Colossus By Choice: B1V16 Side Story - The Brave Little Outcast

[Book 1 Verse 16 – B1V16]
[Side Story]

“The Brave Little Outcast” – Written by Skrill of the Roving Unorderly

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As per Radent tradition, I must chronicle my latest failures in my line of work and reflect on how our tales and history should’ve prevented said failures.

While I write from the comfort of my room at an admittedly very nice little inn in the eastern business district of Silver Sun City, I find myself weighing just how badly I screwed up this time. But more on that one later. Right now, I have to reflect on yet another story of my people.

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As I established in my previous journal entry, we Radents hold no shame in our origins as thieves of the highest order. We were the ones that were wronged for not being recognized, but we also got too ambitious and ended up being punished for being caught in the act of celebrating our pride. But not everyone saw it that way. There were those among us who felt that the Radent species was in fact ill-intentioned and morally misaligned for stealing from the gods and attempting to defend our claim to our well-earned loot.

The most infamous of these figures was known only as the Splinter.

We don’t know the name of this supposed do-gooder, nor do we care to learn it, for his name is to be spat upon for daring to indulge the possibility that our people are at fault for the ills that the other sapient races toss upon us.

This legendary figure in our history may not have been the first of the Radents to attempt reconciliation with the other species, but the Splinter was the first to gain large-scale recognition among the young peoples of the universe at the time. Something to bear in mind was that at this point in our history, we were still suffering across our various colonies. Despite our best efforts, our mining and self-sufficiency efforts proved to not be enough to support even the relatively small interstellar scale we operated on.

The gods were already lessening their presence in the universe by this point and had all but abandoned the creatures of existence to fend for themselves. They dressed it up as us sapient species being given “independence” and “learning to look out for ourselves”. What a bunch of dung that is! They obviously just didn’t want to deal with the burden of looking out for us and dealing with our problems anymore. We had already lost respect for most of them aside from Mothra already, and this just sealed the deal.

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Where was I? Oh right, the Splinter.

So here comes this little hoof-licker. Came from a poor upbringing but managed to make a decent living as a martial arts teacher. He was said to be the greatest master of the martial arts, our Radent-only martial arts that we keep extremely secret and never share with other races. He always preached peace and tranquility. A load of dung that is. Anyways, the Splinter does the unthinkable:

He makes a plea to the Gamerans, of all people, to provide aid to us!

Now naturally, those big idiots are always willing to listen to a passionate argument, so of course they take up the Splinter on his offer and hear him out. It was bad enough that he wanted to drag us up from our species-wide plight with the handouts of a bunch of uptight thick-headed turtles who talk out their problems for longer than my own lifespan. We Radents don’t accept handouts. If we can’t make a living for ourselves by our own hand or by stealing it from others, we just live with it.

Freaking Splinter there decided to swallow his damn pride and offered to teach a select group of Gamerans the secret martial arts that we Radents coveted and hoarded so fiercely! Just like that! Just because we were dying left and right, that dang preachy martial artist decided to take our fate into his hands and put it into the hands of a bunch of outsiders! If not even trusting your own species to pull itself out the gutter wasn’t shameful enough for him, I don’t know what was.

The big shelled reptiles decided to take up the offer on the condition that the 4 students they provided would be allowed to teach said martial arts to anyone else they wished to. The Splinter agreed to this, and the deal was made. He would teach 4 of the Gamerans’ young pupils the ninja way of the Radents for many years, after which the Gamerans would help pull my species out from its period of strife.

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Of course, our unifying government banished the Splinter from our society. He would be ostracized by any clan members and never given shelter, food and water, or even common courtesy.

But apparently, this was just fine and dandy for him.

The Splinter apparently found something of a family in his young turtle students and went on to continue living within Gameran society. Hoof-licking traitor. With that exchange, our secrets were lost to us and now out for the entirety of the universe to partake. Yet another accomplishment of ours taken away from us, all because we didn’t keep a tight enough grip on one of our own to prevent him from leaking our secret exclusive knowledge. Previously Radent-only martial arts knowledge became widespread and eventually standard among most sapient species generations later.

What made things worse was that, after many years, our government eventually relented and accepted the aid that the Splinter had bargained for. How could we? We had already been wronged, so we might as well accept the rest of this shameful embarrassment. Radents survive to this day partially because of that sacrifice, but was it really worth losing our pride over?

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I do admit, when I was younger, I did find something of a fascination with the tale of the Splinter. I was a naïve and stupid youngling back then, thinking that we Radents should swallow our pride and cooperate with others for more than our own benefit.

I got into a lot of trouble with my mother and father over that one when they weren’t busy with the rest of the litter.

So what went wrong this time?

I got involved in something much bigger than I, even occasionally swallowing my pride for the well-being of the others that I followed despite not really needing to do so. I could’ve easily just let Taum and Yun-Tao take the hits from that one squad of Iwi-ki. Sure, her horde members might’ve ratted me out, but I’m sure I could’ve spun it as an unfortunate casualty in hindsight. And then things got really crazy once that big ape came around. That time, I kinda was forced into it all. I couldn’t exactly let Silver Sun City get destroyed, since it’s my current base of operations as far as my underground activities are concerned.

I do admit, though, that I admire that youngling’s tenacity and perseverance in the face of impossible odds. Aside from the monumental stupidity of trying to fight against literal deities, it reminds me of my brasher and bolder days when I was his age.

I suppose I’ll have to see how things pan out. For now, I think I should get some well-deserved rest. At least I don’t have to share a bed with either of them.