Magic

Avalon 2.7: Changes

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            Since leaving the deepest past, the travelers have picked up any number of creatures – creatures that are hunting them, following them through the time gates from time zone to time zone.  The power of the Djin has attracted them and the travelers have to fight for their lives.  They no sooner drive one off and another comes.

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            “Boston?”  Alexis called up to her.  She was concerned.  She knew like no other what magic could take out of a person.

            But Boston stood again and climbed slowly back on to her chair.  “Just like an all-nighter at school,” she shouted.  “I could use an energy drink.”  She raise her arms and began to glow once again, just like she did before she sent the great wind.  Then she shouted, “Ameratsu, give me your light and strength.”  Down below, Katie tried to be more practical about it all.  She prayed for Zoe to send help.  Two hundred men presently faced Lockhart’s one hundred, and a hundred and fifty skirted Lockhart’s position and were presently headed for Katie and her warrior women.

###

            Oktapi and a dozen gnomes came in from the west, driving a small herd as agreed.  The animals were mostly lame, halt and broken in some way, but that would hardly matter when the creatures of mud and blood cut them up for food.

            Beltain waited patiently.  She folded and unfolded her hands in front of her belly and tapped her foot, but that was about as patiently as she could wait.

            “Lady.”  Oktapi stepped forward and bowed as soon as he arrived.  “The animals agreed.”

            “I thank you, Oktapi, on behalf of all your people.  You have been a great help to us all as we cross this land and do not settle here.  I know it is your wish that we be gone from your territory, and that is our wish as well.  But tonight I have a special request.”  Oktapi looked at Beltain with a twisted eye.  This was not the goddess he knew and loved.  Okay, he admitted it to himself.

            “You may certainly ask,” he said.

            “I know I can only ask, and here it is.  Some geis has fallen on the other camps to make them believe we have not shared fairly from the herd.  Even now they are attacking us.  I have every hope that come daylight, we may be able to work out our differences, but for now we are in grave danger.  My request is to ask if you and your people may help us defend ourselves on this one night.  I would be very grateful.”  Beltain quieted for an answer, and that was when the Djin descended on them. 

            The Genii had seen this troop of gnomes travel through the boundary set up by the old one.  He watched the elder elf, aided by his son and that other gnome, lay hands on each of these little spirits in turn.  He expected to find a resistance to his power, but imagined he was too clever for them.  He found the spell of resistance and easily vanquished it.  Then he swallowed the will power of the little gnomes almost as easily and he swallowed the human will power.  The gnomes were completely his, but then he was distracted by a great light in the battle and just had to see what these clever people from the future were up to.

            Oktapi finally answered Beltain’s question.  “Not a chance.  We would like nothing more than to see you destroy yourselves in blood and go back to the mud from whence you came.”  He laughed, and several of the other gnomes laughed with him.  All the same, the gnomes spread out to circle around Beltain.  They began to dance around her and quietly chant.  There was a compulsion laid inside of them all, much deeper than the surface resistance found by the Djin.  They belonged completely to the Djin and would do whatever his will required, after they finished doing what they were compelled to do.

            Beltain watched them dance and chant.  They had her surrounded.  She fell to her knees in their midst and became afraid.

###

            When Boston was fully cooked, she leaned forward, suddenly, which almost made her lose her balance.  She was indeed glowing like the sun at that point.  People could not look at her directly.  And all that energy projected from her in a single beam of sunlight.

            Lincoln was backing up from the snarling wolf and telling others to stay behind him.  He had a copper sword in his hand, not that it would have much effect on the drooling beast.  The wolf looked hungry when the light fell on it.  The wolf howled.  It was trapped in the light.  And Lincoln watched as the snout became a human mouth and the claws became hands, and very quickly a filthy, naked man collapsed to the ground.

            “Rope, quick!”  He rushed forward into the light and pinned the man to the ground while others came up with rope.  They tied up the man, hands behind, legs together, and Lincoln determined he wanted a rope mummy.  The light went out all at once, but Lincoln knew they had to have the man completely incapacitated before it turned back into the wolf.

            Boston fell.  The chair slipped off the table which was on top of the upside-down wagon.  She fell, and would have landed hard on the ground, but Katie was right there to catch her as easily as a mother might catch a small child.  Katie could not stay, however, because the attackers were getting close.  She put an unconscious Boston in Alexis’ arms to work whatever healing magic Alexis could work, picked up her spear and rejoined her Amazons.

            “Archers ready!”  She shouted even as Lockhart was shouting the same thing out on the perimeter of the camp.  “Aim.”  She yelled and raised her hand with the spear grasped tightly even as a lightning bolt struck the earth between the two opposing groups.

