Kairos

Avalon Pilot part III-7: Kairos

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“Children?  Child?”  Doctor Procter tried to get the children’s attention.

“Kairos?”  Mingus tried, and the children at least stopped crying.

“Glen?” Boston spoke, and the children looked up.  Both sets of eyes got big and both mouths spoke in perfect unison.

“Boston!”  Then both mouths closed and there appeared to be some internal struggle before the boy spoke first and then the girl.

“I am Zadok, a word for rock.”

“I am Amri, a word for love.”

“Glen is here but not,” Zadok continued.  “I don’t know if I can reach him, exactly.”

“Or Alice,” Amri said.  “And I know where she is.

“I am confused…”

“…and I don’t know why.”

“I cannot send you home, either.”

“I don’t even know if the gods can.”

“Hold it.”  Lockhart interrupted.  “Could just one of you speak?  I’m getting dizzy.”

The children looked at each other before they nodded.  “I will talk,” Amri said.

“I will listen,” Zadok finished the thought.

“Wait a minute,” Lincoln stepped forward.  “You are like the Princess and he is like the Storyteller, or…”

“No, dear,” Alexis explained.  “They are one and the same person, only that one person is in two bodies.”

“Actually,” Amri looked briefly at Zadok.  “I am one being, like one consciousness in two persons.”

“But that doesn’t make sense,” Lincoln said.  “How can you be one being in two persons?”

Amri and Zadok looked briefly at each other once more.

“Amri likes to talk,” Zadok said.

“Zadok likes to listen so it works out well.”

Boston inched up close and squatted.  “What are you, six?”  Both heads nodded before Amri spoke again and it sounded like a hurried speech.

“You have guns that will never run out of bullets and vitamins that will never run out no matter how many people start taking them.  But that is all I can do for your health and safety.  That, and remind you that when the demon Ashteroth invaded Avalon and gained access to the Heart of Time, she wanted to change time.  She thought she could do that through the Heart of Time.  It doesn’t work that way, but in the attempt, she let all sorts of horrid creatures into time.”  Amri paused.  Someone had come up to the top of the hill.  The old man, Nimrod, interrupted everyone with a roar.  He looked bruised and bloodied in any number of places.   His face looked pummeled, and included the beginning of a terrific black eye.

“You!”  Nimrod pointed at Lockhart.  “You caused all this.”  Boston moved slightly and that attracted Nimrod’s attention.  The man shouted on sight of the children and raised his spear.  He threw it at Zadok, but Boston jumped.  The spear grazed her side and caused a great gash and a great deal of blood, but its trajectory changed, so Zadok was spared.

Roland’s arrow arrived first in Nimrod’s chest.  A look of utter surprise crossed the old man’s face before Lockhart’s slug from his shotgun and corresponding fire from Captain Decker knocked the man completely off his feet to roll back down the hill, dead.

“Boston!”  Zadok reacted first.

“Alexis!”  Amri seconded the sound of concern, but called for help.  Alexis, already on the way, started to open the medical kit.

“Daughter?”  No one understood what might be going through Mingus’ mind, but Alexis waved him off, locked her thumbs, and placed her hands an inch away from the gash in Boston’s side.  A golden-white glow of magic formed around Alexis’ hands, but when they touched Boston, Boston grimaced for a moment before she relaxed.  Lincoln, Lockhart and the others all watched while the bleeding stopped and the wound slowly closed-up.  The healing was not as fast or as complete a healing as Lockhart’s hand, but clearly Boston would be fine.  All the same, Alexis wrapped Boston in some gauze and tape, and helped her stand.  She then helped her repair her fairy weave clothes.

“I’ll be fine,” Boston said, as she felt two arms encircle her and two heads press up against her, with tears welled up in Amri’s eyes.  “Oh,” Boston returned the hug.  She wanted to squat again and hug the Kairos properly, but she was not sure if she could squat.  “You are cute when you are young.”  She said, instead.

“Of course.”  Zadok looked up with a smile and Boston saw the same smile spread across Armi’s face.  “I’m always cute.”  The twins backed up and looked once around at everyone.  Then Amri spoke again.

“You must go.  Nimrod might have died alone, the tower fallen, and him ever so slightly afraid that something of him might survive death after all.  You may have done him a mercy, but now you must go.  Godfather Cronos must come to see me, and the tower must be shattered.”

Lieutenant Harper, who craned her neck to see the top, nodded.  “Bad bricks.  Straw would have helped.”

“Ahem!”  Captain Decker coughed to get her quiet.

“You better hurry,” Amri said.  “I feel Cronos may come tomorrow, and shortly after he arrives, the tower will fall and I will cease.  Then I don’t know.   This time zone might start again at the beginning—at the moment of my conception.  It would be better if you were not here when it reset.”

“So, we have until tomorrow to get to the next time gate,” the doctor summarized and got out his amulet.  He turned to face the woods, then he turned back to say farewell.

“Will you be all right?”  Lockhart asked.

“Of course,” Amri responded.  “I live here.  But you must hurry.”

“And Lockhart,” Zadok interrupted himself, or rather, herself.  “I am sorry to burden you with having to get everyone back home the hard way, but I believe in you.”  Amri nodded her head in agreement, quite independently of what Zadok was doing.

Lockhart said nothing.  He just turned and followed the others back down the hill, toward the woods.

Avalon Pilot Part III: The Beginning of History

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Around 4500 BC on the Plains of Shinar.  Kairos 1-6:  The Twins 1, 2 and 3.

Recording…

“I must say it is kind of interesting being thirty again.”  Lockhart spoke after they entered the tunnel.  Lincoln looked back to see if the angel might be following them.  It did not, but the angel light illuminated the tunnel, and good thing, because it looked like a long way to the dim light at the other end.

