Each year, the Mentists sent a war party to the Prates, to force them not to darken the sky and take away the Bright altogether. The Bright was all that gave them light, shining dim through the clouds. Each year, some Mentists died in the battle, but their threat went heeded and the sky got no darker. One year, a charismatic Mentist gathered all the tribes. She declared that the time had come to wipe away the Prates for all time. Doing so, she said, would stop their great Ack Ack Trees and clear the skies.

She led them to the land of Ack Ack, where the Prates lived beneath the Trees. The war was brutal, for their enemy had sticks that called thunder. Many Mentists died. They thanked the Bright that the war was also short, for the Prates were sickly and dull, and fewer than the Mentists had believed. The war party returned home, more bloodied than any could remember, like in the stories of the Viron Wars, and the tribes celebrated. Victorious, the Mentists waited for the mists to fade and the Bright to come shining through.

They are still waiting, if they are there at all.