Korah recognized the sound and ran toward the cry.  The sheep parted to let her through, and her future husband was right behind her.  The young boys in the field stood over their mother but did not know what to do.  She was crying over a dead sheep, and there was no comforting her.

            The dogs only killed one, but the woman’s herd was down to six.  Herds that once sported forty or fifty sheep were in a death spiral in that harsh and inhospitable environment. 

            “Godus, dear.”  Dallah turned again to her husband.  “Give her one of ours.  Make it a good one.”

            “But then we will have just six.” 

            “As she will.  Give it to Korah for her new family,” Dallah decided.  Godus raised an eyebrow.  That was not really playing fair.

            “Pardon, lady.”  Itchy stepped forward.  “Might Stonecrusher have the dead one?  That would certainly be a relief for everyone.”

            “No,” Dallah said.  “Roland, you take the dead sheep for tomorrow and the next day if necessary since you likely won’t find anything between here and the gate.  Stonecrusher.”  She waited until she had the ogre’s complete attention before she spoke.  “You can have the dogs.”

            “Mother!”  Reneus objected.  There was a lot of good meat on those animals that would sustain them for some time.  But Dallah was not finished speaking.

            “Take only the dead dogs and be content.  Share one with your impy cousins and go with them to Lord Varuna.  He may have new work for you.  You are released from your obligation to Dayus.”

            “Yes, Lady.  Thank you Lady.”  The ogre picked up the dogs one by one and carried all four back into the wilderness without any strain at all.

            “Strong sucker,” Captain Decker noted.

            “And you imps.”  They looked up at Dallah with big eyes.  She smiled.  “Skat,” she said.  “Shoo.”  They ran off, happy.

            Godus sidled up to his wife and spoke softly.  “Any more surprises?”

            “A few, but mostly you are looking at them.”  She took his hand introduced the travelers.  She remembered to say “Her name is Mary Riley but everyone calls her Boston.”  Then they all went to a wedding.

            Dallah cried.  Boston cried with her.  Alexis only got teary eyed so Lincoln cried for her.  Captain Decker said, “Women.”  Captain or not, Katie Harper slapped him in the arm.

            The third family in the camp was the family that performed the actual ceremony.  They were also witnesses to the union.  It was a lovely ceremony and surprisingly not unlike modern ceremonies in most parts.  But then there was the sacrifice of a sheep.  And several moderns looked away then the old man who performed the sacrifice soaked his hands in the sheep’s blood and sprinkled it liberally all over the couple.

            Boston kept her mouth shut be she thought “Ewww,” really loud.

            After the wedding, the couple had a place not far from the camp.  They had their own fire and sweets and got the prime portion of the sheep for their supper.  The families, meanwhile, settled in for a party of their own.  Korah’s new mother sat beside Dallah for a time, though it made Dallah uncomfortable.  Dallah only had one word of advice for the woman.

            “Korah has a big, sensitive heart full of love.  If you treat her gently and with kindness and encourage her in what she does she will love you forever.”  The woman responded in a way which should not have been too surprising given the events of the day.

            “Yes, Lady.  I will do that very thing.”

            By evening, Doctor Procter appeared to be much better.  He sat up and ate, but thought it best not to go join the celebration.  He claimed to be too tired. 

            Later, when the sun was set and most of the camp was asleep, Alexis stayed up a bit to watch the Doctor.  She was looking out beneath a nearly full moon when her eye caught something glisten in the moonlight.  She had no idea what it might be until she heard the sound of a horse snort a big gust of breath.  The knight came close to the camp, but it did not come into the camp.  Alexis stood.  Doctor Procter appeared to be asleep, but he began to shiver.  Alexis held her breath while the knight reared up, turned and galloped off into the dark.  She immediately woke her father and told him.

            “It was a knight of the lance.  I am sure.  It had to be.”

            Mingus shook his head.  “There haven’t been any knights of the lance around for centuries.”

            “No,” Alexis argued.  “I heard there was one a few years ago when Ashteroth came up into the castle of the Kairos and the Kairos got so sick.”

            Mingus nodded.  “I heard that, too, but there was never any proof.  It was just a rumor.”

            “But father –“

            “Go to bed and sleep.  We will be leaving in the morning.”

            Alexis looked down and nodded.  Maybe she had not seen it.  Maybe it was like a waking dream.  Maybe she was not sure.

            Later in the night, Doctor Procter woke as a lizard crawled across his belly.  His hand reached out and grabbed the creature.  It was a harmless little thing that the Doctor held and bent backwards until there was a snap!  It was not that Doctor Procter had a reason for doing that.  He felt the urge to kill and wanted the pleasure of watching the beast die.

            There were more tears in the morning as everyone said good-bye.  The witness family was the first to leave.  They took their sheep and headed off to the southeast.  Then it was time for Korah and her mother to be parted.  “Always respect your husband,” Dallah whispered between the hugs and tears.  “And he will love you without ceasing.”

            Korah nodded, and shortly they headed off into the north.  They said they were going to go as far as the mountains to escape the dead lands.  Dallah truly wished them well.

            Last of all the travelers headed into the west and Andor waved until they were out of sight.  After they were gone, he pointed his fingers at Mya and said, “Bang!  Bang!”  She just had to chase him.  They were staying where they were for the present.  They had the stream and some grass that was worth eating for their few sheep, but how long they might hold out was anyone’s guess. 

            Boston was the last to say anything under that blazing sun.  “Doesn’t the Kairos ever get born anywhere off the equator?  I mean, a little rain might be nice, at least.”  Naturally, as they stepped through the gate they found themselves in a torrent.

People have been talking to me lately about publishing.  People have been talking a lot.  Some have offered articles and insights.  Some ask, what all is involved?  Isn’t it hard?  I feel qualified at this point to catalogue how difficult it is these day to get anything in print, and I probably don’t know the half of it.

