Supper was held in a big, banquet hall with plenty of columns to hold up the bedrooms on the second floor.  The hall was next to the outdoor kitchen area so the food could be good and hot.  Altogether, there were some fifty adults on a staff which acted something like a government, though the people had no concept of government.  These were simply the experts in their various fields.  They were the chief carpenters, brick makers and builders, workers in clay, soft metals, and cloth.  There were chiefs among the herdsmen and chief farmers who oversaw the irrigation system, and there were hunters, of course.

            The children had their own tables out by the kitchen.  They were under an awning in case it rained.  The children from all the families ate together, but sometimes they were allowed in the big room to eat with their families.  Anenki’s young children were presently out by the kitchen so his family at the adult table included his little sister, Dantu and her husband, Risah and hers if Risah ever sat down to actually eat something, Bashte with Niudim beside her and Anenki with Lili and Nanna beside him.  Nanna was just making the leap from the children’s tables so this was still special for her.

            Over supper, Anenki convinced his guests to stay a couple of days and rest.  They looked worn and they knew it so it did not take much convincing.  After that was settled, there were the questions and Anenki, and Bashte who took the travelers to her heart as she took everyone, did their best to answer.

            “Actually, Bashte and I function more like a High Priest and High Priestess than King and Queen.  We got caught talking with the Gods, you see, like we were old chums.”

            “I’m the chum part,” Bashte admitted.  “I grew up with Innan except for a couple of years when Dantu became my best friend.”

            Anenki leaned over and gave Bashte a kiss on the cheek.  “She is friends with them all, too.  I’m just the old part.”

            “Anenki!  That’s not true.”

            “True enough.  Okay, but some of them don’t like me very much.”

            “Varuna seemed to like you well enough,” Lockhart pointed out.

            “And Astarte liked Saphira pretty well,” Alexis added.

            “I know Asarte,” Bashte said, “But who is Varuna?  Is she nice?”

            “He,” Anenki corrected.  “And yes, he is very nice.”

            “Nagi and Shengi, too,” Boston added.

            Anenki thought about it, but he shook his head.  “That was just because Dayus, Tiamut and the Shang-Di didn’t like me at all, and still don’t, I might add.  Anyway, something much worse is coming here tomorrow morning.”               

            “What?”  Lincoln had to ask.

            “My ex-wife.  Lili and Niudim’s mother.”  Niudim turned up his nose.  Lili simply turned to Nanna who was determined to stay up.

            “I would rather have Mother Innan,” she said.  Nanna nodded in mid-yawn but could not respond.

            Anenki smiled at his daughters before he turned to Captain Decker.  “You are very quiet tonight.  What’s up?”

            Captain Decker appeared to pull his mind back into the room.  “Sorry.  I can’t help it.  I feel we are being watched, but I don’t see anything.”

            “Maybe it is just being in the midst of over two-thousand people, sir” Katie suggested.  “That is a lot compared to what we have been through.”  Decker shook his head while Roland added his thoughts. 

            “I feel it, too.”  He spun his head around but there was nothing there.

###

            The travelers slept around the campfire that night.  No one said anything in particular or suggested it, but everyone felt the same.  It was that feeling that they were being watched and that feeling would not go away easily.  They all felt the need for company and the need to watch each other’s backs.

            It was late when Boston woke up feeling antsy.  She felt like she was missing something, but her hand went straight to the amulet and found it hanging around her neck where she had vowed to always keep it.  She thought that perhaps she was missing something in her backpack, so she got up as quietly as she could and inched to her tent.  The flap was closed, and when she opened it, she screamed.  Two dog-yellow eyes peered back at her.

            Everyone woke and hurried to her.  But she watched as the eyes darted to the side.  Boston almost looked in the same direction though there was nothing to see apart from the tent.  Then the eyes sank into the ground.  Lockhart and Katie arrived in time to see the last bit of the eyes before they vanished in the dirt.  Then they heard the sound of thunder.

            “That’s the river!” Lincoln shouted, drawing on some memory from his years in the C. I. A. before he came to work for the Men in Black.

            “Make for higher ground!”  Alexis shouted, and they started for the temple they had seen earlier in the day.  Boston tried for the palace, but Lockhart and Roland combined to drag her to the temple steps.

            “Someone has to warn Anenki,” Boston protested.

            “Can’t worry about that now,” Lockhart said as he shoved her up the lowest set of steps.  The temple was actually five terrace layers of solid bricks.  Each layer was a man’s height and set back a man’s height in distance from the lower level.  The fifth and topmost level was actually about the size of a house.  It was in fact temple where priests sacrificed the animals on a stone slab and dedicated the fruits in season to Enki, god of Eridu.

            When everyone got to the temple, they saw the water.  It looked like a black snake against the ground.  Curiously, it kept its shape even driven out of its banks.  it curved and ran right over their camp.  It extinguished the fire there and came on to the temple.  It crashed against the bricks and shook the structure, but the temple was too much for it and the travelers were too high up to reach.

            A man came out of the building when the water arrived.  After one good crash against the bottom most layers of the step pyramid, the man waved his hand.  The waters obeyed some imperative and turned away.  They rushed right past the front door of the palace and reentered the riverbed.  No further water came from the river after that.

            “Looks like you have a bug problem,” the man said.  “Like a cockroach, you know.”  He pushed his glasses up on his face and smiled.  That was when the ones close raised their collective eyebrows.  What was a Neolithic man doing with glasses.

            “A present from Anenki,” the man answered their unasked question and vanished.

            “What?”  Boston wondered.

            “Enki, I presume,” Lockhart responded.

            “I think he means the bokarus,” Roland responded differently.  “The cockroach, I mean.”

            “Darn.”  Lincoln walked up to join the group.  “And for once I was having a good dream.  Now all of our stuff is going to be soaked.

