Adapa had found the bird feather he was looking for and had started to return to his home in the jungle. The "shrouded claws" was a name given to the dangerous jungle deep in the Xamayos Wilds, which was home to some of the worst predators on land. It hardly seemed like a habitat for domesticated giant squirrely animals, but then again, maybe it was the perfect environment for primato-sapient creatures such as him. Standing at a height of 2 feet tall and weighing just over 3 pounds, Adapa was very small but quite large for a squirrel, lemur, proto-primate or whatever he was. His pace was rather slow and unique, as he sometimes walked on all fours, pausing and hopping from one place to another, pausing, and hopping again before walking upright on his two hind legs. Likewise, his 2.5 foot long tail added to his overall body length which sometimes moved around like a third arm, using his furry fox-like tail to grip his prized feather, basket or walking stick as he walked home, pushing aside large brush and leaves.

As he approached a natural checkpoint he was familiar with, entering a small rodent path through the winding tree roots and foliage, he glanced up at the towering large ferns overlooking an enormously large misshapen boulder in the place of where Adapa expected to find a path. He stopped for a moment and pondered, scratching his chin. "Now that's odd, there's supposed to be a --" Adapa was suddenly interrupted by the massive boulder's head movement which caught the tiny mammal completely by surprise. His jaw dropped, his squirrely eyes widening as his whiskers sank, his body frozen with fear for a brief second before the sound of the large Xamoyan turtle getting ready to sneeze provoked an almost instantaneous response, causing the squirrel-like sentient rodent to leap off the ground and dart into the air with remarkable springing action, losing some of his trinkets and other gear in the process as they were instantly left behind.

"HUUAANNNN-" the turtle's sudden sneeze would have caused Adapa to leap right out of his shoes, if he had been wearing any. Although the turtle's sneeze wasn't very loud, to the tiny primate, it sounded almost like an elephant's trumpet.

"CCCHEEOOOOOOPHOOPHOOPHOOPHOOOOOOOO" the turtle bellowed long and hard, letting out a horrendous sound as chunks of leaves and poisonous berries were shot out of its massive nostrils upon sneezing in the direction of the very place Adapa had been standing frozen only milliseconds before. The squirrely mammal was incredibly quick, however, instinctively having launched himself to the bark of a tree with all four hands only to run up the surface of the tree afterwards, climbing to the opposite side of the tree trunk before peeking around the corner at the giant Xamayos turtle, flicking his tail wildly behind his back while squeaking and chirping with distressful agitation, rage and fear, as if cursing Treda in some foreign language. "Tchs tch ckts ckts ckts tchs tch" Adapa barked, alerting the large turtle to watch what it's doing or be more cautious. At that moment, Adapa had reverted back to his baser instincts, seeming less like a hominid with sapience and moreso like a common arboreal rodent.

Within the Outer Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, deep within the Kos System on a remote planet called Bastion IV, some strange events had taken place, the likes of which involved some unknown tragedies and mysteries that still remain unsolved. Trantor starships and cruisers launched military and civilian patrols into the Multiverse from deep space amidst transporters from the Kos Bastion Research Center above the clouds as Mauhasian scientists conducted their own studies at Campa Taighde Bandrui in the Xamayos Wilds. But the Xamayos Wilds was a very dangerous place to outsiders. It hosted a vast swath of thick, dark, untamed wilderness, inhabited by many large beasts and predators unbowed by the yoke of training. To enter the Xamayos Wilds unprepared was to invite certain death, as one group of interstellar scientists had evidently learned the hard way, their abandoned research center left uninhabited and in ruins.

The Xamayos Wilds had reclaimed the facility, which had apparently been built a very long time ago, perhaps even centuries ago by an unknown agency, race or species which seemed to have disappeared or maybe even gone extinct some untold millennia ago. The buildings, offices, cafeterias, sick bays, corridors and laboratories were completely silent and empty, seemingly devoid of intelligent life even though there was an obvious evidence of wildlife crawling all around. Grasses, weeds, vines and tree roots grew up out of the old decaying tile floors and ceilings, plant life consuming every hall and opening like weaving wooden serpents taking back their homeland by planting and terra forming a natural indigenous landscape of poisonous leaves and flowers, providing a habitat for many native species. A few skeletons resembling homo sapiens had been picked clean and scattered about, along with the bones and remains of other animals. All of the terrariums, ant farms, cages and aquariums had been shattered or busted, but there was nothing inside of them but mold and decay. Outside the facility was a badly rusted, smashed up truck which had also been reclaimed by nature, with a large tree growing vertically out of the truck bed, having sprouted up from the ground and forced its way slowly through the rusting metal over a period of several years, probably even over the course of many decades.

