Avalon, season 9 ready to buy

November 25, 2025October 22, 2025M G Kizzia Leave a comment

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Avalon, Season Nine: Introduction

The travelers came to Avalon in the Second Heavens to be transported instantly through the Heart of Time to the beginning of history. They went on a rescue mission, but things did not go as planned. The Kairos—the Storyteller had to jump into the void before history to become lost in eternity. Now, in order to get home, the travelers must return the slow way. They follow the Amulet of Avalon that points the way from one time gate to the next, and cross dangerous time zones that center around the many lives of the Kairos, the Traveler in time, the Watcher over history, a person who never lives a quiet life.

They have unlimited vitamins and elf crackers for their health; and unlimited bullets, which are needed far too often. They ride mustangs brought back from the old west, and wear fairy weave clothing that they can shape and change with a word in order to blend into the local culture. By a special gift of the Kairos, they can understand and be understood no matter the local language. Inevitably, they have to deal with thieves and brigands, armies and empires, gods and monsters, spirits and creatures, space aliens and the great unknown. They try hard not to disturb history along the way. That is not easy.

To be sure, all they want is to get home in one piece, but they are not the only ones lost in time. Some people lost in time might want to follow them, or even go with them. But some people are not so friendly, and not everything lost in time is a person. Some want to fight the travelers. Some want to hunt them.

~~~*~~~

Season Nine brings the travelers into modern times and to home in the twenty-first century. They travel through the renaissance and the reformation, the age of enlightenment and exploration, the industrial and other revolutions. They just want to get home, but the Masters seem to be everywhere trying to send the human race off course and destroy the future. If the Masters can turn humanity to despair, and make the human race desperate enough for safety, security, and solutions, then with kind words and empty promises the Masters can take over. That would ruin and destroy all people—a fate worse than slavery.

CAST

Robert Lockhart, a former police officer, is now the assistant director of the Men in Black. He was in charge of the rescue mission that left from 2010 and traveled through the Heart of Time to the beginning of history. Something went wrong. The Kairos, the Storyteller had to jump into the void before history began in order to save their charge. Now, everything on Avalon is out of sync, and the travelers are forced to return to the future through the time gates and across the dangerous time zones that surround the many lives of the Kairos. Lockhart is now charged with leading this expedition through time, though he has no idea how he is going to get everyone home alive.

Major Katherine Harper-Lockhart (Katie), a marine and an elect—a one-in-a-million warrior woman, whose doctorate is in ancient and medieval cultures and technologies. She is torn between her duty to the marines and her desire to be part of this larger universe she is discovering, though since she married Robert, her path seems set. She carries the prototype amulet first used to travel the time zones.

Benjamin Lincoln, a former C. I. A. office geek who keeps the database and a record of their journey. He tends to worry and is not the bravest soul, but sometimes that is an asset. His wife, Alexis, was kidnapped by her own father Mingus and dragged back to the beginning of history. This prompted the rescue mission which got everyone stuck in the past with the time gates in the time zones as the only option to get home—the long way around, as they say.

Elder Stow, a space traveling, technologically advanced Gott-Druk (Neanderthal) from the future who got thrown back into the past. He is forced, at first, to make a truce with these ‘humans’ to join them in their journey. He has since adjusted to the idea, and believes it is his only chance to get back to the future. His technological toys, as he calls them, have come in handy.

Sukki, a Gott-Druk from the before time who got taken off planet to a new world at the time of the flood. She joined a small group determined to return to Earth. She is the sole survivor. The travelers take her with them, knowing she cannot survive alone in the past, and she is learning that these travelers are now her new family. Though adopted by Elder Stow, she begged the Kairos to be made human, like the rest of her family. The goddesses who did that got a bit carried away and left her empowered like a superhero.

Lieutenant Colonel Decker A navy seal trained marine special operations officer. He will do all he can to keep everyone alive, even if it means shooting his way back to the twenty-first century. He is a skeptic who does not believe half of what they experience. An African American, he got gifted in the deep past by his eagle totem and can see beyond normal vision.

Nanette Jones Decker A student from 1905. She is an African American who once worked as Professor Fleming’s Administrative Assistant. She only willingly left the professor back in the time of Julius Caesar when the professor got diagnosed with cancer and insisted. She has magic, rooted in telekinesis, when the Other Earth phases in and leaks magic energy into our universe. A brilliant woman, she fell in love with Colonel Decker, thanks to Aphrodite and the Colonel had no power to resist the goddess.

Tony (Anthony) Carter A graduate student in Antiquities in Latin and Greek. He also got pulled into the past from 1905 and lived seven years with Professor Fleming and a few classmates in the days of Julius Caesar. He joined the travelers because it seemed his only chance to get back home. He has since learned that he will likely get home in time for World War One. Something to look forward to.

Plus, as always,

The Kairos. But that is a different person in each time zone.

************************

Tomorrow

Preview of December posts and on.

Avalon, season 8 ready to buy

November 12, 2025October 17, 2025M G Kizzia Leave a comment

***To buy this book Click Here

Avalon: Season 8 Introduction

The travelers came to Avalon in the Second Heavens to be transported instantly through the Heart of Time to the beginning of history. They went on a rescue mission, but things did not go as planned. The Kairos—the Storyteller, had to jump into the void before history and became lost in eternity. Now, to get home, the travelers must return the slow way, following the Amulet of Avalon that points the way from one time gate to the next. They cross dangerous time zones that center around the many lives of the Kairos, the Traveler in time, the Watcher over history, a person who never lives a quiet life.

They have unlimited vitamins and elf crackers for their health and unlimited bullets which are needed far too often. They ride mustangs brought back from the old west and wear fairy weave clothing that they can shape and change with a word in order to blend into the local culture. By a special gift of the Kairos, they can understand and be understood no matter the local language. Inevitably, they have to deal with thieves, brigands, armies and empires, gods and monsters, spirits and creatures, space aliens and the great unknown. They try hard not to disturb history along the way. That is not so easy.

To be sure, all they want is to get home in one piece, but they are not the only ones lost in time. Some people lost in time might want to follow them, or even go with them. Other people are not so friendly, and not everything lost in time is a person. Some want to fight the travelers. Some want to hunt them.

~~~*~~~

Season Eight brings the travelers into the common era where they find the Masters are actively trying to change history to come out to their liking. At the same time, it is a difficult time in the heavens where several wars in space spill over on to the Earth. The travelers have to defend the Earth before the space aliens break out in a nuclear war or worse. Aliens are at least something the Men in Black understand. Whether or not they can keep the Earth from being destroyed is the question.

CAST

Robert Lockhart is a former police officer, now assistant director of the Men in Black. He commanded the rescue mission that left from 2010 and went from Avalon, through the Heart of Time, to the beginning of history. He is now charged with leading this expedition through time, though he has no idea how he is going to get everyone home alive. They have already lost Doctor Procter their guide, Mingus the kidnapper, and Mingus’ son Roland.

Major Katherine Harper-Lockhart (Katie) is a marine and an elect—a one-in-a-million warrior woman, with a doctorate is in ancient and medieval cultures and technologies. She is torn between her duty to the marines and her desire to be part of this larger universe she is discovering, though since she married Robert, her path seems set. She carries the prototype amulet once used to kidnap Alexis.

Boston (Mary Riley) is a Massachusetts redneck hunter, rodeo rider, and technological genius who finished her PhD in electrical engineering at age 23. She carries the Amulet of Avalon, a sophisticated combination electronic GPS and magical device that shows the way from one time gate to the next. She became an elf to marry Roland; but now Roland has disappeared, and may be dead, though she insists the Kairos managed to grab him at the last minute and brought him back into the future.

Benjamin Lincoln is a former C. I. A. office geek who keeps the database and a record of their journey. He tends to worry and is not the bravest soul, but sometimes that is an asset. His wife, Alexis, was kidnapped by her own father Mingus and dragged back to the beginning of history. This prompted the rescue mission which got everyone stuck in the past with the time gates in the time zones as the only option to get home—the long way around, as they say.

Alexis Lincoln was an elf, Roland’s sister, who became human to marry Benjamin. She retained her healing magic when she became human, but magic has its limits. It could not make her father happy with her choices. She was the one who got kidnapped and dragged into the deep past where she needed to be rescued. Unfortunately, the Kairos had to surrender his life to the void so she could return from the void. Now they are headed home the only way they can.

Elder Stow is a space traveling, technologically advanced Gott-Druk (Neanderthal) from the future who got thrown back into the past. He is forced, at first, to make a truce with these ‘humans’ to join them in their journey. He has since adjusted to the idea, and believes it is his only chance to get back to the future. He carries highly advanced technological devices that he calls trinkets such as a ship’s officer might carry. They do come in handy.

Sukki was a Gott-Druk (Neanderthal) from the before time. She was taken off planet to a new world at the time of the flood. She joined a small group determined to return to Earth. She is the sole survivor after thousands of years in cryogenic sleep. The travelers take her with them, knowing she cannot survive in the past. She prevailed upon the Kairos to make her fully human (Homo Sapiens) so she can fit in with her new human family but the goddesses who did the deed got a bit carried away and empowered her almost like a demigod

Colonel Decker is a trained navy seal, a marine special operations officer who will do all he can to keep everyone alive, even if it means shooting his way back to the twenty-first century. He is a skeptic who does not believe half of what they experience. An African American, he got gifted in the deep past by his eagle totem and can see beyond normal vision. He also got threatened by Aphrodite when she promised to find him a wife. At least he took it as a threat.

