SPEED DEMONS
"They'll call us humans out of politeness,", Indira explained. "Or 'ummun', which is close as they can come. But that's not how they think of us. We're demons."
"What?" said Julius.
"You heard me. Demons. Powerful and fearful creations from beyond the known world."
"But - why demons? We haven't done anything wicked to them."
Indira smiled, and patted his cheek. "Poor Julius. In the monotheistic religions that shaped your cultural views, all powerful non-divine creatures are pure evil. But the original conception of demons doesn't necessarily carry the connotation of evil. Just tremendous, unbridled, fearful power."
"Why should they think we are powerful?"
"These beings are not supid. They don't understand us, but they understand we are very, very different. And there's the frightening way in which we move. Other than size, what's the one trait that all animals instinctively fear?"
Understanding came to him.
"Speed."
original work involved:
transcribed from RTF format into Neocities site editor
formatted into details tags
see tbd
tbd:
more hunnakaku bits
clean up formatting: italics, interludes
portion chapters to individual pages?
correct errors??? (eg. Pavlichenko was Ukranian-Soviet, not Russian)
create animations for Hunnakaku poetry?