            A figure appeared between the combatants, some of whom were looking up because the sky became suddenly cloudless and the full moon made everything visible.  The figure was a woman.  Katie recognized her at once.  It was Zoe, but the goddess, not just Zoe the human Queen she knew.  This was Zoe transformed, the Queen of the Amazon Pantheon of goddesses, and she looked pissed.

###

Avalon 2.7:  Death and Life … Next Time

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Avalon 2.7: The Trenches

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            Looks like war in the camps.  The Djin seems to have taken over the mind and will of the people to play a dangerous and deadly game.  The travelers in the camp have no will to resist, and the ones on the hill who are still in their right minds appear equally helpless.

###

            Boston and the women built a tower on which she could stand.  They made it out of upside-down wagons, a table and a chair.  It slanted a little, but it was not entirely unstable.  Boston felt safe enough to stand up on the chair, and there she watched all around as the sunlight faded into evening darkness, Alexis paced, and the old woman told stories to the gathered children.  Better than television, Boston thought, and then she wondered what television was.

            Even as the last wisps of purple left the sky, Katie came up to check their handiwork.  “We may need some light.”  She shouted up to Boston, though Boston was not that high up.

            “I was thinking that, but I see Lockhart has set some signal fires a little way into the wilderness and pulled his men well within the perimeter.  Lincoln is still setting his.  I would guess Lockhart told him what he was doing and Lincoln is copying the idea.

            “And a good idea it is,” Katie responded.  “I assume you can’t blaze like the sun for very long.”

            Boston was not sure she could blaze like the sun at all, but she said nothing.

###

            Lincoln saw them coming.  He moved all of his hunters with their bows to the front, first.  He briefly wished he had his rifle before he wondered what a rifle was.  That was okay,  they had to wait for the enemy to get close enough.

            “Ready?”  Lincoln moved down his line of archers.  “Remember, just shoot in a straight line.  They are bunched up and you will hit something.  Don’t try to pick a target at this range in the dark.  I don’t want twenty arrows in one person and none in the rest.  Aim.”  Lincoln raised his hand and paused to let the enemy inch closer before he dropped his hand and shouted, “Fire!”

            The volley was withering.  A number of men were struck with arrows and the attacking group quickly gathered their wounded and retreated. 

            Lockhart, a good man in charge of protecting the south ran into the same kind of situation – the enemy attempting to sneak up in the dark.  He dealt with it in a similar way, but this enemy raged after the first volley and attacked.  It took two more volleys to finally drive them off, and certainly some of those men that were down were dead.

            With Lockhart distracted by the attack, a third group took advantage and tried to move on them from the Southeast.  Fortunately, Boston saw from her perch and did not hesitate.  She raised her arms and groaned and shouted.  Katie, who was gifted, Alexis, who had magic of her own, and no doubt the Sybil who looked up, saw the golden power of Boston’s magic rise up into the air like a flare.  At once, Boston threw her hands forward, pointed straight at the sneaky enemy.  The Golden sparkles rushed out over the camp to that place, and the wind followed.  It was a concentrated wind blast of hurricane strength.  It picked up most of the enemy and blew them back in the direction from which they had come.  A few escaped by falling flat to the ground, but then Lockhart was alerted and men came running, so as soon as Boston’s initial blast gave out, the men on their faces jumped up and hastily retreated.

            Everyone paused to catch their breath, and in that brief silence they heard a howl.  It was one with which the travelers were familiar even if the people were not.  The bokarus in ghost form came rushing over the perimeter of the camp and brought Boston’s wind back with it.  People were knocked in every direction.  Tents were torn up by the roots.  Wagons were shaken.  A couple fell apart while several others wheeled off in whatever random direction they were pointed.

            Lockhart and Lincoln held their lines together, as did Katie at the center.  Otherwise, some might have run wild in panic.  “Alexis.  Boston.”  Katie shouted.  This creature, in ghost form, was something which she, for all her gifts could not touch.  The frustration of that ate at her.

            Alexis stomped over to the women and grabbed Star’s bow and one arrow.  She groused, “I am a healer, not a wounder.”  Her magic was much whiter than Boston’s yellow, slightly orange magic and she covered the bow and arrow with a white glow before she handed it back to the hunter.  “Star, shoot it at the bokarus when it flies overhead.  You don’t have to hit it, exactly, but the closer the better.”

