Storyteller

Avalon 2.9: Dead and Wounded

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            Bronze.  Four young couples are desperately trying to get the newly discovered bonze weapons home to help liberate their village from the conquering Jaccar, only now they are trapped on a riverbank of the Danube by a hundred Jaccar warriors who want no less that to kill them all.  Little do the Jaccar know, the wagons now sitting idly beyond the reach of the couples are filled with weapons presently more precious than gold … and the travelers are riding right into the middle of it all.

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            Boston was examining the amulet to check their direction when Roland shouted.  She was slow to react and the result was an arrow in her  gut.  She screamed her surprise before she moaned and doubled over in her saddle.  Roland quickly pulled her to the side and out of sight from the incoming arrows.

            The others dismounted rapidly and stared hard off into the forest, except Elder Stow who floated over to where Roland was gingerly helping Boston to the ground.  Captain Decker and Katie fired their rifles at the same time, before Lockhart could pull his revolver and wave them toward the trees.

            “Go,” he said.  “Lincoln, help me get the horses.”  He preferred not to watch Katie head into danger.

            “Hey Lockhart,” Boston called softly.  Her lips hardly moved and her eyes were half shut against the pain.  “Why am I always the lucky one?”  She tried to laugh, but that just made her grit her teeth and squeeze her eyes shut.

            Elder Stow leaned over her with that miraculous piece of equipment he once used on Katie and Lockhart.  As the equipment softly hummed, the arrow pulled itself out from the wound.  Then the wound slowly closed, or most of it anyway. 

            “I am sorry, my Father.  I have nothing that will really heal her.  I am no physician.  I can only hope she will recover and heal the old fashioned way, and she should, barring infection.”

            Roland cradled Boston’s head as he looked first at the Gott-Druk and then at Lockhart while tears came up into his eyes.  At last he lifted his head and howled a word into the air.  “Alexis.”  He called for his sister whose magic was especially healing magic.

            “Alexis.”  Lincoln could not help but add his voice in a call for his wife.  The difference was Lincoln’s voice was a mere human shout of frustration while the elf’s voice carried, who knew how far.

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            Katie put her back to a tree and looked over at Decker who knelt by another tree.  Katie signaled with her hand that there were two just out from Decker’s position.  Decker signaled back that she was facing a third.  The men were bobbing up and down and craning their necks this way and that to see the trail the group had been following through the forest.  They were looking for movement and listening for the sound of horses attempting a quick getaway.  One man even had an arrow ready on his string.  Decker pointed.  Katie called out.  

              “We have no quarrel with you.  Can we talk?”  She did not get to finish her thought as the nearness of their voices caused the three men to abandon their bows, lift their spears, draw their knives and charge, screaming.

            Captain Decker pumped his fist.  Katie and Decker burst out from their hiding places.  A few quick shots and all three men lay dead a few feet away.  It all happened so suddenly, there was no time to think about it.

            “They were determined to try and kill us,” Decker said as he checked the bodies.  “I have no idea why.”

              Katie said nothing.  Elect, Marine lieutenant, impossible situation thousands of years from home all meant nothing.  She did not like the killing.

            Beyond that point, the forest petered out and it was all grasslands to the horizon.  Decker stepped out on to the grass.  Katie followed warily.  There were horses near and Katie thought about what Decker said.  She decided she wanted some clue as to why the men attacked.

            “I wonder if there are others.” Katie asked out loud.  “It may be tribal dress, but those three are dressed the same, almost like a uniform.”

            Decker nodded.  “I’ll have a look see,” he said and sat cross-legged on the grass outside the shadow of the trees.  He put his rifle in his lap, placed his hands on his knees and closed his eyes.

            Katie thought to call the others while she waited with one eye on the surrounding area, just in case.  She looked at her wristwatch and took a moment to remember how it worked.  “Robert?”  She had to wait a minute for a response.

            “Katie?  I forgot we had these wrist communicators.”

            “How is Boston?”

            “Elder Stow got the arrow out and the wound is mostly sealed, but he fears infection from the filthy arrowhead.  He has pretty much ruled out poison, which is a good thing.  Roland is with her.  Lincoln has the horses.”

            “Three here, all dead,” Katie glanced around and something in the back of her mind said there was something about the horses.  “They were all dressed the same, like uniforms even though I know we are way too early in history for such a thing.  Decker is meditating to see if his eagle eye can find more of them.”  Katie heard a sound and caught some movement from the corner of her eye.  “Out here there are grasslands for as far as I can see.  I recommend we move out on to the grasses and away from the forest where we can hardly see around the next tree.”  Her mouth paused as her mind screamed.  There were four horses.  She spun and grabbed the man’s knife hand before he could stab her in the back.  They tussled for a second which startled the horses and sent them scurrying out on to the grass.   The man tried to force the knife, but Katie was stronger.  He tried to punch her, but her foot caught the man first in the belly and sent him staggering back.

            Katie pulled her own knife rather than her gun.  She thought a prisoner might be more useful than another dead man.  He came at her again, and she blocked his copper knife with her American steel.  A few more stabs like that and the copper would snap.  Katie looked into the man’s eyes and wondered what was driving him.  What she saw was wild, bloodshot eyes that did not look entirely in focus.  He caught her look and spoke.

            “Give me the girl with the red hair.  She must die.”

            “What?”  Katie easily countered the man’s next move, and noticed his reactions were not the swiftest.

            “The red hair girl must die.  The Wicca has commanded.”

            Katie stepped up and cut the man’s forearm so he dropped his knife, but he managed to shove her back and retrieved his knife from the ground with his other hand.

            “Who is the Wicca?”

            “She is the great and mighty Wicca.  It is her great desire that the one with the red hair die.”  He charged again, and again Katie easily countered, and got her fist into the man’s face.  He staggered, but he would not fall.  He was sweating like a man with a fever.  He screamed, abandon all sense and ran toward her to tackle her, but there was a gunshot.  He spun once and plummeted to the ground.

            Katie glanced at Decker thinking it was him before Lockhart stepped from the woods.  Lincoln and the horses followed.  Elder Stow and Roland came last with Boston on a stretcher that Roland had hastily constructed.  They did not have to carry the stretcher, however, because Elder Stow rigged up his anti-gravity device to carry it on an even keel over the rough ground.

            “Perhaps if she does not jiggle around so much she may heal faster,” Elder Stow suggested. 

            “Alexis,” Roland was still calling and looking off to the horizon, but now the call was a mere whisper of desperation.

            “Robert, I was trying to take him alive,” Katie complained.

            “Sorry,” Lockhart said.  “But the Kairos, my boss said do not hesitate with anyone who is trying to kill you, and I agree.”

            Katie looked down.  “I suppose I might have had to kill him myself.  I don’t think he would have stopped until he was dead or unconscious, and I imagine it is not as easy to knock someone out as it appears in the movies.”

            “You are right about that,” Lincoln said.

            “A berserker?”  Lockhart saw the look in the man’s face and eyes and wondered

            Katie shook her head.  “Slow to react.  More like he was on drugs and maybe could not help himself.”

            “Enchanted?”  Boston suggested, though her voice sounded weak and far away.

            Katie nodded that time.  “Maybe enchanted.  Maybe enchanted by that Wicca person.”

            The others said nothing for a time.  What could they say?  It was not every day total strangers tried to kill them without any provocation and for no known reason.

            Captain Decker took that moment to stir and everyone came close to hear about what he saw, if anything.

            “Eight young people are trapped against the bank of a big river.  I assume the Kairos is one of them since they have a couple of elves with them.  Three wagons, horses hobbled, but they are surrounded by about a hundred men dressed like these.”

            “Flern.”  Lincoln pulled out the database.  “The Kairos is a she,” he clarified.  “If it is a really big river, it is probably the Danube.”

            Captain Decker nodded and got up on his horse.  The others followed and even Elder Stow got up on Boston’s horse, Honey, and with only a small moan of protest.

 ###

Avalon 2.9  Overstepping Boundaries … Next Time

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Avalon 2.9: The Army of Invention

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

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After 3440 BC in the Ukraine.  Kairos life 29: Flern

Recording…

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            Flern felt cold hands on the back of her neck.  She shrieked and jumped.  Thrud looked up from her cooking and laughed.  Vinnu, who was leaning back comfortably in Big Gunder’s arms while he leaned against a tree hid her smile.  The boys, Gunder and Kiren knew better than to smile at all, much as they might have liked.  Flern frowned, but as she looked up, Kined bent down and kissed her.  That was fine.  She was suddenly not mad anymore.  Flern and Kined had been married for almost a whole month.

            “Where is Vilder?” Kined asked as he grabbed the seat next to his wife.  Flern took his hand and smiled at her own thoughts.

            “He took Pinn past the trees to the little beach on the river,” Kiren said as he patted Thrud’s butt gently to move her over in order to snitch a pinch of the deer to taste test.

