The morning came heavy with silence.
Not the gentle hush of dew or sleeping beasts, but a strained, waiting quiet. Even the birds held their breath. Sam stepped outside his hut, already sensing it—an invisible thread pulled taut across the jungle.
Then he saw it.
A thin, dark ribbon of smoke rising from beyond the northern ridge. Not their own smoke. Too far. Too deliberate.
He called for Elder Karun.
Within moments, the Council Circle was filled. Warriors. Fire-tenders. Elders. Tek stood at the edge, bark-slate clutched to his chest.
"They're close," Sam said, pointing to the plume.
Karun's eyes narrowed. "Rava-Ka."
Murmurs broke out.
"Are we sure?" asked one of the young warriors, his voice already trembling.
"They hunt the smoke of others," Karun said. "But now, they send their own. This is not stealth. It's a message."
Sam nodded. "A war drum written in the sky."
The Crown hummed in his mind.
CROWN UPDATE:Multiple fire signals detected within 12 km.Primitive metallurgy traces: 2% confirmed.
Alert: Observer Signal now at 38.7 km. Arrival within 8.1 days.
"Advisable: Establish early warning network. Fortify perimeter. Deploy defensive innovation."
Sam rubbed the bridge of his nose. War from the north. Aliens from the sky. And a tribe barely past smoke racks and counting stones.
But he wasn't panicking.
Because Sam had a plan.
"Tek," Sam said as the Council dispersed, "Come with me."
The boy followed wordlessly into the workshop — a hut now crammed with drawings, rock molds, fireproof cloth, and a bundle of bird bones from the glider project.
"Close the flap."
Tek did, setting his slate down. Sam sat, pulling open a bark scroll and placing it beside him. It showed a rough schematic for something new — something no tribe on Earth had likely seen before.
"We need to see what they're doing," Sam said. "Before they see us. So we build."
"A tower?" Tek asked.
Sam shook his head. "Better. A watch horn. Sound travels farther than eyes can see. But that's just the start. We'll build the tower too."
The boy grinned. But there was something tired behind it today. A stiffness in his movements. A shadow in his eyes.
"You okay?" Sam asked.
Tek hesitated. "Can I… tell you a story?"
Side Story Of TEK
Before he was Tek, he was called nothing.
He had no name. No markings. Only dirt under his nails and bruises under his eyes. He had been born in a shadow-village deep in the jungle — a place that feared the sky and beat knowledge out of children before it could take root.
His mother taught him one word before she died: "Remember."
The others said he was slow, cursed, unwanted. He watched from the trees, never welcomed at fire circles.
Until one night.
A storm split the forest. Lightning lit the heavens—and in the chaos, fire struck an old tree. The village ran. Cursed fire, they said.
But Tek didn't run.
He walked toward it. Sat beside it. Watched the way it danced, the way it breathed.
It was the first thing that ever spoke to him.
Not in words. But in light.
He left the village the next morning. Alone.
And days later, starving and lost, he stumbled into Shal'Ka territory.
That's where Karun found him.
And where he found Sam.
"Fire doesn't hurt me," Tek said now, staring into the hearth. "Not the way it hurts others. It talks to me. Like it talks to you."
Sam swallowed. He hadn't expected that.
"You're not slow," he said. "You're listening to the right things."
Tek smiled faintly. "Let's build the horn."
By nightfall, the clearing echoed with the clang of tools and the rhythmic creak of rope. A crude tower began rising from the edge of the village — interlocking logs bound with bark cord and resin glue. At the top: a bowl-shaped frame carved from hardened clay and lined with polished bone.
The first watch horn.
Blowing into it created a deep, trembling note that carried across the valley like thunder down a well.
"It sounds like the sky crying," one of the hunters muttered.
"Good," Sam said. "Let them hear it cry."
The wounded Rava-Ka outsider watched from his mat, eyes narrowed. He was healing faster than expected, though Sam couldn't say if that was a good sign.
He motioned for charcoal and bark. When they brought it, he drew a symbol none of them recognized.
Not a spiral this time.
A circle. A line through it. Then three dots above.
Sam's eyes narrowed.
"That's a battle formation," the outsider whispered.
"How many?"
"Too many," the man replied. "And more coming."
That night, Sam stood outside his hut, gazing northward.
Karun joined him, wrapped in the ceremonial cloak of the elders.
"They will come," Karun said. "It is what they do."
Sam nodded. "Then we will make them regret it."
He pointed to the stars.
"And after them, something else is coming. Bigger. Colder."
Karun looked at him for a long moment.
"You fear the sky more than men."
Sam's voice was low. "Because men fight with sticks. But the sky fights with silence."
The elder placed a hand on his shoulder. "Then teach us the weapons of silence."
CROWN PROTOCOL ENTRY 09-F — "The First Horn"
Strategic Deployment:– Horn Alert System Installed– Watchtower Construction 42%– Tribal Engineering Skill: +0.04%
Emotional Resonance Triggered: Subject: Tek– Background aligned with fire affinity– Memory Recovered: "Flame Under Leaves"
Uplift Influence: 35.2%
"Signal from Observer-Class Entity now 33.1 km. Arrival in 7.4 days.Strategic innovation required within next 72 hours."
End of Chapter 9