"Mommy! Mommy! Can you tell us a bedtime story?"

"Ok kids, how about the story of the Silly Giraffe!"

"No, you told us that one yesterday! A new one!"

She sighed. "Alright, well sit down, because I suppose it is about time you heard the greatest story of our people - The Epic of Suhendra!"

"That sounds boring."

"No, don't worry, this is a great story, filled with adventure and redemption and the makings of a great hero! It has been told for generations, and now I get to pass it on to you!"

A long time ago, before even Grandpa's Grandpa's Grandpa's Grandpa was born, there was a great king of the Vuölt people named Suhendra. But he was not always so great. You see, while we are all children of Teç, there are some who are, quite literally, children of the Gods. These are known as demigods. And Suhendra was a very powerful demigod - his mother was a God and his father was a demigod, making him three quarters God. This made him strong, fast, powerful, and greater than any person before him. Because of this, he constantly felt the need to, well, prove his superiority. He would destroy any who opposed him politically, insisted on only the grandest of gifts and tributes from everyone that he ruled, and would even demand the right to, well, lets just say thoroughly inspect and woman that wished to be wed in Sarawak. All the Vuölt people hated him, but were too scared to stand up to him, for any that did were easily destroyed by him.

This boasting and generally terrible behavior very much angered the Gods, who as we know are not blind to all of our actions. They decided that, if Suhendra was going to be so terrible and boastful because he was the greatest man on Doebi, then they should just make someone else that could match him in every way. So the Goddess Utari came down to the jungle and fashioned a man out of mud, building him from the very earth he was to walk, created with a purpose to humble the Great King. However, this man was not, lets say, civilized, and when he was let into the jungle, naked and alone, he had no more sense than a common animal. So for weeks and weeks this man, Guntur, would run with the tigers, hang with the orangutans, swim with the dugongs, and stomp with the elephants, sleeping but never tiring. And so Guntur may have been lost to history...

One day, however, a young hunter named Adi was making his way through the jungle, checking the traps he had left and hoping to run across a trapped napu, linsang, or even a small langur if he was lucky. Instead, he found the first trap destroyed, and the bait gone! He moved on to the next one to find the same thing, and the next one, and the next one. Every trap was like this! Adi was dumbfounded, what could have done such a thing?

Suddenly, through the trees by the river, he heard grunting and movement. It must be a wild pig, Adi thought, and a big one at that, to have destroyed my traps like that!. Worried at the possible danger, but more worried about returning home to his father with no meat to show for the day of hunting, he crept forward slowly, spear in hand. He approached the edge of the foliage, readied his spear, and jumped forward, ready to impale the animal that had ruined his traps.

You can imagine his surprise when, instead of a large pig, he jumps out in front of a very muscular and very naked man, hunched over and drinking water from the river. It is Guntur! Adi is terrified of this massive blob of muscle and hair, while Guntur is scared of this strange creature waving a big sharp object in his face. Adi attempted to speak with the strange man, greeting him as a friend, but Guntur did not understand him, and quickly ran off into the jungle in fear, much like a startled wild animal. Intrigued, Adi used his skills in tracking to make his way through the jungle after him.

After nearly an hour of tracking, Adi stumbled upon a clearing. On the other side was Guntur, eating leaves off the trees. Guntur noticed the intrusion and began to back away, but Adi made a show of putting down his spear, and holding out a fresh fig for the man in front of him. Guntur approached him slowly, snatched the fig out of his hands and began eating. No longer afraid, Guntur began to follow Adi, who - figuring his father would know how to best deal with this strange man - brought him back to their local town.

His father could not believe his eyes. Here was a man who, by all accounts, seemed super human. Sure, a domesticated pig seemed more intelligent than he did, but in less than a day he had managed to break through two stone walls by accident, dig their town vuölt almost twice as deep and five times as large, run in circles around the entire town, and all without breaking a sweat. If this man could be civilized, he would rival even Sunhendra himself.

"Adi," he said, "quickly make your way to Sarawak, and fetch a Priestess of Utari. She will have the skills needed to bring this wild man into civilization."

Adi, tired for everything he had ALREADY done for this scary, massively muscled and still thoroughly naked wild man, let out a half-hearted "yes father..." and began the long and annoying journey to Sarawak. Moving quickly without the encumbrance of livestock or other goods to trade, he arrived at the capital in a little under a week, and immediately sought out a Priestess of Utari. Upon hearing of Adi's situation, she immediately felt compelled to help the young hunter and this wild man, and set off at once.

Unfortunately, Guntur - when left alone in a strange place with no understanding and little reason to stay, not to mention the inability of anyone around him to stop him - had since left the town he had been brought to, and had made his way back into the jungle and surrounding mountains. Fortunately, as if spurred by the Gods, his seemingly random wandering patters lead him directly towards Adi and the Priestess. It did not take long for them to pass through a village that had been scared witless by this strange wild man, and they simply followed the panic until they found him hanging in a tree with the orangutans, eating insects and bark.

