[centre][h3]TOBIA[/h3]
[colour=orangered][i][b]The One By Immortals Altered, The First Formica, The Primordial Ant, The Ancient Xeno, The First Among Creation, Bane of Jvankind[/b][/i]
Level 1 Hero of Vowzra
3 Khookies

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[hider=Summary]
Wherein TOBIA is dealt a mighty and cowardly blow by Allure
Wherein TOBIA is set upon by ants and aphids
Wherein TOBIA uses her mandibles for leverage and escapes
Wherein TOBIA lands in the clearing, wherein lies Astarte’s rock
Wherein TOBIA crawls to the rock and touches it, and is healed of all afflictions and imbued with strange energies
Wherein TOBIA journeys through the Gilt Savannah and the Great Steppe
Wherein TOBIA studies Ashlings on the steppes
Wherein TOBIA follows an elemental into the Firewind desert
Wherein TOBIA studies elementals
Wherein TOBIA continues her journey across and up the Mahd
Wherein TOBIA journeys through the Venomweald
Wherein TOBIA travels through the pass and hears the diabolical sounds of the screeching Jvanic Instrument 
Wherein TOBIA find the instrument, destroys it, and releases Basheer who was trapped within
Wherein TOBIA befriends Basheer
Wherein TOBIA travels to the Valley of Peace
Wherein TOBIA lives with the hain of the Valley of Peace and is admired much by them
Wherein TOBIA travels further north and witnesses the terrifying forests of the utmost north
Wherein TOBIA travels east along the forest edge until she reaches the ocean
Wherein TOBIA discovers her aquatic abilities
Wherein TOBIA discovers the purpose of her great trek: she has found Jvan
Wherein TOBIA swim towards Jvan and cries out her melodic warcry
Wherein TOBIA buries her mandibles in Jvan

2 Khookies consumed to Level Up to Level 2[/hider]

[hider=Inspiration][youtube]https://youtu.be/mB5rsayMxrg[/youtube][/hider]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/gPwafyf.png[/img]

[b][colour=orangered][h3]The Tremendous Trek of TOBIA[/h3][/colour][/b][/centre]

The chase came to an end before a hideous being. So hideous was he, in the eyes of The One By Immortals Altered, that she had to consider for a few seconds whether he was Jvanic or not. Repulsed though she was by his aura, it soon became apparent that he was indeed a natural being. It was strange that she felt so repulsed by him – he was more repulsive to her than any being, Jvanic or otherwise, she had ever witnessed. His ugliness was not physical – indeed, he was physically rather pleasant on her eyes – but it was the aura he exuded, the sounds he made (which were most likely his primitive method of communication), the unbearably intrusive smell which pervaded his general area. Were it not for the fact that he had brought an end to the Jvanic Feline, The One By Immortals Altered would not have hesitated to bring an end to his pontifical existence.

As it were, The One By Immortals Altered was not some beast, it knew how to honour a debt and it would leave this one to enjoy life but a little longer. The Primordial Ant turned away from Vainglory Personified, leaving him to pontificate away in his primitive tongue, but before the First Formica had so much as taken a step away, it sensed the coming of a most deplorable treachery. So honourless and hideous a being she had never, and would never, know, for he struck her a most ruinous blow when she had turned away. She could not react or protect herself from the strange powers of Vainglory Personified and pain soon ripped through her lower body as every one of her smouldering, fiery legs was severed from her body. And the Primordial One fell helpless to the earth. And she heard the strange, rather nauseating, laughter of her tormentor as he pontificated one last time before he was gone.

