us a gift!”
“Or the God of Death has.”
“It could be poisonous.”
“It might not be.”
“Are you going to try it?”
Someone else clanged their weapon against the skull, and Aarav knocked his knuckles against the see through scale as Enoch wandered around the head. For some reason, she didn't feel threatened or alarmed by it. 

“Its not for eating.” She said after she'd walked entirely around it.
“How do you know?”
“Its not an animal. Look.” Enoch tapped the side with her hand. “Its made of metal. Like my mother's battle ax.”
“Metal?”
“A metal skull?”
“Is there a metal, headless beast?”
A few of the I'nik's looked up at the sky, paranoid.
“No, look,” Sadr said, tapping the see through scale. “There's someone inside. Its like a hut.”
“A metal hut?”
“What purpose is there for that?”
“It's gone and killed him.”
“Get him out.”
“How?”
Aarav knocked on the scale again. “This doesn't feel too strong. Maybe we can break it.”
“And then what? He's too big to fit through the little hole.”
“Maybe he'd be able to breathe,” Aarav defended, pounding on the scale until Enoch offered him her ax, and he stepped back and began swinging.