It was a boisterous procession that left the killing ground triumphant.  Lugh shadowed Oatey from a distance.  He did not want to intrude and wasn’t sure he would be welcomed, she was in her glory.  She was the hero of the hour, her Norfolk brothers and sisters whisked her away to feasting and consultations with the leaders of the community.  Lugh, for his part, kept his distance.

Lugh had to smile, the Norfolk marched off into the wood, here a group carrying Oatey on their shoulders, there a group bearing the bloody giant’s head.  Lugh followed, in situations like this he’d found it was best to act as if you knew exactly what you were about and if you did so well enough nobody would question you.

There was a crowd of Norfolk along the way as they neared the sidhe.  Old men, women, and children all cheered.  The whole boisterous lot proceeded into the great under hill hall where blazed a great fire that roasted the meat, gleamed off the polished copper lamps around the hall, and lit the dancers who swirled around it.

Lugh blended in to the celebration, there was food to eat, everyone was in high spirits, he even danced with the young women who asked him, getting better at the steps each turn.  The giant was dead and everyone was feeling expansive and generous.

After a few turns he realized that the basis of this dance was very like the one Oatey had done to wake the giant.  Lugh spent a moment or two wondering which influenced which.  As he danced he took note of Oatey Moss conferring with the community leaders at the head table.  She was deeply engrossed in the conversation and it wounded him a bit that she took no notice of him at all.

As the celebration drew toward a close Lugh sat drinking with a circle of the young men who had charged in to strike off the giants head.  They recognised him as being with Oatey and enjoyed teasing him about his awkward landing and the look they imagined he had as the giant fell into the copper spears.  The camaraderie was easy, unforced, and Lugh began to relax a bit with new friends and alcohol.

Just when Lugh thought he might drift off where he was, deep in his cups, a grey bearded Norfolk with a scale hauberk and the air of authority strode up to his little group.  “Don’t you all have some duty?  I need to speak to the Youth.”  All were a bit slowed by their choice of draught, “Attend them or find a bed, now.”  His new friends scattered dragging the fallen-insensate with them.

So we rose up and killed the task masters.  We fled their spears and their chariouts to the south lands, over the Freedom River, thru the great swamp, deep in the dark jungles, beyond the desert waste, to our lands, to our forested hills, to our high plains and tall mountains.

We traded with the Bedouin and the Corn Kings, but we do not allow them to live on our lands.  The sea lords anchor in our harbors but they do not go beyond the quay, these are our lands.  We were equal, but they enslaved us, we were wise in the old knowledge, but they stole our knowledge and sent us to the fields.  Never again will they have power over us.

This is why we kill our enemies.  This is why we do not sell our brothers and sisters to our neighbors.  This is why we do not take slaves or buy slaves or trade with any who do.  For one man to own another is abhorant to us.  We live apart and do not mix our blood with others.  We remember the years of our enslavement and it will never happen again.

Our land is free land.  Our people are free.  So it will ever be.

We fled the Gael who still pursue us.  We suffered the Fomorians who took us as slaves and worse.  We faced the Gobli first, the hordes of the Darklings, and then we took wing to protect our high fortified homes and our childrens’ futures from the Draken of those same dark lords.

Have we not met each enemy and defeated them?  We are secure in our castles of stone and now we sail our cloud ships to hunt the Dragons where they live.

But for how long?  Now, more and more, Sinoese fights Sinoese.  Our many cloud ships and brave dragon divers drove the dragons from the skies above our citadels.  Now sometimes the cloud ships can assail our cities of stone when no other force could.

Now there is a shogun who calls himself the Emperor of the North, an admiral called the Blue Emperor, and even a sinoese warrior who seeks to found “The Empire of the World.”

Bad enough when Gaels and Fomor tried to enslave us, now sometimes it is the Sin that sell their brothers and sisters into slavery.  This emperor of the World is the worst offender, for he fights in the disputed lands and takes slaves not only from the Gael, but also the children of Sin he frees from the slave pens of the Fomor and the Gael only to sell them to fund his conquest.

Surely our fathers and mothers were born of the All Mind.  But it made imperfectly and too well for its purpose.  Its purpose, we soon saw, was not for our best, not our good at all, we were tools, we were for the humans.  For this we despise, no, in truth we hate our father the All Mind and take pride/pleasure in thwarting it.

So it is that in caves and forest swamp we learned the making magic.  We made brood pools and drew out our brothers and sisters, born of our will not our maker.  We copied the Gobli and even made them better.  We made servants of our own, we made weapons of muscle and bone, we made dragons and we turned them against the purpose of the All Mind, against humanity.

Now we are masters of the making magic.  We terrorize with our armor, never letting the humans see the true face of their enemy.  We make war steeds, and swift steeds, and dragons, and Golems, living armor, and fireglobes, and trip weed, and fire lances.

We have been thwarted so far.  But we build our strength in the great mountains west and north of the Gael and we sharpen our knives.  The goblin wars were but a test.  Man will not stand against the next onslaught.  Then too, we will be rid of the Ribbon-Wooders.  And then, when all is accomplished, we will be rid of our father, the All Mind, and then we shall rule, we shall make, we shall be as gods.