            “It’s not done yet,” Thrud protested.

            “Seems we need to throw a bucket of water on those two,” Gunder spoke up while Vinnu squirmed into a more comfortable position in his arms.

            “The river is cold,” Kined suggested, but with a look at Flern he verbalized, “The Danube,” before he finished his thought.  “Maybe we could throw them in.”

            “You’re talking about Vilder and Pinn?”  Vinnu was half-listening as usual.  No one answered her.

            “So where are Riah and Goldenwing?” Kiren asked as he retook his seat to wait for the deer to be done.  Flern said nothing.  She merely looked at Kined, let go of his hand, took his arm and inched up close beside him.  Kined tried to look serious.

            “Let me see.”  He concentrated despite Flern’s attempt to tickle him.

            Thrud spoke an aside to Vinnu.  “Riah and Goldenwing might as well pair off, too.”

            “But we are all married, not just paired off,” Vinnu responded, not quite sure what Thrud was suggesting, but by then Thrud eyed Flern who ignored her friend to focus on her husband.

            “Er!” Kined started to speak but first he had to peal Flern’s free hand off his knee.  “Riah and Goldenwing went out to hunt and scout ahead for when we leave in the morning.  They are – wait.  What?”  Kined jumped up and shoved Flern to the ground in the process.  Flern let out a shout of protest even as an arrow struck Kined in the thigh.  Kiren jumped up and Gunder deposited Vinnu on her rump in the grass as he leapt to help.

            Goldenwing the fairy zoomed up and got big so the others would be protected behind him and his golden armor.  “To the river!” he shouted as a second arrow hit the log Flern and Kined had been using as a seat.  Goldenwing pulled his bow from some invisible pocket, but Riah already had hers out and the elf maid was coming on faster than any human could possibly run.  She let two arrows fly in the span of a single breath and a grass carpet out in the open field began to rise before it fell back to the dirt to never move again.

            “To the woods by the river,” Goldenwing shouted again as he readied his bow and Riah came up huffing and puffing from her run.  She was elf fast, but she was not fairy fast.

            “Kined!”  Flern yelled her concern as Gunder and Kiren helped Kined walk to the river.  She stuck her head up, but there was another arrow.  It fell short, but Flern put her head right back down.  This time Riah and Goldenwing shot together and another grass rug stopped moving.

            “Now.”  Riah nudged Flern with her foot, but everyone paused when they heard the sound of thunder coming on fast.  Flern stood, but someone stood in front of her.  It was Vrya, the Aesgard goddess of love and war. 

            “My son,” Vrya said and touched Flern’s face gently.  “Even when you are my daughter.”  The goddess smiled and another figure appeared.

            “I don’t belong here,” Artemis said.  “I just came to tell you if you have to escape across the river I could maybe help.”

            “I invite you,” Vrya also smiled for the Olympian.  “As my sister among the Amazon, you are welcome to kill as many of these men as you wish.”  And with that word more than a hundred horsemen came into view, in a full charge.  Goldenwing and Riah could only stare in awe as the two goddesses looked at each other before they let loose a virtual rain of arrows on the oncoming horsemen.  It was only moments before those horses turned toward a distant rise they could hide behind.  They abandoned their dead and wounded as they rode for their lives.

            The goddesses stopped firing at once and their bows disappeared as they turned toward Flern.  Vrya slipped one arm around Flern’s shoulder and Artemis slipped her arm over from the other side.  In this way, the goddesses turned Flern toward the river and spoke as they walked.  Goldenwing, fairy small again sat on Riah’s shoulder and they followed.  The cooking fire with the deer still cooking away also followed them to the riverbank.

            “I shouldn’t be here,” Vrya said.

            “I really shouldn’t be here,” Artemis repeated herself with a nod.

            “But maybe if these Jaccar think we are still here, they won’t try another charge.”

            “I can’t speak for the ones in the grass.”  Artemis glanced around.  It was all grasslands apart from the trees that lined the riverbank.  The three wagons that carried the bronze making equipment and bronze weapons that Flern and her friends were trying to get home to liberate their village from these very Jaccar sat idle in the grass.  All of the horses Flern and her crew rode and with which they pulled the wagons also grazed essentially undisturbed by what just happened.

            “Of course,” Vrya spoke again as they stepped behind the trees.  “Since I am not really here, you will have to find your own way out of this mess.”  She kissed Flern on the cheek and vanished.

            Artemis turned to face Flern.  “Sorry about your man getting shot.  Probably another reason why I don’t want one.”  Artemis smiled for Flern like it was some kind of inside joke.  “But seriously, if you decide to cross the river, I will help.”

            Flern looked back across the grass toward the rise that hid the Jaccar.  “It may come to that, but first I have to do everything I can to keep the bronze from falling into Jaccar hands.  They are a terror with stone and copper.  With bronze they would be unstoppable.”

            Artemis merely nodded and planted her own more tentative kiss on Flern’s cheek before she vanished as well.

            Flern paused and looked around.  She was at the bottom of the four foot river bank beneath the trees.  The deer was still cooking at the top of the bank, above her shoulder in a slight clearing among the woods that she never noticed before.  Kined grinned for her though his pain and the others all looked at her, including Vilder and Pinn who had obviously dressed quickly.  Flern frowned again.

            “Okay,” she said.  “How do we get out of this one and keep the bronze out of Jaccar hands?”  That was all she could say before she stepped over to Kined to hug him and cry all over him. 

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Avalon 2.9:  Dead and Wounded … Next Time

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Avalon 2.8: The Journey

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            Serious war, maybe nuclear looks to be on the horizon, hovering disaster over the poor human race, still living with sticks and stones.  The Kairos has to do something, and meanwhile he has to depend on the travelers to get his people to safety, if any place is really safe.  For the travelers, though, their main job is to get safely back to the twenty-first century, and they understand that sometimes it means they have to move on to the next time gate as quickly as possible.  Sometimes sticking around won’t help, it will just get them all killed.

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            There were ninety three people on the journey that originally started somewhere along the coast of Colombia, South America.  Several died along the way, but there were still a number of older people who were not in the best of shape to be making such a journey.  There was not much the travelers could do when the jungle was thick and passage became a matter of cutting a way through, but when they crossed the meadows and open spaces, which was about half of the first day, they let the older ones ride, and then of course all of the children wanted a ride.  Boston and Lincoln did not mind leading the horses so Lockhart and Katie, Roland and Decker could keep their weapons ready.

            They camped that night at the edge of the trees and in the morning they awoke to a thick mist and a slight rain.  It rained on and off the second day and that made everyone cranky and short tempered.  They stopped early and with the help of Roland and Boston, and Maya of course, they got some good fires burning.  But no one really dried off much and that night they all went to bed early and miserable.

            The sun came out on the third morning and Maya said they were getting close to their destination.  She suggested they might arrive by evening if all went well.  Naturally, within an hour they found their way blocked by some thirty men carrying spears and sporting sharp stone knives.

              The men in the traveling group, which numbered about the same as the opposition, grabbed whatever weapons they had and presented a wall against the locals.  It was obvious Otapec’s people had faced this sort of confrontation before in their long journey.  Thus the two groups of warriors stared at each other, spear to spear and eye to eye.  The people were like statues trying to stare each other down when Decker, Lockhart, Katie and Roland stepped between them.  Lincoln and Boston were a bit delayed because of the horses, but Maya was not slow to arrive.

            “No!”  She shouted at everyone, and the men who blocked the path took a few steps back as she revealed a smidgen of her divinity, before one stepped forward and pleaded.

            “But this is our land.”  The man whined. 

            “Enough people have died,” Maya said softly.

            One idiot who might have been inspired by fear, threw a spear at the travelers.  Maya had her screen up so the spear bounced off that invisible wall and fell harmlessly to the ground.  It did not matter.  No one else was watching.  Instead, they had their eyes on Maya and the man who appeared out of nowhere beside her.  Then the man changed into another man and gave the goddess a kiss.

            “Opi,” Maya smiled.

            “Lockhart, you have a visitor.” Otapec said with a sly look over his shoulder.  It was only a moment before a great snout stuck out from the trees.  The dragon spoke, in the Agdaline tongue of course so no one but Otapec, Maya and the travelers understood what the creature said.

            “Mama.  Hurting.”  The other people all took a big step back because it sounded something like a roar to them.

            “Puff,” Katie said.

            “No fire.  No harm.”  Lockhart spoke quickly as Puff crawled up slowly.  The whole lower half of the worm had first and second degree burns, an oddity on a dragon.

            “What is that smell?”  Boston asked.

            “Leakage,” Otapec said as he left that place and Kartesh once again stepped into his world.   “I’m no healer.  Maya.”  Kartesh stepped to the invisible wall and spoke in Agdaline.  “Friend.  Friend.”

