Bonus Chapter!!: SANDY ANTHOLOGY Part 1!
"Horse DUNG!" I could not help but scoff at the pure absurdity of today's recent newspaper--King Harnold Amadeus Vasca: DEAD FROM SYPHILIS. My time as his advisor would surely be over like his warty little life! Damn the Doutros' scales, I was only six months from retiring my weary bones and now I must try my best to scrounge together another job at the retched palace...
The young Vasca was not anything like his father, he spent almost all his time that should have been spent on the Buritian people who actually enjoy...No, tolerate his people's hold on our once desolate nation. Damn it all! When I was a boy there was no such thing as government...My elder father was the most profitable merchant the sands have ever seen--Our wealth was as vast as the sands itself until those greedy light-skinned foreigners came and took everything my family worked for.
It is not fair! I worked for that idiot sycophant even after the many scandals of his 'lost vassals'; I watched silently while dozens of illegitimate children of Harlnold were taken to the sweltering dungeons of the Palace to never be heard from again...What makes the Vascarian Old Guard so sure that he will not just be a carbon copy of his Father?!
"Dear, your meat will get cold."
"You speak of food when we are going to be wandering the dunes like SKIMMERS if I do not wiggle myself to the carcass of what should be a grand era of prosperity!"
"I did not mean to--"
"To what? Spend our trillings on whatever catches your eye or another useless dress for our daughter to not find a mate in?"
"I--"
"Do not bother me any longer...Go tend to the boy, I hear him crying again."
Useless woman, I am lucky to have fathered our son before she cursed our family with another womb. Maybe there was hope though...The new king had his own son who was close to her age, the idea of making my ancestors proud by becoming the most powerful man in Buriti who was not a Vascan...Tantalizing!
There wouldn't be much time, I have to prepare myself to face the Svetlan delegation's icey grasp on his mind which is clear to anyone watching the sale of oil rising while the tribes of the Basklands 'mysteriously' have been found slaughtered like loose lamblings. That rotten Vadim Sankov...THE WHITE DEVIL!
I must quickly make my move...Any more of those bastards flood into the sands for a warm spot to spend their frozen winters and I will start strangling the life from them as they pass the border myself.
-----------
Story 2:
-----------------
New Recording 1:
Play | Skip | Pause
"FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK! I hate this house, my dick-breath 'BIG BRO' just up N'left...Mom is a wreck, Dad hasn't been the same since that white guy took his stupid job at the palace, and Anda is bothering me to walk her to school...--Oh, and that, FUCK SCHOOL! What the hell am I reading history books about Vascaria for?!
Somehow we dark little rats (YEAH THE BOOKS STILL HAVE RACIST SHIT IN THEM) are too dumb to have a history before the Royals arrived but smart enough to force us to learn things that I don't even think happened!
At least Lo'Ref left this dumb recorder...Atlantia has much cooler stuff than we do...I should move there when I get older."
New Recording 2:
Play | Skip | Pause
"So, I guess I'm not any better than Lo...None of the boarding schools took my letters. Yup, I am finished. Dad is gonna have a second stroke after this one, dudes been acting like a ghost for what...years now?"
"DAVUS! Can you help me--Hey what's that?!"
"GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE ANDA! I'm busy in here trying to--Just go AWAY!"
"I know I'm talking to myself but I'll be damned if that little girl is gonna stop me from whining my problems away...I miss Lo, my mom had another boy but it's not the same...Why did I get stuck here, fuck me...."
New Recording 3:
Play | Skip | Pause
New Recording 4:
Play | Skip | Pause
"Ugh, so what...That kook Dennis is gonna become king just because the king can't keep his son in line? I'm not gonna waste my time yammering on about whatever the fuck they are trying to hide by exiling him like last time but--Something is wrong with Buriti...No matter how bad the royals keep getting, they won't just step down!
It's bad enough that we can't even leave the capital anymore with the rebel blockade--Now there are rumors that when he gets the throne the living oldest son of each Buritian...FUCK YOU LO! NOW IM STUCK HERE AND AM GONNA DIE SHOOTING AT MY OLD FRIENDS!"
