Enjoy this woman’s early life as best as one can, because it does not last. To wit, this is a story everyone knows as it has been told a thousand times. This will be kept brief before it all goes to hell.

In ancient America, there lived a woman named Tiwa. A lighter, tan skinned woman with flowing brown hair, with the brown eyes to match. She was part of a tribe that consumed a fair bit of the eastern coast, and lived well into what we would also know as Canada. Tiwa was a huntress of her small village, a place that housed one or two hundred depending on the season. It was a comfortable, peaceful place. Tiwa herself was agreeable enough, always hard at work but ultimately found home in the wild than she ever did with her own people. This made romance difficult to be sure, and so many families were concerned with popping some kids out to create more warriors, it was not something that appealed to her. Men never did, she noticed.

We won’t be getting into her day to day, as it didn’t last long. She woke one day to screaming, and immediately assumed there was an attack. There was, but it had some odd attributes. Tiwa’s look was one of horror as she left her tent to find one of the girl’s she fancied from afar to be ripped in half. It was messy, and was not cleaved like an axe but torn from her legs (which Tiwa could not locate) as if by teeth. A bear could not have done that in just a single morning, and not without signs of struggle. As she navigated the camp, she slipped on some blood and crashed into another dismembered corpse; that of her chieftain’s.

There were loud thumps that made the ground quake, and Tiwa assumed her potential attacker was approaching. She used the corpse of the chieftain to smear upon herself and faked a corpse while keeping her eyes widen open, to get a look.

What she saw was… difficult for her mind to comprehend. It was a bipedal, spiny creature. Massive, ten feet in length. Spikes and bones protrude through every joint it possessed. It was mostly red, with some beige in the fleshier parts. It’s face and maw were almost fish-like, as if a fish could survive without a face. It was bony and horrific, and she could not keep her eyes off as she watched it take up a fleeing spearman and bit his leg clean off. There was almost no effort to it, this creature picked the man up like she would pick up a small bundle of twigs when starting a small campfire.

More horrifying was the way it dropped the man and chortled some otherworldly cackle as he tried to crawl away, screaming in pain. More creatures ran up behind this beast, smaller and wolf-like but equally as terrifying to her. She tried to hold her breath to keep any noise from leaving her, but her gaze remained locked on the creatures as the man fed the herd. The sounds were probably the worst of all, not all of them foreign to her as a hunter. The cracking of bones upon a slain dear still feels much different than a man screaming for his life as the wolf-creatures with prehensile fingers peeled his skin off. They laughed, too.

They wandered away but she remained in a daze. She took too long, as the village was eventually overrun with the things. All of them were completely unique in appearance, defying description. She still pretended to be a corpse, and the ruse seemed to function well enough. Perhaps the beasts had their fill, as the sounds of feeding ended into the evening. She was dragged alongside her chieftain and tossed upon a corpse pile, to which she might have assumed that a flame would be used to dispose of them. That’s not quite what happened, but flames there still were.

She had some freedom of movement at this point, as the bodies were constantly being rolled on top of each other. The beasts were not neat stackers, and used those moments of shifting and literal dead weight to reposition herself to see what they were all up to. Once again, to her perception, what was happening lacked any description she would know in her language at the time.

There was a circle on the ground, with various pointed lines. The beasts were chanting, and there was some kind of moving light emanating from said circle, like a rune. Nothing she recognized of course, but the ground shook once more and the ground beneath collapsed within itself like a sinkhole. It was incredibly focused, as if an invisible force was digging a perfect circular hole.

Behind the corpse pile (and herself), two or three of the larger, fish-head beasts she saw earlier started pushing them into the hole. This came a decision, to either attempt to flee or let this experience wash over her. She ultimately decided that if she fled she’d be caught, killed and possibly eaten or tossed in the hole anyway. There was no fighting this otherworldly force, and she let herself be swept away into a world unknown.

