The Silk and the Song

The Silk and the Song is a 1956 short story by Charles Louis Fontenay.

The descendants of human explorers have been reduced to beasts of burden and transportation by the native Hussirs. Only a small band of humans living in the wild who possess a couple of ancient artifacts and nursery rhymes linking them to their glorious past. The Star Tower of their ancestors however may deliver their kind to salvation.

A young man named Alan risks everything to flee his owner and plays a key role in challenging the Hussirs and reclaiming humanity’s destiny.

Provides Examples Of:

• Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: After the loss of his kind master Blik, Alan in order to bury the pain had a brief tryst with a young slave girl at Wiln's ranch.
• Absurdly Ineffective Barricade: The fields that human slaves live in surrounded by simple tall wooden fences that can be scaled. However the innate fear of disobedience keeps any slave from attempting an escape, but the fact that they can leave on their own accord is proof that the barrier is poor. Also the park that surrounds the Star Tower in Falkyn only has a rail guard around it which is used by riders to secure their mounts. Like the fences in the farms humans don't dare to cross it due to the consequences of being punished. To Wild Humans like Alan and Mara, it's a blessing as all they have to do is swing over it to reach the Star Tower.
• All Abusers Are Male: Oddly only male Hussirs are depicted in the story and horrible to their slaves.
• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Normally humans are forbidden from wearing clothes since they are deemed animals, though town humans are permitted to wear bits and pieces on their bodies. Alan is confused for being a town human due to wearing only a scarf.
• Agony of the Feet: Briefly appears when Alan and his senior Rob are being ridden to Falkyn by Blik and Wiln. The city streets are made of stone, so when warmed by the two suns they become hot that they burn the bare feet of a human mount.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Alan having be deprived of his clothes and weapon, alongside Mara who is in the same condition, is on the ground before a Hussir pointing a spear at them. Even though he has a hatred for the Hussirs, he isn't shy about begging for his life and Mara's.
• Aliens Made Them Do It: Pretty sure that's how the thousands of humans owned by the Hussirs started when they were being bred as livestock.
• Aliens Never Invented the Wheel: Aside from glass and writing, which were given to the Hussirs by the human settlers, democracy was rediscovered by the Wild Humans in order to make a decision of attacking Falkyn.
• Aliens Speaking English: Some Hussirs know human tongue so as they can understand what their slaves are saying. Snuk learned how to speak human, as it was his theory that one could control humans better when one could listen in on their conversations among themselves.
• Alien Sky: The two suns.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Hussirs taking of the Star Tower and making it the centerpiece of their city after they subdued the human explorers millennia ago. Though in the end of the story Alan and Mare eventually reclaim it.
• Ancient Astronauts: Humans arrived on the Hussir world over a thousand years ago via the Star Tower.
• Ambiguous Ending: The resolution of the story is left for the reader's interpretation.
• Appropriate Animal Attire: Nudity is seen as the appropriate attire for humans since they are regarded as beasts of burden by the Hussirs.
• The Artifact: The Silk, a piece of cloth of the Wild Humans that belonged to the first human settlers. Supposedly it that contains coordinates of the Hussir world and coding for an SOS.
• A Taste of the Lash: Hussirs are this when they are beating down their human slaves for reciting their ancestral songs, being unsupervised or just due to sadistic pleasure.
• Badass Damsel: Mara momentarily is this when a Hussir seizes her by the waist when she is about to head into the Star Tower. She is thrown to the ground and is about to have a spear pierced into her when Alan fires an arrow that causes the Hussir to drop his weapon. Mara flees but it is momentarily as she choses to help Alan defeat a Hussir by restricting its arms with her legs.
• Backup Bluff: Faced with a spear pointed at him an Mara after they stumble into the home of a Hussir, Alan immediately grovels in a slave-like manner to pretend that he is a slave. He answers the slaver's questions in the Hussir language by telling him where his master live only for him to be told that they are in the area. Using a name of a Hussir he heard as a boy, Alan manages to convince he is a slave. And then when the Hussir turns his attention onto Mara and demands who her owner is. Unsure if she knew how to speak Hussir, Alan answers for her which is enough for the slaver.
• The Bait: In order to get past the Hussir guards standing in front of the Star Tower, Mara is told by Alan to act as a diversion. She being a woman, standing out in the dark with her light skin, and regarded as an easy target seems like a natural choice. Mara plays her role by gets the guards attention, while Alan hides behind the ramp of the Star Tower to ambush one of the guards.
• Battle Couple: The protagonist Alan and the secondary protagonist Mara are seen fighting side-by-side in battle.
• Battle Strip: Alan does this followed by his Wild Human comrades after seeing that their invasion of Falkyn failed. They strip their clothes to hide amongst the slaves to hopefully escape and live.
• Big Damn Heroes: Alan and his army of 500 Wild Humans that launched an attack on Falklyn to liberate the human slaves. Inverted as the attack fails spectacularly.
• Beam of Enlightenment: Alan gets this after comforting Mara in preparing for another ordeal in sneaking through the Hussir city to the the safety of the mountains. Just as he was guiding her out of the city, he stops himself and quickly seeing that the Star Tower, his ancestor's original goal within his grasp, grabs the shoulders of his partner and declares that they will fulfill the prophecy of the Song by heading there.
• Beneath Notice: Wild Humans are easy to identify due to their kind flaunting in wearing clothes. Take them away, the Hussirs just see another human slave.
• Big Brother Mentor: Rob acted as this for Alan, steering him from trying to kill Snuk for the good of all the humans at the ranch.
• The Big Guy: Rob is described as husky and a favored mount of Wiln.
