-brax and Nightmare Beast
You always have the little man telling us what to do. We are bigger, and it would make more sense for us to tell the little people what to do, but no, it never works like that.
Oh. Well Sands and Stars, why didn’t you ask that in the first place? Well, uh, there’s sand. Sun. Sometimes a bush. Usually a very dry bush. Lots of thirsty critters trying to kill you. Yeah. I like the desert. Here in the city, you can’t fight unless your little master tells you to fight. Not as many little Masters in the desert, neither.
Well there’s the villages, you know about them. Then there is the desert. Then, a long ways away, there more cities.
Naw. Just freaks and critters.
Yeah, people live there.
Uh… kind of like this one, only different. I visited another city once. Maybe I visited two. Better food than here. One city had an inn with a room big enough for me! Sands and Stars! Really thoughtful. Most people not so nice.
Let’s see. There’s us and the little humans. Lizard people. Bird People.
Naw, those are just different kinds of humans, I think. But there is a critter called a “half-thing”, that’s half human and half nothing at all. Sands and stars! They make me laugh!
Naw. Have you seen anyone bigger than us?
Listen dummy, and listen good. They are the little masters. They call you anything they like, and you just smile and play dumb, see? Sands and Stars! Your questions hurt my head!
I dunno. Nobody ever sees him, but there are statues of him all over the city. I think he is the boss of the templars.
Sands and Stars! You are asking a lot of questions today! The templars are the meanest and bossiest little masters. The other little masters are afraid of them. Templars use Magic, and they Read.
Magic is what makes everyone obey the templars. They can control your body, or put you to sleep with a word and a wave.
Reading is when little masters pretend that cloth rolls called “scrolls” are talking to them. . Any dummy can see that the scroll only “says” what the templar wants it to say. Maybe that’s why only templars are supposed to read.
Once no one was looking, and I hit the templar on the head and try to read her scroll, but it did not say anything to me. I think Reading is a bunch of kank dung.
The Way is a special skill, like magic, but more normal. The Way lets you do powerful things just by thinking really hard. You usually find out what your Way skill is when someone is hurting you, or when you are scared. Your hands and legs are pinned down, so you just reach out with your mind, and wham. You say “Sands and Stars! I did not know I could do that.” Actually most people can’t, but you will, ‘cause your momma did, and I did too. I can always tell when the little masters are looking at me … it feels like an itch, and I know that I’d better look busy. Your momma -- she used to go lie out in the sun, and then she did not have eat as much.
Some people called “mindbenders” have lots of Way skills. Don’t mess with them!
I dunno where I come from. You, I saw you squeeze out of your momma. You was smaller than a human and uglier than a kank. I saw you and cried. Sands and Stars! Then my little master called, and I had to go dig a ditch.
The little masters say we are here to do what they say. Not all the little ones are nasty bosses. If you find a nice human that wants to be your friend, then stick with him and protect him. Be his muscle and let him be your thinker. Hurt his enemies and stay by his side. Just try not to roll over him when you sleep. That’s how I lost my little friend.
