Dwarfs

R5 Greta: Back to the World, part 1 of 3

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Greta and Berry helped Hans to the table, and then Fae and Berry worked on waking him enough to feed him while Greta had her fill.  The food tasted very good, full of cold fruit, steaming vegetables and plenty of sweets, not unlike the hag’s table, but this was substantial and would fill the body to satisfaction.  Then, something else came up about the food of the little ones which Greta did not remember at first because she felt much too hungry to think.  Besides, Bogus distracted her by mumbling again.

“I was trying to bump her off,” he said.  “I sent her to the hag, pushed the wolf in her direction, and drew her into the wyvern swamp so they could suck the life out of her.  When all that failed, and it makes sense now, I put her into the hands of the clunker humans.  Those brutes like to kill everything they can get their hands on, but even they failed to do her in.  Bee stings and locust plagues!  Then when she comes for the boy, I figure if I can’t get her killed, at least maybe I can scare her away, but no!  She scolds the ogre, sends the disembodied home and gets her boy, and all on the same day. I can’t even make time fly by!  But no wonder.  I’ve been trying to kill my own goddess and scare the beeswax out of my own granddaughter.  Why, I’ll be the laughingest spirit in forever plus two!”

“Excuse me.”  Gorse spoke up.  Greta felt nearly full by the time he approached, temporarily sating her ravenous appetite.  “Excuse me.” He repeated and touched her sleeve.

“Yes Gorse,” she said, and she took the liberty to smile and stroke his red beard which made him turn crimson.  With his hat in his hand he did look rather like Snow White’s Bashful with a red beard.

“It was me and Ragwart who convinced Bogus to save your brother.  She’s a woman who ought to know better, we said, um, if you follow me, but he is just a boy child and ought not to get killed yet.”

“Ragwart?” Greta looked up.

“That’s mostly true.”  Ragwart confirmed.  “But then Bogus thought he ought to dance for months, or maybe as much as a week and think it no more than a few minutes.  Why, he would have been no more than an old bag of bones by the time he got done if Bogus had his way.”

“Say!” Gorse just thought of something. “How did you get Bogus to change his mind?  That is powerful hard to do, you know.”

“But since you have been eating our food, I guess it really does not matter.”  Ragwart said, and he and Gorse began an excited little dance of their own, as if they had played a great trick on the humans and were very proud of themselves.

“That’s it,” Greta said out loud.  “Once you eat the food of life, the food of the little spirits of the earth, you are their captive forever, or until they tire of you.”  Gorse and Ragwart looked delighted, but Greta merely looked at the others.  “I guess that means Hans will just have to stay with me, is all.”

The imps stopped dancing and Bogus stopped mumbling long enough to come over and begin whispering to them.  Fae spoke up while she and Berry, big sized, helped Hans.

“I don’t mind,” she said.

“Don’t mind what?” Berry asked before she realized Fae was not talking to her.

“I don’t mind being captive to the Vee Villy,” Fae said.  “If I can spend whatever precious time I have left with them, well, I always wanted to know and that part of me always felt empty.”

“But you are one quarter Fee.”  Greta said. “I don’t know if the food will affect you like that, though it may fill some of the empty part.”

Fae looked sad for a moment.  “But what about you and Hans.” she asked.

“Me?”  Greta laughed.  “I am about as captive to the little ones as anyone can get, and I have been for about forty-six hundred years.”

“Yes, of course.” Fae understood.

“As for Hans,” Greta started, but Berry interrupted.

“Oh, can I keep him?” she asked.  “I like him much, a lot, and he is very handsome, too.”

Fae and Greta looked at each other.  “We’ll see,” Greta said.  “Only right now we need to get back to the village.  It will be dark soon enough.”  Fae nodded in agreement.

At that moment, there came a sudden flash of light and a real fairy appeared by the table. The difference between her and Berry, when Berry got small, was striking.  This fairy had the veritable glow of life about her, shining in gold and silver sparkles which danced free of her wings, hair and finger tips.  Her every feature looked sharply distinguished, and yet she remained hard to see in some sense.  Every time Hans focused on her she seemed to move. She actually stayed quite still.  The human eyes had the problem, and even Fae had to squint to keep the fairy in focus

“My Lady.” The fairy curtsied in mid-air. Greta, of course, could see her perfectly.

“Please get big, Thissle.”  She knew the fairy’s name without thinking about it, and indeed, when she thought about it, she found she knew all about this lovely fee.  Thissle got big, but Bogus and the boys removed their hats and took a step back.  She appeared a beautiful woman of twenty-nine, so to speak.  “Where is your troop?”  Greta asked, knowing the answer full well.

“They have moved on, a hundred mortal years ago, to green the snows of the North.”  Thissle explained softly in her full-grown woman’s voice.  “Oh, my Lady.”  Thissle tried hard not to cry and everyone felt it.  Gorse had to blow his nose, twice.

“I don’t know if I can give you what you want.”  Greta said, but her own heart started breaking and she knew she had to try. “Thornbottom!”  She called, and the little sprite appeared because he had to. He looked smaller than Bogus, though not nearly as small as Thissle in her normal size.  Bogus and his boys obviously thought little of the sprite, but Thissle clearly loved him with all her heart, and he loved her with equal fervor. He appeared very cute.  Greta wanted to invite him to sit on her knee, but Thornbottom thought to speak first.

“That would be a great honor,” he said.  “But my name is not accidental.”  And indeed, he looked covered with thorns and prickles, much like a porcuipine.

“And that little thing has kept you apart all of these years?” Greta asked.

“Not so little, Lady,” Thornbottom said.  “But I won’t horrify you with the details.”

“Do you love him?” Greta asked and Thissle said, absolutely, and no one needed Fae to tell them that she was speaking the truth. “And will you be a good wife for him.”

“Yes, I will do my very best,” Thissle said.

“And do you love her?”  She asked Thonbottom.

“More than all my life,” he answered.

“And will you be a good husband?”  Greta asked.

“I will be the best I can,” Thonbottom answered plainly and as true as anyone ever spoke.

“Hold hands.” Greta told them.  “I will try.  I cannot promise.”

“We understand,” Thornbottom said.  “The gods never make promises.”

Thissle got on her knees and Greta saw that even holding hands could be hard.  She got pricked by one little spike on the back of Thornbottom’s hand and a small drop of precious fairy blood formed there, but she looked brave.

Greta, meanwhile heard advice that came on the time wind.  “Imagine ordering the colors of the rainbow.”  The voice said.  “Show the bats how to see without seeing and teach the waters to make sculptures in lime. Paint the sky at sunset and sing to the moon to raise the tide.”  Greta understood and stilled her mind.  She did not strain or stress or try to do anything at all.  She simply understood or perhaps decided how things needed to be, and she decided that was how they were, and when she opened her eyes, she saw Thornbottom and Thissle exactly as she decided.

Thornbottom got a little bigger, and Thissle got very much smaller, though again, not nearly as small as she used to be in her normal fairy size.  They had qull-like hair, still prickly, but not nearly the deadly spikes of before, and the backs of their hands and tops of their feet were more like rounded knobs and not at all sharp to the touch.  Both were richly dressed as if for a wedding, which it was, and Thornbottom looked as cute as ever, while Thissle looked no less beautiful.

Thissle and Thornbottom let out squeals of delight and began to dance, hand in hand and arm in arm.  Fae became full of tears and Berry spoke.  “I hope I am that beautiful when I marry Hans,” she said.

R5 Greta: How May Miles to Avalon? part 3 of 3

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Greta did not answer.  She got busy helping Fae up the little hill.  Berry also got preoccupied, back on Greta’s shoulder, sticking her head out behind and sticking her tongue out at the receding ogre.

“Fascinating,” Fae said.  “Such a big and frightening brute.”

“Yes, I know,” Greta said.  “I’m sorry.” As if she was personally responsible.

“And yet, very child-like in a way,” Fae concluded.

“In a way,” Greta agreed.  “After a fashion.  Oh, let’s face it, most ogres are not even the sharpest spoon in the drawer.”

“Fascinating,” Fae said again.  “And I know what you say is true.”

When they reached more level ground, Greta ventured a question.

“Bogus, you are Berry’s uncle?”

“Yes, I am,” Bogus said.

“He lies.” Fae got right on him.  Greta, Berry and Bogus all looked at her.

“Well, no.” Bogus took a side step.  “Actually, I am more like her great uncle.”

“He lies.” Fae said, and Bogus looked very uncomfortable.  He looked inclined to say no more, but Greta felt curious.  They all were.

“What, exactly is your relationship to Berry?”  Greta asked.

“Yes, what?” Berry wanted to know.

“It is kind of complicated,” Bogus hedged.

“He—” That was all Fae could get out before Bogus yelled.

“All right! I’m her grandfather.  Got it?”

Greta could tell this came as news to Berry.  “You are her grandfather,” Greta confirmed.

“Yes, look. We need to stop here a minute.” Bogus quickly changed the subject. “You can rest and I will be back in a minute, I promise,” he said, and looked at Fae, pleading.

“He does not lie,” Fae said, so Greta nodded.  She would not mind a minute’s rest.  She felt sure Fae would not mind.  Berry quickly jumped to Fae’s lap.  She knew Greta had questions.

“So, who was the flyer in your family?”  Greta asked.

Berry shook her head, and then perked up.  “Bogus has wings, but he never uses them.  I don’t think they work right,” she said.  She thought some more.  “Bogus said his mother was a flyer.”  She looked proud to have remembered that.

