Close Encounters - A Kami story told by Arny Doyle, a Tryker

A long long time ago, when Atys had just gone into her peaceful slumber after her laborious rising, a Tryker fella named Wiksie was about to fall into a fishing-doze when, there on a hillock across the water, he saw a funny looking specimen he'd never seen before. He gave his eyes a good rub and took up his drawing pad by his fishing rod, but in a twinkling of an eye the creature literally vanished without so much as a squeak! The young Tryker set his mind to work and attempted to sketch the creature from memory when... he felt a strange presence over his shoulder...

There, perched on a branch not five yards from him was the creature staring wide-eyed at the drawing as blithe as a sunny afternoon. Wiksie introduced himself and the creature pointed at the drawing while looking down from his fuzzy belly to the fish in Wiksie's keep net by a rotten tree saying "Kami, hungry". Wiksie laughed and told the Kami that dinner would be ready in a jiffy.

So off into the woods went Wiksie to gather some firewood, then placed the fish on a spit and lit the campfire. All of a sudden the Kami jumped up and down in a wicked temper with eyes as moody as stormy weather. No sooner had Wiksie realized that it was the flames that had given grief to the Kami than the furry creature was waving a hand and the fire was stone cold out.

In another wave of the hand the Kamis had sizzled the fish to a tee. Joyously the Tryker took up the spit and lobbed a fish to the Kami's muzzle but the Kami just watched it soar past its nose and splatter on the ground. Wiksie took another fish and this time in a more civilized manner handed it to the Kami. But the Kami immediately dropped the fish and pulled a cross face when Wiksie gave it a pat on the head. In fact, Wiksie was guilty of over-familiarity, he'd judged the Kami by just its cuddly looks. Soon, however, Wiksie would come to appreciate the Kami force behind the falsely innocent appearance.

One day Wiksie and a company of mates were out mushrooming when a pack of gingos picked up their scent and before they knew it they were surrounded on the ledge of a precipice. The predators were about to move in for the kill when Wiksie's Kami appeared. The blithe creature held up a hand and the whole bloodthirsty pack suddenly freaked out and scampered away as though they'd just bumped into a whopping pack of kinrey kitins! Wiksie and his mates fell to their knees in thanks.

Trykers quickly learnt to humble themselves before the Kamis who were placed on an equal par as the venerated Karavan. But as time went by the Kamis began to favor the weird jungle lands of the weirder Zoraïs, birds of a feather... eh?! Though still today the Kamis more often than not cast a smiling eye upon their Tryker friends.