Once in an age where discovery began to awaken,
Men in boats stumbled upon a foreign land,
Untouched by whitened hands.
Upon it lay forests of green and brown,
They found animals seen at home,
But strange new ones as well.
Soaring eagles and great white cats
Huge elk and graceful fish.
Mountains watched from a distance
As these confused and wandering men landed on the shores,
So did men with dark skin,
Who carried wooden spears and flexible bows.
And while bilge rats brought disease in Vetus Terra,
These men, unknowing, met natives who
With utmost care treated them as honored guests,
As gods
In human form.

Months later,
With mother country in ruin,
Boats packed with healthy people
Set off in search of somewhere to call home.
They searched for the men that had once left,
Those who called themselves explorers.
They found themselves upon a land,
So alien and bizarre,
Yet it was the same one
As their own had come to once upon a time.
So the newcomers set about
To constructing a town hall,
They cut away the forest,
To free space for their new city.

Meanwhile,
Natives watched from hiding spots in bushes,
They reported to their kings,
Who, now rich and exalted, had forgotten of their past,
That strange men,
White of skin,
Had landed on the shores.
The kings,
Now dark as natives,
Who truly had become them,
Sent forth scouts and diplomats,
To inquire upon the wishes of these new men.

The scouts made haste,
Soon found the settlement,
And were shocked and confused
By this destruction of the trees,
And the hasty setting-up,
Of buildings made from wood.
For the settlers had brought some
Of their own country with them.
“Civilization” and “Fairness”
They vowed to spread,
On this “wild” and “unkempt” land,
To make this wilderness,
Just like their now ruined home.
The diplomats approached,
It was peace that they proposed,
But frightened by their native tongues,
These “civilized” men declared them “savages”,
And without hesitation,
Blew them to pieces with the ship-cannon.

And the kings from atop their glorious temples,
Stood up and shouted out with rage,
And warriors took to arms,
Wooden shields were readied and light bows strung.
They charged upon the village,
Crying war chants as they exploded from the woods.
Clubs were wielded,
And sharp stone axes swung,
Bullets and cannonballs tore feather armor,
Stone smashed metal helmets.
Heroes were made that day,
And those who lie dead in the trenches,
Were mourned of properly.
And while the natives danced and whooped around their fires,
“Civilization” coldly calculated her next move.
And while feasts were held in the great feasting-room,
Soldiers clad in metal
Marched through the cool dark forest.

Cannons fired,
Arrows flew,
And an epic clash began,
Natives defending homeland,
Newcomers making it theirs.
And even the great emperors
Took their battle-spears,
And armed to the teeth shook themselves,
And shouted the rally cry.
Both sides knew that many of them
Would fall in the mud that day,
And both sides fought harder,
To prevent that until tomorrow.

The battle raged on for long hard months,
Each day each soldier fought more viciously,
'Til one day,
The last surviving king,
Charged at a leading general,
He threw his spear,
The latter fired his gun,
Then both drew their hand-to-hand weapon,
The final and last resort.
And as they met in combat,
They glared in each others eyes,
And they remembered,
Of times long forgotten.
Of a time before fire and death,
When childhood held back maturity,
Of a time when together they had grown,
Had flung snowballs in the winter,
And held mock play-battles in the summer.
And they stopped amidst the battle,
Despite themselves, forgetting their commands,
And their men looked at them expectantly,
Waiting for the cry
“Press on!”
And they discovered,
Deep down inside,
Preserved,
For times unmeasured,
Deep down inside they were truly human,
And their souls were connected as brethren.
And the men dropped their shields and guns,
Forgot the unloaded cannon,
And ended the blood and pain,
With a smile,
And a gentle shake of the hand.

And so here is the end,
That after tests,
Men are still true men,
That mankind has it's debts to pay,
That friendship is greater that war.
That deep down inside,
All of us,
We are still the same.