• Binary Suns: The Hussir homeworld orbits two stars, a blue and white sun.
• Blatant Item Placement: Alan and his companion Mara having abandoned their clothes and weapons find themselves at the foot of their goal, the entrance ramp to the Star Tower. However the way is blocked by two Hussir guards. And while they are only two, the Hussirs are more stronger than a woman which Alan noted would be impossible for Mara to overpower. By coincidence they find a stray arrow which Alan uses as a weapon. Whilst Mara attracted the guards attention, Alan uses it to kill one of the guards and claim his bow and quiver to help Mara.
• Born Into Slavery: Alan born and raised on a human farm as a mount and slave.
• Boyfriend Bluff: Alan claims Mara as his mate to a suspicious Hussir when he begins questioning her.
• Call That a Formation: The Wild Humans despite having developed a battle plan to attack Falkyn a hundred and fifty years ago, have no battle formation going into the city with only a simple plan to kill as many Hussirs and free any slaves. Two problems with that the Hussirs proved to be more military organized and the slaves side with their masters.
• Call to Adventure: Alan upon climbing over the fence that physically kept humans penned in the fields owned by the Hussirs, has a choice to either go back or follow a glowing bird calling for him to freedom. He chooses the latter as the former he knows he expects punishment while the other option is the unknown.
• Capital City: The Hussir city of Falkyn, while is not explicitly said to be their capital, it is a major city in their society.
• Cargo Cult: The humans give praise to an entity called the Golden Star, which is prevalent in their songs. Initially thought to be a star in the sky, its actually referring to the Star Tower, the rocket ship that originally brought human settlers to the alien planet.
• Cassette Futurism: The Star Tower uses magnetic tape to activate the program for takeoff.
• Chastity Couple: The relationship between Alan and Mara is not overly romantic, but do so in subtle ways that inform the reader. Brief physical contact, moments of admiration, etc.
• Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: Alan the protagonist before joining up with the Wild Humans against the Hussirs who enslaved his people, was doing Their First Time with another girl who was also a slave live him. Their tryst was the catalyst of Alan escaping from his masters and becoming the hero in the story. By the end of the novelette Alan realizes his affection for Mara, a fellow Wild Human as he admires her naked body from behind during a Naked Camouflage moment through a Hussir city. Later they end up together on a ship escaping the Hussir planet to their world of their ancestors Earth.
• Computer Equals Tapedrive: Magnetic tape is used to start the Star Tower to launch.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: The humans have been breed to be submissive to their Hussir masters. So much so that even when faced with brutal abuse, any thoughts of retaliating perish out of a victim by their peers as there will be shared consequences of fatal death. Instead humans are expected to accept their lot of being downtrodden beasts who at the end of their usefulness may end up as meat.
• Constantly Curious: Alan is ever curious about the world, his life as a slave, etc. This curiosity is pivotal in him taking the first steps in gaining his freedom, after he decides to do the unthinkable and scale the fence that is the one barrier that keeps his kind enslaved.
• Consummate Liar: Alan despite being new to being a free slave, is quite quick on deception, able to come up with lies to fool Hussirs on the fly.
• Contrived Coincidence: There's a lot of coincidences that work in favor for the protagonist:
  • Alan and Mara encountering a Hussir who buys the former's story of being town humans after he mentions a Hussir associate named Senk.
  • Alan and Mara initially escaping the Hussir city, after their plan to free the captive humans backfire, somehow manage to head to the center of the city instead of the outskirts.
  • Alan happening to keep the Silk on him, the one item he keeps after shedding his clothes to disguise himself as a slave, and so happens is needed to be brought to the Star Tower to fulfill the legend of freeing all humans in the world.
  • The Hussirs diverting all their guards to the outskirts of the city, instead of the center in the aftermath of the Wild Human invasion, allowing Alan and Mara to infiltrate the park to reach the Star Tower.
  • Alan and Mara somehow managing to get past the patrols in the park and finding a discarded arrow to use as a weapon and later accidentally sealing themselves in the Star Tower when they are nearly overrun by the Hussirs.
• Crowd Chant: Kill the Wild Humans! said the angry mob of town humans.
• Cry Into Chest: Mara does this with Alan when she leads them to the center of the city, instead of the city gates. When realizing her mistake and faced with the possibility of being captured by the Hussirs she stood close to her male partner for comfort.
• Deadpan Snarker: Mara is shown to have a sardonic sense of humor, which she displays at various times to lighten the mood of a dark topic:
  • When she teased Alan about how ridiculous he was for believing the tales of Wild Humans being cannibals.
  • Commenting that there was one less Hussir to find Haafin after she shoots it with her arrow.
  • When Alan and Mara sing the Star Tower song, thinking it would magically free every humans, Mara, sarcastically suggested that they should go outside the secured Star Tower to see if the Hussirs were letting all their human brothers and sisters free.
• Determinator: Alan fits this trope as even after overseeing a fail conquest of a city, possibly decreasing his group’s precarious numbers, vulnerable and exposed in enemy territory with escape being slim, he still is determined to head deeper into the heart of Hussir territory to fulfill a dream of freedom for his kind.
• Didn't Think This Through: The Wild Humans of Haafin led by Alan, were optimistic in taking the capital of the Hussirs, believing in a 150 year old battle plan that the Town Humans would willingly join their ranks to overthrow their Hussir masters. However they failed to account the hold of the falsehoods that the Hussir told their human slaves that the Wild Humans were cannibals would cause the Town Humans to see their liberators as monsters.
• Dressing as the Enemy: More like undressing as the Wild Humans are forced to remove their clothes to hide from the human slaves who want to kill them, and who they do not want to harm and make enemies of.