            Puff glanced at her through the tear in its eye.  Lockhart reached out to touch Puff’s nose.            “But I have to keep an eye on these hunters,” Maya said.

            “What hunters?”  Decker asked.  The men that had confronted them were presently running all out across the meadow and away from the travelers and their pet dragon.

            Maya caught up in a second and with Kartesh they healed the wound in the dragon’s side while Kartesh explained something about dragon anatomy.  “Their peculiar digestive system produces a mix of gases, mostly hydrogen, that collects in a bladder that runs the whole length of the worm body.  The hydrogen helps them go aloft, like a balloon, but like the old Zeppelins Doctor Mishka is so familiar with, the gas is highly flammable.  They have to expel some now and then to keep from getting bloated.  They have two things, like bones in the throat, that ignites the gas like a cigarette lighter when expelled.”

            “Why don’t they blow up?”  Lincoln asked.

            “A simple flap,” Kartesh answered.  “Not unlike the one you have that lets you breathe into your lungs but swallow into your stomach.  It prevents the flame from riding back into the bladder.”

            “So if they breathe too much fire they might have a hard time getting off the ground.  Boston was thinking.

            “Yes, but for most the sensation of being bloated is worse.  They hibernate when well fed, sometimes for years.  You can imagine how bloated they get and how much they need to expel when they first awake.  That is why it is not wise to wake a sleeping dragon.”

            “There,” Maya said, smiled and stepped back to examine her handiwork.

            “She will still need healing time.  Some of the burns were very severe, but it won’t be so painful.”

            Puff suddenly opened his mouth with all those teeth.  Lockhart snatched his hand back and wondered what on earth he was thinking to get as close as he was, but only a tongue came out and gave Lockhart a warm and wet lick.  Luckily, the kiss was smeared on Maya’s invisible wall which was still up.

            Opi came back and gave Maya a big kiss before he kissed his children and spoke to the travelers.  “Lockhart, I’m sorry.  I imprinted Maya on the dragon’s mind so she will be her Mama now, and my children will be like dragon babies to Puff.  Dragons naturally avoid flaming each other.  Meanwhile, things are just too complicated now.  Maya will bring the people the rest of the way, and by nightfall.  Your way is North, the way those tribesmen went, so keep your eyes open.”

            “Can’t we help?”  Katie asked.  Otapec shook his head.

            “I will be moving instantly south to try and keep the Sevarese and Pendratti from destroying each other in some cataclysmic way.”

            “My people?”  Elder Stow asked as he lifted from the ground to hover in flying position, ready to go. 

            Otapec asked a question in return.  “Are you learning anything?”

            Elder Stow paused to think.  “That human life on this earth is as you say, complicated, and not so easy.  And maybe some respect for my family group, but I would hesitate to say that.”

            Otapec nodded.  “Your people are best kept out of it for as long as possible.  When war erupts and the Pendratti face the Sevarese and Blueblood alliance it gets bad out there for a long time.”

            “But my people recover.”  Elder Stow made a statement, but it sounded like a question.

            Otapec nodded again.  “As do the Elenar and many of the other, lesser people that get involved, but there is silence in space for hundreds of years except for the homeless Agdaline ships moving slower than light with their dragon guardians.”  Otapec drew in his breath slowly like one who hated killing, death and destruction 

            “Mount up,” Lockhart commanded, and everyone complied. 

            “I will be transporting about twenty miles south so you will find the gate much nearer than you might think.  Blessings,” he said as he became someone else and vanished from that place.

            Boston pulled out the amulet and checked.  They would also be at their destination by dark.

            “Good-bye.”  Kuican shouted from his mother’s arms, and everyone said the same and waved.

            “Chac.  Take care of your sister, Ixchel.”  Katie shouted back.

            “I have two sisters now,” Chac shouted, and they understood that Puff would slither along beside them

            “Good-bye Puff,” Lockhart yelled before they moved out of earshot.

            Puff made an unintelligible sound and let out a bit of fire which barely warmed the grass.  It was a pitiful thing, but the dragon would heal.

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            Bronze was the first true wonder material of the ancient world.  Unfortunately for Flern, she had to travel a long way to get some weapons and now needs to travel a long way home.  This gives the Jaccar warriors who have her village enslaved time to find her and stop her.  The travelers just escaped out of one potential conflict only to get embroiled in another.  It is has Lincoln has said.  The Kairos tends to live in the midst of the hurricane. 

Avalon 2.9:  Army of Invention … Monday …  

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Avalon 2.8 Flight

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            So the Pendratti want the travelers for some unknown “experiments,” but there is a Gott-Druk presence on the planet as well, and they don’t appear to be Pendratti friends, especially after they find Elder Stow with the travelers.  Before hostilities can break out, however, a young dragon interrupts everyone.  This suggests there are Agdaline around as well.  It also suggests things are heating up.

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            Once they returned to the elders on the hill who appeared to be unmoved, eyes staring, mouths open exactly as they last saw them, and Otapec praised and hugged his children for being good, and Maya collected Kuican to sit in her lap, Otapec finally got around to the introductions.

            “This is Lincoln, the one who knows more than you can imagine.  He is the one in search of his wife – a trail that is not easy to follow.  Beside him are his friends and fellow travelers.  The one with fire red hair is Mary Riley that everyone calls Boston.  In truth, though, she is the witch, Little Fire.  Her betrothed is the spirit of the earth, Roland.  The Gott-Druk is Elder Stow, pledged to be good in my hearing.”  Otapec paused only a second to stare at the Gott-Druk.  “He is like the others, from the far future and trying to get home.  The one with the yellow hair is Katie.  She is an elect, one in a million, and could have beaten Shushak in a fair fight.”  Maya smiled.  The elders gasped.  They knew who Shushak was.  Otapec turned to Katie.  “Of course, Shushak did not fight fair.  And by the way, if you are tired of the Marines you can come to work for me.”

            Katie smiled.  She knew she had to be invited.  “I would like that.”

            “Of course that means Lockhart will be your boss.”

            Katie paused and looked at Lockhart before she responded.  “I would not mind.”

            Otapec went on.  “Captain Decker you know.  But what you do not know is he is Farsight, the man of the eagle.”  Otapec turned to Lockhart.  “He cannot really see what is ahead, especially through the trees or behind the rocks, but he should have the skies covered.”  Lockhart nodded as Otapec introduced him last.  “And the leader of this migration back to the future is Quetzalcoatl, the man of the feathered serpent.  Note the beard and scruffy look.”

            “Quetzalcoatl?”  Katie asked.

            “Mesoamerican feathered serpent god,” Lincoln explained.

            “I know that.  But Quetzalcoatl?”

            Otapec nodded.  “I just figured that out.  Though he goes away, he will come again.”

            “Clever,” Lockhart said and did not object.  He turned instead to Boston.  “Hey Little Fire.”  He waited.  “Boston.”

            “Sir?”  Boston whipped her head to look.  She was busy holding Roland’s hand.

            “Why don’t you light the bonfire?”

            “Good idea,” Otapec said as he sought a seat next to Maya.  That was not easy to do.  Ixchel had squeezed between her mother and Katie.  Kuican was wiggling in his mother’s lap.  Only Chac was being good, but that was because he wanted to see Boston light the big fire.

            “Just think about it as a done deal,” Roland encouraged, but Boston was a bit miffed by his words.  She was starting to think of herself as beyond the beginner stage, even if not very far beyond.  And perhaps like a growing child, she wanted to do it herself.  She pulled out her wand and focused for a second before one wave of the wand sent a torrent of flame toward the piled wood.  It was enough to singe the end of her own wand.  Chac appropriately said, “Wow!”  Roland had something else to say.

            “I would mention that it helps if you calm your spirit first, but you would probably be mad at me for saying it.”  In the empathy that the little spirits of the earth generally show, he caught her unhappiness with not being allowed to do it herself.

            Boston looked at the elf, her brow furrowed.  But then she lifted herself with her toes and put her lips on his.  Chac appropriately said, “Eww,” and returned to sit with the others.

            That night it was deer and corn, and everyone was happy.  Katie asked if Lockhart named his dragon pet.

            “Puff,” he said.  “I was going to name it Bob but that name is already taken.”  He took Katie’s hand.  Boston and Roland were holding hands as well.

            “Opi,” Maya took Otapec’s hand and placed it to her belly.

            “It’s too early for there to be any movement,” Otapec said.

            “Who said I wanted you to feel the baby?”

            “Hey,” Lincoln interrupted.  He was into the database and ignoring the lovers lest he become morose about his missing wife.  “It says you are taking these people to Veracruz.”

            “That general area,” Otapec said as he slowly took his hand back.  “These Shemsu are the remnants of Qito’s people who fled north the last time the Agdaline were in town.  They will increase in numbers over the next 1500 years, and without much intermarriage with the natives, but by then they will form the foundation of the Olmec culture.”

