Island of the Gods

I got off of my boat, and stepped onto the dry land. It’d been a long and perilous journey here, but I hadn’t had any choice but to flee from my people after having been blamed for the great fire that had caused so much destruction. I hadn’t caused the destruction, but they’d had to blame someone, and there had been enough “evidence” that I’d been their target.

“It’s of no matter, now.” I thought, as I walked onto the shore and took in the place that would hopefully be my new home. I didn’t know what to expect here, and assumed that there would be no humans and probably some animals that were new to me.

Suddenly, I heard a voice say, “So, this is where you ended up?” I looked, and saw an alligator-like bird above my head, who must’ve been the one doing the talking.

“How’d you know that I’d be coming?” I asked.

“I didn’t. Thus the whole saying-it-as-if-I-was-surprised part. Other flying creatures have mentioned to me that someone matching your description might be arriving sometime, but the odds that you would end up here didn’t seem particularly huge.”

“I’ve never met any birds who look at all like alligators before, and haven’t met any who can speak the human language either.” I said, conversationally.

“Aha! Yes, we tend to stick to this island. We call ourselves allisoars, and we know your language because some humans who used to live here taught it to us.”

I was excited to hear that there might be other humans here, but the whole “used to” part took some of the excitement away, and so I asked if there were any humans still on the island.

“Not that I know of,” the allisoar replied, “but it’s possible that some are still living here without me knowing about it.”

I was about to ask how they might be able to live here without the allisoars’ knowledge, when the allisoar said, “Follow me, if you don’t want to be eaten!”

I heard a great rumbling coming from the forest, and saw some of the trees shaking as well; and, so, I decided to follow my new friend’s advice, and ran where the allisoar was leading me as if my very life depended on it.

The sweat poured down my face, as I followed the allisoar as fast as I could away from whatever predator had been about to emerge from the forest. I hadn’t taken any looks behind me, but heard a very powerful sounding creature getting closer and closer.

Suddenly, I couldn’t lift my foot to run any further, and was aghast to find that I was stuck! I desperately tried to crawl out of the sand, but only managed to get the rest of my body sinking into the sand more quickly!

I heard roars, and felt the ground (that was now above me!) shake, which made it seem like my pursuer was angry that the sand had stolen the pleasure of swallowing me up.

I was trying to hold my breath, but knew that it wouldn’t be long before breathing sand would send the state of my health into quick decline. So much for life on this island working out for me. I hadn’t even lasted a day!

Suddenly, I felt myself falling through the air, and then catching a soft landing on a net of some sort. Before I’d even gathered myself together enough to attempt to get up from the position I’d fallen into, I heard the allisoar say, “Told you that following me wouldn’t get you eaten!”

I groaned, and managed to sputter out, “That sand almost got me though! I was just about to the point where I couldn’t hold my breath any longer when it finally released me.”

“That’s a very long and indirect way of saying, “thank you for saving my life,” but I know that manners never really were popular with the kids!”

I knew that this was just humor, but wasn’t in the mood for it; and was about to reply in a way that would probably not restore my allisoar friend’s faith in people’s manners, when I felt the net that had caught me move in a way that gently dislodged me from it and onto the ground.

“Oh! The net is alive too! I guess, thanks to both of you.” I said, and then gasped as the “net” revealed itself to be a bunch of snakes!

“Thanksssssss, for sssssssaying thank you.” one snake said, and another added, “Thanksssssss isssssssssssn’t enough though. No, no, no. A couple weeksssssss of indentured sssssssservitude issssssssss alssssssssso going to be necccccccccesssssssssary.”

“Wait!” I protested, “I didn-…” But my voice trailed off as I realized that this might not be a bad way to get my foot in the door on the island. “Can I become a normal employee after that, if I don’t mind the work?” I asked.

Some of the snakes chuckled, and the allisoar said, “I doubt that you’ll want to do that. Two weeks will probably be more than enough for you to get your fill of working for them.”

“Don’t be sssssssssso quick to asssssssssume thingsssssss!” one snake said, adding, “Perhapsssssss, a more permanent job arrangement of sssssssssome ssssssssort could be arranged.”

I was more wary about this idea, after hearing my allisoar friend’s warning, but I wasn’t willing to rule out the possibility of working for the snakes for a while. It could be a good way to help me get settled, and I would have someplace to stay where I would presumably be protected from predators.

The snakes told me that the allisoar could show me where my living quarters were, and said that there would be plenty of food in there. They also noted that my work would begin in the morning, and that it wouldn’t be easy. So, beware!

