“I’m going out to check the amulet and distance,” Boston interrupted.  “Then I vote we move on before this storm gets worse.”  She stepped outside, and for a second she imagined her eyes were playing a trick on her.  It looked like there was a light on the beach, not of a fire, but a glowing, pure white light, and it appeared to be getting closer before it became hidden by the rocks.

            “A trick of the light,” she said to herself and honestly believed it had something to do with being inside with the light and going outside into the darkness.  “Like a flash camera,” she said and looked at the sky.  Everything was black, like there was no light at all.  Maybe the sun was missing.  She could not think about that.

            Boston looked at the amulet and gasped.  They were closer than they had been just hours ago.  How could that be, she wondered as she was interrupted.

            “Boston,” Roland found her.  He was smiling at her, but said no more.

            “You should go in and warm up,” Boston said without much thought, her eyes still attracted to the amulet.  “Where are Lincoln and Elder Stow?”

            “You can warm me with a kiss,” Roland suggested.  Now Boston paid attention.  She usually had to initiate that sort of thing.  “Come close,” Roland reached for her.  “It is very cold.”

            Then again, Boston thought, who was she to argue with that idea.  She came in close and his lips touched hers.  Immediately, Boston felt her soul being drawn out of her body.  She struggled, but this Roland was strong.  She cried out in her mind because her mouth could not cry out.  She ripped at the elf ears, but the thing, whatever it was did not seem to feel anything, and Boston was slowly dying.

            The light came again, only this time it filled her eyes.  She began to think it was the light she was supposed to walk into.  There was an unearthly scream, a howl to wake the dead, but Boston had no idea who or what made the sound.  Perhaps it was her.

            Boston fell to the ground, unconscious.

            Lockhart and Katie rushed outside.  The unicorn looked like a white light, a flame of pure white fire, but it backed away to let Katie tend to Boston.  It kept Lockhart’s attention when it deliberately stuck its horn through an opening in a fishing net set out to dry.  Somehow it threw the net over its own back and then added a graven image which adjusted to sit like a rider, though the image never ceased to be clay.

            Roland, Lincoln and Elder Stow ran up, but stopped on sight of the unicorn.  It was only for a momentary pause as the unicorn took off for the ridge behind the village.  It stopped a hundred yards away, turned and pawed twice and stomped its front right hoof hard on the ground before it bounded off again toward the high ground.

            Lockhart got the message.  “Saddle up,” he said.  “Get the villagers together.  We need to make for the high ground.”

            The wind started as Katie stepped up to speak to Lockhart.  “I don’t know if Boston can be moved.”

            “Is she hurt?”  Lockhart started to bend down to look.

            “No,” Katie stopped him.  “She is old.”

            Lockhart spun on his heels.  “Get the villagers!” He yelled, but the others were already doing that.  He stuck his head back in to the old man and his daughters.  “Get your people out and to the high ground.  Hurry!”

            “But Grandfather cannot move quickly,” one daughter said.

            “Then carry him,” Lockhart paused before he exited the shack.  He pointed at the other daughter.  “Good, bring all the blankets you have.”  He went back out.

            Roland had Boston around the middle and was already helping her toward the edge of the village.  The wind was strengthening and they were beginning to hear it in the roar of the sea.  Katie had to shout.

            “Yours and Roland’s horses.  I have mine and Boston’s.  Lincoln has the others,”  That was all she could say as the old man and his daughters headed for the hills.  There was a light up there.  The travelers knew what it was, but all Lockhart could say to the families was, “Head for the light.

            The wind drove off the sea, and started to drive the sea before it.  The horses tails whipped wildly in the wind long before they became wet with spray.

            “I think the sea wind has actually warmed things a bit.”  Katie shouted as loud as she could, but all Lockhart could say was, “What?”

            Waves of water soon began to crash around their feet.  They hustled, but it was slow going in the dark until they heard a sound that made them ignore the danger of the rocks.  It was the Kraken, and it sounded like it was hovering over their shoulder.

            A vine wrapped quickly around Decker’s horse.  They all heard the horse squeal, but Elder Stow was right there, and he never gave back the sonic device.  The Kraken burned, but it looked like this time it was not going to be deterred.  A thousand vines rushed after the first.  They broke the houses of the village, looking for something soft to eat.  They rushed up to the side of the hill, and grabbed two stragglers among the people, stragglers that were already knee deep in sea water.

            Katie saw somehow from the light overhead and jumped.  Lockhart had to grab the reins.  He wanted to call Lincoln, but Lincoln could not bring all six horses alone.  He looked to the Gott-Druk, but he was carefully sliding on the snow back down the hill.  Lockhart felt helpless, and then he could not see well in the dark besides.