Greta nodded. It did not make sense to look at them, but it made perfect sense in the folded, convoluted universe of the little ones. She got ready to say something when Fae spoke.

“There is a chill in the air.”  Greta felt the same, and it caused her to look around.

“It’s a bodiless.”  Berry named it, and Greta shrieked as the ghost came out of the tree right beside her. She had to stand and scoot back to keep the ghost from walking right through her.  It looked like a Roman, and an officer at that.  They all saw him well enough, but oddly, he did not seem to see them.

“Roman,” Berry said.  “I should have remembered this was his place.  Roman!”  She called to the ghost and the ghost stopped.  At first the ghost looked around as if something did not quite penetrate. “Roman.  Why are you here?  You frightened us.”

“Little mistress?” The Roman communicated after a fashion.

“Where are you going, Roman?”  Berry asked.

“Round and round. I do not know.  I cannot find my way.  It is so dark.”  The ghost seemed to look at Greta, and then more nearly looked through Greta.  “Do you know the way out?” he asked.

Greta let go of her little prayer and spoke.  “The rebellion is over.  Rome has won. The emperor says to come home, now. You are ordered to come home.”

The Roman took off his helmet and appeared to put his hand through his hair.  It appeared as only a slight wind.  Berry flew back beside Fae.  This seemed new to her.

The ghost smiled for a minute and they all caught the sense of home.  Then the ghost vanished altogether.

“What did you do?” Berry asked, and leapt for the protection of Fae’s hair.  “Where did he go?”

“She sent him home,” Fae answered, even as Bogus showed up.

“Back like I promised.”  Bogus said, but he eyed Greta harder than ever.  “You must be made of stronger stuff than most humans.”

“No,” Greta said. “Same stuff, just a little more experienced is all.”

“So, who are you?” he asked.

“A sister who wants her brother,” she answered.  “You know the instructions of the goddess.  Now, no more tricks.”

“Oh sure.” Bogus almost sneered as the sarcasm crept into his voice.  “And I suppose you always do what your god tells you.”

Greta could not fairly answer that with Fae around.  “All the same,” she said.  “I want my brother back and the day is drawing on.”

“Little do you know,” Bogus chuckled and rubbed his hands.

“Bogus,” Greta got through fooling around.  “You must take me to my brother, right now.”  She compelled him.

“Well, if I must I must,” he said, and he started to walk.  “Though my better nature asks why?”  He mumbled again.  “If I were in my right mind I wouldn’t do it.  Not in a million years.  So that’s it, then.  I’ve gone completely bonkers.  Lock me up and throw away the key.  See, my feet are moving, and in the right direction, too.  I must be mad.  Well, here we are.”

Greta stepped up and saw Hans dancing with a woodwife while two little imps made wild music on a pipe and a drum.  Several woodwives stood around, clapping and waiting to take their turn at the dance. Hans had been dancing for nearly three days and three nights.

“Greta.” Hans saw her.  “I’m sorry I left the camp, but isn’t this wonderful?”

“Stop.  Stop the music,” Greta insisted, and the music stopped.  “And how long have you been dancing?”

“Not more than a few minutes,” Hans said.  “I was about to come back.”  He collapsed. Greta rushed up to put his head in her lap, but he had already fallen asleep.

“Hey Bogus.” Greta heard one of the imps. “What happened?  It’s still today.”

“What?  Not possible,” Bogus said.  “I’ve been walking them in circles for days.  It must be the day after tomorrow at least.”

“No, it’s still today, I tell you.”

“Ragwart.” Bogus called for a second opinion. “How many days since we left the river?”

“Same day,” Ragwart said.  “Just like Gorse told you.”  Gorse nodded and Bogus turned to face Greta but Greta spoke first.

“We need food,” she said.  “Hans must be absolutely starving.  And then I want to go straight back to the river without tricks.  I want to be back in the village before dark.”  She did not want to spend another night in the haunted woods.  Gorse and Ragwart volunteered to fetch the food while Bogus tried one last time.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“I am the Traveler, Greta,” she finally told him.

“The Kairos, the goddess,” Bogus said.  “Pots and kranky bits!”  He started to swear, though he had actually figured it out, but he stopped as Greta held up her hand, having more to say.

“More important,” she said.  “Fae and Berry are both your granddaughters.”

“What?” Bogus jumped about four feet straight up.

“Not possible,” Fae said.  “I am seventy years old and Berry can’t be more than thirteen.”

Greta shook her head while Berry spoke up.  “I’m seventy,” Berry said.

“It’s true,” Greta said.  “The little ones age much more slowly, but twins were born and Fae stayed with the humans while Berry was given to the fee.”

“Honkin beans!” Bogus yelled.  “Great horned butt headed goblins and ogre snot!  I’ll be the laughing stock of every spirit between here and Davy Jones.”  His language got rather colorful after that as Ragwart returned.

“Eats is ready,” Ragwart said, having missed everything up to that point.

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

MONDAY

Playing with the sprites is all fine and well, but at some point, Greta has to return to reality.  he has guns to deal with, and a rebellion getting out of hand in Ravenshold.  Next week, Back to the World.  Until then…

*

Avalon 5.3 Perseverance, part 3 of 6

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The volume felt unbearable.  Padrama regretted inviting the dwarf family to dinner, even if he felt he had no choice. The only good thing was it guaranteed no tiger would come within a hundred miles of that noise.  Bobo and Rinna argued and complained about the deer, and the cooking, and whatever else crossed their minds.  The boys sang.  At least Padrama imagined it was supposed to be singing.  Their volume was probably intended to drown out the sound of their parents fighting.  Poor little Rita sat quietly and rubbed the stubble on her chin, not counting the half-dozen times she mentioned that her mama told her that one day she would have a beard down to her knees.

“Good for you,” Padrama always responded, and Rita grinned with pride and went back to rubbing her stubble.

Raja sat close to Padrama at first, and eyed these spirits that he called Yaksha.  He said they were known to practice strange and powerful magic.  But Padrama assured his servant that these would not be any trouble, and after about an hour of the boys singing, the little girl rubbing, and the parents arguing, Raja threw his hands up with a comment.

“They might as well be human.”

Somehow, Bobo managed to slip something into the tea to make it alcoholic.  Padrama was surprised for all of a second, before he shrugged and decided it was just as well.  Maybe the group would eventually pass out in a drunken stupor.

Padrama did not imagine how bad it could get until he saw them eat.  They hardly chewed, but showed everything when they talked, and they all talked at the same time through the meal.  They stuffed more in before they swallowed, and more than once, one or the other of the boy had to lean over, gag, and throw something up.  One time it was a rib bone.  And the boy picked up the bone to chew on.

They ate through a whole deer, and half of the second one, leaving half for the morning, which for himself and Raja would have been breakfast, lunch and dinner.  It would be just a slim breakfast if the dwarf did not go home by first light.

Raja had a hard time holding his hands over his ears and eating anything at all.  Padrama finally had to secretly compel the dwarfs a little, to quiet them down after the meal.  He thought to get their attention with a story, and he made them listen and not interrupt.  Unfortunately, the only story that came to mind was the story of the three dwarfs at the bottom of the well.  It was a well-worn story with hysterical twists and turns throughout.  Padrama knew Bobo and Rinna had heard it before.  He knew they once told the story to the boys.  Little Rita was the only one who had not heard it, but Padrama imagined he could get away with a few laughs and a good night’s sleep.

He glanced at Raja.  Of course, Raja had not heard the story.  It was not the kind of story one shared with humans.  He imagined it would be all right.  Raja was a serious-minded soul and did not have much of a sense of humor.  So he told the story, and later regretted it.  Little Rita giggled all night long.  That was punctuated with Raja’s snorting laugh, which sounded worse than his snoring.  That was drowned out now and then by great guffaws from one boy or the other, not to mention the occasional snicker from Rinna.  Only Bobo appeared to be immune, but suffice to say, Padrama did not get much rest.

Padrama heard them get up in the morning, before dawn.  He heard them trying to be quiet, though they sounded like buffalos in a coffee shop.  They also laughed now and then, especially Bobo, who seemed to have saved up his laughter for the morning.  They left.

When Padrama opened his eyes, he saw that the half of the deer was gone.  He expected that.  Beside him, Raja’s voice whispered.

“Are they gone?”

“They are gone,” Padrama said, and he got up to make sure they did not tinker with the chariot, and the horses were okay.  He found a small stack of wood beside the fire and assumed it was their way of making payment for the half a deer.  He knew by morning they would all conveniently forget that he was the Kairos, their own personal god, given to the little ones by the gods in the most ancient times.  He would not remind them.  He would look out across the way and think about where he was proposing to go.

“Nothing left to cook,” Raja said.  “I’m glad to still have my skin.”

Padrama laughed.  He prepared himself to hunt, but a pot appeared on the miraculously built up fire, and a man appeared, sitting, and staring into the fire.  Raja leapt up and ran several steps from the fire.  Padrama squinted and then sat.

“Mita.  Why are you here?”  Padrama deliberately used a name for the god that Raja did not know.  He did not want his servant freaking out more than necessary.

“Several reasons,” Mita responded.  “Breakfast is a good one.”

It was rabbit and actual vegetables in the stew, and Raja quickly retrieved their bowls and spoons from his backpack.  “Sorry,” he said.  “We only carry the two.”

“Quite all right,” Mita said.  He lifted his hand that had been hidden by the pot and held a bowl in it, with a spoon in the bowl.  “Here,” he said and reached out.  Raja gave him the two bowls and he filled them.  It smelled wonderful, and from the sounds Raja made, Padrama was sure it would taste wonderful, too.  Unfortunately, he had sudden, serious concerns on his mind.