“We never actually introduced ourselves to each other fully.” the allisoar said, as we headed towards my lodging, “My name is Hazel.”

“Hazel, eh? I like it. I’m Kush. Do you have any idea what work the snakes will want me to do?”

“Well, Kush; they might actually give you work that you’ll like, in order to trick you into thinking that staying employed by them will be a good idea. Perhaps, some sort of cooking position? I don’t know, really. There’s a lot of potential work that they might want for you to do.”

“Hmmm…” I pondered, “Why did you warn me about working for them, if it isn’t necessarily so bad?”

“It might turn out that you’ll enjoy working for them well enough, but you’re going to want to keep your options open. Various beings on this island may try to get you to make big commitments to them, but I would advise against that.”

“Ah, I get it. Maybe I make some agreements and commitments for today and tomorrow with some folks, but better not to promise myself into some sort of situation that I’ll end up wanting to get away from.”

Hazel nodded, to let me know that I had the right idea, and we said farewell for the moment.

I quickly found some food, and wolfed it down. There were some drinks too, and I went straight for the pomegranate juice. Then, I suddenly felt really tired and went over to the bed and quickly fell asleep. Right before I’d fallen asleep, I thought that I felt the bed rustle slightly and that I heard a soft noise, but I’d been too tired to care to investigate it.

I dreamed of myself and the girl I’d had a crush on in my former village sneaking out and smoking cigars. I didn’t even like cigars, but I liked her, and so I smoked as we talked about how the world was barely going to be able to handle the likes of us!

I told her that I liked her, and she responded that she was looking for a teammate, not a play-toy. This made sense to me, and the two of us decided that we’d wait and see where our lives headed and maybe end up together if our destinies appeared to be sufficiently aligned.

I mentioned to her that smoking was bad for her, and that it could impede future goals that she might have. She agreed, and we both made a pact not to make a habit out of smoking, though we didn’t dedicate ourselves to abstaining from it entirely.

Suddenly, there was fire all around us, and there were people accusing me of having started the fire and telling me to get away from Baikal! Baikal tried to tell them to shut up, and screamed that I hadn’t started the fire, but everyone continued descending upon me with murder in their eyes, and I said, “I’m sorry, I have to go! I love you, Baikal!” and dashed away…

I woke up in a panic, and then realized that I’d only been dreaming. Stupid nightmare! I had to live in the present, and leave the cursed past behind me!

Suddenly, I noticed a mouse nearby, and wondered why a mouse would want to hang out so close to where snakes lived.

“Hello!” the mouse said, with a wave, “I’m Quillia! The snakes were going to eat me, but I snuck into your clothes, and have been hiding out in your room!”

I laughed, “Well, you’re welcome to stay here as long as you like, Quillia, but you’ll have to be careful with all of the snakes around. My name’s Kush.”

“A pleasure, Kush, to be sure. I’ll be wanting to return to my community soon, but I’ll take you up on your offer for a few days, anyway.”

“So, how did you get to the point where snakes were going to eat you?” I asked.

Quillia sighed, and responded, “A mistake here, and a mistake there, you know.” and began telling the tale of how she’d ended up hiding in my clothes in order to evade being gobbled up by snakes.

“I woke up, got ready for the day, and went to find my friend Pam so that we could hang out. But, I was horrified to learn that she had been taken by snakes! I tried to convince the others to rescue her, but it seemed that I was the only one who wasn’t letting terror of the snakes stand in the way of being willing to try to find Pam.

I found some snake holes, and dove in!, barely evading being caught several times. Finally, I reached a larger area, and frantically looked around in places where where future meals might be being held.

Then I saw her! “Pam!” I yelled, and she had a horrified look and pointed behind me, and I turned to see a snake licking his lips and coming my way!

I dashed off, but was sure to remember which paths I was taking, so that I could come back and save Pam. I managed to lose the snake, and went back the way I’d just traveled in order to free my friend.

On the way, I noticed a snake who had a ring of keys attached to her, and I decided to take them because she was sleeping. Having the keys would probably enable me to free Pam, and I didn’t think that I’d be able to do it without any keys.

Suddenly, I heard what I now know was you falling into a nearby net of snakes, and was distracted by it and didn’t notice that the snake with the keys had woken up and was about to capture me!

I realized my plight at the last moment, and dashed away; but “away” was into the net of snakes, and this caused them to unfold and let you down so that they could investigate the small force that’d hit them.

I hid in your clothes, and wasn’t discovered, and the rest of the story pretty much speaks for itself!.”

