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their intended victims. Three days passed before the wrath of Vaal subsided, and the protective wall of fire began to flicker out.
    Karth leaders amassed their forces, anxious to finish the conquest. Prospects of a quick victory emboldened the warriors who taunted their foes as they began marching forward.
    Tanarac women and children cried in terror. Everyone knew, if the enemy won, women would become slave consorts, and male children would be put to the sword. War-weary Tanarac soldiers tightened their lines, resolved to fight to the death.
    The Horde ’s field general shook his head in contempt at the inferior Tanarac army. In his mind, they were unworthy of noble deaths. He gave the signal for his infantry to start their attack run. Enemy soldiers raised swords and crossed onto the still warm ground where the wall of fire had burned.
    A brilliant light suddenly knifed high into the sky from inside the edge of the jungle. It radiated with blinding intensity, rivaling even that of the second Tanarac sun. Karth infantrymen stopped their advance, while frightened Tanaracs edged away from the jungle where the strange light originated. A clear path opened from the forest edge nearest the glowing spire all the way to the Karth troops.
    Loose ferns parted at the dark edge to the jungle and a golden chariot emerged. Seven huge hicays, each bound in a harness of jungle vines, pulled the war wagon. The lost Tanarac child, now full grown, held the reigns.
    Over the years, the boy’s body transmuted into half-Tanarac, half-hicay. Unusually dark blue skin contrasted with long waves of golden hair that hung in loose ringlets from his head. Shorter tufts of blond fur covered his bare shoulders and back. His body rippled with muscles far greater in size than those of the best Tanarac athletes. Piercing eyes glistened like polished trill stones, the black gems of death traditionally buried with dead Tanarac spiritualists.
    W heels creaked as the gleaming chariot slowly passed frightened Tanarac families and warriors. The charioteer ignored them. He guided his hicays onto open ground before the Karth warriors and stopped on a small rise half way between opposing forces.
    The beast boy made a sweeping visual scan from one end of the Karth line to the other. Then, with no outward command, his chariot surged directly into the nearest enemy troops. Fangs and claws of seven hicays joined the chariot master’s glistening sword to decimate entire enemy squads with each pass. The chariot easily breached enemy lines, and every Karth warrior who attempted a challenge was shredded by hicay claws or mortally sliced by the driver. Wave after wave of Karth invaders lived up to their reputation as fearless fighters. All died.
    The charioteer and his hicays defended Tanaracs with ruthless efficiency, surging back and forth through Horde ranks and leaving behind scores of dismembered soldiers. Karth arrows failed to penetrate thick fur of the hicays, and the charioteer’s mighty sword proved so fast as to cut arrows out of the air before they could reach his exposed flesh.
    Emboldened by their new ally, Tanarac defenders rushed forward to join battle against a rapidly deteriorating Karth army.
    By nightfall, the Karth Horde was no more. The world-nation of Tanarac rose from the ashes of that battle.
    W hatever happened to the glowing chariot?
    In the final moments of battle, it vanished. Several days passed when a Tanarac woman said she saw the chariot roll back into the jungle. It was never seen again.
    Tanaracs named the boy-beast Vaal-al, meaning son of Vaal, the fire-mountain.
    Even in modern times, Tanarac people revere the mountain of Vaal and the hicays of the Central Jungle. Such is their reverence that they made permanent, ancient laws caring for that jungle. It would never be explored or exploited. Its hicays would forever be protected, as long as they remained within their sanctuary. It became a holy place, never to be defiled.
    The legend