“You know you are needed,” Mita said.

Padrama glanced at Raja, and Mita, who was, in fact, Mithras, did something so Raja could not hear and thought of nothing but his breakfast.  Padrama spoke.  “Are Brahma and Varuna having trouble?”

Mita shrugged.  “Things have gone well up to this point, but they appear to have reached an impasse.  Varuna has only been king…well for some time, since Dayus stepped down, but it is asking a lot to give that up.  At least, I think so.”

“I didn’t think being king was that important to Varuna.”

“It isn’t.  He is prepared to give up the kingship, but who will take the responsibility?  Brahma seems a reasonably stable and good person, but as chief negotiator for the other side, he can’t exactly negotiate himself into the position.  Shiva wants it.  Vishnu won’t let him take it.  Indra suggested Vishnu might take it, but Vishnu is like Varuna in that respect and wants no part of it.”  Mita shrugged.

“How about Devi?”  Padrama said.  “She would be a great king.”

“She’s a woman.”

“So why can’t a woman be king?”

Mita just shook his head.  “You have to go there.  Both Brahma and Varuna would listen to you, if you don’t offer stupid suggestions.”

Padrama thought about it.  He knew the history and the way things supposedly worked out, but he would have to be careful how he presented it.”  Then something Mita said caught up with him.  “What do you mean, I have to go there?  Don’t you mean we have to go there?”

Mita shook his head.  “I suppose I will have to take you, but you will have to get back on your own.  I’m getting while the getting is good.  You know I have worked with Scythians, and the people all around Bactra for centuries.  It was Varuna’s idea to stall the invasion.  I am known by the people of this land, but I also have a connection to the Aryans.”

“Who are now also in this land.”

“Not all,” Mita said.  “Some Asuras, or I should say, Ahuras will cross the divide and move down with the people into the mostly empty no-man’s land, what you call Iran.  We will be gods for the Iranians, the Avestan Magi.”

“Medes and Persians, and I suppose you will still play with the Scythians, too.”  Mita shrugged, but Padrama had another thought.  “Tough luck on your brother, you running out on him and all.”

Mita shrugged again.  “You know I am not a fighter, and I am a glutton.  I would not do well around ascetics.”

Padrama looked across the river where Mohini had gone.  “You know I have only one desire in this life.  My soul mate is in the hands of a demon and I will save her.”

“Very noble, but if you don’t come, there may be nothing left to save.”

Padrama nodded very sadly.  “Raja,” he said.  “Raja.”  He got the man’s attention.  “You need to stay here and watch our things.  I have to run an errand, and I will be back as soon as possible.”

Raja nodded slightly, and when Padrama and the stranger both disappeared, he swallowed.

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

Happy Thanksgiving

Be sure to chew with your mouth closed and swallow.

And Happy Reading.

Avalon 5.3 Perseverance, part 1 of 6

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

After 1526 BC, India, by the Ganges.  Kairos 62: Padrama the Aryan

Recording…

“Mohini.”  The call echoed through the hills.  It flowed down the river of life, like ripples on the surface of the water, and stopped behind the caller at the snow-covered peaks in the great beyond.  The mountains guarded the land of the dead and the Golden City of the gods.  Ravager, the demon servant of Shiva would not dare go there.  His life would be forfeit.  And Mohini would be lost.  “Sasha.”  The caller tried her other name, but he heard no response.

“Lord Padrama,” Raja got the lord’s attention as he got down from the chariot to check on the horses.  “Your faithful steed, Buhto, is finished for the day.  He cannot go further and live.”

Padrama did not want to stop, but he knew what his servant said was true.  He got down from the chariot.  “We will refresh here,” he said, while he loosened the harness on one side.  He led the other horse, Tata, down to the riverbank to drink.  The poor horse sweated, and breathed hard after its day of labor.  Padrama wiped some of the sweat off the horse’s neck, and the horse nodded.  “Tata.  You would ride to the end of the earth if I asked, and never complain.”  The horse appeared to nod again before it bent down to drink.

Padrama decided that might be a good idea.  He knelt, cupped his hand and pulled up some water to sip, while his eyes looked up at the distant mountains.  It looked like a heavy winter snow, and ice likely covered whatever passes might be there—places Padrama did not know, him being a stranger in the land.

Raja brought Buhto to drink, and Padrama spoke.  “We will sleep here and watch Chandra rise, and rest under the many watchful eyes of Varuna.”

“I do not know these gods you speak of, though my heart says I should,” Raja responded.  “Are these gods from the land your Princess comes from, or from this strange land we have entered into?”

“They are of this land,” Padrama said.  “The Princess not only comes from a far-away land, but from far in the future; much farther than three generations, as you count time.”

“So you have said.  But I do not understand.”

Padrama stood and reached out to that future.  He traded places with that very Greek Princess, and the armor of the Kairos, which Padrama rarely took off, instantly adjusted to perfectly fit her shape and size.  She pulled her bow and quiver of arrows from a pocket in Athena’s cape, and checked the ground beneath her feet for signs of passage.

“Princess,” Raja said, having learned that she did not answer to the name Lord Padrama.  “That backpack you made for me that fits so well on my back is empty of much food.”

The Princess smiled.  “We hardly had time in the village to gather any food,” she said.  She looked around.  She was in Padrama’s time and place, so she shared Padrama’s thoughts, felt Padrama’s concerns, and her tongue naturally conformed to Padrama’s language, though Raja said she spoke with a strange accent.  “I cannot believe we saw her there in Ravager’s clutches.  She screamed for me, for Mikos, as he dragged her away.  We got delayed by the crowd, but not by that much.  I can’t believe he eluded us again.”

“Did we lose the trail?”

“No,” the Princess said.  “I checked it personally, several times.”  She put one arrow on the string and looked along the edge of the river for more signs of passage.  “I cannot believe he has gone closer to the mountains.  If the rocks, cliffs and crevasses don’t kill him, the snow, ice and wind certainly will.”

“Ravager is a man without a mind,” Raja said.  “He is the worst sort of demon, to make war on a woman.  But I believe he thinks Shiva will save him if he should get in trouble to lose his life.”

The Princess shook her head.  “Shiva is not in the saving business,” she said, before she added, “Keep the camp and make a fire.  I will see if there is something I can hunt for supper.”  She started up along the riverbank, and Raja shouted after her.

“My pot is full, ready to boil the water.  My pan will be ready and hot on the fire when you return.”

The Princess quickly got out of earshot, and just as quickly picked up the trail of the deer that had been to the river earlier to water.  The small herd had moved on, a good half-hour into the wilderness, as the signs said.  It took the Princess forty minutes to cover the exact same distance, and she fired her arrow, a perfect shot, even as the edge of the setting sun first touched the horizon.

The Princess dug out her arrow.  It was one of her good ones, with a barbed, bronze point.  She checked to be sure the shaft remained straight and un-cracked, before she cleaned it and slipped it back into her quiver in the pocket of her cape.  She considered how best to carry back her prize when someone spoke.

“Food,” A little man spoke, and drooled, but just a little.  “Pardon.”  The man tipped his hat.  “I haven’t had a bite to eat all day in this wilderness.”

“So, you ate before you came into this wilderness?” the Princess teased.

The man paused, startled.  “Not what I meant.”

“Well, Bobo,” the Princess said, knowing the dwarf’s name, as was to be expected of the Kairos, god, or in this case, goddess of all the little spirits of the earth.  “When I get this prize back to the camp, and Raja cooks it so he and I can eat our fill, I am sure you can enjoy what remains.”

“Yes, well, yes.”  Bobo struggled, but could not find a way around what she said, even to twist the words more to his liking.  Finally, he tried, “I might enjoy it if I ate with you, too.”  The Princess shook her head, so he tried the next best thing.  “But there is my wife, and family.  They are hungry, too.  And I figure you are such an expert with that bow of yours, you can surely find another, and maybe share this with a poor old man.”  He tried the poor, pitiful face dwarfs and imps are so famous for.

The Princess calculated in her head how many mouths that would be.  She saw another deer lazily grazing in the distance, not scared nearly far enough away after the death of this first one.  She took her arrow back out, and hardly aimed.  The arrow flew all that distance and struck the deer in just the right place.  The deer stood for a very long second before it fell to its side, stiff-legged and stone dead.

“Holy Ganesh elephant farts,” Bobo swore, and whipped off his hat.  “I’ve never seen shooting like that in my whole life, and I’ve lived for a very long time, let me tell you.”

“Artemis is my best friend in the whole world.  Did I mention that.”

“No, bejeebers, you didn’t.  That explains the some of it, maybe.”

The Princess put her fingers to her lips and whistled.  Two boys as tall as the Princess’ five foot-seven appeared along with their mother, who looked like she had some ogre in her, and a little girl who looked to be working on the beginnings of a beard.  The princess looked the boys over like they were prize hogs.  She told one to pick up the deer at their feet, and told the other to follow her.  The other looked back at his brother and father, and made a face, like he was the lucky one.

The boy the Princess left behind picked up the deer and asked, “So, do we run for it?”

“Not this time,” Bobo rubbed his chin.  “I don’t think that would be wise at all.”  He looked at his wife, but she was busy staring at the Princess and did not know what to say.

The little girl looked up at the both of them and announced, “I like her.”

The Princess leaned down to examine her arrow and felt a hand on her butt.  She also felt the electrical discharge that picked up the boy and sent him six feet through the air, to land on his back, dazed and bruised.  The Princess dug out her arrow, snapped off the cracked shaft, cleaned and kept the arrow head.  She turned to the boy.

