Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Price of Compassion [Short Story Review]

"The Price of Compassion" is a short story by Robert Carter. It is the tenth story in a collection called "Tales of Hayven Celestia," which was published in 2020. As I have already stated, this is a universe created by author Rick Griffin, in which he allowed many other people to write stories in.

This one was about a geroo named Darian who finds a lio refugee on board their ship while the krakun were present. The lio are presently at war with the slaver krakuns, so keeping them safe is a huge crime. Krakuns are also extremely hostile to people who go against them, so one hidden lio could mean 7000 geroo abandoned to the cold of space.

This is a story of one geroo who makes a very simple choice of compassion that very clearly puts his entire people at risk of extermination. He choses to save the life of a lio who just doesn't want to be a slave, but if he is found out, everybody dies and there is no way out. This was a very interesting moral story, because, no matter what he does, every decision is morally questionable.

This was also a good story to learn about the lio. They are kind of like the Klingons of this universe but look like lions. I liked them, and seeing the cultural differences with the kind-hearted and physically weaker geroo race made for some good reading. I recommend the story!

This blog was written on December 7, 2025.

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