(This is another of daughter's bedtime stories inspired by a thumb
quest discussion on the Gloranthan Digest).
You know that Great Waha gave us the Covenant of the eaters and the
eaten to save us from starvation. You know that He meant for more of us four footed ones
to win when it came time for the contest to decide who would eat and who would be eaten.
But those hairless baboons the humans cheated and used loaded knucklebones they had gotten
from Hyena. Only Grandfather Morocanth was sharp enough among the four footed ones to
notice something was wrong. After all the other animals had lost and it was his turn to
throw he picked the bones up in his forehooves (we only had single hooves like the
accursed horse or zebra does back then, and so did all the other animals.
Even the humans had hooves back then!) and got ready to throw them.
He shook the bones real hard and raised them over his head to throw them down. Well when
his forelegs were raised right over his head he let the bones go and they went sailing
over his head to land in the Zola Fel. Well everyone knew the River wouldn't give
something back once it had it so the humans were out of luck. The last human to throw
turned to Hyena for another set of rigged bones but Waha was getting suspicious and he
gave the human his set of knucklebones. The human couldn't very well refuse Waha and had
to make his throw with unfixed knucklebones. Bad throw. Then Grandfather Morocanth made
his throw and beat that hairless ape. That's how we were the only four legged ones who won
the contest and how we got to have herd men. Waha knocked that loser man right upside the
head knocking any sense and all the smarts right out of him.
Well, Grandfather Morocanth was mad about the way the humans cheated and how Hyena had
helped them cheat. And he stayed mad and one day not too long after he was riding around
on his herd man chariot when he saw something strange. There was a human perched on
the back of a bison holding on to a rope attached to the bison's head, waving a stick with
a bit of sharp bone attached to the end while singing a song about killing Morocanths and
hanging on while the bison was moving! Well this looked like trouble to Grandfather
Morocanth so he decided to check it out. He got his chariot to move closer to the human.
"Hey you," he called out. "What are you doing."
Well that hairless ape looked quite embarrassed at having been caught. He dropped
his stick and managed to fall off his bison. "Nothing, Grandfather Morocanth. I'm not
doing anything." He hid his forelegs behind his back so Grandfather Morocanth
couldn't see them. "Show me your forehooves," said Grandfather Morocanth, and he
gave the human his worst stare. The human blushed from toe to face and slowly brought his
forehooves around from behind his back. "What happened to your forehooves?"
shouted Grandfather Morocanth. The human's forehooves had been split in five pieces! He
grabbed the human's forelegs and moved the split hooves around. He made the human pick up
his stick and although the human tried to act clumsy Grandfather Morocanth could tell that
he could hold it pretty easily. "How did this happen?" asked Grandfather
Morocanth. "Oh, you know how hard it is to hold a knife," said the human,
"I, err cut myself." "Six, no seven, no eight, no ten times!!!",
thundered Grandfather Morocanth. "Well, I really needed to cut something badly,"
replied the ape. "They certainly healed nicely," said Grandfather Morocanth.
"Well, um, you know how it is." said the human. "Hmm, thank you human I
guess I do." Grandfather Morocanth got into his chariot and rode slowly away thinking
to himself. He knew something funny was going on so he hadn't gone far when he stopped to
see what the human was up to. Well he had climbed back up on his bison and rode off as
fast as he could. As Grandfather Morocanth watched he fell off a few times but he always
got back up and kept on riding. Grandfather Morocanth turned his chariot around and set
off after the human. Eventually he rode up over a ridge and saw a serpent below him. All
along the serpent was a long line of humans and right below Grandfather Morocanth sitting
in front of a sweetgrass fire was Hyena. As each human came up to Hyena he gave him a
leather bottle. Hyena emptied the bottle and then taking a sharp knife he quickly cut both
of the human's forehooves into five strips. Then he grabbed both split hooves and twisted
one of the split sections so that it faced the other four strips. After that he rubbed
some sort of salve he had in a big pot on the human's hooves and they healed up.
Grandfather Morocanth couldn't quite see what Hyena did when he
twisted the fifth strip so he didn't know exactly what he was doing to the human's
forehooves. What he did know was that this meant trouble. He quickly turned his chariot
around and drove his herd men so hard that they dropped dead after they reached his camp.