“Well, pick it up.”  The boy moaned.  “Come on,” she said.  “The meat won’t keep all day and it will be dark soon.”

The boy opened his eyes wide, jumped up, mumbled something like “Yes, mum,” and put the deer on his shoulders.  Then he hustled after the Princess, because she had already started walking back toward the others.

“Come,” she said, when she arrived at where the family stared at her.  She did not stop walking, but they caught up soon enough.  Bobo, with his quick, short steps, came up beside her, hat in hand, and asked a question.

“Are you one of those new gods I heard tell about?”

“Nope,” she said.  “I’ve been around a long time.”  Bobo walked before he came up with another guess.

“Are you an Olympian come over here to try and keep the peace?”

The Princess thought about that before she said, “Nope.”

“Well,” Bobo explained.  “You said Artemis was your best friend and all.”

The Princess nodded.  “But I won’t even be born for another thirteen-hundred-years or so.”

Bobo whistled.  He had to think real hard, and the Princess did not want him to get a headache.  She thought she would give him a clue, now that she reached a point where Padrama could find the camp on his own.  She smiled, and traded places with the young man so he could return to his own time and stand in his own shoes, and the armor of the Kairos adjusted to fit him.  Good thing, he thought.  The Princess has about a twenty-two-inch waist.  That would hurt.

The boys stumbled.  Bobo gasped.  His wife, Rinna, fainted.  The little girl, Rita, took the change in stride and said, “Hello.”

“Hello,” Padrama answered.  “I like you, too,” he smiled before he turned and shouted.  “Don’t worry, Raja.  It is just me, and I found some friends, and the wife knows how to cook.”

“Good thing,” Raja said, as they came into the camp and saw him holding Padrama’s spear and shield.  “I’ve been hearing noises, like big cat noises.  I don’t want the horses eaten by some lion.”

Padrama shook his head.  “In this part of the world, it was probably a tiger.

Elect II—22 Temptation, part 1 of 3

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Riverbend made her warriors dress for battle and hid them around the entrance.  Maggie Holmes quipped to Trooper Scott.  “I don’t know why she said I was in charge.”  They were just inside the main door of the administration building which Riverbend cracked open to speak to them.

“Now a little elf magic,” she said, and gave the signal.  The security people were coming to the door down one side of the building.  The other men were coming from the other direction.  There were trees and bushes that lined the walk on both sides and Riverbend could not help a giggle thinking about it.

ab-war-elf-aThe State Troopers heard one of the elves shout with what Riverbend called directed sounds.  It sounded male and only went where it was intended.  “Quick, there are men trying to block off the entrance.”  This was followed by the sound of gunfire.

The words in the other direction were, “Quick.  Security people are trying to block off the entrance.”  More gunfire sounds, and the elves made sure they stayed hidden, but with their bows ready.

Exactly on schedule, both groups of men reached the walkway at the same time.  Guns blared and men fell while most backed up to the trees and bushes. There was a veritable rain of bullets across the brick walk at first

Maggie looked at her phone and shook it.  “Come on, Carmine,” she said.

“Better to call Ms Nicholas,” Sebastian said.  He had his gun ready but was content to watch the fight and not inclined to get into it.

“I called Nicholas, but Troopers are harder to get in off the highways.  Carmine is the local.”

“But you called before the fight started,” Riverbend pointed out.

“Just as soon as I knew what was up,” Maggie admitted.

The fire rate slackened after a short while.  One of the drug dealers tried to sneak up along the side of the steps.  He took an arrow and fell, but that was just before a ton of local police came roaring up the back street, lights and sirens blasting.

a-trenton-police-a1“Idiots,” Maggie called them as the fight abruptly ended and men scattered to escape.  Sebastian called on his radio.  There were a couple of State Troopers on the street.  “Make for the library parking lot.  The drug dealers have a car and a van parked there.  And hide if you plan to catch them, you light and siren freaks.”  He saw Maggie smiling at him.

“I believe my rookie is learning.”

“Given the company I figure I better learn fast.”  He pointed at Riverbend.

All they could see were the eyes beneath the helmet, but they were expressive.  “What?” Riverbend asked, suggesting she had no idea what they were talking about.

###

Maria and Linnea were very busy with the wounded and Melissa and her and Amina’s elf friends helped as much as they could.  Amina herself was kept back in case they needed her particular skills later on.  She tried not to see what was going on, but she couldn’t help anticipate the casualties as they came in.

ac-amina-3“A broken leg on the elevator.  Missing fingers coming down the stairwell from the top floor,” she said, and every time she said something, she closed her eyes and shook her head.

Mindy and Arwen were guarding the front hall, but it seemed more like they were arguing about Alexander the Great.  There were others, including Sara’s friend who was berating herself for not being up there with Aurora.  “I should have stayed with the priestess,” she kept saying.

Officer Dickenson pulled in front of City Hall and turned off his lights and siren.  He was surprised that Ms Riley, who drove her own car, somehow got there first.  In fact, Roland was already in a conversation with the two police officers outside the main door.  They kept repeating that City Hall was temporarily closed.  They said it was electrical problems until the lights came on.  Then they said it was a gas leak.

Jessica, Fiona and Harmony got to the argument first as Latasha waited for Officer Dickenson to get a shotgun out of his trunk.  Jessica interrupted the argument with a finger pointed at the police officers.  “If you two shoot the ogre you are going to be in big trouble.”

Harmony paused to call her troop in battle ready armor, and now that the front lights were on, the police officers saw everything.  Harmony changed her fairy weave clothes to armor, picked up her helmet, grabbed the spear and shield the others brought for her and marched her troop inside.

“Now?” Fiona asked.  She had opted to remain in hunter’s garb.

“Now,” Jessica agreed, and they each grabbed one of Roland’s hands and dragged him through the opening to Avalon before it closed.

Boston put her hands to her hips.  “Hey!  That’s my husband.”  Officer Dickenson headed for the front door, dragged by an impatient Latasha.  Latasha was not about to miss a chance to get a ghoul, but Boston used the opening to follow.  “My student,” she said, pointed and hustled.

ab-war-eelfOut front, the two police officers stood quietly until one asked, “What did she mean, ogre?”.

Once on Avalon, Jessica felt the queasiness in her stomach so it was up to Fiona to act when Roland protested being dragged off against his will.  They were in a big room with enough tables and chairs to double for a high school lunch room.  Roland slammed his hand down on a table.

“But Commander Falcon will listen to you,” Fiona said, and Jessica moaned either because her stomach was churning or Fiona said the wrong thing.

“Commander Falcon?”

“Over here, Roland.”  The Commander was sitting at one of the back tables.  “I was beginning to wonder if the women were ever going to ask for my help.”  He whistled and the wall of the building vanished to reveal some three hundred spirits of all shapes and sizes fitted out for war.  They were spaced out across a great lawn, and they were looking impatient.

###

Back in City Hall, Latasha was not content to wait for the elevator.  She was moving up the stairwell with abandon when Officer Dickenson stopped suddenly and raised his pistol.  He looked ready to kill Latasha, but the ghoul that reached for his mind made a big mistake going after the big man rather than the women.

Boston’s orange magic snaked out rapidly into the stairwell.  It froze Officer Dickenson in place so he couldn’t shoot anyone or anything, and it showed two ghoul feet and the nappy hair on top of the ghoul head.  That was all Latasha needed.  One great leap and one swing of her ax and they heard the clunk, clunk, clunk of a ghoul head rolling down the stairs.

“I got one,” Latasha said when she landed on her feet and watched the ghoul shrink down to a purple spot.  She had been afraid she was going to miss all the fun, but then some twenty dwarfs, elves and other assorted people pushed up past them, some tipping their hats as they went, and Roland caught up to them.

“They filled the basement first so the ghouls couldn’t go to ground.  Now they are clearing out floor by floor to the roof.”

boston-a2“What do you mean go to ground?” Latasha asked as she nudged Officer Dickenson to help him clear his head.

Boston explained.  “Most creatures that have low or no tolerance for the sun can dematerialize at dawn and sink into the earth.  Many can then move through the earth until they get to a cavern or cave or place they can wait safely until sunset.”

“Like a basement?” Officer Dickenson asked.

“Yes, I suppose,” Roland answered.

“So every little kid who is afraid to go down into the basement may have a good reason.  Maybe there is a ghoul or ogre hiding in the corner.”

“Troll,” Boston corrected him.  “Ogres don’t entirely mind the sun.  It would be a troll in the corner, or a goblin.”

Avalon 4.8: part 6 of 6, A Dragon’s Work is Never Done

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At the moment the sun cracked the horizon, Nuwa dragon finished her exhale.  She had risen high in the sky with no wings for support, and it looked for a second like she might fall, but all eyes were fastened on the darkness that appeared the instant the flame stopped.  No one, who did not know, could guess what it was, but they saw it immediately sparkle in the sunlight and then vanish in one small burst of light.dragon 6

Nuwa dragon caught her fall and curled herself a half-dozen times around the dragon on the ground.  “Hush baby,” Nuwa dragon said in the right language.

“Mama.  Hurting,” the dragon responded.  Now that the sorcerer’s control was gone, the dead wolves returned to being dead, and the dragon recognized that it had been shot several times.

Thalia stepped out from the trees, and she did not even stop when people and horses came out from the great worm hole a short distance away.  Nevah felt afraid for Thalia in the face of that enormous dragon.  Bezos made sure his hammer was at hand.  Phadon put away his sword, willing to trust Thalia’s judgment, but he watched carefully.  Anwanna hugged and quieted his donkey.