“Hmmm…” I mused, “They might have me doing cooking duty today, which means that I might be able to save your friend Pam and bring her back here. Can you give me today to search for her before you head out again? No need for you to be taking big risks, if I can do the job fairly easily.”

“You would do that?!?!” Quillia said, in delight, “Thank you! Of course I’ll give you a day. It would be so wonderful if Pam and I were to be reunited by the time that you return!”

And, with that; I got ready, said good bye to Quillia, and went off to begin my two weeks of indentured servitude for the snakes.

A snake who had an evil looking grin greeted me, and said that the first thing I’d have to do would be to clean up snake skins. I would have to collect all of them that I could find into piles, and move the piles above ground so that they wouldn’t be taking up space underground anymore.

And, soon, I was collecting snake skins into piles, and then eventually bringing them out of the holes and into the fresh air.

When I was dropping some skins off above ground, I saw Hazel flying towards me and pretty much laughing her feathers off! “How do you like working for the snakes? Lol.” she asked, and I replied, “It’s not too bad so far.”

Then I asked, “I met a mouse named Quillia who’s hoping to save her friend Pam from being eaten. Pam is currently captured by the snakes. Is there any way that you can save her and get her out of there?”

“Ahhhhh, you’re talking about stealing from the snakes. A very dangerous thing to do, which I would only be willing to try if I got something in return.”

“Stealing, eh? The snakes stole her from her community and her friend Quillia!” I said, indignantly, “But, sure… I could offer you a favor that you could cash in at any time. As long as it’s not something completely insane, I’ll do whatever favor it is.”

“Works for me!” Hazel said, and flew into a snake hole to search for Pam.

I wondered if perhaps I’d given more than I should have. Hazel had sure been eager to accept the deal. Ah well, at least this meant that Pam was probably saved.

I went back to work, and continued hauling snake skins around for the rest of the day. FINALLY, the snakes said that I could have the rest of the day off and resume work tomorrow, and I headed back to my room to find Quillia, Hazel, and Pam all merrily chatting away.

Hazel saw me, and told me that it’d been very easy to find Pam, and that she’d also give Quillia and Pam a ride back to their community.

Quillia and Pam thanked me very much for my help, and said that if I ever needed any assistance from the mice for anything I could come and visit them anytime. They added that, of course, I could come visit just for fun too; and, after we’d all said fond farewells, the three of them flew off and left me to rest up for my next day of work for the snakes.

After eating and drinking a bit, I found a collection of books that seemed interesting. Most of them were in languages that I didn’t know, but I found one that was written in my language and began reading The Benefits and Drawbacks of Selling Poison.

“In writing this essay, I am not attempting to take a side regarding this matter, but am merely trying to present all sides of the debate in a fair way.

I like to be positive, so we’ll start with a benefit. More resources. Yup. We snakes have collected an awful lot of resources by selling poison over the years, and will gain many more resources by doing so if we continue to do so.

A negative is that it always sucks when we get blamed for what our customers do with their purchases. Folks come after us, and we’re like, “Hey!, all we did was sell that poison! It could’ve been used for anything!”

Here’s a mixed issue, and that’s when we accept IOUs. Sometimes, it works out really well and we really get our customers over a barrel through them. Other times, we simply never get paid, thus meaning that we gave up our valuable poison for nothing!

A very debatable issue is how picky we should be about our clients, if we continue selling our poison. For example; if someone comes in to buy some poison and is still wearing a prison inmate uniform, and we know them to be convicted of terrible crimes, do we sell them the poison if they can pay the right price? This is an extreme example, but gets us into the spectrum of best-worst possible customers and what standards (if any) we should have in that regard.

It’s also worth discussing how we have historically chosen one random day every year to sell fake poison. This is always very funny, but sometimes hurts our relations with non-snake creatures who get stuck with the fake venom. That said, sometimes those who consume the fake poison are very thankful that we have this tradition, which seems as though it balances the scales pretty well.

Finally, we get to our controversial practice of poisoning about 1 out of every 5,000 snake venom customers. Proponents argue that it’s good to keep our customers on their toes and have them always be a bit nervous about buying our poison. Opponents will argue that this hurts our relations with customers and blah blah. All agree, however, that the festivals and ceremonies that we have every time the unlucky customer gets this unpleasant surprise are lots of fun.”

“Wow!” I thought to myself, “Don’t ever buy poison from the snakes!” Not that I would ever be likely to want to buy poison in the first place. It was a bit troubling that the essay I’d read in the book had made poison seem like such a hot commodity. Were people on this island really poisoning each other that much?