The experience was strange. It was like being pushed outside a window of a house. There was little change in feeling at all, except heat. A wave of dry heat washed over her as the corpses all flew into a sort of corrupted clearing. It was very rocky, the plant life looked alien and bloodied. Tiwa stood up, briefly surveying the area. It was a rocky pit, but did have some cracks in the side that she made note of, but was too stunned to move. It was very dark, and the sky was entirely alien to her. There were no stars, it was incredibly smokey and there was a red hue to everything. She would know more if she exited the pit, but was halted by the sudden introduction of red eyes crawling down the sides of the rocky pit. She recognized this as it was now; a feeding pit. Her tribe did the same thing, once having a pit of snakes to throw people into when they had commit murder against their own.

A strange light came over the side, causing all of the creatures to halt their feeding to look up and over at something. The sounds of metal and stone clashing could be heard, and Tiwa took this chance to duck and cover behind the corpses of her fallen tribesman to limit any potential eyes to fall on her.

After a few moments, she saw the smaller beasts scatter as the source of the sounds fell into the pit. Two warriors, one of beastily design that started to become reminiscent of the area she found herself in. More humanoid, like men she had seen before but still a contorted, monstrous face. Armored and bladed. The other could not have been more different, shining white and gold. A full-face helmet as well as full metal armor, a gorgeous silver. He seemed to be a source of light, as she could not see any torches or fire on his person. He had a single wing, and as the battling duo came closer she noticed he originally had two as a bird; but one was severed and bloodied. Despite the gorgeous appearance of the creature, his beautiful armor was marred by blood and cuts.

The two were fighting with swords and axes, a brilliant display of skill and zeal. The shiny one became victorious, but she did not count him as a savior just yet. He growled and yelled to the sky, scaring away all the smaller beasts that had been spectating, and he made his way out of the pit’s crevices with a limp. She stood again, breathing heavily and going onward to inspect the slain warrior. A few moments later, she heard a voice. She spun around, fists in the air and ready to claw a beast’s eyes out.

What she saw was another humanoid creature speaking to her. They had absolutely no face or hair to speak of, but did possess a monstrous mouth. They were dressed… cleanly, oddly. Scavenged perhaps but was apparently treated with trims to suit the environment. A completely genderless voice to her perception rang out, but it was smooth and calm. She had no idea what they were saying, and said just as much.

“I don’t know what you’re saying,” Tiwa said in her native Algonquian.

They sighed, trying to speak again. Slower, this time. That did not help.

“What language is that?”

The being placed a palm where normally a forehead would be. They resorted to some basic sign language, offering the universal ‘follow’ hand signal.

She shook her head in the negative.

They looked around, and unsheathed a metal bow and quiver, laying them on the ground neatly. She wasn’t entirely sure what this meant, but they did take a step back. She took one forward. They nodded, motioning towards the bow.

Tiwa assumed it was some kind of gift or at the very least, a type of peace offering. Her own bow was long broken beyond repair, so she took it while never keeping her eyes off the creature. The being did not move, seeming to nod in the affirmative. She took a few moments to inspect the bow in such a way to keep the being in her visuals. It was finally crafted, smooth with runes that seemed to glow on their own. The arrows were also metal and incredibly sharp. She pulled at the string which fought her more than she expected, but after a couple of test pulls she honed in on the strength of it. It would most certainly take some practice.

The creature spoke again.

“Yafa,” they said, while poking at their chest. This was more obvious to her, they were introducing themselves. She ran into this when meeting new tribes.

“Tiwa,” she also said, being sure to accompany it with a similar finger-on-chest mannerism.

They nodded, doing the follow me signal again, to which she complied. They turned their back on her entirely, which she found incredibly odd.

Turns out, Yafa knew a great deal. They knew all of the undercrofts of the area, but she did not get to see much above the pit. After a few hours of this, she got the indication that Yafa was a type of rogue. It was good that she knew some basics of stealth from her hunting, and Yafa seemed to nod in approval to her direction frequently whenever they did not have to correct or yell at her for being too loud when evading the dark knights that patrolled certain areas.

She also learned that not every creature was overtly hostile. Each had a variable level of intelligence. Some of the wolf-like ones that she thought were just dumb dogs would sometimes stand on their two feet and speak to Yafa, and they would retreat casually. Some would ignore them entirely, bigger and dimmer giants would just walk past them.