“Nuwa,” Thala said, knowing right away who it was.

“Thalia,” Nuwa responded.  “I brought your friends.”

Katie 8“I thank you most kindly, Thalia said.  “Excuse me one minute.”  Thalia turned around and yelled, “Boston.”  She opened her arms to give the girl a hug.

Katie paused on seeing her.  Her mouth breathed, “Elect?”

“Yes, I know,” Thalia answered Katie’s thoughts.  “I get strange some times, but I figure as long as I don’t join or start an Amazon tribe, I should be all right.”

“Me too,” Katie agreed.

“You have friends?” Lockhart said, and Thalia took the time to bring everyone out from the woods and introduce them.  She explained to Nevah that Boston used to be human and Alexis used to be an elf.

“You can do that?” Nevah asked, excited.  “I can be made whole?”

“Whole what?” Thalia asked in return.  “You have a mother and father who love you, and that seems pretty whole to me.”

“Thalia lost her family to Amorites rampaging through the Levant.  She has been alone ever since,” Mingus whispered to Lincoln and Alexis, knowing that Boston would hear with her good elf ears.  Thalia may have heard, but she offered no thoughts, turning to Nuwa instead.

“Where is Fuxi, I need him too,” she said.

“Sleeping would be my guess,” Nuwa said.

“Fuxi,” both Thalia and Nuwa called.  The travelers imagined Nuwa’s call would travel a good bit further.Thalia 1

“Might as well see what’s for breakfast,” Thalia said.  “And probably lunch and maybe supper too as long as we are waiting for Fuxi.”

“Can I keep this little one?” Nuwa asked.

Thalia shook her head.  “You can help him heal, but he needs to go where he won’t get into any trouble.”

“It is a shame not to heal this magnificent creature, and for my friends, let me say I do not blame you for defending yourselves.  I hold the sorcerer entirely responsible.”

“Good to know,” Lockhart said, having just realized why the dragon was injured.

“Sorcerer?” Lincoln asked.

“You can’t help,” Thalia insisted.

“I imagine that isn’t what he was asking,” Mingus said.

“Father!” Alexis scolded him.

“Can I come this time?” Nuwa interrupted the family drama.

“No,” Thalia said.  “You cannot come with us.  We have three days to journey up the mountain, and I figure it will take three days for you to lead our friends to the next time gate.  I need you to protect them, please.  The sorcerer will dare not interfere if you are with them.”

“I understand,” Nuwa dragon said, but she did sound a bit disappointed.

volcano 1Thalia’s gang and the travelers helped the dwarfs put out the fire in the great hall.  They ended up missing breakfast but had a fine lunch.  Thalia showed the travelers the distant tower on the smoking mountain, and said over and over, “No.  You can’t go with me.  The last thing we need is for the sorcerer to get his hands on weapons of mass destruction.”

Lockhart was the only one who really said anything.  “You know, since starting on this journey, I have come to realize that getting home alive is the second most important thing.  Helping you keep history on track is first, and all you have to do is ask.”

“I know.  I appreciate that,” Thalia said.  “But not this time.  And for the record, Katie is an elect, and she will do things that you would rather she not.  She will take risks, and you just need to deal with that.  What it really comes down to is do you trust her judgment or not?”

“I do,” Lockhart said.  “but sometimes I might not want to watch.”

Katie and Thalia shared a grin and Katie took Lockhart’s arm, just because.

Nevah and Boston spent the day together, talking about everything.  Nevah, though she was only half-hobgoblin, had less couth than the elf.  She trapped Mingus and Elder Stow, and let them have it.th nevah 5

“I like my companions.  We have come a long way, though not nearly as far as you have to go, but I don’t think we would have gotten this far if we did not like each other and if we were not nice and good to each other.  Whatever your personal feelings, you should keep them to yourself.  You need to be good and nice and supportive and encouraging to all of your team or you will never get where you are going in one piece.  I don’t care if you are a wise elder elf and from the elder race.  You are acting like boobies, and spoiled ones at that.”

Nevah huffed and puffed as she walked away and Boston asked, “Boobies?”

“That is what my mother called me.  I used to chew on her boobies when I was first born.”

Fuxi dragon showed up mid-afternoon.  Thalia had instructions for him and could only hope he would remember it all.  “Take this dragon to the Khyber and seek out Lord Varuna.  Tell him that I am asking the dragon be taken to the land in the sky and given to the oread Parvatayas.  The dragon has four or five-hundred-years of life yet.  Tell him, please don’t let him feed on people.”

Fuxi looked at her.

“Take the dragon to the Khyber and Lord Varuna to give the dragon to Parvatayas.”

Fuxi nodded, sort of.  Nuwa intervened.

“If you do a good job, you can come up to lake Bosten for a time and fish.”

“I’ll do it,” Fuxi said, and somehow, he got the dragon up on his back where he made the dragon hang on, and he took off for the south and vanished in the clouds.

Nuwa 2The following morning, Nuwa and the travelers said good-bye and headed toward the next time gate.  Katie had a thought.

“I suppose Mingus knows how these stories basically work out.  I assume she finds a way of overcoming the sorcerer in the end.”

“No telling,” Lockhart responded.  “At the beginning, I remember Pan saying that our presence put everything in flux.  Things might still be changed if we are not careful.  We may read about her story someday if the Storyteller ever makes it back from the void and then lives up to his name.”

“Change, as in our future might change?  History might be changed?”  Lockhart shrugged, and Katie considered their position.  “I see why you said helping the Kairos keep history on track is the number one priority.”

Lockhart nodded.  “Not that there is much we can do about it.”

Meanwhile, back at the dwarf camp, Thalia got suspicious.  She found Boston’s belt with the Beretta and big knife among Nevah’s things.  She yelled, and it was the kind of yell that made Nevah give everything back.  She had Phadon’s whetstone that he thought he lost, Bezos’ bag of gold nuggets, that he did not care one whit about, and Anwanna’s ring, for which he got excited and praised Ishtar and the divine Mithras for its return, and Lord Visnu for its preservation.  She also had a beautiful bronze cup, dwarf size, and Chief Zed looked flabbergasted.

“Forget it,” Thalia said.  “The copper and tin these good dwarfs dig out of this place is hard to come by.”

“True enough,” Chief Zed said.  “We keep running into tar and lakes of oil.”

Thalia nodded and looked at the weapon.  “No,” she decided at last.  “Too risky.”  It disappeared and everyone gasped, so she explained.  “I set it to Avalon.  I’ll have to remember to give it back to her in my next life.  So, are we ready to go?”th phaedon 2

“In the morning,” everyone decided, and Phadon had a question.

“I heard your friends talk about a volcano. Is that what is making all that smoke on the mountain?”

Thalia nodded.  “Let us hope it remains quiet until we finish there.”  She nudged Nevah.  “And you better pray Boston doesn’t need her weapon before I can give it back to her.”

“What’s for lunch?” Bezos asked.

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

Monday, the travelers arrive in the south seas, but a few years before people start building all those relaxing beach resorts.  In fact, there is a rumor that inland, there are space creatures that might want to eat them.  Check it out.  Monday begins the six part adventure of Avalon Episode 4.9, Tropical Paradise.

Meanwhile, there is a cure for the hot summertime blues.  It is called Happy Reading…

a happy read 3

Avalon 4.8: part 5 of 6, Into the Fire

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The goblin king paced and shook his head.  “You have come at a bad time.”  He repeated the phrase over and over before he explained.  “The sorcerer in the tower demanded that we serve him.  That is not our way.  You travelers have been around long enough to know.  Our work is in the night.  Sure, people fear us in the dark, but we avoid them when we can.  Our god has made clear to us.  We are not to mingle.”  He sat on something like a throne, worried his hands and furrowed his brows.dwarf underground 1

“Elder elf,” one of the dozen dwarfs caught in the hall interrupted.  “We have made a space along the wall for you and your horses.”

“Thank you,” Mingus responded.  He got people to gather the horses.  They noticed a few imps among the dwarfs, and several gnomes who had no business being underground, but got caught in the trap all the same.  Lockhart, Katie and Nuwa stayed to face the goblin king, and the king continued his thoughts when he could.

“We had some volunteer to serve the sorcerer.  Brave fellows.  We had hope he would leave us alone after that, but he is greedy beyond words.  I think he wants everyone to serve him, and he has uncanny power.  He called up the shadow from the shadow realm, and we have no defense against such a creature.”

“A shadow is a lesser spirit,” Nuwa explained.  “These little spirits have no such power, even when they combine their magic.”

“And who are you?” the goblin king spoke like he just noticed her presence.

“I am Nuwa,” she said, with a slight bow to the king.  “Do you not know me?”

The goblin king looked at her for a long minute before he spoke.  “I saw Nuwa when I was in Tibet and she came to send those space creatures home.  I was very young, not yet mature, less than a hundred, and though that was eight-hundred-years ago, I still remember.  You look like her, but not exactly, and she died long ago.  You are not my goddess.  Thalia is a mere human in this life.  Who are you, exactly?”

Nuwa 1Nuwa smiled.  “I take Nuwa’s form from time to time to let you know that you are not forgotten.  Your goddess is even now headed for the dark tower on the fire mountain, and though I do not know how it may turn out, I know your goddess will not leave you in bondage.”

“And you can do something about this situation?” the king asked.

Nuwa bowed again, and let out a small smile.  “And the first thing I will do is give these good people a time of rest.”  She bowed a third time and took Katie and Lockhart to the others.

