It is often the first instinct of good people, To cup water in their hands and empty their pockets to feed the hungry.

But kindness is not always sweet, And all too often you go without.

By wringing your hands dry from charity, And scouring your voice with advocacy, It is not uncommon, That In the end, With nothing left to wash down the bitterness of being overspent, Kindness can be a difficult thing to swallow.

“Before we encountered humans, we were homeless,” I told the gathered children. I was The Stoyteller. Before my job was to keep the records of my people, Bhagwan. Now I keep the history of Humanity, Bhagwan, and several other species in our grand Union.

“Where did we come from?” a child asked.

I scratched my chin and smiled, “We came from beyond the Veil of Sedr and passed the farthest of the Union’s colony.” Bhagwan was once a desert planet and our planet had evolved on it. Though if you see it now, our once wonderful desert was now a frozen wasteland.

“We were running. Our people fled a great calamity,” I elaborated. The gathered children made what would the universal gesture for…

“The Great Wyrm,” they cried out pretending to be the Wyrm. The Great Wyrm, Apophis, had come. He devoured all in his path. Our planet had been spared. Our sun had not.

“That is right. His coming was foretold in scripture by the greatest minds of the age. All of the great ones poured over a means to kill or stall Apophis. But they failed.” And they knew exactly what fighting was a pointless. So we ran.

“Our people gathered up what we could before he came and we fled. Inside our Worldship, we watched as our sun was consumed,” I added. We become nomads. Taking what we needed from dead worlds and trading for what we couldn’t.

“For forty generations, we ran across the star ocean,” I said motioning with a flourish to the heavens above. The children all looked up with amazement. As the stars seemed to glisten as they looked.

My great great granddaughter, Human Bhagwan hybrid raised her hand, “So when did my grandmother met my granddad?” she asked sounding innocently. I brushed my hand across her cheek.

“I am getting there, my child,” I said as she smiled. I cleared my throat. “During our exile, we encounter a curious species. They had just began colonizing their home system.” Humans were inquisitive and despite some reservations on both species part allowed us to colonize the planet they called Mars.

“Over the years, we fought one another. Over the years, we learned from other. Eventually, became two people but one union.” After two minor wars, we finally united as one. Eventually, we forged a lasting peace. And from our unity came the Grand Sol Union.

“And the Bhagwan and the Humans became the first members of the Grand Sol Union. Together we founded the Growlansians. And Hyneran.” I said as I pointed to the children of the various races.

“And soon out great Union will face Apophis. And we will destroy the Wyrm once and for all.”

What do you think about today's world? Do you care about what is happening to the world? Murder, rape, kidnapping,drug overdose;

Will had been homeless for years, never being able to get a job or a home to call his own when the ice came in winter or when the floor burned in the summer under his scarcely covered feet. Being homeless in a small seaside town was difficult but where was it ever easy to be without a steady home and income? The small town did have its perks at times, being well known to many of the inhabitants he was welcomed into homes in the winter months, offered jobs that he would later be fired from for one reason or another, usually something to do with the fact that he had no steady home as if that made him less dedicated to work hard, as if that made it more difficult to hand over his weekly wage.

One sweltering summer’s day when the tourists and holiday makers were swarming in he sat beside the sea on a bench just watching the ebb and flow of the waves in the sunshine glistening. The white froth of each wave melting into the sand on contact like a dropped ice cream melting into the sweltering heat of the pavement.

Like the sea he had no home, here there and everywhere with hundreds of others like himself around the world like split off streams and rivers. The sea was strong and powerful, with the right circumstances it could go wherever it wanted and do as it pleased yet people still tried to destroy it, tried to make it submit to their material things and in that he found comfort, that even the water of each wave was not free, was being damaged and denied what was good for it by those with the money to pollute it, he found comfort in the fact that he wasn’t alone in his oppression by the system, that if the sea could seize chances to show what it was capable of then so too could he.

No money, no home, no real help but only the determination and patience of the waters he saw each day to get him through to the next big wave of opportunity he could ride until he found the one that would carry him to success.