Clicking her vicious mandibles in pain, the Primordial Ant attempted to move herself, but to no avail. Her blood pooled around her and her severed legs twitched, and the small scavengers of the Deepwood homed in on her. The first were the ants. Swarms came to investigate the helpless formica, and they began picking at the Primordial Ant’s severed limbs. Then came a group of Stripe-faced Aphids, led by a larger aphid with dark-green stripes across its face and body, and each one had a small sharpened stick in hand. Alarmed at the mounting danger, the Primordial Ant rolled to her side and locked her powerful mandibles before digging one into the earth. Once secured, using the mandible for leverage, she snapped her jaws shut and was launched into the air at terrifying speeds, over the heads of the opportunistic aphids and their alpha, and up above the trees of the Deepwood. At one point she collided with a Marble-eyed Gargoyle who screeched in shock and attempted to flee its unlikely attacker – after all, ants did not fly, it had thought itself safe from the pests up here. It eventually tore itself free from the large ant, and the First Formica began her slow descent towards the Deepwood ground. Branches broke beneath her weight and larger ones were severed by the power of her mandibles as she made her single-minded journey to the forest floor. Had she been a being of soft flesh, she would have most likely suffered many broken bones and injuries, and maybe even death. But she was not, and so she survived.

Upon landing, she immediately raised her head and surveyed her surroundings. A few small creatures had made their escape upon her sudden appearance, but other than that it did not seem like there was any danger here. She felt slight relief and allowed herself to rest for a few seconds, shutting her mind off and falling into a swift sleep, from which she quickly awakened with her senses screaming that something was not right. She looked around once more and this time noticed the cracked, glowing rock, and she took note of the trees, for they had strange vein-like structures upon them. The forest around her was suddenly very quiet, and the Primordial Ant thought she could hear a very distant, most alluring sound calling to her. And it came from the rock and emanated from the trees. It filled her with complete serenity, but her senses screamed at her to escape this place. Ignoring her senses, she pulled herself towards the glowing rock with her mandibles so as to inspect it more closely. The moment she rested her head upon the strange rock, an incomprehensible level of pain filled her being. Her mandibles opened wide in horror and shock – she should have listened to her senses…

For the briefest moment, everything became a blend of darkness and light, and when The One By Immortals Altered regathered her wits, she was standing upon her own six feet again. A strange crimson and lavender aura spiralled lazily around her. The spiral came to an end at the ant’s ancient head, and the fires of the Primordial Ant intermingled with the crimson and lavender, and her colouration changed. Different energies flowed across her exo-skeleton in constantly changing patterns and shapes, and the colours went from darker to lighter shades and would continue to do so perpetually. But what was more notable was the change that the Primordial Ant felt. She did not understand the change, she did not know what had happened – other than the fact that her legs had grown back – but she knew that she would find out when Time dictated and Fate willed. She examined the strange obelisk once more, trying to sense the essence of it. It was not Jvanic or unnatural, that much was clear, she did not sense anything from The Gap (for she had traversed that place for millennia and would know if this was it). What was undeniably clear was that this was the working of a divine being, though the Primordial Ant knew not who. Whoever it was, however, the First Formica was most grateful indeed. The divine creator of this great obelisk had saved her from certain, torturous and long-winded death and she would be forever grateful. It was clear that Fate and the divines had willed she survive, had willed she continue her mission, had willed she take her vengeance upon the one who had transgressed all bounds and tormented her beyond all measure and whose vainglory knew no limits. Rubbing the segment of her gaster, upon which was a patch of tiny ridges like a file, with the curved ridge (the scraper) on her petiole, the Primordial Ant raised her head high and spoke, and her speech was an oath. The musical sounds and vibrations rang out before the hallowed obelisk as the First Among Creation stridulated.

[colour=orangered][i]‘So long as your blessed energies run within me, so long as life soldiers and drums on within: I shall not cease from Mental Fight nor shall death know sleep across all the land. This is my oath, till Jvanics and Vainglory alike are cleansed from Galbar's highest peaks and lowest valleys, from its most savage soils and sweetest clays and sands.’[/i][/colour]

[centre][img]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xtzWUVCUnqyzT1fo7KsOlASnwn6-wt2ldP1IWW8fx5rI1-tzZGcxOfi8vlB1OksREZIF=s630-fcrop64=1,000005b8fffffa46[/img]
[colour=orangered][i]'Hear my oath, ye gods on high.'[/i][/colour][/centre]

