Fairy

Avalon Prequel Invasion of Memories Pumpkin Seeds part 10 of 10

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

The djin had worked free of the ropes as Macreedy and Ellean, held hands, got distracted with each other, and forgot all about holding up their magic around the djin. Glen shook his head. Inevitable, he thought, and he left that place one more time to let a woman from the deep, deep past take his place. That curious armor, like the fairy weave Pumpkin wore, adjusted automatically to this new shape and size.

The woman frowned at the elves who felt terribly ashamed. She continued that frown as she looked around. The dwarfs all doffed their hats and fell to their knees beside the elves and Ignatius found a few fearful tears as he joined them. Even Prickles did not hesitate to go to his knees and Sandra wondered what was going on. When Sandra turned her head, she saw her own mother on her knees, and a big Pumpkin beside her with her head lowered to the dirt. Sandra felt it, too, but wondered what it was all about. This woman looked beautiful, more beautiful than any human being had the right to be, being tall and deeply tanned, with hair as black as midnight, and eyes as bright and blue as the brightest mid-day sky, and to be sure, the effect of all that beauty felt inhuman so when the woman smiled at her, Sandra almost fainted for love, but then Sandra had seen so many inhuman things in the last two days, this just seemed like the icing on the cake.

 “Who are you?” Sandra asked, and she revised her thinking. This woman was both the icing and the cake, and all the rest just added together to make the cake plate.

“Danna.” The woman said, in a voice that matched her looks, and Sandra trembled as the woman reached out and took her hand, a trembling, awesome fear that gripped her, like one might feel in the presence of something holy.

“Are you an angel?” Sandra had to ask.

“Heavens, no.” The woman answered with the slightest hint of a laugh in her voice that felt so contagious even in passing, any number of those on their knees had to suppress their own laughter. “But dearest Sandra.” Danna looked sad as she drew the woman up to walk beside her. “You and Glen cannot be. He is responsible for all of these little ones as you have seen, and as long as you have fairy blood in you, he cannot be with you in that way. I am so sorry.”

“No?” Sandra looked sad enough to drop a tear at that thought. “But I was thinking…” She did not finish the sentence.

“No, love, and I feel just as sad for him as for you. He loves you more than you know, but in a small way, he cannot help it because of your blood. Even I cannot say exactly what is real and what is because of your blood, though I will say this, that much of it was real in the way a man really loves a woman.” With that, Sandra did drop her eyes and cry while Danna finished speaking. “If you were the tenth generation, that would not be a problem. Even in the ninth generation, something might be worked out, but sooner than that, it is impossible. The duty of being god of the elves, light and dark, and all the dwarfs that live in-between makes it impossible. I am sorry.”

“God?” Sandra looked up.

“Never over people.” Danna smiled again, and with her eyes on that beatific sight, Sandra felt better—she felt warm and loved in a way she never imagined before, and it came as a revelation. “Meanwhile.” Danna turned stern and looked at the three goblin statues that were just outside a strange and fuzzy looking bit of air. Sandra thought it looked a bit like the haze that rose from hot pavement on a summer day, but as Danna reached out and touched that place, the view of the cave and its goblin inhabitants became crystal clear. Sandra clutched at Danna’s arm, but Danna just kept smiling. The goblins doffed their hats with abandon and Cormac, who stood at the rear because he could look over the other heads, thought briefly about turning and running for his life.

“Goblins go home.” Danna said, and as she touched each of the statues, they came back to life and doffed their hats as well as they backed into the dark and began to back down the tunnel. “And Cormac, no more people.” Danna raised her voice a little. “I mean it.” With that, she turned Sandra back toward the others. “Dwarfs go home.” She said right away. “And thank you for all your help.”

The dwarfs smiled at the idea of being thanked. They raised their hats and said things like, “You’re welcome, don’t mention it, glad to do it, and think nothing of it.”

“I guess I’ll be off, too, then.” Ignatius said, and he started to walk away, until he found his feet stilled, like his soles were glued to the ground.

“Stay, hobgoblin, and you too, Prickles. I will be taking you with me.” Danna turned Sandra toward the other women. “Mona.” Danna called Sandra’s mother by name. “You must take Sandra and Melissa home. After a time, the memory of all this will fade for you. I am sorry, but even with your blood, some things are better not known.”

“No, please.” Sandra started to say, but Pumpkin interrupted.

“But Great Lady. I have only just found them, and I have been away for such a long time.”

Danna looked down on the little one, though the fairy knelt currently in her big form, and in that moment of silence, three faces appeared to plead, and Melissa appeared to be cute. “Very well.” Danna said at last. “You may visit from time to time, but only briefly. No more than three days at once. And no one after Mellissa since she is now the eighth.”

“Yes Lady. Thank you, Lady.”

“Only not today.” Danna added. “Today I need you.” She tapped her shoulder and instantly, Pumpkin got little and flew to Danna’s shoulder where she sat and took hold of Danna’s hair. With that, Danna let go of Sandra’s arm and returned the young woman to her mother and daughter. She caused the stroller to come up and be straightened and fixed in every way, and all with the merest thought.

“And now.” Danna turned toward the ropes, and they vanished while she raised her head and raised her voice. “Djin.” She only said the word, and the djin, wherever it may have gone in the world, or any other world, vanished from that place and with a slight sound of thunder and a flash of light, she appeared in the place where the ropes had been and she looked very, very afraid. This happened, not like calling the Hobgoblin to appear because that came naturally and easily enough for even non-magical Glen to do. This happened as an exercise of power, incalculable power to be sure.

“Goddess.” The djin fell to her knees and began to sob great tears. She had gotten used to tormenting and torturing humans. She survived off the fear and pain they felt, but though she could dish it out, clearly, she could not stand it.

“Why are you here?” Danna asked, and she continued without waiting for an answer. “You should have gone over to the other side with your brothers and sisters of the djin.”

“Many have gone, but some have not. I am not alone. O please, goddess, I do not want to die.” The option of not speaking or giving a less than truthful answer was not available.

“And if the man had lived and I had not intervened?”

 The djin drooled. “After he finished having his way with these mortals, I would have had his soul, and it would have been, delicious.”

“And why should I not send you over to the other side?” Danna asked.

The djin shook her head and looked down. “No, please, please. I cannot help being what I am. But I could serve you, I could.”

“I should trust you?”

The djin looked up with a speck of hope. “Goddess. I keep my bargains. I do. Many do not, even among your little people, but I keep my bargains. I made a bargain with that mortal fool, and I kept it, to the letter, I did.”

Danna frowned again. “Not to the letter,” she said. “But point taken.” She stooped down and picked up a rock the size of her hand. “You will be bound.”

“Goddess, no. Not to a rock. Not one rock among millions, I may be lost forever, please.”

“That is a risk you would do well to remember,” Danna said. “And here are your instructions. You must guard the gate. You may not so much as touch the others who guard the place, nor interfere with them in any way. You may not interfere with those who are welcomed or invited, but those who do not belong, you may frighten to your heart’s content, keeping in mind that humans must never know that this is the work of a djin.” With that, Danna raised her hand and the djin cried out as she became compressed, like a mere image of a person being turned into something like smoke, and she got sucked into the stone, which glowed for a second before the light went out and it became one stone among millions.

Danna sent her armor and weapons to wherever they were kept and clothed herself in fairy weave, which she shaped into something like a Laura Ashley dress, though with white socks and running shoes on her feet. It was all the rage in those days.

“And how do I look?” Danna asked the others as she slipped the rock into the soft, oversized purse that hung at her side.

“Stunning.” “Beautiful.” “Gorgeous.” The others said, but Sandra had another thought.

“Still too lovely to be human,” she said. Danna nodded. She could not help it. She was a true goddess of old, but she could always make a glamour to tone it down a bit if needed.

With a simple wave of her hand, the old man’s body disappeared. She sent the body back to China where there would be some local consternation over exactly what happened, but the man would be buried with his family. Then she turned again to Sandra and her family with this last word.

“Many years ago, Glen got touched by the goddess of memory. He did not know anything about the little ones when you met him as I think you know. He knew neither the little ones, nor his place among them, and he did not know that he had lived before, and so many times before.” Danna paused to be sure her words penetrated.

“Now, Sandra, there is something else I have to do, and it is long overdue, but first I must tell you. If your memory of all this fades apart from your memory of Pumpkin, his will likely vanish altogether. I must ask you. Please do not speak of these events if you see him again, and please do not speak of me at all.”

With that, Danna, Ignatius, Macreedy, Ellean, Prickles, Pumpkin and the stone of the djin all vanished, and two women and a baby in a stroller were all that were left in that place, like any ordinary mother, daughter and granddaughter out in the university woods taking a late afternoon stroll.

Avalon Prequel Invasion of Memories Pumpkin Seeds part 9 of 10

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Glen put the knife away having thought through another option.

“Who are you?” the hag asked. She looked a little sickly, but even as she asked, Glen left that time and place and got replaced by a man who could only be described as a cowboy, with the chaps and hat, and a six-shooter at his side; and he had a rope in his hands, tied in a lasso. Sandra and her mother shrieked in surprise. Macreedy and Ellean went to one knee, and after a thought, Ignatius joined them. Pumpkin began to cry in her cage. Mellissa applauded.

“My name is Miguel Enrique Casidy, Federal Marshal; or as my wife used to call me, Michael Henry the Texican.” He turned to Sandra and tipped his hat. “Ma’am.” He began to twirl his rope.

