ghoul

Avalon 1.9 The Elders part 2 of 4

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The Gott-Druk spread out as they removed the mukluks and began to climb the little hill. Lockhart simply said “fire,” and the Gott-Druk began to fall. Two of the orange men and four of the six Gott-Druk from the space plane went down before anyone returned fire. The last two from the plane each got off a shot. The travelers had to duck and flatten themselves to the ground. One tree got set on fire. Luckily, no one got hurt, though they all felt the heat.

Then the last two Gott-Druk from the plane fell. They were brought downed by weapons similar to their own heat rays. That fire came from the top of the hill and some men stood on that hilltop when it was over.

“Lincoln, Roland and Decker only,” Lockhart said as he stood. “The rest of you stay hidden.”  The men stepped free of the trees and Captain Decker spoke softly.

“We missed the orange leader.”

“I noticed,” Lockhart responded quietly, which inspired Lincoln to count the Gott-Druk dead. Lockhart raised his hand and waved to the men on the hill. “Elenar,” he shouted.

At least one man there waved back. “Lockhart!”

~~~*~~~

“My wives,” Odelion introduced them. “Philias is my cook and also likes to eat I might add.” She looked plump but seemed very warm and welcoming.

“Balamine is my worker bee.” In contrast with Philias, Balamine looked to be in great shape, if perhaps too skinny. “Her goal is to open the first spa and gym on the island.”

“Oh? Good for you,” the others said before Odelion said, “Just kidding.”

“I’m the one who stands between this too large family and starvation,” Balamine said with a smile for the travelers and a hard look for Odelion.

“Memseti,” Odelion moved on to the African woman. “She is my Barbie doll but with a brain. She sees to the children. It would be chaos without her. And then…” he paused. “Where is my first wife? Where is Asterasine?”

“Here I am.” The woman came in from the outside carrying a woven basket full of fresh picked flowers. “Just to freshen the home for your friends.” She put the basket in the corner before anyone realized she was missing her left arm from the elbow down.

“Gott-Druk,” Odelion referred to the missing limb. He gave Asterasine a kiss before he sat down on the floor. When he sat, the others sat. There were soft skins spread around the dirt floor for that purpose. In many ways that made it feel more like they were in a tent than a home, but there were several rooms at the back for the children so it seemed something like a house as well.

“But now the Elenar have left,” Lincoln said, casually. “What will you do if the Gott-Druk return in force?”

“As far as it goes, they were right,” Lockhart added. “Your sticks and stones are no match for their energy weapons.”

“Radiation weapons,” Odelion said. “And I know it. We will leave the island when they come. We will sail to Crete, Sicily, Southern Spain, and North Africa. We will begin again.”

“But the Elenar—” Alexis started to speak but stopped when Odelion held up his hand.

“They have not gone far, and they are watching. When the Gott-Druk come in force, they will return to do battle. Sadly, my people would never survive such a battle. We must leave or die.”

“Such a pessimist,” Philias shook her head as she brought in a great tray of fish and vegetables. Memseti followed with the first bread they had seen, albeit, unleavened. “We will live and be happy.” Philias gave Odelion a kiss and sighed and smiled at the man. Memseti followed suit but lingered a bit on Odelion’s lips.

“But right now, we must also feed the children.” Memseti followed Philias out the door.

Balamine came in after the other two left. She carried clay cups and a big jug of very weak fermented beer. “You must eat and sleep. Rest is important for your good health.”

“Listen to yourself,” Odelion pointed at her. Balamine looked at him and rolled her eyes, but this time she smiled for him.

“But now, for us.” Boston spoke over the fish. “Our way looks like it is over the water.”

Odelion nodded. “I have a boat in mind that will carry you all, that is, if you trust my late Neolithic craftsmen.”

Several of the travelers looked around the room. Lincoln spoke up.

“I don’t see as we have much choice.”

~~~*~~~

Lockhart set guards in the night to watch for the Gott-Druk. He felt especially concerned about the behavior and comments of the ones in the orange jumpsuits. He guessed they were from the future and tossed into the past like them, and everyone agreed with that conclusion. “There is no telling the capabilities in terms of advanced equipment they might have with them,” he concluded.

That night people slept well enough despite everything. They were learning to sleep when they could. The night stayed warm and the sky, clear, when Captain Decker took the watch. He looked to the moon and felt decidedly glad it was not full. He watched the stars and felt equally glad that none of them moved. All calm, he thought right before he felt the splitting headache. He squinted and put a hand to his head. When he looked again, he had a shock.

The sleepers in the room had all become ghouls. He looked where Boston and Lieutenant Harper slept. He saw only ghouls. They looked like female ghouls and he never imagined such a thing. Something in his mind said they needed to be killed. It said they all turned into ghouls because they were asleep and unable to resist. It said the only reason he did not get turned was because he was awake. He believed what his head told him, but at the same time, his military mind did not cease to work. He felt too exposed where he was, so he got up quietly to first move behind cover.

“Captain Decker, close your eyes.” The captain heard the words and recognized the voice.

“Mister Mingus?”

“Exactly. The real ghoul has cast a glamour. I see it, too. None of our friends have become ghouls. It is an illusion.”

Captain Decker paused. “How do I know you are not lying to me?”

“Man, close your eyes. Just listen to my voice. The Kairos is hunting the ghoul right now.”

Two of the sleepers stirred. Lockhart turned because he just laid down, and Boston, because she was a light sleeper.

“Decker?” Boston’s voice that came out of that ghoul mouth. “What is it?” That time the voice had a ghoulish sound to it. Captain Decker raised his rifle, but he did not pull the trigger. He slammed his eyes shut.

“Keep your eyes closed. And don’t trust your ears. The humans can be made to sound like ghouls. I have enough magic to cut through that part of the illusion. You must trust me.”

“Sir.” Captain Decker said and sweated because he came very close to killing everyone.

“Keep talking,” one of the ghouls said, but it sounded enough like Lockhart, so Captain Decker did not open his eyes.

“The ghoul had to come to the surface and get close to affect the glamour,” Mingus continued. “Roland is with Odelion. It can’t be far away. They will get it. Trust me.”

“How can I trust you? Maybe everyone has turned into ghouls. You may be the illusion trying to disarm me.”

“No one has touched you. Don’t touch him.” Alexis was up and about to do that very thing. She backed off. “Listen, captain. If they were real ghouls, they would have you on the ground already and be feasting off your soul.” Mingus paused. “Hurry up,” he said the words through what sounded like gritted teeth. He started running out of things to say to keep the captain distracted.

“It’s a trick,” Captain Decker said. “It has to be a trick.” He got ready to open his eyes when they all heard an unearthly scream. They heard a voice a moment later. It sounded like a human voice.

“All clear.”

Mingus came in from the outside. He had been speaking through the doorway with his back to the outside wall. “All clear,” he repeated the words but still kept back from touching the captain. Captain Decker opened his eyes, slowly. Everyone looked human again. What is more, the voice in his head appeared to be gone. He set his rifle on the floor where he stood and walked out into the night.

“No.” Lockhart prevented anyone from following him.

Avalon 1.8 The First City part 4 of 4

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Everyone had plenty to eat and plenty of beef as things got back to normal, except Risah sat with the children for the rest of the evening, something unheard of. The beef left over from the tables, got promptly worked by the cooks to preserve for lunch on the following day, but Dantu would not let Risah get up and help.

At the head table, the travelers were fascinated by the entertainment. Anenki sat between Bashte and Gagrena and had a hard time staying straight in the middle. He wanted to lean in Bashte’s direction and away from the woman who would not leave him alone.