Nanette Jones got pulled into the past from 1905. An African American, she worked as Professor Fleming’s Administrative Assistant. She only willingly left the professor to go with the travelers when the professor got diagnosed with cancer. She has magic, rooted in telekinesis, when the Other Earth phases in and leaks magic energy into our universe. A brilliant woman, she is in love with Colonel Decker, thanks to Aphrodite. The Colonel, however, is resisting He was married once before and, as he sees it, he is reluctant to make that same mistake twice.

Tony (Anthony) Carter was Professor Fleming’s graduate student in Antiquities in Latin and Greek. Also from 1905, he lived for seven years with the professor, Nanette, and a few other classmates in the days of Julius Caesar. He joined the travelers because it seemed his only chance to get back home. No one has spelled it out that he will likely get home in time for World War One, but he suspects. And the fact that there will be a World War Two some years later does not surprise him.

Plus, as always,

The Kairos. But that is a different person in each time zone.

************************

MONDAY

The final episode of season one brings the Travelers to European Russia where there are horses… and night creatures, ghouls, a host of Gott-Druk, and Loki (who has an army). Until Monday, Happy Reading

Avalon 1.4 Sticks and Stones part 5 of 6

September 9, 2025July 27, 2025M G Kizzia Leave a comment

“Boston?” That left the three fighters.

“Ready!” The word echoed in the stick ship.

“Zero in on a fighter,” Saphira said, but Katie had already done that.

“Now.” Katie spoke into her wrist communicator, and Boston sent out a plasma pulse. The Balok fighter disintegrated in a crimson ball of fire. Immediately, the two remaining Balok fighters began to move around to avoid being targeted, but Katie and Boston got a second one before the last one dipped below the radar.

Saphira grabbed Katie’s hand and spoke into the wrist communicator. “Lockhart. One fighter landed. Meet us at the front door.”

“Already there,” Lockhart responded. They vacated the stick ship for the firm ground, and a few of the stick people followed them.

The stick leader looked sick. He bobbed up and down a couple of times before he spoke. “You are mad, like the Balok. We did our very best to escape them, but since they found us, it would have been better if we had died than participate in their madness.”

No one knew what to say until Alexis stepped up. “You have the right to live in peace.”

“We have no right to take life,” the leader said, and with that he moved his people away from the travelers.

“I guess we screwed up,” Lincoln said, even as Saphira, Katie and Boston came huffing and puffing down the ramp.

“All right,” Saphira said. “We need to find that ship.”

“They would rather die than be part of the killing.” Alexis summed things up and pointed to the stick people who were keeping their distance. Saphira looked, but she had an alternative view and said so in her own tongue.

“We are protecting my people. We are protecting the human race, even if I am sorry the stick people got in the middle of it. We won’t survive if the Balok come here.” That seemed to satisfy the group. “Now, I want to split us up. Despite the F-whatever-number, single man fighters that are current with your military; most space fighters have two or three occupants. There are too many systems to keep track of. Decker and Roland, you take Coramel’s sons and circle around quietly to approach the fighter on the flank. The rest—where is Mingus?”

“Doctor Procter has taken a fever,” Roland said, and Boston looked at Alexis.

“I do wounds, occasionally help avoid surgery. I don’t do sickness.”

“All right.” Saphira adjusted her thinking. “But still, Alexis, would you stay with your father and Doctor Procter? We should probably leave someone here to watch over the stick people, even if they don’t want our help. Katie and Boston, Coramel, Lincoln and Lockhart. We go straight for the ship.”

“Works for me.” Captain Decker checked his rifle.

“A last thought,” Saphira stopped them all. “We need to kill them. No, there is no alternative, and do not hesitate or they will certainly kill you.”

Roland nodded and led the way into the open fields. They stayed in sight for a time before they dipped down into a gully.

“We go.” Lockhart had judged the time and distance, and they started into the tall grass. There were stubby, non-descript bushes here and there and the occasional tree, but the land held mostly grass to the knees, and sometimes to the waist. They had no way to move quietly, but they spread out and kept their eyes and ears as open as they could. A slim trail of engine smoke still rose into the air in the distance. They headed straight for it.

When they topped a rise, they saw the ship down below, and it looked much larger than they imagined. The grass looked much taller there too, being on the side of a hill where most animals would not bother to graze. All things considered, it should not have come as a surprise when the serpent rose-up and wrapped itself twice around Boston.

Boston screamed and struggled, and that made it hard for the others. They dared not fire at the creature for fear of hitting Boston. The snake kept trying to bite her, but it could not get its head at a good angle. Saphira dropped her bow and waited three seconds for an opening before she brought the butt end of her spear down on the snake’s head. The snake nipped at her, but by then the others were moving.

Lockhart pulled the same stunt with the stock of his shotgun, and the hit appeared to hurt the serpent. Lincoln and Lieutenant Harper still tried to get off a shot, but Coramel came up with a stone between his hands. The snake responded by showing a hand of its own. The hand pealed out from the side of the creature, and it held something. They heard no sound, saw no light, or anything, but Coramel dropped to the ground, stunned and maybe dead.

Then the snake took Boston to the ground while Boston screamed the words, “I can’t breathe.”

Lincoln went to Coramel while Saphira’s next shot with her spear hit the snake in the hand. It dropped the weapon but began to roll down the hill with its captive. Lockhart, Saphira and Lieutenant Harper followed, and when Boston and the creature slowed, Lockhart managed another whack at the creature’s head.

The snake roared from pain and appeared to speak, though no one knew what it said except Saphira. Then it suddenly let go of Boston to slither away in the grass. Saphira, with the snake’s weapon in her hand, went to her knees beside Boston.

When the serpent reached what it no doubt imagined as a safe distance from the primitives, it put its rear legs down and reared up eight feet in the air. It spoke again, more clearly as another hand made itself known, and whether they retained some vestige of the primal tongue of Shinar, or the magic of the Kairos worked overtime, they all managed to catch one distinct word. “Die.”

“Balok!” Lockhart shouted to distract the snake, and Lieutenant Harper’s rifle went off. The creature looked stunned as the bullet tore through its neck. Then Lockhart fired the shotgun and the snakehead shredded. The body fell after a moment.

~~~*~~~

Captain Decker, Roland, and the boys got surprised when the Balok reared-up in front of them. The boys got excited and rushed forward to throw their spears. The Balok easily avoided the stone tips and pulled out a hand and a weapon. To be sure, the hand looked more like seven skinny tentacles than a human hand, and the weapon looked like a small disc but Captain Decker and Roland both saw it.

Roland had his bow out, but he could not get off a shot because of the boys. The Balok clearly recognized the bow as a danger and shot Roland first. Roland froze in place even as Decker yelled.

“Boys! Lie down on the ground. Now!”

One went straight to the dirt. The other knelt and bent down but looked at the captain with questions on his face. It was enough. Captain Decker peeled off three bullets before the Balok shot him and Decker fell. It is likely the Balok would have died shortly. It may have already been dead, but to be sure, Roland shook himself free of his frozen state. He pulled his sword and beheaded the serpent before he turned to see to Decker.

~~~*~~~

Lockhart stepped over to where Boston lay on the ground. She sat up and breathed better, but Saphira thought her ribs were cracked, if a couple were not broken.

“Coramel is fine, but frozen,” Lincoln reported. “His fingers and toes look frostbitten.”

“Frozen?” Lieutenant Harper asked.

“Think like a reptile or amphibian,” Saphira answered. “A heat ray would not be as effective.”

“Lincoln. We need a stretcher,” Lockhart shouted.

“Coramel will be fine in a moment,” Lincoln said. “Oh, you mean—” He patted a groaning, shivering Coramel on the shoulder and got up to search a small stand of nearby trees.

Saphira headed straight for the Balok ship, Katie Harper on her heels.

“Don’t wander off,” Lockhart shouted. Saphira waved, but they ended up closer to the ship than she imagined they would. It would have been too much to ask her not to take a look. When they arrived at the door to the ship, they heard three shots fired not too far away.

“Decker,” Katie said.

“Let’s hope that’s it,” Saphira responded while she examined the outside of the door. It took three hands with pinky fingers and three little sticks to press on the six holes that would have fit a Balok hand very well. The door opened and they could look in if they held their breath. The whole thing smelled like rotten cabbage and decayed meat. Saphira did not have to look for more than a moment before she let out a stream of invectives for the third time. She spun and ran, Katie beside her.

“What?”

