By Frank Roberts

 Yahewwa looked down on his pets. Everything looked calm enough for him. Some of them were fighting, but they always did, and it did seem to help control the population, so he decided to let the computer monitor it, in case it got too rough, and turned to the other parts of his farm. He felt generous today, so when he saw one of the pets begging, he threw a treat for it. The pet looked surprised, as they always did, which kept puzzling him: why would someone (or, in his case, something) ask, not expecting to receive? He watched the pet for a few more minutes, as it hopped around, happy, and decided he should do it more often: happy animals live longer. Besides, it was fun watching them after they got their treats. Then he noticed the pet was looking up, its eyes wide open. He cursed loudly and turned to the control console and, sure enough, his cloaking was down 20 percent. He quickly corrected the output and made the ship invisible again. He didn't care that much for his pets seeing him, for as bright as they were, they weren't intelligent enough to understand what they saw, but if they saw him, he was certainly detectable and he preferred to have the element of surprise on his side in case any unwanted guests dropped by. After all, cattle theft wasn’t all that uncommon in the area. Then he went on with his daily inspection, correcting this, repairing that. Surprisingly enough, the rest of the day offered no more unusual elements, which left him a bit more free time for his personal life. Not that he had much of it: who in her right mind would ever consider mating up with a farmer?

* * * *

Charlie Baker sat on the bench beside his house, holding his head in his hands. A few minutes ago he came back from the unemployed office, where he, again, heard that they couldn't find any job for a healthy and strong young man. The third time this week. He has been out of work for the last four months. Machines did everything nowadays, replacing human laborers almost completely. His wife left him, his house was mortgaged and the only furniture he had left was a fridge, a stove, which he couldn't sell, as it was built in, and an old bed. His friends were all gone, and since his parents died, there was no one who could help him out. Actually, the only one who stayed with him was Duke, his dog, who was now licking his hand, asking for something to eat. Charlie looked up at the sky and put his hands together. "I think you know I never was very religious," he said, "but I'm begging you, Lord, don't let me end up in the gutters. I'm not asking for anything special, I just need some money to get by. So, please, Lord, let me get a job before it's too late..." He sighed and looked down. He saw a glitter a few feet from him. He got up and went over to take a better look and saw something yellow in a small hole Duke dug up. Charlie dug around it and pulled out a gold nugget the size of his fist. He looked at it for a few moments, stunned, then gave out a yell that scared Duke who stood beside him and watched. He got up on his feet and looked at the nugget again. It stayed there, not vanishing, as he'd half expected. Then he dropped it and started dancing around it, screaming with joy. The people walking by looked at him as though he was some kind of a maniac, but he didn't care. While he was dancing, he happened to glance at the sky, where he saw something blurry that looked like a winged man. He froze, not believing his eyes. The vision flickered and disappeared. Charlie fell on his knees and thanked heavens for his lucky find. After that he picked up the nugget and ran into town, looking for a jewelry shop.

* * * *

GentleClaw licked the god's paw, trying to comfort him. Being close to the gods he knew they needed comforting just like his own people, though many didn't believe him, like that PathLurker that lived off what he found in the big holes where the gods threw things. He didn't quite understand why the god was unhappy, but felt it was part of his serving to offer consolation to him. The god looked up and took his paw from GentleClaw, who decided to lie down and take a nap on the god's hinder paws. He lay there quite comfortably when the god got up and left. GentleClaw followed and saw the god dig up something and start a ritual of happiness. Then the god ran off, leaving GentleClaw to guard their aboveground cave. He scratched and decided it was time to teach his pets not to be so much of a nuisance. He caught the most annoying of them with his teeth and crushed them as an example for others. His itching subsided and he lay down in front of the cave and closed his eyes, knowing he'd hear anything approaching the cave before the thing got anywhere near it.

* * * *