Boston got the dwarfs to dig a hole and set up her tent on top of it.  She made a hole in the fairy weave floor of the tent so people could go to the bathroom in some privacy.  Katie was the second to use it, after Boston herself.

Alexis and Lincoln got out the bread crackers.  Most in the hall did not go for elf bread, but it was better than nothing.  Decker had a portion of deer left over, but that did not last long.

Mingus and Elder Stow spent some time trying to plot a way out of their dilemma.  Elder Stow brought up a three-dimensional map of the tunnels and chambers in the goblin underground and they went over it, and over it.  In a way, it was pointless since they had no way of pinpointing where the shadow might be in any given moment.

No one slept well that night, but when Alexis and Lincoln settled in, and Lockhart got up for his turn on watch with Mingus, he told Elder Stow to get some rest.  He said who knew how hard they might have to run in the morning.

Lockhart sat and watched the goblins put logs on the fires, and he wondered how long it might be before they ran out of firewood.  Mingus talked quietly with a dwarf who finally admitted they had a small, secret connection from their mines to the goblin lair.bonfire

“And you suppose the dark elves do not know where that is,” Mingus said.

“They haven’t said anything,” the dwarf responded, and looked toward the tunnel they would have to navigate if they planned to go that way.  “But you would never get your horses through that narrow gate.”

Mingus nodded and glanced at Nuwa dragon who appeared to be sitting, eyes open, never blinking.  It was unnerving to look at her for too long.

Decker got up early and sat beside Lockhart.  “Hard to deal with a creature impervious to bullets,” he said.

Lockhart nodded.  “Nuwa said even Elder Stow’s force field would be ineffective.  Mingus, Roland and now Boston could walk right through the thing with little effort.  This shadow, she says, might not even know it was there.”

“Not much I can suggest other than make a run for it.”

Lockhart agreed.  “We might lure it to the tunnel farthest from the way we want to go, and run for daylight, once there is daylight.”

“I’ll be bait,” Decker said.

Lockhart shook his head.  “Probably me.  I can’t ask or let anyone else do it.”

dwarf underground 2Decker said no more.

Mingus, meanwhile, brought the dwarf to view Elder Stow’s schematic of the underground.  “Here, this way, and through here,” the dwarf said.  “But believe me, you won’t get your horses through.  Your big men might be a problem.”

Mingus nodded, thought, one problem at a time, and went to bed, leaving Elder Stow to puzzle out the passages.  With help in direction, Elder Stow managed an outline of the dwarf mines, almost to the surface.

When Boston and Katie got up, Nuwa said the only thing she said all night.  “Saddle up.”  They took their time, but did that thing, quietly, not daring to ask why.  They hoped it meant Nuwa thought of a way out, but “saddle up” did not give them much to go on.

Nuwa gently woke the travelers.  “Follow me,” she said.  “You too,” she told the dwarfs.  “You too,” she said to the gnomes.  While the travelers woke and got ready, Nuwa exhaled.  She inhaled for a whole minute as they heard shouting and screaming from down, what Mingus was calling, the dwarf tunnel.  Three dwarfs had gone to explore the route home.  Two came back, screaming.

Nuwa began a slow exhale that was pure white fire.  She began to transform back into the dragon form even as she moved into the tunnel.  People had to wait while her enormous bulk made the tunnel plenty big for the horses, but at last her tail whipped out into what was now a dark passage, and the people, elves, dwarfs, gnomes and several others poured into the tunnel.

Nuwa dragon turned this way and that, all the while with a slowly exhaled fire in front of her.  dragon 1When she slithered through a big chamber, she did not make her flame any larger.  Alexis figured out that Nuwa dragon had the shadow trapped in a ball of flame and was forcing it to move ahead of her.  Katie heard and repeated the theory for the others.  Still, Nuwa moved forward.

She crashed through a wall at one point, and made a narrow, hidden opening into a big one.  Those who knew or paid attention understood they had moved into the dwarf mines.  Dwarfs scattered in every direction, but Nuwa had thought ahead to give warning.  Any who were too slow or too hard-headed to listen got crisped.  There were a couple.

Nuwa, with everyone else following her zoomed through the cavernous dwarf halls, one after another.

###

On the surface, Thalia woke when the wolves arrived, about an hour before dawn.  Chief Zed and his three guardsmen yelled about it being unfair.

“We already killed these wolves.  They should stay dead.”

th nevah 1Everyone climbed up on the roof of the great hall, and Nevah yelled, “Skeleton formation.”  She grabbed Bezos’ axe while Bezos pulled his hammer.  Anwanna sat in the middle of the roof, unable to think of anything he might do.  Phadon and Thalia had their swords out, but Thalia was ripping up chunks of the roof and getting Nevah to set them on fire.  Thalia used the fire to whip the wolves and dropped it on their heads, while the wolves tried to find a way they could reach the roof, and Chief Zed complained.

“You’re going to set the whole house on fire, and then we’ll be in it.”

Nevah heard and stopped flaming the wood.  Of course, she began to fire flame balls at the wolves directly, so evidentially she heard but did not exactly understand.  Nevah stopped when it became apparent that as long as they remained on the roof, the dead wolves would not be able to reach them.  That was when Chief Zed shouted.

“It’s the damn dragon.”  He pointed, and Thalia saw the winged serpent, a middle-aged dragon bleeding from the bullet holes put in it the day before.  A couple of places appeared to be festering.  The beast looked to be in pain, but it came in, meaning business, and Thalia had little time to act.

Thalia grabbed all four dwarfs and made them yell with their words and their minds.  She gave them the words to say and prayed they would get through to the dragon.  She also prayed the dragon would obey the commands.  When dragons matured, the command language was not always effective.

“No fire.  Do no harm,” the dwarfs shouted in the right way.  All the same, the dragon came in and let out a great burst of flame.  People dropped to the roof and covered their heads, but there was nowhere to hide.  To get down from the roof was suicide, but the dwarfs were not for giving up.  dragon 7“Fire the wolves,” Thalia shouted in the command language.  “Flame the wolves.”  The dwarfs picked up the new words, even as Thalia realized it was a long shot.  She had to assume the dragon knew what wolves were.  Then again, dragons were not exactly dumb beasts.  Given its age, it probably knew what people were, and if it did not know wolves exactly, it could figure it out.

“Flame the wolves,” the dwarfs yelled, and after landing, the dragon did exactly that.  Of course, the great hall of the dwarfs caught fire, and Thalia imagined it would burn quickly.  Anwanna was actually the first to leap down.  He ran inside the building to get his donkey.  The wolves had no interest in the donkey because, being dead, they were not there for a feast.

The others jumped down, and Thalia had to slice off one wolf’s head, but otherwise, the dragon was at least concentrating on the other side of the hall.

“To the trees,” Chief Zed shouted, and it was just before the dragon decided to see if all that flame made anything edible.

Thalia 5Thalia got behind a tree and watched.  She figured fried, dead wolf was no treat.  She recognized that the dawn was up and the sun was about to break above the horizon, when the earth began to shake beneath their feet.  People fell and rolled.  Several yelled to watch out for limbs and trees.  The donkey brayed, and the dragon yelped, unable to lift into the sky since it was half-way through swallowing a wolf.

The earthquake grew to dangerous levels before a much bigger dragon burst out of the ground like a giant worm reaching for the sun.

Avalon 4.8: part 3 of 6, A Little Help

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Thalia tromped through the woods and went around the rocks that jutted up here and there in the forest.  She ignored everyone else.  Nevah floated along, hardly making a sound in the forest, but she insisted on climbing over every rock outcropping she could find.  Sometimes she hooted when she reached the top, and Phadon kept telling her to keep quiet.  He tried to move stealthily through the leaves and underbrush, like he did not want to alert the whole neighborhood.  He failed on every crumpled leaf and snapped twig.  It did not matter in any case.  Bezos tried to make extra noise because he would rather not startle a bear or a big cat or something.  He had his hammer in his hand and occasionally rapped it against the trees.  What is more, Anwanna was donkey with pack 1struggling to bring along the donkey, who complained.  For some reason, the donkey thought the stop for lunch should have been the stop for the night.

“We are about to come out of the trees on to the rock ledges that should lead us up to the tower,” Thalia shouted back.  She signaled the others to wait where they were while she jogged up ahead.  She sensed something the others could not imagine.

Anwanna pulled up and raised his voice to answer her.  “I take it we have made it past whatever traps he may have set for unwanted visitors.”

Bezos laughed and Nevah spoke.  “Haven’t faced any traps yet.”

“What about the skeletons and bears and everything?” Anwanna wanted to protest.

“Just testing us, to see if he could scare us off,” Phadon gave the explanation.

“The fun is just beginning.”  Nevah said, happily.  Bezos nodded and grinned.

“You people have a strange sense of fun,” Anwanna suggested, and Phadon nodded again before he hushed everyone.  It took a minute to figure out what he was hearing, but then a howl rang through the trees, and Phadon grabbed the donkey’s reigns.

wp;ves 1“Hurry.  Get to the rocks and out from the trees.  Anwanna and Phadon were glad the donkey did not argue.  Bezos pulled his axe while they ran.  Nevah had the harder time as she tried to get her bow out.  She had to pause at the edge of the woods to bend it and string it, but then she needed a bit of speed—not like elf speed, but faster than human speed, to catch up.

The wolves were right behind, about a dozen of them.  Nevah spun around and put two down with two arrows, but two more reached the group.  Phadon caught on with his spear when it was in mid-leap.  Bezos gutted the other with his axe.