After 4233 BC in Eridu, along the Euphrates River.  Kairos:  Anenki

Recording…

            Anenki woke just before dawn.  He felt a chill in the air.  That did not feel right.  There was rarely, if ever a chill in the air along the Euphrates and as close as they were to the Persian Gulf.  By the time he came fully awake, though, the feeling passed.  There was nothing to see in the room so he shrugged it off and pulled Bashte from her back to her side so she could face him.  She responded in her sleep by slinging her lovely arm around his waist.  He wanted to kiss that arm – to kiss her, but he did not want to wake her.  He could just make out her beauty in the dim light before dawn and he contented himself with that vision.  How could he be so blessed?  He stared and thought he might catch a nap before the sun brought him fully awake.

###

            Anenki cupped Bashte’s perfect breast in his hand.  She was still asleep, but warm and inched closer at his attention.  Her breasts were full and firm and terribly unfair, he thought.  He just turned forty, and looked it and felt it.  Granted, she was only thirty-three, but she still had the look of someone who was twenty-three.  She still had the energy, too.

            Anenki shifted his hand to her back and inched closer himself.  Then again, perhaps it was just as well that one of them had the energy.  Niudim was twenty-one and still a special needs child.  Lili was eighteen and always a help with her brother, but she was presently garnering the attention of every eligible bachelor in the city so she did not have much time to spare.  And they were just the two from his first unfortunate marriage.

            Anenki shifted his weight to a more comfortable position and Bashte responded with a sigh.  Then there was Nanna, the daughter of Anenki and the goddess Innan whom he called the goddess of desire.  And Innan was desire itself – far more than a simple love goddess.  Nanna was birthed by Bashte who served as a surrogate mother almost from inception.  Nanna called Bashte Mama, like the other children.  She called Innan Mother.  And at fourteen, she was beginning to garner some real attention from the boys herself.  Takes after her Mother, Anenki thought.

            Bashte peeped, a sweet sound and pulled up tight against him.  That turned Anenki’s thoughts to the five children he and Bashte had.  Annie was twelve.  The boys Erech and Kish were ten and eight, and the girls, Larsa and little Nippur were five and just three.  He ran his finger down Bashte’s side to her slim waist and then let it rise up her hip.  No way she bore six children, he thought.  With that, he let his hand slide to her backside.

            “Anenki.”  Bashte opened her big, brown sparkling eyes and looked up at him.  “What are you thinking?”

            “I was just thinking about the children,” he answered honestly enough.

            Bashte giggled, a sound of pure joy that reverberated down to Anenki’s soul.  “I can feel what you are thinking.”

            “That?  Oh that is just an automatic reflex every time I am near you.”

            Bashte said nothing.  She backed up just a smidgin to pull her hands up and then counted on her fingers.  “Niudim, Lili, Nanna, Annie, Erech, Kish, Larsa, Nippur,” she stopped and looked up at him again.  “I still have two finger’s left.”

            “What are you suggesting?”

            “What you are thinking.”  She grinned again so Anenki had to grin with her .  “We could try anyway,” she said shyly in a most alluring way.

            “And for how long?”  Anenki asked.  He was thinking of the years, but she took it differently.

            “I wouldn’t mind forever, or until your reflexes give out.”

            Anenki wondered what he ever did to be so blessed even as his sister Risah came running into the room.  The woman was hot and sweaty, but that was from the cooking fires where she and her best friend Nephat loved to be.  They cooked for the palace, such as it was.

            “Anenki.  There are strangers at the gate, and they are strangers like I have never seen before.  One has yellow hair.  One has red hair.  One is darker than a herd follower and two of them are your elves.  I noticed them right off.”

            “Risah.”  Anenki said her name to quiet her.  “Tell the Captain to treat them with his best and I will be right there.”  He gave Bashte a peck on the lips, got right up and quickly got dressed.  “Hold that thought,” he suggested.

            Before Bashte could say anything, Nippur came toddling in at her fastest speed.  “Mama.  Mama.”  She crawled right up on the bed and pulled the covers over her head.  Nurse Hannah came in a moment later dragging Larsa by the hand.  Bashte finally said something.

            “What did they break?”

###    

            By the time Anenki arrived, he saw Nanna was there ahead of him.  She had wandered down from the market along with a couple dozen other people.  The people mostly just stared at these very strange travelers, but Nanna got in the middle of them.  She had Katie Harper stand next to Lockhart.  Alexis and Lincoln of course went together, being married.  She had Roland stand next to Boston, which made Mingus very uncomfortable, and she was presently apologizing to Mingus and Captain Decker.

            “I’m sorry, gentlemen.  I seem to have run out of playmates.”

            Mingus spoke first.  “I am married already.  I have a son and a daughter.”  He pointed to Roland and Alexis.  “And that is quite enough.”

            “I’m married, too,” Captain Decker said to everyone’s surprise.  He looked surprised that they looked surprised.  “Why do you think I am so quick to volunteer for hazard pay?”  He asked with a perfectly straight face.

            “Captain!”  Alexis protested with just the word while Katie and Roland stepped slowly away from their designated places.  Captain Decker stared back at her without expression.  He meant what he said and felt no need to apologize.

            “Nanna.”  Anenki called and she turned at the sound of his voice.  Niudim, her watcher also turned and it was Niudim who spoke first.

            “I tried to stop her.”  Apparently Nanna’s watcher had been watching.

            “Father.”  Nanna stepped toward him and planted a kiss on his cheek.  She only called him Father when she was pretending to be all grown up.

            Anenki responded to Niudim first.  “That’s okay, son.  No harm done.  You can smile.”  And Niudim did while Anenki turned to his daughter.  “I think your Mama needs your help, unless you would rather help your aunt Risah in the kitchen.”