The shorthand of it all would be what one well heeled author told me.  These days, the odds of finding a good agent, connecting with a good house (publisher) and obtaining a good contract would take lottery level luck.  (And some wonder why so many have turned to e-publishing).

But then I thought:

How many NOs did King get before he got his first Yes!  Everyone knows Rowling sent  Harry Potter to Scholastic as a last gasp.  Legend says the only reason Twilight got in print is because an editorial assistant put it on the wrong pile.  And then there is my favorite story:

Young Mister Toole wrote A Confederacy of Dunces and got turned down by absolutely everyone.  He committed suicide (for complex reasons, I am sure).  Eleven years later, legend says his mother was instrumental in finally getting it published, and don’t you know?  It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

So, is it difficult?  (I respond with glib and sarcastic laughter).  But then I thought of another little story.

There once was a man who  was a better war correspondent than a soldier.  He served in the military for a time, but finally concluded that the only thing he might be really good for was public service (no comment).  He ran for office, got elected and served for a time.  The people threw him out in the 30s. He started to sound too harsh, almost war-like.  Then the war came and they begged him to come back and in the end he spit in Hitler’s eye.  He had something to say about that journey, and it rang a little bell in my publishing head when I read it.

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.   -Winston Churchill 

Is it difficult these days to get anything in print?  Absolutely.  It is nearly impossible.  But did you ever think the challenge of it is precisely what makes it so much fun?

            Dwizzle immediately jumped into the water and began to use his two hands like water shovels.  Poor Andor did not stand a chance.  Surprisingly, Mya was the first to come to his assistance.  Then Crusty joined in, but he splashed Dwizzle by accident.  So they splashed each other a few times, and that brought Itchy and Reneus into the fray.

            “Wait!”  Dallah shouted.  Everyone stopped and looked in her direction.  “Have your fun as long as no one gets hurt, but leave me out of it.”  She spoke sternly, and at least Crusty gave a little bow.  Dwizzle just opened his jaw and Andor took advantage by splashing Dwizzle in the face to make him swallow some water.

            Then it was a free-for-all, and the water went everywhere.  It was inevitable when Itchy and Crusty teamed up to make a big four-handed wave aimed at Reneus, and Reneus ducked.  Dallah got soaked, and again everyone stopped.

            “I would say that is enough,” she said.  “Imps, come here.”  Dwizzle and Crusty came right away, but she had to sternly add, “You too Itchy.”  The imp came whether he wanted to or not.

            “Now, who are you working for?” 

            Crusty took off his hat which no one realized he was wearing, and so Dwizzle followed that example.  Itchy chose to be stubborn, and he was the one who answered.

            “Dayus, the King of the gods himself.”

            “Oh?  He got sober enough to give you instructions.”  The imps, even Itchy grinned at that, but Reneus and Mya reacted at her near blasphemy.

            “Mother!”

            “Please!”  Dallah sighed.  “It is a wonder he gets up in the morning and can follow a straight line across the sky.”

            “Automatic pilot,” Itchy whispered with a grin.

            Dallah nodded.  “Now what is your job?”

            “To dry the land and make it sand,” Crusty recited.  Dwizzle nodded.  Itchy had a thought.

            “What’s it to you?”

            “I think you have done enough of that.  The die is cast, as they say.  There is no stopping it now.”  She paused to examine the three imp faces one at a time before she spoke again.  “I release you from your duty to Dayus.  I think you should go see Lord Varuna.  He may have work for you.”

            “Wait a minute.  Who are you –?”

            “Mother,” Reneus interrupted.  The travelers were on the horizon.

            “Quick, now’s our chance.”  Itchy pulled the other imps to the side and they melted back into the landscape and made for the party.

            “Lockhart!  Boston!”  Dallah groaned to her feet and waved.

            “Mother?”  Mya spoke.

            “These are the ones I told you might come one day.”

            “I had forgotten.”  Reneus said as the travelers came to the water.  Dallah had to hug Boston and Alexis.

            “It is so good to see you.  I am so glad you are here.”

            “Where can we set down Doctor Procter?”  Lockhart asked.  He looked exhausted.  He and Mingus were taking a turn and the elder elf in particular looked unable to go much further.

            “Of course,”  Dallah stepped close to the half-breed but knew better than to touch him.  “How long has he been like this?”  She asked.

            “This is the second day,” Captain Decker said.  He shouldered his rifle and took Mingus’ place.

            “Well, come.  We must get him to the camp.”

            “Mother.”  Andor got her attention.  “Your imps went ahead of us.”

            “Oh dear.”  She hurried and everyone hurried to follow.  Fortunately, the imps were just arriving since they stopped first for an argument.

            “We are free now,” Crusty said.

            “We’re supposed to go see Lord Varuna,” Dwizzle said.

            “Wait a minute!”  Itchy was buying none of it.  “Since when does a thicky bean tell us what to do, especially when our orders come from the King of the gods himself?”

            “But I feel free,”  Crusty said.  “I don’t feel like doing the work of Dayus any more.”

            Dwizzle nodded, but Itchy responded.  “That don’t mean anything.  Crusty, you don’t ever feel like doing any work.”  Dwizzle laughed.

            “I’m thinking we could ask Lord Varuna when we find him.  He always tells the truth.”  Itchy hit him.  “Ooowww.”

            “You don’t do the thinking, you’ll only hurt yourself worse than before.”  Dwizzle put his hand back in his mouth and pouted.

            “I think that is a good idea,” Crusty said.  Itchy stomped on his foot.  “Ooowww.”

            “Right now we got to find Stonecrusher some meat before we become meat.”  They could agree on that.  With their glamours on, they came right up to the edge of the camp.  It was not much to speak of, the huts being barely more than lean-tos with skins on the open side.  They were snuggled between some stick trees, and there were only five of them altogether.  There could not have been more than twenty people in that camp and barely more than twenty sheep altogether.

