The Heart Eater

Taguban and Petara's journey eastward was a long yet gentle decline in elevation followed with a cooling of the air and a transition from warm tropical volcanic peaks to a cool mossy temperate rainforest. The pair had adopted Tagunban's previous schedule of brief sporadic resting period followed by long hours of trekking through wilderness. A handful of times they had close calls with Aegata the Manhunter close on their heels though thanks to Petara’s spiritual lookouts Tagunban could easily pick her up again and run away quickly with use of the Thunder Step to create some distance. Though as they trekked through dirt path cutting through moss covered ground Tagunban began to wonder. “What I don't understand is how he keeps catching up to us? The Thunder Step should be putting us days ahead of him yet he always finds a way to sneak up on us.” Tagunban asked Petara, his mind flooded with confusion. “I've been thinking of that actually, I believe it has something to do with his Mupepe alignment. I don't think he can fly, one of us would have seen him do so by now. Being a manhunter my theory is that he can track our scent on the wind, and if he can track our scent he might not have to follow trails like we do.” Petara explained as she walked. “How does that save him time? We aren't walking these old trails for the sake of a romantic stroll.” Taguban argued. “I was getting to that. Now if he can reinforce his arrows with wind to point they make whole ebony trees explode i would be shocked if he couldn't reinforce his jumping in some way like most Mupepe users. I think he has our scents no matter how far away we are and he's jumping through rough conditions quickly to cut us off as we make our way down these winding trails.” Petara elaborated further. “Got any ideas to shake him or keep ahead then?” Taguban asked, agreeing with Petara’s explanation. “Well besides from you carrying me and jumping through the rough terrain the same I do not.” Petara answered in turn. “Too risky to overdo the Thunder Step, if I'm completely spent and he still catches up to us then we're both going to add to his legend. We'll just have to stick with our current tactic of using the Thunder Step as a last resort and hope we can get to your old traveling partner before he can catch us.” Tagunban responded as he shook his head. Thus the long journey continued, more near encounters with Aegata the Manhunter hot on their trail like a hound to his master’s quarry. The pair would largely have to rely on Petara’s knowledge of wild edibles in the Cold Coast and Tagunban's hunting abilities to keep themselves fed. Though water was no issue, as the ample moss could easily have their water wrung out into their mouths as they walked. While there were large rivers to cross Tagunban would simply pick up Petara and use the Thunder Step to either leap the river entirely or leap from river islands to the opposite shore, though if Petara's theory held true it was no doubt Aegata was doing the same. Weeks had passed with a half dozen more close calls with Aegata yet the pair finally arrived at a Sea Tribe village which sat upon the sandy shores of a small cove. Small huts dotted throughout the village, triangular in shape with wooden walls and thatched roofs that reached the ground. Through a handful of large buildings in the center of the village stood out to Tagunban, made purely out of wood and elaborately decorated with paint and carvings yet they were missing their entire front walls. As they walked many villagers would give the pair the side eye, especially Tagunban with his axe. The villagers were heavily tattooed on the face with both linear and spiraling patterns, while their bodies were more lightly tattooed with elaborate patterning. The men wore flax skirts and large cloaks made of flax, woven bird feathers, or animal skins. The women wore similar dress but with feathers woven in their hair and their cloaks worn over one shoulder and under the other armpit to cover their breasts. Petara would lead the pair to a middle aged man sitting in one of the open air wooden buildings who was flanked by two very tall guards holding iron axes. The guards stood stone faced as Petara walked up to the man and started speaking a language Taguban had no understanding of. After they spoke Petara turned around with an annoyed glare on her face before she spoke to Tagunban again in the language of the Highland Tribe. “It seems our reinforcement left the village a week ago on a hunting trip, we'll have to track him down.” Petara translated to Taguban as she started walking. “Can't we just wait here? Aegata won't attack a whole village just to get to me, he's too honorable for that.” Tagunban responded as he grabbed Petara's shoulder. “Not unless you want to wait for a month. I know Oranui too well to just sit and wait for him to show up eventually.” Petara states as she brushed Tagunban's hand off her shoulder and kept walking. Taguban shrugged and walked with her, trusting her knowledge in her old traveling partner. Petara would ask the man another question, to which the man pointed and Petara started walking with Tagunban following behind her. Soon they left the village and were walking up the serene coastline, their ears filled with the natural orchestra of the waves crashing upon the rocky beach. Petara would then pull out her Tsentsak dart from the sash of her loincloth “Go now and look for the largest Sea Tribe man you can find, he has a strange tattoo over his arm and shoulder. When you find him, come back to me and lead us to him.” Petara ordered before the dart flew off ahead of them.

