PRELUDE:

       In the wilderness of the planet Grot there is this day a trial of blood leading deeper into the frontier. There is an alien with long matted hair walking in a torn and blood rag that was once a uniform. His steps were erratic and measured because he wobbled and nearly fell with each one he took.  His stomach growled and sent a wave of nausea to his already light head. It was not just hunger but a terrible burning thirst.

     Tarocs were grazing a mile or so away from the alien who was steadily moving their way. Tarocs are a four horned herd animal. They have two horns that jut out below their lower jaw and two that extend just above their big round red eyes. A Taroc weighs around two thousand pounds; they are hunted for food by the Grot. Tarocs are therefore skittish about strangers or anything that is not one of them. At present the herd was drinking water and eating the wild fruit near the water to fatten up for the herd movement to the east, where they would mate.

    The alien walked right up to a huge Taroc and looked at it. If the animal could eat the fruit is was not poison he thought to himself, then again I am not one of them. What if this is not my world and I crashed here? Oh the hell with it, the alien’s stomach lurched and the alien convulsed with pain at not having had any food in way to long. The alien decide to chance it, starvation was not way to die. The fruit was juicy and delicious, the juice ran down the alien’s face and on to his chest.  The alien reached up and scratched the Taroc right between its eyes. The normally skittish animal just closed its eyes and enjoyed the scratch and even grunted its pleasure. Side by side the animal and the alien enjoy a meal, the then the Taroc lead the alien down to the water to drink and wash the juices off their faces.

    As the day waned the alien followed his new Taroc friend to the east away from the Grot city some twenty six miles away. At night the alien saw the lights but it bought no interest to him.

(Elsewhere on Grot)

      Elon was in chambers with his father the king about the growing unrest in the galaxy and the requests by many planets to aid them if war broke out. One major problem was that both side wanted them as allies. Therefore that was the main subject of their conversation. The king being wise knew Elon to be a better expert on the Non-Grot worlds and the races that lived there. He would have the prince decide who the Grot would back. Elon would no doubt pick the winning side and stay out of harms was. The guardians were closer to the Grot than they had been in years, so they would side with the Grot as well. Being the King of the Grot was a good deal right now.

“Excuse the interruption your kinglyness” Said a big brute of a Grot Page.

“Yes”.

“Pardon the bad news, but I was directed to come and tell you immediately if any news ever involved the tome of Brig the hero” The Page said.

“Well, what is the news” Elon asked?

    The page began to shake with fear of the retribution of the mad prince when he explained the nature of the news. The prince noticed he was stalling and stamped his massive foot to get the pages attention.

“Sorry, but the tome has been ripped open and the body of the hero is gone” the page said.

“Oh MY GOD; Then we are at war with the Kylr. Spread the news, we are at a state of alert until I countermand that order” Elon yelled. “ I will go get Jar and we will look at the tome together”. 

   Jar was shaken at the news; he silently followed Elon to the tome. They saw the tome ripped apart and the crystal coffin was shattered and lay in fragments all over the place. It was blasted apart, no missing that, both of them are experience warriors, so they saw that right away... The thing that threw them was the blood leading not to the port and ships, but out toward the frontier and the waste lands