            The sheep were all presently in a pen where Dallah’s husband, Godus and two men were separating the sacrifice from the others.  When they were done, the groom had two younger brothers who drove the rest to the stream.

            “Not much selection,” Crusty said.  The sheep were all scrawny, stunted and underfed.

            “Yeah, but it will do,” Itchy responded.

            “Hey, look.  Sweets”  Dwizzle pointed to a table by the alter.  It was full of dried fruits and cooked roots and tubers of various kinds.

            “Oh, boy!”  Crusty shouted, and before Itchy could stop them, they were on the table, they had let their glamours drop and people were screaming, some running away and some not sure what to do.

            “Hold it right there!”  Dallah shouted between breaths.  The imps froze in place because Dallah had that in mind.  “This is my daughter’s wedding and you will not mess it up.”  She yelled a little, but mostly walked more slowly to the table so she could regain her breath.  When she arrived to stare at the imps, she pushed an escaped gray hair back toward the bun on her head before she spoke.  “Your hands, empty.”  Dwizzle and Crusty put out their hands and she slapped them.  The imps made no sound, but both squinted from the sharp, if temporary pain.  “Itchy.”

            The imp had his hands behind his back.  “No.”  He shook his head for emphasis.

            “You should have been named stubborn,” Dallah said.  “Your hand.”  She did not ask and Itchy whipped out his hands, empty despite what his mind was telling him and despite his better judgment.  She slapped them both, and Itchy had a hard time putting both in his mouth at once.

            “Hey!  How do you know our names?”  Crusty was the one who asked, like the truth of that suddenly caught up to him.

            “I know all about you,” Dallah said.  “More than I would like to know.  Now get off the table and behave, I have to see to my daughter.”  Korah was already running into her mother’s arms.  She cried, but Dallah smoothed her hair and said, “Hush, everything will be alright.”

            “Mother.”  Andor tried to get her attention as Godus came up from the sheep pen. 

            “Who are you?”  Itchy finally removed his hands to ask, and then decided to take turns soaking one hand at a time.

            “She is your goddess,” Boston said.  “Or she will be one day.”

            “What?  Don’t we have enough gods and goddesses already?”

            “No, no.”  Alexis spoke to clarify.  “She will not be another goddess of humans that you have to work for.  She will be your goddess.  Goddess of all the little spirits of the earth.”

            “There is no such thing.”  Itchy understood.

            “There will be,” Alexis responded with a smile toward her brother who was frowning.  The law said they were not supposed to reveal the future like that.

            “Mother.”  Andor tried again.  Reneus, Lockhart and some of the others looked where Andor was looking, but hardly knew what to say.

            “But she is old and will die soon,” Crusty protested.

            “But she will be reborn,” Mingus stepped up.  “And sometimes she will be a god and sometimes a goddess for us all.”  He turned to Itchy.  “Whether we like it or not.”

            “Mother.”

            “But lady,”  Dwizzle tugged on Dallah’s dress and pointed  “Stonecrusher is hungry.

            The ogre was coming down the path from the stream.  He was hard to look at because he was so ugly.  But it was not simply a disgusting ugly.  He looked mean and mad and hungry and now the people had something they could really scream about. 

            “I’m gonna eat me some people,” Stonecrusher said.

            Dwizzle, the Imp closest to the travelers stood.  “Look, females.”  He reached out a hand that was too big for the little body that supported it.

            “Careful, Dwizzle,” Itchy spoke from beside the rock.  “It may have prrrrikles.”

            The hand paused and Alexis pointed her wand.  There was an electrical discharge that struck the hand and Dwizzle snatched his hand back and slipped it into his mouth, a mouth that was too big for its face.  Indeed, the nose, eyes and ears were all oversized.

            “She’s a blinking witch,” Crusty said as he waddled over to the rock to stand beside Itchy.

            “I think you may have cooties,” Lockhart told Boston who grinned at the idea.

            Somewhere in the back of his mind, Lincoln remembered that the imps belonged to the Kairos, even if the Kairos was not yet official.  That helped him relax and ask his question.  “What are you imps doing out in this forsaken wilderness?”

            Itchy looked at the man like he was daft.  Crusty spoke.  “We got our job, don’t we?  Dry the land and make it sand.”

            “Yeah, but we’ve been working too hard,” Itchy complained.  “We heard there was a party around here.”

            “Hey look!”  Dwizzle removed his hand from his mouth as he spoke.  “This female has bumps.”  He reached for Boston’s chest and she did not hesitate to slap the imp across the cheek, hard.

            Dwizzle paused.  His eyes got bigger than big.  He let out a drawn out sound.   “Ooowww,” and put his good hand to his cheek while his other hand went back into his mouth.

            “You better go stand behind your friends before you hurt yourself,” Lincoln suggested.  Dwizzle did that while Itchy spoke.

            “Surprising sense from one so thick.”

            Mingus interrupted any response with his explanation.  “He means thick like more body, less spirit.  He doesn’t mean stupid.”

            “I mean what I mean,” Itchy said with a stern look at the elder elf, but then Dwizzle had a thought.

            “Stonecrusher is hungry, you know.  He eats human beans.”

            “Is Stonecrusher a troll?”  Boston had to ask.

            “Nah!”  Crusty answered.  “He’s just an ogre with a bad temper.  Ooowww.”  Itchy hit Crusty in the arm.

            “He is a great, big ugly giant,” Itchy said.  “Terrible and mean and, and hungry for human meat.”

            Dwizzle removed his hand for a moment.  “Yeah, we thought we would snitch some food from the party.”

            “Better than him eatin’ us,” Crusty mumbled and put his fists up in case Itchy had in mind to hit him again.

            “When the ogre is fed you are safe in your bed,” Boston said.

            “I remember.”  Lockhart patted her on the shoulder.

            “That’s very good,” Alexis complimented Boston.  “Where did you hear that?”

            “Missus Pumpkin,” Boston answered.