I skimmed through the rest of the book, and all of the essays seemed very intriguing, though they weren’t the sort of information that would increase the odds that I’d end up wanting to continue working for the snakes once my indentured servitude was over.

I finally went to bed, and hoped that I wouldn’t have nightmares again like I’d had the last night.

When I woke up, I didn’t wake up in a panic or anything, and if I’d had any bad dreams I didn’t remember them. I got ready, headed out of my room, and went to see what work the snakes had for me today!

“We have sssssome messssssagessssss that we’d like for you to deliver, pleasssssssse.” a snake who was wearing glasses (hey, I guess they need them sometimes, just like the rest of us!) said.

She handed me the letters, and gave me a map that noted where all of them were supposed to be going to. As long as I followed the map correctly, I’d be able to deliver them all with no problem.

“I do get a compass, right?” I asked, as I realized that the map wouldn’t do me much good without one.

“Very good!” she praised, “You’d not believe how many workerssssss don’t think to make sssssure that they have a compasssssssss before delivering lettersssssss for ussssssss. It can end in ssssssssome pretty late deliveriesssssssss!”

As she gave me a pretty impressively designed and decorated compass, I wondered why it hadn’t been given to me along with the map right away. Why test people to see if they think to ask for a compass or not? Or, perhaps the point was to praise me for thinking of it. If they wanted for me to become a more permanent employee, stroking my ego might be a tactic that they’d be willing to employ.

I headed towards the exit of the snakes’ settlement, ready to deliver my first letter! I’d have to move pretty quickly and efficiently if I wanted to get them all delivered today, but it did seem like a possible feat to accomplish.

I arrived at the place that seemed to make the most sense to start with, and wasn’t sure where to put the letter, because there wasn’t a mail box or anything like that.

I looked at the name on the letter. Hoonslow. “Hoonslow!” I called out, and a hand came down from a tree above me and yanked the letter away!

I looked up, to see that there was a monkey who’d gone up the tree a bit now and was reading the letter. “Please tell me that you’re actually Hoonslow…” I pleaded, to which the monkey began laughing uproariously!

“You seriously think that anyone would just randomly steal a letter that the snakes sent out? Ha! You must be pretty new on this island.”

“This is only my third day here,” I admitted, “and I’m only delivering these because I ended up in indentured servitude to the snakes after they saved my life.”

“Ahhhhh, I guess that makes sense. Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I won’t stall you up any longer. Don’t want you to not get all of those letters delivered on my account!”

I thanked Hoonslow, and continued on to the next location on my list, which actually did have a mailbox of sorts! It was a well-pieced-together pile of rocks, and there were several other letters already in it. Too many letters, actually! I checked the dates on some of the letters and saw that they were years old!

“Don’t mind those old letters,” a voice said, “I prefer to leave them there unopened because they’re just junk mail.”

“Ahhhh,” I responded, “I guess that makes sense.”

The owner of the voice suddenly came out from behind the nearby cliff, and I gulped when I saw that it had the body of a lion, an eight legged set up of a spider, and a very scary tail that looked like a scorpion’s. There was also a fancy multicolored glimmering item on the top of the beast’s head, and I wasn’t sure if it was a part of the animal or if it was a crown.

“It’s both.” the creature said, as he opened the letter, “It’s a crown that grows naturally, thus proving that even nature itself approves of my kind ruling this island.”

“Ahhhhh.” I responded, “So, you’re not a singular ruler, but your kind rules the island together.”

“Yes. We don’t make laws or anything. Not yet, anyway. We don’t have to. Every other being knows their place; and, when they forget their place, we make sure to remind them of it.”

I gave a slight bow, that I figured wouldn’t seem like too much but would also probably show the proper respect if necessary, and said, “Well, it was very nice to meet you. I hate to leave so soon, but I’ve got lots more to deliver.”

“Very good.” the creature praised, “If you keep up the hard work and don’t make any trouble, then you won’t end up like the other humans have.”

I waved in a friendly way, and walked off, as my head raced at what he’d said. Had the other humans that Hazel’d mentioned somehow gotten on the wrong side of THOSE folks?!?!? I’d have to ask Hazel about that the next time that I saw her.

Next, I dropped some mail off near what looked like mole holes at a spot that was clearly designated for mail, then I headed off towards my next delivery spot.

This location was near the part of the forest that was next to where I’d first arrived at the island, and I hoped that none of the predators who’d tried to eat me a few days ago would come out to play.

I dropped the mail off at the spot that the map indicated, and was about to leave when I heard a voice say, “Ahhhhhh, you’re that yummy looking human that the quicksand stole away from me! I was wondering if you’d survived or not.”

