The World That Couldn't Be

On a sun‑baked world of thorny scrub and jagged ravines, farmer Gavin Duncan tends a fragile field of vua, a plant whose berries are prized as a powerful medicine. Each dawn he discovers the tell‑tale bite marks left by a Cytha—a sleek, horse‑sized beast that devours the tender shoots before disappearing into the brush. Determined to protect his harvest, Duncan prepares to hunt the creature, knowing that a single failed season could spell ruin.

The tension rises when Zikkara, the native foreman, warns him that the Cytha is not meant to be chased, pleading for the creature’s right to survive. Duncan, caught between the desperate need for the crop’s cure‑all and the uneasy relationship with the local tribe, insists that only by eradicating the predator can the farm—and his future home—be secured. As the scorching heat bears down, both men must decide whether cooperation or conquest will shape the land’s destiny.