With her oath taken, the Ancient Xeno set out from the Deepwoods and onward to the east. She passed through the Gilt Savannah before that coalesced with the Great Steppe, which stretched on towards the Changing Plains, merged with the Golden Barrens and stretch ever onward towards the Valley of Peace in the north-east. For many long years did she stalk the steppes, bringing down all Jvanic and unnatural beings she crossed. It was on those very steppes that she encountered her first Ashlings and Elementals. She was shocked at the Ashling’s attempts to penetrate her exo-skeleton and possess her. She had panicked and made a swift escape. After all, she had never seen such a being and its attempts to enter her were terrifying to the Primordial Ant – it reminded her very much of the horrific creatures that had existed in The Gap and the terrible things they had attempted to do to her. Even the thought sent vibrations of fear through the xeno's body.

After a good few years of carefully stalking and observing the strange beings, she began to understand their behaviour. Regardless of how they acted, it was clear to her that they were unnatural beings and so she destroyed them wherever she crossed them – her mandibles crushed their chests, cutting through them as easily as Time passed through Life and with the fury of Fate behind her every ambush and strike. But she strangely felt that there was more to her domination of the Ashlings than the pure power of her mandibles or swiftness of her movement, or even the superiority of her tactics. There was something else at work within her body which she did not understand, something which gave her mandibles a sharpness beyond the norm and her poisons a potency they had not had before. It confused her greatly, but more than anything it scared her. Something had happened to her of which she was unaware and which she could not understand, someone – or something – had changed her according to their whims. It terrified her to think that there was some unknown entity which had implanted something unknown within her and wielded an unknown amount of power and authority over her.

Trying not to dwell too much on the matter, the Primordial Ant eventually decided that the time had come for her to move on from the steppes. Over a three-month period, she stalked a newly formed wind elemental across the Golden Barrens and into the blazing heat of the Firewind Desert. Here the Primordial Ant came to learn many lessons about the strange elementals and the desert itself. She watched smaller ants and creatures and came to understand how they survived in the desert. Though the various species of desert ants were very resistant to the heat, they were vulnerable to a number of predators and only emerged for a brief period when the sun was at its highest in the sky and the temperatures at their most severe. When all other creatures hid away from the blistering heat of the desert, ant-kind emerged to forage for food. The harsh desert meant that odours, tracks and all methods of knowing how far one ventured from the nest were very quickly lost, and so the ingenious ants used the sun and the number of steps they had ventured from their nest for navigation. Beneath the desert sands, the ants built and prospered and warred, only venturing above ground when the sentries announced that the heat of day had reached its peak and all the predators were cowering in the shade.
The One By Immortals Altered watched, too, the elementals and began to fathom the hierarchy which existed among them. Powerful djinnis commanded lesser elementals and the greatest djinnis established their authority over all elementals, even expanding and attempting to establish control over other types elementals. There was something strangely ant-like about them, except that they lacked the one-minded efficiency of ants. 

The beings earned her admiration, but there was no denying that they were unnatural. Much as she willed herself to attack them, however, something told her that there was something she had not yet understood. Despite their clearly unnatural nature, they were neither Jvanic nor chaotic. Nor, indeed, did they have about them the tell-tale eldritch aura of The Gap. If anything, they reminded her of the great obelisk. It was upon seeing, for the first time, the very formation of an elemental that her mind pierced into the heart of the matter and she understood: anomalies in the very being of the universe, it was from them that these elementals emerged. Anomalies which had, somehow, become an intrinsic part of the Universe. The Primordial Ant, The First Among Creation, knew that these things had not existed in the beginning, they had not been inherent in the Universe when she had come into being many eons ago. They had [i]become[/i] inherent. What mighty – and foolish – being had made this fatal alteration? Was this the Will of Fate? Had Time dictated that this be so? No matter how hard she thought, she could not know, oh! she could not know.