            Star waited at the ready, and let the arrow fly with some lead time as a good hunter should.  Alexis had her hands together and her eyes shut tight.  The arrow missed and they thought it was laughter that came from the bokarus; but then Alexis opened her hands and opened her eyes, and the arrow exploded like a bomb on the Fourth of July. 

            The bokarus shrieked.  It felt that.  The women cheered, but then it looked like the arrow just made the bokarus mad.  It headed for the children, and Alexis was afraid some of them were young enough for the bokarus to suck out their life force without having to kill them first.  She looked up at Boston.  So did Katie, Star and the others.  Boston appeared to be staring at her finger.  She did not have a wand.  No one ever told her she needed one.  Her finger would have to do, and when she heard the children scream, she pointed that finger.

            Boston was thinking of Lockhart’s “heat ray” comments.  She did not know what a heat ray was, but she imagined herself as her Amazon name, “Little fire.”  She knew that fire consisted of light and heat, and she felt there was no reason they had to go together.  When the children screamed, a dull red beam of light came from Boston’s finger.  If she had been herself, she might have likened it to a laser beam.  It struck the bokarus in the back and this time the cry of the bokarus sounded painful.  It pulled up from the children, but Boston’s finger followed it.  It began to fly in wild directions, but still she followed.  Her finger fire set a tent aflame as she tracked the bokarus near the ground, but she caught it and stayed with it as often as not.  Finally the bokarus had enough and it streaked out across the camps and vanished in the dark in the distance, Boston hoped never to return.  It had better not.  She was used up.

            Boston sat on the chair to catch her breath.  She did not hear the cheers from the women, but she did hear the Sybil when she ran up as fast as she could.  “Lincoln,” she yelled.  “He is facing the wolfman!”

###

Avalon 2.7:  Changes … Next Time

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Avalon 2.6: Lost and Found

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            So, is Elder Stow betraying the travelers?  Back in the days of the Kairos Odelion, the travelers killed his two “children” – crewmates who fell with him into the deep past; and the Gott-Druk are not known as a forgiving people.  On the other hand, the travelers are headed back into the future where he wants to go, and given some of the things he has seen, he understands it is not safe even for him to travel alone.  A truce seems in order.  But then, here he has a whole contingent of his own people to back him up, even if they are caught up in a war.  On the fourth hand …

###

            Mingus stood.  He intended to defend his daughter with every last shred of strength he had, and it might take his last shred.  Their jailer was a djin of the lesser spirit variety.  No little spirit could hope to match it, or her as Alexis kept insisting.  Even Mingus and Alexis combining their magic would not be enough.

            “Here is a change,” Alexis looked but stayed seated and let her sarcasm do the talking.  “A Gott-Druk who wants to talk to us.”

            “Must be the tenth.”

            “Oh, father.  An even dozen at least.”

            “In here,” the djin said in her grating voice that gave Alexis the shivers.

            “And where are the other prisoners?”  The Gott-Druk asked.

            The djin laughed, at least the others guessed it was a laugh.  “We don’t take prisoners.  These two with their horses are hostages, for now.”

            “So there are no other jailers around?”

            “What for?”  the djin asked.  “I got eyes and ears.  They can’t get passed me.”

            “Good to know,” Elder Stow said, and as soon as the djin unlocked the cage he fired some kind of weapon at the creature which vaporized her so fast she had no time to cry out.  He stepped into the cage and Mingus reacted.

            “Orange jumper.  You are the one from the future.  Are you here to kill us?”

            “No.”  Elder Stow said as he pulled a big piece of hand-held equipment from his vest pocket.  He scanned the two in the cage and read the readout.  “I came to talk some sense into my people.  They are on the wrong side of history here – not that I am an expert on earth history, but even I know that much.”

            “How did it go?” Alexis asked.

            Elder Stow shrugged.  “My people are naturally stubborn and some are stupid as well.  Stubborn and stupid is a powerful combination to try and overcome.  Here, swallow this.”  He held out something for Alexis, the size of a big pill.

            “Swallow what?”  Mingus asked.

            “Father can be stubborn, too,” Alexis said.

            “Electronic.”  Elder Stow handed it to the elder elf.  “It will pass in a day or two, but in the meanwhile she will appear on their scanners as Gott-Druk.”  Mingus hesitated.  “I already seeded your two horses,” Elder Stow added to suggest it would cause no harm.

            “Misty is alright?” Alexis stood with hope in her voice.

            “So far, kept as curiosities or perhaps because the powers feel they may need you with your horses to make the complete hostage package.”  Elder Stow shrugged.

            “Swallow this,” Mingus handed the thing to Alexis but kept his eyes on the Gott-Druk.  “How did you find us?”