Two wolves circled the group to come up on Anwanna and the donkey.  Anwanna screamed while the donkey let out a great bray and kicked.  The wolves were wary.

“Use your knife,” Phadon yelled as he pulled his sword.  The spear fell with the wolf.

Anwanna pulled his knife after a minute.  He yelled like a madman, or a man afraid, and waved the weapon at the wolves.  The wolves ignored him.  They were concerned about how to bring down the donkey without being kicked.

Nevah shot another one, but it was not a perfect shot and imagined she only wounded the thing.  They appeared to pause at the edge of the trees.

“Have they had enough?” Phadon wondered.

“Probably getting ready to rush us,” Bezos responded.th nevah 2

“Here they come,” Nevah yelled as she fired her arrow.  Phadon raised his sword, and Bezos pulled his hammer to have a weapon in each hand.  Phadon lost his sword in the neck of a wolf.  Bezos lost his axe in a wolf head.  Bezos swung his hammer and maybe busted a wolf shoulder but there was another one.  Phadon and Nevah also faced another, and all they could do was grab their long knives.

They stood as three arrows came from behind them and the wolves went down.  Bezos had the satisfaction of smashing the head of the one with a busted shoulder, but that was it.  When Phadon and Neva turned to see who their benefactor might have been, they saw Thalia standing on a rock some twenty yards behind and above them, and four of the funniest looking, heavily bearded little men jogging to meet them.  Thalia wore a cape that fluttered in the wind, and when she slipped her bow in a pocket of the cape, the cape was in no way restricted.  It continued to flutter as she climbed down the rock.  In fact, she bunched it up to drape it over her arm as she climbed, so Phadon was prompted to ask a question.

“What happened to the bow?  I swear she was just holding a bow and arrows.”

“Ours is not to question,” Nevah told him.

“I’m all right,” Anwanna said, grumpily.  Both wolves that faced him were down with arrows.

“We can see that,” Bezos grinned his grin, but helped Anwanna calm the donkey which was spooked by the wolves and now by the blood, everywhere.

The little men came up arguing about whose arrow hit which wolf closer to the heart.  They retrieved and checked their arrows while the others could only stare.  As they went by, three of them tipped their hats to Nevah and said, “Missy,” “Breedy,” and “Hobby-Gob.”

th dwarf archer“Friends of yours?” Phadon asked.

Nevah shook her head and stared before she said, “but it gives me strange feelings to look at them.  I don’t know why.”

“They’re dwarfs,” Thalia shouted, having heard Nevah’s comment.  “Let me introduce you.”  And she introduced her gang to the dwarfs Poogbara, Gildurien, Metikas, and Zed.  “Chief Zed, I should say.  We have been invited to spend the night.”

“Is it safe?” Anwanna wondered out loud.

“The only place that is safe,” Thalia answered.  “They have a magical shield up against the sorcerer in the tower so he can’t raise up their long dead ancestors.  Chief Zed has said we can get a good night’s sleep, and they will watch the land, the skies and the under-earth.”

“Sounds like an offer we can’t refuse,” Phadon said.

“To refuse would be rude, I think,” Nevah agreed.

“Ready.”  Bezos had gathered his weapons and his pack, and the others hurried to get their things.

The dwarf home was not far.  The trees on the surface shaded the work sheds and a great hall used now and then for feasts and celebrations, but most of the home was underground in the mines that honeycombed the mountain.  The group had to stay on the surface, but that was all right.  It was a chance to rest after the last weeks of struggle.

The sorcerers tower could be seen from the roof of the great hall, and they all climbed up to get a good look.  The tower appeared to be about three days away, jutting into the sky on the edge of a mountain that smoked.  Steam billowed out from the inside of the rocks there and made great clouds to be blown off by the wind.  Presently, the tower and the clouds appeared golden as the sun began to set in the west.volcano 2

“Do not be fooled,” Chief Zed said.  “There is no gold in that mountain, only hot red rivers beneath the surface like the blood in the earth.  Soon enough, you will see the sky and the tower turn red as the sun drops to the horizon.  I think it is the color of the blood that shows before the darkness covers everything.  If you are going there…” he paused to look at Thalia, “and I have no doubt that you are, you will find that even the moon and the stars cannot penetrate the smoke and steam.  The darkness at night is utterly dark, a fitting place for the man and his wicked sorcery.”

Anwanna lowered his head and shed a few tears.  Nevah slipped an arm around the man to comfort him, even as Phadon spoke.

“Nevah.  You are being quiet this evening.  I though you always had something to say.”

Nevah looked at the dwarf and lowered her own eyes.  Thalia thought she better say something before Nevah joined Anwanna in his tears.

“Nevah is a breed, half-hobgoblin and half-human.  The earth spirits do not think good thoughts about half-breeds since their god has made such a fuss about it and told them plainly that they are not permitted to mingle with human mortals in that way.  Then, her spirit half is hobgoblin.  Most earth spirits keep hobgoblins at arm’s length and do not trust them, and rightly so, since most are such terrible, manipulative schemers.  So you see, Nevah has two strikes against her already, even without opening her mouth.  Too bad, because Nevah is really a very nice young woman who tries very hard to be honest and good.”  Nevah did start to weep softly as Chief Zed spoke.

Thalia 6“Since you have accepted her as a friend, my people will not have issue with her, as long as she keeps to her place among the humans.”

“Not a problem,” Thalia said.  “Our path goes overland, but right now I say we go back down.  I can smell the feast the dwarf wives are preparing, and Bezos is hungry.”

Phadon looked up from Nevah’s face, from where his hand reached out to touch her arm and comfort her as much as he could.  “I believe Bezos is always hungry,” he said.  Bezos nodded and grinned.

Avalon 4.7 part 6 of 6 Toward the Future

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The travelers stayed for the three days of feasting.  It had become the custom for Yadinel and Mibdrus to meet once per year for three days.  On the first day, they feasted outside the city in great tents Mibdrus set up in the fallow fields.  That year, there was a slight delay as they waited for the Marzalotipan ship to leave.  On the first day, Mibdrus always asked Yadinel to surrender the city, and Yadinel always declined.  It was the tradition.

The second day of the feast was inside the city, in the great building with the threshing floor.  It was where Yadinel always asked Mibdrus to withdraw his forces and leave the city in peace, and Mibdrus declined, as expected.salem street 3

Katie and Lockhart had talked about the great building, being at the top of a hill the way it was.  Lockhart said it had to be extra work for the city to bring all the grain up to be threshed.  Yadinel nodded, but answered that in lean years, the grain and flour were rationed so hopefully no one would starve.  The top of the hill, with limited access made it easier to defend.  Lockhart nodded to the wisdom of that answer, but Katie had a very different question.

“Yes,” Yadinel whispered.  “This is the very floor that David will buy and where Solomon will build the temple.”  Then he said no more about it.

The third feast day was just below the threshing floor hill at the eastern gate.  That was just up from where the Jebusite army had its camp.  Yadinel pointed at the camp from the top of the wall.  “Bethphage,” he called it.  “On the direct road to Jericho and the side of the Mount of Olives.  A bit off the road to your right you can see the growing village of Bethany.  Right now it is mostly army wives and children, and what you might call other women with some enterprising men supplying goods for the troops.  Of course, they aren’t called Bethphage and Bethany yet, but they will be in time.”

salem street 2“So I have seen,” Katie responded.  “Things take time, sometimes centuries to develop, but the seeds go back much further than most modern scholars imagine.”

“Like the foundation for the city of Jericho being laid by the Gott-Druk,” Lockhart suggested.  Katie frowned, but was willing to nod.  To be honest, modern scholars did not credit the Neaderthal with anything more than a few stray cave paintings.

Yadinel nodded for Katie, with a glance at Lockhart, Lincoln and Alexis.  “And now I must go down much further than I care to imagine.  Alexis and Katie, I would appreciate you making sure I don’t fall off or down the stairs.”  They stepped up and took his arms, leaving Lockhart and Lincoln to follow.  “I don’t climb the wall much these days, but usually Paghat is a good girl and helps her old man get down.  Sorry she is not around.”

“You know where she is,” Alexis suggested, without actually saying she was off dallying with Mebdred.  Yadinel nodded his head like a man who was honestly not happy about it but knew he had no choice.

“It is the same story every lifetime,” Yadinel said.  “I always have to tell myself that the future is not in my hands.  It belongs to the children, and I will be somewhere else.”  Mingus and Boston met them at the bottom of the stairs.  They came to say the feast was ready, but Yadinel was not finished speaking.  “We do our best to raise our children well.  We teach them right from wrongBoston 5, about faith, and encourage them to love God and neighbor, but we cannot do it for them.  At some point, we will move on and they will be alone, to face their own future.  We cannot control that.  While we are alive, we can encourage them to make good choices, but we cannot prevent them from making mistakes.  In the end, all we can do is pray for them, that somehow, despite their mistakes, everything will work out for the best.  Prayer and hope.  That is all parents ever really have.”

“Everything is ready,” Boston said as she helped Yadinel from the stairs.

“Good,” he said, and smiled for her.  “After two days of feasting, you wouldn’t think it, but I am actually hungry.”

###

Mingus rode quietly at the back of the column.  He avoided talking to everyone.  He heard and thought about what Yadinel said about children, and about how parents ultimately can’t control what their children will do. Parents can hope their children will turn out to be good people, but that is about all any parent can really hope for.  Even among elves, where parents might live a thousand years, they will go over to the other side one day and leave the children to live their own lives.  Mingus frowned.