“Three,” Saphira said.

~~~*~~~

Alexis spent her time cleaning up the camp and getting things ready to move out. She confessed to herself that being twenty-five again did not necessarily change things. She might be Boston’s age, but she was not wild and free like that girl. She had been a mom too long, and now she had become a grandmother. She liked being a mother and grandmother, and she was good at it, and maybe there was nothing wrong with that. At the same time, though, maybe she did need to let Benjamin get adjusted. She smiled. Poor little Billy, her grandson. He would always be older than his uncle, or maybe his aunt. She had two boys. She decided this time she wanted a girl.

“Daughter.” Mingus startled Alexis.

“Father? How is Doctor Procter?”

“Shivering from fever,” Mingus said. “But he won’t let me so much as touch him. He growls at me every time I try.”

“Growls?”

“He is an old man, far older than his human half should be. Old men growl, haven’t you noticed?”

Alexis looked up into her father’s face. She looked serious at first, but quickly smiled. She reached for his hand. “You don’t growl; you just get grumpy now and then.”

Mingus returned her smile. “I am sorry about the stick people.”

Alexis shifted her gaze to where the stick people were gathering, still repairing their ship, and keeping their distance from the mad humans. “They would rather die than take life,” she said. “What can the human race offer to compare with that?”

Mingus took back his hand and began to take down a tent. “The Kairos was wise all these millennia to keep us from interacting with the human race. Look at me. I have studied human history for centuries and have been corrupted. I sometimes think I must be more human now than elf.”

Alexis said nothing. She screamed. The Balok lifted-up from the grass, only a dozen yards away. It splayed both hands and each held an instrument of some kind. The first, a freeze ray, shot at Mingus, but Mingus easily shrugged it off because of the fires inside of him. He shot back with a ball of flame, and while the Balok backed away from the actual fire, the heat and warmth of the flames appeared to strengthen it.

Medieval 6: Giovanni 11 And the Wolv, part 2 of 2

February 10, 2025January 6, 2025M G Kizzia Leave a comment

As they moved up the Rhine through the Black Forest, Titania became scared because of the stories Giovanni told. She feared the wicked witches and their ovens. She feared the trickster spirits that might require her to spin straw into gold. She especially feared the big bad wolf, and no amount of reassurance from Leonora, Baklovani, Sibelius, Needles, and the others made any difference. In fact, she believed so strongly, some of the people were inclined to blame her for their bad luck, though they did not hold it against her. Most said they understood.

At that time, Leonora found out there were more space aliens than she imagined. What happened was the Gott-Druk, that is the Neanderthals who left Earth between twenty and forty thousand years ago and had all that time to work on space technology brought a whole brigade of Wolv to the area to see how long it would take the wild ones to clean out an area from human habitation. The Gott-Druk wanted to repopulate their ancient homeland, which was essentially Europe, but they had to first get rid of the humans living there.

The Wolv looked much like their name but with snub noses like a bear. On their home world, they lived in tribes in a kind of neolithic existence of hunter-gatherers, though they did not gather much. They were carnivores and always hungry. When they stood on their hind feet, they were also seven feet tall and with fangs and front claws that could shred a man in armor. Most important, they could be trained to work together as first-rate soldiers. They had their own language and could communicate with each other. They were not just dumb beasts.

The circus and the people in Baden-Baden locked the gates of the town. They had a wall, but it was made of wood and not anything that would keep out six hundred hungry Wolv. The local priest came up angry and ready to accuse the circus of bringing this evil on them, but he got surprised when Giovanni asked him to say a special mass and lead a time of prayer for the safety of all the people. He got doubly surprised when the circus people sat in the front row and prayed fervently for the Lord to deliver them from the Wolv. The priest still though the circus might be an evil thing in its own way, but at least he realized that against the Wolv, they were all in the same predicament.

Fortunately, the Elenar, that is, the Denisovan people who were cousins and rivals of the Gott-Druk had been watching and followed the Gott-Druk to Earth. They were able to chase away the Gott-Druk and stop the Wolv from doing too much damage. Though no circus people died, many of the men in the town did not survive the attack. Two days later, the circus left town and headed north.

“Do you think the Elenar got them all?” Oberon asked while the circus made for Karlsruhe.

“Quiet,” Giovanni scolded Oberon and his mouth. “Don’t even suggest that they didn’t.”

Of course, the Elenar did not get them all, being mostly concerned with the Gott-Druk. Soon enough, the circus ran into a three-Wolv scout team that was terrorizing the whole area around Heidelberg. It was nearly June by then and Giovanni started pushing the group, though not so fast that they ran into the jaws of the Wolv.

The circus camped south of the city so they could go in at first light and set up for the day of festivities. Leonora and Needles, were the first to hear the howls in the distance. Madam Figiori began to shout and gather the people around the elephant tent. Titania, Baklovani, and Constantine hid where Ravi and Surti desperately tried to keep the elephants calm. Vader brought his knives. Leonardo the horseman and Rugello the fire eater both brought their swords. Others had something like weapons, and Severas had Sir Brutus the bear on his leash. That was probably not a good idea as the bear became very agitated and threatened to break loose at any minute. Pinky the monkey screeched every now and then and that did not help anyone’s nerves.

The Wolv came out of the dark. The first came directly toward them, and the other two held back a minute before they approached the sides more carefully. When the Wolv got close enough, just before it charged, Vader threw a well-aimed knife, followed quickly by more until he ran out of knives. The Wolv did not appeared terribly bothered by having knives sticking out of its hide here and there, until it tried to stand on its hind legs. The legs collapsed. Vader must have cut through to a major muscle group.

“I was right,” Giovanni mumbled as he knew the other two Wolv would come from the sides. Only a loud trumpet like a war cry from Mombo made them hesitate. “If the Wolv broke through the gate in Baden-Baden where the circus was deployed, this circus would not have lasted a minute. He traded places with Nameless and everything froze except he let Leonora and his little ones still move.

Oberon came up holding his bow, though dwarfs were notoriously bad shots. Sibelius came holding his big hammer that only he could lift. Madam Figiori came from the other side with Needles as Leonora grabbed on to Nameless and tried not to look.

Nameless merely waved his hand and the two Wolv on the sides turned to dust. Then he moved out to the wounded one. It is not normally wise to approach any wounded animal. To approach a wounded Wolv might be considered a form of suicide. But in this case, the Wolv did not even growl. It stuck its neck out for the headsman’s axe and plainly said the Greek word, “Kairos.” It was crippled and in Wolv thinking, the crippled were a drag on the tribe and needed to be done away with. This Wolv wanted to die.

“This is not the first time Wolv have come to Earth,” Nameless told Leonora. “In fact, they have over a thousand years of history of being brought by their masters to fight on earth. They once tried to invade, back in the time of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. Despite the conquests of Trajan before him, Hadrian, you might know, gave back much of the land, and made peace. He lost too many men—whole legions fighting off the Wolv. He did not have much choice but to be a peacemaker.”

Nameless turned to the Wolv and asked. “Are there any more Wolv around?” He took a breath and took a look in the Wolv’s chaotic mind. As far as this one knew, they were the last. Just to be sure, Nameless let his senses stretch out through that whole section of the lands of Aesgard. He found no more Wolv so he let it go.

Nameless traded places with another man who appeared in the armor of the Kairos, the great sword Wyrd across his back. The new man immediately shouted, “No. Why d-do I have to d-do it?” But he did not hesitate as the Wolv sat patiently waiting for judgment. He pulled that sword and said, “God forgive me.” In one swift move he cleanly cut the head off the beast and fell to his knees in prayer, asking for forgiveness. Leonora wanted to run to him but she did not dare until he changed back to Giovanni. Then she cried on his back until he stood and wrapped her up in his arms.

Later, Oberon said, “Three strikes, you’re out.”

“I know,” Giovanni responded. The Masters would soon know if they did not already know that he was the Kairos. That would put a target on his back. He chose not to think about that. He stayed busy reassuring the circus that the Wolv were now gone for good.

Titania said it was her worst nightmare. She decided that maybe she was spending too much time with Madam Figiori and maybe that was rubbing off on her. For sure, tales of the big bad wolf would ring through that part of Germany for many years to come.

Medieval 6: Giovanni 10 Flesh Eaters, Witches, Apes, part 2 of 2

February 4, 2025January 6, 2025M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Matilda looked at the young couple that she imagined they were and wondered how such children could be in charge of this circus thing. “I came to warn you that we have worse than witches in our neighborhood.”

“The Flesh Eaters,” Leonora said, like she knew, though Giovanni felt her tighten her grip on his arm.

“Is that what you call them? We’ve been calling them Snake Heads….”

“Or Big Mouths,” one of the men spoke up.

“Or Big Mouths,” Matilda agreed. “What Rudolf said. They say they are not allowed to eat people, but we got four dead and eaten…”

“And that is why there are only eight left out of the twelve that came here. The four that could not resist eating people all died.”

“As it may,” Matilda said. “Though why God didn’t make it so they couldn’t eat people, I don’t know.”

“Because people always need to have a choice. Adam and Eve had a choice. It is part of the package.”

“And they chose wrong,” Rudolf said.

“Snake Heads aren’t people,” Matilda argued.

“But they are people,” Giovanni responded. “They are not human people, but they are Flesh Eater people. They talk and think and are self-aware. Just because they are not human it doesn’t make them less of a person.”

In the timing the little ones often exhibit, Oberon and Sibelius walked up and Oberon spoke. “Boss? We got to go see the Flesh Eaters?” Oberon and Sibelius together hardly looked like people in that moment. The two men looked at Sibelius and took a half-step back.

Matilda’s eyes widened for a second before she nodded for some reason. “I assumed you planned to go and see the Snake Heads—Flesh Eaters. I suppose I better go with you. How about you gentlemen?” One man waved them off, turned and walked away. Rudolf said he was game, and Matilda explained. “I understand Wilfred was the worst of the worst when he could do magic, but since the magic went away he has proved himself to be a real coward.”

