Monday Bonus: The First Deal

[i]Hello, my readers, if indeed such creatures exist. This is the first Monday Bonus, which is a short sidestory or something that I felt like posting. They're on occasional Mondays because everyone needs a little extra to get them through Mondays. These aren't really a regular thing, and I was planning to do a lot more than I've done so far, but enjoy anyways.

I'm working on exposing Crooked Swords to a larger audience, mainly through advertising. That should be coming along sometime this week or next -- I just need to get money transferred over to my PayPal account. Also, if anyone could leave a review at CS's page on Pages Unbound, that would be a huge help. But enough with that, on with the story.[/i]

If you asked him, Tokan wouldn’t say he was miserable. People generally weren’t miserable back in those days, unless a lover or child had just died, which was all too often. But even then, they had less grief than we do now, where we have hidden ourselves away from death.

Tokan had only eaten one meal that day, a scavenging of fruits and small animal meat. It would barely be enough to fill a bird, but Tokan had never been full, so he would have never thought of himself as hungry. Hungry wasn’t even a word in the dinosaur days. He also wandered around naked, feet worn into fine calluses by the underbrush, had no home or shelter, and stank to high heaven. But such was the way of things.

On this day Tokan was particularly happy. He had just had great sex with his wife, and was currently leading a hymn. He had no business being the shaman, but the shaman and his apprentice had been killed by a tyrannosaurus two nights ago, so it was his turn to step up. He was managing to fake it, imitating the old shaman and the ones before him. It was then when he appeared.

The demon appeared as a man, but not a convincing one. His appearance was uncanny, a statuelike replica of a human that lacked flaws, lacked character. He appeared as the prototype, not the final product.

Tokan grabbed his axe, interrupting the hymn. “Who are you?”

“A friend, I hope,” the demon said. “I wish to speak to your leader. I would like to make a deal with you.”

“A deal?” Tokan said, confused.

“You know, a trade,” said the demon. “So, who’s in charge here?”

Tokan looked to his fellow nomads, still puzzled. “You are the shaman now,” one of them said with a shrug. A wave of dread and anxiety washed over Tokan, but he shook it off.

“I am the leader. Explain this trade to me.”

The demon slung an arm around Tokan’s shoulders. “Let me take me to my home, where we can deal in comfort.”

And they stepped through worlds. The demon took Tokan to a mansion like we might say today. Tokan marvelled at the smoothness of the ground, the closeness of the sky, and the unknown inventions of walls and doors, tables and chairs. He looked out a window, and gaped open-mouthed at how it could be night and yet be so bright and so warm inside, even when there was no fire that he could see.

The demon motioned him into his bathroom. Tokan settled into a warm bath, as the demon washed all the grime and dirt off of him. Then he fed Tokan a huge feast, with delicious meat, cheese, vegetables and wine. Tokan devoured it all, having never tasted much of the food before. Then the demon dressed him in a smooth silk robe and they sat down on comfortable couches.

“Tokan, I know that your people can't afford this luxury,” said the demon. “It's because of the dinosaurs that constantly destroy your lands, kill your people, and force them to flee.”

Tokan nodded. “But that is life. What is your point?”

The demon offered up a scroll and spread it across his table. “What if I told you that if you had this scroll you could keep the dinosaurs away from your camp forever?”

“I would call you a liar, and a bad one at that.”

“I would never lie,” said the demon. “Just say the words on this scroll and invoke my name and I shall protect whichever area you wish. If it doesn’t work, I will trade back with you.”

Tokan was excited at the prospect, but he had more sense than to agree right away.

“You keep talking about a trade, but you have not said what you want in exchange.”

“A mere trifle,” the demon said with a dismissive wave of your hand. “But when you use this magic, the souls of everyone it protects will become property of us demons.”

At the time the people worshipped animal spirits, and believed that everything had a soul, so losing his soul was quite a concern. “What will that do to us?”

“In this life? Nothing. But when you die... and I can promise you that you will die fat, old, and in bed instead of tomorrow at the teeth of a dinosaur... you will spend the afterlife in our realm, Hell.”

Tokan considered it for a moment. He considered the danger of the deal, but he also considered the fear and death that he lived in. After the demon’s treats, he was for the first time in his life clean, full and comfortable, and couldn’t imagine going back to it.

“I agree,” said Tokan.

The demon grinned and shook Tokan’s hand, then gave him the scroll. “A pleasure doing business with you, my friend. I’ve attached to the scroll a simple incantation to summon me if you ever want to make... further deals.”

“I will definitely consider that,” said Tokan.

Tokan went back to his tribe and showed them the scroll. They protected their tribe, and grew into a village. They built farms and houses and shops. They sold copies of Tokan’s scroll to other tribes, at exorbitant prices – prices that were always paid. True to the demon’s word, no dinosaur set foot near a protected town. And true to the demon’s word, every soul that stepped foot in a protected town ended up in Hell after they died.

That village eventually became the city of Homestead. Tokan indeed made further deals, and became known as Tokan the Ancient, the originator of wizardry. And that world became our own.