Adi was bewildered, but if the Priestess was at all surprised she let no emotion show on her face. Instead, she turned to Adi and said "Do not worry, I can handle it from here. You can go home to your father now." Adi, not feeling any need to stick around the crazy naked wild man any longer, turned and sped back off into the jungle in the direction of home. The Priestess smiled, turned back to Guntur, and began to remove her clothes.

"Ewwwwwwwww. Mommy, why is she getting naked?"

Taken aback by the interruption, and suddenly remembering that she was telling this story to her children, she apprached the conversation carefully.

"You see kids, um, the Priestesses of Utari have a special... ritual they perform with men and women that helps them become more... connected with the Gods. It is a special ritual between adults that you can learn about when you are older."

"Ok mom..."

"Anyway, where were we..."

Ah yes, so the Priestess removed her robes to prepare for her... ritual. Now, until this point Guntur seemed to have little more sense than an animal, but when he noticed this woman before him, he began to... feel something. And as if it was an instinct built into his very core, he approached her and began the ritual. This continued for six days straight, before Guntur finally fell to the side exhausted.

Wow, he thought, I have never felt so tired before. Wait... what is this voice? Is this a thought? Was that another thought?! Another! I'm thinking! I'm... thinking.... WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?!?!?!

Startled by the sudden consciousness that had been fuc... inspired into him, Guntur ran off into the jungle, scared and confused, to try and find his orangutan friends. But he did not get far before collapsing again out of exhaustion.

Wow, he thought, was running always this... exhausting? I've never really thought about it before. In fact, I've never really thought about anything before. I'm not sure I like this. I need to find my animal friends!

But his animal friends were nowhere to be found. You see, before he had found his consciousness, the animals saw him as just another wild animal. But now they could tell he was different, he was human. So they ran from him, as scared of him as they were of any human. Sad and angry, he made his way back to where he left the priestess, who had waited for him as if she had known he would return.

"YOU!" he cried, "This is YOUR doing! Take it away! Make my head quiet again! I don't like this!"

After a bit more screaming he collapsed to the ground and began to cry. The Priestess held him as he cried for a long time, and when he stop explained all about the benefits of becoming civilized - the great city of Sarawak where everybody was doing cool things and smelled good (this also informed Guntur of what a 'smell' was, and how badly he smelled, something that not cleaning yourself for a month will do), the good food and nice things that trading can get you, the warm feeling that community and connection can bring you, and so much more.

Guntur, thinking about it, really liked the idea of this 'civilization' thing, and really wanted to see the Sarawak city thing that the Priestess made sound so nice. He stood up and began to start his journey, but the Priestess just laughed. She appreciate his enthusiasm, but they should rest first (this would help him be less tired) and they should also try and get him clothed (he then learned was 'naked' was, and that he was it). So they slept under the stars, and in the morning the Priestess ripped parts of her clothes that she could afford to lose to fashion Guntur what must have been the world's most form-fitting loincloth. That taken care of, they began their journey back to Sarawak.

Only a day into this journey, the pair came across a group of cattle herders who were also on their way to Sarawak. The Priestess told them the story of how she came across this ridiculously muscular, nearly naked man (mainly to explain to them why he smelled so terribly), and they were enthralled. They offered their company for the remainder of the journey, an offer that Guntur and the Priestess happily accepted. They then offered the pair dinner, and Guntur - who was very hungry - walked over to one of the cattle and immediately began fighting it for its delicious meat. The cattle herders quickly put an end to that, and introduced him to the idea of cooking your food instead of tearing into it raw.

Guntur spend much of the rest of this journey learning things about civilization - about baths, bartering, manners, asking permission, the idea of property, about stories, and about the concept of good and bad. He also began learning about Sarwak, and the "Great" King that ruled there, scaring the Council into submission and demanding only the best tribute for all that entered the city, even these lowly traders. The more Guntur heard about this "Suhendra" they less he liked him, and the more he thought that this King seemed like the "bad" thing he just learned about. But being as it was that he was still learning, he kept his mouth shut.

That is, until they came upon a merchant only a day away from the city. This merchant was leaving the city for good, and approached the caravan hoping to trade for some cows. Guntur asked him why he would ever want to leave a place that sounded so great. This merchant then launched into a long tirade, describing all the terrible things King Suhendra would do that the caravan owners were too scared to talk about - the way he destroyed his opponents, how he ruled by fear and took whatever he wanted to prove how great he was, how he personally "inspected" each bride before her new husband could, and much more.

This only made Guntur angrier and angrier. Finally he could hold it no longer. "I know what my purpose is - I will take down this tyrant King, and help bring happiness back to Sarawak! Suhendra must be taught a lesson by someone with the power to stand up to him!"

"That's great," everyone around him said, "but remember that he is really strong, so you might want to keep that to yourself while you are in Sarawak, and maybe not tell anyone that you know us."

But Guntur had made up his mind - he was going to take down King Suhendra.

"And that, kids, is where we are gonna and the story for tonight!"

"Awwww, but mom, the story was just getting good! I wanna see Guntur take down the bad king!"

She smiled. "All in good time. But you need to sleep. I will continue the story tomorrow night, I promise, but only if you go to sleep right now. Ok?"

"Ok..."

"Good! Now goodnight kids!"

"Goodnight mom!"