'This is not the mountain trail I remember...' Michael thought to himself as he exited the cave he was visiting with his family.

The young man looked back perplexed at the cave entrance, before he stared at the untouched forest visage in front of him.

High trees with thick canopies and lush vegetation all around, blue clear skies with light clouds floating about.

"What the fuck is going on?!" He said slightly hyperventilating, as he began backing up into the cave. On the inside, things were as he remembered them, main chamber, with a hole in the ceiling letting down a beam of light, several side chambers with stalagmites, stalagtites and natural stone columns.

'What changed... we entered with the guide, we began looking around, listening to the usual historical factoids that bore us to death...' the young man then began retracing his steps, going from the main chamber, to each of the side ones exactly as he did before and after a few minutes he stopped.

"Ok then we were about to leave and I stopped to... clean my glasses..." he said starting to mimick the motions, but something didn't feel quite right.

His eyes then widened as he stares at the blurred cave in front of him, glasses in hand. He looked at the cave entrance and then up at the gaping hole in the ceiling where a singular ray of sun shined clearly through.

'I stepped in the sun to see the dust on my lenses and then I came out after everyone else already exited...' he told himself once his mind finally came to the realization.

Michael began to slowly approach the ray of sunlight as the conclusion on his arrival finally crept in his mind, his dry throat swallowing with nervousness swelling inside him.

As his hand was about to touch it, suddenly there was a snorting sound coming from towards the cave entrance.

He flinched as he stared to the cavernous opening, only to see what looked like a humanoid figure, through his blurred vision.

As he did so, he sighed with relief, while putting on his glasses. "Thank God, I am so glad to see someone else, I don't know if I am having a massive brain fart right now, but I panicked for a bit. I think I am getting scared by weird angled view points, but I thought for a moment I was in a differen-..."

The young man talked as he put on his glasses that finally sat on his nose seamlessly and as he looked at the figure, blinking a few times to readjust his eyes, that is when his trail of thought finally broke.

In front of him stood a 6'2" tall bipedal person, covered in brown fur, with a black head of hair, a flat nose that snorted lightly, a somewhat short tail with a tuft of black hair at the end and two big tusks coming out abruptyl from under their lower lip, in a curved manner.

A boar person with feminine yet muscular features stood right in front of him. She was holding what looks like a wooden tray with chunks of meat and fruit on it as well as two rustic candles, light up at one of the tray's edges, letting off soft trails of smoke.

Michael's voice just died in his throat mid sentence, his body locking up slightly. Surpisingly, he seemed as shocked as the boarish individual at the cavern's entrance.

Still, unlike the unusual visitor, the young man began to slowly and carefully move backwards and to the side, to one of the additional cave chambers.

'Oh god please just be be a weird person in a mascot costume...' he prayed in his mind.

++++

This was a day like any other for Gharna. The sun was shining, the wind was coming as a light breeze in the air and her tribe had gone on an early hunt and they caught a Heezil Bird for lunch.

The Tuskir woman stretched as she straightened her back, after tending over a large pelt that she had to aid with curing.

Before getting back to it, she felt something tap on her shoulder. Turning her head back she smiled.

"Ah. Good day, den mother." She replied with a nod of her head.

"Good day to you too, den daughter. Pray tell, how is the Stelk leather coming along? We might need to make use of it soon." The much elderly woman replied as she nodded in the same curteous manner. Compared to Gharna, her brown fur was lighter and her black hair was pulled in long dreads of grey and black, down the back of her head. There was a clear difference in status between the two, as Gharna's clothing leaned more towards the practical, while this elderly individual had a robe of finer more decorative make, of a viridian green with silver thread detail work done on it, still it showed a bit of age. She huffed awaiting an answer, the silver rings pierced through her tusks jingling lightly with her movement.

"A bit longer and it will be done." Gharna replied as she was about to return to work.

"Good. Let it be for now. While your elder sisters are going on the hunt, I need you to take tribute to our cave of the ancients. Make our offering for us. Grab Yenna with you and make the journey." The woman said in a clear tone as she approached and felt the pelt with her furred hand.

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"M-me? But I did the tribute last month." Gharna replied with a clear tone of annoyance in her voice.

"Irrelevant. You, I have chosen for this duty. You shall do it. Understood?" The woman replied in her usual tone, clearly not reacting to the younger one's pouting, annoyed tone.

"Sigh... understood. It shall be done." Gharna replied as she got up and after another head nod she took her leave.

Make her way past some of wooden cabin like homes of her people, she stopped at a slightly smaller one that still had a straw roof. Without so much as a knock or peep, she opened the door.

"Yenna. You awake? Urla asked us to do this month's tribute. Come." The sudden barging in was met by a spooked oink and snort, as a smaller framed boar person seemed to stumble out of a wooden chair.

"Blood sister! How many times do I ask you to knock?!" The younger man's voice said exasperated, as he stood up dusting his plain clothing.

"Many more times before I care." She said with a small snorting chuckle.

"Ha ha. If this impolite barging in, is pay back for wandering on you and Rok, then you are clearly too thick headed to understand it was an accident!" He retorted annoyed.