I tried to dash away, but tripped over a branch in my haste to scram out of there as fast as I could!

“Muahahahahahaha!” the predator laughed, mirthfully, “Calm down, calm down. I’m glad that the rest of your mail hasn’t been damaged by your fall. You really think that I’m going to eat you now and get on the wrong side of the snakes?”

I looked up at the one who was speaking to me, and saw that she looked somewhat like a rhinoceros, but was a lot larger than rhinos should be and had a much more carnivorous set of teeth which were on full display in the (actually kind of unsettlingly charming) smile that she was giving me.

“Well…” I muttered, “Nice to meet you under better circumstances, I guess. This certainly makes it more likely that I decide to remain employed by the snakes after my indentured servitude is up.”

“Ah, yes. There are benefits to working for one of the ruling species on this island. The rhiteeths could be a ruling species, if we wanted to, you know; but we haven’t felt the need to join the power-measuring contests that beings like the snakes and octalions have.”

“Hmmmm… So, the snakes rule too? Are they equal rulers to the octalions, or are they rulers who’re a bit lower down in the hierarchy?”

“Oh, the snakes know their place, and are happily lower in the hierarchy than the octalions are. EVERYONE is lower in the ruling hierarchy than the octalions, which is one reason why the rhiteeths haven’t joined in the fun. Why rule, if you’re only going to be ruling under others? We prefer to do our own thing, though we do take care not to step on the toes of those who’re playing that power game reasonably well.”

“Well, it was nice to meet you and live to tell the tale, but I better get to delivering the rest of these. I’m Kush, by the way.”

“I’ll see you later, Kush. Perhaps, I’ll even be able to get back to trying to devour you next time. Oh yeah, and my name is Serendipity. May good fortune be with you, my friend!”

As I headed off to do my next delivery, I shook my head at the nerve of her! I was her “friend,” eh? She seemed to have never been introduced to the concept that friends don’t hope to eventually GOBBLE UP friends.

As luck would have it, I saw Hazel flying towards me as I was on my way to deliver the next letter.

“Kush! Good to see that they gave you a less undesirable job today!”

I hadn’t really compared hauling out snake skins to delivering letters in my mind yet, but I could see how Hazel might assume that someone would prefer delivering the letters.

“I’ve been meeting some interesting people,” I said, “including Serendipity (who claims to be the one who almost gobbled me up) and an octalion who suggested that the other humans who were here were causing trouble that I would do well not to cause.”

“Ah!” Hazel said, seeming to understand where I was going with this very quickly, “To be clear, I won’t be able to give you any information about what may or may not have happened with other humans on this island. Nothing other than what I already did when we initially met, anyway.”

“I figured as much.” I said, a bit disappointedly, “I’ve been learning a bit about how things operate around here.”

“Oh, yes! I bet you have! Between the snakes, rhiteeths, and octalions, I’m sure that you’ve been receiving quite an education! Oh, yeah. Not to be rude, but I see that you have more deliveries left on your list than you probably have time to deliver. Want me to drop a few off? You can just tell the snakes which ones I took off your plate. They won’t mind!”

I hesitated, then decided that I probably shouldn’t say no to a bit of help, and said, “That would be much appreciated. Thanks!”

Hazel grabbed a few letters, made sure that she knew where they needed to go, waved farewell, and flew off to do some deliveries!

I had to recalibrate my route a bit, but quickly figured out which location I should go to next and set off towards it!

As I approached where the map said that I was supposed to deliver the letter to, I heard a voice say, “Stop right there!” and heard rustling behind me which was followed by me being tackled to the ground!

“What the?!?!?” I yelped, and quickly got out, “I’m delivering these for the snakes! Y’all really wanna get on their bad side?”

“The snakes!” one of them (who I still hadn’t seen) laughed, “We couldn’t care less about what those wastes of air think! Ya got any other “good” reasons why we shouldn’t just rob and enslave you?”

I couldn’t really think of any better reasons for them to let me go than fear of the snakes, and so they blindfolded me, took my letters, and marched me underground and into a prison cell of sorts.

By the time I’d managed to get my blindfold off, they’d already disappeared, which meant that I still hadn’t caught a glimpse of them.

Who could they possibly be?!?! Even the octalion I’d met seemed to have a reasonable amount of respect for the snakes, even though octalions were higher up in the hierarchy than they were.

Maybe they were part of some criminal organization that managed to somehow somewhat successfully exist and thrive while actively antagonizing creatures like octalions, snakes, and rhiteeths.