The djinn’s eyes got big, much bigger than ordinary human eyes, and she elicited shrieks from Sandra and her mother as well as the man beside her, when she began to rise-up into the air. Fortunately, since she was under a tree, she could not move very fast at first, and that gave Marshal Casidy enough time to lasso her by the ankles. He tugged sharply on the rope and brought the djin to the ground very roughly, and then he leapt, and like a true rodeo champion, he had the djin dog tied in the blink of an eye. The djin tried to bite him, but he slapped her face, hard. The djin also tried to go invisible along with several other ideas, but between the magic invested in the rope, and the fact that Macreedy and Ellean were holding hands and focusing their magic against the djin, the djin became powerless. Macreedy or Ellean alone would have been no match for the magic of this djin, any more than Pumpkin had been a match, but by holding hands, in some way they were able to combine their strengths, and increase the power of their natural magic, and it was enough.

Casidy stood and fingered his six-shooter. “And now, sir, I believe you are under arrest.”

The man did not buy it all. He knew what he wanted, and he had learned how to get what he wanted. He waved, and a dozen men came out from behind the trees and bushes. “No one is going anywhere until I have got what I want.”

“Is murder really what you want?” Casidy asked. He eyed the dozen men, still fingered his six-shooter, but considered his options. Nine of those men had guns, but there was one man that stepped to the front dressed as a traditional ninja. He stood complete with sword and no doubt a number of hidden weapons. Despite the guns, Casidy knew the ninja was far more dangerous. He decided a change was in order, and with a turn of his head and another tip of his hat to the ladies, he vanished; to be replaced by an honest to goodness geisha.

She came dressed in a traditional long geisha outfit. Her hair looked neatly put up and tied with sticks and pins, but what gave away the fact that she was geisha was the white face paint, the intensely red lips, and the way she held her unopened fan. She spoke in Japanese, and while some of her verbs and phrases sounded ancient, they were understandable, much like it might have been if someone spoke a kind of King James English in the present day.

“Samurai, give account of yourself. Since when does your honor allow you to enter the employ of one who deals in drugs, murder and betrayal?”

“Who are you?” The ninja asked.

“I am Tara No Hideko, the teacher of your teachers and the master of your masters. I made you in the days of the great wars, when the Shogun first came to power. I made you to protect my sister, and you failed.” The man did not look convinced. He let three stars loose from his sleeve. Hideko merely waved her fan without opening it. Everyone heard the click-click-click, and the stars were gone.

“Very sloppy.” Hideko scolded. “If you were mine to discipline, I would have you beaten for sloppiness.” She opened her fan to show the stars, each caught in a different place in the rice paper and bamboo, caught but not seriously damaging the fan, which was a bit of a surprise to think that the rice paper fan had not been torn to shreds. “You must always go for the soft places, the neck and the belly. Bones can stop the stars as easily as this fan. She flicked her wrist, and the stars shot right back at the man and caught him in both thighs, though not too deep, and the third star came very close, but shot between his legs. “You would do well to remember the lesson,” Hideko said, and she turned back to the old man beside her. He seethed in his anger, though he had taken another step back so there were now a couple of yards between them.

“This is not over,” the man said, as he reached behind the tree and pulled out a great sword, Chinese in design, but ancient, looking perhaps two hundred years old. “All of you women will die in the old way as planned, even if I have to cut you all myself.”

 “Ignatius.” Hideko began, but the hobgoblin stood right beside her.

“You will not cut the women.” Ignatius said, and a number of the men with guns gasped at the full effect of that devilish face and the snake-like tongue it bore.

“Stay out of it.” Hideko finished her thought, and her dress and accoutrements all went away to be replaced by the same armor and weapons Glen wore. When Hideko pulled the sword, however, no one doubted that she knew how to use it. The ninja went face down in the dirt, but Hideko had one more thing to say before she faced the old man. Her accent when she spoke in English sounded heavy, but again the words were understandable. “You men had better run as fast as you can lest you end up haunted all of your days in prison. Do not think your guns will protect you. I also have an army to call on, and you will not like the look of it. Prickles!” Hideko shouted, but then she had to defend herself, even as she shouted, “Ameratsu, be my light!”

Prickles raced out of the cave, followed by every dwarf and three of the goblins. Of course, most of the goblins and Cormac knew better than to run into the sunlight. They had to content themselves with what they could see and hear through the fuzzy looking opening between the worlds. Sure enough, the three goblins who came into the sun turned to stone, but the dwarfs moved rapidly and the men who had unwisely chosen not to run off on sight of the hobgoblin were soon on the ground, tied up like the djin.

The fight between the swordsmen did not last long. Hideko mercifully cut the man deeply across his belly, which disarmed him and brought him to his knees, and she paused only long enough to declare that she was showing mercy before she shoved her blade into the man’s heart. As she withdrew her sword, she bowed first to the dead man. “Forgive me.” Then she bowed to the ninja, still on his face. “Forgive me.” Then she bowed to Sandra, her mother, Macreedy, Ellean, Mellissa and Pumpkin. “Forgive me.” Glen returned to hear Prickles complain.

“But I didn’t get to pound anyone.”

“Don’t worry, big guy,” Ignatius said. “I am sure with the Lord around you will have plenty of chances to do some pounding.” It took a second to penetrate, but eventually the ogre grinned at that idea.

Glen kept the armor in place, just to be safe, and he blanched a little at having to clean his sword before putting it away. Mishka was the doctor. Glen could hardly stand the sight of blood, especially the blood of someone he just killed, even if technically, his hands had not done the actual killing. He went to open Pumpkin’s cage but found that Sandra had already opened it and the women, and Mellissa were all hugging and kissing, and Pumpkin had one more surprise for the women as she abandoned her little fairy form and took on her big, full, human-sized form, so she could have real hugs and give real kisses.

By then, Breggus brought-up the trussed-up gunmen, but all Glen really had to do was threaten to have Prickles eat them if they dared to come back or ever tried to harm any of these women. That seemed effective medicine as two threw-up and three fouled themselves just looking at the beast. Glen did not add the part about having the goblins haunt their dreams, because they probably would in any case. He turned, last of all, for a word with the Samurai, now on his knees even if his knees were covered in blood.

“Hideko says you must go up Mount Fuji on your knees where you can and seek the reconciliation of the son. Suicide is not acceptable. You must make up for your wicked choices with this penance, that you make honorable choices and help people for the rest of your life. Go.” He did not have to say it twice. The man touched his head to the ground like a martial arts student might bow to his master, and he rose, walked off, and never looked back.

At last, Glen could get down to the important business. “Pumpkin!” He hollered, and the fairy immediately returned to her natural, small state and flew to face him, a little afraid of his wrath; but Glen thought Pumpkin was so dear, he could hardly keep a straight face. “I thought you were banished to Avalon for a hundred years.”

“I was, Lord. I stayed there the whole time and stayed good; I promise.” The fairy crossed her little heart and looked down as she hovered near eye level.

“Banished?” Sandra did not like the word, but Glen explained.

“That’s sort of like being banished to Disneyland,” he said. “Now.” He coughed to clear his throat and remove his smile. “Now, do you see what I told you about the consequences of your actions?”

“Yes, Lord, I see. Those were bad men.” She looked briefly at the dead man but quickly had to look away, and she shook her head, but Glen knew the fairy probably did not fully understand what all of that was about.

“You told her?” Sandra had another question.

“Casidy told her, but it was me all the same. You see, I lived a number of times in the past.”

“And the geisha?”

“Me,” Glen said.

“I see,” Sandra said, but Glen suspected that she did not really understand any more than the fairy.

“Now the djin,” Glen said, but the djin had gone.

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

MONDAY

The djinn is gone but she will not escape. Until Monday, Happy Reading

*

Avalon Prequel Invasion of Memories Pumpkin Seeds part 8 of 10

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Macreedy and Ellean kept the dwarfs moving while Sandra walked beside Glen when she could. She pushed the stroller most of the way and carried it when she needed to, but Glen never offered to help or even spoke, so Sandra kept quiet as well. Ignatius came right behind them and the ogre brought up the rear. With the silence, Sandra heard the hobgoblin mumble more than once about being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

A good hour later, Sandra had too many questions to contain herself. “What is a djin?” She asked, only to see both Glen and the hobgoblin shake their heads.

“A djin is a powerful and wicked creature, and not one of our Lord’s. Our Lord cares for us sprites of the earth, and the fire, the air and the water sprites, too, but these djin are of a different order.” Macreedy spoke over his shoulder.

“All the sprites?” Sandra wondered. “That sounds like an awful lot. How can you keep track of them all?” She asked Glen, but he did not answer.

“Plenty, to be sure.” Ignatius spoke up. “But there are far more that are not his than his, and these djin range from little spirits, like us, to lesser spirits and all the way up to greater spirits, and if this one is one of the big, bad greater spirits, you will see some sparks fly, let me tell you.

“But what is a djin?” Sandra asked again, and this time Glen said a word.

“Genie.” But removing his concentration from what he thought about caused him to stumble and it took both Macreedy and the hobgoblin to catch him, to keep him from falling altogether.

“There is the opening.” Breggus came back and spoke, though Glen hardly heard him. “I said Gumblittle could find the place, but it looks kind of fuzzy.” Glen squinted, expecting fuzzy, but it looked clear as day out there, as far as he was concerned, and indeed it looked like late in the day, and the outside scene appeared to be a simple forest scene.

“Glen?” Sandra gently touched him, and seemed a little worried, judging the appearance on Glen’s face.

