 This fantasy story is the tale of a centaur named Raul (compare Raul Endymion of "Endymion"), a neo-cat, and a sorcerer-ape who seek to reconnect their world to the "Web of Worlds" by re-connecting a farcaster and seek the humans' help in overthrowing the lizard-ish Wizards who oppress their world.This story is the earliest and first story set in what would become the Hyperion Cantos universe, preceding even "Remembering Siri".Many elements and similarities survived into the later stories (from the name of the centaur Raul, to the concepts of farcasters and the WorldWeb, to the Shrike or the levitation barge or the Sea of Grass).