• Dynamic Entry: Not intended as Alan and Mara clutching each other while being buffeted in a crowd of naked humans. The tide of bodies then push the couple into a nearby doorway, which yielded to the pressure, causing it to fly inward, making the two lose their balance and collapse in a heap inside at the feet of an angry Hussir.
• Eating the Eye Candy: While watching Mara's slim figure in the night, Alan finds himself attracted to her.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Mara has tawny gold hair and noted to have pale skin.
• End of an Age: Alan once lived a life as a spoiled pet under his kind Hussir master Blik. However that all ended when Alan turned fifteen and Blik died from sickness and his ownership was transferred to Blik's older brother Snuk who was a far more crueler master. The abuse was so great that Alan gave into his curiosity of what freedom was and chose to leave the farm.
• Enslaved Elves: The descendants of the humans on the Hussir world were originally explorers but where later captured and stripped of their technology and reduced to animals.
• Epiphanic Prison: This is what the Hussirs have reduced the humans to. Humanity has been living under the yoke of the aliens that they don’t understand what freedom is. The pens that they are kept in can be easily scaled but none would dare think to do so as if they are caught they would be butchered for meat or face the alleged cannibal Wild Humans.
• ET Gave Us Wi Fi: The original human settlers were this. According to some alleged rumors, humans gave the primitive Hussirs many technological gifts when they first met, some like glass and writing.
• Exposed to the Elements: Played with and is a subtle hint as to how Alan and Mara managed to slip past the Hussir patrols around the Star Tower. No clothes make no sounds while they snuck past the security.
• Exposed Extraterrestrials: Humans are the alien species on the Hussir homeworld and they don't wear anything normally.
• Failed a Spot Check: The Hussirs failed to see a man and a woman sneak right past them in a secure zone. Even though it was dark their white forms against the dark should have stood out.
• Fake-Out Make-Out: Alan and Mara claiming to be mates to a Hussir.
• Fantastic Caste System: Hussirs are at the top of the social pyramid, whilst humans are at the bottom and classified as beasts.
• Fighting For a Homeland: The Wild Humans original goal was to reclaim the Star Tower of their ancestors. But were unable to retake it due to the greater number of Hussirs surrounding it. Eventually the Wild Humans switched goals of reclaiming the Star Tower to conquering the Hussirs to make they been seen as equals.
• First Love: Could either be interpret Alan's love for Blik or the young girl he had a relationship with after Blik's death.
• Fish Out of Water: Mara despite being a independent woman who is a rebel against the oppression Hussirs, and a mentor to her junior who is the protagonist, finds herself relying on him instead later on. This happens when she is totally out of her depth after she has to strip herself of her clothes and identity as a Wild Human to hide among the slaves. Her wilderness and survival skills mean nothing whilst pretending to be a human slave, as she is unable to speak the Hussir language, or even navigate the city.
• Foil: Alan and Mara serve as opposites. Being both the opposite genders and in temperament. Alan is optimistic and naive while Mara is cynical and wary.
• Follow the White Rabbit: Instead of chasing a white rabbit, the main character following a glowing reptilian bird called a zird that parrots to him to follow it to freedom, starting the plot.
• Forgotten First Meeting: Alan and Mara actually met when they were both twelve. Alan was being ridden to Falkyn by his Hussir owner and his father. Mara who was beside the road viewing Falkyn failed to notice the two riders behind her, and nearly was shot by the adult Hussir forcing her to flee into the forest.
• Full-Frontal Assault: Alan and Mara having devested themselves of their clothes previously go full savage to fight the Hussir guards, taking a few of them by surprise and even grappling with their bodies.
• G-Rated Sex: Alan engaging with a girl is alluded to.
• Gambit Roulette: Alan and Mara, having become separated from their fellow Wild Humans, find themselves are alone and unharmed in the city of their enemy. Initially the planned to try and escape the city, but end up finding themselves at it's heart, where coincidentally is the Star Tower, where it is said should a human enter and speak an ancient spell, freedom will be granted to all humans. While the smart and safe choice would have been to go through the streets and hope that the couple could bypass the checkpoints at the entrances of the city, they instead go into the frying pan, where hundreds of guards are patrolling the area around the Star Tower. Despite their lack of plan and weapons, the two reach and manage to enter the Star Tower and fulfil the prophecy.
• Gilded Cage: In comparison to the humans that live on farms and ranches, humans in Falkyn are given greater liberties. They are allowed to wear bits of cloth to decorate their bodies, walk the streets and enter Hussir homes, allowed breaks, and even interact with the opposite sex to couple and share pens. However these greater freedoms don't erase that they are still beasts of labor, chained when not ridden, whipped when they offend a Hussir, or restricted to coupling only during mating season.
• Giving Them the Strip: Mara had to drop down her pants to escape being shot at by a Hussir when they got caught in a branch.
• Girly Bruiser: Mara has shown to be a tough and determined woman. She is not only to shy from a fight or draw first blood to protect her people. Mara was among those who believed in conquering the Hussirs to force them to accept humans as equals. Though she can be at times vulnerable especially when deprived of her weapons, clothes and the ambiguity of a situation. This is shown when while navigating through the Hussir city to reach the outskirts, she actually ended up taking her and Alan to the city's center. The thought of going back through the streets navigating past the Hussirs alone and exposed, with the potential of being caught frightened her, which causes Alan to lend a comforting arm on her shoulders.
• Going Commando: Mara abandons her pants to the bushes to escape being shot at by arrows, leaving it to the imagination that she had to walk back to Haafin pantless.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: The city of Falkyn was devoid of any guards stationed at the entrances to the city, allowing the Wild Humans entry to begin their invasion. Later the Hussir guards make the same mistake again, by not posting guards around the park, instead having patrols within it, which proved useless in detecting two humans who snuck in.