New Recording 5:
Play | Skip | Pause
"Congratulations on getting your pilot license, are you gonna be home more often now, Davus?"
"No, Mom...The Atlantia Air Association isn't too happy when we spend too much time in 'god's anus'."
"That is not funny, young man--Buriti is a beautiful place! Just because you get to travel all over Izmar in a fancy Airbus does not mean that you can say such foul things."
"You laughed too...Besides, they are right y'know, outside of Buriti people actually have access to livable weather and (get this) DEMOCRACY."
"Your siblings and I should come visit you in New Svetlan! It would be wonderful to see that giant lake I see on the paintings at the museum they opened up last month, did you know that Regent Dennis was an art buff!? We could be looking at a veritable renaissance when Vasca steps down."
"IF...if he steps down, I know you guys dont have things like non-blackout electricity or even the damn media there but from what the summit lets us see on TV--He seems healthy and pretty damn crabby about the fact that he won't be king anymore."
"No, he is just sad...Much like Lo and your father, He and his son Huckleberry have been forced to never see each other again. A tragedy for sure..."
"Forced, yeah, okay--When does Anda get out of school? I want to see her in college before they lynch her for knowing how to read."
"She is doing just fine, the women are separate from the men. I still can't believe they have begun to take up higher learning!"
"Doutros...Yeah, it's amazing for when they graduate and won't be hired anywhere."
New Recording 6:
Play | Skip | Pause
New Recording 7:
Play | Skip | Pause
"I want you to know I love you all...I love you, mama...I love Anda...and I love JR. with all my entire heart."
"I'm sorry I'm crying...I just--FUUUUUUUCK!"
"I'm not going to try and make it too sad, this is all my fault really...I dont work for A.A.A.--I work for the."
"2000 meters to drop zone, sir."
"Shut the fuck up! I'm making a damn eulogy for my mom you pink bastard...Sorry. It's very complicated and I dont have much time...I made sure that when this is over then there won't be anything you guys will need anymore."
"I love you, mom...I hope that the bombs dont hit too close to our old house. If I make it out of Buriti before the rebels take over I'll send someone for you. But the Vascans need to die...I need to kill them all. Our people deserve to rule and be in charge of our own fate!"
"FOR BURITI--HEAVENLY DOUTROS PROTECT US!"
-------------------------
Story 3
-------------
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
My dearest Davus,
The house feels so empty without your presence. I can't bring myself to go into your room - everything is just as you left it before that fateful night. Your favorite soccer ball still sits in the corner, collecting dust. The CactiWood carvings you brought back from your travels are gathering on your dresser, untouched. It's like you just stepped out for a bit, and I'm waiting for you to come bounding back through the door with that mischievous grin on your face.
But you're not coming back, are you, my baby? Anda tried to spare me the details, but a mother knows when her child is hurting. I listened to those recordings you left, hearing your beautiful voice break as you said your goodbyes. My heart shattered into a million pieces. You sounded so scared, yet so brave. I should have been there to protect you.
Instead, I could only listen in horror as the bombs started falling, as your desperation grew. Why did you have to get mixed up in that vile rebellion? What mother could ever want this for her child? I just want to wake up from this nightmare and have you home safe, annoying your baby brother JR with that grating Atlantian punk music you love so much. Anything but this unending silence.
They say Regent was torn apart by the Nak tribes after the attack. Such savagery...it makes me sick just thinking about what you must have gone through at their hands before the end. I can only pray to the Doutros that your transition to the heavenly den was swift and painless. My baby, you didn't deserve such cruelty.
Prince Huckleberry Vasca has promised to crush the rebellion now that he has claimed the throne. But Aygu's forces grow stronger every day among the rubble of the capital. I live in constant fear they will come for us next to punish your father's supposed allegiance to the royals. Anda wants us to flee to her husband's village, but how can I leave behind every memento, every reminder of your everlasting spirit?
The silence is deafening, Davus. My world has gone dark without your light to guide me. I am lost. I am hollow. All I have left now are the lingering echoes of your recordings to keep me tethered to this miserable plane of existence.