"Accident or not, it is my duty as the older blood sibling to shove my snoot in my younger sibling's business. You been working on those wooden statuettes again?" Gharna asked leaning on the door frame.

"Yes. But I barely got to it, the den mother had me carving out handles for tools and axes and then to engrave them with the usual runes to make them more durable. Still, it will be a while until Zurra makes proper metal heads for them."

"Understandable. Come. We need to move, the sun doesn't wait for us and I would like to not have to go home by the time it goes down."

With a defeated huff akin to her sister's not long ago, the two then made their way from the small cluster of homes to the small market like area of their village. Although there are wooden stalls here, they were more to put forward goods for travelers willing to buy or used by the Tuskir people here to store diverse tools, pelts or other things on them.

As the blood siblings approached, one of the hunters cutting up the Heezil bird they brought in, stood up and waved to the two coming closer. Quite the catch, that bird was, flightless as it was, it's two muscular legs and large abdomen would make for good meat, while the teal purple tipped feathers and bones of the two heads and necks it has, will certainly come to be beautiful decorations.

"Gherna, Yenna! What are you two doing?" The figure standing at about 6"3' asked welcoming.

"Azhul. You all just arrived with the first hunt pack back?" Gherna replied waving back with a tusky smile and snort, as she approached her slightly bigger friend and gave her a fist bump.

"Not long now. We have just arrived and we began quartering, the second pack already went out to test their fortune within' the wild. What of you?"

"We are going to prepare this month's offering and speaking of. Yenna, would you go and grab some candles and what else we need for the offering? I will take some meat from here once I finish talking with Azhul."

"You don't have to ask me twice, anything that gets me away from girl talk is better." The younger man said with a snort as he already began walking off.

"He is still as much of a green snout as ever, huh?" Azhul said with a chuckle and huff.

"Eh. He is my little brother, and don't you worry. They always say the runts are the ones that get bigger later on." Gherna added with the same humor in her tone as her friend.

"Speaking of men. How are things with you and Rok? I heard whisper in town, Yenna walked on the two of you right as you were about to be gettin' to porkin'." Azhul said with a tusky grin and chuckle as she snorted aggressively loud.

"AAAAGH! Don't remind me! I wish I could forget. I thought I landed myself finally someone who is spouse material, but he's been avoiding me like I am a Yego carrying the Titzi plague." Gharna added as she stomped her booted foot on the ground.

Azhul snorted in small giggles as she went to one of the stalls here and began cutting some large pieces of meat out of a bigger chunk from their catch. "Eh. Things happen as the Brood Mother intends them. Who knows? Maybe you dodged an arrow with him."

She tried saying in a reassuring manner to Gharna, a small smile still plastered on her face.

As the two partook in a bit more idle chit chat, Yenna soon returned with the wood tray with the other offerings necesarry and the candles put in their proper place and light up on the offering platter. "I have gotten everything else in order. Is the meat ready?" He asked as he approached the two larger Taskir women.

Azhul nodded as she took the pieces of meat she has been cutting and she placed them carefully on the offering platter. "You should be good to go. Good luck up the path and see you later."

Gharna nodded to Azhul in response as she gave a pat on the shoulder to her blood brother and the two left through the main wooden gate of their walled in small outpost like community.

After a small brisk walk on a marked dirt trail through the woods, the two began scaling up the carved stone steps going up a steep hill to the offering cave, Gharna noe holding the offering platter for Yenna to rest his arms.

"Do you wish to join me inside?" She asked as she looked back for a moment to see her brother struggling a bit to keep up the steep stairs.

"Nay. My fur has been on the edge of my hide with the Hay-yens possibly attacking outposts around our area. I would much rather keep an eye outside and about, plus dark caverns were never something I enjoyed." He replied with a bit of a huffing panting to his tone.

"Fair enough, but don't wander far and squeal if anything dangerous approaches you. Last thing I want is for my little swine brother to end up a beast's chew toy or worse. The Hay-yens laying a paw on anyone is not a prospect I like to think about."

"They won't. If I can't fend them off, I will be squealing loud enough to make their mutt ears bleed." Yenna said with a chuckle as the two finally arrived at the cavern's entrance.

While the smaller brother sat himself on some rocks, Gherna began approaching the cavern's entrance when her short pointy ears twitched.

'There's someone inside already? Did someone come to bring an offering? Already? Uhhh... if I made this journey because Urla forgot they asked someone to do it longer ago, I swear, Brood Mother, I will lose it.'

Gharna a bit pissed off began stepping into the cave, but quickly did her advance halt much like a horse before hitting a fence. Her expression and body froze as she saw a pink pale furless creature, a large tuft of curly brown hair coming off of the top of it's head, seemingly reaching for the ray of sun shining down on the offering altar of the cave.

'What the truffles is that?!' She thought as she could only let a small snort out in surprise, the creature's brown eyes now looking at her, staggering in movement and letting of some low yet foreign sounds.

'This day is not going as it should...' she thought to herself as the two were now in a weird stand-off.