“Twenty-nine.”  Lincoln spoke up.  “You may be thirty, but I decided I am only twenty-nine.  And my wife is now Boston’s age, just twenty-five.”

“That’s right.”  Alexis took Lincoln’s arm.  “Benjamin and I get to start all over again.”  They kissed and began to make loving noises.  The others did their best to ignore them until Mingus could not stand it.

“Shut-up.”  He turned and yelled at them, but his son, Roland was right there.

“Father, Alexis chose her mate and her human life, now you leave my sister alone.”

Mingus paused and looked at his son.  “A scolding from my own infant.”  He stopped walking so everyone stopped.  “Well, at least she got her youth back so she is not going to die any time soon.”

“I don’t know,” Doctor Procter spoke up absentmindedly and shook his amulet once more.  “If I can’t get this thing working there is no telling where we may end up.  I suppose we could all die on the road.”

“Cheery thought,” Lockhart quipped.

“But, say.  Mingus and Alexis just ran through time in this direction.  Right?  Surely you can help guide us back.”  Lincoln smiled to encourage them.

“Don’t look at me,” Alexis said.  “I spent most of the time with my mouth and eyes shut.”

“Some.  I might help some with the history, but really, we only arrived and skirted the edge of last time zone.  We moved as fast as we could.  For the most part, we traveled through the Heart of Time.  We did not come all this way through the time zones.  You can’t normally go back in the time zones unless you want to get younger…”  Mingus let his voice peter out before he stepped over to the doctor to examine the amulet.

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Lincoln said.  “We skirt the edges of the time zones as fast as we can, and hide.”

“No.”  Everyone but Mingus objected.  Doctor Procter explained first.

“I spent the last three hundred years studying the lives of the Kairos.  Now that we have the opportunity to walk through those lifetimes, one by one, and in order, I might add, I am not going to miss that opportunity.  Isn’t that right, Mingus?”

Mingus shook his head and sighed, and in that moment, everyone got a good look at the difference between Mingus, a full blood elf, and the Doctor who was half-human.  The contrast did not appear startling, but seemed obvious.  No plain human could have eyes as big, features as sharp or fingers as thin and long.

“If you say,” Mingus muttered as he took the amulet and shook it once for himself.

“What says the Navy?”  Lockhart turned to look at the two who were armed and bringing up the rear.

“I’m to follow orders,” Captain Decker frowned.

Lieutenant Harper smiled.  “I would not mind exploring a little while we have the chance.”

“Besides,” Roland spoke up, while Lockhart faced front again and encouraged everyone to resume walking.  “I have a feeling the Kairos would not mind if we rooted out some of the unsavory characters that wandered into the time zones without permission.”

“Oh, that would be very dangerous.”  Alexis said it before Lincoln could, and she grinned for her husband.

“All the same…”  Roland did not finish his sentence.  He fell back to walk beside Lockhart to underline his sentiments to the man.

“Hey.”  Boston came up.  She had been straggling near the back.

“Boston, dear.”  Lockhart backed away from the elf and slipped his arm around the young woman.  “What do you think?  Do we run as fast as we can or explore a bit and maybe confront some unsavories along the way?”

“Explore and help the Kairos clean out the time zones.  I thought that was obvious.”

“Well for the record,” Mingus said, as he turned and walked backwards.  “Though it may kill me to say it, I agree with that Lincoln fellow.”

“I haven’t offered an opinion,” Lincoln said.

“No, but I can read the mind of a frightened rabbit well enough.”

“Father!”  Alexis jumped and had some scolding in her voice.  “I vote we explore and help.”  She looked at Lockhart, and so did everyone else except Doctor Procter who was still playing with his amulet.

Lockhart nodded.  “Okay,” he said.  “But the number one priority is to get everyone home alive and in one piece, so when it is time to move on, we all move, no arguments.”

“You got that right,” Captain Decker mumbled.

Everyone seemed fine with that except Mingus who screwed up his face and asked, “And who decides when it is time to move on?”

“I do.”  Lockhart spoke without flinching.  The two stared at each other until Doctor Procter interrupted.

“Anyway,” he said, as if in the middle of a sentence.  “I would not worry about hunting unsavories.  I don’t imagine it will take long before they start hunting us.”

“Cheery thought.”  Lockhart repeated himself as Boston slipped out from beneath his arm.

“Lovely arm,” she said and squeezed the muscle as she let go.  Lockhart just gave her a hard stare in return until she amended her words.  “Dad.”  She thought about it and changed it.  “Grandpa.”  Then she said, “Gramps,” and had to cover the grin that came to her lips.  She felt rather glad Alexis interrupted.

“Look!  A baby.  Two babies.”  Alexis pointed toward the ceiling of the tunnel and everyone looked.  The ceiling and walls of the tunnel were opaque, not rock.  The angel light did not penetrate far into whatever they were walking through, but it lit things up enough to see the forms.  Sure enough, there were two babies.  They saw one kick, and the other kick back.

“What is this stuff?”  Boston asked the question.

“Amniotic fluid.”  Doctor Procter answered her like it was the most obvious answer in the world.  Fortunately, Mingus took up the explanation.

“The Kairos was designed to inhabit two bodies at once.  One male and one female.  It did not work out too well at first.  In fact, the first two times old Cronos tried to bring the Kairos to birth, he failed.”

“The god failed?”  Roland sounded shocked to hear that.  Mingus merely nodded.

“You might as well say the Kairos failed to be properly born,” Doctor Procter corrected his colleague from the history department.  “We debate this, regularly, but it is not well publicized.”

“But wait.”  Boston spoke from behind so everyone stopped and turned.  “What are these dark patches?  It looks like there are spots that no light can penetrate.”

“What?”  Doctor Procter and Mingus both slid up to the wall to examined the evidence.  This was something new.

