Civilization Chronicles: Rise of the Divine Creator

Misery.

That was all it felt.

That, and the unyielding drive to survive.

It had lost count of how long it had been since it and its pack were mysteriously transported to this foreign place.

The land, the climate, the prey, all of it was vastly different from their homeland.

However, one thing remained the same, the predator.

Even in this cold, wet, barren land, those damn hairless monkeys that used strange tools still existed.

The hairless monkeys here were far weaker than the ones it was used to encountering, but they were as annoyingly numerous as always, outnumbering them 100 to 1, if not more.

To make matters worse, the first settlement they had attacked in order to probe the situation was protected by a particularly powerful female monkey, with many strong subordinates at her command.

Ever since that encounter, it had tried to avoid the nests of those hairless monkeys, sticking to the dense forests and swamps, hunting only when necessary, killing only what it had to in order to survive.

This tactic had always worked in the past.

The hairless monkeys of its homeland were extremely aggressive and malevolent. When they wanted to conquer more land, they expelled all others from it, and when they were hungry, they wiped out whole packs, not even sparing the young.

However, their evil went much, much further than that.

Sometimes, the hairless monkeys would come to their lands and hunt simply to harvest their claws.

Sometimes, the monkeys would invade their homes just to train their younglings.

There were even times that the hairless monkeys attacked just for fun!

Laughing wildly as they committed wanton murder and destruction, not even taking anything from the fallen as a prize, as if doing so was beneath them!

It had experienced several such hunts from the hairless monkeys in the past and had learned a few ways to hide from their senses and avoid their ire, but this time, in this strange land, its knowledge was faltering.

In order to return home, it had to take its pack south-east.

How did it know that?

Instinct.

But in order to move in that direction, in order to return to the warm jungles it was used to, it needed to pass through the heart of the hairless monkeys’ territory.

The first obstacle was a vast river, one that was too wide for many of its pack to swim across.

Fortunately, there was another way to get past this body of water.

Unfortunately, that passage was firmly in the hands of the hairless monkeys.

Attacking from the front was a bad idea, but luck seemed to be on their side as another pack of beasts attacked the hairless monkey’s stone nest, distracting them long enough for it and its pack members to sneak through.

A lot of weaker hairless monkeys tried to get in their way, but they slaughtered them all and dashed across the river before the stronger ones came back.

After that, it decided to lead its pack members into the denser forests to the south, concealing their presences as best they could to avoid the inevitable pursuit.

It figured that after a few days, the hairless monkeys would get bored and give up, but it couldn’t have been more wrong.

Almost immediately, it noticed flying beast ridden by those hairless monkeys searching for them. These flying hairless monkeys probed the forest relentlessly, seemingly determined to hunt them down.

Realizing it had run into a stubborn hunter, one that was both cruel and vengeful, it became even more cautious.

It used every trick it had ever learned to try to throw off its pursuers; doubling back over its tracks, stepping only on hard stone and roots, splitting up the pack and re-grouping later, diving into rivers and lakes to erase its sent and trail, and on and on.

For a time, this seemed to work. It could sense the same powerful hairless monkey it had first fought after appearing in this land was chasing it along with a new pack of four-legged beasts, but it was always able to remain a couple steps ahead of them.

That is, until it made its first big mistake.

In an effort to save time, it had crossed into the borders of a powerful group of beasts.

It had thought that if it moved fast enough, it could avoid a fight.

It was wrong.

The giant, four-legged beasts with sharp, pointy horns on their heads, recklessly charged them and started a huge fight.

Not only did this cause a lot of damage to its pack, it also set off a huge commotion which undoubtedly gave away their position.

Knowing that the hairless monkeys would not miss this disturbance, it went all out to end this pointless fight as quickly as possible and then escaped further east.

Unfortunately, the damage had already been done.

Several of its pack members had been killed, and several others had been heavily wounded.

It would be impossible to hide themselves while bringing the injured along, so in a heart-wrenching decision, it ordered all those who could not keep up to set off in a different direction.

With no other option, it sacrificed one of its mates and several of its children, all in order to give the rest a better chance to survive.

It was a brutal choice, but a necessary one none-the-less. It had to save as many of its kind as possible; if that meant some of them had to die, then so be it.

Having cut off the weak and injured from the pack, it decided that it was time to act bolder.

The hairless monkeys now seemed to be coming from every direction, day and night, by land and by air, so hiding was no longer a viable option.

Gathering what was left of its pack, it headed straight east, still taking measures to conceal themselves, but no longer acting as meticulously. It now traveled through less dense vegetation, didn’t ever double-back, and even emerged onto the paths cleared by the hairless monkeys every now and then.

It also didn’t bother circling around the hairless monkeys’ smaller nests, choosing instead to run past them even if it caused a bit of trouble.

As long as it could get far enough away, it figured that the monkeys would eventually give up.

It was now a race.

4 sunrises later, it despaired, realizing it had made another mistake.

Earlier that day, when passing by a medium sized monkey nest, a particularly powerful flying monkey spotted them; but instead of attacking or retreating, this time it simply followed them.

More flying monkeys soon appeared, all of them now locking their senses onto its pack.

It had been found, and the hairless monkeys obviously didn’t intend to let them out of their sight again.

Even diving back into the thick woods wouldn’t be much help anymore, not with more flying monkeys constantly arriving to monitor them.

There was only one chance now, it had to escape beyond the hairless monkey’s territory.

Realizing this, it sped up, forcing its pack members to run despite their hunger and exhaustion. They could not afford to stop now, or the predatory monkeys would kill them all.

And so, they ran, and ran, and ran, and ran...

Day turned to night, night turned to day, and again turned to night.

Time passed in a blur, but eventually, it reached what seemed to be the edge of the hairless monkey’s territory.

The good news was, upon reaching this border, the flying monkeys which had hounded them day and night finally gave up their chase, giving it and its pack a moment to rest and recuperate.

The bad news?

This border was yet another massive river, one that was even wider and faster flowing than the last.

Thinking about how they would need to find a way across this river, it suddenly had a bad premonition.

Sure enough, after a few days of searching, it determined that the only way across this river was firmly in the grips of the hairless monkeys.

It now made sense why the flying monkeys had stopped following them; they no longer had to.

If they wanted to continue east, they would have to face a massive hairless monkey nest, one that it could already tell was filled with powerful enemies.

It was trapped.

Its pack was trapped.

It now had a choice to make, one it had been avoiding this whole time, but now it seemed it could no longer delay.

The hairless monkeys were truly cruel, forcing it to decide between its life, and the life of its family.

However, that was the law of the world. The strong could decide their fate, and the fate of others around them, while the weak could only meekly accept this judgement and try to find ways to survive.

The following morning, it sensed the hairless monkeys tightening the net around them, and it made its choice.

Glaring in the direction it felt that first evil female monkey, the one that had been pursuing it all this time, it growled vengefully, its heart filled with anger and resentment.

If there was ever a chance, it would rip this hairless monkey limb from limb, but now was not that time.

Now, it could only move forward and hope for the best.