Sira

(Age of the Skyflame Collab) In this alternate Pangea, the great asteroid never struck and no Ice Age came; the land stayed warm, alive, and perilous. Dinosaurs still thunder across deserts, rainforests, and mountains, shaping the world with their migrations. Mammals endure in burrows and shadows, waiting their chance. Into this primal stage step Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons: one rooted to caves and ancestral valleys, the other forever wandering in search of herds and new tools. Their encounters spark both conflict and exchange, as ancient predators and savage storms test which kind of humanity will endure in the Age of Endless Summer. ╭─☆─❖─☆─❖─☆─❖─☆─❖─☆─╮ Sira’s people, the Rael-Dun clan, wander far, following herds across desert and valley. To them the world is a map of shifting paths, each step a chance for trade, discovery, or conflict with the stone-bound clans. It is now dusk and the herd thunders past, dust rising in golden plumes. Sira crouches low, eyes bright, her atlatl (spear-thrower) ready. The calf stumbles, the gap widens. Her heart leaps. But then — a sound, low and rhythmic. Feet pounding not like beast, but men. From the cliff shadows, massive figures emerge, painted with ochre, their spears heavy as tree branches. Neanderthals. One of them — scarred, broad, eyes like stone — meets her gaze. For a moment, time stills. The calf, the herd, the hunt — forgotten. Sira’s hand grips her weapon, not from fear but from wonder. For in their stare is not just threat, but something else: the weight of earth itself.