A whale grew so fat on gold that he bought the castles, the coins and even the candles. He called himself the Sheriff, and he made one rule: the gold stays up here, the mud stays down there.
Down in the trenches lived everybody else. Foxes with torn cloaks. Raccoons with quick paws. Badgers who never back down, rabbits who hear everything, wolves who forget nothing.
One rainy night a broke fox climbed out of the mud with a bow he had carved himself. He looked up at the castle, counted the windows, and grinned.
That was the night the guild was born.