“I’m just remembering too much, too fast,” he explained, and tried hard to pull himself together as he spoke. “Dwarfs, I thank you. Macreedy and Ellean, you need to come to protect Sandra. Prickles, stay here! Ignatius Patterwig, you need to stick with me.”

“Me?” The hobgoblin looked reluctant to move into the light, but as Glen stumbled forward, Ignatius followed along. “What do you want from me?” he whined.

“You need to keep me safe while I go unconscious,” Glen responded, and he fell face down in the leaves and pine needles.

“Me?” Ignatius said again, but he went invisible and hovered over Glen, like a mother bird might hover over her nest.

“And here she is.” A woman’s voice rang out—a chilling voice that Sandra heard before she saw. “I am a bit surprised she made it, but I see she brought a couple of friends with her.” The woman appeared to be an old woman that might best be described as a hag, if that hag was struck in the face with an extra bucket of ugly. She waved her hand and Macreedy and Ellean lost their glamour of invisibility, but they did not lose the arrows that were strung in their bows and ready. The man beside the djin took a step back on seeing real, live elves in his face.

“Wait a minute.” Sandra looked around. “This is the university woods, not very far from where Mother and Mellissa disappeared.”

“Very good.” The hag said. “And it is only a couple of hours since you left.”

“But we were gone for two days.” Sandra protested.

“And a whole night.” The djin nodded and cackled which solidified Sandra’s impression of the djinn’s hag-like appearance. “Sadly, the tree people came out in force so nothing untoward could happen in the night.” She looked disappointed that nothing came out of the dark to tear Sandra to shreds.

“Old woman. You swore you would gather the whole family. How dare you try and send this one to Hell before I had the opportunity to do it myself.” The man beside the djin, an Asian, Chinese looking man with perhaps a taint of European blood raised his hand as if to slap the hag.

“But I did exactly as you asked.” The hag stayed his hand with the words. “They are all here as promised. All of the living in the family line are here. The fee was the first, and this is the last of them all but for her baby; but if she died on the way.” The hag shrugged. “I did not promise she might not die on the way.” She cackled again. She enjoyed the idea of Sandra’s death too much. Sandra would have stepped back in horror at that attitude, but in truth, she hardly heard the exchange as she spied her mother holding the baby, and she ran to them.

“Melissa, Mother! You’re all right, O thank God.” She caught Melissa up in her arms, squeezed, hugged, kissed the two-year-old with her lips and her tears, while Sandra’s mother hugged her daughter, and cried on her daughter’s shoulder. Macreedy stayed where he was. He kept his arrow aimed at the djin and the man, and never wavered, but Ellean ran with Sandra, and she was the one who found one more person.

“Miss Fairy, are you well?” Ellean asked, and Sandra stopped crying and hugging long enough to gasp. A real live fairy, not much more than seven inches tall, stood captive in a small cage that hung on a tree branch. The fairy shook her head, sadly, and then reached out for Sandra, of all things.

“Pumpkin.” Melissa said, pointed to the fairy, and the two-year-old smiled. She was too young to realize the danger she was in or the danger she had just gone through.

“Sandra.” Sandra’s mother made her daughter pause so the older woman could tell her daughter something first. “Sandra.” She repeated. “This is your great-great grandmother, Mrs. Pumpkin.”

Sandra went up to the cage with the wonder written clearly on her face while Ellean apologized for some mistake. “Pardon, Missus fairy,” the elf maid said. “You look very young and I am not very old.”

Pumpkin merely glanced at the elf as if to say no offense taken, but then Sandra put her finger up to the cage as she might have held her finger out for a parakeet. Pumpkin reached out between the bars, touched that finger and attempted to smile. It looked difficult. It looked like the poor fairy had been tortured, and all at once, Sandra got terribly angry.

Sandra spun around, handed Mellissa back to her mother and tromped to within a yard of the man and the old woman.

“How dare you!” She yelled. “Who do you think you are? You have no right holding us. Kidnapping is a crime. You let my family go, and I mean it. Let us go, now!”

The man laughed and the djin grinned and with a wave of her hand, the bows and arrows that Macreedy and Ellean held were ripped from their hands and came to the old woman’s feet. “You have no power here.” The hag said through her cackle.

Sandra took a step back and her expression turned from one of anger to one of incomprehension. “But why?’ she asked.

“Family honor.” The man stepped up. “To finally cleanse the stain between your family and mine.” Sandra looked at the man with questions dancing in her head, but she kept quiet as the man spoke.

“One hundred and thirty years ago, my poor family came to California in search of prosperity. As a young girl, my many-times mother married a man of European decent over the objections of the family. But this was a new world, full of hope, and they had great hopes, and had a son, my sire. Then men found gold along the rivers and the madness began. One man, a man named Marshal Casidy tried to maintain order in the chaos, but he brought with him the creatures of whispers and legend. One of these was the winged goblin now held prisoner to account for her crimes. She stole the heart of that European man and together, they ran off and had a daughter. The stain of that betrayal has never left my family name.

“Our gold was stolen, and our hope was gone. My great father brought his family back across the sea to the place of his birth in disgrace, and the strange looking son who had no father could find comfort only in the arms of prostitutes. My great-grandfather should have been a rich man, living in a California mansion, but he was born in a brothel. My grandfather was born in a ditch and died of alcohol poisoning before he was fifty. My father learned to steal and I was nourished on stolen bread.

“When the Japanese invaded my country, I became a traitor to my own people, and I became rich betraying my neighbors for a price. I made peace with the invaders, and with the money I obtained, I began to deal in drugs and built my own little army of thieves and murderers; but I always knew the shame of what I had done. The soul of my family has never known peace since that first betrayal that destroyed our hope, and I vowed revenge.” The man was angry, spitting. He could not finish his speech, so another had to prompt him.

“And what did you promise to this hag for capturing the fairy and gathering the survivors of her family?” Glen stepped into the light, and Ignatius, the hobgoblin came with him.

The man gasped on seeing the goblin and took a step back as he had when he first saw the elves, but he managed an answer.

“I promised that I would be hers for as long as we both shall live,” he said.

“And you figure after you avenge your betrayal, she will not live long.” Glen understood. “But you do not know what you have promised, for this is no ordinary old woman.”

“Ah,” the djin interrupted. Her voice carried a curious note. “I see how the mother made it through the maze of traps. She brought a warrior with her.” The hag took a half step forward, which prompted Glen to pull the long knife from behind his back. He did not dare pull the sword again. “But it is strange. I do not understand.” The hag looked as confused as she sounded curious, and it clearly seemed something of an unusual experience for her. “I cannot read this one’s mind. It is like he is invisible to me, and that must be how I did not notice him before. Still, no matter.” The hag snatched her hand and Glen’s knife vacated his hand as the bow and arrows had vacated the hands of Macreedy and Ellean, only this time, Glen smiled and stretched out his hand toward the knife. The knife did an about face in mid-air and sprang back into Glen’s grasp as if it never left.

Avalon 1.6 Freedom part 3 of 4

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“I’m dying,” Xiang said. “Everyone knows it. You might as well know it, too.” The young man beside her bowed his head. Xiang tried to smile for him. “But I won’t let go until all of my friends and neighbors are safe.”

“But what happened?” Boston could not contain her words.

“My husband.” Xiang spoke without flinching. “The chief demon leading the ones who are chasing us. I have no doubt they have something like this in mind for all of us if they can catch us.”

The young man beside her spoke up. “They pulled Nanhai’s skin from his body and all of it, even after he was dead. They left only his face intact so we would know him.”

Everyone looked at Xiang with mouths agape. “They pinned his eyelids back,” she said. “They left his mouth open in a scream so we would find him that way.”

“And they are chasing you?” Lincoln looked off in the direction they had been walking as Xiang nodded.

“Now.” Xiang got their attention before she had to pause and cough. The coughing looked painful. “Mingus, please get a fire started. The wood is wet, and it will need your help, but don’t wear yourself out. You will probably have to help several families start their fires. Blossom—sorry Boston. Blossom, go and say goodnight to your husband but come right back before dark—darker. Roland, take Boston and Katie on the hunt. Shengi has made the game plentiful, so the hunting should be easy.”

“Take them on a hunt?” Roland asked.

Xiang paused to look up at the encroaching darkness. A chill in the air felt far colder than the end of a cold rain should be. “I don’t want anyone alone.”

“We can set up camp here,” Lockhart waved, and Captain Decker leaned his rifle against a tree so he could shed his backpack and get his tent.

“Can I help?” Alexis’ eyes never wavered from Xiang.

Xiang shook her head. “Some warm bread I have heard so much about, and some water. That is all I need.”

“No, I mean—”

“I know what you mean. You can’t help me. Shengi and Nagi can’t help me. It is time for me to pass on, you see? If I don’t die, how will I be born again?” Xiang began to hobble away.

Alexis stepped up and pulled Xiang’s good arm over her shoulder. Xiang was willing. “Actually, Shengi already said I was not allowed to heal you, but I thought I would ask anyway.”

“Not a good idea to do what the gods have forbidden,” Xiang said, but she smiled. It did not make it easier for Xiang to have help walking, but it did not make it any worse, and she did not mind the company.

“Where are we headed?” Alexis asked.

“The top of that little hill,” Xiang answered and stopped. She turned her head to be sure no one watched. Then Alexis found her arm around a twelve-year-old boy whom she recognized right away.

“Pan.”

“Uh-huh,” Pan said. “Race you.” They ran up the hill. Alexis felt winded at the top though Pan did not.

“I am young again.” Alexis caught her breath. “But not that young.”

