"I'm Mort," he said, his dark eyes still appraising the boy before him. There was a faint grin.
"The cartoon is good. Proper nightmare fuel for any pidlin' kidlet. The book's better, though. It captures... I dunno, the spirit of it, what's it like, being a prey animal." It's something they could relate to, nowadays. "There's this bit, it goes: 'All the world is your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies...' There was a moment of hesitation. Mort put down the toothbrush and the piece he was cleaning and flipped back through the pages.
"Here it is. 'All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies. And whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first, they must catch you, digger, listener, runner. Prince with a swift warning. Be cunning, and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed.' Sounds like a good creed, doesn't it?" Mort shrugged. "I dunno. I mean, I'm not saying we've become nothing but prey, but we were apex predators, and now we've been knocked down a peg or two. It's gotta damage a species' psyche, doesn't it?"