It would take days before the Tsentsak dart returned to Petara as the pair marched aimlessly in their search. Though following the dart took days in which they had no hint of Aegata the Manhunter on their trail which worried the pair deeply. They would then come upon the sounds of a great commotion before they crested a hill to see a small ramshackle camp made up of four sail boats pulled up to the shore surrounding a bonfire. In the midst of the camp was a man standing at seven feet tall with an extremely muscular build fighting off a group of what appeared to be Sea Tribe warriors though their tattoos didn't seem to match the usual of what Tagunban had seen from the village before. Two men charge the giant man from opposite sides, stone tipped spears thrusting forward aimed for his torso. The giant stood up and turned from his forward leaning stance grabbing one spear with a strong grasp and snapping the head off entirely. While the other fist backhanded the spear that ran up from behind shattering the stone tip completely in one hit. The giant man then grabbed one of the would be assailants by his head and threw him full force into the other man before he could retaliate. A third assailant would run up with a jade club only for the giant man to send him to his gods with a strong right hook of a massive hand. The two earlier assailants both leapt to their feet and pounced at the giant with knives in hand only for the giant man in a movement that flowed like a rushing wave spun around and smashed their heads together into a mixed mass of gore with both his hands clapping forward. Yet another assailant would let loose an arrow aimed at the giant’s back from behind the cover of a war canoe. The giant man then turned holding one of the corpses out in front of him to catch the arrow in his stead before he threw said body at the archer. While the canoe rocked and the archer reeled the giant man leapt forth the grace and agility of a panther yet with a speed and power greater than Tagunban's Thunder Step and punched through both wooden hull and the man’s torso before pulling out a beating heart and take a bloody bite out of it. Upon seeing the rapidly paced display the rest of the assailants who remained quickly pushed off their war canoes in an attempt to flee. The giant man then set about smashing the remaining war canoes to pieces with his bare hands as if they were twigs. “Same old Oranui” Petara chuckled as she strode down the hill with a cheerful wave. While not much in this world had shocked Tagunban/Kagetora in a long time, the eating of a still beating human heart did give him pause for a moment before he guardedly followed Petara down the hill. Petara ran up to the giant and tackled him with a laugh well before Tagunban had made his way down the hill. However when the man grabbed Petara and threw her to the ground as the Naga began to form out of the waters of the sea beside them Taguban only saw red. In his rage and violent assumptions Tagunban quickly channeled his mana making his muscles crackle to life with the electricity of the Thunder Step as he burst forth axe in hand like Ridti’s wrath incarnate. Tagunban's in an instant closed the distance at the side of the giant man and swung his axe with fury aiming for the brute’s thick neck, only for a hand to the axe’s haft to block the swing before a massive fist crashed into Tagunban's face knocking him out instantly. Taguban awoke a moment later sprawled out on the grass with a broken nose, dazed and confused Taguban sat up and with a muffled crack reset his nose straight again. Before, a thunderbolt of alertness reached for his axe only for Petara to be holding it while scowling at him. “You don't get this back until you come back to your senses, fool. I told you this was Oranui, didn't I? My old traveling partner and the man we need to convince to help us take down the manhunter.” Petara chided Taguban as she held his axe over her shoulder. “But he threw you, and you summoned the Naga I thought…” Taguban groggily responded before being cut off by Petara again. “Do you think I'm a fool, helpless, or both?! Oranui threw me because I snuck up on him and even then he was gentle about it knowing it was me; and the Naga came out of it's own accord because it wanted to see him again. You need to start thinking with the head on your shoulders and not the one tied to your belt!” Petara ranted in frustration to Tagunban before a massive hand was held in front of her face and Oranui interjected speaking to Petara again in the Sea Tribe language Taguban couldn't understand. Petara rants at him for a moment before sighing and turning back to Tagunban. “He says he admires your protective instincts over me, but that it was wrong to rush in