            Nanna made a face at the thought of helping in the kitchen, but Risah jumped.  “Oh, the roast.”  She shouted and rushed off.

            Nanna looked back once.

            “You can get to know them over supper,” Anenki said.

            Nanna smiled, and it was a smile hard to resist.  It came from being the daughter of desire.  “I think Mama needs me with the little scamps.”

            “Not the boys?”  Anenki asked.  Erech and Kish were notorious for getting into trouble.

            Nanna shook her head.  “No, father.  Larsa and Nippur have been bad, I think.”  She started to walk off, but as she walked by, Anenki let his hand give her a soft spank on the rump.  Nanna wheeled.

            “Daddy!”  So now he was Daddy again.

            “Don’t forget Niudim.  Take his hand.”

            “Come along big brother,”  Nanna said and Niudim took her hand and went willingly.  Anenki finally turned to the travelers.

            “Welcome to the beautiful city of Eridu, population two thousand and something and growing.  The biggest and best city in the world.”

            “City?”  Boston wondered.

            “I see they learned to put some straw in their bricks,” Katie noticed.

            “Anenki?”  Lincoln had the database out.

As you should know if you have read these posts, I finished my NaNo book (near 80,000 words) on October 25^th after 39 days because I couldn’t wait.  Shame on me, but then I faced National Novel Writing Month with nothing to do. 

Aha! I thought.  (well, maybe my brain did not actually go, Aha!, but)… Let me see what I can get done on my ongoing stories. 

Anatomy of a Storyteller is being presented on my Word & Sprit blog in digestible bits every Monday.  In the first two weeks of Nano month I wrote three new chapters totaling 12,830 words (roughly 10-12 posts).  The story is getting good, but I reached a breathing point (not exactly a stopping point) and concentrated on the other story.

Avalon, the series (season 1) is being presented on my Storyteller blog, again in easily digestible bits as a Monday / Friday story.  We are currently up to episode 8 (13 per season), but you can always go back in the archives and read from the pilot on if you wish… though I feel that is not necessary to get into the stories… but anyway, season two started to really kick and the four episodes I wrote in the first three weeks totaled 26,621 words.

So at the start of the last week I was at 39, 451 words counting Anatomy and Avalon together.  I thought I was on the good track to break 50,000 by the end of the month until someone said I could only count one or the other.  NaNo is supposed to be only one storyline.

Picky…

Well, Avalon 2.4, the story around Zoe at the start of the Amazon nation and 2.5, the story around Huyana (and her seven dwarf followers to which she warned the travelers not to make any wisecracks) were already in the works.  When finished, they added another 15,297 words to the Avalon total.  You see, counting the work done on my Anatomy story made the total word output for November 54,748, but if I was only allowed to count the Avalon work I stood at 41,918 words as of Saturday night. 

Lucky for me, Avalon 2.6 was hot on my fingertips on Saturday eve.  I preached Sunday, drove my son back to college (3+ hours each way) also on Sunday, and worked the old job Monday, yesterday and today… but I still managed to finish 2.6 this bleary-eyed, yawning morning.  It is a great story about a war in northern France in 3617 BC with gods fighting gods, spirits fighting spirits (you know, the elves versus orcs type), men fighting men, and for good measure, two groups of space aliens who take sides as well.  The travelers have a hard time running that gauntlet and getting out with their skins intact, let me tell you. 

The result of all this is I did get 2.6 finished (so I am willing to count it) and it came out 12,621 words which, as you might expect, is a long episode and twice the length of some other episodes.  When I then combine that word count with my Avalon total, the grand total for the book is 54,539 words.  WooHoo!  (seven episodes written, six to go).

Then, if I don’t want to be a fanatic and I am willing to count my anatomy work as well, that makes for 67,369 words of fiction written in the thirty days of November.  (Huzzah!)

That is my report, and my final report on this NaNo madness.  December for me will be rewrites and sales (and possibly January as well).  Sadly, reality kicks in every now and then and we all need to work in order to be able to… work, if you know what I mean. 

So now, don’t be shy.  How did you do?  Did you NaNew?  Or did you NaNOoooo… 

            Decker and Harper both tried to fire at the werewolf, but the guns just went click, click.  The same nothing happened with Lockhart’s shotgun.  Roland had an arrow, but Vanu stopped the elf.

            “It won’t do you any good unless you have a silver tip.”  The wolf moved slowly and paced back and forth, looking for the best way to approach this killing spree.  As it moved the answer to why their guns did not work became apparent.  The wolf was wearing the amulet. 

            “Oh that poor man,” Alexis breathed, thinking that surely the wolf killed the man.  No one else was fooled.  Clearly the wolf was the mad man in wolf form.

            “Wait,” Vanu said.  “I may be able to do something here.”  He held his hand out and called to his stone.  “The necklace was made and the stone cut and fashioned by my Little Ones.  I may have some power over it.  He concentrated, and the amulet moved.  It did not fly off the wolf and return to Vanu like Thor’s hammer might fly back to the hand of its owner, but it did wiggle.  And then it began to glow.  The glow in the stone increased and it warmed.

            “It is picking up the moonlight and amplifying it, like a laser,” Boston said.

            At first, the wolf paused and appeared to enjoy basking in that glow, but the heat kept increasing, and after only a few moments, the wolf began to howl.  It stood up on its hind legs, not like a dog exactly and not like a man.  Clearly it could stand and be stable, and it could also use its front paws like hands.  The heat still increased, and they began to catch the smell of burning hair and flesh.  The wolf began to scream like no real wolf ever screamed and it pushed the chain away as it wriggled its long snout through the necklace.