• Happiness in Slavery: Rob strongly opposes to Alan's idea of killing Snuk, and takes comfort that he is getting older thus he will not be used as much by his Hussir master.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Wild Humans can be considered this, as the Hussirs told lies that the Wild Humans were cannibals to prevent their human slaves from siding with them.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Subverted. Humans here were descended from obviously a ship full of human settlers that got lost. Usually colonizing an already inhabited planet is never good for the natives, especially when the settlers are more technologically advanced and the possible of territorial encroachment and war. Though in this story the native Hussirs got the better of the invaders and made them their beasts of burden.
• Humans Are White: Hinted in the story, and given this was written in the 1950s. Plus Mara is described to have pale skin.
• Hidden Elf Village: The community of Haafin is a settlement of free humans known as the Wild Humans. Over a thousand years its survived by hiding out in the mountains and relocating when Hussir hunters catch wind of its current location.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: The Star Tower Song, a lullaby know to every human on the Hussir world. While just a children’s song at a glance, the verses are disguised simple instructions to enter the Star Tower to initiate the launch sequence of the rocket. Presumably it was invented by the ancestors of the first human settlers to pass to their descendants on a way to return to Earth so they could bring aid to free their kind from Hussir enslavement. Over time the true purpose of the song was lost and was believed to be by the Wild Humans to be a spell that if sung in the Star Tower would make the Hussirs free all their human slaves. The Wild Humans hold a hidden part of the song that are actually instructions of how to use the sickbay of the rocket and go into suspended animation.
  • Twinkle, twinkle, golden star, (The Star Tower)
  • I can reach you, though you're far. (Urging for humans to reach the Star Tower)
  • Shut my mouth and find my head, (Seal the doors of the rocket and head to the cockpit)
  • Find a worm that's striped with red, (A magnetic tape cassette containing the emergency launch codes to return to Earth)
  • Feed it to a turtle shell, (The magnetic tape reader)
  • Then go to sleep, for all is well." (Go into suspended hibernation while on the journey to Earth)
  • Twinkle, twinkle, little bug, (A hypodermic needle)
  • Long and round, of shiny hue.
  • In a room marked by a cross, (The infirmary)
  • Sing my arm when I've found you.
  • Lay me down in bed so deep,
  • An then there's naught to do but sleep

• Holding Hands: One of the few intimate gestures between Alan and his potential love interest Mara. They often do this in times when they try to stick together or comforted each other in the presence of danger.
  • Staying together in a sweaty mob of human slaves.
  • Walking deeper into the Star Tower.
• Horse Archer: Wiln is this on his human mount Robb when he tries to shoot a twelve year old Mara who was out on the road looking at Falkyn.
• Humans Are Special: In this story its more inverted as humans are special only as a type of animal used by aliens.
• Humanity Is Superior: Humanity is a spacefaring race whilst Hussirs are a primitive race in the Bronze era that only managed to enslave human settlers through numbers.
• I Didn't Mean to Turn You On: When Alan took his clothes off in front of Mara, who was dumbstruck. Before eventually getting his idea of his plan to blend in with the slaves.
• Inescapable Ambush: The situation where Alan and Mare incapacitate the Hussir guards at the door of the Star Tower, their goal. Only for other Hussir to pour around the Star Tower and rain arrows at the couple, forcing them inside. The door of the Star Tower is swung back by they are unable to close it with their combined strength. Not only that their weapons they took from the guards they defeated were outside and soon it was only a matter of time before the Hussirs march up the ramp find a weaponless Alan and Mara. In which a future would be a quick swift death as butchered meat or the cruel life as slaves being either a mount and cow. This is averted when Alan by chance pulls the right lever to shut the door, thinking it was a weapon.
• The Infiltration: Alan and Mara pose as town humans after being separated from their war party. Due to their lack of clothes and keeping distance from one another, passerby's do not suspect that they are Wild Humans.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Hussirs are said to butcher disobedient humans for meat. And its implied that they feed the humans slaves meat scraps from the kitchen, which could be human.
• Implied Love Interest: For Alan it is Mara the secondary protagonist. She is the girl he met at the beginning of the story and later becomes his mentor teaching him to be a free human. And later second in command during the invasion of Falkyn. While not direct romance is seen, various hints are dropped:
  • Mara considered Alan to be healthy when she examined him.
  • Alan also admired her beauty when he properly met her.
  • After the failed invasion, Alan creates a cover story that she is his mate to convince a Hussir, that he and Mara are town humans. (It's unknown if Mara knew what was being said as it was all in Hussir though appears to not be embarrassed by the statement either indicating she was alright with being considered a romantic partner to Alan or did not care for the lie.)
  • While they try to escape Falkyn unnoticed, Alan notices his attraction towards her as he finds himself admiring her from behind.
  • When the couple realized that they went deeper into the city by mistake, Mara is noticeably choosing to stay close to Alan's chest, looking up at him for direction.
  • The two are noticeably holding hands as they journey into the Star Tower.
• Innocent Cohabitation: Mara and Alan while still unclothed have full run of a functional spaceship at the end of the book. But they appear to don't mind and it matters little as they undergo suspended animation for their journey to Earth, sleeping side by side naked in the same room.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: Alan's former lover was this, given she lived her whole life with no taboos on nudity due to the Hussirs declaring humans were animals and needed no clothes. Mara abruptly became this after she was forced to remove her clothes to escape being caught by the Hussirs. And while her undressed state did not bother her much as she only wore clothing to differentiate herself from a slave and as an act of defiance against the Hussir regime, it gave Alan ample opportunity to admire her body and realize his feelings for her. And was not distressed while being in close proximity with Alan in her state of undress.
