My Father, and pardon me for not knowing his name as it was
stricken from the records of Moghedu long before I was born.
My Father raised his hand frequently. It never to harm.
It was to warn me of an approaching monitor lizard or
lonely Hyena that would make easy prey.
From what little I have been able to unearth, you see, my Father
was about as close to a Sentinel as a Mhun living in the desert,
protecting his wife and young son could possibly be.

So bring forth the "paddle" concept. My paddle was that if I
could not trust in my Father, and did not do as he directed,
I would /die/. That hand raising had a very different meaning
to me.

As you can see from my title, I am a monk. I learned
/just/ enough to help my fellow Guildmates achieve those dreams
we all are born with. A desire to succeed in the face of
adversity and continue on.

Some of us have a better idea of Balance, and of the Cycle,
my appologies to both Haern and Slyphe, than You, Ryissa,
appear obviously capable of.

Allow me to ask you if you have ratted in the cities before?
In the amazing possibility that you have not, you will realize
someday that a cat missing a single mouse will not cause starvation.

Look at yourself... How many days can YOU go without food?
I imagine a true predator like a cat is built by Haern to
have boughts of scarcity.
That means that they don't always have a steady food supply.
Kind of like most people who do not rat.

When two bucks meet in the wildernes? Is it so different when
a savannah bull runs into a savannah cow, and has a contest on
his horns?
Just as often as fight is "flight". Survival being paramount,
the divinities actually allow for a creature to run away
when faced with an obviously superior opponent.
Those bucks you referred to... Did it ever occur to you that
one of them locked eyes with the other and the one who
knew he was not ready yet just walked away?

That is the True Cycle, as I see it, and it is the Balance,
as I see it.

If you see this as a personal attack, it is not.
However you did hit issues that are rather close to home,
and in a very self-serving appearance.
If it helps, consider this a wonderful springboard for a
potentially interesting debate.

Khalay Takaed

Penned by my hand on the 13th of Lleian, in the year 72 MA.