1 A Mana Man with an Ego

This story begins with a Mana man that has self proclaimed himself as a 'Great Adventurer and Writer'. He has so far existed for forty years or so, he isn't very sure... What is there to know about him? His favorite color is blue, his favorite fruit is an apple, his favorite animal is the dog, and his favorite musical instrument is the guitar.

A sort of guitar that would play in a restaurant in the evenings with a cozy atmosphere with cute old ladies who would serve him wholesome home made dinners to travelers like himself while covered in books. That is just the type of world he adores and seeks out. Oh, and he reeks of unhealthy doses of narcissism.

The Mana are a people made out of some sort of spiritual energy which becomes alive when they are awaken from slumber, and unlike most races of the greater region of Senaisa, they cannot reproduce. Nobody really knows the origins of the Mana and neither do they, so many of them often spend their lives in search to uncover the mysteries behind it. The average Mana is usually tall and slender, half organic, sedentary, and are widely accepted as intellectuals (even from the other races) with a hint of elitism. The Mana man of our story is exceptional, he glows more than most Mana people, he shines a more powerful yellow color from his center, and is strangely athletic compared to other Mana people. Not to mention this man's height is unquestionably tall even for a Mana. Obviously, why shouldn't he have a superiority complex!

This Mana man was born/awoke in the center of the continent, in a large region called the "Great Steppe" which is actually a large space of highly elevated plateau and highlands known for its indecisive climate and barbaric environment where both the ecosystem and those living in it are generally indiscriminate and hostile. It was Forty years ago when the Mana man awoke in the Great Steppe alone and because he was alone, he decided to travel across the continent to find out more about the world. As a exceptional adventurer and a popular author of books which are published in cities across the continent, just not in the Great Steppe, he has returned to the Great Steppe to research the area...only to be captured by a roaming hostile band of Monkey men.

There he sat for about a week in camp on rough dirt along with the thug band of Monkeys who had captured him as prisoner with no clear purpose except to watch them eat their grilled food in the center of their camp. One particular Monkey man captured the attention of the Mana (well it wasn't difficult to) because it was his guard. The Monkey seemed over protective over his the valuable commodity. "No...that wasn't it", thought the Mana prisoner. This gray haired Monkey guard was staring at the Mana man at every single second possible of each day whenever he didn't have anything to do. The Mana only stared back plainly as if it was an overdrawn staring competition. The stare was like a glare but not as aggressive (at least when ti comes to the circumstances) while still being just as intense. Eventually the gray haired Monkey guard simply said "No brow", referring to the lack of facial hair the Mana man exhibited upon his forehead. Initially the Mana took it as a very offensive insult, but when he looked up higher at his guard who was starring down at him, he saw the big gray haired brows stretching out the Monkey's head which was big enough to be a beard. The Mana quickly replied back to the guard by calling him "Big brow" instead. The guard grinned and the prisoner smirked back.

Generally speaking, Monkey men are the stupidest of all the intelligent races. They are known for being loud, obnoxious, and talkative. They're people are naturally tribal and are spread out into many separate types of ethnicity groups throughout Senaisa. It just happens that the some of the Monkeys of the Great Steppe are one of the more barbaric ethnic groups who often act hostile to outsiders.

After a week of pondering in his own thoughts, Nobrow, decided to accept 'Nobrow' as his name. Inside of this Mana's brain the Monkey man which guards Nobrow would now also be called Bigbrow. A special relationship grew between Nobrow and Bigbrow after days of staring at each other without any given emotion except simple idle remarks about each other. It isn't that Nobrow expressed any of his thoughts or feelings back to Bigbrow but without the consent of Bigbrow, Nobrow decided that he and that Monkey were now friends. Bigbrow knew none of it because Nobrow just played with this idea in his mind.

"Maybe Bigbrow wasn't a special monkey after all", thought Nobrow. It could just be that Bigbrow was a really good captor and focused on his job most of all, but Nobrow wanted to believe otherwise and hoped that they were indeed on a special wavelength, a sort of harmonious stream of thoughts they somehow understood telepathically despite the only communications that were made was from body movements and the rare words that were spoken back and forth between the two of them. Nobrow hoped that Bigbrow was indeed intelligent like himself, that this Mana was a special creature in the eyes of this highland monkey thug. Not many Mana people travel in the Great Steppe for good reasons, but maybe Bigbrow already ecountered some before in his life, maybe even killed them for loot and whatever wild steppe monkeys do. Though even then... he felt that Bigbrow was interested in Nobrow for a reason besides of his race, but more specifically the layer beneath that. Again, this was all in the mind of Nobrow and Bigbrow didn't consent or even conceive any of these ideas as far as Nobrow knew.