“Everyone makes choices,” Giovanni said and Leonora nodded.

It took almost an hour to get there so they arrived around two in the afternoon. Giovanni heard from Lady Alice that the Ape ship kicked in the afterburners and nearly caught up to the Flesh Eater shuttle. While they walked to where Matilda knew the Flesh Eaters were parked, they saw the flash high in the sky when the shuttle broke into the atmosphere. They arrived just before the shuttle set down, and Leonora, Oberon, Sibelius, Matilda, and Rudolf were all eyes on the shuttle. Giovanni was busy with an internal dialogue and Leonora guessed.

“Junior?” she asked, knowing Giovanni had no special ability to deal with people from another world.

Giovanni shook his head. “Nameless,” he said. “This is his part of the world, and he needs a turn, though he is complaining that he always gets stuck with the werewolves and hags and such things.” Giovanni traded places with the ancient god he used to be, though like Junior, he kept up a perfect glamour of Giovanni so no one would notice unless they were sensitive to such things.

Leonora smiled at him and held on to his arm. His attention stayed focused on the newly arrived shuttle until the shuttle turned off all systems. He noticed when Leonora’s attention shifted from the spaceship to the oncoming local Flesh Eaters. She got one good look and swallowed her scream as she buried her face in Nameless’ shoulder.

“Matilda.” The Flesh Eater out front spoke. “We have rescue.”

“Snakes,” Matilda called the Flesh Eater. She obviously talked with the Flesh Eaters enough to not only name this one but to be able to distinguish between one Flesh Eater and another. Not an easy thing to do. “These people came to see you. I do not know what they want, but I thought to bring them because you can be frightening for our eyes to see.”

“Captain and crew,” Nameless said, and the newly arrived captain and all of his crew appeared with the others. “Quiet. Listen.” he made sure no Flesh Eater interrupted and they all heard so there would be no mistake. “Quercus,” he called. A fairy dropped down from the tree branch above. He faced Nameless and put his back to the Flesh Eaters. “Have they been good?”

“They have not used their VR Energy on the people and they have not used their weapons to kill people,” Quercus said, as Leonora dared to peek. “Define good.”

“Only one is good and he is beyond us. In this universe of flesh, good is relative, but there are some certainties, such as leaving the humans alone and not eating people.”

“Then they have been relatively good,” Quercus said, and smiled for Leonora. “My lady,” he bowed to her.

“Don’t start,” Nameless said and turned to the newly arrived Captain. “You are here to rescue this crew and leave this planet forever, and do not come back here.” He allowed the captain to speak though only himself and his little ones would understand the Flesh Eater language.

“I do not know what we may do.”

“I am not asking. I am telling. You will leave this planet and not come back here.”

“We are being followed. We might not be going anywhere.”

“What happens if we do come back?” Snakes asked.

“Your broken shuttle,” Nameless said and raised his hand. Every eye looked there as the shuttle slowly turned to dust, inch by inch. “It is now gone forever. So will you be the minute you touch the atmosphere.” Nameless tapped the shoulder Leonora was not using and Quercus came to take a seat and watch the fireworks, if any.

One of the Flesh Eaters did pull a gun and fired, but the fire stopped at the screen Nameless put up. Snakes and the captain both yelled, “No.” but it was too late. That Flesh Eater became dust and blew away on the wind.

“I am sorry for that, but we all make choices and choices have consequences.”

The Flesh Eater captain paused before he spoke. “We are here to rescue our people and leave this planet to never come back.”

Nameless nodded and put his hand up again, and the functioning Flesh Eater shuttle and all the Flesh Eaters present became invisible. Nameless allowed Leonora, Matilda, and Rudolf to continue to see the Flesh Eaters and their ship, but only after they saw everything vanish. When they reappeared, they appeared to be surrounded in a glowing light of some kind. Of course, Quercus the fairy, Oberon the dwarf, and Sibelius saw that as the invisible spectrum, so-called.

Moments later, the Ape warship broke into the atmosphere. It only took a couple of minutes before they landed and three Apes came out to face the humans. “Where have they gone?” The Ape commander insisted on an answer.

“Out of your reach,” Nameless said. “This world is off limits. You do not belong here.”

“In the years ago, the Kairos in this world said we could come and remove the hated Flesh Eaters from this place.” The Ape ground his teeth. “Where are they?” he raised his voice.

Nameless sighed. “The time for Apes and Flesh Eaters has ended, and you who were once the most kind and gentle of people have become filled with anger and hate. Let go of the evil that grips your heart and return to your peaceful ways. Please leave this world in peace and do not expect me to ask you again.”

‘Where are they?” the Ape yelled.

Nameless raised his hand and the three Apes vanished and maybe reappeared in their ship. The ship started its engines, whether voluntarily or forced, and the ship lifted back into the sky. It moved at maximum speed out of the atmosphere and when it was clear, it shifted to multiple light speed, as much as the engines could tolerate, and soon left the solar system.

The Flesh Eaters reappeared by their shuttle and the captain spoke again, and this time he meant it. “We will leave and not come back.” They boarded their ship and in a few minutes took off. Giovanni returned and hugged Leonora.

“I see what you mean,” she said as he turned her toward the village, and everyone turned with him. “I can’t imagine what a battle in the sky might have been like.”

“It would have destroyed everything around for miles, maybe hundreds of miles,” he said. She nodded and smiled for the fairy on his shoulder as he walked with his arm around her shoulder.

“One question,” Matilda spoke as they walked. “How come your magic still worked?”

“Because it was not magic.” Giovanni answered. “It was the ancient power rooted in the source… In God.”

Matilda nodded. “I certainly could not have done anything like that when I did have the magic.” She looked at Rudolf and he shook his head to say neither could he. They walked for a while before Matilda added, “But that certainly would be a power to conjure with. If I could do like that I could become really corrupt.”

Oberon took that moment to interject a thought. “That is strike two as you are fond of saying. The Masters are going to figure it out.”

Giovanni sighed, much like Nameless, and changed the subject. “By the way,” he said. “We have a magician as part of the circus. Try not to laugh too hard when you see his cheap tricks.”

“Oh, I hope I get a good laugh,” Matilda responded. “I’m looking forward to it. I haven’t had a good laugh in years. You know when you are a witch nothing is ever funny.”

Leonora shared her thought. “So you can be like march. you came in like a lion and can go out like a lamb.”

Medieval 6: Giovanni 10 Flesh Eaters, Witches, Apes, part 1 of 2

February 3, 2025January 6, 2025M G Kizzia Leave a comment

March did not exactly go out like a lamb, but that was not going to stop the circus from leaving. Giovanni figured the longer he stayed in winter quarters, the more chance Corriden had to find out about the elephants. It took a few weeks to fit the elephant act into the lineup, and then practice the opening parade and the grand finale, but then they had to get going, especially if they were going to reach Aachen in July.

From Monday, April third to Saturday the eighth, they brought in audiences for their dress rehearsals. Since they had a whole year of experience, Giovanni was not so concerned with putting up and taking down the tents and all. He was more concerned with audience size.

On Monday, he invited the people from the fishing village and all the farms on his land, and from the small village across the road. The big tent was about half full, and he talked to the performers both before and after the show. They needed to give the full performance no matter the audience size, and in fact they could lean in a little and speak more directly to a smaller audience. Someone said they could personalize the performance a bit more.

“People talk,” Giovanni said. “And while I have mapped out a different return route, merchants and others travel, and word gets around. The smaller the audience at first, the better your performance must be if you want to fill the tent on our return trip. Apart from that, I have sent the travel schedule to both the Pope, though I would not expect much from Sylvester II like I might have expected from Gregory V, and I have written to Otto on the hope that the pope and emperor might write some letters to people along the way. This is all new territory and we need to be at peak performance every night to make this work.”

Privately, Giovanni confessed to Oberon and Leonora that he got a letter back from the pope and it was not encouraging. The man questioned the whole enterprise. He said he heard the circus was full of sorcery and strange half-human, half-demonic creatures meant to frighten the innocent and terrorize the faithful. “I wrote back and said we are all humans without any witchery or evil of any kind. Some are people that God in his wisdom gave a different and strange outward appearance, but their hearts are good and pure. As the Lord commanded, we have made a home for these poor unfortunate souls who would otherwise be abandoned to the streets, left to beg for their daily bread.”

“Do you think he believed you?” Leonora asked.

Giovanni shrugged. “He mentioned that he wrote to some bishops along our route. Who knows what he told them.”

On Wednesday and Saturday they filled the tent with people from the two nearest towns. It was standing room only, and the performers needed to experience that, too. They might hope for standing room only crowds every night, but they could not count on that. On Friday, he deliberately brought in only thirty-five people, and they all had to do their best and not be discouraged. To be sure, most of the people understood and honestly gave it their best. Only Rostanzio the Magnificent, the circus magician, and Madigan and his orchestra complained about the small number of people. Rostanzio complained that it was hard to distract such a small audience for his sleight of hand tricks, and Madigan, because he had to tone down the volume so much. Normally, the large crowd absorbed much of the sound.

Giovanni was ready to leave on Sunday the nineth, but Leonora insisted they take Ravi and Surti to church. Giovanni teased her. “What? Are you now the evangelist to the Indian people? Should I write a second letter to Pope Sylvester?”

“Ha, ha,” she said without laughing. “They were asking in particular why we don’t perform on Sundays.”

“We do travel on Sundays, which we probably should not do, but mostly people need a day off at least from performing once a week. God was no fool when he said rest on the seventh day. People can’t go every day without a break. Eventually, people will become exhausted and that is when accidents happen and performances are not their best.”

“I understand,” she said. “You are not the only smart one in the bunch.”

Giovanni bowed to her and offered his arm. She took it and they went into the church together followed by Ravi and Surti.

