Chapter 1: Grig says hello

THE KEFI

This is a completely silly story idea that I’m developing. If you like it great but, if not, feel free to ignore it entirely.

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I’m going to let you in on a secret. I've got nothing better to do at the moment, so why not? That little glimmer, shadow, or movement you thought you saw? You did see it. You’re not crazy, and you’re not seeing things. What you saw was a Kefi¹ like me.

What’s a Kefi, you ask? Great question, I was just getting to that. Below what you can see, a hidden race lives, loves, gives birth, and dies. We are the Kefi. The tallest of us can barely reach the side of a Hanuk² boot.

Long before our historical records began, the first Kefi caught sight of Hanuks. Creatures too massive to comprehend strode across our universe, trampling and laying waste at will. 

Our first histories tell of Gufti Solly, an unfortunate Kefi who perished the moment a Hanuk caught sight of him. For as long as I can remember, Gufti was a cautionary tale for the young ones.

“Always out of sight, stay not in the light. Learn from Gufti’s folly and avoid poor Solly’s plight.”

This simple rhyme filled every Kefi child’s mind and fueled their nightmares. As we grew older, we learned to live in every shadow, and use every kind of visual obstruction or trick of the light as camouflage. Above all else, we were taught to avoid Maras³ at all costs.

I find myself in an awkward, dangerous, and bewildering situation. I’m currently knee-deep in Maras. A Hanuk snatched me up this morning as I ran between the steel borders of the Horseshoe district⁴.

He carried me through the air, took me inside a Hanuk dwelling, and dropped me in some sort of clear enclosure.

A Hanuk saw me and touched me but I didn’t burst into flames, explode on contact or die of fright. Other than getting captured, nothing unusual or unpleasant happened at all.

So, I’ve got two problems I need to solve. The Hanuk might be back any minute so I’ll solve that problem first:

1. Get out of this enclosure somehow and get back home to my family in one piece.

If I can do that, I’ll move on to the next big problem:

2. Why the greck was I just seen but failed to die?

By the way, my name’s Grig Solly. I’m the great great great great great-great-great-grandsons of the first Kefi to suffer Maras and die.

I wonder what really happened to him?

1. All unfamiliar words in this tale come from Kefita, the language of the Kefi.

2. Kefi name for humans.

3. The Kefita word for instant death by Hanuk sight or touch.

4. The space between houses on Horseshoe Cove, in the tiny hamlet of Council Rock.