Ultimately she was led into a secret cave passage where it was clear Yafa lived. A couple of cots were laid out, but it seemed to have a library’s vibe to it. Books and papers were laid out everywhere, and Yafa had a specific goal in mind as they pursued something specific in their collection. They pointed to a chair and table, signaling for Tiwa to sit. Everything here was ramshackled, used, or repurposed in some fashion. Yafa eventually brought a few books and slammed them in front of her, cracking one open and pointing to some drawn pictures that she actually recognized: Some of the entities she had seen several times throughout the last several hours of her wild new life.

Yafa began speaking the same word over and over. When Tiwa didn’t respond, they pointed to their mouth and then at Tiwa. Apparently Yafa wanted her to repeat. They said the same word a couple more times.

“De-mon?” She pronounced similarly as best she could.

Yafa nodded, tapping at the book, turning the page. It was a drawn picture of a heart, which she had seen. They walked away around a corner briefly as she inspected the page. The diagram of the heart had a circle around it, connecting it to a picture of a human figure with some other runes or letters she still had yet to learn.

Yafa returned with a bowl, having a heart within it. It was surprisingly clean, implying it was preserved somehow. It was, however, much larger than a human’s.

They turned the page again, and the same heart diagram was now over the human figures stomach. Oh. Oh no, the picture became more clear.

“You want me to eat that?” She asked.

Yafa slices a part of the heart, one of the tubes that connect the arteries. They slide it into their fanged maw, making sure to give it a nice chew. It also bled which she found odd, because once disconnected from the body, blood stops being produced. They point at the heart again, and then to their own mouths. They begin saying another word, a different word.

“Eat…?” She repeats in the language Yafa is speaking.

They nod. They slide a couple of utensils towards her, one of them definitely being a knife.

Her face contorts into disgust, the realization of the event sinking in.

They slam the table in impatience, crying out “Eat!” with increasing severity.

“Okay, okay!” She says, still unsure if the thing knows what she’s saying. She hastily picked up the knife and two-pronged force and started digging into it.

The first few bites were nothing special, she had eaten raw meat before as the luxury of cooking out in the wild was not always present. However as the ‘meal’ went on, she felt a burning in her throat and stomach that she could not shake. As she grew more uncomfortable halfway in, Yafa’s attention became more severe. Without a face or eyes, they still somehow peered at Tiwa in incredible judgement, hunching over the table with two fists. Whenever she paused, Yafa would grumble and point at the bowl, adamant that she continue.

The blood of the heart poured over her chest and over her bosom, which seemed to have annoyed Yafa. She assumed that she had to consume as much as possible, and made sure to chug some of the blood from the bowl to which they did not protest.

She eventually finished, but could not hold back what was probably going to be vomit. She gagged, and Yafa came over to close her mouth with their palm. They said a few words without understanding but Tiwa probably assumed that she had to keep it down. She had surmised that she was being put through some sort of ritual and vomiting the heart back up would not necessarily be offensive… but impractical.

After a grand deal of effort to keep it down, trying not to move at all, Yafa nodded in approval and took the bowl away to a cavern still unseen. She was left there for a few moments, a burning energy still soaring through her veins as if she ate the world’s worst spice. She shook, but remained locked in place because it felt like if she moved then she’d either vomit or collapse. Perhaps both.

Yafa returned with some… strange device. A few square boxes, dirty as everything else, with a desk on wheels. After pressing a few buttons one of the squares lit up, which made her jump in her seat. A voice came out of the box, more words she couldn’t recognize. Yafa grunted a bit, poking at another device which seemed to affect the other metal square until eventually there was a woman of paler skin speaking from it. Yafa wheeled the device over to her, pointing at their mouth and then prodding at Tiwa’s ears, and finally pointing at the box.

The woman on the box said the same word over again, her mouth contorting severely to emphasize enunciation. A picture of an apple popped up next to her on the square, and she said the word over and over again. Yafa pointed at the screen, and Tiwa started to repeat what the woman was saying.

“...Apple?”

Yafa nodded in approval, and this would go on for quite some time. The ancient american was learning English.