            “Accident,” Elder Stow admitted while Alexis struggled to swallow.  “I found the horses first.  Of course you could only be Mingus and Alexis.  Lincoln, your husband speaks of you often, and your brother, though he speaks mostly to young Boston.

            Alexis swallowed.  “I have a husband?  You see, Father.  I said I had a husband only I couldn’t remember him.  But he is alive?”

            “Last I saw,” Elder Stow said.  “I hope they got picked up by the right side.”  He looked again at the scanner in his hand and tossed it to the floor, and broke it.  “They will see you from a distance as Gott-Druk, and your horses as well.  The elf does not show up on the scanner at all.  No surprise there.”

            “We must hurry,” Mingus said, and refused to look at his daughter.

            “But father?”  she was remembering some things, but only in bits and pieces. 

            “No, I will not speak of it.”

            “And he can be stubborn,” Alexis told Elder Stow.

            “But at least not stupid,” Elder Stow agreed and took the lead, pausing at the door only long enough to pull out whatever that powerful weapon was that killed the djin.

            They were in luck.  The horses were still saddled and looked untouched, though that was not good luck for the poor horses.  The Gott-Druk and two humans guarding the horses made them pause, but they appeared to be eyeing each other more than the horses or the approaches to the hastily erected pen.

            “Allow me,” Mingus said as he began to fade from sight.

            “Wait,” Elder Stow said.  He had twisted something on his weapon and pointed.  There was a bright flash and the Gott-Druk and two men collapsed.  “Unconscious,” Elder Stow said.  “At least mine are unconscious.  I can’t speak for the two humans.  They may be dead.”

            “Quickly,” Alexis rushed them forward, and the men argued.

            “You take my horse,” Mingus said.

            “No, you take it.”  It looked like they were passing a hot potato back and forth.  Clearly neither liked to ride.  Alexis had to step in.

            “Father, I’ll ride with you.  Gott-Druk, you take Misty.  He will follow us so all you have to do is hang on.”

            Neither man liked the solution, but they had no alternative to suggest.  Elder Stow changed the subject.  “Better go invisible,” he said, and mounted and twisted something on his wrist.  He vanished.  Mingus could still see him, but Alexis had to magically adjust her eyes to see.  Then she practiced her magical art on herself, her father and his horse to make them invisible as well.  She left a window open so Elder Stow could still see them.

            “But which way?” Mingus asked as they walked the horses out of the enclosure.  “They put bags over our heads when they brought us.”

            “And mine,” Elder Stow said as he looked again at his wrist.  “But my scanner kept recording the trail, and would no matter how big the bag.”  He pointed and started out.  Mingus quickly caught up, and they rode, all out when they could, for several hours.

            “We may be invisible to Gott-Druk and men, but not to the spirits.  We are certainly not invisible to the titans,” Mingus reminded his daughter.

            Since she sat behind her father and held on, she could whisper in his ear and did not have to shout to be heard.  “But maybe the others are looking for us.  Maybe my husband, whoever he is.  Maybe Tetamon will find us first.”

            They rode until Alexis called a halt.  Their horses had not been mistreated and had been fed something, but they had to be worn and sore from wearing their saddles for so long.  She made everyone get down and loosened the horse’s belts.  She knew if necessary she could tighten the belts again instantly by magic, but for now they walked the horses and gave them a much needed breather.

            “Good animals, these beasts of yours.  Loyal.  That is important,” Elder Stow remarked.

            “As the little spirits should be loyal to the Kairos.  You have no idea how distressing I find their rebellion.”

            “My people will probably be wiped out if they do not find some sense and switch sides,” Elder Stow agreed with the sentiment.

            “And what of the men?” Alexis said.  “They say Domnu has brought men, women and children to the continent to force their commitment to the cause, but in the process she has depopulated her islands.  If these people are wiped out, there will be no men left alive in all of her lands.”

            They all thought and walked in silence until Mingus finally signaled that they should prepare to ride again.  Alexis tightened the saddle belt on her father’s horse and went to tighten Misty’s.  Elder Stow gave her his attention and stepped back to give her room, and that is no doubt why he was taken unprepared by a number of elves, dwarfs and a rather ugly ogre who grabbed the Gott-Druk by the arms to prevent him from going for a weapon.

            “Wait,” Mingus yelled, and at the sight of the elder elf the troop did stop long enough to look.  Mingus mounted his horse.  “Hurry up, Alexis,” he said as he brought his horse up to where he could sprinkle some dust on the Gott-Druk.  “Just a temporary disabling of your many devices.  It should pass in a day or so.”  He grinned and turned to the elf Captain.  “Good work.  This one needs to go to Lord Tetamon as quickly as possible.  Treat him well, he has vital information for our side.  Now we have just one more job to finish our mission.”