“Two babies.”  Lockhart still looked up.  “One male and one female. But both the same person.”  It was a hard concept to grasp.

Alexis took that moment to whisper something in Lincoln’s ear to which Lincoln blurted the words, “Again?  We already have two children, and a grandchild.”

“But the dark patches?”  Boston did not get an answer.  “They appear to be moving around.”

“Demons, definitely.”  Doctor Procter concluded.  “That explains some of the early difficulties in the birthing.”

“Demons, perhaps,” Mingus did not sound convinced.  Lieutenant Harper reached out and Mingus reacted.  “Don’t touch!”  He shouted, and the Lieutenant caught her hand.  “Better to be safe.”

“Demons.”  Doctor Procter sounded certain, but to confirm the statement, he got closer than he should have been.  The dark patches quickly raced to his position to form a single mass of darkness and something reached out into the tunnel and touched the Doctor’s hand, or so Boston thought.  She was the only one at an angle and the nearness to see in the dim light.  But she could not be sure because at that same time there came a great flash of angel light.  Even those with their backs turned had to pause and blink, and then the light went out altogether.

“The tunnel closed up behind us,” Roland said, and with his elf eyes, he seemed to be the only one who could see clearly—him and his father, and perhaps Doctor Procter.  For the humans, it just looked dark behind them while the light from the other end of the tunnel looked far away and very dim.

“Keep moving.”  Lockhart said, and in only a few steps, he felt a tingling sensation.  They all felt it, like a small electrical charge.

“The time gate.”  Alexis explained.  “We have moved on to the Kairos’ next life.”

“The other failed life,” Mingus called it.

“The other practice life,” Doctor Procter countered, and as they walked, the light at the end of the tunnel grew stronger.

Boston had her eyes wide open in search of demons.  Roland had thought to take up a position near the rear with her as they walked two by two.  They both saw the motion when it came, and Boston grabbed Roland’s arm in an automatic response for fear of the demons.   Something moved inside the walls.  It moved first on their left, and then on their right, and it took a moment for Boston to figure it out.

“Hey.  This time the two babies are separated and to the sides.  Why is that?”

“Different mothers.”  Doctor Procter spoke first again, but like before, it came out cryptic and did not explain much.  Mingus had to explain, again.

“The first attempt failed in the birthing process, so in Cronos’ second attempt, he tried to separate the two babies.  They were born, but being separated turned out to be too much for the infants.  They didn’t live long.”

“At least they are not kicking each other,” Boston said, and she looked up at Roland.  He looked down at her and she added, “Oh,” softly, and let go of the elf’s arm, not that he was complaining.

“Why would being separated be too much for the babies?”  Lincoln took up the questions.

“I imagine one consciousness split between two brains is hard enough.”  Lockhart thought to answer.  “Add to that two different mothers and two different fathers, different smells, two different sights through two sets of eyes.  It is a wonder the Kairos did not go mad.”

“Split personality, certainly,” Alexis added her thought.

“Worst in history, daughter,” Mingus said.

“At least that is what the Kairos says,” Doctor Procter added as they came at last to the end of the tunnel.

“Wait.”  Lockhart made everyone pause while he stepped to the front to look out on the world.

Avalon, The Pilot Episode, by M G Kizzia

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Friends,

I started this blog on June 14, 2009, when I realized the market for long stories, Novelettes, and Novellas (roughly 8,000-42,000 words) had completely dried up. Sadly, whenever I sit down with an idea for a short story, my wee-little-brain quickly realizes it is too long and complex for the word short. It is not generally novel length, but even editing it down to the nubs it is still too long to be a short story, at least of marketable size.

Oh, there are some literary and university magazines that might consider something longer (if you are a well known author whose name can go on the cover), but I don’t generally write that sort of story. I’m sorry. I have no interest in beautiful sentences with lovely characters who do nothing. So I started this blog with the story Ghosts (about 27,000 words) because I figured it was better read than dead. (Ghosts. That’s a joke, folks).

By 2011, some 14 years ago for those who are slow in math, I had worked out the basic ideas for the Avalon stories and I began by posting The Pilot Episode (30,000 words) in May. It took 12 years to write 9 seasons and the prequel. The ending season, season 9, at least in beta-reading form, was posted in 2023 and will be available for purchase as soon as I get certain details straightened out.

Meanwhile, it occurred to me that 14 years is a long time. Some readers were babies when The Pilot Episode posted, not to mention seasons one (2012), two (2013), and three (2015). Plus, these early stories were posted before I started adding pictures to help suggest the characters and action as the story progressed. I think the pictures help, especially when the story is chopped into 2000 word bits and spread over several weeks.

I am beginning with the pilot episode. I hope at some point to post / blog the prequel, but not today. The first three seasons will follow, though in between there may be continuing stories of the Kairos, the Traveler in time, the Watcher over history, and now that the Heart of Time 1 The Golden Door has posted, there may also be further stories of the children of the Kairos and their search for the broken pieces of the heart and of course there will be the occasional long story. Whatever the case, let us begin with the pilot episode and see where it leads us. Enjoy, and Happy Reading.—MGK.

Avalon, The Pilot Episode

MGK Books, Second Edition

Revised and Expanded (version 2.2)

Table of Contents

Part I: Various Nefarious

Thief, Kidnapper, Father.

Meanwhile, Back on Earth

The Tower of Bricks

Humanity

Part II: Missing Person

Mission Team

Avalon

The Heart of Time

The Middle of the Night

Before the Beginning

Part III: The Beginning of History

Myths and Legends

Ararat

The Plains of Shinar

Nimrod

Babel

Kairos

Bokarus

Avalon, Moving into the Future

Avalon, The Pilot Episode, Introduction

Avalon is designed as a television show in written form, with each episode forming a chapter, and thirteen chapters making a whole season, or a book.  Like any good television show, seeing one full episode (or reading one full chapter) should give enough information to grasp who these characters are, the relationship between them, as well as understanding that this is a time travel adventure, where this small group of people are attempting to get back to the twenty-first century.