• Instant Messenger Pigeon: The Wild Humans of Haafin use zirds, bird and reptile hybrid, to convince human slaves to escape.
• Interrupted Intimacy: Alan had a brief dalliance with a young woman from his herd before the Hussir caught them.
• Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: It's ironic, humans who are enslaved by the Hussirs could gain their freedom just by reaching the Star Tower. Located in a park in the center of the city, with only a waits height barrier that surrounds the border. It can be easily crossed given humans height, but they are so submissive to the point they are meek to disobey their masters, and are content to stand behind the barrier or even chained to it while their masters site see the structure. For the protagonists Mara and Alan its subverted and no issue as they have no fear of the Hussirs or their punishment.
• It's a Small World After All: Alan and Mara naked and unharmed before a armed Hussir who demands who they are. Though the former quickly comes up with a story that his master is from Northwesttown. Only problem is that they are in Northwesttown. So Alan states that his master is Senk, which ironically the other Hussir knows but regardless is convinced Alan is a town human.
• Jaw Drop: Mara does this when she sees Alan immediately strips in front of an advancing army of town humans. She snaps out of it when Alan does the same, after realizing his plan, before following suit.
• Jerkass: Snuk is this as he was a sadistic piece of work to Alan, relishing in causing pain, that even his father Wiln found disturbing. Rob even fears Snuk's ascent of becoming lord of Wiln Castle as its spells doom for the humans on the ranch and expects worse treatment.
• Land of One City: Falkyn is the central city in the Hussir region with a population of 10,000 Hussirs and 40,000 human slaves.
• La Résistance: The Wild Humans of Haafin that seek to free their enslaved brothers and sisters.
• Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: The Hussir landowner who had Alan and Mara at spearpoint took Alan's word that they belonged to an acquaintance of his. But what nailed their story to be true without a doubt to the Hussir was when Alan said he and Mara were a couple during mating season.
• Limited Wardrobe: Mara, the Wild Humans and later Alan, wear loose jackets and baggy trousers like Hussirs. Though its obvious the clothes were not made for creatures with their build but it's the only clothes they can come by and use to identify themselves as being free and equal to the aliens. And by the end of the story, their choice of clothes become nil, as they were forced to abandon them to escape capture by the Hussirs. Oddly when they reach the goal of the Star Tower, which is stocked with technology and dugs which they need to complete their journey, is devoid of any clothes, leaving them still in the nude.
• Little People: The Hussirs, as they are only half as tall as compared to humans.
• Lost Colony: The setting the story takes place was where a human explorer ship landed after begin separated from a fleet.
• Lost in a Crowd: To escape the Hussir militia baring down on them from the rear, Alan, Mara and the Wild Humans make the decision to head straight into the crowd of town humans. Due to taking off their clothes, both Hussirs and town humans are unable to tell who are the Wild Humans, evading capture.
• Loyal Animal Companion: Alan was this to his Hussir master Blik.
• Love Epiphany: Alan realizes this after the failed liberation of Falkyn. While shadowing being his second-in-command Mara through the city, he finds himself admiring her body and realized that he has feelings for her.
• Making Love in All the Wrong Places: When a Hussir holds Alan and Mara at spearpoint, Alan tells him that Mara are together due to mating season, hence why they fell into his house as a pair. This lie proves to be amusing to the Hussir to let them go, suggesting these dalliances are not uncommon don't just take place in the slave pens but also in public.
• Male Gaze: Alan is the main character of the story. He is young and still sorting out his feelings, such as when he reference Mara's traits such as her "posterior", "slim white figure", etc.
• Malicious Slander: Hussirs telling lies that humans were cannibals that the human slaves rose to fight against the Wild Human liberators.
• Mentor Ship: Mara was Alan's senior, experience wise, teaching him to hunt and make tools and become part of the Haafin community. Later on it evolves from respect to intimacy.
• Million-to-One Chance: The whole situation where Alan and Mara having escaped captured by the Hussir guards and town human mob, manage to bluff their way out of being found out as Wild Humans. Later they plan to escape out of the city, only for their path to take them park where the Star Tower lies, the place where it was said that if the Silk, which is tied around Alan's neck, and the Song is sung would bring freedom to all humans. Despite being unharmed and unprepared for the dangers the pair infiltrate the park, avoiding the beefed up patrols of Hussirs and manage to make their way to the entrance of the Star Tower. While they had difficulty in killing off the guards the couple manage to get in. Through dumb luck they manage to figure out how to shut the doors of the Star Tower, trapping all the Hussirs outside and use the verses of the Song to follow hidden clues on how to the prepare the Star Tower, which is a rocket, for take-off back to Earth.
• Mobstacle Course: Alan dragging Mare towards the mob of angry town humans seeking to kill the Wild Humans, whilst being chased by the attacking Hussirs with their arrows. Though he is the first one to come up with the idea to strip and run towards the crowd of slaves to escape, Alan being slowed by his female partner, is outpaced by his other fellow Wild Humans. They try to break the wall of humans in front of them, resulting in some being clutched at by the slaves and likely captured. Alan and Mare's late headlong plunge proves fortunate as the confusion of the slaves and struggling Wild Humans, allow them to slip into the crowd. The couple cling to each other as they are buffeted by sweaty bodies, and eventually crowded to the wall of a city, where the tide of humans batter them against and through the door of a Hussir house, giving them reprieve.