My beautiful son, the pride of my life, half of my soul...I hope the eternal sands embrace you with the endless love and warmth you always deserved. Give your father a hug from me until we are joined once more.
come back, my sweet boy.
Forever Grieving,
Your Mother
-----------
Story 4
------------
New Vasco-Buriti Times:
WHAT THE VASCA?
By Reto Faki
Not much can be said about this star of the modern world! With her take-no-prisoners attitude and flare for the bold, Miss Anda Argular is quickly becoming the still functioning Capital of Buriti's main candidate for our shared Fatherland...OR should I say Motherland's Minister of Education? I may be hundreds of miles from Buriti now but when I had some time to stop over for a safety check on family after the Rebel bombings, I saw greatness. Here is something for all you ladies out there across shady Atlantia! What once was a war-torn burning crucible, is now something out of a new black-and-white film! Not only has the newly crowned prince bucked Buriti's standard by electing not ONE but TWO female Ministers (Putting to bed the rumors of his relations with the head of national security, Aiko Ewabatta) Has struck all archaic laws based on gender! I was able to watch little boys and girls frolicking amid destroyed buildings, they were out of school relax.
Making room for, the lady of the hour! One moment she is nearly the smothered bride of Councilman V. and the next she knows the old dustball is sent to Dhira's flames with the rest of the nobles; Luck? Fate? Karma, I say! With no one able to run against her, Buritians focused on finding their freed child soldier babies and either rebuilding the capital with their family or returning to their tribal ancestral nests of old; Not that it mattered for Anda, she is razor sharp and knows almost as much as the Svetlan born Yana (Minister of Finance and a story of mixed racial heroinism all in itself!) Yet she is born right in the slums of the Mauve palace just like me. Hey, just cause I am sitting pretty now in the AC of my downtown New Svetlan penthouse, does not mean I wasn't a lil sand-rat myself at one point! Me and Anda had much to discuss in my exclusive interview below!
---------------------
Story 5
---------
Day 3:
2 cuts
1 litre of water
1 pound of jerky
I got cut again today, just right above my right eye. (Reminder: Watch out for Deadfall Cacti.) The good news is that I finally made it past the outskirts of the Capital. The bad news is I am pretty sure the next village is another 40 miles to the east. From the maps I stole from my dad, thanks Dad, there should be some watering holes every few clicks.
Day 6:
10 cuts
0.2 litre of water
1 sack of berries
I forgot to write anything the last couple days. I left my recorder at home by accident. Davus probably already is erasing all my tapes on Survival and replacing them with rock music right now. I miss Davus. He is a good kid. (Reminder: stop leaving the sack open, bugs are not as tasty as berries.)
Day 8:
I lost a finger today
0.1 litre of water
no food
I didn't know terror birds could be so quiet. A big bull male found my hidden cache of berries near the waterhole and was upset that I was not next on the menu. It ran off with my pinky but I have a shiny new feather to play with. (Reminder: A. Find fiber from a plant? B. Find Bird!)
Day 11:
No no injuries
2.0 litres of water
Still nothing
Day 13:
My hand hurts and itches
lost jug, not thirsty yet.
Hungry.
I found where the Bull sleeps. It thinks it can keep running from me but I will eat it. My berries were mine. If I die then I will try my best to reincarnate into a terror bird. (Reminder: Learn how to use Dad's Knife)
Day 14
YES!
YES!
YES!
I killed Bertha! The bird was a ladybird, not a manbird. My belly is full of yolk and basically tough chicken. Yum. I wish Davus and Anda could be out here. I know my mom would hate it. I smell like blood but I am happy.
(Reminder: find more paper!)
Day 45:
Hello me, it's been a long time. I hope we are doing well. HAHA just kidding. Im not crazy I am just lonely. There isn't much to do out here but kill and not die. It's not as hot as It used to be, I think winter is coming. I taught myself how to sew after losing another finger. My new glove is pretty cool, I forget sometimes that you're supposed to drink water.
(Reminder: The voices are lying!)