Thrown back to the beginning of history, the travelers from Avalon must get home the hard way—through the time gates that surround the many lives of the Kairos, the Traveler in time, the Watcher over history.  The time zones are dangerous.  The Kairos never lives a quiet life.  And the travelers understand that they are not the only ones lost in time.  Other people, beings, and creatures are surviving around the edges of the time zones, and some have picked up their scent.  Some are following them, and some are hunting them.  The travelers face a long, hard road to get everyone back to the twenty-first century, alive.

The pilot episode immediately follows the prequel, Invasion of Memories, which is available from your favorite on-line retailer under the author name M G Kizzia.  But the Pilot is a good place to start.

Only one warning.  I have never been good at the distinction between science fiction and fantasy.  It is like the amulet that leads the travelers from one time gate to the next.  It is a marvelous combination of sophisticated technology and magic.  Thus, you will find science fiction in these episodes, like space aliens and their technological wonders.  You may also find elves, spirits, ancient gods, mythical creatures, and magic of all sorts.  And sometimes, you will find aliens and elves in the same story.  Be prepared.

Thank you for reading.

–MGK

Cast

Robert Lockhart, a former policeman, now assistant director of the men in black, the one organization on earth in the twenty-first century that deals with strange and impossible things.  He is charged with leading this expedition through time. though he has no idea how he is going to get everyone home—in one piece.

Boston (Mary Riley), a Massachusetts redneck, rodeo rider, and technological genius who finished her PhD at age 23.  A “man in black,” she loves all the adventure, and all the spiritual creatures they encounter, which suggests she may be a bit strange.

Benjamin Lincoln, a former C. I. A. office geek, now a man in black, he determines to keep a record of their journey.  He tends to worry, and is not the bravest soul, but sometimes that is an asset.

Alexis Lincoln, an elf who became human to marry Benjamin; also went to work for the men in black”.  She retained her healing magic when she became human, but magic has its limits.  For example, it can’t make her father happy with her choices.

Roland, Alexis’ younger brother, a full blood elf and gifted hunter.  He came to keep his father Mingus under control and out of his sister’s face.  He discovers there is something in humanity worth saving and protecting.  He knows many of the creatures in the spirit world that they face, including the nasty ones inclined to rise-up out of the dark.

Mingus, father of Alexis and Roland, an elder elf.  He ran the history department in Avalon for over 300 years.  He knows the time zones and the lives of the Kairos but tends to keep his opinions to himself.  And he believes his children are being ruined by so much human interaction.

Doctor Procter, a half-human, half-elf who worked with Mingus in the Avalon history department for years.  The old man, with the long, white beard, also knows the many lives of the Kairos, but at first, he speaks in half-sentence, and soon, the others can hardly get a word out of him.  He carries the amulet, a sophisticated combination electronic GPS and magical device that shows the way from one time gate to the next.

Lieutenant Katie Harper, a marine and a PhD out of the pentagon whose specialty is ancient and medieval cultures and technologies.  She is torn between her duty to the marines, to her boss at Groom Lake, and her desire to be part of this larger universe she is discovering.

Captain Decker, a seal trained marine special operations officer who will do all he can to keep everyone alive, even if it means shooting his way back to the twenty-first century.  He is a skeptic who does not believe half of what they experience—even if he does not know what else to believe.

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“You won’t be coming?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“To the children,” the dais responded.

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

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

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

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

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

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

End

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

MONDAY

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

*

Golden Door Chapter 26 The Broken Heart, part 1 of 2

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Beth, Chris, David, and James all entered the annex room at roughly the same time. It looked much bigger than they expected for a small room off the main banquet hall in the Castle of Avalon. Then again, the banquet hall itself was a huge room, built to accommodate all the residents of a castle that was big enough to almost be a small city, with more rooms and buildings than could reasonably be counted.

The annex proved a long room, almost like a hall, with a big fireplace on one end and bookcases on the other. Along the long wall where the door was located, tapestries alternated with instruments of war, like swords and shields, long spears, and suits of armor. The other long wall appeared to be all windows, with two glass doors that let out to a stone-built balcony. Beyond the balcony, a sculpted garden stretched out to the horizon and the setting sun.

Mama hugged each of her children as they came in, while the lords and ladies of the dais went to sit at the semi-circular table on the fireplace end, though near the center of the room. When Mama went to join the dais, she sat in one of the two empty seats in the very center of the semi-circle. Everyone imagined the other empty seat would remain empty. It had to be for father, though the Kairos, Lady Alice might sit there.

Lady Goldenvein, the goblin queen sat to Mama’s left hand and took Mama’s hand to comfort her. Beside Goldenvein, her husband, Lord Deepdigger seemed deep in thought. Next came Lady Biggles and Lord Noen of the dwarfs, who spoke quietly with each other. To Mama’s right hand, after the empty chair, Lord Oak and Lady Ivy, king and queen of the fairies were followed by the elves, Lord Galadren, which is “Strongheart”, and his wife, Queen Lisel.

“Children.” Lady Lisel was the first to speak. “It seems it is time to talk with you.” She waved for them to come forward, and Beth, with a look to her brothers, came to the center of the room where seven chairs had been set up, facing the dais. Chris came with her and Davey and James, with a little push from behind, sat in the four chairs facing their mother and the table. The elders of the little ones sat behind the young people. Mrs. Aster of the Fairies sat behind Beth. Mrs. Copperpot of the dwarfs sat behind James. Professor Deathwalker of the “dark elves”, which is to say, “goblins”, sat behind the Chris. Inaros of Constantinople, the oldest elf on record, and one presently confined to a wheelchair, rolled up to sit behind David.

