John Wolfstone-The Book

Everyone is equal, no dis/advantages for any race

Just then, the doorbell rang.

“Who is it?” John asked.

“It’s me, Janus," said the harpy's voice. "You left Justian and Tawna with me yesterday, remember?”

“Oh, are they all right?” John asked.

“Of course they are," Janus said. "Other than that speech you did, nothing happened yesterday.”

“Well, come on in," John said. "The door’s not locked.”

With that, the door opened and the small group entered.

“Smell’s like someone was performing magic here,” said Justian.

“Well you would be correct about that,” John said. “I asked a buddy of mine to put up a protection barrier for Julia’s room.”

“How does it work?” Tawna asked.

“Well, I don’t know the exact details on how it works," John said. "But basically, if someone tries to enter that room, to try and harm Julia, they will encounter a very powerful barrier that would keep out a raging giant. I should know about that, that friend of mine angered one, and the only thing that saved his life was the barrier he had place on the room.”

With that, John smiled and chuckled. James had slept with more women then he could remember the names for. As a result, the guy had a long list of enemies that wanted to kill him, for one reason or another. However, with Clara to satisfy James’s personal fetish about knowing the figures of the female versions of the different races, he hadn’t been sleeping with too many other women.

“See you Monday Janus,” John said, after they had talked for a little while.

“You just take care of yourself John,” Janus said, as she took flight and flew off.

John then looked at his students and asked, “Now, what was it that I assigned to you two?”

“To figure out if one race is superior to another,” replied Tawna.

“That is correct,” said John. “Now tell me, Justian, Is your race superior to Tawna’s race, or Julia’s even?”

“Well, I don’t know about Tawna’s, but I think my kind might be superior to Julia’s,” said Justian.

“Do you mean physically, mentally, spiritually, or socially?” John asked, in a quizing manner.

“Um, they are superior, physically?” Justian replied, nervously.

“Tell me the physical advantages that one of your species has over a human.” John said, looking at the rakasha.

“Well, my kind is stronger, faster, more agile, and if it got cold, we have fur to keep us warm.” Justian said, confidently.

“You have given some good points," John said, as he smiled at his student. "However, if a cat-person, of any sort, and a human, of equal height, leg lengths, and speed were to run an endurance race, say twenty miles in length, the human would eventually win.”

“Why do you say that?" Justian asked. "I have outrun every human I’ve come across in running competitions.”

“True," John said. "But those races are usually no more than a quarter of a mile at the most, so you could beat them. If you honestly ran against one, were the distance was twenty miles, and you were not allowed to eat the competition, at around the five, or ten, mile mark, you would have to stop, so you could catch your breath and cool down. That human though, if he’s smart, will just snag a water bottle, and keep on running, tossing the bottle in the trash when he is done. That is because you will stop, so you can pant, so you can cool down. A human though can keep on running because he will sweat, thus cooling himself off, all while on the run. That means, that human will hit the twenty mile mark long before you do, and will win.”

At this, Justian’s mouth dropped. He had never thought that a human could even have a chance at beating him in anything, let alone his favorite pastime, running.

“Shocking, isn’t it,” John said, with a chuckle. “I also know it to be a very real possibility that humans can outrun other beings. After all, a human who can outrun a hungry predator is one that survives, usually. Also, while I was at the university, I saw a werewolf and a human have a distance race; the loser had to be the winner’s servant for the month. The two had had a beef over who was the better runner, so it was decided, by the track coach, that the pair would have a race to see who the better runner was. Well, I decided to watch it, as did most everyone on campus. At first, the werewolf was in the lead, but, at the ten mile mark, he had to stop, because he was overheating. That human though, at the ten mile mark, he took a bottle of water, drank it, tossed it in the trash, and continued on his way. When he reached the fifteen mile mark, the werewolf had cooled down enough to reenter the race. However, by the time he reached the seventeen mile point, the human crossed the twenty mile mark. Needless to say, the coach was impressed, by both of them. The werewolf had broken a national record for the ten mile mark, and the human had set a new record for the twenty mile run. Over all though, the couch was divided over who the better runner was. The werewolf was faster than the human, but the human could run farther than the werewolf. As a result, the contest was considered a tie. Funny thing was, after the race, the pair became very good friends, or at least respected the other enough to help the other out on occasion.”

At this, John smiled and shook his head, as he gave a light chuckle.

“As you can tell,” he said. “That university helped reinforce the things that my parents had taught me as a child. It was there I learned that everyone is equal. It was also there that I learned that no race has any real advantage or disadvantage over any other. All sentient beings feel the same things, love, hate, joy, sadness, anger, regret, despair, hope, and so forth. The moment you strip away the physical differences, and look at a person’s soul, you will see that people of two radically different races have a lot more in common with each other than they do not.”

At this, Tawna and Justian looked at each other and Julia, as John walked into his office. The speech John had just given them was the reverse of everything they had been taught.

They had been raised to believe that there were those whose races were superior to others and all non-humans were superior to humans, except for those with magic, who weren’t really considered humans.

Now they had been told by their philosophy teacher that everyone was the same as everyone else, on the inside anyways. He had basically said that a weak, and short, human was equal to the tallest giant, along with everyone else in between.