They left the swamp on the tenth, and Mombo in particular was anxious to go. Elephants could travel up to fifty miles a day when going from pasture to pasture. Ten miles per day would be easy, even for Pretty Girl, and even when they started up into the mountains, but at least they were moving.

They played to full houses in Treviso and even in Trento, but Giovanni expected that since they were Italian cities. He figured the story might be different when they reached Innsbruck. What he found was they could just about fill the tent in the big towns, and in the cities, thanks to word of mouth, they could usually fill the tent for a second night.

Giovanni worked hard to change the midway into something more like a medieval faire. In fact, the big sign in German called it The People’s Faire, for those who could read. Besides the food, sausages and beer, and cinnamon-type buns and honey cakes, like funnel cakes, they also sold knick-knacks of all sorts, or you could win such things, including some stuffed animals in the games on the midway. The big tent still only cost a penny, so filling it was important, but the tent of wonders also cost a penny and the circus tent took donations even as it encouraged people to try the games and don’t miss the big show in the big tent.

They had ways of squeezing the pennies out of the people, and some silver coins as well. In fact, they did very well until they got to the other side of Augsburg. The Flesh Eaters parked there above Ulm on the Danube. The Flesh Eater shuttle on Mars finally made a shot for the Earth, and the Ape warship was about a day behind. Apparently, the circus arrived in the nearby village just in time. Of course, Giovanni knew this and planned for it. What he did not know was the village was full of witches, or at least former witches and their children.

Madam Figiori knew and said something at the last minute when they already started to unpack. Madam Figiori smiled an elf-worthy smile and Giovanni gave her a sour look.

Giovanni took Leonora by the arm and told her to get everything set for the night. She laughed at him and latched on to his arm. He was not going anywhere without her. “Oberon. Sibelius. You are coming with me. Borges,” he raised his voice. “Make sure the roustabouts have everything in place for the circus tent and the tent of wonders. Constantine, you and Pinky need to help Ravi and Surti with the elephants, to get them dressed for viewing. Madam Figiori, tell Rostanzio the Magnificent that this village is full of former witches, so don’t be surprised if they laugh at his magic tricks.”

Madam Figiori’s eyes got big and her jaw fell. “Why do I have to tell him?”

“Because you know what you are talking about.” Giovanni returned her smile, though it was not nearly as elf pointed.

“What do you mean, former witches?” Leonora’s voice trembled, but only a little.

Giovanni took a deep breath. “Magic energy, like witches and wizards use comes from a completely different universe. Call it the universe next door. When our earth and the other earth grow close to each other, all kinds of magic energy seeps into our universe and rare people can tap into that energy and do magical things.”

Leonora paused him as Piccolo pointed an old woman and two older men in their direction. She refocused with the words, “I don’t understand.”

“The magic universe gets close and far away, close and far away on a regular basis. Here, Think of the moon. From a half-moon when it is getting smaller, to the new moon, and then slowly starts to grow again to the next half, the other universe is too far away to leak magic energy into our universe. Once it passes the half-way mark, magic energy returns to our universe and suddenly a very few people become able to do extraordinary things, magical things. That condition remains all through the full moon and again to the half-way point.”

“How long does this cycle take?” Leonora asked. “I’m assuming it takes longer than a month.”

“Six hundred years,” Giovanni said. “There are three hundred years of magic and three hundred years without, and the time with magic ended in 975, about twenty-four years ago. We are now in the days of no magic and we will be for the next, what? two hundred and seventy-six years.”

“That explains that.” The old woman who walked up and listened in spoke as she glanced at the two men with her. “My name is Matilda. I used to be a witch, and I was wicked, I confess. When I was in my twenties I had a whole village of people doing my bidding, er, not here. Then suddenly, well, slowly but surely the magic went away and I couldn’t do anything. It was terrible. My husband left me. He said he never loved me. My sister got crushed under a stone by the priest, killed for witchery. I got driven out. I would have died if these good people had not taken me in.”

“The Wicked Witch of the East got killed and the Wicked Witch of the West got driven out. You could have been the Good Witch of the North…”

“Not possible,” she said. “All that power is too irresistible. There is no such thing as a good witch.”

“Good is relative. There are relatively good witches, or have been, but they are or were very rare.”

“As it may,” she said with a shake of her head.

Medieval 6: Giovanni 1 Friends and Strangers part 2 of 2

December 17, 2024November 23, 2024M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Early that evening, Giovanni hid around the food wagon which he decided should be called a chuck wagon. Along with all the food, the wagon carried a big portable oven to cook bread and pastries, a double sized grill to cook fish, chicken, and sausages, plenty of pots and pans for soups, stews, and other fried foods, and plenty of wood for the fire. The chuck wagon got hauled by a pair of oxen that were young and strong enough to pull all that weight.

The cook and her assistants cooked and grilled in plain sight of their visitors, which is what the circus called the people who came to be entertained and paid with coppers, and sometimes silver coins. The cooks sat at one end of the midway, next to the big tent. The small tent they called the tent of wonders sat across the midway from the food. Those two framed the entrance to the big tent when the big tent got set up in the bigger towns and cities. The so-called circus tent sat at the other end of the midway. It was a tent about the size of the center ring in the Big tent so big enough to give a very short version of the show. It was the only show they gave in the small towns and villages where they did not even put up the big tent, but it got designed as both a show in itself and also a taste of what the people might see in the big show, in the big tent. Between the tent of wonders and the food at one end, and the circus tent at the far end, the midway ran full of glitter, flags, banners, bright colors, and games on both sides as well as some special tents, like the tent for the fortune teller. Everything cost a penny or two, but nothing was very expensive.

The circus, as Giovanni’s father explained, was supposed to be for the common people, the ones who did not have many, if any coins to spare. “It is a way for the ordinary people to get a break from their dreary, ordinary lives. A bit of exciting, exotic, different entertainment that they can talk about and remember in the many months ahead, and especially through the long winter months.” Father said, “I like to think of it as a way to help make their lives worth living.”

Giovanni paused to wonder if he liked to hang out near the food because he was becoming a teenager, or at least a preteen at ten years old. He smiled and nodded. He liked food.

He paused again and thought about Otto, and changed it to his friend, Otto. As can happen with young people, in the moment they met they became friends and would remain friends in all the years to come no matter what time or distance separated them. He hoped Otto liked the show. He imagined Otto was a count or baron of some sort. That would not matter to them. He also imagined Otto would have important things to do, and especially when he got older. But at least he should not have to clean the stables. Giovanni grinned but stopped abruptly when he heard a voice.

“And you also have important things to do.” It was a man’s voice. Giovanni quickly looked around, thinking his hiding spot got discovered. No one was there.

“Who are you?” he asked, but softly so as not to reveal where he was.

“You,” the man said. “I am Nameless, but that does not matter. What matters is you cannot let a Flesh Eater ship fly off to the north without checking it out. This is a genesis planet, and they have no business even being here. If they need sanctuary for a time or need to make repairs, they might visit, but there are rules they must follow. They must be told. Best if they are not even seen by the human population. And for these Flesh Eaters, they must be told and underlined that they are certainly not allowed to eat any people.”

Giovanni paused again before he answered in his whisper. “I understood most of that.”

He heard Nameless sigh in his mind before Nameless spoke again. “As happens far too often, you really are too young for this. Your personality, or I should say your personhood is not yet fully formed. The last thing you need is a bunch of other persons messing up your future and the way you see yourself and the world. I will try to make this like a dream experience that might fade for a time. When you are of age, it will come back to you, but in the meanwhile…”

Nameless stopped speaking and appeared in that spot in place of Giovanni. Where Giovanni went was a question, but for the moment, the Nameless god the grandson of the Alfader Odin, had work to do. He vanished from that place having got an instant reading on where the Flesh Eaters came down. He reappeared in a forest of Bavaria, near the Danube, between Augsburg and Ulm.

One of the Flesh Eaters saw him right away and pulled his gun. As Nameless walked to the edge of the camp, the Flesh Eater fired. The weapon did not even slow Nameless down, and as he raised his hand, the Flesh Eater handgun appeared to hover just beyond that hand. Nameless closed his hand, making a fist, and the handgun crumpled into a little ball of metal before it dropped to the ground.

The Flesh Eaters came in a twelve-person shuttle that parked in the clearing; its engines shut down. Nameless felt it best to speak to all the Flesh Eaters at once so later they could not say they did not hear or were not told or did not know. He waved his hand and they all appeared in front of him. Several shrieked, and Nameless nodded. Twelve humans instantly transported that way would make a similar sound.

“This planet is marked do not go in your navigation system. You do not belong here. You cannot park here.” Nameless smiled at that last phrase. He had been saying that for more than five thousand years.

“We have no choice,” the Flesh Eater chief found the courage to speak when Nameless toned down his awesome nature to almost nothing. “We are survivors. Our ship was destroyed in a great battle. Our shuttle is badly damaged. We noted this world is also marked as a sanctuary planet. We came here to hide in case the enemy tries to follow us. We have sent out a distress call, but we do not know if there are any of our kind left alive to rescue us.”

Nameless noted that the twelve were all males. At least he should not have to worry about them multiplying. “I cannot say about the possibility of rescue or not, but I can say there are rules you must follow in this place. If you break the rules, I will know. You came here to hide in hope of rescue. Very well, then you must also hide from the people of this world. It would be best if you and your ship are not ever seen by the people. Also, you must not eat the people.” He paused and waved his hand over the group to make it so before he told them. “If you eat a person, it will be poison to you and you will die. You may eat of the animals of this world, but never the people. Is that clear?”