Lost in her many thoughts, her curiosity one day got the better of her and she decided that she wanted to know what would happen if she touched a flicker. The desert had taught her much, and she dug deep into the desert sands as the smaller ants and desert mice did. Unlike them, she could not delve too deep, but remained just beneath the surface – deep enough to be undetectable, and rather than ‘tunnelling’ through the sand, she swam and used her heightened sense to guide her way. Finding a good position where she had oft seen dust wisps form (the place seemed to be some kind of hotspot for their formation), she lay in wait, her senses tuned. The moment she sensed a flicker hovering above her location, the First Among Creation burst forth in a great explosion of sand, her mandibles cutting at the flicker which had just about begun to morph into a dust wisp upon contact with the sand. And she passed right through it. Upon landing, she turned to see what had become of the flicker, but found no budding wind elemental there. It seemed like her intervention had somehow disrupted the process, for she had not sensed an elemental at all. The flicker simply disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Or, to put it more accurately, it had [i]burst[/i]. She had felt the slightest magical pressure as she passed through it, a small level explosion of sorts. Rather than escape, it seemed that she had in fact destroyed the flicker. This piqued the interest of the ant. She had assumed that even if she attacked these ethereal beings, they would not be affected by her physical body – even if her body had been changed. She needed to experiment further, she needed to see if the flicker had merely acted in a strange way or if it was her intervention that had caused the small explosion.

She watched the area and saw two elementals form, she then intervened when the third was about to form, and her results were the same as the first time. Her third intervention bore the same results. This was indeed fascinating. Pushing her curiosity further, she decided to wait on the elemental to fully form before attacking it. Would her attack affect an elemental? She very soon found out, as the shriek of a newly-formed wind wisp was cut short by the snap of her mandibles. Twice more she tried this, with a similar result. Perhaps, she thought to herself, not enough time had passed and the elemental still retained the properties of the flicker at that early stage of its life. If she stalked the elemental for a few weeks, would the result be any different?

And so when the next wispy elemental formed, she did not pounce upon it immediately, but stalked it for a long while, watching its every action with an astute, unwavering gaze. How it fed and grew in power, how it humbled itself before those older and larger and more powerful than it. Things it had seen before but not looked so deeply and carefully into as she did now. She found the fact that they mostly ignored her rather interesting. Were they not aware that she watched them? Did they not know that she could see and detect them? Were they not sentient? Or perhaps they did not deem her worthy of expending their attention on, or not interesting enough. She knew well that giant ants did not exist anywhere bar the Deepwood, so she thought it unlikely that a giant ant would not attract their attention.

[i][colour=orangered]Perhaps, then[/colour][/i] she thought to herself, [colour=orangered][i]they are avoiding me.[/i][/colour] Why they would do so, she did not know, but it seemed the only logical reason – for she strongly doubted that they merely lacked sentience. Their interactions with one another showed clear signs of intelligence and a complex, multi-tiered social organisation. More complex than that of ants, that could not be denied. But perhaps that also added to its inefficiency. The simplicity of the social organisation of ants, along with their single-minded unity, made them far more effective and efficient. The strength of ant-kind was in their [i]lack[/i] of sentience and absolute unity, whereas these elementals were weakened by their sentience – it complicated their social structure and divided them among themselves. But then again, they were beings which wielded strange and wondrous powers that required sentience to realise, so sentience, while being their greatest weakness and flaw, was also their greatest strength. It was truly fascinating.

When the elemental she had been stalking had reached its third week, she sauntered stealthily towards it, her exo-skeleton changing colours and camouflaging her against the desert sands and haze caused by the blistering heat. As she neared, she slowly allowed herself to sink into the sand until she was swimming in it with nothing but her head above the surface, and homed in on her test subject.

Once she was twice her own length from the elemental, she tensed her powerful legs and burst forward at shocking speeds. The three-week old elemental screeched and whipped sand towards her, but her exo-skeleton deflected the sands and her mandibles closed in upon the nigh-undetectable wisp. Whatever power there was within her seemed to cause a powerful reaction within the wisp and it cried out even louder than before, and its life was forever extinguished. Standing there in the sand, The One By Immortals Altered could not help but feel a level of dissatisfaction at victory so easily attained, but her curiosity had been sated and so, after years upon rolling years, she deemed it Time to move on. 