• Monument to Defeat: The Star Tower is this. After the Hussirs enslaved the human crew, the built a city around the rocket and centuries later converted it a centerpiece for their park and turned it into a museum hallmarking their achievement of claiming it from the humans. Humans are forbidden from entering the rocket and only permitted to be chained at the park's perimeter to be even near it.
• The Mourning After: Alan apparently loved his previous master Blik after he died.
• Murderous Thighs: Mara tries to fight a Hussir by leaping behind and locking her legs around its body and grappling for its spear. While her attack doesn't kill it, her confining technique gives Alan the time to dispatch the Hussir.
• Naive Newcomer: Alan is this when he joins the Wild Humans, learning about freedom from them. Due to his newcomer status he offers a fresh mind to the Wild Humans predicament of how they should rescue their human brethren.
• Naive Everygirl: Averted with Mara. Girl is jaded enough about the harsh niche her kind exist in on the Hussir's planet. Mara was not originally a believer in The Star Tower Song and was skeptical on its validity. Even after she and Alan entered the Star Tower and recited the Song incantation that supposedly was to miraculously grant every human in the world their freedom. When nothing happened, she wasn't so stupid to go outside and check as she knew doing so was a death sentence since opening the Star Tower would allow the Hussir guards entry, leading them to be either enslaved or executed. Hence they were trapped until they could figure out the true purpose of the Song.
• Naked Camouflage: The Wild Humans of Haafin are forced to strip their clothes to avoid being caught by the Hussirs when their plan to take the city fails. They hide amongst an angry mob of human slaves making it impossible to identify or locate them in the mob. Later while walking nude in the streets no one thinks twice of them being Wild Humans.
• Naked First Impression: This is how Alan met Mara and her vice versa. The first time when he was ridden by his owner. And the second when he escaped from his ranch.
• Naked on Arrival: How the protagonist starts as a naked animal before becoming a hero who potential saves humanity on an alien planet.
• Naked People Trapped Outside: The ancestors of the humans, after the Hussirs took their clothes and denied them access to the Star Tower. It would be funny if not generations later humanity is reduced to beasts.
• National Geographic Nudity: This is a children's novel, so no overt sexual terms are included in the story,
• Neglectful Precursors: The ancestors of the humans seem to have made a lot of subjective mistakes when they arrive on the Hussir world. For all their scientific power, they got themselves enslaved by the primitive Hussirs as soon as they left their secure Star Tower. Then either before or after the Hussirs overpowered them and made them slaves, the humans gave the aliens advances in technology.
• No OSHA Compliance: The pressurized door of the Star Tower requires two out of three unlabeled levers to be pulled down to close it.
• No Hugging, No Kissing, the lead protagonists Alan and Mara don't overly show signs of physical intimacy. But it's clear from their small gestures, Alan admiring Mara's naked behind, her staying close to him, and Alan putting an arm around her are signs of affection and trust.
• No Peripheral Vision: Hussirs are blind in the dark and need light sources to see. Even if someone was standing in front of them with white against black they wouldn't be able to detect them.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: Alan and Mara see each other naked, but are used to seeing each other this way, as Mara saw him like this when she first met, and Alan being a former slave who was raised among the female slaves. Even when in close physical proximity to each other they work comfortably and are not flustered by each other's presence, such as Mara allowing Alan to lift her up to retrieve a weapon or following behind him while climbing a ladder.
• Our Doors Are Different: The door into the Star Tower is a hatch door that is made of thick metal that cannot be shut closed by conventional means. Instead three levers on a panel control the mechanism, though only two levers are needed to close it.
• Our Nudity Is Different: Alan upon encountering Mara wearing an open jacket and baggy trousers found her to look rather ridiculous and sacrilegious.
• Pantsless Males, Fully-Dressed Females: Literally how Alan and Mara met.
• The Patriarch: Wiln the head of Wiln Castle and his family.
• Pet the Dog: Blik generous behavior toward Alan is highlighted, showing he was a good master.
• People Farms: The Hussirs use humans as transportation and food. Ranches of humans exist for the sole purpose of breeding them and producing milk.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: The Hussirs, despite being half the height of humans are pretty string to lift and fling a young mature woman.
• Plot Hole: One thing that doesn't make sense is after when the protagonists having managed to activate the launch sequence of the Star Tower. The couple were in the vessel for months until they decided to go into suspended animation for their trip using viable drugs left in the sickbay. However during those months, what did the pair eat? As the Star Tower could not have been stocked with food for them to survive that long before they went to sleep.
• Pose of Supplication: Humans are expected to grovel before the Hussirs when answering their orders. Alan and Mara do this when a mob push their bodies through a door and into a Hussir's home. The Hussir owner is not happy with this and is armed with a spear. Luckily they are on the ground and already groveling for their lives.
• The Prophecy: According to the ancient telling's of the Haafin, if one was to bring a special silk shawl to the Star Tower humans would be free.
• Prophecies Are Always Right: Most Wild Humans believed that the stories of the Star Tower bring human deliverance were tall tales, but as it turns out there is more to the story and is more accurate than they think.
• Prophecy Twist: Mara and Alan make it to the Star Tower which they believe once they entered some form of magic would be cast and free the humans from Hussir rule. It wasn't simple, but following an ancient song, they manage to start the Star Tower which was actually a ship to a return course to Earth. They then use injections to go into hibernation with the silk relaying a message for help once they get to Earth.
• The Protagonist: Alan is the main character of the story.
• Puppy Love: Alan and his blonde girlfriend had this. The former took comfort in her company after his first master died. Their tryst however was found out by their slave owners and the two were separated. The girl hoped to see him at mating season but it was an empty wish as Alan never did see her and presumed that she got over him. Year later when he became a Wild Human, while walking behind Mara and admiring her beauty, he realized that he never really loved the blonde.