Pan just laughed, sat down with his back to a tree, got comfortable and traded places with Xiang once again. “Well, I certainly could not run uphill,” Xiang said.

Alexis sat beside her and for a long time they sat in silence as they watched down below. The people came in and set up makeshift tents and shelters for the night. Campfires got lit, though they appeared dismal and dim in that atmosphere, and no doubt provided little warmth against the cold. Alexis finally had to ask.

“It is the ones after us,” Xiang explained. “Their very nearness projects a terrible pall around everything. I am not surprised with your magic you are still sensitive to it. All my little ones are.”

“Boston, Katie, Lockhart and Captain Decker are sensitive to it, too.”

Xiang nodded. “Not Lincoln?” she asked.

“Him most of all,” Alexis answered, and smiled before they got interrupted by the arrival of the goddess, Nagi. Alexis turned down her eyes.

“Shoot!” Nagi said. “I thought I was getting good at appearing like a normal mortal.” She turned to Alexis as she sat on Xiang’s other side. “Xiang is teaching me how to do that and how to block my mind to the thoughts and lives of others so I can walk among people and see and hear for myself. You know, it gets quite boring after a while knowing all the answers up front.”

Xiang just smiled at the goddess. “It might work better if you didn’t appear out of nowhere.”

“Oh, yeah.” Nagi apparently had something else on her mind. She smiled too much. “Stop it,” she told Alexis. “I know you are older than I am, though I can’t imagine how that is possible.” Alexis simply pointed at Xiang. “I should have guessed.”

“She was born an elf,” Xiang confessed.

“No way,” Nagi reached for Alexis’ hand and Alexis found that a very curious thing for a goddess to do. “You see, I didn’t know that in advance. It is so much more fun this way.  But…”  She turned again to Xiang. “I didn’t know you could do that. That is remarkable, for a mortal I mean.”

Xiang shrugged as well as she could and changed the subject. “You and Shengi getting along?”

Nagi let go of Alexis’ hand and looked away. “Is it obvious.”

“Even without reading minds,” Xiang nodded.

“He said if I was willing to help clean up the mess, we might form a partnership. We sealed the bargain with a kiss, a real kiss.” Nagi looked up at Alexis. “But you are married. You know.”

“Husbands have their good points,” Alexis admitted before she remembered and looked at Xiang. Xiang’s husband was demon possessed and leading the ones chasing the people. It became an awkward moment, but in the perfect timing the little ones so often show, Truffles the fairy chose that moment to zoom up.

“Lady, Lady!” Truffles spouted. “Your children are looking for you and Myming is crying.”

“Husbands have their good points,” Xiang said, as Truffles acknowledged the two other women. They watched as the fairy paused, got big eyes, and turned again toward Nagi.

“Lady,” the fairy breathed and curtsied properly.

Xiang started to get up. It looked painful, Nagi interrupted. “Let me,” she said, and Xiang, Alexis, and Truffles found themselves at the bottom of the hill where the children were gathered.

~~~*~~~

Everyone woke in the night at one time or another. Some people screamed in the night and tears could be heard every now and then. It was hard to tell if they were tears of fear or tears for those friends and relatives now lost to the demons—the very ones pursuing them with nothing in their minds but to kill and destroy them. Lincoln woke when Alexis woke, and they whispered for hours. Boston got up when the moon rose high and found Roland sitting quietly a short distance from the camp. Captain Decker hardly slept and kept his rifle close. Lockhart found Katie up and they talked for a while. They both needed reassurance. Mingus joined them after a while and stayed up long after they tried to get some rest.

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

Don’t forget, the final part of this episode will be posted tomorrow, on Thursday.

Don’t miss it.

*

Avalon 1.6 Freedom part 2 of 4

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

The morning stayed gray and overcast and the travelers were not in the best of spirits. Alexis spent much of the morning arguing with her father.

“I’m telling you it was a man on horseback, and horses have not been tamed yet or I am sure Shengi god would have given us some.”

“So, one man got ahead of the game. That proves nothing.”

“But he was in armor.”

“But it was dark.”

“The moon was close enough to full, and he had a lance besides.”

“Maybe it was a spear that just looked like a lance. All I am saying is the Knights of the Lance arrived mysteriously on Avalon and the innumerable isles when Lydia brought in that legion of demons. God bless her, she could not help it. But there has not been a sighting of a Knight of the Lance for a thousand years. You have never seen one. I have never seen one. I am just saying you might be mistaken,” Mingus sounded firm and tried to end the conversation there.

“You are just saying you don’t believe me.” Alexis was not going to let him get in the last word.

By the time they all stopped for lunch, no one felt in the mood to speak. Even so, the matter between Mingus and Alexis remained heated, and only settled a bit when Boston overheard the argument.

“I saw a knight, too,” she said. “It was on the ridge of the Ophir, by Ranear’s village three time zones back.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Lockhart asked.

“Because when I looked a second time, it wasn’t there. I thought I had to be imagining things.”

Lieutenant Harper inched closer at that point and spoke up softly. “I saw it.” Every eye turned to her. “All the way back on the first day when we were looking down on the plains of Shinar and the Tower of Babel. I caught the glint of light in my binoculars. When I looked close it looked like a knight in armor on horseback. He rode away over the tower hill.” Lockhart just stared at her. “Like Boston,” she defended herself. “I thought I just imagined it.”

Captain Decker jumped and raised his rifle. He held it tight and sweated. “Did you hear that?”

“I’ve been seeing things out of the corner of my eyes all morning,” Roland admitted.

“Me, too. Seeing and hearing things.” Lincoln looked around but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

“Now that you mention it,” Mingus looked up. “The atmosphere here is a bit like standing on the edge of the land of the dead.”

Lincoln looked at the elder elf and frowned. “I wish you hadn’t mentioned it.” The silence came after that, and they packed up lunch early.

Doctor Procter led them to the edge of a cliff and said they had to climb down. Lockhart had everyone spread out along the ledge to look for an easier way down. He felt certain someone would get hurt in the climb. Boston thought to go back the way they had come and circle around. Sure enough, she found an easy way to the bottom.

“Hey!” She hollered back up to the top.

“Where the Hell did you go?” Lockhart yelled back. “We thought you were hurt somewhere or who knows what?” He sounded very parental, worried about his child. He seemed happy to see her safe, but quickly scolded her.

Boston explained how to get down, and Lockhart took a good look at Doctor Procter. The half-elf looked disappointed. Lockhart said nothing.

After that, Doctor Procter led them to a stream, swollen by the rain to where it raged more like a small river. It rushed down the mountainside. It did not seem so wide or deep, but it made rapids, and the rocks looked wet and slick. Lockhart could only imagine a twisted ankle if not a broken leg.

Everyone spread out again to look for a better way across. Roland followed Boston’s lead this time and went beyond the allotted time and distance. They found where the river turned one hundred and eighty degrees and saw they could continue on their path down the mountain without having to cross the water at all. When they reported back, Roland spoke innocently.

“If we had crossed the stream here we would have had to cross it again a few thousand yards down the mountain.” This time Lockhart disguised nothing in his stare at Doctor Procter. The doctor spoke amiably.

“I only follow the direction on the amulet. It doesn’t have a setting to help us avoid obstacles.” All the same, Lockhart caught the sense of cursing that came to Doctor Procter’s lips. It began to look to Lockhart like the good doctor wanted them injured for some reason, or worse.

An hour later, about three hours before sundown, if they would recognize sundown when it came, the whole atmosphere around them turned from dark and gloomy to seriously oppressive. They were all jumpy by then and hearing noises and catching things in the corners of their vision. Nothing happened, though, until something fluttered up and said “Hi.” Decker’s gun went off and the fluttering thing vanished.

“Wait. Fairy. Miss fairy.” Boston called out. “We won’t harm you.” She whipped around on Captain Decker and let lose her anger. “If you harmed her you will pay for it.” The look on Captain Decker’s face said he was sorry, that he could not help it, but words were beyond him. Another half-hour down the path and they heard the words before they saw a thing.

“Hello. Is it safe? Xiang sent me to fetch you, but I don’t want more bang-bang scary noises. It is scary enough as it is.”

Several voices answered, but Boston’s voice carried above the others. “It’s safe, miss fairy. No one will hurt you. My name is Boston.” The fairy flew up to Boston’s face and hovered for a moment to examine the girl.

“My name is Blossom,” she said before she fluttered up to examine the others. She gave the elder elf a bow, smiled for Roland, did not appear to even acknowledge Doctor Procter, and returned to Boston again at the end.

“You can sit on my shoulder while we walk if you like,” Boston suggested.

Blossom wrinkled her nose. “You have done this before,” she said.

“Twice,” Boston admitted, and the fairy settled down for a visit. With that, they had good guidance, and everyone felt their spirits lift a little in the presence of the fairy, except perhaps Doctor Procter, who slipped to the rear to walk beside Captain Decker. The captain felt guilty about firing at the poor fairy. He did not know that the chances of hitting a fairy were astronomically slim, even for a marksman.

After another half-hour, they came upon four men in a clearing. One of the men looked up. “Ah, there you are,” he said, before he turned to one of the others. “Go tell the people to hurry up. This is a good place for the night and now that my friends have arrived, we can start making camp.” While two of the men trotted off, the travelers simply stared at this familiar face before Alexis got it.

“Keng?”

Captain Decker looked at Alexis with great curiosity. “He can’t still be alive, can he?”

“Get with the program, Decker.” Lieutenant Harper frowned. “Sir,” she added to be safe.

“It’s all right, Katie.” Keng smiled for them all. “I was just getting ready to leave. The village is not far behind.”

“You’re older,” Alexis said.

“I’m older than I was when I died,” Keng responded. “I guess that sounds a little strange.”

“From you?” Lockhart shook his head.

“Mind if I write that one down?” Lincoln asked.

Keng just broadened his grin and retrieved the crutch the other man had been holding. “See you,” he said, and went away. A woman took his place and several people gasped, except Mingus who merely nodded.

“Keng and Xiang are genetic reflections,” he said. When the others did not appear to understand, he added, “They share the exact same genetic code altered only for male and female. They are like identical twins of the opposite sex.”

Alexis hit her father to quiet him. That was not why they gasped. Xiang arrived bent over. Her spine appeared bent, like it cracked, though it had not yet broken. One knee looked like it had been shattered and healed badly, and her ribs came wrapped and caked with dried blood, like she had a wound that would not close. Above all, her face seemed twisted. It looked raw, as if the flesh itself had been beaten off her.

Avalon 1.0 Neverland part 2 of 5

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

“Lieutenant.” Captain Decker waved Harper away from the others and then whispered. “Are you getting all of this?”

Lieutenant Harper nodded. “As far as I know the recording equipment is working fine, but I don’t think anything is transmitting.” To Decker’s curious look, she explained. “No GPS. No satellites. I don’t even know where we are.”

“Pacific Northwest.”

“I know that much, but when? Boston’s database suggests between 4492 and 4480 BC.”

Captain Decker shook his head, like he did not believe that. “You just work on getting that transmitter working. That’s an order.”

Lieutenant Harper arched her back. “I know my duty.”

“Fish is ready,” Roland and Boston spoke together in a welcomed interruption.

“Do you got more breat?” Chodo asked.

“Bread,” Alexis corrected, and she made several more loaves. Then their visitors marveled at the lack of bones in the fish.