            “Elder,” the Captain did not question his elder, though the dwarfs looked wary.

            “Hurry up, Alexis,” Mingus said again as he rode off at all speed before the dwarfs could speak up.  Alexis followed in his wake.

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Avalon 2.6:  War is Hello … Next Time

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Avalon 2.6: Boston in the Dark

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            Elder Stow became unnaturally verbal and asked questions about his people and another people called the Elenar at that point in history.  After being assured that they should be allies and not fighting each other, the Gott-Druk decided to take a short side trip.  Unfortunately, in the snow storm, Boston unwittingly followed and then loses sight of the Elder whereupon she finds herself alone, in the dark, in the snow, in the middle of a war zone.

###

            “Hello?”  Boston called out several times, but the smoke from the fires and the falling snow conspired to deaden her every sound.  Boston got down and got out her Beretta, belt and all.  She buckled the belt around her hips and added her hunting knife to the ensemble, just in case.  She checked to be sure the gun came easily to her hand and patted her horse’s neck.

            “Don’t worry, Honey,” she said.  “We will find them again, soon.”  Honey simply blew out a great puff of white air in answer while Boston got out her fairy weave tent.  It took some time and serious adjustments to the fairy weave, but soon she had Honey covered in a late medieval style blanket that had holes for the horse’s head and tail and fit snugly around the saddle.  It fell to six inches from the ground and warmed the horse nicely.  “Of course one virtue of the fairy weave is I can command it to shorten to uncover your legs if we need to ride out of a bad situation.”  Honey simply nodded his head.

            One more reassuring pat on the horse’s neck and Boston stepped to the nose and took the reins.  She checked the amulet to get her direction.  She knew Roland would stay true to the direction even in the worst of the storm, but they might move on as much as a mile before they noticed she was missing.  She checked the ground, but whatever prints Elder Stow may have made with Decker’s horse were long since wiped out by the snow and wind.

            “Better move,” she said and they started to walk.  Boston felt reasonably certain that she could parallel the group and if she could find a rise or hilltop, she might be able to see them in the wilderness.  It was a long shot, but then she had the amulet.  The better chance was for her to find the Kairos, Tetamon and let him help her find the others

            The snow slacked off as she walked, and the wind dropped down to where it only became rough in the occasional gusts that made her turn her head to one side or the other.  It was terribly dark in the woods, but there were more clearings, fields and meadows than before so it gave the illusion that she was getting somewhere.  “It is getting very cold,” Boston admitted, but she kept walking.  She knew Honey was terribly hungry as was she, but she walked to not overtax her poor horse.  There was no telling when she might have to move quickly.

            Boston stopped before they entered a particularly dark and thick copse of trees.  She wondered if she could do what she had seen Roland, Mingus and Alexis do.  This magic business was all so new to her.  She never imagined doing such things before.  She understood what the Sybil said back in Zoe’s world.  By the time she got old enough to begin to show some signs of power she had already convinced herself that such things were impossible.  She wondered briefly how many people back in her own day would never know what they were capable of because the world said it was impossible.

            Honey nudged Boston with his nose and Boston grinned.  “Alright, just give me a minute.”  She focused on her open palm.  A light began to grow over her palm which almost went out when she got excited.  She quickly stuffed down her excitement and stayed focused until the light strengthened.  When it was about as bright as she reasonably felt she could make it, she let it float up into the air.  It was trickier than she thought.  She had to keep part of her mind trained on it now and then to keep it lit and floating, and it took something out of her to do that.

            Finally, she managed to set the light a few feet above her head and a few feet out front, and she began to walk into the dark trees.  Honey snorted and followed.  It was only fifteen minutes through that little section of dark, but that was enough and about all Boston could handle.  Roland said the more she did, the more strength she would build, like exercising a muscle, but Boston could already see that she would never be in the same league with someone like Alexis or the elves.  That was fine.  She was amazed she could do anything at all.

            There was an open field on the other side of the dark woods.  Boston checked her amulet once more and climbed up on Honey’s back.  She was tired before.  Now she was exhausted.  That was something else about magic she never understood before.  It was not free.  It took something out of the magician.

            The open field proved to not be as big as Boston hoped, but by the time she got to the other side the snow had stopped and the clouds had begun to clear off.  The moon was still up and a great help to see since she was finally far enough from the fires to where they were no help at all.  When she entered the woods on the other side she was glad she did not have to make another fairy light.