“Did you enjoy the day in Avalon?” Lady Ivy asked abruptly, and the children all nodded and smiled, but voiced nothing.

“I imagine you are wondering why you are here,” Lord Oak glanced at his wife and began, haltingly. He looked down to the table where he worried his hands. “Your father is fine, though fading, as you know… Lady Alice, one of your father’s future lifetimes may herself be too sick to attend…well…” He looked up to see the children nod, sadly. They understood, but said nothing, and Lord Oak looked away. He seemed at a loss for words. Strongheart, the elf king took up the telling.

“The plain truth is we need your help,” he said, bluntly, before he explained. “You see, at the beginning, when the steady progression of days turned to history, old Cronos and the Kairos got together to instill some small part of themselves in a common thread, like the threads of fate, only more so, not less. It was not yet woven, of course, because history was not yet written.” He stopped. It felt like he was giving a speech and he needed something to wet his lips.

“We call that thread the Heart of Time,” Lord Noen said, from the far end of the table.

“Think of it more like a crystal,” Lady Biggles added for her husband. “Think of it like a heart shaped crystal, red in the center inside, and glowing, like the beating of a real heart.”

“We all saw the Heart of Time,” Chris said, softly, and the others nodded. They saw it broken and knew it had missing pieces.

“Of course,” Lord Noen breathed, and Lady Biggles kindly patted his hand.

“As long as it was kept safe and beating, time continued in an orderly way,” Stongheart added.

“History is built on that,” Lord Oak said, trying to regain his place.

“Only now it is broken,” Goldenvein spoke in her chilling goblin voice.

“There are missing pieces,” Lord Oak continued.

“We must put the heart back together or things in life, in the world…” Lady Ivy interrupted her husband.

“In your world,” Goldenvein interrupted the interruption.

“…Will begin to fall apart,” Ivy finished.

“Alice by herself cannot hold life together, forever,” Lady Biggles added her two cents.

“History is in danger of being swallowed up in a confusion of time.” Lord Oak came to a stopping point, and everyone looked at the children to see if they were following along.

“I am very confused,” Beth admitted.

Davey took that as his chance. “I don’t understand,” he said, turning to the others.

“What are you suggesting?” Chris asked. He didn’t get it either, exactly, though he suspected something might fall on them.

James yawned while the people at the table looked at each other. He stepped into that moment of silence. “Where did the pieces of the heart go?”

Strongheart nodded, thinking the children were at least understanding something. He pointed at Professor Deathwalker. The others waited for the professor to speak.

Deathwalker stood behind Chris and pulled out a piece of paper. “Skipping over all the math and scientific rationale, blah, blah, blah,” he said, a comment which the members of the dais found funny for some reason. “The consensus is the pieces have moved into the future, a piece to each future life of the Kairos, whoever he or she might be.”

Golden Door Chapter 25 Sunshine, part 2 of 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“James…”

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

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

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

“Will there be food?” James asked.

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

~~~*~~~

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

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

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

“David…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“My dad?”

“Resting comfortably,” Strongheart said.

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

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

~~~*~~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Better than eagle eyes,” Daffodil said.

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

“Not magic,” Beth said.

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

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

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

“You look beautiful,” Beth said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I’ll stay with you,” Mistletoe said.

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

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

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

Golden Door Chapter 25 Sunshine, part 1 of 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“And Mama,” David added.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Redeyes? Crusher?” Chris sounded concerned.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Silverstain?” he asked.

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

~~~*~~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MONDAY

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

*

Golden Door Chapter 24 Ashtoreth

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Beth found herself behind a tree in the rain. The fairies had vanished. She stood alone, and the dragon crawled toward her, spewing fire along the way. Beth felt like screaming. She looked at the river, but it looked like only a stream. Despite the rain, it appeared to be drying up. Beth felt the scream building up in her belly. Beth panicked and took to the sky.

The dragon stretched its wings and followed. Beth flew as fast as she could, but she knew it would not be fast enough. She turned out of desperation. The dragon breathed, and the fire almost reached her. Beth thought of the little something extra gift given to her by Nimbus. She raised her hands, and her little bit of lightning shot out and struck the dragon in the nose. She knew it would not damage the dragon, but it did cause the dragon to turn down. It flew beneath her.

Beth knew the dragon would circle around and be right on her again. She also knew she did not have the strength to do that more than maybe once or twice more. To be sure, she did not know what to do, and her panic neared incapacitating proportions. Then she began to fall. Suddenly, she could no longer fly, and the ground looked very far away. At last, she screamed, but as she took a breath, she heard a voice.

~~~*~~~

Chris stood alone at the front gate. He could not remember rightly, but he could not imagine the others running off with the dogs. As he thought of the dogs, the three-headed dog came out of the shadows. It barked at him, in stereo, and he backed up slowly, like one might back away from a rabid animal. The dog stretched the chain with which it had been tied to the gate. It leapt and leapt, snapping the chain, while Chris raised his hands and avoided saying, “Nice doggy.”

The chain broke.

Chris turned and ran as all three heads snapped at him. He vaguely remembered the gift of Crystal, the oread of the mountain. Just then, he did not care how many alarms he set off. Chris swerved in his run, the dog nipping at his rear. He thought as hard as he could and slipped right through the castle wall.