            The amulet fell to the ground.  The wolf eyed them warily before it spun around, fell to all fours and darted back into the jungle.  It left only a trail of the smell of burning flesh and hair for anyone to  follow – not that anyone was so foolish.  Vanu relaxed.  He almost collapsed but Alexis and Boston caught him.  Lockhart, Lincoln and Captain Decker all moved to retrieve the amulet, but there was a distant explosion that caused them to pause and shut their eyes.

            The sudden flash of light left them seeing spots.  Before anyone could clear their vision, two young men came crashing through the underbrush.  They dove into the clearing, screaming.  “Help!  Save us!”  They were being chased by a tiger.  Curiously, the tiger stopped at the edge of the clearing and started licking its paw while the two young men crawled over to hide behind Vanu and Dayni.

            “Dayus ordered me to eat them, you know.”  The tiger spoke without moving its lips.  Everyone heard clearly and no one doubted it was the tiger speaking.

            “You are welcome to have them,” Vanu said.  People paused to look at him and wonder before all eyes returned to the tiger.

            “Can’t.  The amulet,” the tiger said.  “Anyway, I told you once.  I don’t like human meat.  Too stringy and distasteful.”  The tiger made a face.  Everyone saw the disgust just before the tiger vanished.

            “Look!  There it is!”  One of the young men shouted and both made a dash for it as Lockhart, Decker and Lincoln all jumped.  None got it, because a man in ragged clothes stooped down and picked it off the ground.  The ragged man eyed the amulet with some concern on his face while Dayni and Vanu went to their knees.  The others joined them, the two young men last of all.  They made up for their tardiness in reacting by falling all the way to their faces.

            “You know, you should really keep a better watch on this,” the ragged man said as he tossed the amulet back to Vanu.  Vanu immediately handed it to Dayni who slipped it around her neck.  Then the other man showed up.

            “What have you done!”  He yelled at the raggedy man.

            “I returned the amulet to its rightful owners,” the ragged man said, calmly.  “Should I have not done that?”  He sounded innocent enough.

            The new arrival got hot.  In fact, they all felt the heat.  He turned on the crowd and shouted again.  “What are these still doing here?”  He pointed at the two on their faces.

            “Ah,” the ragged man spoke like this was a question he could answer.  “I believe the tiger said he could not eat them because of the amulet.”  Alexis at least thought she saw steam rise from the other man.

            “And who the Hell are all these people?”

            “Travelers,” the ragged man said.  “They will be gone in the morning and out of our land before two days have passed.”

            The other man paused while he looked around at the travelers.  None of the travelers lifted their eyes.  Then the man spoke to Lockhart, and Lockhart knew it even without looking.  “Take these two with you,” the man said, and again Lockhart knew the man meant Vanu and Dayni even if it was not spelled out.  Then the man left in a flash of light so bright it rivaled the sun.  In fact, it was the sun, but fortunately the ragged man did something to prevent everyone from being burnt and blinded.

            “You two.” the ragged man spoke while people once again lifted their heads, except the two on their faces who began to tremble.  If you dare to touch that amulet again, I will be very angry.  And so you understand, I am not like Dayus.  I do not have to follow the rules in order to maintain my position.  I have ten thousand eyes in the night sky.  I am always watching.  If you so much as touch it, you will regret it.”

            “Lord Varuna,”  Vanu lowered his head in a bow.  He wanted to be sure the two young men knew who was speaking to them.

            “For the rest of you,” Varuna spoke in a different, light and airy voice, and he smiled.  “Get your rest.  The wolf will not bother you again tonight.  But understand, none of us are authorized to end its life.  You travelers were kind to it after a fashion.  You healed it and fed it and it now has your scent.  It will no doubt follow you through your next time portal and beyond.  At some point I do not doubt you will have to deal with the man wolf.  May the gods in that place be able to do more than I am allowed.”  And he vanished, and they were alone apart from the two young men who joined them.

            “You see.  It is a man wolf like I said.”

            “A rose by any other name,” Alexis said.

            “Not a help,” Lincoln countered.  “Ghouls ahead of us, a werewolf following us.”

            “Don’t forget the Bokarus,” Boston reminded everyone.

            “I kind of hoped we lost that one and saw the last of it some time back,” Lincoln said.

            “Don’t count on it,” Lockhart spoke quietly as he stood and brushed himself off to ready himself for bed.

            It was not long before they came to the edge of the jungle.  A broad field of sweet green grass spread out in front them and for a good stretch before it came to some distant rock covered hills.  The trail split there.  It ran along the tree line in both directions.  It was an odd sight.  It looked like the jungle simply stopped and the trees stood like soldiers at attention.  The line was fairly straight and made a sharp demarcation between tree land and the grassy plains.

            “Way?”  Lockhart asked, knowing they had followed the trail and not strictly the amulet.  They might have gotten turned around.

            “This way,” Boston pointed to their right.  Roland stared to their left.

            “Smoke, I think,” he said.  “Probably cooking fires.  Maybe a village.”

            Mingus squinted but saw nothing so he took a great whiff of air instead.  He shook his head.  “Wind is not from that direction.”

            “We follow the green arrow,” Lockhart decided.  No one argued, and it was another hour, about an hour before sunset when they found the sheep.  They smelled them first before they saw them.  As they came up close, a woman stood from the shadow of the trees.

            “Hello,” she said, and stepped into the light.  She was young, about Boston’s current age of around twenty-three.  She had a three or four-year-old that clung shyly to the back of her dress and she looked pregnant besides.  “Are you hungry and thirsty?  Please, you must come stay the night with us.”  The petite young woman glanced at the sun.  “It is not safe right now to be out in the dark.  Please.

            “Yes, thank you very much,” Alexis said it because Lockhart merely took his own glance at the sun before he nodded.