Gagrena focused all her attention on Anenki. She spoke cold and civil words to Lili, clearly despised Niudim and ignored Nanna because Nanna was not hers. The rest might as well have been invisible. The woman fawned on Anenki. She kept touching him, his hand, his arm, like they were lovers of old. Everyone figured she wanted the best deal she could get for her city, Uruk, and she willingly used her looks and sex to get it.

Anenki tried to be polite, but he could not always help himself. Gagrena’s ego appeared boundless, so perhaps she did not notice that whenever she touched him, Anenki turned up his nose. When asked, Gagrena admitted she had not dedicated her city to any particular god. She was a woman who believed that the purpose of everyone in the world was to serve her so after that, it did not really matter. Boston acted surprised she had not built a temple to herself and later regretted that she put the idea in the woman’s mind.

“Nanna.” Bashte finally spoke into the void. Nanna started yawning again. “Let’s go check and see that the children are in bed.” Anenki grabbed Bashte’s hand, but Bashte simply said, “You will be fine,” and she let go. Everyone paused to watch them go and then Gagrena spoke.

“We finally got rid of the nursemaid.”

“Not at all,” Anenki responded. He had just about reached his limit of politeness. “She is my good wife, my living wife as opposed to my dead one.” Back when Gagrena first left Anenki, he counted her as dead. He had not mentioned it in many years but just then he could not help himself. Gagrena did not look put off.

“Anenki, I worry about you. You are not as strong as you think. You need a woman beside you, a real woman.”

“I have one, thank you.”

Gagrena frowned ever so slightly as she took his hand and tried to catch his eyes. “I just wanted you to know that I am here for you, just like we were meant to be from the beginning. I would hate to see you all alone; I mean if something should ever happen to young Bashte.”

Lincoln, Lockhart, Katie and Mingus all sat up straight. Anenki looked at them, looked at Gagrena and jumped out of his chair. “Bashte!” He ran for the stairs. The others followed. Lockhart pulled the pistol he wore at his side. Captain Decker brought the rifle that never got out of his reach. Lincoln grabbed the wicked looking knife with which he had cut the big servings of beef. Roland pulled his sword as they ran.

The children were huddled in one bed, crying. Gagrena’s little army of seven men were all there in the big room. Bashte was there too, down on the floor. She did not appear to be bleeding or unconscious, but her hand went to the back of her head where she got struck. Nanna had her hands up, and that made a small shield against the men. She could easily deflect a spear, but she had no confidence of holding the men if they decided to rush her all at once.  No one said, wait or what are you doing, or let’s talk about this. Lockhart and Captain Decker simply fired. Lincoln threw his knife and put his man down—a talent no one knew he had. Roland also put his man down easily with the sword. The other five went down just as fast. Captain Decker got three to Lockhart’s two.

The children screamed at the noise. Nanna dropped her hands and her jaw. Doctor Mishka spoke up from the floor because Anenki had gone away, and the good doctor had taken his place to make sure Bashte did not have a concussion.

“Men and guns. How sick I am of such things,” Mishka said. “Nanna, help your Mama to walk over to the children.”

“Yes, Doctor,” Nanna said, to what was obviously a familiar face. She helped Bashte stand as the rest of the crew piled into the room, which suddenly did not seem so big. Doctor Mishka immediately took Alexis to see which of the men might be saved. She instructed Boston and Katie to staunch the bleeding on the two who only looked wounded while she quickly checked the two who were clearly dead. They saved the other five, though the one with the shattered knee would never walk well again.

“Anenki?” Gagrena straggled in at the end of the line. It took her a moment to realize what happened.

“Here,” Mishka said. She did not have time to play games.

“Where?” Gagrena wondered, before she looked twice at the doctor. This was not the first time she had seen Anenki become a different person, and not even the first time she saw him become a woman. “I am glad you are all right.”

“Bull.” Mishka got in her face. “Anenki is too polite. Let me tell you something. On your own, you are a danger to yourself and to others. You know, in the Soviet days we lock up people like you for your own protection and for ours.”

“What if she had someone to watch over her?” A voice spoke up near the bed where the children had quieted in Bashte and Nanna’s arms. A woman’s voice spoke, one that could only be described as perfect, and it turned every head in the room. Most that could, including the travelers, went straight to their knees at this vision of holy beauty. Gagrena became terribly frightened and fell to her face.

“Inmama.” Little Nippur called and reached out, and Innan picked up the child, kissed her, and held her for a moment on her hip.

“Someone to watch over her might work,” Mishka said. “It would be a headache though.” She went straight back to work on the wounded. That was what she was there for.

Innan appeared to shrug. She raised her free hand and the bullets all extracted themselves. “I believe these are yours,” she said, as the bullets set themselves in front of Lockhart and Captain Decker.

“Yes, er, thank you.”

“That was remarkable to watch.” Innan looked over the dead and wounded and clicked her tongue.

 “Yes.” Mishka poked her head up once more. “You can tell Enki and Enlil that in the future, the human race becomes very efficient at war and killing. That should help them since they have now been given oversight for war. And you…” But it is too early in the game for a rogue city, and maybe a war. “Let us get closer to a dozen cities, get trade going and all that first, I think.”

“Wise as always,” Innan said. She handed Nippur back to her Mama, gave Bashte a sisterly kiss on the cheek and stepped up to Gagrena who trembled and dared not look up from the floor. Mishka noticed before she went back to work. It sometimes felt hard for the Kairos to remember just what the fear of the gods could do to a person. It could transform them, though she doubted anything would transform Gagrena in the long term.

“I will take your city of Uruk,” Innan said. “I am sure Anenki will help us get things on the right foot. Meanwhile, a temple would be nice. Enlil and Enki both say there is nothing like it.” Innan put her finger to her cheek to think. “And now I have to ask.” She stepped up to Lockhart. “Why are you here? You don’t belong here.”

Lockhart’s tongue refused to work in the presence of the goddess of desire. Fortunately, Mingus and Roland were most respectful, but being spiritual creatures themselves, they were not affected by the goddess in quite the same way as the humans.

“We are travelers through time,” Roland offered a more thorough description than Lockhart usually offered. “We will be moving on in a day or two.”

“And this one?” Innan snapped her finger and a ghoul appeared beside her. The ghoul’s face looked expressionless. It appeared unable to move or speak. “He also does not belong. I don’t suppose this is one of yours.”

“Not ours, Lady” Mingus answered. “But I believe he may have been the source of the poison, earlier.”

Innan smiled which just about caused several people to faint from her beauty. “The elder elf is wise. I think we need not retain this one.” She waved in the ghoul’s direction and the ghoul skipped the dying part. He turned straight to a misty green smoke and left only a green smudge on the floor. “And now, my children.” Innan clapped her hands and she, Gagrena and the seven dead and wounded from the floor all vanished.

“Hey!” Only Doctor Mishka protested. “I wasn’t finished with that one yet.”

“A ghoul scout.” Mingus shook his head. “That means there are nine more out there.”

“Eighty-nine,” Boston corrected.

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

MONDAY

The Elders, another 4-part episode so another Thursday post. Be prepared and read as the Travelers from Avalon find spaceships on Malta and people who are there who threaten history and plan to ruin the future. Until Monday, Happy Reading

*

Avalon 1.8 The First City part 3 of 4

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The travelers gathered early for supper, full of guarded praise for Anenki’s little city. “A bit too communal for my tastes,” Captain Decker summed up the consensus of the freedom-loving Americans.

