Introduction: –I’ll tell you how it all started; it was not as simple as I put it, in my final narration (at the end of this story, which was told to me first, and then the second version, ‘The Story’), if it has a little more time, that is, if not you can read the conclusion. I don’t expect you to believe everything, it’s one of those things you have to witness to fully believe and understand, I’m a bit of a skeptic myself. So take this into account, and just read a good story, from a friend of Tangor and Siren, by the name of Rognat, who told it to me, over coffee one afternoon, while visiting the British Museum, in London. A few years ago, he heard that he was in town, studying a bit about the giants and the cultures of Malta, some cultures dating back to 5000 BC. But I bought the story (he’s an old friend): as he said, I bought the story, even with its arctic atmosphere, and the fantasy gap attached to it; and this breed called Moirommalit’s’, which I’ve heard of before from him (but not this story of course), so I’ll share it with you. In fact, I’ll quote it to you, since I have a photographic memory. And note that the conclusion was told to me first, and making more time for Mr. Rognat and coffee to start with, I got the longer version and have added them here. dls

The history:

1
the brutes

“The brutes leave, or fight, or kill them, that’s how it is on the Planet Moiromma, a planet outside the terrestrial solar system, with an arctic type climate. They have approximately six weeks a year, of spring and summer combined. Their population, what Last I heard there were between 20,000 and 30,000 inhabitants, on this planet the size of an Earth moon, perhaps 15,000 of these inhabitants, they lived around the area of ​​the cliff and the cave, where the shelter was, the mud arena, in the lack of a name of the city, we can call it simply City Brutes, it is where various powerful warriors of the planet went to challenge each other for Moiromma’s grand prize, Royalty, awarded to the most powerful warrior on the planet.

“Let me give you a little history, before I continue: the old king died, he was 899 years old. Moiromma lives between 500 and 900 years; compared to the inhabitants of the earth before its Great Flood. After which, a contest to find a new king; it is a process of eliminating the weak.

“The Brutes, as they are known, have no qualms about this contest of power, it is part of their nature, and they take it more as a sport than anything else. It is worth mentioning that the Moirommalit have 100 lives, upon death, they respawn, regenerated to the same self they were before death, they usually end up on some other planet, and most often within the surrounding solar systems (how this is done is a mystery to me, call it magic chromosomes, or what whatever, it is as it is).

“So the Brutes came from all over the planet to test their powerful fighting skills in the arena, for the crown. At the beginning of this contest, all the participants were brought to reptile-walruses, and they were given only a dagger made of They were all bound, all seven of them, legs bound and torso attached to the back of these creatures, these giant worms, as they are known on the planet, are an ugly beast of prey, they have fins, but no legs, and a smooth belly, and large fangs, and something of a serpentine head.

“And then the contest began, all the creatures with the Brutes on their backs were in the mud arena, only one man would leave this arena this day, so were the rules laid down eons ago, if not a Brute then last the living animal would be released and returned to the Cold Lands, equal to the arctic region of Earth.

Said one of the bystanders standing behind a stranger looking down into the pit, “Kahg won’t win double!” And then both bystander and stranger saw Kahg, a huge, muscled beast of a man, draw his knife from stone from his rope belt tied around his abdomen, now on the back of the monster that plunged deep into his flesh, his neck, like a vulture nibbling at a dying carcass with its stone knife, his deadly reaper: wider and wider Deeper and deeper and deeper it went until the beast was swimming in the mud trying to throw its prey off its back, and blood and tissue and bone were all bared, chipping away at the side of its body. Kahg began to crack open his skull, trying to slowly open a crack in his brain, and as he did, the beast fell on its face, its fangs sunk in the mud.

“Onlookers watched in horror and delight, it was a bloody spectacle. Kahg then cut the ropes, freeing his body and limbs, and emerged victorious alongside the beast.”

((I suppose an earthling would have been shocked and hurt killing the beast like that, but in Moiromma, it’s a ceremonial day and welcomed by all.)