~~~*~~~

Lincoln got up in the middle of the night. The fish did not agree with him. Doctor Procter sat on the rock by the fire and examined something in his hand in the moonlight. He stared at the hand that touched the wall full of demons, though Lincoln did not pay close attention. The Doctor could have been looking at his empty hand for all Lincoln knew.

Alexis stirred at Lincoln’s absence but did not entirely wake. She easily got taken by three pairs of hands. One bound her legs in leather strips, one bound her hands and one gagged her with a wad of fur stuffed in her mouth and held tight by more leather. Finally, a bag got pulled down over her head to cover her cold stare.

Alexis thought, if these three were in a rodeo they might win the hog tying contest. That unexpected stray thought made her smile on the inside since her lips on the outside could not quite manage it. But really, how far could they take her in a hollowed-out log?

“Quiet,” Hog insisted while Chodo and Shmee did the carrying. “Now she will make breat for the village.”

“Careful,” Shmee whispered. “We do not want to make the witch angry.”

Alexis thought, at least they got that much right.

~~~*~~~

Once Lincoln returned from the bushes, it did not take long to raise the alarm. The problem was there was nothing they could do before dawn. No one could figure out how to track someone across the water.

“You stupid…” Mingus yelled at Lincoln. “You don’t have her back for three days and you lose her again!”

“I didn’t lose her the first time,” Lincoln yelled right back. “You stole her.”

“Hey!” Boston butted between the two, and they held their tongues well enough, but chose to glare at each other.

“Honestly, I did not see anything,” Doctor Procter told Lieutenant Harper. Lockhart raised one eyebrow at the speech, but he could not follow-up, because Captain Decker and Roland came trotting back down the beach.

“They headed north.” Captain Decker spoke while he returned the night binoculars to his pack. Roland nodded his head in agreement.

“I can’t imagine they can go far or stray much from shore in that thing,” Lieutenant Harper added.

“No, but our path goes south and just a bit east,” Doctor Procter started to protest, but when he pulled out his amulet he made a face, like he was not sure what he was seeing. “No, mostly east. Almost entirely east. Not south at all. The direction has changed. How is that possible?”

“Hello!” A young voice came down from a tree branch. They could just make out the figure, and though it did not sound hostile, Decker, Harper and Roland were ready when the boy shouted, “Welcome to Neverland.”

Boston could not make out the figure in the tree. “The bokarus?” She looked up at Roland.

“No, missy.” Mingus answered for his son. “This one’s human, though why he is up a tree…” Mingus shrugged.

“I was worried about Boston so I came ahead. Are you all right?”

“Glen?” Boston squinted in the dim light.

“No.” The young boy responded as a light with a slightly blue tint fluttered up to one side of him and another light with a slightly yellow tint fluttered up to the other. “The boys are following but I flew on ahead. The boys don’t know about my fairy friends, but I told my fairy friends you were okay so they could show themselves. This is Bluebell and this is Honeysuckle. My name is Pan.”

Pan floated down to the fire to warm his hands in the dark chill before dawn. Boston took note of the furs he wore. She expected a green suit.

“Kairos,” Roland put his hand on the barrel of Captain Decker’s rifle to encourage the man to lower his weapon.

Honeysuckle flew up to Mingus’ face and smiled. “Hello elf,” she said.

“Elder elf,” Doctor Procter corrected the fairy.

“And you’re a breed,” Honeysuckle said with disapproval in her voice.

“Bluebell, lovely to meet you,” Boston said. “We girls need to stick together in the middle of all these boys.”

Bluebell hovered a foot from Boston’s face and looked serious. “Oh, I know.”

“Would you like to sit on my shoulder?” Boston asked. “Missus Pumpkin used to sit on my shoulder so we could talk in private.”

Bluebell’s little expression turned from serious to concerned. She never considered such a thing before. She flitted back and forth gently and thought hard.

“I think that would be a good idea.” Pan said, and apparently, Bluebell decided the same thing as she zipped to Boston’s shoulder and made herself comfortable.

“Us girls need to stick together,” Bluebell said, and turned slightly to look at Lieutenant Harper. She quickly turned back to Boston’s ear. “But why is your friend crying?”

“Where is Alexis?” Pan interrupted.

“Lincoln lost her again,” Mingus complained.

“I did not,” Lincoln yelled.

“Hog and his two chums stole her in the night.” Lockhart looked around at the dark sky. The sun would not be up for a while yet.

“And the medical kit,” Captain Decker added.

“Hog and Shmee.” Pan nodded. “Who was the other?”

“Chodo.”

Pan nodded again. “So, you met Captain Hook.” He made a motion, like he had the bone and wood hook in his hands and picked something off the ground.

“Not your tribe, I take it,” Lockhart said.

Pan shook his head this time. “Shemashi tribe. We are Jephatha.”

“We?” Mingus asked.

“Me and my boys. They will be here soon.” He called. “Honeysuckle, Bluebell.” The fairies fluttered up from where they were commiserating with the girls. “When they boys get here; you can stick around if you want as long as you pretend to be with the gang here.” The fairies looked at each other as if they were not sure about that. “Meanwhile, Honeysuckle, would you please fly to the Shemashi camp and see if Hog is going there?” Honeysuckle fretted for a second and looked once back at the girls before she flew off over the sea. Bluebell waited. “Sure. You can go back to Boston and the Lieutenant.”

“Katie.” Bluebell said the lieutenant’s name sternly before she grinned. “Thanks,” and she zoomed to Boston’s shoulder faster than the eye could follow. She whispered, though it was loud enough so the elves caught it. “I’m going to marry Pan when he gets old enough. I love him with all my heart.”

“That’s great,” Katie said, but Boston shook her head.

“I don’t think it works that way. Don’t you know who Pan is?”

“Hey now,” Roland interrupted. He heard with his good elf ears and stepped toward the girls. “No revealing the future. That is still the law. You know who the Kairos is, but the world does not know yet. That won’t be official for a dozen lifetimes. Shhh!” He ended with his finger to his lips.

“So.” Captain Decker squatted by the fire. “Are we just going to sit here and wait for the lost boys to show up?”

“That and the morning,” Lockhart confirmed. “Hurry up and wait.”

“That’s the army,” Captain Decker complained, but it turned out they did not have to wait long.

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

MONDAY

Welcome to Neverland. Pan and the boys have some ideas about how to save Alexis from Captain Hog, Shmee, and Chodo too. Until Monday.

*

Avalon Pilot part II-5: The Middle of the Night

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“My lady.”  The elf maid tried to wake Boston, but Boston felt determined to sleep in.  She never had so comfortable a sleep in her whole life.  “My lady.”  It did no good.

“Stand aside.”  The fairy fluttered down to the end of the bed and pulled out her wand.

“Oh, no.”  The elf shut her eyes.  The fairy waved her wand and a spark struck Boston on her toe.  Boston sat up like she got charged with lightening.

“What?  What?  I’m awake, mom!”  Boston’s eyes came into focus.  “Fairy,” she said.  The fairy had her hands on her hips and tapped her foot in mid-air.

“Up, lazy bones.”

“My lady.”  Boston heard, turned to look at the elf beside her, and got right up, though she was naked.

“What is it?  Why is it still dark out?”

“You must dress.  You are needed.”

Boston looked around.  “But my clothes?  I laid them out here for the morning.  Where did they go?”

“Lady Alice said fairy weave only.”  The elf maid lifted a skimpy bit of cloth from the bed.

With the word fairy, Boston dared another look at the one in the room.  “I am sorry miss fairy,” she said.  “I was having such a wonderful dream.”

The fairy softened her look.  “Quite all right.  Good dreams are worth holding on to.  And it is Mistletoe.”

“I’m Mary Riley, but everyone calls me Boston.”  She looked at the elf who was still holding the little bit of cloth.

“Lady, you must put this on.”

“But that isn’t even enough for a bikini,” Boston protested.

“It is fairy weave.”  The fairy fluttered in close.  “Her name is Rosemary, and this little cloth is magical.  It can be grown or shaped with a thought.  It can be separated into several pieces and even hardened to make shoes or boots.  You can make everything from an arctic outfit to a bikini and even color your bikini with lavender flowers, if you like.  Here.”

Mistletoe helped Boston dress in sensible jeans, running shoes and a shirt while Rosemary took up the explanation.  “You can make a nightgown for the night and freshen the clothes in the morning with a thought and without ever having to put them in the wash.”

“Remarkable,” Boston responded at last.  “But how do I know it won’t change every-which-way every time I have a stray thought?”

“Because you are human, it won’t change with your thoughts like normal.  You will have to tell it to change.”

“Good to know,” Boston said, and while they fixed her shoes she had another thought.  “How is it you know about running shoes and such?”

“I’ve been to Earth,” Mistletoe said, flatly, like Boston should have guessed.

“And Miss Mistletoe is friends with the Kairos’ daughter.”

“I was once.  I am sure she does not remember.”

“Of course, in your big size.”  Boston had a revelation.  “You can pass for a human.  I remember Missus Pumpkin getting big.  So, you have been to Earth and pretended to be human.”

“Not too well,” Rosemary whispered and nodded at the fairy, as if Mistletoe could not hear.  “She is too pretty to be human.”  The fairy shrugged and Boston turned to the elf, but Rosemary anticipated the question.  “Oh no, Lady.  You are the first mortal human I have ever seen.”

“And I think you are rather pretty yourself,” Boston complimented the elf and saw her turn her eyes away, just a little.

“Enough now.  Come.  We must be going.  They are waiting on you.”  Mistletoe led the way.  Rosemary stayed behind to straighten the bed.

“Why so early?”  Boston asked, but Mistletoe did not know.

Boston found the others in the banquet hall where she made herself a plate of hot eggs and biscuits from the breakfast bar someone had set up.  She imagined it had to be the fat little dwarf lady from the night before that seemed determined to make her gain twenty pounds in one night.  She enjoyed the breakfast, and only got startled briefly when Lockhart set a backpack beside her.

“What is this?” she asked.

“Medical kit.  Hope we don’t need it.”  Lockhart gave a short answer as he checked his shotgun.  Boston saw he was also armed with a police pistol.  Lincoln had a pistol and a wicked looking knife attached to his belt.  Roland sat at a nearby table, sharpening his sword with a whetstone.  Boston looked quickly in her pack and found a Berretta, like the one she used on the range, and her own wicked looking knife.  Beside the medical kit, there was something else.  She pulled it out.

She saw it was a handheld computer, which she immediately recognized as a database, and maybe a few other things.  “What is this?” she asked out loud.  No one answered at first, and then Boston had a real shock.  She saw Captain Decker and Lieutenant Harper.  They looked more than well-armed, with weapons that looked pretty sophisticated for regular issue.  Decker also had some equipment, which from her distance looked like scanning equipment.  Harper had a similar handheld, and she walked toward Boston.

Boston held up the handheld so Harper saw the back of the unit.  “That is a Reichgo battery,” Harper said.  “We haven’t learned how to duplicate it yet, but it will put out a continual electrical charge up to ten years or more depending on usage.”

Boston paused and thought about what she was going to say.  “I don’t get it,” she said at last, to whoever might be listening.  “I thought we were just going to retrieve them and come right back.”

“Here.”  Lieutenant Harper put something like a watch on the table.  “This is an old-style walkie-talkie with a ten to twenty-mile range that should work without satellites.”  She walked back to her equipment.