“Of necessity,” Anenki responded. “Before we began it was anarchy. I mean, most people were nice and helped their neighbors when they could, but ultimately it was every man for himself. Now, in order to make the kind of division of labor a city needs, it has to be communal. You want a man to spend his days working in clay, not soil. But he is thinking he has to grow crops and hunt and fish and tend to his goats and oxen to feed his family and have some to trade. That way very little time can be spent on the clay. So we guarantee, as well as we can, that he will receive the food he needs for his family, and the cloth or clothing and whatever else may be necessary so he can concentrate on the clay. We have to be communal to do that. You might call it excessively high taxes.”

“I understand,” Katie Harper spoke up. “It makes sense to me, at least. Sumer was marked with a more communal kind of living than later civilizations.”

“Remember, we are transitioning,” Anenki added. “To be honest, I think Marx got it completely backwards. Communism was really the first step, not the last. Capitalism only developed with a money economy, but that won’t happen for, what, three thousand and some years.”

Several women interrupted by placing trays of fruit and vegetables on all the tables. Some of the people began to come into the banquet hall as well, talking and laughing in their own little groups.

“Tell me about your guest, if you don’t mind.” Lockhart finally asked the question everyone had been avoiding. Anenki glanced at Bashte who encouraged him without a word.

“All right,” he said, and set himself to hold nothing back. “About twelve years ago when we were first starting out, some of the motivation to build a city where people could live safe and secure was because of one man. Nogao had convinced a number of people it was easier to take the labor of others than do the work themselves.”

“Thief,” Lockhart said quietly. Anenki nodded.

“Well, we just got things going and he showed up with more than a hundred followers to try and take over the whole work.”

“Don’t tell me, egged on by Gagrena,” Alexis said.

“Sweetheart,” Lincoln reached for her hand. He imagined she might be wrong accusing the woman.

“Sorry, she just reminds me of the type of personality that I despise in women.”

“You have very good insights,” Bashte said, to confirm the accuracy of the accusation.

“Yeah, they give all women a bad name,” Boston added.

Anenki nodded the whole time, but then they all paused again as two men carried in half a bull for the main table. There were roasts brought in for the other tables as well and the room started filling up.

“Where is Gagrena?” Bashte asked.

“Fashionably late?” Alexis suggested.

“Wanting to make a grand entrance,” Anenki nodded again.

“Anyway,” Lockhart wanted back to the story.

“Anyway, Nogao got killed. I killed him, and his people were left leaderless. My brother Agur took most of them with some well-trained experts in the various disciplines and went north, back to the Tigris where we originally found him. He started a second city, one that Enlil named after our baby, Nippur.”

“We chiefly worship Enki in Eridu,” Bashte said.

Anenki cut off the questions with a simple word. “I flipped a coin, so to speak. Besides, Agur had met Enlil, and the god had always been associated more with the Tigris and Enki with the Euphrates, so it all worked out.”

“Except for Gagrena,” Katie pointed out. “I take it she did not follow your brother.”

“No,” Anenki said the word with an underline. “She was not about to have any man rule over her. Not even Enlil. She took about a third of the group and broke away to build her own place. She calls it Uruk. It is on the Euphrates, but upriver approaching half-way between Eridu and Nippur.” Anenki’s voice trailed off and silence fell only interrupted by Lincoln tapping his knife gently on the table.

“Where is that woman?” Lincoln asked.

“Hungry?”

“That beef smells great.”

“Why not cut yourself a steak?” Captain Decker offered.

“Wait,” Anenki held up his hand. “It is polite to wait. Though maybe I should eat before she gets here. She will just give me indigestion.”

“You don’t like her much,” Boston understated the case.

Anenki countered. “Actually, I feel sorry for her. She has been at me all afternoon about how she misses me, and we really had a good thing and she foolishly let me get away. I would say she is trying to put the moves on me, and she is still rather nice to look at. But you know, now that I am not a teenager with hormones ruining my brain, I can see that she does not lie very well at all.”

“Father,” Lili spoke up. “Maybe I should fetch Mother.”

Anenki did not have time to answer because his sister Dantu came in with Risah in her arms. “Anenki!” She shouted. “Don’t eat the roast!” Risah collapsed to the ground.

Everyone moved, but Alexis got there first. She laid her hands over Risah, and that familiar glow appeared for those who could see it. “She has been poisoned,” Alexis announced in the sudden silence of that big room.

“Keep back, give them room.” Captain Decker and Lockhart had to play police officers.

“Maybe I can draw it out of her,” Alexis suggested. She began to work with her hands. No one saw Gagrena come into the room, but when she realized what was going on, they all heard her.

“You are trying to kill me!”

Bashte jumped. “You are not stupid. If we wanted to harm you, we would not test it out on Anenki’s sister.”

A sudden flash of darkness rose-up and knocked Alexis back on her rump. “Magically protected,” she managed to say as she rushed her hand to her head to fight the dizzy feeling.

“Nanna!” Anenki immediately called for his daughter, the daughter of the goddess Innan.

“Me? Daddy?”

“You can do it. I’m right here, but right now you are the only one who can do it.”

“Daddy?”

“Hurry, please,” Dantu pleaded.

Anenki brought Nanna to Risah and had her kneel. When he let go, Nanna closed her eyes and put her hands out like Alexis. Nanna’s glow looked much richer, much fuller and more golden in color. They saw the darkness come up and push against her hands. Nanna shrieked, but Anenki laid a hand on her shoulder and encouraged her.

“You can do this. You are stronger than any darkness. Get angry.”

Nanna got angry, and the darkness cracked and broke and blew away on the wind.

“Son, your hand,” Mingus said, and Roland gave it. “Concentrate,” Mingus added as he reached down and snatched Alexis’ bone wand. He waved it slowly in the air, twice and then gave it a sharp jerk. A pale blue light popped from the wand, like a globe of light. It began to float around the room, slowly at first before it got up a good head of steam. It went from table to table, separated twice and came back together before it finally lighted on the roast at the head table. The whole roast glowed soft blue before the darkness came out of the roast and swallowed the light.

“Only our roast is poisoned,” Roland said, as Mingus paused to catch his breath.

By then, Alexis had gotten up to coach Nanna. “There it is,” Alexis said. “All gathered in one place. Now raise your hands, slowly.” Nanna did, and a small drop of something came right out of Risah’s body. It followed Nanna’s hands into the air. Nanna squealed.

“I did it. I did it.”

Anenki handed Alexis a cup in which she caught the drop, while Bashte hugged Nanna,

“Mama, I did it!” Nanna hugged her back.

“I’m so proud of you,” Bashte said.

As Risah began to come around, Lili, who had knelt beside Dantu and held Dantu’s hand, looked up at Bashte. Bashte put her other arm around Lili and kissed her cheek as well. “I’m proud of all my children,” she said before she apologized to Dantu. “I’m sorry I don’t have another arm for you.” Dantu looked up and nodded, but her eyes were full of tears, and she had no words.

“And you too.” Bashte let go of Nanna and Lili to give Niudim a big hug. The young man understood enough to know he almost lost his aunt Risah, and he was in tears as well. Nanna and Lili also went to him and joined in a kind of group hug.

“Ah, the power of love,” Anenki said, and turned to face Gagrena. “True love conquers all.” Anenki paused. “Did I just say that?”

“Yes, you did,” Lockhart responded from the table where he and Captain Decker were lifting the roast on its tray. Lincoln and several of the men were there to help. They intended to bury the beast somewhere out of town.

“But I hate clichés,” Anenki finished.

“This far back it probably isn’t a cliché yet.” Katie Harper grinned.

“But father,” Roland turned to Mingus. “Who would do such a thing?” In answer, they heard an angry moan come from beneath their feet. Lockhart and Decker had to shuffle their hands to keep from dropping the roast. It sounded like someone was very frustrated.