Whatever logos, stickers, decals, names, numbers, written logs, computer data or information that had been associated with the facility was by now long gone, forgotten and destroyed. Was it a government coverup by some ancient foreign institution? If so, which one, as the Multiverse had been running rampant with space exploration projects and top secret warring agencies from countless galaxies and planetary civilizations for as long as anyone could remember. What had happened to the inhabitants that used to run this research center? Was there some kind of accident, perhaps some act of sabotage or unexpected breach in security? Why had no one ever made a report about the existence of this facility? Why had none of the known space nations come forward to re-claim it? Why was it not indicated on any maps or listed in any data bases, or even hinted at in military records? Whatever had happened in the Xamayos Wilds, it left without a trace. Perhaps if someone had discovered it sooner, then a light could be shed on the deep mysteries surrounding the ancient ruins. But alas, too much time had passed and so the facility had been forgotten, completely erased from history apart from the few scattered remains of what probably once existed in that deep dark wilderness.

The only clue to that mystery now came in the form of the most unlikely of creatures. It just so happened on that particular day that a small rodent had been scurrying around the abandoned research center, scavaging and collecting trinkets. The small furry creature appeared to be the size of a lemur, resembling the makings of a squirrel but with one peculiarity that made it very different. This animal was not just a primate, but it was semi-bipedal with opposable thumbs and appeared to have both sentience and sapience, seeing as it was carrying a walking stick and wearing some kind of backpack or basket over its tiny little shoulders. He was scrounging through a pile of shredded leaves and rotten garbage, bones and metal scraps, almost completely submersed in all of the junk and shattered glass. He appeared to be scurrying frantically and frolicking about as he talked to himself in a language that sounded very much like Galactic Common, sifting through the foliage and broken tiles for something he had lost.



"Ohhh where is it, where is it? I know it's around here somewhere, what did I do with it?" he muttered to himself, before poking his head up out of the trash heap to look around for danger. He wiggled his nose and perked his ears up, listening for a moment silently before diving back down into the pile. "Ah hah! Found it!" he said after a moment of pushing and kicking things around. The small rodent-like creature crawled out of the trash heap on all fours before standing up on two legs, holding a bird feather between his teeth that was almost half the size as he was. He took the feather in both hands and placed it into the small wicker basket on his back, next to some other gizmos and gadgets he had collected including a metal soup spoon, a thimble, a rusted pen spring and an old chewed up wod of bubblegum, grabbing his walking stick and flicking his whiskers before heading back into the Xamayos Wilds, walking casually into the dense jungle.

Adapa was no stranger to the Xamayoan goliath tortoise as he peered angrily at the enormous turtle in front of him with heavily curved eyebrows, raising his fist in the air and shaking it. Adapa seemed to now be threatening the hard shell creature, which was somewhat comical seeing as Treda was about the size of a fully domed indoor colosseum compared to the tiny mammal, which was roughly the same size as Treda's foot by comparison.

Turtles in the Xamayos Wilds were a threat to Adapa's very existence, but in the jungle, so was everything else around you. Adapa was amazingly small compared to most of the other native wildlife, including even other Xamoyoan giant squirrels, if any still managed to survive in the thicket with carnivorous dinosaurs and flying reptiles, or even large goliath turtles such as the one which moved around slowly in front of him. Yet his smallness was not his weakness, but a strength which gave Adapa the advantage of running across very thin branches, vines and leaf stalks, being capable of great speed with the ability to crawl and hide in small holes or other tiny places where larger predators wouldn't be able to reach him. His greatest weapon, however, was his mind which enabled Adapa to outwit hungry carnivores, perhaps even turning his predators into prey.