            “Oh, wonderful.”  The woman looked pleased.  “Come Gana.”  She pulled the boy from behind.  “Say hello.”  The boy merely stared at the strangers.  “My husband will be very happy to have visitors.  He only has me to listen to most of the time and he says that is all he needs, but I know he will be happy to have a change in conversation.  He knows so much, but he has no one to talk to.  Sometimes it keeps him awake at night and sometimes it gives him a headache.  Do you know what I mean, headache?”

            “That can’t be good.”  Katie Harper had stepped up to take the point with Boston.

            “Oh,” The woman said with the biggest smile seen in a long time.  “I know how to cure a headache.”  She patted her stomach.  Alexis and Katie smiled.

            “I wouldn’t know about that, “ Boston said, but she found her eyes wander over to look at Roland.  The elf looked at the sheep.

            “Children!”  The woman called and several sheep bleated and began to follow as she walked.  “My name is Dayni,” she said.  Several people stopped so the rest stopped.  It was Lincoln who said it.

            “So, of course.  Your husband is Vanu.”

            Roland had another thought.  “You’re the one those two fools on the trail were afraid of?”

            Dayni did not seem to hear.  She shouted at her stray.  “You, too, lumpy.  You better come if you don’t want to be supper.”  The sheep let out a loud Baa of protest, but it came from the edge of the trees and rejoined the herd on the path.

            Dayni led them all down the grasslands path for a short way before she turned on to a side path and reentered the jungle.  The jungle was not as thick in that place and the path was good as well, worn down by years of sheep.  The clearing where the house was located was barely inside the trees, like a border house between two lands.   And that was what it was.  Dayni was of the jungle people.  Vanu was born in the village on the grasslands and their marriage brought those two tribes into peaceful relations, but neither Dayni nor Vanu wanted to live with his or her people.

            “Just as well,” Dayni said as she closed the gate to the pen where they kept the sheep in the night.  She shook her head sadly at the mention of Vanu’s people and turned her nose up at her own.

            “Lockhart!”  The word came before they saw the young man.  Dayni ran to him for a big hug and kiss.  Gana was a little slower, but he was looking to be picked up, and Vanu did just that as he carried the boy to the door of his house.

            “A front porch on a log house,” Katie Harper noted.  “Aren’t you playing a little with history here?”

            “A little,” Vanu admitted sheepishly.  He, above all was not supposed to do that.  “But wait until you taste my bar-b-q sauce.”

            “I could go for some of that,” Captain Decker admitted.

            Vanu nodded.  “No tomatoes, of course, but a pretty good recipe.  I’ll invent it about a hundred years from now.”

            “That’s my Kairos.”  Lockhart smiled.

            It was well after dark by the time they were all fed and ready to call it a night.  Some lounged on the porch.  Some sat down below on the grass.  Gana sat in his mother’s lap and struggled to keep his eyes open.  The stars were out by then, bright in the sky.  The moon was also up, and full.  “Actually, it is the third and last night of the full moon,” Vanu said.

            “What do you mean the last night?”  Boston asked.

            “I mean the last night with the moon full enough.  You see, every time the moon goes full it is not just a one night deal.  There are three nights where there is enough power to make the wolf.”

            “Werewolf?”  Lincoln asked.

            “No,” Mingus objected.  “It is way too early in history for a werewolf.  The Were people are still present and haven’t mated with humans enough to pass on the genetic anomaly.  And there is no record of the virus this far back.”

            Vanu shook his head.  “It is the only explanation.  Ashteroth must have thrown the poor man back this far to see if it was possible.”

            “Were people?”  Katie Harper had a different question.

            Lincoln got out the database, but Mingus answered first.  “Shape shifters.  They were among the many people the gods brought from other worlds to fill the dead spaces.  You humans were all bunched up around Ararat and the Plains of Shinar if you recall.”

            “But the amulet is gone.  Varuna protect us,” Dayni spoke and looked up into the night sky.

            “Ah, the amulet,” Alexis said.  The topic had not come up.  Vanu took Alexis’ words like a question.

            “The amulet of peace and prosperity.  My bloodstone ruby fashioned by the dwarfs in the mountains and endowed with the powers of peace and prosperity.  It seemed to hold the beast at bay on the first two nights.”

            “But you lost one sheep,” Roland said.

            Vanu nodded but raised an eyebrow.  “Dayni was bringing the flock home just after dark.  The wolf caught the straggler.  I am just happy it did not catch Dayni.”  He reached for her hand and she squeezed his.

            “Let us hope the wolf is far away tonight,” Dayni said.  It was not.  As they were thinking and preparing to end the night, they heard it close.  Captain Decker and Lieutenant Harper armed themselves.  Lockhart got out his shotgun.  Then it was there on the other side of the clearing, drooling and snarling and looking like it was trying to decide which human to kill first.

How many of you have given up?  How many of you are on or near target?  Does it matter?

My trip is unofficial as you should know.  I finished my designated NaNo book on October 25 (I couldn’t wait).  Instead of the madness and angst of National Novel Writing Month, I have been able to quietly work on the Avalon series (season one of which is now appearing on this blog every Monday and Friday).  I have also been able to work on my book, “Anatomy of a Storyteller” which is currently appearing on my Word & Spirit blog (Mondays only).

So far this November, I have produced three parts (chapters/sections) for “Anatomy” totaling 12,830 words.  Avalon, Season 2 has had two episodes written totaling 11,670 words.  That was 24,500 words at the midpoint last week, not quite what I hoped for, but acceptable.  Then I hit a snag.  Not a bad snag.

Anatomy of a Storyteller reached another personal point in the story which needed to rumble around in the back side of my mind for a time before being committed to paper.  I had to let it breathe for a bit, like a good wine. That sometimes happens.  Everything needs to breathe at times.  Fortunately, Avalon was becoming seriously engrossing.