2
Kahg and Yob

“After Kahg’s victory, the Brutes were defeated one after the other, until only Kahg and an old man, named Yob, remained. Both seemed insane, the reptilian beasts lying dead, or dying, and throbbing and perhaps wishing their death Kahg and Yob had what I would call equally powerful muscles, however, Kahg was younger and therefore had more alert reflexes, while Yob, being much older, was most adept at battles to the death, and of course he had never lost one.

“Said the voice behind the stranger, the onlooker again, ‘I think they’ll both kill each other?’ He was excited, lonely, and wanted to share this moment of delight with someone else, I guess.

– said the stranger [annoyed]’Yes, yes…’ and he muttered something, and leaned over the pit to watch the finality of the conflict.

“It seemed that Kahg fought on the defensive, and Yob on the offensive, and the stranger noticed this. Therefore, he said to himself: there is a moment, a millisecond after an attack by the offensive fighter, or call it a reaction forward, that the offensive fighter has an opening, call it a blink of an eye, but that’s how battles are won.

“Faster than the eye could see, Yob left his battle stance and thrust his body forward, and launched a gash at his opponent’s neck, therefore, Kahg had the moment, that opening he spoke of. the stranger, and he was about to take advantage, and if he had, he could have seized him by the shoulder, knocked him over, as planned, and broken his neck with his heel as he fell, but what happened was this: Kahg was on the move. , his hand ready to push the already bowed Yob (bowed by his thrust into Kahg’s neck with his knife), as the spectator yelled, ‘Kill him now, now, now, now…!!’ right at the stranger’s back ear.” It was such a constant bellow that Kahg went to look up, and by that time, Yob had fallen and rolled several feet from Kahg, he was now safe.

“The stranger looked back, said, ‘You botched the battle,’ and as the man was about to respond, there was a hesitation in his voice, a millisecond (he was thinking) and the stranger seized that moment, grabbed his hand, and let go of it. he jumped into the mud arena, pulling him along. As fast as he could, both surprised in the arena: Kahg and Yob, the stranger ripped a seven-foot tusk from one of the nearby beasts, but within a few feet of the three Moirommalit, and with one sweep, and perhaps three seconds. , opened the bellies of the fighters and the spectator”. Rognat

me

[Conclusion]: It was a crazy and fierce era in Moiromma, as it was this very day (women, children, men, everyone and everything had the same composition). It’s been so long that I dare not say when, lest calling him a fraud.

A deep, thunderous laugh came from above the pit-arena, where the spectators looked out over the battle pit (several feet below them, a large mud pit, circle where beast and Brutes fought to the last man) here the Brutes were naked tethered to the wild beasts, the 2000 pound reptilian walrus, with tusks extending several feet out; The harsh humor above continued unabated, as onlookers looked down into the moat, for the contest as to who would be king of Moiromma.

In Moiromma they were all fighters: the women were tigresses and the men simply beasts. There were very few children, but they were like cubs of saber-toothed lions.

Tangor had a superior physique, a sharper wit, and a more developed brain for combat: thus, when he leaped into the arena, he did not even reek of sweat, his muscles tensed slightly, his swift, powerful blows finalizing the arena. . two contestants left in the arena, whose bodies now trembled on the ground, for the last moment of his life; they were both ruthless savages, who fought for the throne of Moiromma, but Tangor was faster and surprised them both (but of course he didn’t want to be king; it was just, his nature got the better of him; he wasn’t Moiromma stock , and of course he looked different, but he was known to some of the elite in Moiromma, through Siren).

It was a world with no forbidden rules (as butchery as you can, if you can, was the unspoken philosophy of this planet in Earth’s neighboring solar system): as he might have seen this day in the battle that had taken place.

The inhabitants fought with teeth, knives, fists, fangs, claws, whatever was available, and so, when Tangor leaped into the arena, he ripped the fang out of a dead reptilian beast and disemboweled both Kahg and Yob, the two remaining. . contenders for the throne, five dead and seven dead beasts now in the arena, it was a surprise, yes, but not a big surprise, besides it was not against any rules, and to a high degree it produced even more entertainment for the spectators Rognat

Note: Written at El Parquetito’s, Lima, Peru, 11/20/2006 [Dedicated to Ron Hanna]