Boston picked up the watch, examined it closely, and put it on in time to see Lady Alice come in, followed by Doctor Procter.  The Doctor carried an amulet, which he shook, listened to, and shook again. The amulet appeared to be made of wood and strung with leather so it looked like nothing special, but Boston knew appearances could be deceiving.  She wondered what it was for.

“Are we ready?”  Alice clapped her hands when she spoke to be sure she had everyone’s attention.  Boston raised her hand like a schoolgirl and Alice answered her unspoken question.  “Mingus has taken his daughter to the beginning of history and insanely leapt into the chaotic void beyond where even I cannot reach him.  I do not know if they can be saved, but we need to be prepared for any eventuality.  The guns will never run out of bullets.  The fairy weave you are all wearing can be shaped and colored as needed to blend in with the locals.  Oh, and…”  Alice reached out like she was picking an apple from a tree.  A golden orb appeared in her hand, which she quickly put into the pouch that hung at her side.  Then she vanished and Glen came back to stand in her place.  He looked once around the room.

“You have no idea how much I miss this place when I am not here,” he said.

“I can imagine,” Boston spoke softly as she put on her backpack and noticed Katie Harper looking at her with wonder in her eyes.

“Perhaps you can.”  Glen smiled for Boston before he clapped his hands like Alice and they all found themselves floating in a multi-colored stickiness and unable to breathe.

Golden Door Chapter 26 The Broken Heart, part 2 of 2

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The elf queen wrinkled up her face. “Children, you must try to understand,” she said. “The Heart of Time has been shattered and time itself is in danger of unraveling. The Kairos, your father is safe here for the present, in the second heavens, but with the heart missing pieces, he is very, very sick.”

“Our main concern is for your father, of course, but we are also concerned for your world under the first heavens.” Lord Oak, the fairy King looked down again at his hands.

“The Earth is in the most dreadful danger,” Deepdigger, the goblin king interrupted, speaking for the first time. His red eyes flashed gold as he spoke, like eyes on fire, filled with lava from the deep. Nothing could have grabbed the children’s attention quite like a goblin speaking of dreadful danger. Lord Noen went on to explain.

“You see, without time and history to keep life in order and on track, the Earth, the planets, the sun and the moon, and even the stars are in danger of curling up like a scroll and maybe disappearing altogether.”

“But what can we do about it?” Beth asked. Everyone heard the Thump!

The Golden Door appeared behind the children and elders, near the bookshelves at the far end. A moment of staring and silence followed before Deathwalker finished speaking.

 “In any case,” he said. “This much we have been able to discover. The shattered pieces of the heart have flown throughout time to the many, future reflections of the Kairos, the Traveler in time. And this golden door, though not of our making, is certainly able to travel through time. We believe it is the same door that once brought Lady Alice from the far future, back to the beginning of history when the Heart of Time was first made.” He sat down.

“Not of your making?” Mama looked up as if this was news.

“A power far greater than ours is behind the golden door,” Lord Oak said, quietly, and said no more about it. He cleared his throat and Stongheart reached over to nudge him and nod. It was time.

“Please,” Lord Oak began, and took a quick sip of water. “What we are asking is if you children might be willing to make the journey through time, to find the Kairos, wherever you may find him or her, in order to retrieve the pieces so the Heart of Time can be restored.”

“So your father can be made well again,” Lady Lisel added.

“So the earth can be saved,” Stongheart whispered.

The children looked at each other, and then at their mother who sat quietly on the dais with her head lowered. She was not going to influence them. She knew there would be risks and dangers, and sometimes the dangers would be very great, indeed. But she did not want to think of that. She only thought that she was glad she did not start crying.

“But why us?” Once again, James, in his almost inaudible voice, threw the important question into the silence.

Lord Oak did not hesitate to answer this time. He spoke as if this question had been anticipated. “Because, for all our magic, our wisdom, our power, we are like any other people. We are trapped in the days in which we live. We are born, we grow old, and yes, even we come to the end of days.”

“Even the elders behind you will not be able to come with you this time,” Lord Noen added, with a look at Mrs. Copperpot, his grandmother.

“I’ll starve,” James said, with a smile and a glance back at the same Mrs. Copperpot, and thoughts about the old dwarf’s good cooking. She returned his smile but said nothing. Besides, as usual, James’ small voice got swallowed up by David’s shout, which was perhaps David’s normal voice.

“You won’t be coming?”

Inaros leaned forward from his wheelchair and patted David on the shoulder. “I’ll be with you in spirit, boy. In spirit.”

Mrs. Aster, sitting in her big size rather than her natural small fairy size, also leaned forward to pat Beth on the shoulder. “Besides,” she said. “We have already given you all the help we can. You carry all the magic and abilities of the fairy world, as Chris carries the strengths of the dark elves, David the light elves, and James the dwarfs and all the in between spirits of the earth. At this point, us older folks would just be a burden to you.”

Beth held Mrs. Aster’s hand on her shoulder and looked back with a look that said she cared deeply for the old fairy and being a burden would not matter.

“And your mother.” Lady Ivy added and reached in front of her husband toward the empty place and Mama’s hand in a sign of reassurance. “For all of her love, she is only an ordinary, mortal woman,” and she whispered, “I mean no disrespect.”

“You children, alone, carry the blood of the Kairos, the Watcher over history, the Traveler in time in your veins,” Lord Oak said. “You, alone, can travel through time to find the pieces and restore the Heart.”

“You are the only ones who can do it,” Strongheart said softly, and nodded to himself.

A silence even deeper than before fell on the room while once again the children looked from one to the other. Beth finally nodded and Chris spoke.

“When do we start?” Chris asked, and a great sigh went up all around. Most had been holding their breath. Mama began to weep, softly, but this time it was out of fear for her children. All the same, Davey spoke up loud and clear.

“I want my dad to get well and come home,” he said.

“Thank you.” Strongheart spoke for everyone in the room, and with a glance down at Mama, he added, “You may begin when you are ready.”

Lord Oak stood, and others followed until everyone stood apart from Mama and the children. The fairy king clutched a gold and silver goblet firmly in his hand and he raised it with a word. “To the children,” he said.

“To the children,” the dais responded.

The children stood. The golden door slowly opened to reveal a light so bright, even fairy eyes could not penetrate. James started it by hugging Mrs. Copperpot and saying, “Thank you.” David leaned down to the wheelchair and hugged Inaros.

“I’ll be here when you get back,” Inaros whispered in David’s ear.

Chris hugged Deathwalker, and the goblin returned the hug briefly. He looked a bit surprised, and mumbled, “Yes, well… We don’t go for much of that sort of thing in the underworld.”

Beth hugged Mrs. Aster and let out one tear before she let go and looked to her mother. They all looked, but Mama kept her moist eyes glued to the table. She would not say anything, or even show a facial expression that might cause her children to second guess their decision.

“Come on,” Beth said, and the nineteen-year-old led her soon to be sixteen-year-old brother Chris, and her brothers David, just twelve, and James, just three months into his ninth year into the light. The light did not blind them because it was meant for them. And when they vanished behind that brightness, and the golden door closed on the outside world, they went to their knees, trembling.

Angel stood there, but his first words brought them comfort. “Do not be afraid.” Angel toned down the light and his awesome nature so the four could breathe as Angel spoke. “Welcome. We have a long way to go.”

End

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MONDAY

Now you know how the Avalon Series really began. It started with four children and a broken heart. Of course, once the heart is repaired it must be tested, but that is a different story. Look for Avalon, Season One Travelers (The Pilot Episode included) at your favorite e-retailer. The series is nine seasons (nine books) altogether worth buying and reading. If you are still uncertain on just who this Kairos person is, you might start with Avalon, the Prequel Invasion of Memories, where the Kairos is forced to remember himself as the Traveler in time, the Watcher over history because there are three Vordan battleships on the moon preparing to invade. A book to buy and keep. You might want to refer to it now and then. Enjoy.

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Golden Door Chapter 25 Sunshine, part 2 of 2

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

The room, big as a football field, had model trains, miniature villages, towns, and cities, mountains, forests, lakes worthy of the name great, and people to scale that appeared to move like real nineteenth-century people. The boys had soldiers that would really fight on the battlefield, and all magically protected, so Warthead the ogre could not accidentally knock things over, or crush things. Grubby, could not cheat by moving things when the others were not looking. All the same, the dwarf twins, Picker and Poker, complained that Grubby was cheating. They could not prove it, but they said he would hardly be worthy of being an imp if he did not at least try to cheat.

“So what if he does?” James said. He watched his green uniformed troops load up on the freight train. The girls and baby dolls waved and cried. James would have to think about that. “This is still the best game I ever played,” he said. He felt sure of that.

“Picker and I are thinking of making an alliance,” Poker said.

“Grubby has Warthead assisting,” Picker added, to suggest Grubby had two on his team working together, as if Warthead might be a help rather than a hindrance.

“I don’t know,” James shook his head. “Blue and Gray usually don’t go together, especially with Civil War soldiers.”

“But we have to do something to beat Grubby’s redcoats,” Picker complained.

“I said James would not be interested,” Poker said. “His green coats are not losing.”

“James…” The elderly dwarf, Mrs. Copperpot called from the door.

“Supper?” James wondered out loud. Ever since he gained a dwarf constitution and endurance, he found he could always eat something. In truth, he gained more or less everything from what some called the middle ones: dwarfs, imps, gnomes, and even some ogre strength. He could find Warthead easily because he stunk so bad, but he could find Grubby, Picker, Poker, or even Mrs. Copperpot, just by taking a great whiff of air and thinking about them, even if they hid in a labyrinth. The train room seemed like a labyrinth, but James could sniff and find what he needed, wherever it might be. It felt like a sixth sense.

“James…”

“Coming,” he hollered. He glanced at Picker and Poker and started off, knowing right where the door was in that great room. Right now, Mrs. Copperpot was calling, and he thought it best to go to her rather than her come out and maybe disturb or mess up the playing field.

James saw Lady Biggles and Lord Noen standing by Mrs. Copperpot and the door. James only saw the dwarf king and queen a couple of times, and briefly over the last few days. He wondered what was up, but he naturally turned to Mrs. Copperpot to explain.

“Lady Alice wants all of us in the Annex room by the banquet hall,” she said.

“Will there be food?” James asked.

Mrs. Copperpot let out her old grin. “You are my good eater, James.”