with a killing blow before you fully understood the situation.” Petara translated to Taguban as Oranui looked over and smiled, his teeth still stained with blood. Yet what truly caught Tagunban's eye was the look in Oranui’s eyes. Something deep and underlying as it was indescribable, what the warchief described to him as the look of knowing. In a gamble Tagunban spoke to Oranui not in the Highland Language but in Japanese. “I see the look in your eyes, you come from Earth like myself didn't you?” Taguban spoke to Oranui as clearly as he could while Petara looked on in confusion. Oranui’s eyes widened in shock as he froze up for a moment before smiling and responding in Japanese in turn. “I do indeed warrior, I wish we could have had a better introduction.” Oranui responded in cheer and extremely rough and rusty Japanese. “You were Japanese too?!” Tagunban exclaimed in surprised excitement. “No no, I was and still in my heart am Maori. I just learned Japanese for work in my old life.” Oranui responded in clarification. “How did you die? Did you see a leopard dragging the skeleton of a man? What are your thoughts on this world?” Tagunban blurted out as fast as he could in his excitement. “In the throes of depression I took my own life in my thirties by hanging myself. I did see the leopard death god you describe, and I love the world along with this life I now live. The people I was born into, the Tribe of the Seas are remarkably similar to my Maori ancestors and I get to live as they did in full pride and honor. Now I ask the same of you.” Oranui responded with a smile that followed his momentary frown. “I died in a drug deal gone wrong trying to get money for my mom and I. I obviously saw the leopard god or Daisekel as he's known apparently. This life has had great highs and lows alike, but I'm happy I'm here and not in the world that left my mom and I for dead.” Tagunban responded in his pondering. “This is the first time I've met another person who reincarnated as myself into this world. I'm happy because this gives weight to a theory of mine.” Oranui responded as he put a massive comforting hand across Tagunban's back. “You see with the similarity between the cultures of Earth and this world I believe we are far from the first people to be reincarnated to this world. Though there are still many differences, the Tribe of the Seas bears striking resemblance to the pre colonial Maori and other Polynesian kin. Your tribe, the Tribe of the Highlands shares a lot in common with many pre colonial Filipino cultures especially the Igorot. The Tribe of Buffalo shares traits with the Naga and Dayak peoples, what little I know of them. Meanwhile the Tribe of the Jungles I believe shares a great deal in common with many pre colonial South American tribes such as the Shuar, at least if I remember right that's where shrunken heads come from. I believe people of these Earth cultures were reincarnated here like us and influenced the native tribes to their own cultural spheres of influence.” Oranui lectured, happy to be able to share his theories with someone. “Maybe but why aren't there non headhunting cultures that influenced the natives of this world? I'm Japanese and we were never headhunters.” Tagunban asked in response. “Two factors I believe, the first is that to a degree ancient Japan did have a headhunting tradition with the Samurai taking heads. The second being that in this world of strange powers and mysticism headhunting cultures may just have had an advantage that allowed their influence to spread more easily.” Oranui explained further. “Really? I didn't know that about the samurai… I never got to go to school in my old life so most of what you said kinda went over my head.” Tagunban humbly explained in embarrassment. “Don't be ashamed boy, our old world denied you that chance. Just like it denied me happiness or fulfillment. Though I would like to ask, have you met any others like us?” Oranui comforted Tagunban before asking the question to which Tagunban's eyes went wide in realization and remembrance. “That's right, the warchief of the Tribe of the Highlands is like us. He was English or American I don't know but he hates this world and everyone native here. He wants to make this world like our old one and I'm trying to stop him.” Tagunban elaborated quickly. “To do that he would have to recreate the imperialism the British used to invade my people's homeland.” Oranui stated darkly as he stood up. “I vow to help you one your quest warrior no matter the cost. If I can prevent the tragedy that befell my people happening to anyone else I'll do it. Even if it costs my life.” Oranui finished as Tagunban stood up as took his hand in a firm handshake of tensing muscle and burning human spirit.