This last week I set two episodes of Avalon series 2 to paper.  Avalon 2.2, the story around Cophu, prisoner in Jericho was 7,778 words and Avalon 2.3, the story around Kim and Ameratsu and their escape to Japan was 7,123 words.  That makes the total for the third week, 14,951 words and the grand total to date 39, 451.  And that leaves just 10,549 words to produce by November 30^th, a highly achievable number.

Now, you see, here is the thing you have to understand about me.  I write a lot.  Despite a full time job, occasional times to preach and teach and to minister in ways that allow me to practice  what I preach, despite family (including 4 children ages 15 to 25), meetings, counseling sessions, Holidays and massive amounts of driving, I average roughly 10,000 words of fiction per week.

I write a lot.  That 10,000 words does not include sermons, speeches, teaching lessons, lectionary reflections, reflections on Christian living, studies in discipleship, reflections on life, wise words for writers, writerly stuff, or any other writing that might eat up my week.  That 10,000 words is just my average fiction output in a week.  Given that, for me 50,000 words in four weeks only requires a little push.

(Yes, my normal output adds up to around 500,000 word of fiction per year, or about 5+ books worth.  That is just the way it goes, and I don’t know if even at that rate I will live long enough to tell all the stories I have ready to write…  Not bragging, mind you.  Telling stories is just who I am and what I do.  I can’t help it, and while not bragging, I feel no reason to hide it either).

So, last week, with that little push, I turned out 14, 951 words.  Cophu needs to find a way to help the travelers escape from the wall Tiamut has set around them to trap them in Jericho.  Then the travelers find themselves in a world without a sun where the sun goddess is afraid to fly for fear her brother, Susanu will catch her and chain her to the sky. 

Now, I am working on Avalon 2.4, the story of Zoe, the Amazon, and about ready to start 2.5 and Huyana’s North American tale of dementia.  Ah, life is good and this Avalon storyline is a great deal of fun to both write and read.  You should read some.  It is all right here Monday and Friday for free.  Episode 8 of season 1 is now being printed (Avalon 1.7), but the earlier episodes are all in the archives, including the pilot.  You are welcome to poke around the archives at your leisure.  Thanks for your support, and I hope you all achieve your goals.

            “It appears to be an amulet.”

            “Let me see.”  Mingus held out his hand, but Roland only held up the amulet.  He caught Boston’s eye, but she looked at Alexis so he handed it to his sister.

            “You better hang on to this.”

            Mingus followed with his eyes.  “There is great power in that amulet,” Mingus announced.  “Of course I have never seen it, but that might be the amulet of peace and prosperity.  Made by the same wee folk who made Thor’s Hammer and eventually the armor and blades of the Kairos.”

            “Peace and prosperity?”  Lockhart asked.  Mingus nodded, but Captain Decker scoffed.  The Captain was getting a handle on this Kairos business, but magic still seemed like so much nonsense to him.

            “At least there is a clear path here through this jungle,” he said.

            “Boston?”  Lockhart asked.

            “This is more or less the right direction.”  Boston pointed.  Without being asked, Roland and Decker trotted down the path and out of sight to scout.

            “The amulet of Peace and Prosperity,” Lincoln read from the database.  “Made from a stone found by the Kairos and blah, blah. Ah!  The greater spirits of Peace and Prosperity willingly filled the stone with a reflection of their own being.  Even the gods are restrained from causing disasters and hardship against the owners and their people.”  Lincoln looked up at Alexis who was gently fingering the stone that hung from her neck.  “Sounds very powerful.”

            “I can feel it,” Alexis admitted.

            “It belongs to the Kairos?”

            “Yes.”  Lincoln looked again at the database.  “In a thousand or so years it will go north with the Kairos, Devya and become the centerpiece of the city of Sanctuary that she will build on the silk road.”

            “The sun god, Dayus.”  Lieutenant Harper remembered and looked at Lockhart.  Lockhart nodded and thought like a policeman.

            “Dayus was the one who hated Dallah so much he created the Thar desert to get rid of her.  Now Vanu is within his grasp again, but he is frustrated by the power of the amulet.  So he gets two locals to steal the amulet for him so he can make a desert in the Kashmir to get rid of Vanu.”

            “Dayni,” Boston remembered what she heard.  “I bet the amulet belongs to him.”

            “Her,” Lincoln corrected.  “The Traveler’s wife.”

            “I read that book,” Lockhart smiled as Roland and Decker reappeared with a man between them.  The man looked ragged, cut and bruised everywhere.  He was stark naked and he also looked like he was not in his right mind.

            “We found this one sleeping beside the path,” Captain Decker explained.

            “Oh, but he needs help,” Alexis hurried forward to meet the man.  The man took one look at her and shrieked.  He tried to back up, to get away from her but the Captain and Roland each had an arm and they were not going to let go.  “Lay him down and hold him,” Alexis ordered, and the men complied. 

            She stepped up then and the man struggled, but he could not escape.  Alexis laid her hands a few inches from the man’s chest.  A warm glow of golden light covered her hands and then covered the man.  The cuts began to close and heal and the bruises lightened in color and became less pronounced.  With that, the man relaxed, and as Alexis worked, the man’s hand bent up at the elbow.  Roland noticed and almost slapped the man’s hand down again, but the man was not reaching for Alexis.  He reached for the amulet, cupped it gently in his hand and for the only time, smiled, his eyes only on the stone, and he said one word, “Pretty.”  It was the only word he ever spoke.

            Mingus stepped up as Alexis finished.  He had a bit of fairy weave and made a loincloth grow around the man’s private parts.  Lockhart had another thought.

