Tuppeg was eight years old when he first heard the drums. The zerapak traveled across the shifting sands with his parents, siblings, aunts & uncles, and three grandparents. Gam-gam Kersa had passed before Tuppeg was born. Tuppeg was the youngest of his family and still had the energy that the rest of the walking tortoises lose when entering adulthood.

Tuppeg never lost his energy, even as he got older. That is, however, a story for another time.

The reason for the zerapak family's journey was that Gamp Norbeg was sick and dying. The family had explained to Tuppeg that his gamp was over 350 years old, and it was his time. Tuppeg considered this, but it still did not hold much weight to him. He understood death conceptually. It was when someone was no longer here anymore. Tuppeg wasn't incredibly close with Gamp Norbeg, so the idea of him no longer being around didn't worry the young zerapak at all.

Still, the zerapak had traditions. They were traveling across the desert from their family home to an area called The Canyon of Rest. The Canyon is a mysterious anomaly that occurs at times only the elders know. Most of the time, it is just a patch of the desert like the rest of the great sandy wastes that the zerapak call home. Sometimes, a great stretch of the desert splits apart and forms this magnificent gorge. If you peer over the edge, you can see the shells of many zerapak who have made their final rest there. 

Just before Tuppeg and his family arrived at the location where The Canyon of Rest is supposed to be, they stopped at a small temple. Tuppeg watched as his parents and aunts, and uncles helped Gamp Norbeg into a small hidden room behind the far temple wall. Each family member was to visit one by one, in order from eldest to youngest, to spend their final moments with Gamp Norbeg.

Tuppeg zipped around the room far too fast for anyone's liking. His eldest sister Nipsar, who was already over a hundred years old, yelled at him for disrespecting the holy place and Gamp Norbeg. Tuppeg tried to sit still, but a nagging feeling started creeping up to him that something terrible would happen. 
Finally, it was Tuppeg's turn to visit Gamp Norbeg. 

"No matter what you hear out there, stay inside," Norbeg said immediately as Tuppeg entered the secret room. Norbeg was known for being cryptic; he had been a gifted oracle at one time. These days it's been hard to separate the gift from the sickness.

Tuppeg just nodded and sat next to his gamp on the stone stool beside the bed arranged for him. That nagging feeling came back. Only it wasn't a feeling. It was a sound in his mind.

"You can hear the drums?" Gamp Norbeg asked Tuppeg, and for the first time, Tuppeg looked at this elder with wide-eyed curiosity. Tuppeg nodded his head vigorously, waiting for Gamp Norbeg to say something new.

Then Tuppeg heard something else. 

Screams. 

He heard the screams of his family outside the door in some violent struggle. The drums in his mind, his soul, grew louder. The young zerapak looked at his elder with eyes prepared for tears and pleading stare. "What do we do?" the young boy whispered.

Gramp Norbeg made a gesture that Tuppeg knew meant to be silent, and silent they stayed. The sound of a struggle continued until finally, a sound, unlike any Tuppeg, had ever heard before. It was like six tiny explosions, one after the other. It would have been silent after that if it weren't for the soft drumming.
Unfamiliar voices started talking to each other.

"Loot the bodies, grab the artifacts and leave," a commanding voice with a Katlin accent barked orders.

Tuppeg cried as silently as he could. Norbeg gestured for the young zerapak to climb into bed with him for comfort. Tuppeg did. He listened closely to the drums as they comforted him like a lullaby. 

Gamp Norbeg's last words were to Tuppeg as the boy dozed off.

"Find Monlo."