            “Ahem!”  Lincoln coughed and pointed to the imps.

            Itchy smiled too big a smile for his face.  “Anyway, all you got is elf bread stuff.”  The imps made faces of disgust.  “How can anyone stomach elf food?”

            Everyone paused while the sound of howling and dogs fighting echoed across the barren land.  Doctor Procter chose that moment to sit up and yell.  The words were nonsense, but then he fell back to his makeshift pillow and grew quiet again.

            “You got a sicky.”  Crusty pointed.

            “What’s a sicky?”  Dwizzle asked.

            “That there.”

            “You’ve never been sick.  You don’t know what sick is.” Itchy mocked.

            “Do so.  I saw a thicky get sicky before.”

            “Hey!”  Lockhart got their attention again and the imps paused in their own argument to look up at the man.  Lockhart smiled, but not as broadly as Itchy had smiled.  Itchy shook a finger at the man.

            “We gotta watch this one,” he said.  “But right now we gotta go find that party.”

            “Right,” Crusty agreed.

            “Better than us getting eaten by Stonecrusher,” Dwizzle added.

            Roland was behind them with his bow ready.  Captain Decker had his rifle to one side and they were hemmed in on the other side by the big rock.  The rest of the travelers were in front of them so they appeared surrounded, but they moved with surprising speed  and slipped around both sides of the Captain knowing better than to test the elf.  Captain Decker might have plugged one, but Lockhart spoke quickly.

            “Hold your fire.”  In a few short seconds, the imps blended back into the landscape and became impossible to see but for the motion of the dust and sand they kicked up. 

            “A glamour,” Mingus described it.  “Not true invisibility.”  Everyone else just nodded.

###

            Andor got into the water and the first thing Dallah did was judge the depth.  It barely came to her son’s knees which meant it had dried up another two inches or more.  Reneus knelt down to fill the water skin.  Mya stared at Andor before she made the boy strip down to nothing.  Andor did not mind playing in the water.  It was hot out, and even the shade of the few lively trees that bordered the stream did not help all that much.

            Dallah sat slowly in what shade there was.  Her joints ached.  “You better do a good job, Andor, or you will have to take a real bath and get scrubbed.”

            “Aw, mother.”  Andor glanced at Mya.

            “Now, come.  Your sister is getting married.  Do it for her.”

            Andor did not mind that so much.  He liked his sister, so he began by dumping a double handful of water on his head. 

            Mya grinned at some impish thought, dropped her dress so she was in her under things.  She stepped into the water with a word that perhaps Andor needed help, and she splashed him.  Of course he splashed her back, and they went at it for a few turns before they turned, without a word, and splashed Reneus.  He immediately dropped his wet clothes and put his hand to the water.  He turned to look at his mother but she spoke first.

            “Don’t you dare.” 

            He did not dare, but he had fun with the others while Dallah watched the visitors come in close.  She would rather not deal with them at the moment, but nothing in this lifetime went the way she wanted.  She watched as the imps came out from beneath their glamour and she put her hand to her ears when Mya screamed and grabbed hold of Reneus.

After 4364 BC on the Plains of Thera.  Kairos:  Dallah

Recording…

            “Another one.” Alexis pointed.  Lieutenant Harper trained her rifle in the general direction, but it was hard to pinpoint since whatever it was kept going invisible.  They were the color of the sand, the main part of the landscape.  The rest of the scenery was not much to look at.  The trees, what there were of them, were just sticks, short,  stunted and dry like they baked in the oven too long.  The clumps of grass that stubbornly refused to give up looked burnt yellow and brown.  The sun was relentless.

            A dog howled in the distance, but Alexis shook her head.  “They aren’t dogs,” she said.  “What we are seeing.”

            “A mirage in this heat?”  Lincoln wiped the sweat from her brow.  The sun itself appeared to be sweating from its own heat.

            “Not a mirage,” Lockhart answered.  “With mirages you see things.  All we are seeing is occasional movement and glimpses of figures that vanish in the heat.”

            “And not enough of glimpses to make out shape and size,” Roland added.

            Lockhart and Captain Decker set down the stretcher.  Doctor Procter kept mumbling that he would be alright, but Alexis was not so sure.  Lincoln was going to take a turn, and Roland, though it would be his second turn.  Mingus said he would be there to help if needed.

            Poor Doctor Procter was delirious most of the time.  The only time he came awake was when someone reached for him.  Then his words were clear and sharp.  “Don’t touch me.”  And they were spoken with such vehemence, no one dared disobey.

            “At least it is not the Bokarus,”  Boston pointed out.  “There is only one of them.”

            “This is no terrain for a Bokarus,” Mingus assured them.

            “Or ghouls,” Alexis said.  “If they sent out a second group after the first stopped reporting, they would not be nearly this far along yet.”

            “Whatever it is, it is a wild one.”  Roland suggested as he sipped some water.  Lockhart was already watching their water supply, carefully.  There was no telling how long it might be in that environment before they found more water.  Captain Decker also seemed to have gotten the idea, but neither said a word, yet.

            “Wild ones, I think.”  Mingus responded.  He gave them the impression that he was seeing a bit more than the others, but he did not let on yet about what it was he was seeing or thinking.

            Alexis bent down toward Doctor Procter.  The man sat straight up.  “Don’t!”  Alexis paused.

            “It is just some water.” 

            Doctor Procter reached for the cup, careful not to touch the woman.  He drank greedily and when he handed the empty cup back so she could take it by the handle, he added a word.  “Don’t let anyone else drink from that cup.”  His words were stern as he began to shake his head.  He closed his eyes, fell back and mumbled “no, no, no.”

### 

            Dallah walked out from the camp.  She needed some alone time.  Her daughter, Korah was to be married in the afternoon and in her world, the mother-in-law made all the arrangements, not the mother.  She supposed that was only right since Korah would go and live with her husband and his family.  To be sure, she had a wonderful time when Mya married her son, Reneus.  Still, she had to think about it.