Several Flesh Eaters quickly jutted out their tongues and ground their teeth which Nameless understood as something like a human nod of agreement.

He finished. “Killing or interfering with the natural course of development of the people is not allowed. Do not abuse your time of sanctuary, and you may live. Better yet, repair your craft and find another world to hide. Is that clear?”

This time, most of the tongues came out and most of the teeth showed.

“Good,” Nameless vanished. He reappeared in Giovanni’s place by the cooking wagon where he traded places with a different life, Amun Junior, the son of Amun and Ishtar from Egypt and the Middle East. He let his consciousness travel all the way to India where he found a man and his son who performed some tricks with an elephant. Not at this time, he thought. But maybe if the son got older and got a baby elephant he could train from birth. He put that thought in the boy’s head and stood behind the chuck wagon in time for Giovanni’s father to come around the corner looking for him.

“Vincenzo,” the man called before he stopped and stared at the stranger. “Who are you, and what are you doing by the food wagon.”

“I am your son,” he said. “I just borrowed his time and place to run an errand. Listen.” The elder Giovanni found he could not do anything but listen. “Your son is still too young and impressionable for this. It would be best if you did not talk about me. I will be like a dream to him. You can talk when he is eighteen, but not before. Is that clear?” He said is that clear because that was the phrase Nameless used. He really was the same person after all, no matter how many different people he might be throughout time.

Junior nodded and vanished. Giovanni appeared right where he had been sitting. He sat up suddenly and rubbed his eyes. “I must have fallen asleep,” he said, before he added, “What is that great smell?”

Giovanni Senior stared at the spot where Junior vanished before he shook himself and turned to his son. “Cook is baking some honey cakes for supper. Aren’t you supposed to be feeding the oxen?”

“Oh yeah,” Giovanni said. “I’ll get right to it.” He would have run off, but the elder Giovanni slipped his arm around his boy and walked him to the animal pen. The elder thought about what he just saw and had no idea what that was or how to interpret it. The younger one thought about the elephant and smiled.

Medieval 5: Elgar 7 Second Chances, part 3 of 4

March 27, 2024February 11, 2024M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Athelbald died from his mysterious disease in July of 860 and the kingdom passed to his brother Athelberht of Kent. Once the way back to the capital was clear, Judith returned to Winchester, packed her bags, and went home to her father in West Francia. She was not about to be married again to yet another brother. Athelberht, like Athelbald had not married and had no children, so he was eligible to fall into Judith’s web, but Judith was done with that, and done with Wessex. In her mind, the whole kingdom was stupid and stubborn, and she would never be allowed to rule or gather all the power to herself. Even so, despite her bad attitude, she had matured over the years and now felt she could handle her father’s court and look for a more reasonable solution to meeting her desires.

Alfred was thirteen by then, and he corresponded with Elgar. Elgar got him books to read. Athelred was seventeen, so still too young to rule anywhere. The result was Athelberht moved to Winchester but took the throne of Kent with him. He integrated the nine shires for the first time and ruled the whole as the kingdom of Wessex. As it turned out, he had four years to rebuild Winchester and sew the pieces of the kingdom together.

For Berkshire, he selected a thegan who carried his father’s name, Ethelwulf. The man had Mercian roots, but Berkshire had been under the Mercian thumb for a time so the rest of the king’s men in the shire raised no objections. Besides, since the army of Wessex helped Mercia keep the Welsh in line, Mercia had come to accept Wessex as something of an overlord, so a man of Mercian background seemed no problem.

For Hampshire, Athelberht looked to Osric in Dorset. Osric straddled the fence when Athelbald and his father Athelwulf argued about the Wessex throne, but Athelberht took it as his position. Athelberht refused to take sides. In truth, Osric kept switching sides based on what was most advantageous to him. In any case, Athelberht appointed Osric as ealdorman of Hampshire and let Osric’s son, Osweald take Dorset. Besides, Athelberht’s mother was Osric’s sister, so Athelberht imagined Uncle Osric would do right by him.

Elgar talked to Eanwulf and Bishop Ealhstan of Sherborne and asked them to support, encourage, and teach young Osweald to do a good job in Dorset. Eanwulf did nothing. Ealhstan figured Osweald was like Athelbald, easy to manipulate. Nothing Elgar could do about that. At least Osric did not abandon his son.

Athelberht succeeded in his tasks over the years he ruled. The eastern shires of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex were fully integrated into the larger kingdom of Wessex. Winchester and the whole land of Hampshire were rebuilt and strengthened against the Danes. Everything was settled by 864 when the east coast of Kent became ravaged by the Danes, almost a repeat of what happened fourteen years earlier in 850. Dover, Canterbury, Rochester, and London were raided, and everything east and north of Watling Street fell to Danish hands. This was a year before the landing in East Anglia by what modern scholars call the Great Heathen Army. Some might suggest the actual invasion of England started in 864.

Two other things of note happened in 864. First, the Flesh Eater fighters and three person bombers strafed the major population centers in Wessex, from Kingston on Thames to Carhampton in Somerset. Some buildings burned, some collapsed, and some people died. It was not devastating, but like warning shots to not resist or fight back without suffering consequences. Second, Athelberht was wounded in one fly-over. He limped for a number of months, well into the new year, before he lost his leg. He seemed to do well enough after that for a one legged man, but six months or so down the road the leg got infected. Gangrene. He died sometime at the end of August, early September of 865, and was buried in Sherborne next to Athelbald. That left twenty-two-year-old Athelred to be king.

By the grace of God, as Elgar’s priest said, the Viking Great Army first turned north in 866 after they got settled and got their bearings. The death of Ragnar Lodbrok being thrown into a snake pit needed to be answered. The Danes devastated Northumbria and installed a puppet king in York. Then they turned on Mercia and ravaged eastern Mercia, wintering in 867-868 in Nottingham. In 869 they returned to conquer East Anglia and killed King Edmund who held the line against them when they first arrived. This left Wessex isolated with only western Mercia free and still in the hands of Athelred’s and Alfred’s sister whose husband, King Burgred of Mercia, still had some say over the land. With all that, the Danes were not ready to try Wessex again until late in 870. Thus far, the Danes had not been successful in Wessex. That gave Athelred time to reach out to his thegans and ealdormen and settle matters in the kingdom while gathering his forces. It also gave Elgar time to act.

When the Flesh Eater fighter ship flew over Watchet, Elgar knew he had to do something. The fighter dive bombed the town several times but did little damage before it moved on down the coast. The fortress, which was Elgar’s home, and the church were untouched. That allowed him the opportunity to speak with the priest again before he acted foolishly. He found things changed a bit.

“I am having a hard time holding on to Mercy and Forgiveness,” the priest admitted. “Two of the church widows were caught in the open and burned. How these creatures can fly and rain fire from the sky is beyond my understanding, but with such great power there is supposed to be great responsibility.”

“People,” Elgar said. “They are not human people like us, but they are people, not creatures. And you make me afraid to act at all.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I am one of those great powers that must act with great responsibility,” Elgar said plainly.

“Yes, I understand that much,” the priest responded. “But you have given these strange people sufficient chances, have you not?” Elgar nodded, so the priest concluded. “In Christ we have forgiveness of sin and the promise of Heaven. He will not hold our actions against us in eternity. But in the here and now, that does not leave us off being responsible for our actions, and often we must suffer the consequences.”

Elgar nodded again. “The law says for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. To put it in Biblical terms, as you sew, so shall you reap.”

“I would think so,” the priest said.

As soon as the Vikings began to land in East Anglia where they cowed King Edmund and gathered horses and equipment for their invasion, Elgar moved. He asked Lady Alice of Avalon to reach out into space. She found three Ape ships in a patrol group not that many light years away. She fed them the coordinates and informed them of the Flesh Eater ship located on the Genesis moon where they did not belong. Those Ape ships started out right away, but it would be well over a year before they arrived.

In place of his brother Eanwulf, who was ill, Elgar went with King Athelred, and twenty-five hundred men of Wessex to help King Burgred of Mercia route the Danish army that wintered in Nottingham. They intended to drive the Danes from Mercia altogether and thus liberate the eastern half of the land. Sadly, Burgred was not a military man and Athelred knew nothing about how to lay a successful siege. The two king together could not force the Danes to budge. It seemed to Elgar that the Danes were laughing at them. Elgar was twice Athelred’s age, but somehow they were back to the days where they did not listen to anything Elgar had to say. Burgred’s wife, Athelswith, Athelred’s older sister painted Elgar as the baby of the family. That is how Burgred saw him, so Athelred agreed with his sister. In the end, King Burgred paid the Dane to leave and stay away. The Danes waited until the weather cleared before they pulled out and headed back to York.

Only one thing of note happened at that time. Ealhstan, Bishop of Sherborne died in a skirmish with the Danes. No one knew how he managed to be in the area when the Danes came out to forage for food. He was generally a person who ran away when the fighting started, but he got himself killed and a man named Heahmund, a bit of a militant bishop, so quite the opposite of the coward took over.

Just as well, Elgar thought. He had his hands full with what was happening in space. The three Ape ships arrived and immediately engaged with the Flesh Eater ship somewhere out toward Mars. The battle was not so swift. The ships maneuvered all over space to get a clean shot on their enemy. Two Ape ships prevented the Flesh Eater ship from escaping into the asteroid belt. one of the Ape ships was destroyed, but the Flesh Eater ship had its screens taken down. It tried to escape, but the third Ape ship caught it and it exploded, spreading dead Flesh Eaters all across that section of space. One Ape ship was gone. One Ape ship was seriously damaged, but the third ship survived well enough to where they could guide their damaged ship to a place where they could repair.