Crossing the mighty Mahd, she followed it the north and saw the strange beings that Life had left behind in her trail. Indeed, these natural beings seemed to take on the properties of unnatural beings just as readily. Their shapes and forms were utterly [i]wrong[/i]. Giant spider-like creatures and others with tentacled faces, and others with multiple feet and no discernible face – a blob with feet. But others were very pleasing, such as these little ones which had within them the attributes of crocodile (which were abundant on the Mahd) and dog. They were playful little creatures and The One By Immortals Altered enjoyed chasing and being chased by them. Another creation which caught her attention and gained her approval was a strange communal animal, reminding her of the Stripe-faced Aphids in some ways. They used sticks to fish, though they did not seem sentient, and burrowed into the ground near the river. Beautiful creatures, there was no denying. And delicious too. 

She continued up along the Mahd, observing its hippopotami and alligators, its powerful Rhinos and its many species of fish. The giant Mahd crocodiles were a sensation also, and the Primordial Ant personally witnessed the creature’s power as it brought down a great wildebeest, leaving it on the bank to dry until it was ready for eating.

The Mahd monitor, while nothing like the crocodile, could grow up to seven feet in length and was a formidably aggressive predator, feeding on small animals, fish and birds. That was not to say that it could not potentially harm larger creatures too. Indeed, all had best beware, for it had a nasty bite and a powerful, whip-like tail. On its banks and within its depths there also dwelled the strange Mahdian soft shelled turtle. Many were the Mahd’s birds, many its toads and lizards, many its snakes. Slough had made the desert bloom. Here, on the Mahd, did she dwell for unknown years, and despite the strangeness of some of Life's creations, she came to cherish them all.

[centre][img]https://cbsmiami.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/nile-monitor.jpg?w=600&h=360&crop=1[/img]
Fear the Monitor of the Mahd, for a Mighty being is She[/centre]

But no stay was ever permanent, onward did the relentless ant move, until, following one of the Mahd’s tributary rivers, she arrived at what others knew as the Venomweald, but was to the Primordial Ant a Vicious Place indeed. Everything within it attacked her, and its ponds sent the ant’s senses into a frenzy – indeed, at one point she witnessed the fall of a small insect in there, and what emerged was horrific beyond comprehension. Tigers-which-were-not attacked her, Lizards-which-were-plants, horrifically deformed rats and giant wasps-which-were-plants. Flowers had teeth and trees attempted to trap her and consume her. Four-eyed, six-legged dogs whose jaws could open beyond what could ever be right and jaws so full of razor-sharp teeth that the poor ant clicked her mandibles in disgust and swiftly decapitated the unnatural-yet-natural. It horrified her senses to think that such things were indeed natural, but there was simultaneously awe within her. The might of nature was far beyond all things unnatural. It encompassed even the most horrific things, and all the beautiful things, and so nature was ever superior to all things unnatural – in ugliness and beauty both, in naturalness and unnaturalness too.

Despite her appreciation of the arguable beauty of this Vicious Place, the Primordial Ant chose to move swiftly away, for she had once been in another Vicious Place, and she knew that such places became more vicious the longer one remained. She did not wish to discover the most vicious of all things – and she could almost sense the Beast, she could feel its abominable, ghastly gaze upon her. The Primordial Ant knew she could deal with some monstrosities in this Vicious Place, and escape others, but she knew with certainty that she was as vulnerable before the Beast as flickers were before her.

Travelling due east along the Ironheart Range, she soon arrived at a great pass leading through the mighty mountains, and she headed through it. The howling of the wind and a strange creature was all the ant could hear. No matter how she shifted her antennae, she could not work out wherefrom the sound came. The mountains caused the sound to echo and its source became impossible to detect. But the sound was, there was no other word for it, haunting. And it fetored with Jvanic taint. The very air had become tainted, and wherever the sound reached became impure by it. It was insufferable! She had to find the diabolic source of this diabolic sound.