• Rancher: Wiln business appears to be farming, using human males for labor, and on occasion meat if they misbehave and human women as dairy producers.
• Rebel Leader: The Refuge. Though he acts more like a figurehead as the Wild Humans are too independent to formally have a structured government.
• Recurring Character: The Hussir merchant Senk, who was mentioned by a slave begging for mercy before Wiln. He is never seen in the story, but Alan uses his name to convince a Hussir that he and Mara are slaves.
• Refuge in Audacity: During the initial invasion of Falkyn, the humans commented that the city was so easily invaded, because the Hussirs never fathomed of being attacked.
• Retro Rocket: This story was written in the 1950s so the Star Tower by description is from that era.
• Right Under Their Noses: A Wild Human in a Hussir city usually has no chances of escape. However Alan and Mara managed to give the illusion that they were town humans by removing their clothes and keeping a distance from one another as being seen together would draw attention.
• Rite of Passage: When a boy reaches adulthood he is transferred from the women field to the men field where a standard hazing ritual begins, involving the newcomer forced to fight his peers to earn their respect.
• Rock Beats Laser: Thousands of years ago, the Hussirs managed to defeat and enslave the first human settlers despite the latter having superior technology through the sheer force of numbers.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Senk is only mentioned at the start of the novel, as a merchant who was the owner of a slave pleading for forgiveness to Wiln when he sang the Star Tower Song. His name served as a major role in preventing Alan and Mara from being captured by a Hussir and made into slaves. Alan knowing the name of Senk was enough to fool the Hussir.
• Second Love: Alan realizing that his former relationship with the girl at his ranch was just a one time fling, when he is alone with Mara.
• Security Cling: Being new to a Hussir city, Mara is out of her depth since she is a creature of the forest. So she turns to Alan, staying close beside him since he had visited the city before.
• Shameful Strip: The Hussirs did this to the ancestors of Alan and Mara. After being stripped of their clothes and technology they were reduced as animals.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Mara is this and while wearing clothes the concept of indecency does not exist since humans were originally seen as animals by Hussirs. Still her open jacket barely covers her nudity and also even when she strips doesn't feel embarrassed due to a life or death situation that forced her to disguise herself as a slave. Like so walking exposed doesn't faze her that much or being in close proximity to male in spite of her vulnerable situation.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Snuk and Blik. Snuk being the cruel and yet stronger brother. And Blik being the kind and yet weak brother.
• Slave Collar: Not exactly collars, human slaves are forced to wear bridle-helmets with handgrips for steering and wear saddle-chairs on their shoulders to accommodate their riders while being used as mounts. When not in use a human mount is mostly chained to a railing until they are needed.
• Slave Liberation: That was the plan of the Wild Humans when the attacked Falkyn, but the underestimated the psychological hold over their enslaved brothers and sisters who willingly sided with the Hussirs due to living under the false tales that the Wild Humans were evil and ate their own kind.
• Slave Race: The humans in this story.
• Sleeping Single: While Alan and Mara undergo suspended animation, they remain naked, but sleep next to each other on separate chair beds.
• Storming the Castle: The Wild Humans try to capture Falkyn with a meager force of five hundred against a number of 10,000 Hussirs.
• Streaking: Technically every town human who lives in Falkyn as they are all naked in a public setting. The heroes Alan and Mara become participants in their trope when walking through the streets of the city and finally sneaking into the city's park.
• Suspended Animation: Alan and Mara undergo this to reach Earth.
• Swiss Cheese Security: The city of of Falkyn, houses a park that contains the Star Tower, the ancestral home of humans, and a monument to the Hussirs of their imperial power. The park is ringed with a rail and humans are forbidden entry. There are also teams of guards that patrol the park during the day and night. When Falkyn was attacked by Wild Humans, the security of the park was increased to prevent any stray humans from approaching. Despite all the security and patrols, it failed to stop the infiltration of a man and woman from Haafin. Such a situation could have been preventable due to various reasons:
  • Mara should have been a dead giveaway to the Hussirs that she was not a town human. Human slaves did not have the right to wear clothes so they should have a lot of exposure to the sun, making them tan. Mara though had pale skin which she covered with clothes. So her coloring should have been suspicious.
  • Given the invasion, a curfew should have been initiated in Falkyn to have all town humans back in their pens to locate the intruders.
  • The couple faced no opposition in entering the park which should have had guards at the perimeter as the first line of defense.
  • The borders of the park should have been prioritized rather than the outskirts of the city.
  • The perimeter of the park would have been more easier to guard than the outskirts of the city due to its smaller size.
  • The barrier surrounding the park was flimsy as the pair merely had to vaulted over the railing to get inside.
  • The pair were also so overly unprepared for infiltrating the park as they were doing it by the skin of their teeth, going by on faith and without a plan. As opposed to the Hussirs in their many numbers and organized orderly patrols of the area and still failed to encounter the intruders until they reached the Star Tower.
  • Even though darkness shrouded the couple's approach to the Star Tower, made no sound due to their lack of obstructive clothes, and used much of the park's greenery to hide, they were bare naked so their bodies lightness should have been more noticeable in the dark and easy to see for the Hussirs to spot even with their disadvantaged night vision.
  • In addition to being bereft of any clothes, Alan and Mara lacked proper weapons to fight the guards who were armed and should have been able to capture two animals.
  • A single Hussir is said to be stronger than a woman, with a pair being more than enough to incapacitate an unharmed man and woman.
  • More than two guards at the entrance of the Star Tower should have been posted.
  • A discarded arrow was lying near the Star Tower by the guards and made into an impromptu tool for Alan to slay one of them.
