Chapter 1: The Start

  A man jolted awake, his face pressed against warm, gritty soil. The air felt heavy, thick with the scent of damp earth and something sharp—like copper or ozone. He pushed himself up, groaning, and blinked against the bright sunlight filtering through a canopy of colossal, jagged leaves.

  Confusion set in. His head throbbed, and his mouth was dry as sandpaper. He tried to piece together the last thing he remembered, but his mind was a complete blank. No name, no place, no memory. Just the pounding of his heart and a faint, nagging feeling that he was in danger. His eyes darted around, taking in his surroundings—towering ferns, vines as thick as his arm, and trees so massive their tops vanished into the clouds. It was a jungle, but not like anything he’d ever seen before. It felt... ancient.

  Then he heard it: a rustling in the undergrowth, followed by a low, guttural growl. His instincts screamed at him to move, and he stumbled to his feet. Before he could take a step, a bone-chilling screech cut through the air. Turning slowly, he froze as he spotted them—three velocos crouched low, their sleek, scaled bodies glinting in the sunlight. Their yellow, slitted eyes were locked on him, and their curved claws clicked menacingly against the ground.

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  “Not good. Not good,” he muttered under his breath, his voice hoarse and unfamiliar, even to himself. The velocos shifted, fanning out as they prepared to strike, their tails twitching like coiled springs.

  And then, chaos. The first one lunged, and he barely sidestepped in time, tumbling into the underbrush. The second snapped at his heels as he scrambled to his feet and took off, adrenaline propelling him forward. The jungle became a blur as he dodged low branches and leapt over gnarled roots, his breath ragged and muscles burning. The velocos were relentless, their screeches echoing as they closed in.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something—a dark opening in the side of a rocky cliff. A cave. Desperation pushed him harder, and with a final, lunging leap, he dove into the cave just as the lead veloco’s claws raked the air where he’d been a moment ago.

  Inside, the air was cool and eerily quiet, the screeches of the pack muffled outside. He stumbled further into the darkness, his chest heaving. Just as he began to catch his breath, the cave came alive with a soft, pulsing glow.

  He turned, and there it was—a relic unlike anything he’d ever seen. It was shaped like a coiled lizard, carved from a material that shifted colors under the light. As he stepped closer, the relic seemed to hum, vibrating faintly. Then, a voice—not quite a sound, more like a whisper in his mind—reached out to him.

  “Find me.”