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

THURSDAY…

Don’t miss tomorrow’s conclusion of the story.

*

Avalon 1.8 The First City part 2 of 4

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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.

When the stars glistened and the moon rose, Boston woke up feeling antsy. She felt like she missed 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 missed something in her backpack, so she got up as quietly as she could and inched to her tent. The tent flap was closed. 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 nothing could be seen through 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 CIA 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 consisted of five terrace layers of solid bricks. Each layer stood a man’s height and set back a man’s height in distance from the lower level. The fifth and topmost level looked about the size of a house. It was, in fact, the actual temple part, 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 when 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 seemed to be too much for the river, and the travelers had climbed 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 action got the ones close enough to see in the dark to raise their collective eyebrows. What was a Neolithic man doing with eyeglasses?

“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 our stuff is going to be soaked.

Their stuff, as Lincoln called it, turned out to be in place, dry and the technology all functioned normally. Their tents were amazingly still up, and the fire got relit. “Enki went to great lengths to be thorough,” Lincoln commented.

“Yes, thanks,” Lockhart said with a look to the sky. He explained to Boston’s curious face. “It never hurts to be polite.”

“Exactly,” Lincoln agreed. “Thank you. I recall from the stick people what it means to get on the wrong side of the gods.”

“Oh, Lincoln,” Alexis protested and dragged him off. “I was trying to forget about all that.”

Everyone slept well after that. They felt that if they were being watched, they were also being watched over by someone far more capable than a bokarus cockroach.

~~~*~~~

When the morning came, they felt refreshed and after some fake coffee, they trooped down to the cooking fires.

Risah, already up and moving, worked on the luncheon for their coming guest. Lili was there with Nanna and Niudim, but Lili presently talked with a young man. When Alexis and Boston walked up, Lili introduced Gordon who said he was pleased to meet them and promptly decided he had better get to work. Alexis and Boston both watched Lili as Lili watched Gordon leave.

“He seems very nice,” Alexis said, as they went to join the others. Lili only smiled and nodded. Her tongue seemed tied.

Nanna, though, had no trouble talking. “Gordon, Gordon. It is all I hear.”

“Oh?” Boston got nosey. “A boyfriend, or maybe more?” Lili turned a little red.

“No way,” Nanna shook her head. “At least not until Gordon finds the courage to speak to Daddy.”

“Nanna!” Lili scolded her little sister, but Nanna thought it was funny, so Lili stomped off to help Aunt Risah with the mush.

“Careful,” Alexis spoke wisely. “It will be your turn one day.” Nanna paused but shook her head. That day seemed an eternity away. She responded typical of the way teenagers thought.

They all ate the mush. The gruel did not taste like grits or oatmeal or cream of wheat, exactly. It tasted like mush, helped with a little fruit on top, but not helped much. Lockhart gladly set his aside when he saw Anenki and Bashte arrive. They cooed at each other like they were the only two people in the world. Alexis and Boston sighed to see them, but Nanna thought it was gaggy.

“I mean, they are so old,” Nanna said.

“Good morning.” Niudim said and waved, like they were far away. Actually, nothing in Eridu was that far away as the morning proved. Anenki gave the travelers the grand tour, as he called it. They got done in an hour and ended up at the irrigation camp.

“Kiluk,” Anenki pointed. “He is the chief of the irrigation project. Presently he and his staff are setting the minimum standards for plowing new fields. As the city grows, we will need to cultivate more and more land.”

“Standards?” Katie asked.

“Sure,” Anenki smiled for her and waited for Lincoln to catch up in his notes. “Right now, innovation is highly prized. We are all trying new things and looking for ways to do things. But we need to set the standards to make sure the best ideas are not forgotten. In a generation, standards will become rules and we will be able to make improvements, but innovation will be harder. Another generation, and rules will become regulation as we give birth to inspectors. By the third generation, regulations will become traditions, and then innovation will be very difficult.”

“As quick as that?” Lincoln asked.

Anenki nodded. “About a hundred and fifty years, or so.”

Kiluk waved to the visitors and limped over to talk to a man. Alexis noticed and felt more concerned with the limp. “Crippled?”

“Since birth,” Anenki confirmed. “People like Kiluk and Niudim are one of the main reasons I agreed to build the first city. Normally, I don’t interfere like this. It isn’t safe, given all I know about the future. But in this case, I have innovated nothing. I just made it possible.”

“I suppose in the old days the life expectancy for someone like Kiluk would not be good,” Katie suggested.

“Or Niudim, or anyone who got old,” Anenki confirmed. “Now, at least they have a chance—for a few generations anyway.”

“I understand,” Lockhart said, and as they wandered over to the temple, Anenki heard all about the river in the night.

Anenki looked at the temple. Some of the bricks crumbled and several looked more like mush than bricks. “But hey, Duban is still working on the formula. Innovation, remember?”

~~~*~~~

Gagrena arrived close to three in the afternoon. She came into town seated in a plush chair, carried on the shoulders of four rather large men. Seven men followed her carrying spears like a kind of honor guard. Another dozen people came after that, women mostly, to attend to Gagrena’s needs.

“Welcome to Eridu.” Bashte had to say it. Anenki wanted to say some other things. To be sure, Gagrena looked like a beautiful girl who had become a stunning woman, especially with all the pampering. But she had the personality of a snake, and she had a bad attitude about everyone. In short, she only thought about herself, and believed everyone else should think about her too.

“Anenki.” Gagrena smiled at him. “Put me down, put me down.” As soon as her feet touched, she rushed up and threw herself into Anenki’s arms. He gave her a hug before he extracted himself from her bear-like grasp. He drew a line at the kiss. He did not want her kissing even his cheek in a friendly greeting.

“Welcome to Eridu,” Bashte tried again.

“Yes you.” Gagrena acknowledged her at last. “The nursemaid. And how are the children?”

“They are wonderful,” Bashte answered with a friendly smile. “I am sure they would love to see you. Why don’t we visit them? We could spend the afternoon in playtime.”

The look of horror that crossed Gagrena’s face looked priceless. Anenki felt impressed. Bashte did not have to do anything except tell the truth and be sincere.

“I did not come here to play with the children,” Gagrena responded. “That is your job, isn’t it?”

“Oh, it’s not a job. It’s fun.” Bashte stepped up and kissed Anenki, and they shared some passion in that kiss. Anenki responded with his whole heart, which made it worse for Gagrena. Then Bashte wandered off slowly toward where the children were playing.

“So, what brings you to Eridu? I thought you and Pak were going to build your own city?”

Gagrena watched Bashte and steamed. She looked at the sky and offered a suggestion. “Can we go inside where it is more private?”

“Of course,” Anenki could be gracious. “But your people will have to stay out here.” He shrugged. “We have a nice place for you to spend the night. It is right beside the rooms for the children.” Gagrena paused. “Of course, if you would rather stay out here where you could be attended by your people, I will understand.”

Gagrena frowned and waved Anenki to go with her to the door. “Pak is an idiot,” she said. “I have to do everything myself.” Anenki knew that meant she made all the decisions. He well remembered their few years together. He felt sure that did not mean she did actual work.  She would never lift a finger. “I am going to need some of your chief men for a while—just to teach my own people or my city will never be more than a big village.” Anenki understood. Eridu pioneered most of what would be needed to build and maintain a successful city. His only fear was once Gagrena got her hands on his experts, he might never get them back, alive.