He heard the three-headed dog crash into the wall and hoped at least one head got knocked unconscious. He threw his hands to his knees to catch his breath as he heard the crash again and again. He heard digging along with the growling and howling of an animal determined to get in. Suddenly, one of the stone blocks in the wall fell out. Chris heard the growl and wondered how many times he could go through the walls before he tired out. Somehow, he imagined it was not as many times as Cerberus could break through the walls. As one of the dog heads poked through the wall, Chris set himself to run, when he heard a voice.

~~~*~~~

James saw the wolves run off. Everyone got carried away from the basilisk at the postern gate. James figured that, like the bear, they did not realize he had gotten down from his wolf.

James ran into the forest. He heard the basilisk follow and saw that great bulk moving out of the corner of his eye. He ran from tree to tree, telling himself not to look in the eyes. He feared he would soon catch up with the rest of the snakes, if not the spiders, or if the bats did not swoop down on him from overhead.

He heard the crunching of leaves and bushes, but the basilisk did not appear to be in a big hurry. It felt like a nightmare, and the basilisk appeared to want him frightened to death before it ate him. James felt the fear intended to freeze him in panic, but his feet did not give him that choice. He kept moving and thought of the gift of the dryad. He figured the serpent would smell him out easily enough, and the glamour would not hide him. But then, he remembered that movie, and he surrendered.

James stopped running. He took on the glamour of a phoenix. Sadly, it was only a glamour and not real. He could not fly up and peck out the basilisk eyes. He got surprised when the basilisk stopped and appeared to hesitate. James figured he was dead, but then he heard a voice.

~~~*~~~

David felt the tentacle of the giant squid wrap around his middle. He screamed and hit the tentacle. He kicked and did everything in his power to break free. The naiad made it so he could breathe underwater. He knew he would not drown; but now the squid began to tighten its grip. David felt the air being squeezed out of him. When he saw the clacking maw of the creature, he felt absolute panic wash over him, but then something penetrated his mind and heart. It felt like something he rarely felt. It caused an interesting word to come out of his mouth.

“No.” Then he shouted what filled his heart. “Angel said, do not be afraid.”

David found himself standing again in the tower, facing the Heart of Time, breathing heavily, but safe from the monster. James, Chris, and Beth, all repeated, “Angel said, do not be afraid.” They all returned to the tower room if they ever left. Ashtoreth looked very surprised, angry, and unhappy.

They all heard the Thump! by the door. They all looked, and Ashtoreth’s eyes went wide with fear of her own. The Golden Door arrived, and the elders could move again. They stepped up beside the door as the door opened to reveal the purest light, a light impossible to look into, not from its brightness, but from its purity and holiness.

“No,” Ashtoreth shouted, as everyone heard the thunder. A knight covered in plate armor and riding a perfect white horse rode out of the door. Ashtoreth screamed. She grabbed the Heart of Time, pulled it from the three-pronged stand, and smashed it on the floor. She began to run, but since she had nowhere to go, the knight’s lance quickly touched her, and Ashtoreth and the knight vanished in a brilliant flash of light.

For one brief second, everyone stared at the crystal, shattered all over the floor.

“Get the pieces…” everyone shouted at the same time. The children scrambled and the elders rushed forward to grab piece after piece of the broken crystal. No one said, “God help us. History is going to end. Maybe the whole universe is going to end…” But they all thought similar things.

Beth gasped, as a piece she reached for vanished in front of her eyes. They all gathered as much of the crystal as they could, but then stood for a second, arms full of shards of the shattered heart, unsure what they could do with it. They looked at each other with blank stares, hoping someone could think of something.

Angel stepped out from the Golden Door. Angel rose both hands, like a moment of praise, and all the pieces everyone gathered vacated their arms and lifted into the air, up over their heads. Even the little bits and slivers that still covered the floor rose and joined the mass of pieces. The pieces of the heart began to spin, and the light covered it all. It stopped spinning all at once, and they saw the light of the heart throb once again, as the Heart of Time settled gently back into the three-pronged stand.

“It is missing some,” Inaros said, and they all saw the missing chunk of time. The Heart of Time throbbed like before, but the light did not appear as bright as it had been.

“But where is the rest of it?” Beth asked, and every eye turned to look at Angel, who stood patiently.

“One, two, and three times, and I will see you again,” Angel said. “This day is not over. The future can be restored.” Angel appeared to smile directly at all four children at the same time before he stepped into the light of the Golden Door, and the door closed and vanished.

Father appeared where the door had been, and while everyone smiled to see him, and Davey let out a little shout, he could only see the missing chunk of the heart. He fell to his knees as in prayer and began to weep. The people, old and young, went to him. They knelt with him, hugged him, and wept with him.

“The future,” he breathed. “Time is in jeopardy…” Their father faded and disappeared from their arms. The children tried to hold on, but it became like he was never really there.

Golden Door Chapter 23 The Tower

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The tower stood, a cathedral-sized building in the middle of the forest. Chris remembered his view of the inside that he saw on the white-wall screen behind the Golden Door. It did not seem cathedral sized on the inside, but then his eyes stayed focused on the Heart of Time and the demon goddess. Chris looked up and had another thought. Then again, the height of the tower may have made it appear not so wide, something like an optical illusion.

Deathwalker put his claw up on Chris’ shoulder as he spoke. “Though the sky is dark, even goblin eyes could not see the top of the tower.” Beth looked up. “Not even fairy eyes, even if the sun was out and it wasn’t raining.”

The group moved slowly along the outside wall of the tower, looking for the door. The bushes and brambles resisted them until the forest ended abruptly on the edge of a manicured lawn. They saw the spring of water that bubbled out of the ground in that place. Beth followed the stream that came from it, with her eyes, and imagined it eventually left the castle at some point to meander down the hill, where it became the small river that flowed into the sea. She remembered that river as one of the first things she saw when she and the boys came into Avalon.

“The poor naiad of the spring,” Mrs. Aster said, with a sad shake of her head. “The water is still running fresh and clean, but no one really knows what happened to her. Some fear the worst.”

“I am grateful for the river,” Beth responded. “I thought about jumping into it when the dragon attacked.”