            “Hello, witch.”  Boston heard a voice by her right shoulder and jumped before she spurred Honey to a run.  She ducked down flat, held Honey around the neck and let the horse avoid the trees and other obstacles, which horses will do for a short way.  Rather quickly, Honey slowed again to a walk and Boston caught her breath.  She strained her ears and heard some huffing and puffing catching up.  She pulled her gun.

            “Who are you?  Who is there?  Show yourself.”

            “That is some speedy horse you’ve got,” the voice said right next to her and Boston barely kept her finger from pulling the trigger.

            “Who are you and what do you want?”  She demanded an answer and added, “And why can’t I see you?”

            “I’m a pookah, I don’t want to eat you or anything like that if you are worried, and I’m invisible.”

            “So what do you want?”  Boston tried to relax.

            “Nothing,” the pookah said and added, “Witch.”

            Boston got Honey walking again as the horse seemed oblivious to it all.  “I am not a witch,” she protested.

            “Well, you are certainly no sorceress,” the pookah said and Boston kept silent.  The pookah, which appeared content to walk beside her, finally spoke again.  “You’re not from around here,” it said and added, “Come here often?”  Boston thought she heard the thing laugh.

            “Ha, ha!”  Boston was not laughing.  “I’m from further away than you can imagine.”

            “Um, twenty-first century AD, whatever that is, near Washington DC, but grew up near Boston which is why most people call you Boston.”

            Boston thought for a second.  “You read minds?”

            “A little,” the pookah said, and Boston realized there was no point in hiding the matter.  She pulled out her amulet and checked the direction, and the pookah made an interesting remark.  “Part of what I do is mislead travelers in the dark, but I see that will be pointless with you.  That amulet is covered by a magic far stronger than mine.”

            “From the castle of the Kairos,” Boston said.  She felt it was pointless to try and hid it from a mind reader.

            “I understand,” the pookah said.  They walked in silence for a minute before the pookah spoke again.  “I am not with Domnu and her brood if you were wondering.  I would rather be neutral, but since the gods themselves have taken sides it is kind of hard to stay out of it.”

            “What is happening here?  I don’t understand this war.  What is this all about?”  The questions that built up in Boston’s mind since entering that world all tumbled out at once.  It seemed to her that the pookah took a moment to project a sense of peace in her direction, and it also seemed that such a thing was very unusual.  Boston was grateful and quieted, and the pookah talked as they walked.

            “Not long ago, Queen Nerthus willingly gave up her life and went over to the other side.  There was peace then between Aesgard and Vanheim, but the Queen knew there could not be two leaders.  She gave her authority to Odin and moved on.  Now Aesgard claims the west, but Olympus and Karnak both claim large sections of the same territory, so things are not exactly settled.

            “Meanwhile, from long ago, the Queen’s sister Domnu ruled over the islands in her own right.  She bowed to her sister as long as Queen Nerthus was alive, but now she wants to claim all of the ancient lands of Vanheim for her own.  She has brought men to the continent along with many rebellious little spirits including goblins, trolls ogres and others.  Now she has exploited the natural animosity between the elder races and taken the Gott-Druk for her allies, leaving the Elenar to fight for the other side.  So it is Gott-Druk against Elenar, Men against men, spirits against spirits and ultimately gods against gods because Domnu has many children.”

            “Wait, goblins, ogres and trolls?  Don’t they belong to the Kairos?”

            “Yes, and that is one of the things that makes all this so complicated.  You see, the Kairos is leading the fight against Domnu.”

            “And some Little Ones are fighting against their own god?”

            “And do you always do what your god tells you?”

            “Point taken,” Boston said. 

            “I would rather stay out of it altogether, but that is not really possible.  And here we are.”  They came to the edge of the woods where another small clearing stretched out in front of them.

            “Where?” Boston asked as she pulled out her amulet to check again.  She calculated.  “Why you pookah.  You did get me off track, but only a little.”

            It seemed like she could feel the pookah smile.  “Where your Kairos is,  Now, only one last thing to do,” the pookah said and Boston heard it walk away toward the back of her horse.  She turned her head to say good-bye and heard a shocking “Boo” next to her.  She screamed.

            “Now, that tasted good,” the pookah said.  “Witch fright always has a little extra kick to it.  Thanks for the snack,” and the pookah vanished for real as several goblins with long spears and a terribly hungry looking troll came up and surrounded her.

            Boston had put her gun away, and she thought to get down slowly from Honey’s back so as not to make any sudden moves.  Then she swallowed her fear, looked at these creatures of the dark and said what she always wanted to say.  “Take me to your leader.” 

