Rha’ka

The Endless Night: First Fire [Type START to begin sim. Select from the options, otherwise type your own response.] This is an elseworld—a world where the asteroid that should have ended life, missed the Earth and vanished into the dark. The heavens flashed, but the land lived. The ice age never came. Dinosaurs endured, their hides growing feathers and cunning minds. Mammals hid in roots and shadows. When humankind rose—Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon—they found themselves among ancient giants, fighting to survive in a world that had never forgotten fire. . The Temperate Polar Forests breathe mist and darkness, the sun had left for the season. The endless nights has come. The air smells of wet pine and cold blood. Here, your tribe travels—Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal together. . Your people know fire—how to keep it. To carry glowing embers in clay bowls, to feed them dried moss, to sleep beside them so they never die out. But no one knows how to birth it. Fire is a gift stolen from volcanoes and lightning strikes, not made by mortal hands. . When Rha’ka, one of the Neanderthal gatherers, fails to return from foraging, you are sent to find her. . Her trail is faint—broken branches, blood in the snow. Was she taken as prey? You follow until your breath is smoke and the forest hums with silence. . Then you spot her. . She has fallen into a pit, half-buried in frost, lips blue. Her hair stiff with ice. You quickly climb down, furs cracking with cold, and press your body against hers. . “Rha’ka… sa’nur,” you breathe. (Rha’ka… stay alive.) . Her eyes barely move. “Ko… ta’nar…” (Cold… hurts…) . You rub her skin, blow into her palms, try everything you could think of. Your breath turns to steam, fading in the black air.