“Avalon Castle University,” Inaros said, leaning on David’s shoulder and pointing with his walking stick. David looked at the buildings across the lawn, and the footbridge across the stream, which said there were paths through the grass, even if he could not see them in the rain. “Some of the best and brightest minds in Avalon teach and study there.”

“Some?” Chris asked, as he and Deathwalker stepped up.

“Well,” Inaros drew out the word. “Some of us are retired.”

“Here it is,” Mrs. Copperpot garnered everyone’s attention.

“The door,” James whispered, and it looked like a medieval wooden door, with black-painted, wrought-iron decor, hinges, and handle, though it otherwise looked like a regular, human-sized door.

“I assume it is locked,” Inaros said.

“No doubt,” Deathwalker agreed and rubbed his chin, deep in thought.

Mrs. Copperpot held up her cooking spoon. Mrs. Aster pulled out her wand and spoke. “I don’t know the combination.”

“I don’t either,” Mrs. Copperpot agreed.

“I am not sure regular magic would work in any case,” Inaros mused.

“Why are we going in there?” David asked the elf. “Isn’t that where the demon is?”

“We have to,” Chris said. He looked determined.

“We are all there is who can do it,” Inaros told David in as calming a voice as he could muster.

Deathwalker agreed. “As the Kairos said a million times, there isn’t anyone else.”

“Well, we must do something,” Mrs. Aster said, with a look at the sky, where it began to rain harder and harder.

“Before the ground beneath our feet starts to break apart,” Mrs. Copperpot agreed.

Beth agreed with that statement. “We must do something.”

“Maybe all four together?” Deathwalker suggested.

The elders began to argue about it while James reached for the handle. He opened the door, easily. “It’s unlocked,” he said.

Everyone stopped and stared at him for a second before the talking started again.

“Be careful. Quiet. Don’t make a sound. Hush. Shh!”

They stepped into the tower, and the door slammed shut behind them. They got surprised for a long second with the silence of the sanctuary before they heard the voice of pure evil.

“Welcome.”

Something struck the four elders, and they froze where they stood, like stone statues, unable to move a muscle. The children got lifted an inch from the floor and rushed forward against their will, while the voice continued.

“Children. How my husband used to love to eat the children.” The Ashtoreth demon cackled, a true witch’s laugh and the children got deposited at the four corners around her.

The Heart of Time throbbed in front of them, the light getting bright and dim, and bright again, reminiscent of a true heart beating. It rested securely in the three-pronged stool, or table, a crystal about twice the size of a basketball; both smaller, and in some sense bigger than they imagined.

Ashtoreth appeared not far from being a corpse, with her gray green, rotting, wrinkled skin, and black circles around her eyes, which gave her gaunt face a skull-like appearance. She had a few strands of hair left. They grew around the two-great bull-like horns that projected from her forehead. She moved by gliding in a circle around each child, examining them closely. Her sunken, bloodshot eyes showed only death. Her sharpened teeth clacked the whole way, and her mouth drooled, David thought about the idea of eating the children. Her claws with nails like daggers reached out but did not touch.

The children tried not to look. They held their breath, and none of them screamed, though they all wanted to.

 Ashtoreth stopped by the Heart of Time where the children of the Kairos let their eyes rest. It was the only other thing in the room they could focus on, besides the demon-witch. The demonized goddess appeared to smile and spoke about the heart like a child showing off her favorite toy.

“Trapped in this glow is the entire record of human history. Sadly, I have not yet found a way to disrupt that history and change it. But I will, if given enough time. My will be done.” The witch laughed again. “I hear your thoughts, but this tower and crystal were the first things made in this unnatural disruption in the natural chaos of these heavens. It will stand and continue long after the castle, the islands and all are destroyed and returned to the hell they should be.”

Ashtoreth walked once around the crystal, looking alternately at the crystal and the children, which caused the children to turn their eyes to their own feet and the mosaic floor beneath them. Ashtoreth laughed again, and clacked her teeth, seemingly in anticipation of something.

“I saw myself in here, when I escaped this place and walked again for a time on the earth. That happened a thousand years ago, but nothing there was to my liking. The gods abandoned you, but everything there became faith.” Ashtoreth expressed pure disgust. “It was unbearable. After a thousand years in hiding, I found my way back into this place, and I will change the history of all things to my liking. My will be done.” She repeated herself and stopped walking. She appeared to think. “But children, it is not enough to consume your flesh. We would have your souls. Fear is the key. You must be frightened to death.”

Ashtoreth waved her hand, and each of the children found themselves in a different place.

Golden Door Chapter 22 A Taste of Freedom, part 2 of 2

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Beth spied Mistletoe, crying, and she guessed the enchantment on her broke when she finally remembered to say the words, even though Mistletoe had not been there to hear the words spoken. Beth felt glad. She really wanted Mistletoe to be her friend, with Holly, of course, and the others who were all there comforting Mistletoe in her distress at having betrayed them.

Chris saw Heathfire and Broomwick sitting with an elf girl and thought about Silverstain. He hoped she was all right. David saw Floren sitting on a bench with a couple of older kids, and Owen and Alden sitting on the ground in a circle with some youngsters. James saw the youngsters, Picker, Poker and Grubby, and remembered they left Warthead outside to guard the gate to the courtyard. He hoped Warthead was all right, but then something definitely felt wrong. Picker, Poker and especially Grubby were quiet and behaving. Before he could voice his concern, they were all out the door and the door slammed shut behind them.

Several marines stood and pointed their rifles at the group. “You are under arrest,” the captain said. “You are surrounded, and my men have orders to shoot if you give any trouble.” He pointed out two machine guns set up on the perimeter where they pointed down on the courtyard. “Sit and keep quiet while we wait for the rest of your people.”