  • More guards should have been posted not only outside the Tower, but also inside as there is a monitoring station with cameras that could have alerted them of the Wild Humans making this a Surveillance Station Slacker moment.
  • A more effective way to stop the humans from entering the Star Tower would have been to close the door. After a thousand years of holding the space vessel, the Hussirs should have at least discovered how to utilize the locking mechanism.
  • A Hussir managed to catch Mara and prevent her from going up the ramp of the Star Tower. However it threw her to the ground and tried to kill her, rather than use her as a hostage against Alan.
  • The Hussirs had Alan and Mara cornered when the went into the doorway of the Star Tower. The couple abandoned their weapons and had no knowledge of how to close the door. The guards were busy firing volleys of arrows through the entrance that it gave the humans time to figure out how to shut the door. The guards should have prioritized entering the rocket to capture the intruders.
• Talking Your Way Out: After Alan and Mara get lost in the crowd of town humans, they fall through the door of a home belonging to a Hussir. The Hussir is suspicious of them unsure if they are Wild Humans or slaves so he levels his spear at them. Alan knowing the Hussir language and remembering the name of a Hussir merchant he heard when he was a slave claimed that he belonged to the merchant and even gave him his address. Coincidentally the location is in the area but the name of the Hussir merchant is enough to fool the Hussir. When the Hussir demands an answer from Mara, Alan quickly speaks for her as he doesn’t know if she spoke Hussir.
• Take Off Your Clothes: When being pressed between a angry mob of town humans and Hussir guards, Alan makes the decision to have his comrades throw away their weapons and clothes. His decision leaves Mara openmouthed with shock and takes him to tugging unto her clothes to hurry and follow suit so she can survive.
• Their First Time: Alan and a young woman he had a dalliance while a slave before their masters caught them. It's hinted that the girl became pregnant as the Hussir Wiln decided to switch her to the milking herd despite her being still young.
• They Look Like Us Now: It never dawned on the Hussirs that Wild Humans without their clothes look no different from their humans slaves. Even the slaves have trouble when the Wild Humans get lost in the mob of attacking slaves creating confusion allowing the rebels to escape.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: The Wild Humans though willing to kill the alien Hussirs, absolutely can't bring themselves to kill their human brethren even if in defense.
• Too Important to Walk: Any Hussir who uses a human mount to travel.
• Trapped Behind Enemy Lines: Alan and Mara and the five hundred or so Wild Humans are this after their plan to capture Falkyn failed and are caught between the Hussir militia and a angry mob of slaves. Presumably after they scattered and blended with the other slaves, the surviving Wild Humans are in hiding in the city trying to make their way out without being caught by the Hussirs.
• Tree Cover: In their infiltration of the park to reach the Star Tower, Alan and Mara despite sticking out in the dark due to their light skins, took advantage that the Hussirs had poor night vision and relied on shaded lamps to see in the dark. Being used to moving at night, they also moved from bush to bush and tree to tree with quiet facility to evade the guards.
• Undercover As Lovers: Alan uses this to fool a Hussir, telling him that Mara is his mate.
• Underground Railroad: The Wild Humans once attempted to directly go into the pens of human slaves to get them to escape with them. Only these encounters ended badly as the slaves created such a rabble that the Hussir slave owners caught many Wild Humans. Thus they tried another method of coaxing slaves to voluntarily come to them by indirectly bringing their message of freedom via parroting zirds to encourage slaves to climb the fences and into the wilds.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Mara and Alan obviously have feelings for each other. Alan's is more apparent as the two sneak through the city in their birthdays clothes after the failed liberation.
• Unwanted Rescue: The human slaves in Falkyn, upon hearing the Wild Humans attacking the city, who are there to liberate them, actually side with their masters. This is due to believing in the Hussir lies that the Wild Humans are cannibals. They form a mob with the intent to kill the Wild Humans, trapping them between them and Hussir archers.
• Vapor Wear: Mara has nothing underneath her Hussir made clothes. She mostly just wears her jacket open, revealing her chest. It’s convenient as it enables her to strip down in an instant.
• Violence Is the Only Option: According to Roand the Wild Humans have two options in order to liberate their species. 1) To get a human to try and reach the Star Tower which is believed will free all humans. 2) Conquer the Hussirs through bows and spears. Though most Wild Humans view the first option as a child's tale and thus the latter is selected.
• Weaponized Exhaust: Presumably happens offscreen, since the Hussirs armed militia were gathered at the base of the Star Tower, which in reality is a rocket ship, they were all incinerated after Alan and Mara activated the launch sequence.
• Witch Hunt: After the Wild Humans disperse through the crowd of slaves in Falkyn, its inferred that their presence caused some incidents of Hussirs trying to locate the Wild Humans in their midst. Alan and Mara managed to avoid being scrutinized as possible Wild Humans, due to Alan's quick words and thinking. Though from some shouting and whistling not too far away, its indicated others were not so lucky.
• Wondrous Ladies' Room: Alan had this moment when after climbing the fence separating men's field from the women's field. He realized he had access to the field and potentially have his hearts desires to innumerable nights with the women, and weighed the option of forgoing staying a slave or being free.
• Wrong Turn At Albuquerque: Mara who was leading Alan through Falkyn to the outskirts of the city. In retrospect the latter should have led since he was a previous visitor, but the girl somehow took a wrong turn and led themselves into the city's center where the park was.
• You Can Leave Your Hat On: Inverted, the characters strip in a quick and no-nonsense fashion.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The Wild Humans are fighting on the behalf of their enslaved brothers and sisters, even if the latter have fallen for the lies of the Hussirs that they are cannibals.