            Katie grabbed the first villager by the hand.  It was an old woman, her face was in the water and she was struggling against the pull of the vine.  Katie dove and sliced through the vine with her knife, and then she practically carried the old woman to safety.  All the old woman could do was wave and make sounds toward the sea.  Her son or daughter or old man had been behind her.

            Elder Stow was there and he let the full force of his sonic device rip in what he hoped was the right direction.

            “Come on!”  Katie shouted.  The old man was surely gone.  Elder Stow looked ready to give up when a giant wave crashed over his head and licked the feet of the women.  “Ahh!” Katie voiced her concern, but as the wave receded she saw the Elder still standing on the same spot.  The strength of the Neanderthal was astounding.  “Hurry!”  Katie shouted one more word and turned to force the old woman up the hill.  The wind had turned hurricane wicked.  All the woman kept saying was, “Kamakazi.”  And the water was still rising.

            They heard the Kraken again.  It was moving inland with the rising sea.  Lockhart imagined he could make out a slightly darker mass in the midst of the darkness, but it had to be at least a quarter mile high, much higher than the high ground they stood on.

            A young couple pushed their way to the front.  He held her hand and held her behind him, and looked once at Lockhart.  “Close your eyes,” he told Lockhart and then shouted for everyone that could hear.  “Close your eyes!”

            “Should I?” the young woman asked.

            “Dare not,” the young man answered and gave her a quick peck on the lips.  She looked like that was not enough, like that would never be enough, but lowered her eyes and waited for her young man to act.  He raised his hands and began to glow, and in a moment people backed away from the heat.  Then the light came, all at once, and it lit the whole seashore and for miles out to sea.  For one instant, Lincoln saw the kraken.  He was well behind with the horses turned away in case they needed a quick getaway, and then he had to shut his eyes against the incredible brightness.  He could still hear the creature, though, as it sizzled.  The wind stopped.  The sea began to boil.  And then the darkness returned, and some sense entered Lockhart’s brain.

            “Hey!  You told me to shut my eyes in English!”

            “Hey!  Lockhart.  Allow me to introduce my wife, Ameratsu.”

            “Very pleased to meet you,” the young woman said and bent her knees, head and eyes in a kind of perfect bow that every geisha would attempt to imitate, forever.

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Avalon 2.3:  Angel in the Dark … Next Time

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After 3794BC on the Korean Peninsula.  Kairos, life 23: Kim

Recording…

            “Hey!  Who turned out the lights?”  Boston called out into the dark and against the roaring sound of the sea breaking on the rocks. 

            “Over here,” Roland’s voice rang out.  He could make himself heard against the thunder of wind and waves.

            “Glad it is not raining,” Lincoln said as he and Lockhart came up.  Lincoln retrieved his lantern from his pack.

            “Can’t hardly tell from the sea spray,” Lockhart responded and added, “Where’s the Gott-Druk?”  He went for his own lantern.

            “Here,” Katie shouted and a moment later she appeared, holding tight to the reigns of the Gott-Druk’s horse.  Elder Stow looked as seasick as a man caught in a boat in the storm, but he held tight to the saddle horn and tried to grip with his legs as instructed.  “I caught him just before his panicked horse dove into the drink.”

            “Lucky for him,” Lincoln said.

            “Lucky for Decker’s horse,” Lockhart offered the alternate view.

            “We can’t stay here,” Boston shouted as she coaxed her horse up the rocks from the other side.

            “Inland?”  Roland decided but looked at Lockhart for confirmation.

            “But keep to the shore?” Lockhart suggested and in turn looked at Boston.  She checked the amulet, pointed up the shoreline and it was settled.

            Katie handed the reins for Decker’s horse back to Lincoln and he took up his usual place in the center, the Gott-Druk beside or behind him.  Boston, with her lantern lit, traveled out front with Roland.  Lockhart and Katie with their lanterns brought up the rear.  Lockhart kept watch on the Gott-Druk.  Katie kept looking back as if she could sense something following them in the dark.

            “I don’t like this,” Katie said at last.  “We need to find shelter for the night.”

            “Working on that,” Roland heard with his elf ears and made his voice heard to the back of the troop.  Shortly, his elf eyes spotted a cave in the hillside above sea level.  It was not the best accommodations, not the least because there was no wood around to build a fire, something they all wanted, but it was big enough to get the horses away from the sounds of the storm, and it was shelter in case it did decide to start raining.

            Elder Stow got off his horse and fell to kiss the dirt and rocks.  He bowed and chanted for a good ten minutes before he collapsed and laid out flat.  They left him alone.  They rode hard all day in Cophu’s time and came through the time gate to this forsaken place.  They all remembered when they first started to ride, how painful it was.  They were improved now, or at least toughened up, but poor Elder Stow had to be rubbed raw. 