Avalon 1.2 Beasts in the Night part 2 of 3

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“Are you all right?” Lockhart voiced his first concern when he arrived, Captain Decker beside him. The women nodded. “We wait until the light is better before we investigate,” he decided, and Mingus, Roland and Captain Decker saw the wisdom in that.

Back in camp, they made what breakfast they could out of the leftover deer and greens, and Lincoln distracted them all by suggesting they pack the camp and be prepared to move out quickly, just in case. The way he phrased it the others could hardly argue.

The sun had come well up by the time Lockhart, Mingus, Roland, Captain Decker, and Boston made for the faint wisps of smoke that still trailed into the sky. Lieutenant Harper wanted to go with them, but Captain Decker ordered her to stay and defend the camp.

“Yes, sir,” Katie responded, but she did not sound too happy about it.

Boston started out front. She thought for a second that only she could pinpoint the location, but then she saw the smoke, remembered the roar, and slipped back to a safer place between Lockhart and Roland. They had to separate a little when they got to the trees at the bottom of the hill. Boston immediately came across a great, old tree that got torn up by the roots. Lockhart pointed out several smaller, young trees that looked broken and crushed to the ground, like they had been stepped on.

“This is not good,” Mingus said. He examined the trees and bushes that were burnt and singed. Some of the trees still smoked, though none were outright burning.

“Over here,” Roland called.

They found the ghoul sitting with his back to a tree, dying. He bled, Boston guessed, though it looked more like slimy green and purple sauce than blood. The ghoul looked up at them and made a sound that could only have been laughter. Boston felt the hair rise on the back of her neck at that sound.

“This is definitely not good,” Mingus said.

“Your unicorn?” Captain Decker asked, but Boston shook her head. That was no unicorn sound she heard in the night.

The ghoul looked up at the captain and laughed at the word unicorn. The captain responded by shooting the ghoul. It deflated and compressed and left a green smudge on the dirt while the captain spoke.

“Mercy killing.”

“We might have gotten some information.” Lockhart scolded the man. Mingus mitigated.

“No, we wouldn’t.”

They started back up the hill to the camp when another roar could be heard in the distance. Fortunately, it seemed some distance away.

“I hope that’s a dragon,” Roland spoke softly, and Boston looked at the man, believing he must be crazy.

“A dragon spirit would be better,” Mingus heard his son with his good elf ears and responded.

“And if it is not?” Lockhart asked.