            “We don’t have a straight jacket.  We don’t even have handcuffs.”

            “Lockhart?”  Several sets of eyes turned to him and wondered why he was thinking such things.  Obviously the man had been mistreated and driven mad anyway.

            “My thoughts, exactly.”  Captain Decker had no trouble understanding what Lockhart was thinking.  He produced some rope from his own backpack, and since the man was on his stomach so Alexis could heal his back, he took advantage of that and grabbed the man’s hands.  He tied them securely and lifted the man to his feet.  The man made noises at him.  He growled and whimpered at having his hands tied, but no one set him free.

            “Move out,” Lockhart said, and they found they had to drag the man with them at first to get him to move at all.

            It was a couple of hours on the path through the jungle before they found a clearing large enough to stop for a late lunch.  Man, as they were calling him, got good after a while.  He stumbled along with the pack and only turned his head at sounds.  He paused now and then to sniff at the air.  He drooled now and then, but there was never any sign of comprehension in his eyes.  Estimates got revised.  Man was entirely mad.  Obviously he could not have been born mad or he would have never survived his childhood.  Something must have happened, and all anyone could think was it must have been horrendous.

            By lunchtime, Man was taking some simple orders.  Lockhart told him to sit and man sat.  Lockhart was inclined to treat Man more like a dog than a human.  Alexis, Boston and Lincoln all imagined he was more like a three-year-old, albeit one that was not yet verbal.  Captain Decker was just glad Man was willing to take orders.

            After lunch, Alexis excused herself.  Outside of the general comment about not wandering far, Lockhart imagined no immediate danger.  Lincoln added, “Watch out for snakes,” but that was becoming his mantra and no one paid much attention except to be a bit more careful.

            Back in the trees, Alexis paused and fingered the amulet.  She held it and studied it as deeply as she could with all of her senses.  It looked and felt ordinary enough.  No human would give it a second thought apart from the size and beauty of the precious stone.  It was a blood red ruby, she was sure of it, and the size of her fist.  When she looked with her magical senses on full alert, though, she felt the power.  It was way beyond anything she could comprehend, much less duplicate.  She was not surprised the gods themselves could be stymied by the thing.

            “Alexis!”  Lincoln called from the camp.

            “I’m fine.  I’ll be right back,” she shouted.  She smiled to think he worried about her.  He spent two years looking for her after she vanished.  He really did love her.  She decided that if he was having trouble adjusting to the two of them being young again, she could wait, however long it took.

            Alexis took the amulet off and laid it out carefully beside her.  She was loathe to get it dirty.  When she squatted, she got a surprise.  Man came racing through the bushes.  Somehow, he freed his hands.  Alexis was sure she saw the rope burns and would not have been surprised if he scraped off strips of skin to get free.  He snatched up the amulet before Alexis could catch her breath and disappeared into the jungle. 

            Alexis hurriedly pulled herself together as the others came running.  “He went that way,” she shouted and pointed.  “And he stole the amulet.”

            “What?”  Mingus turned on her.  “Why didn’t you stop him?”

            Alexis frowned.  “I was not exactly in a position to stop anyone.”

            Lockhart had no recriminations.  He simply pointed to Roland and Captain Decker.  The Captain jumped through the brush in one direction, and Roland picked a slightly altered course.  Then there was nothing to do but wait.  Boston, Mingus and Lockhart spread out in case Man doubled back.  Alexis set a magical barrier at some distance down the path on either side so she would be alerted if anyone came their way.  They waited, and about two hours later Captain Decker and Roland returned together with a negative report.

            “There is a river some distance from here.  He could have easily run the whole way and jumped in.  After that, there would be no way to follow him.”  Captain Decker shook his head.

            “There is a way,” Roland disagreed, respectfully.  “But I found no evidence of that.” 

            “Get your stuff,” Lockhart said.  “Let’s find out where this trail takes us, hopefully before dark.”

After 4289 BC in the foothills of Kashmir.  Kairos: Vanu

Recording…

            Boston sat by the fire and alternately stared at the amulet and Roland.  She did not know what to say to the elf, but she felt she ought to say something.  Lincoln inherited the database from Boston and found the place for taking notes.

            “Beats my notebook,” he remarked casually.  Alexis simply nodded as the howl came again and her eyes were drawn to the sky while her ears tried to judge the direction and distance.

            “Full moon,” Katie noted.

            “Don’t start,” Lincoln looked up from his notes.  Lockhart laughed, but Mingus waved off the laughter.

            “There may be something to that,” he said.  “But I would think we are too early for a man wolf.”

            “Werewolf, father.”  Roland and Alexis both corrected the elder elf.

            “Man wolf, were wolf.  Anyway, it is too early in history.  The Were people still have a strong presence in several places around the globe.  The disease and genetic component responsible for that most rare of troubles won’t connect for a thousand years, maybe two or three thousand.”

            The howl cam again.  It was closer, but not by much.

            “Well, I did not think there were regular wolves in this part of the world,” Lincoln said.

            “Ah!”  Mingus raised a knowing finger.  “But again, this far in the past may prove different.  We might find elephants stretching all the way from Africa to India in unbroken herds, even across the plains of Saudi Arabia, before the land there turns to dust and the elephant herds separate, India to Africa.”

            “I recommend a watch,” Captain Decker interrupted.

            “Father, you are very talkative tonight,” Alexis shifted her seat to sit beside the elf while Lockhart considered the Captain’s suggestion.

            “Just thinking of my old friend, Procter.  I am sorry you did not get to know him the way he really was.  He should have been babbling and rambling and sharing all this sort of information all along.  He could be very annoying, but he was a likeable fellow.  He was likeable.”