He yelled for all his people to get their chariots ready and to follow him bringing any
liquid they had in bags with them. Well all that they had was herd man milk but
Grandfather Morocanth figured that would have to do. They raced back as fast as they could
go bouncing all the way as it was a rough path. When they got back to the serpent
Grandfather Morocanth could see that Hyena was almost finished the humans. When the humans
saw the morocanths they yelled at them to go away shaking their pointed sticks at the
morocanths. The morocanths yelled back and both sides were ready to fight when Hyena
staggered to his feet. Seems that the humans had been giving him what we now call liquor
to drink and he was quite smashed by now. Hyena said in a slurred voice that he would do
his forehooves trick to anyone who had a bag of liquor to give him. Grandfather Morocanth
looked embarrassed. They didn't have any liquor (whatever that was), all they had was herd
man milk in their bags. Well, Grandfather Morocanth decided that at least he would try to
get his hands done so he clambered down to where Hyena waited. He handed Hyena his bag and
Hyena sniffed suspiciously at it. "What is it," he asked. "Herd man
milk," answered Grandfather Morocanth. "Well I'll try anything. Once." said
Hyena. He drank from the bottle and said, "Umm, that's good. More, give me
more." Seems that all the bouncing around had turned the milk into what we now call
kumiss. (So Grandfather Morocanth invented that too!)
Grandfather Morocanth sighed in relief and answered, "Sure, but first my
forehooves." So Hyena cut Grandfather Morocanth's hooves. But he had drunk so much
that he forgot to cut Grandfather Morocanth's hooves into five and only cut them into
four. And he forgot to twist the fifth strip so that it faced the other four. Well
Grandfather Morocanth was too relieved at getting his forehooves done like the humans and
his people didn't know any better so nobody said anything about the missing strip. Well
when Hyena finished the last morocanth He dropped straight down on his face and nobody
could wake Him for seven days and seven nights. By that time Grandfather Morocanth had
figured out that something was wrong with his "hands" as the humans were calling
them. They were better than they had been but they were not equal to the humans.
Well, Grandfather Morocanth was mad so he went to find Hyena. He
found Hyena lying in a pile of His own shit covered with buzzing flies and he shook him
until He woke up. "Whazzup," slurred Hyena. "What do you want?"
Where's my thumbs!" roared Grandfather Morocanth. (That's what he had learned
the humans called their fifth strips). "Thumbs?" asked Hyena bleary eyed.
Grandfather Morocanth shoved his hands in Hyena's face and shook them at him. "Do you
see any thumbs on my hands," he asked. "Did I forget to give you thumbs
too?" replied Hyena slowly, "I meant to. Now how did I do that again?" Well
poor Grandfather Morocanth submitted to all sorts of attempts by Hyena to give him thumbs
but Hyena had drunk so much liquor that He could not remember how He had done the trick in
the first place. Well Grandfather Morocanth roared and cursed and swore at him but to no
avail. Finally Hyena said, "If you can bring me a human I'll cut his thumbs off and
stick them on you." "Ugh," said Grandfather Morocanth, "I don't want
puny, hairless thumbs." "Whatever," growled Hyena finally starting to get
angry as he realised just how hung over he was, "I'll change them so
that they look like they belong on you. But whatever you do I need the person you get the
thumbs from to be alive."
Well Grandfather Morocanth still didn't want human thumbs so he got
in his chariot and wandered while he thought about what kind of thumbs he really did want.
He wandered so long that he finally found himself way up north past the plains his people
usually wandered near the home of the dark people known as trolls. Now trolls have always
been sort of friends to us but when Grandfather Morocanth thought about big, strong, dark,
trolls he got excited. He travelled around looking for a lone troll and when he saw one he
challenged him to a wrestling match. "What do I get if I win?" asked the troll.
"You can eat my herd men, " answered Grandfather Morocanth. The troll licked his
chops. "And if I lose?" he asked. "You have to come on a chariot ride with
me and do whatever I ask at the end of it," answered Grandfather Morocanth. They
swore by Waha and the troll's dark mother that they would abide by the agreement. So they
wrestled and they wrestled and what a match it was. Back and forth it went with first the
troll and then Grandfather Morocanth having the advantage. Finally Grandfather Morocanth
beat the troll and made him travel south with him back to Hyena. When they got to Hyena
the troll asked what Grandfather Morocanth wanted of him and he told him that he wanted
his thumbs. "What!" screamed the troll. "You promised," said
Grandfather Morocanth. "So I did," replied the troll, "but you have to take
some of my nature into you along with my thumbs." "Agreed," replied
Grandfather Morocanth. So Hyena cut the trolls thumb's off and stuck them on Grandfather
Morocanth using some magic He had stolen from Eiritha. And Grandfather Morocanth finally
had a pair of big, black thumbs with claws. And he was happy. But he had to take some of
the troll's nature along with his thumbs and that is why we like the darkness better than
the sun to this day. This didn't give all the morocanths thumbs so if you want some you'll
have to do just what Grandfather Morocanth did.
This page last modified May 02, 2000
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