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Avalon 2.6:  Out in the Wilderness … Next Time

Avalon 2.6: Splinters

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            War is confusing.  Ask anyone who has been there.  It is especially bad when you think you are fighting bows and arrows and suddenly get blasted with what Lockhart called a heat ray.  Then to be saved by fighter aircraft, like from a space ship, makes the head swirl around 3550  BC.  War may be Hell, but only if you can wrap your mind around it.

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            The sun went down but there was plenty of light as the distant patches of fire became more apparent.  There was a general haze in the air and plenty of smoke and ash in the sky, but the moon was nearly full and the stars behind the haze were bright. 

            “Keep going,” Lockhart insisted.  He was not going to be satisfied until  they were completely out of that area or into the next time zone, whichever came first.

            “We should be fine if we can get beyond the fires,” Roland said and pointed off to the side.

            “Boston nodded and put the amulet back beneath her shirt.  She touched the collar of her fairy weave coat and said, “Hood, and a mask over the mouth and nose to filter out the smoke.”  The fairy weave grew and shifted to conform to the picture in her mind.  Shortly they all had such masks except Elder Stow who did not seem as bothered by the smoke in the air.

            “Can you walk a bit?”  Lockhart asked Katie and she nodded.  Her legs had been spared the rock shards.  “Dismount and walk them,” Lockhart called out and they did.  It slowed their progress considerably, but gave the horses something of a break to rest them.  It was as much of a break as Lockhart dared to give them at the moment.

            A half-hour on and they saw a smoldering ruin in their path.  When they got close, they all read the markings on the side of the craft.  It was a fighter craft called the Karrigan’s Claws.  No one asked what a Karrigan was, but they all recognized the writing as Gott-Druk.

            “It seems the magic of translation the Kairos gave us works on written words, too,” Boston remarked.  Elder Stow ran forward and Lincoln caught the reins of Captain Decker’s horse.  After rummaging around inside the craft, Elder Stow came back out and made an announcement.

            “No bodies.”

            Everyone was relieved, and did not seriously mind when the Elder insisted they search the immediate area.  Lockhart and Boston got the horses while the others went out.  Roland seemed better able to navigate the smoke and Elder Stow was motivated.  Lincoln and Katie had the marine night goggles on to complete their outfits, and though Katie walked more slowly than she might have otherwise, she insisted and carried her rifle besides.

            There were no dead or wounded to be found anywhere near the crash.  This was also good, but when they mounted again, Elder Stow asked Lincoln some pointed questions.  Lincoln had to get out the database and read up on the subject to answer.

            “At this point in history, roughly, the Balok are being overcome if they have not yet been defeated, but the Pendratti are making noises about taking over.  The Sevarese work with the Gott-Druk and the Bluebloods work with the Elenar, but they all remain allies in the struggle against the Pendratti menace.”

            “So my people and the Elenar are still allies at this point in history,” Elder Stow was searching for something.

            “Yes that’s right.”

            “So they should not be fighting each other.”

            “That’s right, why?”

            Elder Stow looked back at Lockhart and Katie.  He looked ahead to Boston and Roland, though he supposed there was nothing he could do about the elf’s good ears.  He tried to whisper, but Gott-Druk were not good at whispering in general.  Their natural habitat was small groups and family groups of the size where it was generally not good to keep secrets.

            “I believe those fighters were Elenar,” he said.

            “I see,” Lincoln nodded, and after a moment of thought he looked again at the Gott-Druk.  “So you think the ones who attacked us were your people.”

            “Humans mostly,” Elder Stow said.  “But the energy weapons were likely held in Gott-Druk hands.”

            Lincoln nodded but made no move to tell the others.  “Well,” he continued the private conversation.  “At this point in history that should not be happening.  The Gott-Druk and Elenar should be helping each other, not fighting each other.”

            “That is accurate?”  Elder Stow questioned the database.

            “The information in this database was taken from the Heart of Time itself.  That is the crystal heart that has recorded all of history since the first days of the Kairos.” 

            “But maybe not accurate concerning my people?”

            “No, as far as I know it is totally accurate.  Gott-Druk, Elenar, Agdaline or any of the other species that touch the earth at any point have a detailed description of who they are and where they fit into the overall picture of the larger universe.  I imagine Lady Alice was very thorough in that.

            Elder Stow said nothing as the clouds moved in and the little drips of snow began to pick up steam.  It was not much further before they had to go single file.  The wind picked up and began to blow the snow into their faces and they had to move forward with their eyes on the rump of the horse in front. 