What he really hoped for was that Bigbrows inner thoughts was going along something as "oh wow! Look at this unusually glowing Mana, he must either be really important or special!". This is the type of fantasy day dreaming that amused the boredom of Nobrow while he wasn't researching the customs of thug steppe monkeys. Nobrow just really loved attention! Couldn't get enough of it... when he thought back to it, his best moments were when he conversed with fellow Mana folk. Some Mana were actually envious of the characteristics that Nobrow had, he glowed more than them, he shined a more colorful yellow through his inner energy, he was taller than them, and he was more athletic! These were all desirable traits among the mainstream thoughts of the Mana, except Nobrow left bad impressions often due to his ugly lack of humbleness. Nonetheless, for better or for worse the rest of the Mana folk didn't care at all, since they were either more respectable of themselves or too prideful as a intellectual individualistic race to give into any chance that Nobrow was a special Mana.

"Either way, this way of thinking I keep doing is too unhealthy!" Thought Nobrow, but he simply couldn't let his ego drop that low so easily...

After the climatic imagination ceased racing inside Nobrow's head, the day was over and he fell asleep. Little side note: contrary to popular belief, even Mana people need to sleep so they are able to restore or save their energy!

Nobrow slowly awoke as multiple torch lighting was swinging vaguely bright across the night sky in front of his eyes and a lot of rushing Monkey men were suddenly moving around rapidly in the camp. There was rapid yelling in this hazy state, but one thing the Mana immediately noticed was that, there was no Bigbrow near! It soon occurred to him that there was a sudden ambush, an invasion of the monkey camp! Nobrow was still calm and slowly arose from his slumber between two edges of the bolder he was laying by. It seemed that a group of angry battle hungry monkey men were invading his captor's camp. It didn't really seem to matter because the treatment of Nobrow would likely remain the same since he would just be exchanged between one group of monkey steppe bandits with another group of monkey steppe bandits, it wasn't something to worry him enough, especially when half asleep.

Yet it hit him like a rock-wait no an actual rock did hit him in the chaos. Nobrow had already saw and experienced the customs of his captors for a week. All the stories, dancing, talk, and laughing he heard and learned from the thugs. Thanks to them he was able to learn their Monkey language and thanks to a particular Bigbrow he received his new name, Nobrow. This was indeed something the Mana man treasured and felt guilty if he had not stepped in to aid his overlords. Now with a clear desire to help his monkey captors defeat an invading group of a similar size squadron of thug Monkeys, Nobrow was ready to act!

He got up from his cozy close parameter home of a small area of rough dirt ground resting by a boulder. Nobrow wasn't ever worried for his safety in the very beginning seriously enough, since he was well versed in powerful spell casting, so it took him a little amount of stamina to remove the shackles that had bonded him to the large rock next to him. As he stood up, he saw a clear divide of the monkey men who formed spear walls against each other, and Nobrow was at the center end of the division. Some of his captors saw the giant man get up and rushed to make sure that it wouldn't escape. Nobrow was also a semi experienced martial artist due to his years of traveling, he managed to dodge the spearhead jabs and used the moment when the Monkey captors were off balance to knock them down with his own jabs from the side. Then a couple of the invading monkey bandits scurried quickly to put down the Mana man, but none of them were expecting Nobrow to turn around quickly ready to cast electrical shock magic at them just because the monkey bandits weren't experienced to such fighting.

Quickly Nobrow became the center of attention of both groups. As they began to turn their bodies towards the giant, Nobrow yelled out "Bigbrow!" into the air to hopefully ally himself to his captors and help them out. While the giant didn't expect a response, as fate happens to work out in the egotists favor, the gray haired Monkey eagerly yelled back "Nobrow!", confirming that the Mana man was on his captors side and not with the invading scum!

"Thankfully we were actually on similar thought streams all along" thought Nobrow in great relief and pleasure when his personal beliefs and wishes were confirmed.

And so the two spear walls continued the battle, ignoring that small interruption.