A Good Sort.
Listen round all you sleepyheads and night-time wanderers. As Debron dips below the sky and the moon comes up, we're here with a story to get you to sleep. So pull that cover tight and settle in, for tonight is getting wild.One day, in the middle of the dry season, when the marsh moths flit over the staid water of Mepovaris, and the Zuma birds perform their dances with their brightly coloured wings, there came a man in a boat on the lake. Now some may call him a fisherman, and others might call him a fish man, but you and I will call him Jahk. With long tentacly legs and big bright eyes, Jahk was always full of mischief but that hot and calm day Jahk was dipping his rod into the lake for himself and his friend - Mr Horned Bison. Eventually Jahk's line snagged upon a mighty catch, and Jahk tugged and huffed and eventually he pulled from the lake a mighty Ash Kettle. He set the waterlogged wooden thing in the middle of the raft, inspecting the kettle to see its worth. Now Jahk is a wild and mage-smart fish man and he remembered the pirates in the northern ocean and how they liked their tea, but had no desire to haul the kettle all the way up. So once he rowed to shore he approached his friend Mr Bison. "You are a Good Sort, take this to Oceanus and you can have half the trade." Mr Bison nodded and hauled the ash kettle over his shoulder and set up north with heavy and slow steps. Soon though he had to settle for the night, pulling out some tea leaves to use the kettle to make himself some night tea. He was just getting the charred branches warm in the chamber of the kettle when he started hearing an "Ow ow." Mr Bison was not heartless and expecting a frog, extinguished the coal and lifted the lid. Inside was a water spirit. "Oh Mr Bison, you seem a good sort; pour me out and I will grant you a boon to make your journey easier." The large man thought hard but had a big heart and soon the water spirit was flowing back towards its home on the lake. Mr Bison eventually went to sleep and in the morning he started the journey north, kettle empty this time. The daytime journey was quiet, even as the kettle was heavy and the scrub was dry an lacking life. So by the time Debron left the sky, Bison was mighty hungry and terribly thirsty. Scouting for snacks, Bison came up short, returning to camp ready to just power through the night and trade for a snack closer to town. But when Bison reached where the kettle should stay, all Bison saw was a wooden beetle scrabbling due to the tap on its back. The water spirit had turned the kettle into something the Bison could carry. So the beetle squirmed and struggled as Mr Bison approached, calling out "You seem like a Good Sort. Help me free and I will find you the juiciest roots for your dinner." Bison was a bleeding heart and even though the beetle was the kettle he had to deliver, the sound of a good feed tugged at Bison's stomach. So Bison lifted the tap off of the beetle; but before he could get his feed the beetle disappeared into the growth. And so because Bison was a Good Sort, he was in the middle of nowhere with no food and no water and nothing to trade for. Which is why you should be kind, but be careful to keep yourself safe.
Variations & Mutation
A variation of this tale involves Jahk coming back to save his friend, in an attempt to add the moral of keeping up connections and community.
In Art
The Wooden Beetle has become a marker in art of a tricksy being. It can often be seen in art with Jahk.
Ash kettle
This heat treated device uses half burned or discarded wood and brances in a central chamber to boil a lower chamber of water, while the water heats an upper kettle filled with concentrated ht beverage, usually a syruppy tea. Ash kettles are often decorated with paints and inks or circuit magic to preserve and elongate the life of the kettle.Foam Djilfin
Small fish that spawn the shallower edges of Mepovaris, often going comatose if beached, to be revivified when sufficiently wet. This with their light size has meant that many a temporary lake have been flooded with Djilfin spawn.
Thank you for reading, feel free to give feedback.
Mr. Horned Bison is just… good for the sake of it, no hesitation, but then the whole “reward” turns out to be more of a trick. It doesn’t land as a neat moral, and I think that’s why it works. Life isn’t always clean like that. The water spirit having that mix of gratitude and mischief is such a nice touch — it keeps me guessing if the spirit’s kindness was genuine or just another layer of play. I also like how the kettle transforms into something living; that image lingers, and it makes the myth feel older, like it’s rooted in objects carrying hidden spirits. If I had one note, it’s that I’d want to feel Bison’s perspective a little more in the end. He’s so kind, and then he’s just… left. That ache of being tricked after being good — I’d love to see it sharpened. But overall, it’s memorable, and I’d call that a success.