“Definitely not good.” Mingus said it again.

~~~*~~~

The travelers arrived at what looked to them like the first real village they had seen. Instead of tents, they found makeshift dwellings built of bamboo and grasses. They looked crude, to be sure, and easily taken down, but solid enough. They were also easily burned from the look of some of them.

“Strangers. Strangers!” One man saw them, yelled in panic, and ran off. A few women screamed and ran into their huts. Lockhart halted their progress somewhere near the middle of the village, a village deserted by the time they stopped.

“Nothing like a first-class welcome,” he said.

“Why are they afraid of us?” Boston wondered out loud.

“They are certainly afraid of something,” Roland added.

“Some people are just afraid of anything they don’t understand,” Lincoln suggested, and Lieutenant Harper stepped up to agree, but Mingus spoke first.

“No, they are just rabbits. Scared rabbits. So, son-in-law, welcome home.”

“Father!” Alexis objected, but Lincoln just ignored the elf.

Six elderly men appeared at the end of the row of houses. They did not look too brave. They came forward in a group where they might not have come by themselves. The eldest spoke when they were near. “Are you of the goddess or of the beast?”

“Neither.” Lockhart spoke plainly enough. “We are travelers and seek only shelter for the night. We will move on tomorrow.”

The men turned to each other and began a whispered argument.

“Tell me about the goddess,” Lieutenant Harper butted in, and the men paused so the eldest could speak again.

“Nagi-di is the goddess of our village. Some say she has sent the beast because she is angry with us. Others say a jealous, rival god sent the beast. We have prayed every day and made offerings to the goddess for her help, but we do not know if she has abandoned us. Please, are you the help, or have you come to kill all that the beast has not destroyed?”

“We are here to help,” Alexis spoke up, and Lockhart turned on her.

“What is it with you and Boston? You are not permitted to offer bread or help or anything else that commits this group in any way without asking permission. Is that clear?” He was not happy.

 Alexis dropped her eyes but said nothing as Mingus stepped forward with a question. “What kind of beast?”

The men took one look at Mingus and took a big step back, but to their credit, they did not turn and run. They simply appeared afraid to answer. A boy came around the corner and pushed right passed the men. He looked like a young man of about fifteen and one of the men yelled at him.

“Keng!”

But Keng ignored the man, ran right up to Boston, and gave her a big hug. “You guys got here just in time,” Keng said. He let go of Boston and turned toward Mingus. “It’s a bogy beast,” he said. “I was beginning to think it would be the end for us all, but here you are.”

“But if the beast is the end of the story, we might mess things up if we help.” Lincoln felt concerned about changing time.

“Maybe,” Keng admitted. “But I don’t think it is supposed to be here. I haven’t seen its master, but you know they are never far away.”

“Master?” Lockhart asked.

Keng looked at the man and paused before he smiled. “Not the masters, like that. I mean the bogy man.”

“What is a bogy beast?” Captain Decker wanted to know.

“A bogy man’s dog,” Mingus answered.

“A lesser spirit, up to twenty feet tall or long with razor sharp claws and teeth and it breathes fire. Nearly impossible to kill, the database says. It does look sort of like a bear.” Boston added the last for Lieutenant Harper.

“Definitely not good,” Mingus added under his breath.

“So, you will stay and help?” Keng asked. He looked up at Lockhart again and Lockhart reluctantly nodded.

“But my first duty is to get this crew home,” he said. “If it becomes impossible, we are out of here.”

“Understood.” Keng turned to the men. “They will stay and help, but we need to treat them well while they are here.”

The man who yelled at Keng stepped free of the group and slapped Keng in the ear, hard. “You have no business telling your elders what to do.”  He immediately turned to the travelers. “You are welcome here, and Nagi’s blessing be upon you.”

“Come out, come out.” Other men yelled. “They are sent by the goddess and are here to help.”

Alexis stepped up to Keng to make sure that he was all right. Boston moved up, too, but her lips were moving. “Come out, come out wherever you are and meet the young lady who fell from a star.”

Keng had a hand on his ear, but he smiled on hearing that.

The travelers set up camp in the middle of the village. The people brought some of their food but did not stand around to stare. They especially avoided the elves and some, no doubt, felt the elves were as dangerous as the beast. One of the elder men commented on this.

“How is it that the spirits of the earth do your bidding? Are they safe?”

“We have a common goal,” Lockhart said, with a sideways look at Mingus. “And no, they are not safe, but they will help.”

“But you have them so well trained,” another man commented. Roland had to step in front of his father to prevent an incident.

“So, tell me, do we have to hunt the beast?”

The two elders looked at each other, surprised at being asked such a question. “Why, no,” one finally said. “It has come to the village twice in the night.

“Though it did not come last night,” the other said, thoughtfully.

“Yes, something must have distracted it,” the first concluded.

“Us,” Lockhart said. “Only a ghoul got in the way.”

Not long after that, they heard the not too distant roar.

Avalon 4.11: Being Human, part 1 of 8

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After 1820 BC, Babylon of Hammurabi, Kairos 57: Ishtara, Reflection of Ishtar.

Recording …

Lockhart and Elder Stow went east along the river to try and find a place to cross the deep water.  Decker and Lincoln went west.  Mingus took Boston into the woods.  Mingus felt there was so much he had to teach the girl about being an elf, and the time was short.  He had a bad feeling about the days ahead.

Alexis stayed in the camp to tend the fire and watch the horses and the tents.  She was not sure Alexiswhy she ended up the chief cook for the group, but as she thought about it, she decided Lincoln and Lockhart were the next best options.  Katie was learning.  Boston was improving.  That was a kind thought.  Major Decker could cook over an open flame, but Alexis imagined he killed his taste buds at some point early in his military career.  He could make anything edible, and eat it, but god only knew what it would taste like.  They never asked Elder Stow to cook.  To be honest, Father Mingus was probably the next best cook, but he was stuck in the eighteenth century in some ways.  That was the century when Alexis was born, and as head of the Avalon history department, he seemed to have gotten stuck there.  He still thought of cooking as women’s work, and there was no reaching him.

Katie also stayed in the camp, to guard the camp.  Captain Katherine Harper worked a Pentagon desk through graduate school and the first couple of years after getting her doctorate in ancient and medieval history and technology.  That might sound like an odd job for a marine, to study ancient and medieval things, but people dug up things all the time, archeologists and amateurs, and the Pentagon needed an expert to know, bluntly, what was human and what was not.  Alexis supposed it was inevitable that Katie get tangled up with the so-called men in black; not that anyone imagined she would fall in love with Lockhart, the associate director of the men in black.

Alexis looked up to the top of the boulder where Katie sat looking out on the open fields, the woods at her back.  She looked mostly at the river where the water meandered along, like her thoughts.  Alexis knew what Katie was thinking about.  She still had thoughts like that about Lincoln from time to time, and she and Benjamin had been married for more than forty years.  They had children and grandchildren.  When they ended up back at the beginning of time, they needed to go home the slow way—through the time gates.  Fortunately, the Kairos gave each of them a slice of the apple of youth, and made them young again—them and Lockhart.  Three old people wandering through time would have never survived.  Now, being young again, Alexis was thinking about having another baby.  That would have to wait until they got home in a couple of years.  Alexis supposed she might be thirty by then, but that was not too old.

Katie a2Alexis looked up at Katie again.  Katie was twenty-eight, and now Lockhart was an early thirty-something.  They made a wonderful couple, but one that never would have happened if Lockhart stayed sixty-eight.  Alexis wondered if the Kairos knew in advance what would happen.  She shrugged.  She gave up being an elf and became human when she married Benjamin, but she still respected the Kairos more than most mortals.  As an elf, the Kairos had been her god—not a God like God in Heaven, but near enough for all practical purposes.  She still remembered those feelings, and all of the lifetimes of the Kairos she had met thus far gave her no reason to believe those feelings were wrong.  Even now, she felt the Kairos was watching over her, and all of the travelers, even if the Kairos from her day had fallen into the chaos of the Second Heavens, before history began, and was at least temporarily lost.

“So we get to go home the hard way,” Alexis said out loud.  “At least until the Kairos makes it back to Avalon proper.”

Alexis looked again at Katie.  Katie was an elect—a one in a million warrior woman, designed by the gods of old to protect and defend the home, family, and tribe when the men went off to hunt or to war.  She was stronger, faster, and a better fighter than most men.  She loved the adventure of it all, and wanted to be out there with the others, on the front line, as Decker would say, but after some deep soul searching, Katie concluded that her literal ‘god given’ job was to defend the camp.  So she sat on the rock, her marine rifle cradled in her lap, and she no doubt thought about Lockhart, and maybe children.UFO battle 6

Alexis paused as she looked up at the sound.  Katie stood and grabbed her binoculars.  Something shot across the sky.  There were several somethings.  Katie looked fascinated, but Alexis worked back home for the so-called Men in Black organization.  Alien intrusion was nothing new in her world.  Sad, though, to have lost the innocent wonder of it all.