For weeks she sweeped all over the pass and in the mountains around it, doggedly following her antennae. As the weeks dragged on, the sound grew and she knew that she was getting ever closer to the foul source. A month dragged by, and still she hounded the sound. At one point a Jvanic Feline happened to cross her path, and the maddened ant screeched a most terrible warcry before pouncing upon the thing and tearing it limb from limb – or, more accurately, hair from hair.

Incensed even further by the encounter, she continued her tenacious hunt. She lost count of the weeks and months that passed, and nights and days merged and became one, but one day her antennae finally led her to a most deceptive part of the Ironheart. There upon the mountain face was an object most tragic and foul. From it emanated unadulterated Jvanic energies and the unmistakable scourge of The Gap. And there was a djinni in there, and the unholy sounds were the wretched creatures perpetual screams of agony and misery and untold despondency. Enraged by this most foul, sadistic and heinous act, the Ancient Xeno leapt upon the Jvanic instrument and tore into it. The taint would be cleansed, the woebegone creature would be freed.

As she tore at the thing, the notes of the djinni within began to change. There remained pain and misery, and the eons of trauma would never disappear, but now there was hope. Her powerful mandibles broke away at the degenerate instrument, and soon enough the djinni was able to break free of what remained of it.

‘GLORY BE!’ came his mighty, thundering voice, ‘FOR I AM FREE!’

[centre][img]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/b5/8e/e3/b58ee3908bb53eba3ae6ea93ac9936bf.jpg[/img]
'GLORY BE!' thundered he, a Djinni huge and mighty.[/centre]

Above them, the clouds gathered and thundered also, and the winds picked up, and the Primordial Ant wondered if she was safe in the presence of this impossibly powerful elemental – indeed, he was easily one of the most powerful she had ever seen. Slowly, she began to back away, hoping to make a swift getaway before the being noticed her. But it was not to be, for his voice thundered and his command was heard as though it were a thunderclap.

‘COME!’ and at those words, the winds surrounded the ant and carried her up towards the djinnis face. The Ancient Xeno let out a terrified screech and attempted to claw and cut her away out of the clear trap. At any moment now the djinni would consume her as she had seen them consume other creatures – and even each other! – before. But the winds did not become harsher, they only softened, and a gentle breeze flowed through her antennae, and his voice came more gentle and sweet.

‘Do not fear, for you are one I hold most dear. No wind shall harm you and no flame shall sear, for you have befriended great Basheer!’ though The One By Immortals Altered could not understand what the words spoken were, the wind djinni also seemed to naturally speak in vibrations. Those were picked up and the ant understood what had been said, and they calmed her down greatly, though she still felt anxious about the great height she was at. Not only was she in mid-air, she was very high up on a mountain. A fall from here would not end well, even with her exo-skeleton.

‘Ask and you shall be given, command and you shall be obeyed, for you have saved me from a fate most wicked, and in my hour of weakness gave me help and aid,’ came the vibrations. Flattered though she was by his words of thanks and praise, the Primordial Ant sought no reward, it was reward enough to cleanse the world from Jvanic taint and put an end to the misery of all creation therethrough.
[colour=orangered][i]‘It is enough,’[/i][/colour] she stridulated, [colour=orangered][i]‘that you are free of your torment and that this friendship has been forged.’[/i][/colour]

Basheer surveyed the ant, her answer was pleasing to him even though he wanted to reward her for her help in some way. It irked him to feel that a debt he owed was to go unpaid.

‘A friendship you have asked for, and a friendship you shall have. Wherever you go and wherever your feet lead you, know that the wind shall ever be your ally. If ever you are in need, just let my name drop upon the winds, and I shall be there with the Legions of Air,’ and with that, the mighty djinni took off down the mountain, placing the ant safely down at the end of the passage, leading across a thin stretch of savannah towards the Nice Mountains and Valley of Peace.

‘A hundred times, I thank you, a thousand times I thank you. The winds shall sing praises of you, and they shall ululate my thanks. Will you seal our friendship, my friend, by allowing me the honour of hearing you name?’