Had humans been involved with these folks, and that’s why humans seemed to be frowned upon and only talked about in whispers by many? Or, were these humans? I hadn’t seen them, and the way that they’d felt as they’d tackled and captured me wasn’t necessarily inhuman.

Suddenly, I smelled a waft of food of some sort coming from somewhere near my cell, and wondered if that food was for me or if my captors were going to soon add me to the food assortment and then gobble me up!

“Been a while since we’ve eaten human!” one said, and another added, “Yes! Hopefully he’ll taste as good as all of the other ones did!”

Wait?!? Was this what’d happened to the humans?!? These rogue crazies had eaten them?!? But, then why had the octalion made it sound like humans had acted in ways that they shouldn’t have? Did these creatures work for the octalions? Had they been hired by the octalions to dispose of me, so that I wouldn’t cause “trouble” like the other humans had?!?

I heard footsteps coming towards my cell, and wondered if they were on their way to add me to tonight’s dinner ensemble and put an early end to my very short stay on this island! I looked around the cell for something to fight with, but didn’t see anything. I supposed that I may as well surprise attack them when they opened my cell door, but I knew that there was no way that I’d be a match for all of them.

As my captors got nearer, I stood away from the door, and acted as if I was just going to meekly accept my fate; though, I was actually going to go out in a fist-hurling blaze of glory!

Suddenly, one of them came into view, and I realized that she was a… troll?!?!?!?! Oh no, I should’ve realized! Idiot!!!

She, and the others who were now coming into view, burst out laughing, and even went so far as to roll around on the floor while doing so.

“Oh me, oh my!” “Gahahahaha! You should’ve seen your face! Priceless, I tells ya!” “Ahahaha! When you were like, “the snakes will protect me!” and we responded that snakes were dumdums, you were just so forlorn! Like we’d just told you that all of the gold you’d saved up was actually fool’s gold!”

After they’d finished babbling on and on and on and on and on, and congratulating themselves on how much fun they’d managed to have at my expense; they mentioned that they’d delivered the rest of my letters, gave me my map and compass back, and gave me some food and water for the road so that I’d have enough fuel to get back to the snakes.

It was almost dark outside when I finally got back to the snakes’ settlement, and I was not exactly in a great mood. The day had actually started out pretty well, but I failed to find my misadventure with the trolls as funny as they did!

I made my way over to my room, and had a bit more food and drink before finally getting into bed, but I couldn’t get to sleep very quickly.

I knew that I should just be able to put the relatively harmless antics of those confounded trolls behind me, but they’d just taken me on such an unexpected and frightening metaphorical merry-go-round that I had a hard time just letting bygones be bygones in my mind.

I supposed that I’d discuss the matter with the snakes in the morning, though they’d probably just shrug and figure that I hadn’t been hurt and the letters had still been delivered.

I remembered that Baikal had always been a big fan of trolls, and would argue to me that they did a perfect job of being merry ol’ tricksters who kept things interesting without ever actually crossing the line. I let out a laugh, as I realized that she’d probably find how I’d just been trolled to be hilarious! Lol, I’d have to tell her about it the next time that I saw her. And, with that thought, I finally managed to get into sleep mode and out of my furious and restless state.

When I arrived to begin my third day of indentured servitude to the snakes, I was greeted by a very serious looking snake who informed me that I’d be running the sales booth where poison was sold today.

He also mentioned that the snakes knew about my run-in with the trolls, and that if I wanted to try to build a case against them the octalions were the ones to go to for that, though trolls pretty much always got away with their mischief (however aggravating their antics might happen to be) whether charges were pressed or not.

I said that I wasn’t going to try to get the trolls in trouble (not this time, anyway), but was a bit concerned about selling poison because I knew from my reading that it was a reasonably controversial job to be doing.

“And, that’ssssssss why I’ll be right there with you, filling you in on our current ssssssstandardsssssss and ssssssstepping in if you make any missssssstakessssssss.” the snake gravely responded, and he seemed so serious about the whole thing that it put me at ease a bit.

As we walked towards the booth, I realized that this was more of a training day than a normal work day. This snake could sell that poison himself, but the snakes wanted to see how I’d do at it and would probably LOVE to pawn the job off on me completely for some days if I ended up staying on as a full time employee after my indentured servitude was up.

Our first customer was a fox, who declared that the goods that she’d brought should be enough to purchase a small amount of poison. I checked the fox section of the pricing book, and determined that she had a sufficient amount of resources to purchase the amount of poison that she wanted.

I handed her the poison (after accepting the payment, of course), and she even left a tip!