Alexis questioned what was taking the men so long.  She shrugged.  She imagined they would come racing back as soon as they saw the activity in the sky.  She shrugged again.  Men take forever to do anything.  She picked up a piece of wood to put on the fire, and screamed.

Katie turned and saw two Alexises in the camp.  She raised her rifle.  She felt the ghoul’s presence in her mind, but could not tell which Alexis was the real Alexis.  She dared not pull the trigger.

Alexis screamed again, but the ghoul opened its mouth so the scream sounded like it came from the ghoul.  Alexis stepped back, wondering why the ghoul did not attack.  She tripped over a rock.  She fell hard on her side and cut her hands even as she saw the lion.  It had waited, uncertain whether to attack the ghoul or the human.  When Alexis fell, it made up its mind.

lion roaringKatie fired her rife.  She figured the lion might be some ghoul trick, like an illusion, but she could not take the chance.  The ghoul Alexis turned toward the woods even as Mingus and Boston came running.  Boston had her wand out and gave the escaping ghoul a hot butt.  Mingus fired something more like lightning at the lion, which prevented the beast from seriously raking its claw across Alexis’ shoulder.  She got a bad scratch, but then Katie fired a series of shots on automatic, and the lion collapsed for good.

Mingus went straight to Alexis.  He gently helped her to get free of the rocks.  She had one hand on her bleeding shoulder, and the other elbow against her ribs where she imagined at least one was cracked.  Mingus made her sit on a rock and he carefully tended her wounds while Katie and Boston joined them.

“I don’t have my Beretta,” Boston reminded them.  “I would have shot the ghoul, but I lost my belt with my big honking knife and my handgun.  Sorry.”

“I saw two Alesixes,” Katie confessed.  “I didn’t know which was the real one or I would have shot the ghoul.”

“No, ladies.  It was my fault,” Mingus interrupted.  “I never should have taken young Boston from the camp.  There is a reason why we have three on watch all through the night.  A ghoul can affect only one mind at a time.  We should have stayed in the camp; the four of us together.”

“Father?”  Alexis noticed some tears in his eyes.  Alexis knew she was a natural healer.  Whatever was wrong with her, she would heal fast, like an elect; like Katie.  In the meanwhile, it certainly hurt enough.

Mingus finished bandaging her shoulder and shook his head as he spoke.  “The reason I kidnapped you, twice, was to keep you safe.  A daughter should not die before her father.”

Alexis took her good hand and touched his to say she understood.  Boston and Katie said nothing. fire Cooking fire 2 Mingus turned away and kicked the dead lion before he got out his knife to skin the beast.

“Lion steaks tonight,” Alexis said, and winced because of the pain in her ribs.  Boston reached out to her, but there was not much anyone could do.  Katie stirred the fire and Alexis finished her thought.  “Katie.  You and Boston will have to cook tonight.”

“I’ll cook it,” Mingus said, sharply.  “Lion is tough and full of gristle.  You have to know how to fix it to make it edible.

Katie went back up on her lookout.  Boston stayed with Alexis.  Lockhart and Elder Stow rode in after a few minutes.

“I heard gunfire,” Lockhart raised his voice, and they told him what happened.

“I burned the ghoul’s butt, but that was it,” Boston said in a voice somewhere between pride and an apology.

“I did not dare shoot.  It looked like Alexis,” Katie did apologize.

Lockhart gave her a quick peck on the lips.  “You did the right thing.”

Decker and Lincoln came in an hour later.  “What happened?” Decker asked.

“Benjamin,” Alexis called him, and he leapt down from his horse and ran to her.

Avalon 4.10: Into the Storm, part 1 of 4

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After 1879 BC, New England area, Kairos 56: Taregan, The Chief.

Recording …

Everyone slipped and slid and yelled.  “Get down.  Slippery ice.  Spread the weight.  Listen for cracks.  Go easy.”

Boston got carefully down from Honey’s back and gently coaxed her horse out of the snow drift.  Most of the lake looked snow covered on top of the ice, so it was not impossibly slippery, for the humans.  The horses were trickier, to get them safely to shore.ice lake 2

The travelers spread out.  Both Lincoln and Decker heard the ice crack beneath them, but no one fell through to the frigid water.

It started to snow as soon as they reached the trees that grew down to the lake’s edge.

“Boston and Mingus, get a fire started,” Lockhart said.

“Everyone, get the tents out and use them for horse blankets,” Katie added.

“Where are we?” Alexis wondered.

“Let me try to get the lay of the land,” Elder Stow offered as he pulled out his scanner.  “Maybe a weather report,” he added, softly.

“That’s a big lake,” Boston shouted.

“Where are we?” Katie echoed Alexis

“A minute,” Lincoln said.

“The north pole,” Decker offered.  “Can’t you tell?”

“Lake Champlain,” Lincoln offered.  “Maybe Lake George, but probably somewhere in Vermont.”

“Where are we,” Mingus asked Boston, and after a moment of thought she pulled out her amulet.

ice fire in woods“Lucky.”  She pointed.  “We are headed away from the lake.  The next gate should be in New Hampshire, or maybe Maine or Massachusetts.  Hey!  Maybe it is located in Boston.”

“Boston isn’t there yet,” Lockhart said.

“It is a big storm,” Elder Stow reported.

“I don’t know if the dried grain we got in Yadinel’s time is still good,” Alexis interrupted.  She checked their supplies.  “Not much else for the horses to eat around here.”

“Let me see,” Elder Stow said.  He had his scanner in his hand and quickly pronounced the grain acceptable.

“The grain may technically be a hundred and fifty-years-old,” Lincoln suggested.  “But it moved those years in about three weeks.  It didn’t sit all those years exposed to the elements to get moldy or anything.”

“At least the horses won’t go hungry for now,” Alexis agreed.

Lockhart turned to the fire where Mingus was laying on a big log and Decker found a place to rest.  “What can you two tell us about the area?”

“Not much,” Decker admitted.  “The whole area is well forested, and as you know, it is hard to see beneath the trees.”

“I sent Boston to see where there might be little ones, locally,” Mingus said.  “She needs to learn.”snowy woods

“By the way.”  Elder Stow joined them.  “The snow storm is bigger than my little scanner can read.  I imagine it will snow all day.”  He touched something on the scanner and the snow over their head stopped—blocked by the screen he put up.  “I should be able to get another time zone or two out of that charging equipment I got in Yadinel’s time zone.  The equipment is well made, but it doesn’t age as well as living grain.  I figure in three hundred years it will be useless, but we might as well use it while we have it.”  He pulled out his sonic device and what looked like a knob to a small door, and began to fiddle with the scanner.

“Explain something,” Lockhart asked.  “The Database and the amulets are powered by Reichgo 10,000-year half-life batteries.  The Kairos suggested originally that they would have enough charge for the journey.  But you Gott-Druk are an elder race.  I can’t imagine the Reichgo have better batteries.”

Elder Stow stopped tinkering and everyone looked at Lockhart, and then the elder.  “Battery life depends on usage,” he said.  “The Reichgo batteries are so primitive, they would hardly power my devices for a day.  I might get one blast from my weapon, if the Reichgo battery did not explode.  Decker has a couple of spares for his recording device, which I might use in an emergency.  But, you know, data doesn’t use much, and neither does the Amulet.  My scanner doesn’t take much, but the screen is a heavy drain I could avoid if you don’t mind being snowed on.”

“What are you doing?” Katie came over and asked why Elder Stow was tinkering with his equipment.

stow e2“Ah,” Elder Stow said.  “It has occurred to me that the screen is good to keep out the snow and rain as well as wild animals, and sometimes especially humans.  The screen itself is invisible, of course, but I thought it might be a good thing if we were all invisible.  I am trying to attach my invisibility device to the screen generator if I can, so whenever I activate the screen, whatever is inside becomes invisible.”

“Good thinking,” Katie praised him.

“No good in the forest,” Decker countered.  “Someone on that hill there would just see a big empty spot by the lake.”

“But in the desert or on the grasslands it would be most effective,” Elder Stow said.

“What recording equipment?” Lincoln asked.

Everyone stopped again to look at Lincoln and then turned their eyes on Major Decker, except Lockhart who looked at Captain Katie Harper.  Elder Stow spoke.

“I’m sorry.  I thought you knew.”

Decker touched his hand where he had a ring.  Katie pulled her necklace up to show as Decker explained.

“A Reichgo digital recording device.  It is about forty percent full.  Captain Harper and I have been making a rather skewed recording of our journey since the beginning.”

“Colonel Weber?” Lockhart asked, accusation in his voice.

Katie 4“That’s right,” Katie said.  “But I can see that already there are probably a number of things we have dealt with and encountered that Area 51 does not need to know about.”

“I suppose I could delete the whole thing,” Decker said, with a sigh.  It sounded like he would be giving up his last connection to the twenty-first century, or “the real world,” as he sometimes called it.

“Oh, but the history,” Katie pleaded with Lockhart.  Lockhart, Lincoln and Alexis shared a glance, but none seemed too concerned.  Lockhart made a decision.

“Record what you want,” he said.  “I am sure the Kairos knows and hasn’t objected so far.  I think we can safely let the Kairos decide what to do with it when we get back home.”

Boston came running up at about fifty-miles-per hour.  She phased through Elder Stow’s screen automatically, though she felt it and it caused her to pause.  Fortunately, her fairy weave clothing came with her, but her wand and the leather case she made to carry it against her thigh did not.

“Putz,” she said, and had to reach back to consciously bring the wand and case inside the screen.  She started to yell as soon as she got near the fire.  “Something big is moving through the trees.  It isn’t human or an animal.  It feels creepy.”

