Franke The Monke's Book

The First Conflict

Upon reaching the age of five, Injorian apes are considered adults. With the absence of my father, I was the oldest male descendant of my grandfather. As such, I became the new Solverg. I was not excited to have to take on this responsibility, as I was still considered young for an ape. However, my mother assured me that my special heritage would aid me in leading the shrood.

For a few months, life went on as it did before, under the leadership of my grandfather. The primary responsibility of a Solverg is to protect others and distribute ressources. I was blessed with formidable judgment skills, so the latter was easy for me to accomplish. Furthermore, there were not many external threats from the jungle during those few months, so I did not have to perform my first duty. This would change, and on the fourth of Fre, the shrood had its first major conflict.

The day began as most did, with my awakening at dawn. It was my job to oversee the shrood's morning activities. I ensured that all the apes had sufficient food and were ready to begin their tasks for the day. However, this was interrupted by the shouting of some destels.

"I have never seen any creatures so pink!" one exclaimed.

I was perplexed by the meaning of this comment, as most pink creatures in the jungles of Injor would not have caused such an uproar. It was my responsibility to resolve conflicts, so I went over to view the situation. I was not prepared for the sight in front of me. There were around ten small pink creatures with gills on the outside of their body. My grandfather had described them to me, four long years ago. I still remembered their names, however. The creatures are called axolotls.

Many ignorant humanoids describe them as cute and innocent, but they are far from it once you get to know them. Some say that the most aggressive of them come from a different continent on Trespis, one of eternal darkness and warfare. The ones in front of me at the time were in fact from there.

"Why have you come and bothered our morning routines, axolotls?" I asked them.

"We have come on orders from Akol, our god, and we are here to claim this land as our own," one of the larger creatures answered.

"As the Solverg of this strong, healthy, shrood, I will not be allowing that."

I did not want a conflict, but the axolotls, always hungry for war, were happy to start one. They immediately took drew daggers with their stubby arms and attacked the shrood. I was stunned for a moment, but I quickly regained my wits. I felt a primal power awaken within me, and magic flew from my hands towards the largest axolotl. Suddenly, five of the ten pink creatures were surrounded with angry locusts, biting at them from all sides. The axolotls promptly fell to the floor in pain from this arthropod assault.

However, I did not allow myself to become tunnel-visioned, as there were still five warring creatures that were not near the insect cloud. I again became furious and beat my chest in preparation for combat. I immediately ran up and punched one of the axolotls into the ground. Another strong ape, my mother, had also prepared herself and was now fighting one of the axolotls herself. I continued to attack my enemies, but one knew how to use magic. Purple energy burst from his hands towards my mother. in that moment, I felt time slow to a crawl. I felt a similar deep energy within me, and white magic from me blocked the creature's purple blast. This gave my mother enough time to punch the magic-wielding axolotl into unconsciousness.

Surprisingly, my sudden rushes of power had prevented any death in the shrood. We tied up the axolotls to be questioned later, as their mention of claiming Injor for their god worried the destels and myself.