            Lincoln went first to the back wall to make sure the cave did not continue off into the dark.  He was glad to see it did not.  He did not want his sleep interrupted by some troll or worse.  He just got a comfortable seat in the light and pulled out the database for some reading when Roland came from the back of the cave. 

            “No hidden dwarf or ogre doors I could find,” he said.  “Of course, goblins can be clever so we may never know.”

            “Thanks,” Lincoln said and he tried to concentrate on his reading.  It helped to read it out loud.  “Kim is the Kairos we are looking for.”

            “Kim?”  Lockhart sat by the entrance to put Katie between him and Lincoln.  Elder Stow stayed on Lincoln’s other side next to the elf whom he kept looking at with big eyes.

            “That’s it.  Kim is the only name.  It says he married the sun, whatever that means.”

            “Maybe he was a bright fellow,” Lockhart suggested.  Only Katie nudged his arm.

            “I have some fresh water in my canteen.  At least we can make some bread out of these crackers,” she said.

            “Hardtack,” Lockhart called it.

            “Good elf bread,” Roland defended his people.  “It will sustain you when nothing else will.”

            Lincoln leaned back into a rock.  “This is either Korea or Japan, depending on the time.”

            “Korea,” Lockhart said with enough certainty to get a few stares.  “I can smell the kimchi.” 

            “Not kimchi,” Boston countered.  “I’ve had kimchi.  This smells more like a compost heap.”

            “Chinese food?”  Lincoln made a joke.

            Elder Stow finally touched the elf.  “You are a strange tribe.”  He turned to Lockhart.  “May I have my sonic device?”

            Lockhart looked at Katie.  They spoke without speaking before Lockhart reached into the bag and pulled out three suspects.  Elder Stow pointed and tried to smile when Lockhart handed it over.  The Gott-Druk stood and lifted a stone far bigger than any of the humans could lift.  He set it square in their midst so they sat around it.  Then he adjusted the device and pointed it at the rock.  In a short time, the rock began to glow.  A minute longer and it got positively hot.

            “Warm bread is better than cold,” Boston said, and Katie put the water on to boil.  Elder Stow handed back the sonic device.  Lockhart looked squarely at the Gott-Druk.

            “This could be used as a weapon, couldn’t it?”

            “Easily,” the Gott-Druk looked away.  “But I am much too exhausted to argue.”

            “Argue?”  Katie asked.

            “In Gott-Druk, even fighting is in familial terms.  Argue means fight.”

            “What is that smell!”  Roland looked like he could hardly take it.

            “Rotting seaweed?”  Boston suggested.

            “I’ve been wondering,” Elder Stow said.  “It is making me hungry.”

            Katie screamed, and when Lincoln saw he screamed too.  Vines were creeping into the cave from the sea, not all that fast until they touched Katie’s ankle.  They whipped around her leg like a constricting snake and gave a great tug to drag her out to sea.  Katie had her knife out and cut herself free almost before the others could react.  When the vine snapped they heard a wail from the water and the dark that chilled them all.

            “The horses!” Lincoln yelled.  They were prepared to panic.  He and Boston got in their way and calmed them as well as they could while Lockhart drew his knife and Roland pulled out his sword.  Two more creeping vines were cut and got the same chilling sound from the deep.  Yet for every vine they cut, two seemed to take its place.

            “A Kraken.”  Roland yelled between strikes.  “But they stay in the deep.  It takes a week of stormy darkness to tempt them to the surface.  The sun is death to them.”

            Elder Stow watched, until Roland mentioned the sun.  Then he stood.  “My sonic device.”

            Lockhart still had it in his other hand and gave it to the Gott-Druk without hesitation.  He was otherwise busy.  The Gott-Druk took it and turned it on the vines.  They quickly burst into flame, full of sea water or not.  The sound that got from the Kraken was more like pain rather than shock.  Then he turned it to the sea straight out from the cave and turned the volume all the way up.  Roland held his ears, opened his mouth in a scream, but that scream was overwhelmed by the scream from the creature.  They saw a streak of fire rise from the surface of the sea to several hundred feet in the air.  That quickly shrank as the kraken submerged.  The vines were all withdrawn and Elder Stow stopped firing. 

            “Now I will sleep,” the Elder said, and he lay where he was beside the hot rock and closed his eyes.

            Boston and Lincoln came back.  Lincoln had his foot stepped on by one of the horses, but nothing was broken.  “Katie and I first watch,” Lockhart said.  “Lincoln, you can overlap with me and Roland.  Roland and Boston third watch.  Get some sleep.”

            “What about the sonic device?” Lincoln asked.

            “Leave it with the Elder for now, and pray we don’t need it again.”

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Avalon 2.3:  In the Dark … Next Time

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