            Dallah had too many cultures in her head.  Maybe it was best if she did not think about it at all, but lately she could not seem to help it.  She was forty-three or forty-four years old.  She was not sure, but at her age and given her life circumstances, there was little for her to do but sit and think. 

            Godus, her husband was away for days at a time.  He always came home with food for the fire, but the absences were hard.  Her nine-year-old, Andor, the love of her age kept the sheep, what was left of them.  Her son, Reneus stubbornly tried to bring grain out of the soil.  Mya had taken over most of the cooking and cleaning duties for the family, and Dallah had no complaints, but it gave her too much time to think and worry.

            Somehow, she made an enemy of the sun god, Dayus when she was a child.  It was not anything she said or did, Dayus simply did not want her to be born in his world.  His advisors warned against killing her outright as a child, but that did not stop him from ruining the world around her and thus killing her slowly.  They moved and migrated and moved again to greener pastures only to find those pastures dry up under the incessant sun.  The people swore the rains would come again.  They can’t stay away forever.  But Dallah knew it was more complicated than that.

            She had no doubt Korah would move away with her new family once the marriage was consummated.  Dallah would cry, but pray for her.  Korah would do well away from Dallah and the ruination that surrounded her life.  She might even be happy.

            Dallah looked up at the sun and squinted.  “Is it enough?” she asked.  “Are you satisfied?”  She knew the god was not yet satisfied.  After all, she was still alive.

            “Mother!”  Reneus called.  He followed her out into the wilderness.  She had an empty water skin with her, but she was in no hurry to get to the stream.  “Mother.  You don’t need to be wandering out here alone.”

            “Well, there does not seem much for me to do back in the camp,” Dallah said.  “I thought I could fetch some water at least and make myself useful, somehow.”

            Reneus took the water skin from her hands.  “No need for that,” he said.  “Father is looking for you.”

            “Is he?”  Dallah looked back once, but all she saw was Mya chasing after Andor.

            “Mama!”  Andor ran up to her.  “Help me!  Help!  Mya is going to make me take a bath.”

            Mya arrived with a stern look on her face directed at the boy hiding behind Dallah’s dress.

            “There is time for that,” Dallah assured her daughter-in-law.  “Reneus and I were headed to the stream.  Maybe Andor would like to splash in the water while we are there.”  She winked at Mya, who understood what Dallah was suggesting but had a strong-willed streak that did not like to be disobeyed by a certain nine-year-old boy.  Andor knew the dynamics well.  He stuck his tongue out at Mya before he took his mother’s hand.

            “Why you.”

            Dallah put her hand up to stop them both.  “I really came out here to be alone for a while.  I don’t mind you coming along, but please keep your thoughts to yourselves.  And that goes for you, too.”  She poked Reneus in the chest.  He backed up in innocence to say, “Me?”  But he did not actually say anything out loud.

###

            Boston stepped back.  There was something ahead, just around the edge of the rock. “Did you see that?”  She turned her head and asked.  Captain Decker was already moving out into the brush to get an angle on it.  Roland was making his way quietly around the far side of the rock.  Lieutenant Harper had her rifle ready and Alexis had her wand in her hand.  Lincoln and Lockhart had already put Doctor Procter on the ground.  Mingus was the one who responded.

            “Yes,” he said and raised his voice.  “And they better all come out of hiding if they know what is good for them!”

            A face popped up from the ground, not far from Boston’s feet.  She might have stepped on it, but instead she jumped back though it hurt her muscles to move like that.  He had not been invisible, but perfectly colored to blend in with the desert floor, and he spoke with a sandy rasp in his voice.

            “Look, Itchy, it’s human beans.”

            A second came from behind the rock. “Yeah, Dwizzle, and they got elves.  ‘bout the worst case I’ve ever seen.  What do you think, Crusty?”

            A third stepped from behind a skinny tree.  No one saw him there but could not imagine why.  He was much fatter than the tree.  He clicked his tongue a couple of times before he spoke.  “Domesticated elves no less.”  He clicked his tongue some more. 

            “Imps.”  Mingus identified the creatures with some disgust in his voice.

            It was high noon when they all stopped to eat and rest.  Alexis and Boston needed the rest.  Doctor Procter said he was better, but he did not look too well, and he kept his distance with the excuse that he did not want them to catch whatever he had.  Lockhart stayed beside Boston the whole time.  Her bones were completely restored, but her muscles were sore.  She would need some recovery time.  Alexis stayed beside Lincoln and hooked her arm through his but said nothing.  She just smiled.  Mingus watched them and frowned.  Roland had his eyes on Lockhart and Boston who were laughing and having a good time.

            “Wonders,” Coramel said.  “This cooking, this bread, things flying through the sky, serpent people and stick people.  The things I have seen.”

            “The things you felt.”  Saphira spoke in a voice of great concern.  She sat down beside the hunter and pressed her hip to his.  She took both of his once frostbitten hands in hers and drew them to her chest.  She was in leather armor, but it was the thought that counted.  “Are you feeling warm now?” 

            Coramel slowly grinned.  How should he answer that question?

            “You have no idea how grateful I am for your help.”

            “I’m glad,” Coramel said as he took back his hands.  His toes were still itching their way back to life.

            “So boys.”  Saphira turned on them.  “How old are you, anyway?”

            “Twenty-one summers,” one answered brightly.  The other sounded glum.

            “Just eighteen.”

            Saphira thought for a minute before she decided.  “This could work.”  Everyone knew what she was thinking, but they all had the good sense not to say anything.

            “Lieutenant.”  Captain Decker pulled her aside to where they could speak in private.  “Are you getting all this?”

            “The recorder is working.  My pin camera is working.  I am sure it will all be there when we get back.”

            Captain Decker gritted his teeth.  “Any ideas how we can transmit the data we have already collected?  There has to be some way out of this zoo.”