            Lincoln switched off the database and spoke.  “Fifteen hundred years, maybe, but I can’t imagine they will still be pure blooded in four thousand years.”

            “They won’t,” Otapec admitted.  “But there will be enough to build the pyramids so well known in the Yucatan and Guatemala as well as the stone structures in Mexico.”

            “You mean the Mayan pyramids?”  Boston asked.

            Maya looked at Otapec.  “My own people?”  She looked shocked and thrilled by the idea.

            “Shh!”  Otapec scolded Boston.

            “And the feathered serpent?”  Lockhart asked.

            “Prominent, with Decker’s helmeted marine head.”  Otapec smiled.  Decker did not flinch.  “After all, it was all they could see for five hundred years.”

            “The colossal heads!” Katie shouted her revelation, though she did not intend to shout.

            “Incoming.”  This time Decker and Elder Stow spoke at the same time, and everyone stopped to watch.  Eleven perfect and spherical lights came down below the clouds and wound their way slowly across the horizon.  It was impossible for the people to know how big those ships were, but the travelers had seen them on the ground and knew in the vastness of space, while the Agdaline slept in their cryogenic chambers, they carried dragons who roamed the halls and guarded the sleepers against intruders.

            “They will park near the scout ship, the ship Puff came from,” Otapec said as he slipped his arm around his wife.

            “Pendratti, my people and now Agdaline,” Elder Stow said.  “Looks like things are getting complicated.”

            “Looks like,” Otapec agreed.

###

            In the early morning just before the sun broke above the horizon, Lockhart’s sleep was rudely interrupted by the sound of a siren.  Elder Stow had sensors on the horizon, just in case.  Captain Decker was also up and rousing the travelers.  Opi and Maya were already helping the people get up and ready to flee.  This did not appear to be a visit.  These were one and two man fighter ships.

            Maya must have waved her hand.  The fires all went out and the tents were all packed and ready to go in an eye blink.  Lockhart found himself lying on the dew filled grass.  “I guess I might as well get up,” he said, and he saw the people streaming toward the far woods.

            “Boston,” Lockhart yelled when he caught up.  “A glamour would be nice to make them think they are hitting the target.”

            Boston looked at Roland.  Roland shook his head.  “Even our magic combined could not conjure something like that.”

            “Good idea,” Otapec said as he and Maya ran up.  Maya waved her hand and the camp appeared on the hillside just like it was before dawn.

            “The people images will replay the last hour and react naturally when attacked.  They will run for the woods everywhere except this direction, and some will appear to die when hit.”  She smiled at her own good thinking. Roland and Boston could only stare, mouths open at how easy such a thing was for a goddess.

            The people moved through the jungle, but Lockhart, Decker, Katie and Otapec stayed by the edge to watch.  The fighters were sleek and swift, and they knew how to dive bomb.

            “Not Balok,” Decker said, though he knew the Balok were no more.  “Certainly not Agdaline,” he added.  There were some explosions as the fighters shot some air-to-ground missiles.  They were not content to let their laser-like weapons set the tents and field on fire.

            “What is that?”  Katie pointed.  It was small but coming on fast.

            “Puff,” Lockhart saw.  “No.  Get away from there.”  He raised his voice but he knew the dragon would not hear him.

            Puff fried the first fighter, though he took a laser shot to the middle.  One of the fighters turned and managed another prolonged shot at the tail.  Despite all the fire-proof feathers, Puff clearly felt it.  His back quarter was fried.  He squirmed like a worm caught in the sun, and in this way he collided with the third fighter.  That fighter plummeted to the ground and exploded while Puff rushed off, terribly burnt and bleeding.

            “Will he survive?”  Katie asked.

            “I don’t know.”  Otapec could only shake his head while the last of the fighters shot for home.  “I expected a Pendratti reaction but not this quickly, only –“  He let his voice go silent while he put a hand to his chin.

            “Only what?”  Lockhart asked.

            “Only they were not Pendratti fighters.  They were Sevarese.  That makes four species right here, right now.  If the Elenar and Bluebloods show up we could have a full scale war break out, and that would not be good.”

            “What can we do?”  Katie asked.

            “Help the people reach the Coatzacoalcos River and settle there.  Let Boston and Roland and Decker, you take one side of the migration.  Lockhart, you, Katie and Lincoln take the other.  Tell Elder Stow to monitor the skies, and remind Maya she needs to keep her screen like a dome over the people when you cross open ground.  There are some native tribes between here and there, and while I don’t expect hostilities, you never know.  Some firepower to guard the flanks will be most useful.”

            “What will you be doing?”  Katie asked.

            “I will be trying to send people off planet before a real war breaks out and goes nuclear.”  Suddenly, Otapec was no longer standing there.  It was another lifetime of the Kairos, but they were not sure exactly who as he vanished immediately.

###

Avalon 2.8:  The Journey … Next Time

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Avalon 2.8 Visitors

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            The travelers get Captain Decker back, even if they are still chasing Lincoln’s wife, Alexis, and her father Mingus.  What is more they appeared to have landed in a friendly group of natives.  Ordinary travelers might expect to relax and rest, but they know this is a lifetime of the Kairos where trouble and danger are the norm.  Besides, there are walking and talking reptiles out there, somewhere.

###

            After the awakening, Katie kept one eye on Decker.  The others seemed unconcerned.  They stepped over to Otapec’s fire and told stories and laughed, but Lieutenant Harper felt she needed one eye on her Captain.  He had been out of it for a long time. 

            The man said little after he awoke, but then Decker was a person of few words so that was no surprise.  He saw to his horse, the one that was tied to him by the Kairos – the one he named after Colonel Weber.  Decker was all business with the horse, but Katie imagined if the horse had been a dog it would have licked his face.  After that, Decker hardly paid any attention to Elder Stow, as if having the Gott-Druk around was no big deal.  He also did not appear surprised to hear that Alexis and her father Mingus were missing again.

            “The more things change,” he spoke in clichés and sat by the fire to meditate.  That was the oddest thing of all.  Katie had no idea the hard boiled Navy Seal even knew what meditation was.

            “People.”  Otapec got everyone’s attention.  The elders of the natives and the Shemsu were approaching and it was time for introductions.  To no one’s surprise, the elders all bowed to Maya first of all though she blushed and turned her eyes to her Opi.  Otapec just smiled for her and opened his mouth when Decker finally had something to say.

            “Incoming,” and he added, “The more things change.”  Fortunately, he did not finish that cliché.  He could not as the sound of retro rockets echoed across the field.  A shuttle was coming in for a landing.

            Everyone grabbed their weapons while Maya strictly charged Chac and Ixchel to keep Kuican in the circle of the elders.  When they were ready, Otapec lead the troop down the hill to see the visitors, and he whispered in Maya’s ear as they went.

            “No!”  Maya spoke as if she was shocked to hear what Otapec suggested, but she said no more.

            They had to stand and wait for a while. 

            “System shut down,” Lincoln suggested.

            “Scanning the area for hostiles,” Lockhart offered.

            “Only us,” Decker quipped and gave his rifle the quick once over to be sure it had not been damaged in his five hundred year absence. 

            Finally the hatch of the shuttle came down and six Pendratti came out from the inside.  The four that looked military escorted the two the travelers had met in the jungle.  They young one was still juggling some sort of equipment.  The older gray one was smiling again.

            “And see?”  The gray one spoke.  “Here are exactly the ones we are looking for.  This matter should be resolved easily enough.  Bring them inside.”

            The young one smiled this time and showed all of his sharp teeth while he fiddled with some controls on his equipment.  Lockhart, Lincoln, Katie and Boston all stiffened.  They began to move toward the ramp and Maya reacted.

            “No!”  She shouted and gave a curious look to her husband who stood quietly, arms folded, watching.  The connection with whatever had the travelers in its grasp broke instantly, and the people stopped moving.  Boston and Lincoln backed up a step.

            Elder Stow and Decker had something else in mind, but Decker was quicker.  He put several bullets in that piece of equipment, and fortunately he was a good enough shot not to harm the Pendratti holding it.  The startled Pendratti dropped it and it shattered against the shuttle ramp.  The gray one frowned, but the guards all drew their weapons.  One overreacted or panicked and pulled the trigger.  A blast of some kind struck a screen a few feet in front of the travelers where it was completely stopped.  Maya looked at Opi, again.

            “My husband is so smart,” she said softly before all words were silenced by the roar of a second, smaller shuttle that rocketed to a landing less than a hundred feet from the Pendratti shuttle.  No one was surprised when three Gott-Druk emerged holding tight to weapons of their own.

            Elder Stow stepped forward before the guns started firing and he shouted as loud as he could.  “I said these people are under my protection.”  He looked at the elder Pendratti.  “And the reason I repeat myself is because you seem to have trouble with your hearing.”  That appeared to make the Pendratti elder angry, but the Gott-Druk who saw him and heard him relaxed a little.

