On promises and tricks

When I first left mah islands to come ta this place the people confused me.  They had so much stuff, more stuff than they could eva carry with dem.  Where I come from you have your weapons an stuff for huntin an fishin an makin shelter, you build a hut in the place you gonna stay for a bit, then you abandon it and move on with the stuff you carry when that stops bein a good spot.  If you leave it behind someone else gonna come pick it up and take it, so no point having more stuff than that.  I met some pirates once who held onta stuff by burying it where no one knew to look, but most folk ova here dun do that either.

When I saw how much Mortma could carry, I thought mayba that was what folk over here did, they all worked hard to get them stupid bags he got and get real strong so they can take all the stuff they got wit them when they move.  But most folk aren't strong as Mort, most of them over here are weak, and even Mortma can't carry a castle, at least not witout it fallin down.

Then we met sum iddits from sum placed name a Aberdeen who said they own the land we live on.  I don't think they ever even been to Mosswood, how they think they hold onto something as big as land?  I know Shades say he own this land, and that makes some sense, he got us to fight off people who try to do things wit it he don't like (cept for that stupid druid, who I think has been telling bad things to tha cat) but how can you hold onto land so far away from you you dun even know know what going on there?

Then nother odd thing happened taday when we found sum bandits.  I said summin about Shades ownin this land and everyone got all angry, then them bandits said they wanted ta fight us to take the land, like the land was summin we was carryin in our backpacks (it wasn't in Mortma's backpack).  The leader said he'd fight just Mort an if he won he'd take tha land.  I thought "this leader real silly, there's lots of us who can attack him if it looks like Mort going to loose" and I thought we were all trickin him good.  But then Mort did start to loose an only me, Shades an Schnookums  tried ta help.  Others didn't think it was a trick, even Mortma didn't think it was a trick, he just made a promise and was goin to die instead of go back on promise.

And then I realise how tha people here can have so much stuff - they leave their stuff and everyone else promise not ta take it.  Shades keeps land cause we promise to fight for it, and iddits from Aberdeen come for land cause long ago someone promise them they can have it.

If Shades ends up owning lots a land he says he'll make us all part of the people who keep it, after we fighted off them Aberdeen folk with him.  If I'm gonna be part of that I gotta learn how people use promises here.  I guess I kinda understand it.  Back on ma islands I hardly ever hit my husband with my hitting stick or a lighting bolt, but he do what I say when I shout cause shouting is kinda a promise to hit someone if they don't do what you want.  I wonder if he's learned his lesson by now?

Other thing about promises is that people think you gonna keep them, so you can make trick promises you don't keep and that can help you take people's things or fight them better or whateva.  But you have to make enough non-trick promises first so that no one thinks the trick ones are gonna be tricks.  This actually seems kinda simple.

When I was little, when I was first learning how to pull sparks and waves and stuff from tha air, I hoped one day people would call me the Furious Storm cause I was all dangerous and stuff.  But most dangerous storm is storm you don't see commin, where rain and wind come from what was clear sky and you got no time to take shelter or get to high ground.  Maybe I can become a different kind of storm.  Maybe I can use tricks and promises and be not Furious Storm but Secret Storm...