~~~*~~~

David ran up the slide at super elf speed and hid behind the pirate wheel. Oren and Alden might not find him right away.  Just to be safe, David got small, to stand about six inches tall, so he could squeeze between the wooden boards. He let his elf ears and elf senses focus, to listen for the boys. He heard the animals in the petting area scuffling about, and the birds up in the tree house area.

David never got to go on the playground in the sixth grade, or in the fifth grade. He hardly got to go in the fourth grade, and now that he would be going into the seventh grade in the fall, playgrounds were supposed to be for the little kids and beneath him. But honestly, he enjoyed all the climbing, swinging, and running around. And now that he had been granted every gift an elf might have, included the sure footedness of a mountain goat, and he could run around at super speed, he honestly wanted to run around all day. Besides, this playground was the equivalent of a dozen of the best city playgrounds, a dozen school playgrounds, a dozen of the best back-yard playgrounds, and a good dozen fast food playgrounds, and without ever repeating.

“The best theme park ever,” he said to himself, and squeezed back into the space between the wood as a tram moved along the wires overhead. He looked further up to the treetops, where Galadriel might live, or maybe it looked more like an Ewok village. David felt uncertain about the roller coaster, but he did not mind the treetops.

“David…”

David heard Floren, Oren’s big sister and daughter of King Strongheart and Queen Lisel.

“What?” David said, softly without vacating his hiding place. He knew her good elf ears would pick it up, even if he risked Alden and Oren hearing him, and maybe zeroing in on his position.

Floren answered. “Your mother and Lady Alice want you in the annex beside the banquet hall.”

“Come on boy. Don’t dawdle.” David heard the words of old Inaros, one who David since discovered, at fifteen-hundred-years-old, was the eldest elder elf in recorded history.

“Coming,” David said, and he wiggled out from between the wooden boards and returned to his regular size. He spied Oren and Alden sneaking up past the gangplank, and they showed unhappiness at being found out by the look on their faces. Whatever they planned, it was probably a good surprise. “Hold that thought,” David said, and raced off at super speed. Oren and Alden followed, matching his speed.

David saw Strongheart and Lady Lisel with Floren, by the door to the game room where all the old videogames and pinball machines were kept. Inaros was there, too; but he sat in a wheelchair that Floren pushed. David paused, and felt bad about seeing Inaros in a wheelchair, but it prompted another thought in his mind.

“My dad?”

“Resting comfortably,” Strongheart said.

“Fine, as far as we know,” Lady Lisel added. “This is not about that, as far as I know.”