            All this while, Otapec stood still and said nothing.  Maya looked at him again and started to ask a question.  “Should I –“

            “Yes.”  Otapec interrupted.  “Keep it right where it is.” Otapec heard something and he knew what kind of creature made such a sound.  Even as Elder Stow threw his hands up and the Pendratti and Gott-Druk sounded ready to get into a great argument, a five foot wide head stuck out from the trees right between the two ships and two arguing parties.  A roar was followed by a burst of flame.

            Both Pendratti and Gott-Druk darted for the safety of their ships.  The fire headed straight for the travelers but was stopped by Maya’s screen which she kept in place as instructed. Still, the travelers all stepped back except for Lockhart who curiously stepped forward.

            “Do no harm!  No Fire!”  Lockhart yelled in the Agdaline language which he dredged up from some back corner of his mind.  “No harm.  No fire.”

            The worm inched out from the trees and Katie remarked, “Why it is still full of feathers like a baby.”

            “Baby,” Lockhart said the word in the Agdaline language and repeated himself once more.  “No fire, baby.  No harm.”  The dragon dropped its chin to the ground and then slowly slithered forward as Otapec finally spoke.

            “This kind doesn’t have much in the way of legs or arms.  It truly is more worm-like.”

            “But aren’t feathers dangerous for fire breathers?”  Katie asked.

            “Not real feathers despite the look and feel.  They are more like asbestos, fire-proof and toxic if taken in large doses, by the way.”

            “But I thought the Agdaline ejected the adults in space before landing.”  Boston looked at Otapec who crossed his arms again as he spoke to her. 

            “They trap one or two in the airlock to release when they set down just in case their reception is not so friendly.”  He stepped up to his wife and kissed the back of her neck.  She wiggled, but was occupied with something.

            The worm reached Lockhart who repeated the word, “Baby.”  He reached out his hand and Maya’s shield gave way at the hand so Lockhart could stroke the dragon’s nose.  The dragon purred, a deep, throbbing sound.  It was not the lyrical song of the babies, but only because this one was larger and more mature.   

            Otapec whispered in Maya’s ear and she spoke.  “Find deer.  Eat deer.” Maya said, and Lincoln looked back toward the horses.

            “I hope it knows what deer is.”

            “Go.”  Lockhart said.  “Fly.”  He looked at Otapec who nodded.  They might not have much in the way of legs and arms, but there was nothing wrong with their wings.  The dragon rose up in a bit of a whirlwind and flew off without looking back.  After that, the Pendratti were the first to leave.  The Gott-Druk followed.

            “Well!”  Captain Decker said as he shouldered his rifle.  “I guess you will all have to tell me what I missed after all.”  He stared for a moment at Elder Stow before he stared more deliberately at Lieutenant Harper.

###

Avalon 2.8 Flight … Next Time

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Avalon 2.8: Revivals

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            The walking and talking reptiles don’t appear to respect any species but their own, but at least the Kairos and his wife are glad to see the travelers.  Otapec claims to have treats and surprises for them as well, whatever they may be.

###

            There was a big bonfire built and ready to light, which suggested the travelers were expected.  Otapec, Maya and their children were separated from the others in the camp by some distance.  Lockhart imagined that was to give the travelers room to set their own tents, but he suspected there was also more to it.

            “We had a strange encounter coming in,” Lincoln spoke as he unsaddled his horse.

            “Pendratti.”  Elder Stow spoke up.  “I have only seen them in paintings and pictures which is why I was slow to recognize them.”  He turned to Katie.  “My apologies, Mother.  I would have claimed to be your protector sooner if I knew.”

            “Pendratti,” Otapec interrupted and laid his hand gently on Decker’s horse.  “And there are Gott-Druk somewhere around here as well, but we will speak of that later.”

            “Opi!”  Maya called.  She stopped to scoop up a four-year-old in a tent door, but otherwise she was bouncing up and down in excitement and anticipation and heading slowly to the big tent set back against some trees.

            “Yes, my love,” Otapec responded as he watched his ten-year old son and seven-year-old daughter run up with a trail of children behind them.  Otapec introduced them.  “Chac, my eldest.   He is the good rain that feeds the crops.  Ixchel, my beautiful daughter is the rainbow that follows the rain.  She takes after her mother.  And the little one struggling in his mother’s arms is Kuican.”

            “What is Kuican?” Boston asked.

            “The wind, I think.  I don’t think he slept until he was three.”

            “Opi,”  Maya called from the big tent.  She was grinning but impatient.

             “Bring the horses.  Maya has invented a special treat.”   Otapec waved to the group and stepped over to join his wife.

            The travelers did not know what to think and more than one member of the group eyed Lockhart who continued to shrug as he brought his horse to the big tent.

            Maya grinned like a school girl when she handed Kuican to Otapec and threw the front flap of the tent straight up.  If she did not exactly say, “Ta Da!” it was near enough.  The odd tent was much bigger on the inside than the outside suggested, and it was absolutely filled with corn.

            “Corn!”  Lincoln and Boston both said the word out loud.

            “Maize,” Maya said with a slight frown at Otapec.  Apparently they discussed it.

            “Just invented?” Katie asked Maya who said nothing but nodded her head, vigorously.

            “Hey, now we can make tortillas,” Lockhart grinned.

            Otapec matched the grin.  “Now we can make whisky.  I remember that one.”

            “What one?” Boston asked as she began to shuck some corn to feed her horse.

            Otapec forced Chac and Ixchel to each take a four-year-old hand and he began to help.

            Maya apologized and waved her hand.  A whole bushel was immediately cleaned and Boston reacted.

            “Wow, that was some magic.”

            Otapec shook his head and Maya just smiled a sparkling smile.  Otapec slipped his arm around his wife’s shoulder and squeezed her from the side.  She giggled before he spoke.  “You do know the horses will still mostly graze.”  He explained to his wife.  “Like human beings, they do best with a varied diet.”

            “Oh,” she nodded and waved for the children to follow their father as she broke free of his embrace and stepped up to Katie.

            “So what is this other surprise?”  Lockhart asked out loud, now that the horses were settled for the moment.  Two horses had in fact already found the nearby stream where they were contentedly slaking their thirst.  Otapec said nothing, but waved for them all to follow, which they did at a leisurely pace.

            “You are an elect,” Maya said first thing when she reached Katie.  Katie wondered how the woman knew.  “I have never met an elect before, except Zoe,” Maya said.  “But she had already been made a goddess by then so that did not count.”

            “You met Zoe?”

            “Oh yes, years ago.  She came by to ask if I would join the Amazon council if needed.  Of course I said I would.”  She glanced at Opi and smiled, and Otapec smiled in return, though he did not see her.  It was like there was an invisible thread connecting the two, so when Maya was happy, Otapec was happy.  Katie glanced back at Lockhart and smiled for him.  He saw and gave her a funky, foolish grin in return, and Maya spoke again.

            “You will have to work on that.”  Katie just nodded, and then was a bit surprised when Maya grabbed her hand and placed it on her belly.  “I would not mind if my daughter was one of the elect.”

            “You’re pregnant?  Number four?”  Maya just nodded.  “You and Opi?  But wait, how many years ago did Zoe visit you?”  Katie stopped walking so Maya stopped to face her

            “Oh, many, many years.”

            “You and Opi?”

            “Yes.  As a fertility goddess it is hard for me to not be pregnant.”

            Katie pulled her hand away slowly.  Then she had a thought.  “But won’t he grow old?”

            Maya shook her head.  “He is old enough to be a respected elder, but young enough to be a wonderful lover.  I will keep him as he is.”

            “For as long as you can,” Katie said.  She knew that even the gods could not prevent the Kairos from dying when it was time for him, or her to be reborn.

            “For as long as I can,” Maya agreed and a few tears came up into her eyes.  When they dropped to the ground, the grass grew a little taller and flowers came up. 

            Katie had a change of heart and gave Maya a big hug and a sisterly kiss.  “Let’s go see what all the commotion is about.”  Maya wiped her eyes, brought her smile back out as well as she could and followed.

            The others were all standing around the sarcophagus, waiting.  Lincoln turned to Katie and shouted.  “Lieutenant Harper, it’s Captain Decker.”

            Otapec was also waiting, but for Maya who stepped right up and took his hands where the sarcophagus was between them.  Otapec smiled for her, and she returned a genuine smile as Otapec went away and Kartesh of the Shemsu came to take his place.  Kartesh squeezed Maya’s hands before she let go.

            “Hello, old friend.”

            “Dear old friend,” Maya responded.

            Lockhart noticed that many of the dark-skinned natives came up and fell to their knees in the face of Kartesh.  “These Shemsu are mine by default,” Kartesh admitted, but her hands were manipulating the Agdaline controls and shutting down the sleep chamber so Decker could be awakened.  The lid popped open and Decker stirred.