Bowing her head deeply, the Ancient Xeno stridulated melodically once more.
[colour=orangered][i]‘It is I who is thankful, and I who sing you praises, great Zephyr, and it is I who is honoured by your friendship. I am The One By Immortals Altered, I am the Primordial Ant, the Ancient Xeno, the First Formica, the Bane of Jvankind, the First Among Creation. I am TOBIA.’[/i][/colour]

Basheer’s ethereal face appeared to break out into a smile, and a thunder clap of laughter left his chest.
‘A most noble creature have I befriended this day, call upon me, friend, for I shall never be far away,’ and with those last words, the djinni launched himself into the air and dispersed, free at last after unknown eons of wretched imprisonment.

Allowing herself a few moments to reflect on the happenings of the past half hour alone, The One By Immortals Altered wondered what the ramifications of destroying a Jvanic relic would be. She had hunted down Jvanic beings of all kinds, Jvanic Sculptors and Jvanic Felines, but never had she destroyed a Jvanic relic. Vibrations of fear filled her, and she decided to move swiftly from this place, for despite the silencing of the diabolical sound, the place was still saturated with Jvanic taint, and it would take many decades for nature to reclaim what had been consumed by the unnatural. 

Onward, ever onward, she went, coming to the great Nice Mountains. Here, all was peace, and the law was serenity. She explored the idyllic spot and thought on the jarring difference between a place such as this and that Vicious Place. Here even the predator took mercy on you, yet there the most peaceable creature was a feral and bloodthirsty thing. Here strange beings of pure light glided on their wings, and there were strange sentient creatures who had perfectly white porcelain shells and gibbered to one another in their primitive language of the tongue. They took an interest in the huge ant and were energetic in approaching her – for the peace of the valley had grown on them and made them fearless, and they knew that nothing could harm them so long as they remained in their little paradise. Hain children ran about her legs and those who felt brave attempted to jump upon her back, while those older and wiser brought her gifts of fruits and berries. And she ate and was pleased.

She did, however, sense that a Jvanic being had been present in the valley not too long ago. It greatly distressed her to think that such unnatural beings could enter this little paradise. It was the purest and most clean of places that were easiest to defile, and there was no place cleaner and more pure than the Valley of Peace, and so the Primordial Ant feared for the safety of the hain and all the creatures which dwelt in the valley. Seeing that there was nothing she could do to protect the sacred place, other than hope that whatever divine guardian had created it continued to protect it, the First Formica returned to frolicking with the pleasant hain. 

Blissful years and decades passed, and the decades into centuries formed, and never did she grow restless or feel a need to depart, and it was then that she understood the subtle danger of this place. For beings who only wished for life, there was no place better than this valley, but for the Bane of Jvankind, the guardian against all things unnatural, there was no place more lethal. And so she gathered herself up and, much to the shock and protestations of the valley’s hain, departed. The young hain would grow, and stories of the ‘Ant Goddess’ whose coming marked the end of the strange, haunting howls would be passed from those who had seen her to those who had not. And they would glorify the one who rid them of the Howling Horror, and they would praise and remember, and they would always place offerings of fruits and berries near ant mounds in her honour and for her pleasure and in hope of her promised return.

She travelled north through the savannah, and the savannah gave way to sparsely forested and frozen plains, which gave way to heavy forests coated in snow as far as the eye could see. And the trees exuded a most unusual, rather spine-chilling, aura. It was almost as though they were [i]alive[/i]. She sometimes thought she saw movement in the darkness of the woods, and she thought she heard other-worldly, disturbingly beautiful, humming. It was nothing short of terrifying to the Ancient Xeno, and she stuck to the edge of the snowy jungle and travelled further to the east. Terrifying forests to the left of her, barren plains to the right of her, and when she had travelled far enough, a great ocean beyond whose seawater smell carried on the winds even across the plains. 