            Lieutenant Harper just shook her head.  His mind simply would not accept the truth.  “I’ll keep working on it,” she promised.  “Meanwhile, relax.  We just saved the human race.”

            “Just this time zone full of flakes,” he said.

            “Yes sir,”  Lieutenant Harper agreed and quickly stepped back to the others.  She was not sure where she fit in with this group of travelers, misfits, explorers, adventurers and miracle workers, but she knew the marines were not it.  She would never be the same, even if Captain Decker never changed.

            Alexis looked again at the stick people.  She saw such innocence and goodness in them.  There was not one of them that had a hidden agenda.  She was not sure if they knew how to lie.  She wanted to be reconciled to them, to say we humans are not so bad.  She wanted to wish them luck and say good-bye to the children, only she could not imagine a way to do that.  They were withdrawn from the travelers and Alexis could not blame them.

            Alexis was staring when the woman appeared.  She had to be seven or eight feet tall and she stood between her and the stick people to block her vision.  It was Tiamut, the goddess, and she did not look happy.

            “You!”  She pointed at the humans in the camp.  Everyone stood and grabbed their weapons, not that they would have been effective against the goddess.  “I could have made good use of those creatures, but you destroyed them all like you destroyed my servants.”  She pointed her finger at Saphira but took them all in her gaze.

            Tiamut paused.  They watched her facial expression turn from anger to clever, and that was worse.  “Come,” she said.  Mingus, Roland, Doctor Procter and Alexis disappeared and reappeared a few feet from the goddess.  Alexis was right in front of her, looking up into that terrible face and she felt the shiver travel all the way down her spine to her soul.

            Tiamut walked once around Alexis to examine her like a person might examine a prize animal.  The others either could not move or did not dare.  “You did not begin as a human.  How is it you came into this state?”

            Alexis was compelled to answer.  “My god changed me so I could be with my husband.”

            Tiamut glanced briefly at Doctor Procter.  “Better than making more half-breeds,” she said.  “But I have a job for you spirits of the trees.  I would have you back.”  She waved her hand and Alexis transformed back into the elf she was born to be. 

            “No.”  Saphira heard the word escape her lips and felt something surge out from her deepest insides.  It was a force linked to the very forces by which all things were made.  Alexis immediately changed back to a human woman and Tiamut’s anger returned.

            “How did you do that?”  She yelled.  She was not really asking.  She waved her hand again, but Alexis stubbornly refused to become an elf.  “How are you doing that?”  Tiamut’s words became mingled with astonishment.

            The goddess Astarte chose that moment to appear at Saphira’s back.  She was also tall, more than tall enough to look over Saphira’s head.  She place both of her hands on Saphira’s shoulders in a sign of reassurance.  Two young men also appeared with Astarte, one on each side.  They were twins though the one to Astarte’s left looked like he might need glasses.

            Tiamut paused.  Her face became so distorted it was hard to make out her facial features.  Her mouth opened wide and the travelers saw pin pricks of light in that deep darkness like people might see stars in the night sky.  A roar of frustration came from that maw, loud enough to make everyone throw their hands to their ears.  With a wave of Tiamut’s hand, the ship behind her, all of the stick people and their children turned instantly to dust.  And Tiamut disappeared.

            Astarte leaned forward and whispered in Saphira’s ear.  “I’m sorry.”  Then she and the twins vanished.  Everyone could breathe again, but Alexis was the first to go to tears. 

            It took some time before they were ready to go.  Saphira, Coramel and his sons stayed to help clean up, and Coramel had the lone comment that whole time.

            “It is like they never were.”

            At last, Saphira turned to Doctor Procter.  “What is your direction?”

            Doctor Procter’s hands were shaking and he kept shaking his head now and then like a man trying to throw off the rain, but he managed to get out the amulet and point.  Saphira nodded.  She was going the other direction.

            “I’m sorry you won’t get a chance to see the future Sodom,” she said.  “We are headed in the other direction.”

            “Eh?”  Lockhart wanted to know what she was thinking.

            “We have to check the crash site to be sure there were no survivors.”

            “I can’t imagine anything survived that crash,” Captain Decker offered, and Saphira nodded.

            “Still –“ She started to speak but Boston interrupted.

            Boston had gotten to her feet and was staring at the big pile of dust that the wind had not yet taken.  “All that work for nothing,” she said.

            “Not for nothing,” Lockhart assured her.

            “Besides, you work for me, remember?”  Saphira said.

            “Yes, lady.”  Boston turned and practiced the curtsey the way she had seen Mirowen the elf do it in her overalls.  Boston knew she was not as graceful, but Roland at least smiled for her.  It would be a while yet before anyone else could smile.

            “So, that’s it?”  Katie Harper looked to Lockhart who caught her eyes and nodded.  Saphira was already moving off into the tall grass, flanked by her men.  Katie yelled.  “So who was that woman?”

            Saphira turned to walk backwards and shouted.  “Astarte.”

            “And the young twins?”

            “Enlil and Enki.  Enki needs glasses.”  Saphira smiled before she added a last thought.  “At least I should sleep well tonight.”  Then Saphira and her three men were swallowed up by the grasslands.

            Captain Decker, Roland and the boys were surprised when the Balok rose up in front of them.  The boys got excited and rushed forward to throw their spears.  The Balok easily avoided the stone tips and pulled out a hand and a weapon.  To be sure, the hand was more like seven skinny tentacles than a human hand, and the weapon looked like a small disc but Captain Decker and Roland both saw it.

            Roland had his bow out, but he could not get off a shot because of the boys.  The Balok clearly recognized the bow as a danger and shot Roland first.  Roland froze in place even as Decker yelled.

            “Boys!  Lie down on the ground.  Now!”

