Spur of the moment inspiration caused by the fact that is kinda on the hot side today. Also possibly inspired by pretending my bicycle is a Big Lizard.
Desert, beyond the sight of human eye, was all that there was. Dry, flat, desert. Hot, hot, sun. Dry, dry, air. That was what the nomads of this place comprehended: dryness, heat, and lifelessness. There was no creature in these endless deserts except the Big Lizards and the Humans. There was no plant in these endless deserts except the Cactus. The Cactus provided water, just enough that you only get heatstroke once every seven Sun-Cycles, as the days were named back them.
But what is there to eat? The Big Lizards could be tamed, but there scale hide was impenetrable by anything the Humans had. So that left only one thing to be eaten by the Humans: Humans. And so it was that the Humans were forced to survive on cannibalism. Barbaric, you may think, but morals took second place after life.
The Humans banded together in nomadic groups, catching and training Big Lizards and teaching them to track Humans from other Nomadic Groups for food.
In this time, the leader of one of the Groups was Srrayda. Her Big Lizard was Pearl. Srrayda, Red Skin, and Fei Mao were the main hunters in the Group. The three would go out everyday, searching for Cactus and Human.
Once, when Srrayda and Pearl were not with the other two, she discovered an injured woman. Her ankle was horribly sprained. The woman knew that, despite the pain, she must get back to her Group or risk running into a Hunter. She had a daughter, only one and a half year old. So Srrayda found the woman and her baby limping desperately, but the limp was no match for the four-legged Big Lizards, and her strength was no match against Big Lizards’ piercing teeth.
But the woman began pleading with Srrayda, begging her not to kill her child. And Srrayda noticed the dialect—each Group had its own unique dialect of the same language—was exactly the same as hers. Was it possible that this girl had been kidnapped from her Group and raised in another? Kidnapping was as frequent as killing—no laws forbade it, no morals discouraged it—so it was very possible.
And Srrayda wondered: where did all of them come from? Had Fei Mao’s great grandfather been kidnapped, and Fei Mao became apart of her Group? Where did the kidnapper of Fei Mao’s great grandfather come from? Or perhaps Srrayda herself—had someone taken her? Who had taken that someone? Who had taken the someone who had taken the someone who had taken her?
Srrayda pondered the origin of her Group for many days. Finally, an answer came to her upon waking: I wake up to those around me, Srrayda realized, Isn’t it possible that perhaps my ancestors, and my people’s ancestors simply woke up to each other and formed a Group? Srrayda deeply believed that that was what had happened to cause the First Group to form—they had awakened together. Srrayda told her story of creation to her people. The Creation Story was the first sign of a religion in the making. The influence of this Story spread quickly and influenced easily, due to the exchanges of other Nomads.
Srrayda continued to wonder about their creation—who had woken them? She asked Pearl, and even though Pearl could not reply in Srrayda’s language, Srrayda got an answer: the spirits of the green grass and the leafy trees and the cool wind had woken them. For while they slumbered, they had been uncomfortably hot, and dry, and thirsty. And when Green Grass Spirit and Leafy Trees Spirit and Cool Wind Spirit came into being, they had known, subconsciously, that there was a place where water was abundant and food was not each other. So these Spirits became hope for these desert people, who had never known cool, or grass, or trees. Srrayda described the lack of unbearable heat as no sweat, lots of water and food. This her people could comprehend. They asked her where these spirits dwelled, and Srrayda asked Pearl. Pearl told her—and she in turn told her Group—that they dwelled in the Green Land, where the good nomads went, and where all nomads would eventually go. Pearl told her that no matter which direction she led her people, it would take them closer to the Green Land, because that was where their souls were drawn to. Soon the Big Lizards became a sacred, precious commodity for learning the secrets of bliss they would someday know.
When Srrayda died, her stories had spread to all the Groups and were believed by all Humans. Srraydaism was everyone’s religion.
Srrayda’s work had been fulfilled, the desert nomads would say. The spirits that lived in the Green Land had given Srrayda the task of telling all the people in the desert there was hope, that the Big Lizards were not pets nor slaves but preachers of the spirits’ knowledge. Srrayda had been given the task of giving the people’s lives meaning. It is said that Srrayda became a spirit, too, an honor too great for words to describe. Some believe she became a less harsh sun that kept the Green Lands at just the right temperature. Some say she is the sky that stretches over the desert and the Green Lands, so that they know there must be a way to get to the Green Lands, because the sky can get there.