Her eastward trek came to a stop when she found a distinctly different, yet similar, jungle rearing up before her. Though this one was lush and green and relatively free of ice, there was still an unnatural darkness within it. She could not see beyond the first few trees, and she felt that there were untold hundreds of eyes in that darkness, gazing right into her. There was the same hum, the same aura, and she heard the odd squeal from within, the thumping of feet…

[centre][img]http://i.imgur.com/f1znvmz.jpg[/img]
What fearsome horrors lie in these darkened deeps, whose unbroken gaze knows neither rest nor sleep. What hums in there, what unknown being, what curse? Is that the gaze of death, the chant of grief, the marching hearse...[/centre]

Terror gripping her, she turned and flew towards the ocean. She did not stray too far into the barren plains, and she did not get too close to the strange jungle’s edge. What she could see was that this was a place abandoned by mortals and immortals alike. The plains rolled on endlessly, and the blue ocean rose up beyond, and there was not a hint that life existed here. The skies were empty and the land devoid of all living things, natural be they or otherwise. She traversed the Jungle and continued on into the plains, deeper and deeper, closer and closer to the sea. Until one day she found herself at the coast, and without thinking she leapt forward and began swimming. For the longest time she kicked and struggled, keeping her head above the water, but she soon tired and simply allowed herself to float, directing herself here or there as well as she could. 

And she would have continued like so were it not for the fact that some strange creature caught her leg and pulled her under. Panic struck her and she flailed around beneath the water, attempting to find her silent attacker. Her mandibles struck wildly and she thought she cut something, but when her eyes refocused there was nothing. As she continued to flail, she came to realise that her body was moving rather wildly in the water and without direction – but it was [i]moving[/i]. With this realisation, she tried to calm herself down and identify how it was that she was surviving beneath the waves. Much as she thought, she could not understand – though she well-knew that some species of ant could dwell in rivers and stay beneath the water for great lengths of time. She had never thought herself like them.

As she experimented with her swimming abilities, she began to see more clearly some of the wonders that dwelled within the great expanses of saltwater. Fishes of all shapes and sizes, some glistening brightly while others took on duller hues. Massive ones with sharpened teeth who swam by threateningly, and other friendlier types who came and gazed at her curiously before swimming off. At one point a huge fish with a grey hide and faded stripes charged towards her, and the ant lashed out with her powerful mandibles. The fish quickly scurried away, leaving a trail of red behind.

Huge whales swam by and great lumbering black and white fish which gave the swimming ant a few less-than-friendly glances. She swam on, eager to get out of the water as soon as possible. While she was ecstatic to discover her aquatic capabilities, she did not want to linger around any longer and discover the limits of those same abilities. And so she climbed ashore and continued along the coast until she arrived at a great mountain range which she suspected to be an extension of the same Ironheart range she had crossed long ago. The only way across was a thin body of water which flowed through a strange shallow breakage in the range. With the smallest bit of fear, she allowed herself to enter the waters once more and began her swift swim across.

She immediately felt the difference between the waters she was leaving and the ones she was entering. Behind her the waters were terribly salty, but the ones she was entering, though undeniably brine, were almost sweet in comparison. And here different kinds of creatures dwelled. Though they were rather awe-inspiring and she wished to stay longer and examine them, she had the strangest feeling of [i]urgency[/i] growing within her. It was as though she had been on a single-minded journey towards something, and her goal was fast approaching. And so she came ashore once more, on the other side of the mountains this time, and continued onward along the coast. And as she walked speedily, and her urgency grew, she began to feel a most horrific, a most undeniably familiar, aura. And she stopped at the coast and allowed her perceptive eyes to look on. And she saw it with a frantic eye: the beating heart of bastardy. A fleshly thing, impure, unclean, to render dead with dagger keen: here mandibles had found their Fate this day!

And with that, she leapt into the water, screeched a terrible warcry, and swam with all the speed she could muster towards the pulsating source of Jvankind. And getting there, she gripped the horrid and most hideous flesh with her claws, and she climbed thereon, and she navigated her way onto the creature until she had reached its apex. And there she defiantly stood, releasing one last, melodic note towards the heavens, before she jabbed her ancient head downwards, and dug her mandibles into the Beating Bastardy.

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Tigers of Ants[/centre]