            One went straight to the dirt.  The other knelt and bent down, but looked at the Captain with questions on his face.  It was enough.  Captain Dekcer peeled off three bullets before the Balok shot him and he fell.  It is likely the Balok would have died shortly.  It may have already been dead, but to be sure, Roland shook himself free of his frozen state.  He pulled his sword and beheaded the serpent before he turned to see to Decker.

###

            Lockhart stepped over to where Boston lay on the ground.  She was sitting up, breathing better, but Saphira thought her ribs were cracked if a couple were not broken.

            “Coramel is fine, but frozen,” Lincoln reported.  “His fingers and toes look frostbitten.”

            “Frozen?”  Lieutenant Harper asked.

            “Think like a reptile,” Saphira answered.  “A heat ray would not be as effective.”

            “Lincoln.  We need a stretcher,” Lockhart shouted.

            “Coramel will be fine in a moment,” Lincoln said.  “Oh, you mean –“  He patted a groaning, shivering Coramel on the shoulder and got up to search a small stand of nearby trees.

            Saphira headed straight for the Balok ship, Katie Harper on her heels.

            “Don’t wander off,” Lockhart shouted.  Saphira waved, but they ended up closer to the ship than she imagined they would.  It was too much to ask her not to take a look.  When they arrived at the door to the ship, they heard three shots fired not too far away.

            “Decker,” Katie said.

            “Let’s hope that’s it,” Saphira responded while she examined the outside of the door.  It took three hands with pinky fingers and three little sticks to press on the six holes that would have fit a Balok hand very well.  The door opened and they could look in if they held their breath.  The whole thing smelled like rotten cabbage and decayed meat.  Saphira did not have to look for more than a moment before she let out a stream of invectives for the third time.  She spun and ran, Katie beside her.

            “What?”

            “Three,” Saphira said.

###

            Alexis spent her time cleaning up the camp and getting things ready to move out.  She confessed to herself that being twenty-five again did not necessarily change things.  She might be Boston’s age, but she was not wild and free like that girl.  She had been a mom too long, and now she was a grandmother.  That was what she liked, and she was good at it, and maybe there was nothing wrong with that.  At the same time, though, maybe she did need to let Benjamin get adjusted.  She smiled.  Poor little Billy, her grandson.  He would always be older than his uncle, or maybe his aunt.  She had two boys.  She decided this time she wanted a girl.

            “Daughter.”  Alexis was startled.

            “Father?  How is Doctor Procter?”

            “Shivering from fever,” Mingus said.  “But he won’t let me so much as touch him.  He growls at me every time I try.”

            “Growls?”

            “He is an old man, far older than his human half should be.  Old men growl, haven’t you noticed.”

            Alexis looked up into her father’s face.  She was serious at first but quickly smiled.  She reached for his hand.  “You don’t growl, you just get grumpy now and then.”

            Mingus returned her smile.  “I am sorry about the stick people.”

            Alexis shifted her gaze to where the stick people were gathering, still repairing their ship, and keeping their distance from the mad humans.  “They would rather die than take life,” she said.  “What can the human race offer to compare with that?”

            Mingus took back his hand and began to take down a tent.  “The Kairos was wise all these millennia to keep us from interacting with the human race.  Look at me.  I have studied human history for centuries and have been corrupted.  I sometimes think I must be more human now than elf.”

            Alexis said nothing.  She screamed.  The Balok rose up from the grass only a dozen yards away.  It splayed both hands and each held an instrument of some kind.  The first was a freeze ray it shot at Mingus, but Mingus easily shrugged it off because of the fires inside of him.  He shot back with a ball of flame, and while the Balok backed away from the actual fire, the heat and warmth of the flames appeared to strengthen it.

            Alexis had her wand by then and barely responded in time before the Balok tried the other weapon.  Alexis put up a magical shield and while it deflected the heat ray, the ray was powerful enough to knock her back on her rump.  She screamed again while Mingus searched frantically for a weapon that might be effective.  He found a big stone.

            The Balok pulled in its legs and began to slither forward.  It was fast, but Doctor Procter was faster.  He had his wand out and managed a magical freeze ray of his own.  The Balok shrieked in pain and fell to the ground where it began to whip about.  Mingus struggled, mumbled something about the beast keeping still, but finally managed to bring his rock down on the Balok head.  It was a glancing blow at first, but the second and third strikes were more accurate.  The Balok head became mush from blow after blow as Mingus pounded it into the dirt.  Alexis looked away.

            It was only moments later when Saphira and Katie ran up.  The marine went immediately to make sure the Balok was dead while Saphira put her hands on her knees and caught her breath.

            “I’m older than I look,” Saphira said.

            Alexis looked.  Alexis was twenty-five or so and Katie Harper could not have been older.  Saphira was what?  Maybe thirty?

            “In my day, thirty is old.  I should be fat with a dozen kids to do the running for me.”

            “Do you have any children?”  Alexis asked.

            Saphira nodded, but said nothing as they saw Captain Decker in the distance.  He was leaning on Coramel’s sons, and Roland was walking quietly beside him.  He had some frostbite, but nothing serious.  Lincoln, Lockhart and Croamel came last, carrying Boston on a stretcher made from two tree branches and fairy weave.  Boston was complaining and giggling.

            “Ouch.  Stop wiggling.  Lockhart, I’m supposed to be pushing you around in a wheelchair, you old man.  Ouch, it hurts when I laugh.  This is embarrassing.”

            Alexis went immediately to her, and they put her down on the edge of the camp where Alexis could spend considerable time healing and knitting Boston’s bones.

            Saphira connected the last wire as the Balok ship moved.  It dropped down in the sky, but not far, and began to disgorge small ships, probably fighters from an open bay.  Saphira spoke when the first was launched.

            “Set the radar on the mother ship.  The pulse is tied to the radar.”

            Katie knew that, but this reminded her not to be distracted by the fighters.

            When the second fighter was successfully launched, Saphira spoke again.  “Ready.  Boston?”  She had to shout, but Boston answered.

            “Almost.  Just a minute.”