The snake said that the two of us would split up the tips at the end of the day, and so I set it aside.

The next customer was a unicorn, and I was surprised that unicorns would even want to purchase poison; considering how powerful they are.

The snake was clearly surprised too, and shook his head at the pricing book to indicate that there was no unicorn section.

The unicorn offered a jar of unicorn sparkles in exchange for some poison, and the snake nodded his head vigorously to indicate that we did indeed want the sparkles.

After the unicorn had left, I asked the snake what was so valuable about the sparkles.

“You don’t know?!?” the snake asked surprisedly, temporarily leaving his grave, calm and serious demeanor behind for a second, before recomposing himself. “Very well,” he began, now in his usual tone of voice, “I sssssssshall enlighten you assssssss to why a unicorn’ssssssss ssssssssparkelessssss are ssssssso very valuable.

Sssssssso, legend hasssss it that there usssssssed to be a fountain of life on thissssssss issssssland that only the unicornssssss had accccccessssss to, and that all of them would drink from it regularly.

For ssssssome reasssssson, the fountain of life disssssappeared, but the unicornsssss all had ssssssparklesssss that they’d never had before they’d firssssst began drinking from the fountain.

Thessssse ssssssparklessss have a healing ability that isssss thought to be a lessssssser form of the everlassssssssting life power that the fountain of life gave to thosssssse who drank from it.”

“Hmmmm…” I mused, “Does that mean that the unicorns all have immortality still?”

“Ssssssuppossssedly, the onesssss who drank from the fountain do, but their desssssscendantsssssss do not. Hard to sssssay, honessssstly. We don’t know enough about the unicornssssss to be able to prove or disssssprove it.

What we DO know, though, issssss that the healing propertiessssss of the ssssssparklesssss ARE for real, and we never passssssssss up on a chancccccccce to obtain more of them.”

This made a lot of sense, obviously. Regardless of whether there were immortal unicorns or whether the fountain of life had ever existed, those healing sparkles would be a good thing to have on hand.

Ah well, all of that talk about healing commodities had been very enlightening and fun; but, it’d now become time to get back to selling some more not-so-healing poison.

The customer who was meandering her way towards us now looked like a bear, but had a reasonably sizable needle-like body-part that was attached to her head.

I looked up “bear” in the pricing book, and the only listed creature that seemed like a possible match was the bearto…

Suddenly, it hit me! Of course! The needle-thing must suck blood like a mosquito, and so the name “bearto” made perfect sense.

“I’ll pay double, if I’m allowed to suck just a little bit of human blood.” the bearto pleaded, eying me in a hungry way.

My stunned silence was not shared by my snake coworker, who replied, “Up to him.” and then turned to me, and added, “80% of the exxxxxxtra payment would go to you, and 20% of it would go to the ssssssnakessssss.”

I had a chance to earn a bit, eh? And, this would be way more than my half of the tip that the fox had left! Too bad that the unicorn hadn’t tipped any sparkles… Wait! I knew how to play this…

“Would I be able to give the snakes 100% of it, in exchange for some of the healing sparkles that the unicorn paid?”

The snake nodded approvingly at my good sense, and replied, “You could recccccceive a ssssssssmall amount of ssssssparklesssss for that, ssssssssure.”

The snake transferred some of the sparkles into a very small container, and gave it to me, which meant that now I had to fulfill my end of the bargain.

The bearto meandered towards me (salivating a bit while doing so), and had soon drawn a bit of blood from my arm.

It hurt a bit, but was well worth now having some healing-sparkles in my possession for whenever I might happen to get a more serious injury than having a bit of blood sucked away.

The bearto had an expression of satisfied delight on her face (undoubtably meaning that she was very much enjoying the taste of my blood), but nonetheless transferred the blood into a little pouch that she had with her instead of guzzling it down all the way.

“Thank you… Kush,” she said (having read my name from the name tag that I was wearing), “If you ever want to sell more of that to us, we’ll always be happy to oblige. I’m Zala, by the way.”

I thanked her for the offer; and she paid double what the pricing book required, received her poison, and departed.

Well, I now had one way that I knew I could earn resources from time to time. Emphasis on the “from time to time” part, though. I was already feeling a bit weaker (from the loss of the blood that’d been taken from me), and figured that it’d be a while before I could healthily give blood again.

The rest of the work day went pretty uneventfully, though there was that interesting encounter with the electraroo.

The currency that the electraroo wanted to pay us with was (you guessed it!) electricity.

And, so, the snake and I got out a giant battery-looking item of some sort, and the electraroo transferred a bunch of electricity into it until the gauge indicated that the sufficient amount had been paid.