            “Damn,” the man said, and “Ouch.”  He had been terribly wounded all those time zones in the past, and cryogenic sleep did nothing to heal him.  Kartesh made him lay as straight as he could in that little Agdaline box and Maya stepped over to stand beside her. 

            “I am not a healer by trade,” Kartesh admitted.

            “Nor am I,” Maya said, but the two goddesses placed their flat hands about eight inches above Decker.  The inside of the sleep chamber began to glow, and then Decker began to glow.

            “No,” Kartesh opened the conversation over Decker’s glowing body.  “You are Opi’s little woman.”

            “And proud of it,” Maya responded with her best grin.  “And that is little fertility woman if you don’t mind.”

            “Not any longer.  It is little Corn Woman now.”

            It did not take long, whatever the women did, and Decker wanted to sit up.  Kartesh gave Maya a kiss on the cheek much as Katie had and vanished to be replaced by Doctor Mishka.  She came complete with her little black doctor’s bag and would not let Decker do more than sit while she examined him.

            “But Doc., I feel fine now.”

            “Sit.  Stay.”  Mishka spoke to him like a dog.  “And that is Colonel Kolchenkov to you, Captain, not Doc.”

            Decker stayed until she finished and put her stethoscope back in her little black bag.  She turned to Maya with a word.  “So when were you going to tell me you were pregnant, and then  she and her little black bag vanished and Otapec finally came back to help Decker stand.  The man was wobbly after his five hundred year sleep, but some food and real rest would do wonders.  Then Otapec stepped up to Maya with a stern look on his face.  Maya looked down at her feet, like the goddess was afraid to look into his mortal, human eyes.  But he just caught her up in an embrace and kissed her like tomorrow might never come. 

            Some “Oooed,” some “Ahhed.”  Some couples looked at each other with unasked questions in their eyes.  Chac turned his head to protest.  “Mom!  Dad!”  Ixchel stared and did not know what to think.  Kuican pulled his hands free of his siblings and reached out with the words, “Me too.”

###

Avalon 2.8  Visitors … Next Time

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Avalon 2.7: The Trenches

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            Looks like war in the camps.  The Djin seems to have taken over the mind and will of the people to play a dangerous and deadly game.  The travelers in the camp have no will to resist, and the ones on the hill who are still in their right minds appear equally helpless.

###

            Boston and the women built a tower on which she could stand.  They made it out of upside-down wagons, a table and a chair.  It slanted a little, but it was not entirely unstable.  Boston felt safe enough to stand up on the chair, and there she watched all around as the sunlight faded into evening darkness, Alexis paced, and the old woman told stories to the gathered children.  Better than television, Boston thought, and then she wondered what television was.

            Even as the last wisps of purple left the sky, Katie came up to check their handiwork.  “We may need some light.”  She shouted up to Boston, though Boston was not that high up.

            “I was thinking that, but I see Lockhart has set some signal fires a little way into the wilderness and pulled his men well within the perimeter.  Lincoln is still setting his.  I would guess Lockhart told him what he was doing and Lincoln is copying the idea.

            “And a good idea it is,” Katie responded.  “I assume you can’t blaze like the sun for very long.”

            Boston was not sure she could blaze like the sun at all, but she said nothing.

###

            Lincoln saw them coming.  He moved all of his hunters with their bows to the front, first.  He briefly wished he had his rifle before he wondered what a rifle was.  That was okay,  they had to wait for the enemy to get close enough.

            “Ready?”  Lincoln moved down his line of archers.  “Remember, just shoot in a straight line.  They are bunched up and you will hit something.  Don’t try to pick a target at this range in the dark.  I don’t want twenty arrows in one person and none in the rest.  Aim.”  Lincoln raised his hand and paused to let the enemy inch closer before he dropped his hand and shouted, “Fire!”

            The volley was withering.  A number of men were struck with arrows and the attacking group quickly gathered their wounded and retreated. 

            Lockhart, a good man in charge of protecting the south ran into the same kind of situation – the enemy attempting to sneak up in the dark.  He dealt with it in a similar way, but this enemy raged after the first volley and attacked.  It took two more volleys to finally drive them off, and certainly some of those men that were down were dead.

            With Lockhart distracted by the attack, a third group took advantage and tried to move on them from the Southeast.  Fortunately, Boston saw from her perch and did not hesitate.  She raised her arms and groaned and shouted.  Katie, who was gifted, Alexis, who had magic of her own, and no doubt the Sybil who looked up, saw the golden power of Boston’s magic rise up into the air like a flare.  At once, Boston threw her hands forward, pointed straight at the sneaky enemy.  The Golden sparkles rushed out over the camp to that place, and the wind followed.  It was a concentrated wind blast of hurricane strength.  It picked up most of the enemy and blew them back in the direction from which they had come.  A few escaped by falling flat to the ground, but then Lockhart was alerted and men came running, so as soon as Boston’s initial blast gave out, the men on their faces jumped up and hastily retreated.

            Everyone paused to catch their breath, and in that brief silence they heard a howl.  It was one with which the travelers were familiar even if the people were not.  The bokarus in ghost form came rushing over the perimeter of the camp and brought Boston’s wind back with it.  People were knocked in every direction.  Tents were torn up by the roots.  Wagons were shaken.  A couple fell apart while several others wheeled off in whatever random direction they were pointed.

            Lockhart and Lincoln held their lines together, as did Katie at the center.  Otherwise, some might have run wild in panic.  “Alexis.  Boston.”  Katie shouted.  This creature, in ghost form, was something which she, for all her gifts could not touch.  The frustration of that ate at her.

            Alexis stomped over to the women and grabbed Star’s bow and one arrow.  She groused, “I am a healer, not a wounder.”  Her magic was much whiter than Boston’s yellow, slightly orange magic and she covered the bow and arrow with a white glow before she handed it back to the hunter.  “Star, shoot it at the bokarus when it flies overhead.  You don’t have to hit it, exactly, but the closer the better.”

            Star waited at the ready, and let the arrow fly with some lead time as a good hunter should.  Alexis had her hands together and her eyes shut tight.  The arrow missed and they thought it was laughter that came from the bokarus; but then Alexis opened her hands and opened her eyes, and the arrow exploded like a bomb on the Fourth of July. 

            The bokarus shrieked.  It felt that.  The women cheered, but then it looked like the arrow just made the bokarus mad.  It headed for the children, and Alexis was afraid some of them were young enough for the bokarus to suck out their life force without having to kill them first.  She looked up at Boston.  So did Katie, Star and the others.  Boston appeared to be staring at her finger.  She did not have a wand.  No one ever told her she needed one.  Her finger would have to do, and when she heard the children scream, she pointed that finger.

            Boston was thinking of Lockhart’s “heat ray” comments.  She did not know what a heat ray was, but she imagined herself as her Amazon name, “Little fire.”  She knew that fire consisted of light and heat, and she felt there was no reason they had to go together.  When the children screamed, a dull red beam of light came from Boston’s finger.  If she had been herself, she might have likened it to a laser beam.  It struck the bokarus in the back and this time the cry of the bokarus sounded painful.  It pulled up from the children, but Boston’s finger followed it.  It began to fly in wild directions, but still she followed.  Her finger fire set a tent aflame as she tracked the bokarus near the ground, but she caught it and stayed with it as often as not.  Finally the bokarus had enough and it streaked out across the camps and vanished in the dark in the distance, Boston hoped never to return.  It had better not.  She was used up.

            Boston sat on the chair to catch her breath.  She did not hear the cheers from the women, but she did hear the Sybil when she ran up as fast as she could.  “Lincoln,” she yelled.  “He is facing the wolfman!”

###

Avalon 2.7:  Changes … Next Time

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Avalon 2.7: Mind Your Matters

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            It looks like the travelers are going to be allowed to see Beltain.  There is a Sybil, a seer in the camp who has said as much.  But then she also talked about a terrible power looming on the horizon.

###

            Lockhart stepped up to Katie and the Sybil.  “I think you better take us to Beltain.”

            The Sybil looked up in surprise and immediately looked again at Katie.

            “He’s the boss,” Katie said, and the Sybil looked very confused for a minute before she seemed to understand something.

            “Of course.”  She spoke as Katie and Boston helped her back to her feet.  “I must remember you come from a very strange world.  This way.”  She started to waddle off.  “But I advise against seeing Beltain right away.  She is very busy right now.”

            When they arrived outside Beltain’s tent, they were met by two women, one maybe eighteen and one that looked closer to eighty.  The eighteen-year-old jumped in front.  “Hi,” she said.  “My name is Asterasine, but everyone calls me Star.”  She shook Boston’s hand and repeated the same phrase for Lockhart as she shook his hand.  Lockhart laughed and looked at Boston. 

            Lincoln at least said, “Nice to meet you.”

            When Star got to Katie, she was smiling and already had her hand out to shake, but the girl stopped still, and after a moment went down on one knee, lowered her head and eyes and said, “Majesty.”

