First mistake of Zalbador (former John Walter) was to assume that life on Stone Maze would be easy for him as a alchemist warrior just because there is almost no Mage Castes up there. The second was to take outdated overgeneralizations about the centauroid squirrels as current fact. Third came by consequence of this previous two, and was to enter the wild lands intending to kill or capture a renegade 'squir' without the a group whit the necessary number of warriors to compensate his foe's racial advantages; not to mention superior knowledge of the terrain.

Those could have been the last mistakes made by this involuntary immigrant from Earth. Would have been, if wasn't for Lutivel's decision of spare the human's life: "generosity is a privilege of free people" he said, mentioning a very popular expression on the main Continent of planet Sharitarn.

"Maybe I am paranoid, but that don't prove that I'm not being persecuted" is the better way to describe the usual state of mind for a typical squir. This centauroids seldom deny their own trend to paranoia, they make conspiracy theories as often as some other species make music and poetry. Meanwhile, on the other hand, no honest person would deny that squirs have been treated with less respect than they deserved more often than any other involuntary immigrants in recent past. There is a reason for that, but not everybody realizes what it is.

On their home world squirs have a unarmed society, very inclined toward pacifist ideal. It is not unlike the Global Govern of Earth in that aspect. For Sharitarnes few things destroy a man's respectability as fast as adopt non violence as guide of conduct: non violence is the distinctive face of slavery/womanhood. Free men must be always ready to defend their beloved ones, their nations and themselves with weapon in hand or they don't deserve their freedom. Even those who are not Warrior Caste, and who are too old to enter battles under most circumstances, will fight duels some now and them. Is implicitly understood that dues can not be perfectly balanced always, but must not be unbalanced beyond the reasonable.

Involuntary immigrants from Earth suffer some stigmatization for represent a culture of effeminate cowards too. However, they are all humans. Being the only native talking specie of Sharitarn, and the dominant one, humanity extends a more generous veil of patience over their on. Humans from Earth are, in the end of day, physically indistinguishable from the native from the planet.

The squir iis adapted to their reality on Sharitarn so well that they are the most numerous non human people on Stone Maze, by far. They adopted a police of overcompensation to survive, teaching the children strict martial values and the most effective martial disciplines they are able to find. There is more Warriors among the squir than among civilized humans who are citizens of the same nation, proportionally speaking, on any population composed by both species. Those who lives on shared nations all their lives know that old jokes are just that, but on lands beyond Stone Maze most commoners still keep the image of squirs as a race of slaves in mind.