Av alexisIt was a terrible thing to imagine children dying before their parents.  That is what got this whole thing started.  He could not imagine Alexis dying before him.  No parent should have to be left to mourn and grieve for their child.  Then again, Yadinel lost his son, Aqhat, but he went on, cared for his daughter, and did his work in this world.  No one ever said life is easy.

Mingus looked forward to where Boston had ridden up to talk with Alexis and Lincoln.  He had two daughters now, and they were both good people.  He might not have liked their choices, but he had no power to force them to do what he wanted.  They were good people and that was more than some could claim.  Boston was a spunky child, still wet behind the wings as a fairy might say.  Alexis was a fine and mature woman with children of her own, and even grandchildren.  True, since she ate a bit of the apple of youth, she was presently about twenty-six, but being human, she would grow old fast.  Humans aged too fast, but that was out of his hands.

His own god made Alexis human so she could marry that man and live with his life; the short or long of it.  Deep down, Mingus trusted his god, or goddess as the case may be.  Certainly Yadinel, not a tenth his age, was wiser and more knowledgeable and with a deeper and broader understanding of life than he could ever hope to know.  Mingus felt he spent too many centuries in the Avalon history department and avoided life.  Certainly his children believed that was the case.

Mingus looked down at the chattering dwarf at his feet.  He grinned once to say he was listening, but he wondered if Pluckman Junior would ever take a breath.

He looked again at his daughters and thought that Elder Stow was right, as far as it went.  He had a chance to get to know them as grown people, and to tell them he loved them.  Thus far, he had failed miserably on that score.  He knew he was the only one who needed to change, but that was not so easy.  Life was not easy.dwarf 3

“So father says we are looking for a place to settle down, but it has got to have copper.  We thought Golan might be a good place.  It’s got nice, dark forests to hide in and all, but underneath there is tar and that oil stuff.  We gotta have copper.  Some tin would be nice to make some bronze, but copper is the good stuff.  It shines up real nice.  I just hope we can find somewhere that the goblins…er…dark elves haven’t already claimed.”

“No gold or silver?” Mingus asked.

“Nah.  Can’t do nothing with that stuff.  Too soft.  Can’t make a good ax or sword or nothing to fight with.”

“You like to fight?”

“Well; hang around with the Kairos for a couple hundred years, and you better learn to fight.  Like it or not.  The Kairos never lives a quiet life.”

“The Timna valley might do, if we get that far,” Mingus said, and smiled again.  For himself, though, he imagined he had been fighting too much.  Maybe it was time to make peace, at least with his daughters.

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

Don’t miss next Monday, Avalon, episode 4.8 where the travelers meet up with the Swords and the Sorcerer.  The Sink Road adventure awaits…

And I wish everyone Happy Reading

a a happy read 5

Avalon 4.6 part 6 of 6, While the Getting is Good

M G Kizzia 3 Comments

“Be good,” Hathor turned to the travelers.  “Live long and prosper,” she grinned that time and vanished.

“Hey, that’s my line,” Sinuhe said.

“No it isn’t.  That is Spock’s line,” Lincoln objected.

“I’m saying it four thousand years before Spock is even born, so I can claim it.”kiss 1

“Cheater,” Lockhart took a breath and offered his opinion.  Katie nodded like she agreed, and then went for more of that kissing stuff.

“All right,” Sinuhe started, but Lincoln interrupted.

“What did she mean about the way the gods keep secrets?” he looked like he was still coming out of a fog.  “Was she talking about Heba—.”  He found his mouth covered by both Alexis and Sinuhe.

“Yes,” Sinuhe said.  “And given the way the gods keep secrets; I expect her to show up any second.”

“I’m so sorry,” Alexis said to Sinuhe as she turned to Boston and hugged her.  Mingus was still on the floor, crying.  Elder Stow moved to comfort the girl, but he was not a hugger.

“All right…” Sinuhe started again, but this time Hellel interrupted.

“Why is she crying?”  Hellel pointed at Boston.  “The goddess loved on her.  I’m the one who got threatened.”

“Hathor reminded her of when she married,” Sinuhe explained.  “She got married in Egypt, but there was an accident, and she lost her new husband.  We think he made it home ahead of her.  We hope he will be there when we get home.  That is the hope we are going on.”

“But you said you had three more years to get home.  When did she marry?”

“About four hundred and fifty years ago,” Sinuhe said.  “That is just an estimate.  About three months ago, travel time.”

Hellel did not know what to say about that.  Gabrall looked up from his place even as Lockhart and Katie took a breath and went to join in comforting Boston.

kissing 1“Gabrall,” Sinuhe caught his attention.  He got the man to take charge of getting the army started on the clean sweep project.  They had to get every shovel, broom and bucket for water they could find.  Fortunately, the sea was full of water.

Just as that was settled and Zagurt and the king were beginning to stir, and it looked like Hellel was ready to get off her chair and find out more about a four hundred and fifty-year-old bride, there was a flash of light and Hebat arrived wearing a yellow sundress and big round sunglasses.  She marched up to Sinuhe and planted her lips on his, and he kissed her back.

After a while, they parted, and Hebat had the biggest, silliest grin on her face.  “My Egyptian,” she said.  Hellel found some courage.

“Hey.  That’s my husband,” she protested.

Hebat turned and lowered her glasses to glare at the princess.  “So?  You don’t love him.  My man is starving for love.” She turned back to Sinuhe and kissed him again, and this time he reached down and squeezed her bum.  She purred, and Hellel couldn’t say anything but, “Hey!”

“I am a married man, alas,” Sinuhe finally said.  “And you are a married woman.”

“I know,” Hebat said.  “Kind of exciting, isn’t it?”sinu hebat

“You should go.”

Hebat pouted, but did not argue.  She turned to strut in front of Hellel and caught movement out of the corner of her eye.  She shrieked a happy shriek and vanished just before Sinuhe could whack her bottom.  Hellel’s comment was interesting.

“Gee, you never whacked my bottom.”

###

The travelers all agreed it would be wise to move on the following morning.  As Sinuhe explained, “The wrath of the gods is unforgettable.  Even the mild annoyance of the gods leaves an impression, but you know how memory works.  The mind twists the message very quickly.  Often, the message is not clear, filtered through that anger.  But even when it is clear, it does not take long before the person is doing the very thing the god warned them not to do, and they will swear they are following the will of the gods.”

“Basically you are saying the king is going to change his mind,” Lockhart summarized.

“I don’t think it will take long,” Sinuhe nodded.

Decker added a thought.  “The human race is a poor excuse for…the human race.”  He rode out to the wing.

dwarves a1“By the way,” Mingus said as he was at the end of the line with Boston.  “Thanks for giving us Pluckman.”  More than forty dwarfs surrounded the group.

“My pleasure,” Sinuhe said and waved.

“I am sure,” Mingus mumbled, and Boston giggled.

The travelers moved three days down from the hills toward Galilee, and stopped on the third afternoon.  An army was coming up the valley.

“Pluckman, can you tell whose army that is?” Lockhart asked.  Pluckman stared at the man, slack jawed.

“You are asking a dwarf to tell the difference between one set of humans and another/” Katie scoffed and put down her binoculars.  “Besides, how many armies do you expect to find traveling in this wilderness?”

The others waited while Lockhart and Katie walked their horses forward.  Pluckman and a half-dozen heavily armed dwarfs went with them.  Decker and Elder Stow stayed out on the flanks where they appeared to be out of range from enemy slings and arrows, but were well within range of the weapons they carried.  They each had their own little troop of dwarfs that clung to them like bugs on a windshield.

Lockhart and Katie did not have to wait long before the army ground to a halt and a dozen men jogged out to face them.  Lockhart spoke before they got too close.

“I have a message from Lord Sinuhe, general of King Enshi.  He says you better hurry up.  The Syrians are two days ahead of you, and you know how the Syrians can be.  They will try to sneak in and take your prize if you don’t get there first.”

The men were amazed by the horses, but their eyes hardly left the dwarfs.  “You travel with earth spirits?”army 2

“We have many friends,” Katie said.

“But why would the king’s general send us this word?” a second man asked.

“Because he knows you Canaanites and the city people have much in common where the Syrians are a strange and unnatural people of foreign gods who should be driven back to where they came from.”

“And you?” The man framed his thoughts, but Lockhart cut him off with his hand like a traffic cop.

“No, we have other business to attend to.  We have delivered the message for our friends, but we are going to the inland sea.  What you do with the words we have given you is up to you.”

The man nodded as Lockhart and Katie turned their horses and went back to the group.  The dwarfs disappeared, but they growled, an effective sound for the Canaanites, no doubt, but it almost ruined everything as Katie and Lockhart tried not to laugh.

The Canaanites went back to their army to begin moving again.  The travelers and their dwarf escort passed them from up on the ridge.  Whether the Canaanites hurried from that point or not, Katie and Lockhart never knew.

“So I don’t get it,” Alexis said when they finally settled down for the night.

Lockhart answered her.  “The way Sinuhe explained it, there are natural prejudices that he can stoke to a nice little flame.  He hopes, if he plays his card right, the Syrians and Canaanintes will fight each other and leave the city alone, or at least be so diminished at the end, he and his little army should be able to handle them.”

“Tricky, and mean,” Alexis said.

“And very hard to pull off,” Decker said.

dwarf night

 

Pluckman yelled “Food,” and the campfire became a madhouse where no one could talk.  Katie had to shout her question at Lockhart.

“I wonder how it will turn out.”  Lockhart could only shrug as the music and dancing started that would go on passed midnight.