After the snake and I had closed up shop, split the tips, and were heading away from the poison-selling booth, he said, “Never introduccccccced myssssssself, by the way. My name issssss Ssssssssaxxxxxxx.”

I exchanged some pleasantries with Sax, and then he explained to me that the snakes always gave their workers every fourth day off, which meant that I was free to do whatever I liked the next day.

He also gave me a necklace to wear that would let folks know that I worked for the snakes. “I know that thossssse ssssssuch assssss trollssssss will make fun of you for usssssing your asssssoccccciation with usssssss asssss a ssssssshield,” Sax conceded, “but it issssss a pretty effective ssssssshield, desssspite their sssssssilly jokesssssss.”

I thanked Sax, and figured that wearing the necklace probably would be the best move for me on my day off. Trolls will be trolls, but not getting eaten was higher up on my list than not giving trolls material for their comedy routines. Plus, they’d probably be able to come up with humor about pretty much anyone (and at any time), whether they had a protective necklace on or not.

When I got back to my room, I consumed some sustenance and started thinking about what I should do on my first day off since having started serving my indentured servitude to the snakes.

Exploring the island made sense, and perhaps I’d even be able to find Hazel and see if she’d be down to give me a tour.

Of course, why not consider just leaving? Assuming that my boat was still where I’d left it, I could just paddle away and kiss this island goodbye.

And, why shouldn’t I? I’d been almost eaten by a Rhiteeth, forced into indentured servitude by the snakes, accosted by trolls, and kept on hearing humans talked about as if they were some sort of disease or something.

Sure, my experiences on the island hadn’t all been bad, and the general consensus seemed to be that as long as I respected the hierarchies I wouldn’t be viewed how they viewed certain other humans, but surely I could find a better place to live than here!

Now, I had to concede that living here was better than going back to the home that I’d been banished from, b-

Hmmm… This kind of meant that my experience with most humans hadn’t been much better than the experience that those on this island had had with them.

This got me back to wondering what exactly had happened…

Had the humans been getting along fine with everyone, and then made some foolheardy power grab? Probably something like that, but how had they managed to get everyone so on edge about them? Had they almost succeeded? Lol, had the humans been the ones who’d destroyed the fountain of life?

Also, were they still here?, locked up by the octalions or something?

Also, what if humans hadn’t been the “bad guys?” What if they’d been more ethical than the powers that be, and had simply tried to move the island towards a more morally defensible system than the island had going?

Also, suppose someone were to tell me “what happened” with the humans? Would I be able to believe them? Wasn’t the past told by those who won, and not always told so accurately?

Hmmm… Now, there was the question of would I be able to leave an island that I was so curious about?

Curious in ways that could get me in big trouble (if I were to dig around for answers), though! Gahhhhhh!

Maybe, I’d check for my boat in the morning, just to see if it was still where I’d left it; which would enlighten me as to whether sailing off in hopes of finding greener pastures was even an option. After all, why work myself into a frenzy about whether TO leave until I knew whether I even COULD leave.

Now that I’d finally figured out how I was going to begin my day off, I went to bed and was able to get a pretty good night’s sleep.

Then; I woke up, gathered together my few belongings, and headed towards where I’d left my boat.

“Knew you’d come here first on your day off!” Hazel bragged, from the branch that she was perched on nearby where my boat still was, “And don’t worry about anybody getting mad if you leave, either. You’ll be expected to finish the last 10 days of your indentured servitude to the snakes if you ever return, but nobody will begrudge you leaving and maybe coming back someday and maybe not coming back someday.”

Well, snap. This kind of settled it. I’d better leave. The choice was obvious, since I was even allowed to return and pick up where I’d left off if I ever wanted to.

I bid Hazel farewell, and she even let me give her a hug of sorts, and I was soon out of eyesight of the island!

There were some very good winds going, and my boat sped along the water at a very fast pace, which was good.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t had a map or compass with me when I’d sailed to the island (I’d neglected to get them before originally getting on the boat, because I’d been fleeing for my life), but I did now have a compass and paper to make a map from as I left the island. This would make it so that I’d know how to get back to the island if I ended up wanting to return someday.

Of course, I had no idea if or when I might reach dry land somewhere, but my fishing skills were good and I had the ability to de-salt the water so that I could drink it.

I was glad that I’d left on decent enough terms with Hazel (and, according to Hazel, the others on the island too), and it was good to know that returning was an option that was on the table. After all, while I hoped to find better places to live than the island, I certainly knew that there were worse ones out there.