Day 64:
Built shelter in a lowland valley next to a pit stop for some merchants I saw. They are very friendly. I think they said they were SandHounds, the old man who runs the caravan is not friendly. I saw him arguing with some guy about some Durik-milk. I'm staring at the guy's open eyes from behind a rock right now. He has been dead for hours. Why do people kill each other?
(Reminder: Learn how to Kill someone)
Day 80:
IIII IIII IIII IIII IIII
I had to stop marking my ear, the infection is bad out here but I want to celebrate. The SandHounds keep coming back no matter how much I keep setting traps. I am not trying to kill them, but I will keep doing it till they leave my valley alone. This has been the longest they left, and for two weeks I have been getting ready for a much bigger caravan.
(Reminder: Sleep)
Day 92:
After setting my house on fire the SandHounds took the rest of my food. I hate them.
Day 95:
They are coming back already. I followed one of their carts to the edge of the valley before it stopped to grab some dude who was half-buried in the sand. The daughter is pretty, she has a nice smile and kind eyes; I think she is from Doiga.
(Reminder: sharpen machete)
WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE DESERT?!:
I TRACKED THEM BACK TO WHERE THE REST OF THE SANDHOUNDS HAVE BEEN HIDING FROM ME
THE GUY IN THE CART WAS HUCKLEBERRY VASCA
I SWEAR BY ALL THAT IS UNDER THE DOUTROS THAT I SAW HIM MURDER EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM
NOT WITH HIS HANDS BUT WITH THE SKY
BLACK CLOUDS LARGER THAN I HAVE EVER SEEN CAME FROM NOWHERE
HE WAS FIGHTING THEN
I SAW IT I KNOW I SAW IT
HIS HAND WAS GLOWING LIKE A BLUE LANTERN AND IN ONE SECOND
LIGHTNING EVERYWHERE
IT KILLED THEM ALL THERE ARE ONLY BONES LEFT
DOUTROS PROTECT OUR SOULS FROM THE DEVIL
HUCKLEBERRY VASCA!!
-------
Story 6
--------
TITLE:
BURITI VS VASCA, TWO FAMILIES, ONE NATION
STUDENT:
JR. ARGULAR
TEACHER:
DE'BUSK EWABATTA
GRADE:
75/165
ABSTRACT:
For my final paper assignment analyzing the cultural shifts in Buriti over the past 70 years, I've decided to take a personal approach. In our family's attic, I discovered a trove of documents and records from my late father's time serving as an advisor to King Harnold Vasca II at the dawn of the Royal Vascan Dynasty's rule over our desert homeland.
By comparing my father's humble roots as the son of a Buritian tribal warlord to King Harnold's controversial ascension after the brutal Vascan Civil War, I hope to illustrate the seismic clash of cultures, traditions and power structures that defined this pivotal era. Drawing from both the limited historical sources available as well as personal anecdotes passed down in my family, I will argue that the generational divide between Harnold and my father versus my sister and King HuckleBerry Vasca exemplified the profound growing pains Buriti endured in evolving from a scattered collective of nomadic tribes to a unified sovereign nation under Vascan rule.
KING HARNOLD VS MY DAD:
As contemporaries born in the early 40th century before the Vascan invasion, King Harnold Vasca II and my father Advisor Argular witnessed Buriti's transition from vastly different lenses. While Harnold hailed from the conquering Vascan royal lineage that originated in the boggy wastelands of Vascaria in the Old World, my father was a descendant of the Tohil nomadic warrior clan that roamed the unforgiving Kalashi deserts for centuries. (What is now known as the Upper BaskLands)
At age 25, the young and brash Harnold ascended to Buriti's newly constructed royal palace in the coastal capital city of Rana (Old Vascaria now) in 3934 following his family's hard-fought victory in the bloody Vascan Civil War. This vicious years-long conflict essentially depopulated Old Vascaria as the Harnoldian royalists and the Republican rebel forces left the ancient kingdom in ruins in their struggle for control of the vastly more hospitable and resource-rich desert territories of Buriti and stop the impending fall of their empire.