            The Sybil took over.  “Hannah is our wise woman.”  She pointed to the old lady.  “Asterasine is our hunter.  I am as you have named me, the Sybil.  Beltain is our priestess.  All we lacked was a woman of magic, a healer and our Queen to make the Amazon pantheon complete.  And now you have come.”

            “Oh, no –“ Katie started to speak, but Lincoln interrupted.

            “Beltain is the priestess?”

            “What priestess has ever had a greater claim than one who is herself counted among the gods.  Beltain is a holy vessel –“

            This time Lockhart interrupted.  He pushed passed the women and into the tent.  The others followed and everyone froze.  Beltain was naked and giggling.  A naked man was on top of her and moaning.  And the two appeared to be having a wonderful time.  Everyone turned around, but not before the picture was indelibly etched into their minds.

            They heard Beltain speak.  “Damn it. Grogan get off.  We have company.”  There was the sound of shuffling and cloth being tossed here and there before Beltain spoke again.  “Okay.”  They turned again to face her.  “Sorry ladies, you especially Boston.  Lincoln, close your mouth.  Lockhart, how the Hell are you?”

            “Holy vessel?”  Lincoln whispered.

            “I see you have met Star, Hannah and Anath-Isis.”

            “The Sybil?”  Boston asked.

            Beltain nodded while she tugged on her dress.  She was a short, plump woman, not fat like the Sybil but leaning in that direction.  She had long, light brown hair with a few streaks of gray which she took a moment to put up while she eyed them all through very ordinary brown eyes.  In every way she appeared unremarkable, so much so that Lockhart was prompted to ask.

            “How is it you managed to be the one to lead all these thousands on this migration?  I assume this is a migration.”

            “Right,” Beltain said once her hair was in place.  “The Sahara, Arabia, and even Caana are suffering through a dry spell, like for the last thousand years.”  Beltain rolled her eyes.  “The last ten years have been especially bad in Caana.  Blame man-made global warming.”  Beltain smiled, and it was an inviting smile.  “You know, Anenki built some nice permanent settlements around the Tigris and Euphrates in the east.  Then Cophu finally showed up with his Shemsu people.  They turned those settlements into cities, massive stone walls and everything.  Now we, and hundreds of other migrations are going to fill the places up.  My own people call it the land of green and plenty, but most call it Sumer.”

            “Sumer?”  Katie had to ask.

            “The Ubaidian way of saying Shemsu.  Some of the originals still call the land Ubaidai, but even most of them now call it Sumeria.”

            “Wow!”  Lincoln mouthed the word before Katie could.

            “But you –“ Lockhart started to bring them back to his question, but Beltain waved at him to quiet him.

            “So there are cities in Caana, like from Byblos to Sodom.  You have been to the biggest, Jericho.  But they are in no better shape than the countryside.  It was Astarte that first contacted me.  The gods want the migration.  Enlil and Enki want to see the cities in the east fill up.  They are anxious to see real wars start.  I told them that was stupid, but you know how boys can be.”

            “Enki with his glasses.  He did not seem like the warrior type,” Boston said.

            “Yeah, well, I made him the glasses to see but I have no control over what he sees,” Beltain threw her hands to the side like she was washing her hands of the whole thing.  “So anyway, we are not the only groups migrating.  Some went ahead of us.  Many more will follow us over the next hundred years or so.”

            “But you in charge?”  Lockhart would not let go.

            “Easy,” Beltain responded.  “We travel a day and stop for three or four before we travel another day.  When we stop, my little ones bring what they cull from the herds which we then divide between all the groups.  You know, people will follow anyone who feeds them.”

            Lockhart nodded, but Lincoln thought to say something to the man who was standing by, silent.  “Grogan, is it?  Sorry to interrupt you and your wife.”

            Grogan smiled, but Beltain laughed out loud.  “Grogan is not my husband.  I mean, my husband is probably around here somewhere screwing some young tart.  We don’t have that kind of a marriage.” 

            “Oh.”

            “Grogan was third in line.”

            “Oh!”

            “Forget it,” Beltain said with a final grin at Grogan.  “Oktapi should be here soon.  I suppose we should go out to greet him.”

            As they stepped outside, the Sybil nudged Lincoln.  “What priestess has more direct access to such things as Beltain.”

            “I suppose,” Beltain heard and responded.  “But there is nothing more natural in this time and culture than having a priest and priestess in the ruling position.”

            “How about an Amazon Queen?”  Katie whispered to Beltain as they went outside.

            “Oh yes, sorry.”  She turned just outside the door of her tent and spoke to everyone.  “Listen up.  Katie is an elect, and Boston, I suppose, is a woman of magic, but Zoe says they are on special assignment.  Hannah, Star and Anath, they are not the ones you are looking for.  Just wanted to be clear about that.  Beltain turned again and whispered to Katie.  “And I can hardly be my own priestess.”

            “Exactly,” Katie responded in the same soft tones.  “You are Zoe, or at least you were.”

            “Exactly,” Beltain echoed.  “Right now I am not Zoe, I am Beltain, and while I would not mind loving Artemis, Vrya, Astarte and the others, being Zoe’s high priestess would be too weird even for me.  What is that noise?”

            Beltain asked the last because there was a shrill sound in the air that was growing louder by the second.  It sounded at first like the screech of the bokarus, but this was much, much bigger.  People covered their ears, and still the sound grew until no one could think straight.

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Avalon 2.7:  Mindless … Next Time

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Avalon 2.7: The Way of the Migrants

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            Precautions are good, but to be sure, as wary as the gnomes are of these strange horse riding travelers, so the travelers are of the many tribal campsites scattered across the grassland.  They want to find the Kairos, but are careful to enter that mass of humanity armed, just in case.

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            The first camp the travelers came to had an old man waiting for them.  They had been seen, though they did nothing to hide.  As they marched down the hill, they took a good look around at what they could see of the camp and were surprised and not surprised.  The camp was full of people in many family groups to be sure, but also full of animals.  There were oxen with the wagons which looked full of grain, sheep and plenty of goats running around in small groups, birds in wooden cages that might one day be called pigeons and chickens and a few strange looking cows in the midst of the domesticated donkeys.  There were also children everywhere which were also running around in small groups.  It looked like sheer chaos, but the travelers imagined there was some sense to it.

            “I can see the way they came,” Katie said and pointed to the distance before they got too far down the hill.  There was a wide swath of the grassland that had been crushed and torn and eaten by the animals all along the way.

            “Hamites,” Lincoln pointed in another direction to where a different camp appeared to be filled with black Africans.

            Katie whipped her head around to look and Lockhart could not resist a comment.  “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

            “My doctorate was in ancient cultures and technologies.  Walking into one of these early, massive migrations is a bit like walking into a candy shop.”

            “Just don’t let it distract you,” Boston said.  She had on her determined face.

            “Ah, the other Doctor heard from,” Lincoln mumbled.

            Boston let her frown come to her face.  “My doctorate in engineering, specifically electrical engineering is not going to be much help here.  When we get back, I might want a better look at Elder Stow’s screen maker, but for now I am focusing on my redneck.”

            “Massachusetts redneck.”  Lockhart pointed out.

            “Hey, we have rednecks in Massachusetts too, and rodeos.”

            “You know the last words of the redneck just before he committed accidental suicide?”  Lockhart asked.

            “What?”  Boston looked at the man, her frown still showed.

            “Hey!  Watch this!”

            Katie and Lincoln found it funny, but then they arrived where the old man was waiting, leaning heavily on his staff.  Several younger men also began to gather from the other side, and they carried spears and at least one had a copper knife.

            “Arameans?”  Lockhart said the word like a question.

            The old man turned his head so they could not see his face, but the young men behind saw.  He turned back and began to point toward various other camps as he spoke.  “Jakonites, Amorites, Sabateans,”  He was listing the nearby camps like he was thinking about it and maybe not sure where the Arameans were, or even if they existed.

            “Beltain.”  Katie cut him off.

            The old man looked at her before he lowered his eyes and waved his hand behind him.  The young men that gathered began to go back to whatever they had been doing, and the old man lifted his eyes and pointed near and then pointed further as if to suggest the Aramean camp was two camps away. 

            “Beltain sleeps in the distance and watches over us all.”  The old man said and turned and walked away.  The travelers walked around the outskirts of the camp to avoid any incidents.  They skirted the next camp over as well, though there were plenty of armed young men who watched them.  When they arrived at what they hoped was Beltain’s people, they stepped just inside the camp perimeter where Lockhart made them stop and wait.

            A young man as big as Lockhart came rushing up, with several other young men who hustled up behind.  Older men, women and children also appeared to stop what they were doing to watch.

            “Beltain?”  Lockhart tried again.

            “You have not been called to see her,” the young man growled.  The threat in his voice was clear.  “This is not your place.  Go back to your own kind.”