Unfortunately, the Apes did not see the Flesh Eater shuttle head for Earth, escorted by two fighter ships and a three person fighter-bomber. Double unfortunately, someone else did see that shuttle. At first it headed toward the coast of Norway, but at the last minute it skirted across the North Sea like flying under the radar and headed toward the Scottish highlands. The shuttle had all thirteen fertile females and several litters of infants. As promised, once they left earth their fertility was restored, even if they only went as far as the moon.

************************

MONDAY

The Kairos confronts Abraxas and cleans up the last of the Flesh Eater mess. After that, things with the Danish army begin to heat up. Until then, Happy Reading

Medieval 5: Elgar 7 Second Chances, part 2 of 4

March 26, 2024February 11, 2024M G Kizzia Leave a comment

While King Athelwulf, Eanwulf, and Osric were off helping the Mercians beat down the Welsh, the king’s wife, Osburh caught a cold. As sometimes happened in those days, she died before Athelwulf got home. The king went into a time of seclusion. For some months, they could hardly get a word out of him. Eventually, he would only speak to the priests and so perhaps it was no surprise when after two years he decided to make the pilgrimage to Rome. He took his younger sons, Athelred and Alfred with him.

Athelwulf’s eldest surviving son, Athelbald took the reins of the kingdom, though he was not the sharpest knife. Athelwulf made his next eldest son, Athelberht, subking over Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, though Athelbald did not allow Athelberht the same grace to rule that his father allowed him. Eanwulf and Osric liked having Athelbald in charge. He was easy to manipulate. And they supported Athelbald when Athelwulf returned and found his throne occupied.

While in Rome, Athelred and Alfred were tutored under the watchful eye of the pope. Alfred took to the learning and reading like the proverbial duck to water, in particular the histories, though he was only nine years old. He became fascinated to learn how Rome built such a mighty empire and organized itself to last a thousand years. He read about the saints and martyrs who struggled and sacrificed so much for the gospel and to convert the heathen. He read and received instruction about many things, and even at that young age, he recognized how the people of Wessex and the church in Wessex were hampered by the inability to read and the lack of books worth reading. He took a vow against his enemy, ignorance.

Athelred, by contrast, had little interest in the lessons. It is not that he was lazy, but his interests went more toward the martial arts. He did not mind learning about Caesar and hearing all about the battles. His was more of a romantic view of empire, of battles and conquest, not necessarily ruling. All the same, their father Athelwulf had both young boys invested in a way that proved their worthiness to rule. Athelwulf figured when he died, the older boys could not shave the younger one’s heads and stick them in a monastery somewhere to be forgotten.

When they left Rome after a year, they returned to the Carolingian court of Charles the Bald. Alfred, now ten, brought his trunk full of books. Athelred, fourteen, carried a sword with which his father hoped he would not cut himself.

Charles the Bald spent those days building alliances with outside kings and rulers as a balance against his own nobility that did not like him very much. Athelwulf, king of Wessex, certainly fit the bill. No one can say how Charles’ twelve-year-old daughter Judith came into the negotiations except to say Judith was a witch who had no intention of becoming a nun. She was beginning to chaff under the strict rules of her parents and wanted out. At her young age she had no business considering marriage, but it was all she could think of to escape. Besides, she figured the old man would not give her any trouble. He still loved his first wife, Osburh, and he would not live that long. She prepared herself to make sure of that.

When the family returned to Wessex, they found the throne taken and Athelbald would not be giving it up. Much to Athelwulf’s disappointment, his old friends Eanwulf of Somerset with Ealhstan, Bishop of Sherborne supported Athelbald, while Osric of Dorset sat on the fence between the two. Athelwulf, who was already not feeling well, was reluctant to start a civil war. He had the support of Hampshire, Wiltshire, and Berkshire, so he made a deal with his son. Athelbald took the western provinces of Somerset, Dorset, and Devon where Eanwulf’s friend Odda took the reins after his other friend Ceorle died in the 851 battle against the Danes. Athelwulf kept the central shires under his hand. Basically, Athelbald got the bishop of Sherborne while Athelwulf kept the bishop of Winchester. Athelberht in Kent, who refused to take sides, kept the bishop of Canterbury while the bishop of London was still technically claimed by Mercia, and by the Danes.

The agreement only lasted about a year. Athelwulf got sick and died just after the new year, 858, in Sussex, where he was buried. Athelbald moved back to Winchester and to the throne of Wessex. Then he did one thing that Elgar, Eanwulf, Osric, and the Bishop of Sherborne all agreed and advised against. He married Judith, now fifteen, his father’s widow. He did not know she was a witch.

It certainly was not Judith’s intention to be saddled with the son, but she saw no other way to power. At one time, she imagined after she got rid of the old man she might take the crown for herself, but that would never fly with these rude and ignorant Saxons. They called her queen, but in Saxon terms, the queen was no more than the king’s wife. Judith ruled through Athelbald for two and a half years, but it soon became too taxing to continue. The man was terminally stupid, and stubborn once he got a thought in his head. She controlled things well enough to get what she wanted, but he got on her every nerve. Athelbald was already sick with the same mysterious disease that killed his father when the Vikings under Weland burned Winchester. That happened in 860.

Charles the Bald originally contracted with the Viking Weland to drive out some other Norsemen that were threatening Paris from the north shore of Francia. Weland sort of succeeded. He gathered his army and put those Norsemen under siege until they paid him an ungodly amount of gold to go away. He thought this was a good thing. He heard about Athelwulf in Rome, how he lavished gold everywhere he went. He thought Wessex was just across the Channel. He imagined if he brought his army there, they might also pay him off to go away.

To his credit, Weland got all the way to the walls of Winchester before the army of Wessex gathered. He burned parts of the town, but he did not take the town before three times his numbers came from outside the city to confront him. Weland could not run fast enough. They fought, and Weland lost badly before he made it to his ships and escaped. The people of Wessex did not pay him off. They just got mad, and it was a mistake that got echoed in the halls of Denmark and Norway. The Vikings lost badly at the Parrett River. They lost again in 851 near Kingston in Surrey. Now, Weland had to tuck his tail and run. The message was don’t mess with Wessex.

Without knowing it, Weland did three things that might have proved troublesome in the future. His army managed to kill two ealdormen, the leaders in Berkshire and Hampshire. Poor Wulfheard of Hampshire was the father of Eanwulf’s wife, so he was family in a sense. And he had no sons, so the position stayed vacant for a while. For the hat trick, Weland’s army drove Athelbald from the city and nearly caught him in a skirmish outside the city walls. Athelbald received a cut in his arm which was not life threatening, but he was already weak from being sick.

Athelbald ran to Sherborne, to where he imagined his friends lived. The Bishop, Ealhstan, received him as the king, but he did not show any great friendship. Eanwulf did not even bother to visit. Instead, he sent Elgar.

Elgar spent the last seven years at home where his wife finally gave him a son to go with his four daughters. He felt it was about time since he turned forty in 860. In those seven years, he only drove off two Viking raids, and he figured one landed on his shore by accident. He guessed they were headed toward Glywysing in Wales and got turned around in the storm. It would have been nice to think he spent those years in peace and quiet, but no such luck.

Some of that time got spent receiving reports about the would-be god Abraxas. The god settled in Northumbria, on the opposite side of the island from where Elgar was located in Somerset. Marsham the elf and Pinoak’s fairy sister, Heath, both moved into the area where they could watch the god closely. Both married into the local elf tribe and fairy troop and settled in to do their duty. Abraxas seemed to be moving quietly around the area, though he brought in more Danes and Norsemen than Elgar imagined was healthy. Elgar guessed Abraxas wanted the pagan Vikings and English Christians to clash in their culture and faith and cause uncertainty in many minds. Elgar concluded that Abraxas could take advantage of that uncertainty. He would have to watch it.

The rest of the time, he kept one eye on the Flesh Eaters who abandoned the Earth only to land on the moon. From there, they regularly sent shuttles back to earth to pick up whole herds of animals, sometimes including cattle and sheep, and the occasional farmer and rancher. More concerning was the three-person bombers being used as scout ships and to deliver Flesh Eater counselors to the Danish throne.

Elgar’s elf spies suspected the Flesh Eaters were using their mind control devices on certain chiefs, counselors, and elders throughout Scandinavia. It was impossible to tell, or prove, because the elves knew nothing about that level of advanced technology, and the men behaved perfectly normally, as far as the elves could tell, even if their instructions came from the moon.

Elgar hoped the Flesh Eaters left Earth and were only hiding out on the moon until things settled down in deep space. Once the battles between the Apes and Flesh Eaters quieted down out among the stars, Elgar hoped these local Flesh Eaters would leave the solar system altogether. He was willing to let them visit and gather food as long as that food consisted of deer, cattle, sheep and the like. He was not happy about the occasional rancher or farmer they took with the herds, but at least they stopped eating the Geats on a regular basis.

Elgar talked to Reed, his house elf, the one who gathered all the information brought in by the elf and fairy spy networks. “Hopefully, when the fireworks in deep space settle down, these Flesh Eaters will leave altogether.”

“Hopefully,” Reed agreed, but all they could do was watch and wait. “It has been fifteen or sixteen years. How long will this war in space continue?”

“Eighteen years since the Apes found the Flesh Eater home world,” Elgar said and shook his head. He thought to explain what he could. “It takes a week, or two with bad winds, to travel from Denmark to England. But in space, the stars they travel to are not necessarily next to each other. To sail from Copenhagen all the way around to the Mediterranean to raid in Provence, Italy, or get to Constantinople takes months, maybe a year or two. In space, the distances are vast. Even at faster than light speed, it can take months or years just to get to an Ape colony or Flesh Eater colony. The actual fighting does not last long. It is the travel to get to the battlefield that takes forever. It is not much different on Earth. Armies gather, and most of the time is spent just getting there.”