            A third fighter got launched and away before Saphira said, “Go.”  To be sure, her fingers were crossed in one hand while she threw the switch with the other.  Theoretically, the microwave pulse should burn out every electrical system on the Balok ship, provided they used electrical systems and provided the Balok screens were not strong enough to ward off Saphira’s strike.  Even Martok could ultimately only use what was available to him.

            The pulse went out, and there was a second where nothing seemed to happen.  Saphira had to take her finger off her switch lest she burn out the Stick systems.  The Balok ship began to wobble.  By the time Saphira joined Katie at the radar scope, the Balok ship was plummeting to the ground.  It fell like a stone and exploded on impact.  It was not an atomic explosion as Saphira feared it might be, but it was big enough to assume there were no survivors.

            “Boston?”  That left the three fighters.

            “Ready!”  The word echoed in the stick ship.

            “Zero in on a fighter,” Saphira said, but Katie was already doing that. 

            “Now.”  Katie spoke into her wrist communicator, and Boston sent out a plasma pulse.  The Balok fighter disintegrated in a crimson ball of fire.  Immediately, the two remaining Balok fighters began to move around to avoid being targeted, but Katie and Boston got a second one before the last dipped below the radar.

            Saphira grabbed Katie’s hand and spoke into the wrist communicator.  “Lockhart.  One fighter landed.  Meet us at the front door.”

            “Already there,” Lockhart responded.  They vacated the stick ship for the firm ground, and a few of the stick people followed them.

            The stick leader looked sick.  He bobbed up and down a couple of times before he spoke.  “You are mad, like the Balok.  We did our very best to escape them, but since they found us it would have been better if we had died than participate in their madness.”

            No one knew what to say until Alexis stepped up.  “You have the right to live in peace.”

            “We have no right to take life,” the leader said, and with that he moved his people away from the travelers. 

            “I guess we screwed up,” Lincoln said even as Saphira, Katie and Boston came huffing and puffing down the ramp.

            “Alright,” Saphira said.  “We need to find that ship.”

            “They would rather die than be part of the killing.”  Alexis summed things up and pointed to the stick people who were keeping their distance.  Saphira looked, but she had an alternative view and said so in her own tongue.

            “We are protecting my people.  We are protecting the human race, even if I am sorry the stick people got in the middle of it.  We won’t survive if the Balok come here.”  That seemed to satisfy the group.  “Now, I want to split us up.  Despite the X-whatever-teen single man fighters are current with your military, most space fighters have two occupants.  There are too many systems to keep track of.  So Decker and Roland, you take Coramel’s sons and circle around quietly to approach the fighter on the flank.  The rest – where is Mingus?”

            “Doctor Procter has taken a fever,” Roland said and Boston looked at Alexis.

            “I do wounds, occasionally help avoid surgery.  I don’t do sickness.”

            “Alright.”  Saphira adjusted her thinking.  “Alexis, would you stay with your father and Doctor Procter?  We should probably leave someone here to watch over the stick people, even if they don’t want our help.  Katie and Boston, Coramel, Lincoln and Lockhart.  We go straight for the ship.”

            “Works for me.”  Captain Decker checked his rifle.

            “A last thought,” Saphira stopped them all.  “We need to kill them.  No, there is no alternative, and do not hesitate or they will certainly kill you.”

            Roland nodded and lead the way into the open fields.  They stayed in sight for a time before they dipped down into a gully.

            “We go.”  Lockhart had judged the time and distance, and they started off into the tall grass.  There were stubby, non-descript bushes here and there and the occasional tree, but it was mostly grass to the knees and sometimes to the waist.  There was no way to move quietly, but they spread out and kept their eyes and ears as open as they could.  A slim trail of engine smoke still rose into the air in the distance.  They headed straight for it.

            When they topped a rise, they saw the ship down below, and it was much larger than they had imagined.  The grass was much taller there, too, being on the side of a hill where most animals would not bother to graze.  All things considered, it should not have come as a surprise when the serpent rose up and wrapped itself twice around Boston. 

            Boston screamed and struggled, and that made it hard for the others.  They dared not fire at the creature for fear of hitting Boston.  The snake kept trying to bite her, but it could not get its head at a good angle.  Saphira dropped her bow and waited three seconds for an opening before she brought the butt end of her spear down on the snake’s head.  The snake nipped at her, but by then the others were moving.

            Lockhart pulled the same stunt with the stock of his shotgun, and the hit appeared to hurt the serpent.  Lincoln and Lieutenant Harper were still trying to get off a shot, but Coramel came up with a stone between his hands.  The snake responded by showing a hand of its own.  The hand pealed out from the side of the creature and it held something.  There was no sound or light or anything, but Coramel dropped to the ground, stunned, maybe dead.

            Then the snake took Boston to the ground while Boston screamed the words, “I can’t breathe.”

            Lincoln went to Coramel while Saphira’s next shot hit the snake in the hand.  It dropped the weapon but began to roll down the hill with its captive.  Lockhart, Saphira and Lieutenant Harper followed, and when Boston and the creature slowed, Lockhart managed another whack at the creature’s head.

            The snake roared from pain and appeared to speak, though no one knew what it was saying except Saphira.  Then it suddenly let go of Boston to slither away in the grass.  Saphira, with the snake’s weapon in her hand, went to her knees beside Boston.

            When the serpent reached what it no doubt imagined was a safe distance from the primitives, it put its rear legs down and reared up eight feet in the air.  It spoke again, more clearly as another hand made itself known, and whether they retained some vestige of the primal tongue of Shinar or the magic of the Kairos was working overtime, they all managed to catch one distinct word.  “Die.”

            “Balok!”  Lockhart shouted to distract the snake, and Lieutenant Harper’s rifle went off.  The creature looked stunned as the bullet tore through its neck.  Then Lockhart fired the shotgun and the snake head shredded.  The body fell after a moment.