            Alexis leaned in and kissed her father on the cheek while Lockhart stood.  “Team watch,” he said.  He knew everyone was exhausted from lack of sleep over the past couple of days, but he did not spend all of those early years on the police force for nothing.  His instincts were acting up and something did not feel right.  Team watch put Lincoln and Alexis up first.  Mingus and Lockhart got the dark of the night.  Captain Decker and Roland watched through the wee hours and Katie and Boston got the dawn shift.  A single watch of an hour or two each through the night would have let everyone get more rest, but something did not feel right.  Lockhart glanced at Katie, and she nodded as if to say it did not feel right to her, too.

            The howl came a third time, but this time it sounded further away.

            The morning arrived without incident, but Lockhart’s feelings would not go away easily.  Someone was engaged in something criminal and dangerous, and not too far away.  Katie handed him a cup of herbal coffee to help.  He said thanks, but honestly the coffee was something he was still getting used to.

            The travelers did not go far that morning before they ran into a jungle.  They had to spread out a bit as each tried to find the path of least resistance through the thick undergrowth.

            “Don’t move out of sight and sound,” Lockhart ordered.

            “And watch out for snakes,” Lincoln added.  He imagined the place was full of monster pythons and cobras.  

            An hour in, and the elves stopped still.

            “Leapord?”  Mingus suggested.  Their good ears picked up something the others did not hear.

            Roland shook his head.  “Tiger, I believe.”  Most thought that was worse.  Tigers sometimes became man eaters. 

            Another hour and the jungle showed no signs of thinning and thus far only had what Boston called rabbit trails through the brush.  They looked promising for a few yards but quickly petered out into nothing.

            The elves stopped again and this time everyone else stopped with them, quieted and wondered what they heard.  Then Captain Decker heard and raised his rifle.  Then the others heard and became deathly quiet.

            “This is a good place.”  That was a man’s voice.

            “This is the middle of nowhere.”  A second man argued.

            “So no one will look here.”

            “But how will we remember to look here?”

            Roland moved in absolute silence.  He leapt past Captain Decker and was up the nearest tree in the blink of an eye.  No one was quite sure how he did that, except Boston who chalked it up to him being an elf and young and a hunter.  Roland stood on a thick branch and spied on the men.  He waved down to Decker, pointed to his eyes and cupped his hand.  Captain Decker tossed up his binoculars.  Even the Captain knew that elf eyes were as superhuman as their ears, but clearly Roland wanted a closer look at something.

            “It is only until tonight,” the first man was saying.

            “Tonight?  But there is the wolf about.  Didn’t you see Vanu’s shredded sheep?”

            “Ha!  I’m more worried about Dayni.  If she knew we had this, we would be the ones shredded.”

            “But the wolf –“

            “You worry too much.  You know the day god cannot meet us while the sun is up.  It has to be at night.”

            “Hey, hey.  Do you think he will do everything he said?”

            “He is a god.  How can you question that?”

            “Yeah.  I guess Vanu isn’t the only one with friends.  But how are we going to find this exact place again?”

            “Easy.  We just come to the place where that goblin up the tree there is staring at us with boogly eyes.” 

            There was a moment of silence before everyone heard two men scream like little girls and the thunder of crashing through the bushes.  Roland tossed the binoculars down to the Captain and zipped down the other side of the tree.  “Over here,” he shouted.  He wanted to find whatever it was the two fools dropped.

Yes, certainly some of this is repeat because I do want you to consider reading one story or the other or both.  Currently I am posting season one of the Avalon series, Monday and Friday on this Storyteller blog for free.  I am looking for an artist/illustrator if you know one.  Then again, who knows, maybe someone will consider it for a television show some day and I’ll end up make buckets of money.  You can say you read it here first.

Avalon is the story of people, three “men in black,” two marines, an elf and a half-elf who are sent into the deep past to save one man’s wife.  They succeed in the pilot episode, but lose their quick way home and thus they are forced to get home the long way – by way of the time gates and across the time zones that surround the many lives of the Kairos, the Watcher over History, the Traveler in Time.  That won’t be an easy journey.

You see, the Kairos never lives a quiet life, so there is no telling as they travel from time zone to time zone what they may have to confront.  And some of those confrontations may sneak up on them.  You see, they are not the only ones stuck in the past where they don’t belong.  Others have picked up their trail, some to follow them back into the future, but some are hunting them.

Currently posting:

Episode 7 (1.6) just concluded.  Episode 8 (1.7) will begin Friday.  The travelers become aware of the amulet of peace and prosperity which has been stolen from the Kairos.  They might be able to get it back for him if they can figure out what to do about the werewolf.

Work in Progress:

The second episode of season two finds the travelers in Egypt, the Nile Delta. Phoenix, the Kairos, a powerful fire starter thanks to the Aton-Ra is now happily married with children.  But Set, god of infertility bears a grudge against her and has sent a pack of night creatures to attack her in her happy home.  Needless to say, the guns of the travelers make a difference at first, but then Set intervenes more directly and that sparks some of the other gods in that jurisdiction to escalate the conflict.

That is 5051 words.

At the same time, I am continuing the story of the Storyteller – the one who was supposed to be their quick way home.  He sacrificed himself by leaping into the void to save that man’s wife, only now he is trapped in the Second Heavens and is terribly confused. 

I am currently presenting the Anatomy of a Storyteller for free on my Word & Spirit blog on Mondays only.  Plans are to present it on this Storyteller blog at a future date since it connects to the Avalon events in a real way, but for now it is over there.  Why?  Because for all of its fiction, it is a parallel to my life and memoir-like.  You would not know it by reading it, but…

So Anatomy, “The House of the Lord” is 6209 words, and that makes my total for the second week plus: 11, 260 words.  Added to my first week plus total of 13, 240 and we are at 24,500.  I was hoping for closer to 26,000, but this will do.