ice lake 1Mingus paused to concentrate before he named it.  “Ghoul.”

People reached for their guns.  Decker, who already had his rifle in hand, Mingus, and Elder Stow stepped to the lake side of the camp, which was where Boston pointed.  They saw it come out from the woods as the others joined them.  It stepped carefully on the snow covered, frozen lake, and appeared to be headed for the time gate they just came through.

“Scout,” Mingus called it.

Boston had a different thought.  “Can they swim?”

Mingus nodded.  “It will swim the thirty miles to the island in the last time zone without trouble, and probably scare off or eat any sharks it passes along the way.”

“They seem to have some way of knowing where the time gates are,” Katie whispered, though they had all figure that out some time ago.

“Well,” Decker put his rifle on automatic and fired even as Elder Stow let loose with the sonic device, which was still in his hand.  The ghoul let out a death wail as the ice beneath it cracked, gave way, and the ghoul vanished in the frigid water.

Decker groused.  “It would have been better to kill it.”

“I think you did,” Katie said.

Decker 2“Anyway,” Mingus spoke up as he turned back to the fire.  “Ghouls are like all of the Djin.  They are primarily creatures of heat.  They normally avoid the cold, and I suspect the icy lake water would finish it if you didn’t kill it.”

“I would rather see the green and purple smudge to be sure it doesn’t live to eat another day,” Decker finished.

“Pack up,” Lockhart said once they got back to the camp.  “The other nine are probably on their way.  Boston, we need to move, but off the direct line to the next time gate.  Hopefully, we will pass them by.”

Avalon 4.5 part 3 of 6, The King’s House

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Rebecca took Lockhart, Katie and Father Mingus with her.  She said same group as in Babylon, but she left Boston behind because Boston was up to her elbows in deer blood.   Tel-Aram walked beside Rebecca, and it looked to Katie like that was where he wanted to stay.  Lockhart imagined Rebecca and Tel-Aram were living in a kind of truce.  The guards around them supported that idea by leaving the strangers plenty of room.  It was likely they had learned not to crowd Rebecca’s friends, and maybe learned that lesson the hard way.

The king’s house was not especially larger or more opulent than the other houses around the square, but it did appear to be actually two houses stuck together.  Katie remarked that the royal family probably lived in one house and conducted business in the other.  There were two front doors and Tel-Aram stopped his men outside one of them.chldean village 1

Rebecca paused to speak to her friends.  “King Nabrabel is a stuck-up, prejudiced old man with no tolerance for anything other than abject obedience.”  She touched Tel-Aram’s hand, which made him smile.  “Tel-Aram and I will prostrate ourselves, but it may be best if you did not.  If you do, he may wish to lay claim to your horses and who knows what?  I will present you as poor travelers who will be moving on as soon as possible.  Hopefully we may have a few days to relax.”

“Too bad,” Lockhart said.  “After the last time zone I started thinking it was no skin off our nose to bow, if called for.”

“Maybe next time,” Rebecca said.  “Here, to submit gives him ownership, at least in his mind.”

“This may help,” Mingus said.  He removed the glamour that made him look human.  The guards gasped and stepped back, but Tel-Aram nodded, like he understood something about Rebecca’s friends.

Rebecca clearly thought about it, but said nothing.  “You have your handguns with you.  Let us hope you don’t have to kill anyone.”

“Let us hope?” Tel-Aram wanted to object to the idea, but Rebecca moved inside.

The downstairs of that house was one big room with a raised ceiling supported on a half-dozen posts.  In the back, there were stairs that no doubt went to some sort of second floor.  To their right and toward the back there were double doors which no doubt led into the house next door.  On a two-foot-high platform at the back, there were three chairs.  A gruff looking old man sat in mes king 3the big chair in the center and glared at them as they walked forward.  The woman seated to the king’s left was no doubt his wife.  She smiled a little.  The man seated to the king’s right was no doubt the son.  He looked like he was trying to imitate his father’s glare.

There were several other men in the room, and several guards, but they kept back so the strangers could approach the throne.  Rebecca and Tel-Aram went to their knees and their faces, briefly, before they stood again.  The strangers did no such thing.

“Woman?” the king spoke, and it was not a nice sound.

“These are travelers come from far away Babylon,” Rebecca said.  “They have further to go, but after many days in the wilderness, they thought to stop here briefly to see the greatness that is Ur of the Chaldees, as they call it.”

“You know of our home?” the Queen spoke out of turn.

“Only by reputation,” Katie responded woman to woman.

“Enough,” the king waved his hand at the women and the queen shrank back.  “I see one is a beast of the wilderness.”  The king pointed at Mingus.  It was hard to tell exactly what the king thought about that, except it was not anything good.

“That may be,” Mingus said.  “But even in the wilderness we know how to be hospitable to the strangers and wayfarers that come among us.”

Lockhart quickly interrupted.  “I am only sorry we will have to move on so soon and will not have the chance to enjoy your full hospitality.”

“See that you do,” the king said, hearing only that they would soon move on.

The son spoke.  “Ur-Baal belongs to the Kaldu.  We have no room for wild ones or for strange looking people.  We have Arameans who serve us, and that is enough.”

“But she has yellow hair,” the queen blurted out what most astonished her.

“Enough,” the king growled this time.  He looked ready to tell them to go away, but his eyes got big and his mouth looked like it could not close.  The king stood and backed away, knocking over his own throne.  He pointed at the strangers and stuttered.  “uh—uh,” before he screamed.ghouls 3

Mingus and Katie reacted to the evil in the room.  Lockhart, with his police trained instincts drew his revolver only a second after Katie pulled her M1911A2.  Mingus pointed at the stairs and yelled.

“There.”

It was only a vague shadow, but Mingus threw a fireball even as Katie and Lockhart fired.  Bullets struck the head and chest, and when the fireball hit the stomach, the ghoul became fully visible.  It had no time to howl before its middle exploded, scattering pieces of ghoul parts around the room.

Mingus stayed by Rebecca and kept his senses wide open as Katie, Lockhart, Tel-Aram and several guards ran to check on the creature.  It had begun the characteristic meltdown that would leave a green and purple smudge on the floor.

“The scout,” Katie said.

“That means there are nine more out there,” Lockhart agreed and looked around the room while Tel-Aram’s eyes went wide.

“Nine more?”

“We probably have twenty-four to forty-eight hours before they show up,” Mingus shouted, having heard from across the room.

“Woman,” they heard the king again, and it sounded angry, and afraid.  The son looked lost.  The queen still had her hands over her eyes.

“Good thing my friends arrived,” Rebecca yelled.  “No telling who might have been eaten if they weren’t here to stop the ghoul.”  It was some fast thinking.

The king visibly paused.  “Get out,” he hollered.

“Katie.  Lockhart,” Rebecca called.

“You heard the king,” Mingus added, and moved them toward the door before the king thought of something else to say.

Once outside, Tel-Aram repeated his question.  “Nine more?”

“They travel in ten-packs,” Lockhart said.

Rebecca 4“Good thing you are here,” Rebecca said.

“They possess the mind,” Mingus explained.  “Generally one at a time, but I would guess the king was possessed and he saw us as ghouls.”

“I bet the ghoul wanted him to yell to kill us, but the king was too scared to say anything.”

“Why are you glad we are here?” Lockhart asked Rebecca as they started back to Rebecca’s house.

“Because I am sure the Kasdim would blame us, the Arameans for this plague of ghouls.”

“Instead, they will blame us,” Lockhart said.

“And they wouldn’t be wrong,” Katie added.

“But, what can we do?” Tel-Aram sounded a bit desperate.

Rebecca smiled.  “Get your men.  Search the town in groups of three.  Listen for screams in the night.”  She stopped, slipped one hand on the man’s shoulder and kissed him on the cheek.  “You captured a Blob.  A few ghouls should be no problem.”

Tel-Aram stood in shock for a moment before he ran back to gather his men.

The travelers moved on with a comment.

“We should leave first thing in the morning.”

“I’m sorry,” Rebecca said.  “I was looking forward to you staying a few days.”

###

Tera’s family lived next door, and the other Arameans beyond.   While the supper cooked, Tera’s sons, including Abram, took the remains and uncooked meat to the people to share the wealth.  When Rebecca, Lockhart, Katie and Mingus returned to the yard, there appeared to be a real party going on.  That got cut short when Lockhart told the others about the ghoul.

“Mingus says we may have twenty-four hours before the other nine get here,” Katie said.  “But we should leave in the morning, just to be safe.”  The others were disappointed.  They were looking forward to staying for a while as well.

“Maybe Pluckman and his band of merry dwarfs will get back in time to help,” Rebecca said.dwarves a1

Tera moaned and Leah rolled her eyes.

“Yes,” Lincoln sat up.  “I was going to ask.  Where is he?”

“I sent him out to find me a left handed smoke shifter,” Rebecca said with a straight face.  “Now, everyone, wash-up for supper,” Rebecca added nice and loud.  “The smell of that rump roast is starting to drive me crazy.”

“I covered it with flour and garlic,” Boston said with a big grin.

“Oh, I’m sorry.  I should have checked it,” Alexis said.

“Hey!” Boston protested.

“You do have a mixed bag when it comes to cooking,” Alexis said.

“Don’t worry,” Decker said.  “I got flank steaks and some fillets cooking.”

“I’m starved,” Lockhart said.

“I would think a giant would be starved all the time,” Tera said, but he added that he felt starved, too.