When ashiga is born, he only has one eye. His parents don't like him, and his master is planning on killing him. When he's old enough, he'll be called ashiga, which means "courage" in Japanese. He was born with only one eye, and when he was a child, his parents thought he was impure. When his master appeared, he traded his ugly eye for the one-eyed syedra, who returned with a crippled dragon. The two of them are the same, and they're both ugly. Shmoop says that ashiga's ugly is 30 bronze debs, which is about as high as it can go. Shmoop says that the salesman who bought ashiga from his parents is now a traveling salesman and lives by selling cloth. He gives ashiga the jingles to wear so that he can find his master. The jingles are always accompanied by ashiga and the salesman. One day, the salesman is taken away by someone, and ashiga tells him to drag him back to where he is. He says that his master won't survive any longer, and that he will find a special one for him. He goes on to say that the sight of ashiga in the desert reminds him of a demon called "shamu" , a creature that only has eyes at birth. He wants to hear his master call his name again.