Adapa observed Treda cautiously as he peaked around from behind the tree he was clinging on to, his fox-like bushy tail no longer twitching as he watched the giant monster start to crash, plopping down in the brush to rest mindlessly, oblivious to the squirrely rodent's threats as it seemed to be relaxing in peace with its surroundings. After a moment, Adapa turned around upside down and began climbing back down the trunk of the tree, pausing and peaking around the other side at Treda before crawling back to the ground and standing upright on his hind legs, looking up at her. His whiskers twitched as his ears perked up, his black and brown round eyes wide open as he kept his distance. After a moment, however, and no longer deeming Treda as an immediate threat like some of the other creatures in the wilderness, Adapa sniffed the air and looked around for all the junk he had just dropped only minutes ago, quietly hopping around the giant shell monster and crawling quickly along the ground on all fours, snatching and grabbing everything he had dropped, including a few new items he hadn't dropped like some random lizard bones and part of a fragmented skull that had shot out of Treda's giant slimy nostrils when she sneezed.

Apparently, this particular turtle had eaten squirrels and other small animals of similar size to the tiny proto-primate that invaded the monster's personal space, looking around her gigantic side shell for more treasures. Adapa was still cautious, pausing and staring silently without moving before sniffing around and moving again abruptly, his twitchy and sudden hops and motions having no methodical rhythm or pace. He avoided Treda's head for the most part, circling around behind her. He did stop in front of her at one point, standing up on his back legs and sniffing her enormous beak before hopping around her again, appearing less angry or intimidated by the giant shell monster who didn't really seem to bother him all of a sudden. Adapa picked up his bird feather, his thimble, his ballpoint pen spring and his dirty sticky chewed up ball of gum before placing the lizard skull on his head like a bone helmet that just so happened to fit him perfectly.

The wilderness was wild like that. It was unpredictable, as the same animals and monsters that lived at constant war with one another also sometimes co-existed in perfect harmony, even if only for brief periods of time. It was not uncommon in the swamps and rivers to see large birds and flying reptiles perched or sun-bathing on the snouts of careless giant floating crocodiles, or giant dragonflies nesting on the head of insectivorous titano frogs that don't even seem to mind, as they themselves are perched on the leaflets of sleeping man-eating plants. Nature was awesome and spooky, and fascinating to behold as for a moment, neither the turtle or Adapa felt threatened.

The lemur-sized squirrely proto-primate finished gathering his things and looked around, pulling out his map, which was actually just an old shredded bandaid he had used to write on. The drawings were small and difficult for humans to see, but Adapa could read the scribbly markings just fine. He glanced at the map for a moment, before rolling it up again and sticking it into his pouch. Afterwards, he picked up his walking stick and continued on his journey home, walking away from Treda and towards the shrouded claws, taking the new path that Treda's enormous reptilian shell body had ploughed out before him during the making of her natural turtle trail through the brush. Xamoyoan turtles crafted excellent highways, which Adapa had grown quite accustomed to using over time. It wasn't everyday he almost got blown away or ran over by a four-legged bulldozer, but traffic was always busy and terrible in the Xamayos Wilds, or at least it seemed that way from his tiny point of view as he walked casually into the dense jungle, into the area where the Xamayos Wilds slowly merges with the shrouded claws, becoming thicker and darker.

As the miniscule sized 2 foot tall squirrelly proto-primate with sapience hiked casually along the giant Xamoyoan turtle Treda's large tortoise trail through the Xamoyos Wilds, he entered the area between the wild forest and the thick dark jungle. Adapa pushed some large ferns aside which had leafy petals even bigger than himself and looked around at the clearing surrounded by what appeared to him to resemble a small rocky mountain range. Other more larger animals probably thought they were just giant pointy boulders or a strange C-shaped curving row of pointed sharp rocks. But to the tiny little sentient rodent, everything seemed massive and so his tiny yet intelligent brain interpreted everything disproportionately large and overly exaggerated by size comparison to bigger lifeforms.