In the aftermath, all nobles and ruling class families of Vascaria who didn't pledge allegiance to the Vascas were exiled or executed, cementing Harnold's status as the supreme ruler over both kingdoms. Construction of the new capital Rana and its luxurious obsidian palace kicked into overdrive, rapidly transforming the once nomadic provisionary camp into an opulent metropolitan center of Vascan power and culture.
Meanwhile, my father spent his youth as a member of the nomadic Tohil clan, roving the dunes and oases under the unforgiving but revered law of the tribal warlords. What little I could piece together suggests the Tohils begrudgingly accepted Harnold's rule in exchange for being allowed to keep their traditional lands and practices, an increasingly rare privilege as the Vascans solidified control.
This set the stage for their unlikely intersection in 3959 when, at age 30, my father was recruited into Harnold's trusted circle of advisors and ministers in Rana. The specific circumstances are still unclear - whether he was essentially chosen as a token representation of the assimilated Buritian ancestry now under Vascan rule, or if his respected warlord lineage prompted the elevation...
King HuckleBerry Vasca VS. My Sister:
As the next generation after my father's era, the contrasts between the once-unshakable Vascan monarchy and the increasingly emboldened Buritian populace are thrown into even starker relief by comparing King Huckleberry Vasca to my revolutionary sister Anda Argular.
While details about Huckleberry's early life and upbringing are scarce in the aftermath of the devastating rebel bombings that left much of the capital in ruins, we know he was the only son and heir apparent to his father King Vasca who ruled with an iron fist over Buriti for decades. Raised in the lap of luxury within the exclusive Mauve Palace, Huckleberry no doubt had the privileged princely education and status befitting the future sovereign.
However, underneath the splendor and opulence of the Vascan court simmered growing unrest and resentment among the native Buritian population who had grown weary of being cultural vassals in their own ancestral desert homelands. Severe disparities in wealth, restrictions on democratic rights and individual freedoms, and the subjugation of ancient nomadic traditions in favor of Svetlan-influenced Vascan norms bred fertile ground for uprisings.
It was this powderkeg environment that my sister Anda was born into on the impoverished outskirts of the palace grounds, a harsh reality worlds away from Huckleberry's gilded existence just miles away. The slums surrounding the royal complex had become a de facto cultural hodgepodge where displaced Buritian tribespeople and communities congregated, preserving their customs and language even as the Vascans continually encroached.
When the rebel forces finally detonated their surprise assault on the capital during Regent Dennis' coronation, the reverberations upended the established order. Even before the ensuing chaos, Huckleberry's whereabouts became unknown for years as speculation swirled that he had been killed or taken hostage by the insurrectionists during his exile. However, according to gossip columnist Reto Faki (and the news), Huckleberry eventually resurfaced to claim his contested birthright to the throne - only to find the rebuilding nation had turned a progressive new chapter and to receive it with open arms just before leaving to Buritis first appearance at the Summit of Nations.
Anda, who had spent her formative years as part of the uprising's youth activism core while studying as a teacher, shockingly ascended to the influential role of Minister of Education in Huckleberry's cabinet in his absence. Not only was she one of only three women appointed to such a prominent position in the male-dominated sphere of Vascan governance, but Anda immediately set about dismantling the patriarchal edicts and antiquated cultural repression her family had railed against for decades with the power given to the Cabinet by the King.
Widowed from her brief arranged marriage to a conservative nobleman who perished in the bombings, the "razor-sharp" Anda wasted no time democratizing education, abolishing gender segregation in schools, and restoring indigenous cultural studies to the forefront of the curriculum. Where the Vascas had long suppressed ethnic Buritian identity, language, and heritage in favor of Northern academic indoctrination, Anda championed a philosophical shift to empower and celebrate the rich ancestral lifeways that had been subjugated for so long. (In a short few weeks time)
In this way, Huckleberry and Anda personified the seismic intergenerational divides erupting between the old Vascan guardians of traditionalist imperialism and the new vanguard of progressives fighting for an authentically Buritian renaissance of cultural revival and societal modernization...Even if In Huck's Hands