New Friends

Location: AEIWZ Zernff (Year of Light 144)

The stars shone brightly in the clear night sky. Gruff looked up at the stars in awe. Even though he was a fourth-generation "light dweller," the illumination of the night sky still held a certain awe for him.

Life on Zernff was wonderful as far as Gruff was concerned. As he reviewed his people's history, he still could not understand what would cause the first "light dwellers" to leave their underground tunnels.

Little did he know how small his world would be seem by the end of this night. Gruff was on his patrol shift when he saw a star shoot across the sky. Normally Gruff wouldn't think twice about a shooting star, but this one caught his attention because it turned. It looked like it was coming straight for the Bugbear camp.

As the star came closer, it got bigger. Instead of getting brighter as it got closer, it actually grew darker. After a few minutes of getting closer, larger and darker, Gruff could see that the shooting star was actually a plastic cube.

It was a plastic cube that he could see through. There were people inside! They weren't Bugbears, but they were definitely people.

Gruff blew his horn and grabbed his sword. These people came from out of the night sky. Gruff didn't know if they would be friendly. He wasn't taking any chances either.

As he watched the cube, he could hear the other Bugbear warriors coming toward him from their camp in the woods. One side of the cube opened as a large group of people came to the opening.

Four beings came out in flowing purple robes. They held swords in their hands that made Gruff's sword look like a butter knife. They had helmets on their heads that covered their faces. They stood in two lines facing each other.

Two more beings stepped out behind them. Their robes were blue. They had nothing covering their heads so Gruff could plainly see their faces. Both beings looked like tigers with golden fur and large stripes.

By the time these two stepped out of the cube, the rest of the Bugbear Guard was standing behind Gruff with their swords drawn. The two tiger figures took little notice of the Guards' swords.

The two tiger figures walked right up to Gruff and the rest of the Bugbear guards. The one of Gruff's left spoke up.

"You are Gruff, are you not?" he asked Gruff plainly.

Gruff looked puzzled. How did this tiger know him? He had never seen anyone like these two before. He looked toward the cube again and saw many other tigers walking around.

After a moment, Gruff finally answered, "I am Gruff. Who exactly are you?"

"I am Danzig, Duke of the Blasen," the tiger on the left said. "We've been watching your people for quite some time. We feel that we can help yuou become better hunters."

Gruff eyed the tigers wearily. He wasn't sure that they could trust these Blasen. Finally, he had his answer.

"We'll give it a chance," Gruff replied. "We're always interested in new hunting techniques."