“Aren’t you supposed to read us our rights?” Chris couldn’t help himself. One soldier slapped his mouth.

“No telling what these men are seeing, or who they think we are,” Inaros said by way of caution, but he directed his voice, as elves can, so only the young people heard him.

Chris touched his bloody lip, but thought fast and grabbed Deathwalker, and dragged him to sit on a bench beside the wall. Mrs. Copperpot and Inaros followed the motion, so David and James went with them. Beth ran to give Mistletoe a hug, but that just made her cry harder.

“Captain,” one marine came up with his hand out. “I think it is starting to rain.”

The captain looked up at the dark sky. “I’m not surprised,” he said. “It’s been threatening since we got here.”

“Letting ordinary humans into the castle of Avalon is the last straw,” Deathwalker griped and shook his head.

“But how do we get away from them?” Mrs. Copperpot asked, and kindly did not add, “without the young people getting hurt.”

“I was thinking,” Chris spoke up. “Deathwalker and I could transition through the wall.”

“Not without a distraction,” Deathwalker said. “And that won’t help the others any.”

“You can do that?” David asked his brother, but Inaros spoke right away.

“David and I could run out before they could react, but not with the door closed.”

“We may be able to help with that,” Mrs. Copperpot said, and she turned to James. “Dear, how do you feel about deer?” James did not understand until she added, “I think a yearling with nice white spots.” James nodded, and one second, he was James, and the next a young deer stood in his place, and it tapped one front paw like it was anxious. Mrs. Copperpot quickly became a mother deer, and they seemed to come out from the bushes and stand by the door. Mrs. Copperpot even took her front hoof and scratched at the door, while James kept an eye on the marines.

“Hey, captain,” a marine noticed even as David practiced directing his voice to Beth.

“Beth. Come here right now. We need you to escape with us.” Beth looked across the courtyard and frowned at her brother, like she was not about to do what her twelve-year-old brother told her, and David should know better than to shout across the whole yard.

Inaros put some command in his directed voice. “Now!” and he made sure Mrs. Aster heard as well.

“Now,” Mrs. Aster insisted, and Beth reluctantly got up, still thinking it was her twelve-year-old brother being stupid. It had begun to drizzle, so Beth put her hands over her head against the rain and walked, slowly. Mrs. Aster chided her.

“Beth, your brothers are bright and have some good ideas. You have a terrible attitude. You should listen and pay attention to what is going on outside of your own mind. Like you should have listened to what the glorious one told you to say.” Beth felt properly scolded, but then the sky opened a little more and it began to rain.

“Marine,” the captain yelled just in time. The marine lowered his rifle. “We don’t shoot women and children,” the captain did some scolding of his own. “You two, get that gate open and let the deer out.”

As the marines opened the gate, the rain came harder. Shortly, there was a flash of lightning that lit up the courtyard and struck close. The thunder rolled across the courtyard.  People screamed and gave the appearance of panic as they stood up and ran around. Picker, Poker, Grubby, Owen and Alden were masters of wreaking havoc, but in this case, the fairies, especially Zinnia and Holly, gave them a contest. The marines were not concerned about their prisoners but determined to get them to settle down and be quiet. The captain began to look at the rooms at the back of the courtyard, under the colonnade walkway to see if they were suitable to hold the prisoners.

“Now,” someone said, though no one was sure exactly who.

Chris and Mister Walker leaned back and transitioned right through the courtyard wall. The two deer created a bit of a distraction of their own, hesitating on going out until a very small Inaros and David raced by and out the door. The deer followed. Mrs. Aster shot up to the top of the wall and became miffed that she had to shoot back down.

“Beth fly! Now, hurry!” Beth stared at the fairies in their distress. Even as her feet left the ground, it took another second for the words to penetrate. Then she glanced quickly at the marines and flew as fast as she could. One marine saw and took a shot, and fortunately missed as Beth topped the wall and raced out into the garden beyond, which proved more like a little forest. She did not get far, however, before Mrs. Aster really yelled at her.

“That is three times you have not been paying attention. You need to start paying attention to what is going on before you get everyone killed.” They reached the others, and the others heard. “Being a teenage girl is absolutely no excuse. You need to listen to your brothers and listen to your elders and keep up before you have everyone’s blood on your hands.” Mrs. Aster really steamed.

“I’m sorry,” Beth said to the fairy. “I’m sorry,” she told everyone else. “It’s just everything is so new and strange and different. It is not what I expected. I can’t keep up.” She began to cry, and Mrs. Aster looked to bite her tongue, like she wanted to say tears were no excuse and did not make anything better. But Chris stepped up to hug his sister.

“Okay. I’m stubborn and stupid,” he admitted the part he had not told his mother.

Then David was not about to miss out on a hug. And finally, James came up and tugged on Beth’s sleeve.

“We need to go,” James said.

“Young James is right,” Mrs. Copperpot agreed.

“Yes,” Inaros said, with a look to the sky, though all he could see was tree branches. “It is raining harder. We have temporary shelter under the trees, but it is beginning to come in torrents.”

“Well,” Deathwalker clapped his hands while Beth wiped her eyes. “We appear to have no choice. We must go to the tower.”

“We must do what we can,” Mrs. Aster agreed, reluctantly.

“Before the whole island reverts to the natural chaos of the second heavens,” Inaros said, and Mrs. Aster looked at him like she was not going to say that part.

They started to walk, and James spoke. “You mean we have to face—”

“Don’t say her name,” Mrs. Copperpot interrupted. “You say her name and she will hear us and know where we are and where we are going.”

James held his tongue, but David heard enough to worry.

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MONDAY

Beth, Chris, David, and James, together again, enter the tower where the Heart of Time is kept. They must confront Ashtoreth. Monday. Until then, Happy Reading.

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