Once upon a time, when men walked the earth with heavy footprints and loud clamorous breathing, indifferent to any natural dangers, there arose a new species. The new species, ugly as it was, really loved mirrors. The mirrors themselves were a magical thing. When they viewed themselves in them, they saw themselves as what they wanted to look like. No longer ugly, no longer sad. One of their number, called Xerox, adopted the spirit of the trickster with the will of humanity's most brutal tyrants. Sadly, with only limited hours of daylight, the time spent in front of the largest (and most slimming) mirror had to be shared by all. And that was how the Great War began. Late one night, the other species - the loud-breathing, heavy-footed humans - broke into the encampment of the mirror-loving species and stole the large, slimming mirror. Soon after sunrise, these club-footed thieves realized they held a greater treasure than they could have ever imagined. A fight broke out and the huge mirror was smashed into hundreds of coin sized fragments, sharp as razors and magical as ever.

And so the golden-eyed people, known as the Balang, among themselves, prepared to die for a mirror. As with most things of value, the real value was imbued by those who used it, and so the Balang believed, each and every ugly-ass mother's son of them, sincerely believed that their soul had been shattered into those hundreds of pieces, and would never be whole, or at rest until the mirror was restored.

Xerox slipped an axe into a loop on his belt.

Xerox looked beyond the Fax Mountains, solemnly wondering that their would be yet more invasions, more powerful than the Balang, far more competent in war. Xe strained Xer mind to remember the words of the shamans, teachers rather, who had whispered dark prophecies when the moon shone red. Would Xe meet Xer doom out there? Or would Xe be the doom of the world?

---Chapter 2

Steve, the Great Bearer of Fruit should be mentioned. For he was an influential Balang that taught Xerox that more than the ax was needed in order to conquer the will of men. The Great Bearer of Fruit taught Xerox to never wait too long to take action, a lesson that Xe always remembered but was always able to forget. -Not this time!

At dawn, the Balang stood at the base of the great wall, where the slimming mirror once hung and wept loudly in unison. Kara paused in her sadness to look upon her old friends comforting face, but Xerox was no where to be found.