Adapa was a unique specimen, although not the first of his kind or even the only creature of his species in existence. There were other rodents or lemurian primato-sapiens where he lived, here in this very oasis. The enormous row of pointed rocks was the gateway to Adapa's paradise, his beloved home and family in the jungle. Oh and by "paradise" we do mean this was an *incredibly* dangerous area, home to perhaps the largest and deadliest predators on the planet. This was Hell's uterus, the earthy womb that gave birth to your darkest nightmares. Alas, the squirrelly creature had ascertained the shrouded claws and reached his destination, traveling relatively safe this time as opposed to others. Of course, life and survival always involved minor detours here and there, but Adapa made it back again in one piece, as he had often done several times before on previous ventures into the jungle. He smiled, his incisors and bucky long teeth baring as his whiskers flinched, his black and brown round eyes beholding the monument in his sight.

The shrouded claws...

Unbeknownst to pretty much every normal-sized lifeform in the deathbourne jungle, that large enormous C-shaped row of tall pointed rocks was actually not a grove of boulders or cyclopean stones, and they certainly weren't anywhere near large enough to be rocky mountains as the lorises, nagapies and magpies perceived them to be. The shrouded claws were actually the remnants of fossil remains belonging to some ancient extinct creature. The bones from that creature, much like the lost ruins in the Xamayos Wilds where Adapa had just come from had long been reclaimed by the wilderness. It's skeleton had decomposed and no longer remained, apart from the shrouded claws, the name that had been given to the place by another species. Oddly enough, the rocks were not even the remnants of fossilized claws either, despite their iconic C-shaped arrangement as if cupping or gripping whatever had once been in the center. "The Whale's Belly." Adapa muttered to himself out loud.

Despite looking cute and comical, the tiny squirrelly rodent-like lemurian primato-sapien plesiadapis was not off the mark, or off his rocking chair. Adapa's species had come to perceive the pointed mountains in a different spectrum, associating the mountains with a cave that lemurian plesiadapiforms called "the belly of the whale." Well as it turns out, those C-shaped mountains are in fact a more accurately U-shaped stone formation and somehow Adapa's species has managed to preserve the fact that they are actually fossilized carnivorous extinct giant whale teeth sticking out of the earth, sprouting up from what appears to be the lower jaw of a now extinct marine reptile. And by "reptile" we mean Leviathan, an extinct prediluvian sea monster or whale that would probably eat a dragon if it thought it could stand a chance. The shrouded claws did not belong to a land beast or wind demon with legs, but to a finned sea monster with jaws that could bite a Xamayosauros Rex in half with one snap, and did regularly in days gone by, before the jungle dried up and the whale went extinct.

"Home!" the squirrelly lemur-like bipedal mammal with the walking stick, the woven wooden basket/backpack full of tinkers and gizmos, and the longer than usual foxy tail with equally long whiskers and happy ears with a bucktooth smile said with a grin. He quickly darted into the belly of the whale, running up to a very tall and familiar tree. We just would like to remind you that everything is monstrous and ridiculously large in the jungle encompassing the shrouded claws. We're not exactly sure what's going on, but this squirrel is dope as f*censored*(ssstttatticc). Adapa twitched his tail and flinched his whiskers, his ears pointing straight up as he froze before the great tree. He thought he could sense something approaching. Or maybe it was nothing. There was a frog skeleton on the ground nearby. Adapa wanted it's head, as it looked good for body armor. He scurried over to the mummified carcass and grabbed it, dragging it up the tree with his tail as he darted suddenly before pausing, looking over his shoulder before peaking around the corner to see if anything moves.

He was frozen in place...

His head and body never flinched. But his tail kept twitching and flirting wildly back and forth. He thought he smelled something, and bolted around the whole entire tree like it was a hamster wheel. But upon returning to his original place, he crinkled his nose and climbed up to a branch high above any of the larger predators and threats in the jungle, not because he felt endangered but because that's where *home* was located. Adapa's species was sentient and sapient, having not only the expression of emotion and pain, but also the impression of devotion and intelligence. The entrance to Adapa's realm was high up in the giant jungle tree. Luckily for him, the sacred ancient tree was in all actuality the root of the root system that had partially spread and serpentined its way out over the Xamayos Wilds, and provided a sanctuary for his kind, for the tree itself was poisonous and dangerous to most predators, itself having some strange and mysterious connection to the squirrellish rodential hominid that sat atop it's highest branches, looking up at the skies while thinking about his family.