altari n'tombela, village warden of casumabi

in the giant jungles of tobliska in eastern n'kombak'i lie many dangers. giant wenjixes destroying trees and houses with boulders, suicide lizards who explode when scared, bapoos who multiply at the drop of a hat, and ak'tis - well actually they don’t really do anything. with all of these threats frightening the small treehouse village of casumabi, the malkiri residents there decided to form a band of warriors to protect themselves. these warriors were called the village wardens, and would spend their nights guarding the townspeople from any creature who wandered a little too close to the village. in my book “the heart of altari,” we focus on one particular warden - altari n'tombela, a fierce malkiri woman afraid of nothing. every night she defends the village with all of her strength and ferocity. however, when the nightmarish coal-black beasts that haunt her past come out of extinction ready for a second round of fighting, she is caught unaware and unprepared for the first time…