David nodded. He accepted that. He put a hand on the back of Inaros’ wheelchair and walked beside the elf, while Floren pushed.

~~~*~~~

Beth got small as a fairy. She folded her wings in tight to her back and slid down the best water slide, ever. She came behind Holly, and Mistletoe followed her, Mistletoe’s betrayal long since forgotten. It took a long time to get half-way down a mountain, but they ended in a large pool of fresh water that connected to the sea. Mermaids frolicked in the pool.

Zinnia, Daffodil, and Hyacinth came behind. Daffodil said the trip was too scary for her and she had to have one in front and one behind. Needless to say, they were all screaming by the time they reached the pool, and the mermaids paused to laugh.

Beth had to come down the mountain in her fairy size, because sometimes the chute was only a few inches wide. She only got big again, her wings disappearing, when she came to the pool. She had her fairy weave clothing shaped into a nice bikini, and it automatically grew when she grew, so no worries there. She flew gently to a small beach where they had towels. She could fly in her big size, and she smiled at the thought. Flying, generally was a heady feeling. All fairies could fly big, though that was not a well-known fact, but they flew much slower than in their regular, small size with wings. For Beth, though, being big felt most natural, so she stayed big most of the time.

Holly, who had yet to get big in front of Beth, rushed to her shoulder, even though Beth’s hair was soaking wet. “Let’s do it again,” Holly shrieked in Beth’s ear. Beth instinctively put a hand to her ear against the volume of the shriek but smiled. Fairies tended to be very one-tracked, and especially the younger ones. She knew at fairy speed they could get back half-way up a real mountain and at the start of the slide in less than a minute. Even in her small size, it would take Beth a little longer, because she was still so new at this flying business, and she was not an actual fairy. But for her, three times down the slide was enough. She wanted to join the mermaids and get some late afternoon sun.

“Come on-y.” Holly tugged on her hair.

“Now, wait a minute,” Beth said. “Before we go anywhere, I think you should get big so I can see you in your big size.”

Holly backed off and flitted back and forth a few times. She thought about it, as Mistletoe stepped out of the water in her big size and said, “No chance of that happening.” Holly flew in a gentle backflip, as Daffodil gladly got big and stepped up on Beth’s other side.

“Now, Holly. I’ve been little, so I’ve seen you like you really are. Besides, now that I have fairy eyes, I can see both distance and small things really well.”

“Better than eagle eyes,” Daffodil said.

“You have everything a fairy has,” Mistletoe suggested.

“Not magic,” Beth said.

“Maybe you do,” Hyacinth said as she and Zinnia fluttered up.

“We don’t know about that,” Zinnia added, and in a way that suggested the girls talked about it.

“Okay,” Holly said suddenly. Her little mind made up. She got big and stood there, her wings gone, looking for all the world like an eleven-year-old girl. She almost looked like a stick figure in her little bikini, but Beth got a great big smile and stood, reached out and hugged her.

“You look beautiful,” Beth said.

“Too skinny,” Holly said, with a shake of her head as she backed up. She glanced at her sister, Mistletoe. “But maybe one day,” she said, without spelling out her hope.

“Beth.” Mrs. Aster flew up and interrupted. “You are needed at the castle.” Mistletoe stood as her mother and father Lord Oak and Lady Ivy, the fairy king and queen flew up.

“Nothing bad, I hope,” Daffodil said as she also stood.

“Not that I know of,” Mrs. Aster said. “Your mother and Lady Alice want to see all the children together.” Beth rolled her eyes for Mistletoe, but Lady Ivy caught it.

“Now Beth,” she said. “You will never stop being your mother’s child.”

Beth knew that was true, but she still wished her mother would let her grow up and be an adult, eventually. She turned to the girls. “You will have to do the slide without me.”

Daffodil shook her head. “I think I’ll stay here.”

“I’ll stay with you,” Mistletoe said.

“I’ll watch them,” Hyacinth said, and flew off.

A small Holly already shouted “Yipee!” and she and Zinnia were already zooming up the mountain.

Beth looked at Oak, Ivy, and Mrs. Aster. She looked at herself, got small again so she could fly with some speed, and followed them toward the castle.

Golden Door Chapter 25 Sunshine, part 1 of 2

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Mrs. Aster returned to her small fairy form and fluttered up to Beth’s ear. She sat gently on Beth’s shoulder, like Holly, but without all the tugging on Beth’s hair. David helped Inaros stand and walk. The elf appeared very old, sad, and frail. Mrs. Copperpot slipped one arm around James. He did not mind. He needed her kerchief to blow his nose.

Deathwalker opened the tower door and squinted. The sun came out. “Likely give me a migraine,” he mumbled, and Chris heard, and tried to laugh.

“Seems solid enough,” Inaros said, as he stomped several times on the ground. That thought made David smile.

“Thinking about college?” Deathwalker asked Chris. He pointed to the buildings across the stream. “Avalon Castle University,” he named it.

“Professor?” Chris asked and turned the word on Deathwalker almost like an accusation.

Deathwalker looked away. “Yes…well.” He coughed. “Retired. Don’t make more out of it than you hear. I said, in the underworld we don’t hold much with titles…”

Mrs. Copperpot closed the tower door and stepped over to the spring. James followed. The spring still bubbled out of the ground, but the water looked dark, almost blood red. James imagined it as the color of the dirt but got a shock when Mrs. Copperpot touched the spring water three times, gently, with her cooking spoon.

A young woman appeared on the surface of the water. She looked like she had been beaten raw. She looked cut everywhere, and while most of the cuts had scabbed over, blood still dripped from plenty of places. The woman squinted out of bruised and puffy eyes.

“Oh, my dear,” Mrs. Copperpot said, softly, as everyone gathered around.

The woman on the water slowly licked her lips and tried to speak. “I’m all right. Everything will be all right now,” she said, and vanished again.

“Oh, my dear,” Mrs. Aster repeated Mrs. Copperpot’s words. Then, Beth spoke from the heart.

“We have to go and save our friends from the soldiers.”

“And Mama,” David added.

“Even Warthead, and Grubby,” James barely breathed the words.

Everyone turned their eyes to the woods. They moved slowly, carefully, and quietly through the trees, not knowing what to expect. The forest gate proved to be open. Chris, at least, imagined some of the soldiers may have followed them into the woods.

“Warthead wandered off,” James spoke up. He realized Warthead had not been there when they escaped in the rain, though he did not notice at the time.

“Shh,” Chris hushed James; a very rare occurrence for James who normally spoke whisper soft.

David put his own hand to his own mouth. He was about to say something that would have come out the opposite of whisper soft, that is to say, in his normal voice.

They hid behind the trees and felt stymied, until Mrs. Aster spoke. “Let me fly to the top of the wall and spy out the area.”

“Wait,” Beth said, a bit loud, as Mrs. Aster vacated her shoulder.

“Beth, dear, you’re too big,” Mrs. Aster responded. “You’ll be spotted.”

“Wait. Just wait a minute.” Beth thought about having everything that the fairies had. She concentrated, before she remembered the fairy light, and just let it happen. She got small, fairy size, and she had bumblebee type wings that beat rapidly to keep her aloft. Her fairy weave clothes shrank with her, so she did not appear there naked, and she smiled while everyone around her gasped, except Davey, who said “Wow” a bit loud, though muffled by the hand that still covered his mouth.

“It doesn’t feel natural,” Beth admitted to Mrs. Aster.

“Natural for you will still be your big size,” Mrs. Aster said through her smile. “Now, are we ready?” Beth nodded and followed the elderly fairy to the top of the wall where they crouched down to peek.

Inaros and David watched with their good elf eyes until the two spies disappeared. Inaros drew in his breath, and David uncovered his mouth and let out a loud, “Hey!”

“Over here,” someone called from the gate. David saw little Mickey O’Mac next to a dirty kid and standing beneath a monstrosity that made Davey want to scream and throw-up at the same time.

“Grubby. Warthead.” James waved and ran to meet them, Mrs. Copperpot waddling behind.

“Redeyes? Crusher?” Chris sounded concerned.

Deathwalker squinted and used his hand to shade his eyes, even standing in the shadows of the trees. “Don’t worry. They probably slipped into the Bailiff Tower as soon as the blasted orb came out.

Chris looked toward the sun and imagined what that might be like to look with his goblin eyes. He decided not to test out his theory.

They entered the gate, and discovered the soldiers had all been put to sleep. No doubt, it was an enchanted sleep, because more than one continued to snore despite the movement and noise of conversation all over the courtyard. As he walked, Chris saw James with two bearded boys, the dirty kid, and a monster that had to be an ogre. Chris figured trolls were more frightening and ogres were more disgustingly ugly. He swallowed the bile that came into his throat from looking at the beast and looked elsewhere.

Chris saw a bunch of lights flying around one bench in a dizzying dance. Mrs. Aster hovered there, not getting into the middle of that madness. Then he saw his sister, Beth, get big again. She had no wings, and looked normal, apart from the two lights that appeared to want to play with her hair.

Chris followed Deathwalker across the courtyard and almost bumped into David. David raced around the courtyard with two boys, at super speed. They paid no attention to the good-looking young college age, maybe high school senior age girl—elf girl, that stood with her hands on her hips, yelling at them. Chris grinned. Yelling at Davey usually did no good.

Chris worried about Silverstain but paused at the door to the Bailiff’s Tower. His mother came out with all the ladies of the Dias still talking about everything and nothing. He paused to give his mother a quick hug, but then rushed in to where the dark elves waited.

“Silverstain?” he asked.

Watcher limped with his leg bandaged. He had a wan look on his face. Stalker stood quietly in the corner with his shoulder bandaged. Redeyes ran up, his arm in a sling, and he explained. “Crusher and Silverstain are in the hospital. Silverstain is in intensive care, but Doctor Burns said she should recover.” Redeyes tried to sound hopeful. Chris dropped his head and found some tears.

~~~*~~~

Three days later, Chris and Redeyes sat in Silverstain’s hospital room playing chess and talking about video games. Redeyes praised his first-person shooter VR game that had not yet been invented on earth. Silverstain made faces which made Chris laugh. Crusher sat in the corner and laughed once in a while as well; but then he ate something that looked like a bloody mess. As he said when Chris looked up. “It would take more than one blinkin’ arrow to interrupt a troll’s appetite.”

“Chris.” Mama stuck her head in the door. “We need to talk.” She looked upset.

Chris got right up. “Is Dad okay?” he asked. The four children had only been allowed into their dad’s room for a few minutes each day. He was never awake.

“Fine,” Mother said. “Doctor Burns says he is fine, but he is hardly conscious. He may slip into a coma if the trouble with the heart of time is not repaired.” Mother held her tears and stepped out into the hall. Chris noticed Goldenvein, the goblin queen stood there to give his mother a hug and comfort. Maybe Lady Goldenvein was there because Silverstain was her daughter, but Chris found it odd that of all the ladies from the dais, including the elf queen, the dwarf queen, and the fairy queen, his mother chose the goblin queen as her best friend.

“I have to go,” he told Redeyes and Crusher. He looked at Silverstain. She would be in months of therapy before she walked again. Chris wanted to cry, but she looked at him to say he should do his duty, and she would be fine.

“Everyone has been sent for,” Mother said, as Chris shut the door behind him. “Lady Alice wants to meet us in the first annex off the banquet hall. She doesn’t want there to be a scene.”

Chris could only nod. He removed his frightening aspect as they walked. He could make himself look like a goblin. In fact, he had been gifted with everything a dark elf might have to live in the dark and underground, but somehow, he felt for this meeting he ought to be just Chris—an ordinary almost sixteen-year-old human.

Lord Deepdigger, the goblin king, and Professor Deathwalker waited by the elevator at the end of the hall. Deathwalker waved as they approached.

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

MONDAY

The children are being gathered. The story is not done. The Heart has been broken. It has to be fixed or time might yet come to an end. Until Next Time, Happy Reading

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