            “We need to see Beltain,” Lockhart was not put off.  “We are old friends and only wish to say hello.”

            “No one calls the lady.  She calls you as she pleases.”

            An older man stepped up next to the big man and spoke.  “The game is not plentiful in this area, but you will get your fair share with the rest.”

            “Now, go.”  The big man spoke again.  “Or I will be forced to make you go.”

            “Boston.”  Katie moved quickly.  She handed Boston her rifle and tied down the pistol at her side.  She stepped forward, but Lockhart grabbed her arm to stop her.  Katie spoke in English so the locals would not understand.  “Look, if he beats me it is no shame since he only beat a woman.  But if I beat him, we may get to see Beltain without anyone getting killed.”

            “I can live with that,” Boston said and stepped in front of Lockhart so he could not interfere.

            “Besides,” Katie finished her thought as she extracted her arm.  “Being one of the elect has to count for something.”  She turned to the big man who was watching the exchange with a dumb expression worthy of an ogre.  Katie returned to speaking the local tongue.  “So make me leave,” she said.  “If you can, we will all leave in peace.  If you cannot, you will take us to Beltain.”  She put her hands to her hips and waited. 

            The man thought for a moment before he jumped, his fist hooked through the air in what he imagined was a sucker punch.  Katie easily leaned back, caught the man’s arm and shoved, and added only her left foot to the man’s rump at the last.  The man flew several feet and landed on his face.  The young men started to shout, but it was like teenagers shouting “Fight!  Fight!”  They made no move to interfere.

            The big man got up, roared and rushed at Katie with both hands outstretched.  Katie started to roll to her back. The big man’s arms went over her head as she grabbed the man’s tunic.  She threw her foot into the man’s crotch, and when she reached her back she threw the man over her head.  Again, he flew several feet,, but this time he landed with a thump and a cloud of dust on his back.  He did not get up as quickly this time.

            When he did, he saw Katie standing again, unfazed, with her hands again on her hips, waiting.  The man was wary.  He moved just out of reach to her side so she had to turn to continue to face him.  When the man made nearly a complete circle, he stepped in and jabbed with his left hand while his right came from below in an uppercut.

            Katie avoided the jab and caught the man’s uppercut in her hand.  That completely stopped the man in mid punch, and since he was not pulling his punches, he had to have strained his muscles badly.  But clearly she was the stronger, and as she squeezed the man’s hand he moaned and went to his knees.  She easily punched him on the jaw with her free hand as she let go of his hand and he fell to the dirt too dizzy to get up again. 

            That was when a fat, middle-aged woman came barreling in, yelling at everyone to get back.   The people all complied and the travelers wondered if this could be Beltain.  That illusion was dispelled when the woman went to her knees in front of Katie.

            “Elect,” the woman said.

            Katie hesitated and put her hand out to the woman as if sensing something.  “Sybil,” she said at last.  “Please stand up.  I am no Amazon Queen.”

            “But you are,” the Sybil insisted.  “Though you have no tribe except the child of magic, you are.  Zoe herself has spoken.”  The woman drew in her breath.  “You have seen Zoe.  You have been with her.”  The woman began to cry, but the travelers knew they were tears of surprise, amazement and joy at the sight of Katie and Zoe together.

            “But why were you so late in coming?”  Boston stepped up.

            “It is the terrible power that is coming to fall upon us all.  It has been that I can hardly see anything else.”

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Avalon 2.7:  Mind Your Matters … Next Time

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Avalon 2.7: Horses first

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            Gnomes in ancient times were not the garden variety.  They tended the vast herds of many breeds that roamed the ancient grasslands, worldwide.  And they would have set the traveler’s horses free if they were not gifts of the Kairos.  So maybe they will watch the travelers and see exactly what kinds of friends of the Kairos they really are.

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            By the time the travelers arrived, the thousands of people migrating east were settling down for the night in a number of clearly separated camps.  “Different tribal groups,” Katie suggested.  Lockhart simply nodded and thought it was wise to keep their camp separate as well.  They backed up a hill about a quarter mile to pitch their tents.

            “Especially for the sake of the horses,” he said.  “Some of these people might see the horse flesh as an easy supper.”

            “I was thinking the same,” Elder Stow spoke up.  “But I may have a solution.”  He handed everyone a small disc taken from a little pack on his belt.  He gave Lockhart and Katie three extra discs with the word, “For the Kairos and whomever she might want to bring.”  Then he set the main device from that little pouch in the center of the camp and turned it on.  It showed by a little red light that it was activated.  “A simple screen will isolate this area.  The horses will not be able to wander off and no person without a disc will be able to enter in.”

            “Like a dome of force?”  Boston asked.  “How big?”

            “A sphere,” Elder Stow said.  “On some planets things come from below.  But above the surface, for practical purposes, it will be like a dome.  I have set it to short of a quarter mile, and that will give the horses plenty of grazing room without endangering them.”

            “Electric fence.”  Lincoln nodded.  “Like for dogs.”

            “But two-way,” Boston said.  “Also keeping things out.”

            “What of our supper?”  Roland asked, and Elder Stow gave a second disc to Roland.

            “To tag the meat if necessary.  Plants and dead animals will not be a problem, and to be honest, I don’t know how the screen will affect your kind.  You, and those like the gnomes may be able to pass in and out without trouble.”

            Roland spoke honestly enough.  “In this life and in this world we have physical form just like humans.  Magic might make a temporary hole in your screen easily enough but it would require magic.  The disc simplifies things.”

            “The magic works easily enough.”  They all heard the voice and looked every way for the speaker.  “Even the little witch might manage it.”  A gnome appeared in their midst and introduced himself.  “Oktapi has decided to keep an eye on you for a time to better judge your intentions and see to your horses.  My name is Gnumma.”  Gnumma sat on the grass, and might have disappeared altogether if his wheat colored hair and beard did not have some gray in it.  “I have dealt with creatures of mud and blood before, so I was chosen to watch.  I felt your concern to keep the horses safe and that encouraged me to show myself.  Also, I brought this lame one to sustain you.”  He looked at Roland.  “No need to hunt,” he said.  “You will forgive me if I do not watch you butcher it.”

            “Mud and blood?”  Boston asked.

            “We are dust, and to dust we will return,” Lincoln answered.  “And the life is in the blood.”

            Boston looked at Roland, but he shook his head.  “Even we who are the littlest spirits of the earth are spiritual creatures.  The bodies we wear, though completely real, are more like clothing than an essential part of our nature.”

            “And can you change your clothing?”  Boston wondered.

            “No.  Yes.  Maybe.  It is very hard to do and a glamour is easy and works as well.  Some lesser spirits and certainly the greater spirits can change their form easily enough.  Of course, the gods can appear any way they choose, but all of them tend to find an agreeable form and settle in.”

            “They all have a natural form given at their making and that is the form to which they return time and again.”  Gnumma nodded.

            Lockhart also nodded and determined this gnome posed no threat.  “Horses first,” he said, and the group got busy setting the horses free to graze while the sun was still up.  The tents went up after that, and the fire got built, such as they could.  There was not much wood.  There was no wooded areas in sight and even the bushes, though some were big and thick, were not numerous.  Fortunately, there were acceptable rocks around and Elder Stow was able to use his sonic device to heat a big one to cooking temperature.

            “Forgive me,” Roland apologized to the gnome who nodded his forgiveness before Roland went to kill and cut up the poor donkey with the broken leg.

            Gnumma looked up at Lockhart who was cradling his shotgun.  “I have had dealings with your kind before, and once it was agreeable.  After all, as I told my chief, our goddess in this life is a mortal female.”

            “And it is time for us to find her,” Lockhart told the gnome.  “Roland, you and Elder Stow need to stay here and fix supper.  Stow, I will see if there are any fruits and vegetables among the migrants.”

            Elder Stow gave Lockhart a funny look, like he was continually surprised by these humans.  “Thank you,” he said.

            Katie and Lincoln walked up with their rifles ready.  Boston shouted.  “Wait a minute!”  She jumped up, took a brief look at Roland, eyed the Gott-Druk and the gnome and came to a decision.  “I’m coming.”  She ran to fetch her belt which she put together in the last time zone where there was a war going on.  She had her Beretta on one hip and her big hunting knife on her other hip.  She made her fairy weave running shoes into something more like Katie’s army boots.  She left her shorts alone since it was so hot and Katie was still in shorts, but she made her T-top a bit larger so as not to show her shape quite so well.  When she ran back out of the tent, she found the others patiently waiting, but they turned when they saw her and started toward the nearest camp.

            Lincoln had the database out when they came to a place where they could look down on the camps.  “Aramean,” he said to identify Beltain’s tribe.  Then he put the database away to get a good grip on his rifle, just in case.

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Avalon 2.7:  The Way of the Migrants … Next Time

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