Reed nodded that he understood.

Medieval 5: Elgar 3 Hingston Downs, part 1 of 3

March 5, 2024February 10, 2024M G Kizzia Leave a comment

While the men of Wessex gathered and Father with Eanwulf became too busy to pay much attention, Elgar snuck off to confront the Flesh Eaters. His friends Osfirth and Gwyn would not let him go alone, wherever he was going. That complicated things. Elgar had to spend most of the journey explaining what Flesh Eaters were. Fortunately, Deerrunner’s son Marsham the elf and Pinewood’s son Pinoak the fairy went with them into the swamps. Marsham and Pinoak went disguised as hunters and men of the wilds who knew the area and could keep them out of the worst of the bogs. Besides that, they led them by secret paths which turned a four day trip into two days. With luck, they would finish their errand and be home by the end of the week.

As near as Elgar could tell, the Flesh Eaters landed in the swampy land of the Severn Estuary, north of Axbridge and Wrington, by the Avon river and the border with Hwicce. They only had the one mothership, but one big enough for over a thousand Flesh Eaters. The ship carried six 8-12 man shuttles, ten 3 man bombers, and twenty single man fighters. Their technology was formidable and more advanced in many ways than the technology of their sworn enemies, the Apes. They also bred fast which was a great threat if they gained a foothold on the earth. Fortunately, their numbers in space and coming out of their home planet were not great, primarily because they were one species, like the human species, that fought wars among their own kind. They were known to kill and eat their own as readily as they ate every other species of carbon based flesh and blood. Humans looked especially tasty to them. Humans were not covered in hair like the apes.

Elgar, Osfirth, and Gwyn found a company of Marsham’s people roughly a half-mile from the ship. The elves all dressed like hunters and people of the wilderness, and they wore glamours to make them appear human.

“We walk from here,” Elgar told his friends and got down from his horse.

“You say these people are from the stars?” Osfirth asked again as he and Gwyn joined Elgar on the ground. Osfirth could not quite grasp the idea and had low tolerance for the strange and different. No telling how badly he might react if he saw the elves and fairies in their actual form. Fortunately, when they got close and caught up to Pinoak’s company, Pinoak had his men dress like wild men of the woods which was scary enough for both Gwyn and Osfirth.

“But they are people.” Gwyn needed that reassurance.

Elgar nodded. “But not human people. They don’t exactly look like us. They are tall and skinny, with heads too big for their bodies. They have wide eyes, almost no nose or ears, no hair, and a tongue from their big mouths that darts out regularly to taste the air, like a snake, looking for something edible.”

“They don’t look like us?” Osfirth asked.

Elgar shook his head. “They look strange and alien. You should be prepared for that.”

Marsham and Pinoak brought the three men around a particularly swampy area and all at once they arrived at a clearing. The Flesh Eater ship rested a hundred yards out, and it appeared as if the Flesh Eaters were waiting for them. As soon as they stepped out on to that clearing, they got assailed with an energy wave that caused them to fall to their knees and scream.

VrE, Vr energy, Velocity Redaction, or Velocity Replication Energy, commonly called Very Real Energy is a natural byproduct of faster than light travel. It makes faster than light travel impossible for flesh and blood until the people learn to screen it out. It triggers the electrical impulses in the brain and nervous system. It causes pain, dizziness, anxiety and fear, hallucinations, commonly referred to as your life passing before your eyes, and with enough exposure it causes paralysis and death.

The humanly disguised elves and fairies put up a screen to reflect back any of the expected energy weapons of the space aliens, but they knew nothing about Vr waves, and while they were not affected by the energy, they were at a loss as to what to do. Fortunately, some internal prompts from Alice of Avalon prepared Elgar for this possibility. He immediately traded places with the Nameless god. He set a screen against the deadly rays and let the fairies and elves around him know what he was doing so they could do the same in the future.

Nameless looked at Osfirth and Gwyn who immediately, though very slowly began to recover from the attack. They were not exposed for long and would easily make a full recovery, but they were presently incoherent. It would take a few minutes before they regained their equilibrium. In that time, Nameless called the captain of the Flesh Eater ship, along with his first officer and the head Flesh Eater military and science officers. They appeared before him, though on the other side of the elven screens, and he scolded them.

“This world is marked do not go. You do not belong here and must leave immediately.”

The Flesh Eaters ground their many rows of teeth and shot their tongues out, which Nameless interpreted as a rejection of that idea. Nameless read as much in their minds. He answered first by waving his hand and breaking their Vr projector as well as their main weapons system. They still had missiles and secondary systems, but they would be at a serious disadvantage in a space battle until and if they could make repairs. Nameless did not check internally with Martok, his mathematical engineer lifetime from the far future, to see if they could repair their primary weapon or not. He did crush the Vr generator so it could not be repaired. He even sent the scrap into low earth orbit where it would serve as a warning beacon to any other space faring race thinking about coming to earth, at least for a while before it fell and burned up on reentry. These Flesh Eaters would not be able to turn their Vr energy on any other group of humans, though he supposed they could build a new one from scratch. He spoke to that point.

“The use of Vorcan Energy on defenseless people is outlawed by every civilized space faring race. It is universally considered cruel and unusual punishment, the epitome of evil. I understand you are predators being hunters and carnivores by nature. This world has plenty of animals, including large animals to hunt and consume. Please refrain from eating people. I will give you a reasonably short time to gather your people and leave this world. Don’t make me come and speak to you again.” Nameless waved his hand and the Flesh Eaters went back to wherever they were and whatever they were doing.

Elgar returned in time to help Gwyn to his feet. “Ugly brutes,” Gwyn said about his glimpse of the Flesh Eaters. He paused to squeeze his eyes to get the water out of them.

Osfirth stood groaning and holding his head. “I didn’t see them,” Osfirth said. “Just as well. A good scream and I would probably scream my head right off my shoulders right now.”

“It does sort of feel like I had way too much to drink,” Gwyn agreed as Elgar turned both men to walk back to the horses. It was a slow walk, though eventually they got curious.

Osfirth began the conversation. “I heard what you said about carnivores. They eat people?”

“Like land sharks,” Elgar responded. “We look fat and juicy to them with little or no hair.”

“At least they are not giants, or dragons,” Gwyn said.

“Hopefully, they will fly away back to the stars and that will be it,” Elgar responded, but he had to think about it. “They have a natural enemy, the Apes.”

“Apes?” Osfirth asked and added an aside to Gwyn. “I’m trying not to think about trolls and dragons.”

“The Apes are herbivores,” Elgar explained. “Think of nature. It is meat eaters versus the plant eaters, but in this case, the plant eaters are fighting back. No telling how that fight will turn out, but hopefully that fight will not come here. We need these Flesh Eaters to return to the stars and if they want to hide, they need to hide somewhere else.”

“Hopefully,” Gwyn repeated Elgar’s word with some sarcasm while Elgar took Pinoak aside.

“You need to establish a fairy network around the globe,” he whispered to Pinoak. “I need to know where they go and what they do. I may have to counterattack.”

Pinoak looked at Elgar. “At the risk of sounding like a dwarf, not without us.”

Elgar smiled for the fairy. “I appreciate the offer, but let’s see what they have in mind. Information first.”

“Lord,” Pinoak agreed and turned back toward the forest to catch up with the rest of his people.

“Where is Pinoak going?” Gwyn asked. It was not a hard question for Elgar to answer.

“His people agreed to keep a watch on the Flesh Eaters to see that they leave this world. I am sure we will catch up with him, probably by the time we get to wherever we are going with the army.

“Devon.” Osfirth said his father shared that much. Elgar, Gwyn, and Marsham all nodded to say they heard, but by then they reached the horses and headed back two days to Somerton. Elgar had plenty to think about while they traveled. He had to get in touch with Alice of Avalon and did not like the information he got.

“The Apes have discovered the Flesh Eater home planet and have begun a well-planned and coordinated attack. The Ape home world was destroyed when the Flesh Eaters first went there. The Apes were already moving slower than light into space and already had a few colonies on nearby star systems. To this day they remain a few clicks behind the Flesh Eaters in their technology, but they learned a lot when they were invaded, including faster than light travel, and they had enough strength even in their limited way to throw the Flesh Eaters off their planet. The Apes lost about half their population, but they were able to move the rest to their colony worlds. Of course, that was when the war began.”

“So the Flesh Eater home world gets attacked and this ship escapes and comes to Earth,” Elgar whispered to himself so as not to disturb the others. “Can you explain?” Alice continued.

“Besides the do not go designation, Earth has been designated a sanctuary planet for five thousand years, since the days of the Agdaline.”

“Yes,” Elgar understood. “But temporary sanctuary, like to make emergency repairs, or for refugees until other arrangements can be made, and with strict restrictions, like don’t interfere with the native human population. Better not to even be seen.”

“Yes but sanctuary is interpreted differently by different peoples. In this case, we can assume one of two scenarios. There may be more. One is they are a rogue ship, like pirates who have no intention of fighting the Apes. Rather, they might go back after the fighting is over and see what they can find or steal that might be valuable. Meanwhile, they are on a world with plenty to eat, so they will not be leaving any time soon. The second option is they are a ship of cowards—call them deserters. In which case they will have no intention of going home ever. They will probably stay here until the food source runs dry.”

“So, they will stay here until it is safe to go home, but that could be years. Or they will stay here until they have eaten the human population and probably all the animals as well, and that could be centuries.”

Elgar spent most of the ride home shaking his head.

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