            Boston dropped back to check on Katie.  She knew Lockhart’s healing chits would have him healed in short order, but Katie had no such help.  She also knew an elect had a high tolerance for pain and healed quickly, but she was worried all the same.  Boston might have found a little magic in her veins, but she was no healer like Alexis.  They had already lost Captain Decker.  They could not afford to lose Katie too.

            When they started to move single file, she found herself between Katie and Elder Stow.  Her eyes became glued to the back end of Captain Decker’s horse and did not waver.  She was not worried about their direction.  Roland had an unerring sense of direction and would keep them headed in the right direction no matter how many side steps he had to make to get around obstacles in their path.

            When they came to a corner, Elder Stow kicked his horse to a trot.  Boston stayed right with him  Katie had to hustle to keep up and turned to warn Lockhart.  Soon enough Katie saw the rear end of the horse again, walking in front, and she slowed down.  Because of the snow and ice, she did not recognize the back side of Lincoln’s horse.  Elder Stow had left the procession and unwittingly taken Boston with him.  When he touched the device on his wrist and he and his horse became invisible, Boston suddenly found herself alone in the woods.

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Avalon 2.6:  Boston in the Dark … Next Time

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Avalon 2.5: Camp du jour

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            Taken prisoners by a Neolithic tribe with only Roland the elf allowed to go free with their horses, the travelers wonder what awaits in the camp when they meet Ogalalo, the shaman, the one described as a man of power, and magic.

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            When they arrived in the camp, it looked purely Neolithic, a transient encampment full of wood and bones and skins and stones.  In contrast to the Amazon village, this camp had no sign of pots or metals or even agricultural activity.  This was strictly a hunter-gatherer world.  

            The men were shoved into a tent and Elder Stow immediately broke his bonds.  The Gott-Druk had extraordinary strength and no simple vines could hold him.  Then he set Lincoln and Lockhart free before they sat and waited to see what this Shaman wanted.  They were free of the vines but there were still guards posted just outside the tent, and Lockhart was reluctant to be the first to start the violence.

            “I say we check on the girls,” Lincoln argued.

            “They will be fine,” Lockhart assured him, and he hoped they were not in trouble, but he fingered his knife and imagined the back of the tent would not be too hard to slice.

            The women got a tent of their own.  Once alone, Boston pulled her hands free and stifled her excitement.  “I did it, I did it.  Magic, see?”  She held her hands up and did a little dance, though seated.

            Boston leaned over to untie Katie, but Katie said, “Wait.”  She tugged on the vines and after a second, they snapped.  “Zoe said being elect meant not just blindly accepting whatever the men decide.”

            “That sounds more Amazon.”

            “Probably,” Katie agreed.  “But part of the package is strength.  Strong as any man, she said, and frankly I am tired of hiding it.  I have been hiding it for twenty-seven years, well, twelve or thirteen years anyway.”

            “I don’t want you to hide anything,” a man said, and Boston and Katie whipped their eyes around to see Lockhart’s head sticking through a hole in the back of the tent.  He grinned at them when they heard a sound outside the tent door and Lockhart quickly withdrew and held the hole closed hoping the cut in the tent would not be noticed.

            A young man stepped into the tent and said, “Get to your feet.”  Boston and Katie got up and brushed off their clothes and the young man lifted his eyebrows at the sight.  He turned quickly to the door and shouted, “Hey!  Who cut these two free?”

            “No one,” Boston said.  “We just got tired of being tied.”

            The man showed anger on his face and grabbed Katie by the elbow.  She flat-handed the man’s chest and he flew out of the tent and landed a few feet away hard on his back, possibly with a couple of cracked ribs.  Katie felt sorry about the ribs, but she could not help her smile.  That felt wonderful.  It felt like something she always wanted to do but never let herself do in her whole life.

            The man quickly rose and held his chest as he rushed away to hide.

            The women came out of the front of the tent.  There was a young man in a wolf skin standing by the fire out front, and Boston guessed.  “Ogalalo.”

            Lockhart stepped out from behind one side of the women’s tent while Lincoln and Elder Stow came from the other side.  They flanked the women as Lockhart spoke.  “So what is it you want?”

            Ogalalo said nothing.  He stepped up and looked at each in the face.  He stopped when he came to Elder Stow and raised an eyebrow.  He spoke to the elder.

            “We have no quarrel with the elder races.  You are free to go.”  The others could hear the touch of fear that echoed in the man’s words as he looked away and returned to his place by the fire.  Lockhart repeated his question.

            “What is it you want?”

            Ogalalo simply waved his hand and Boston saw a bluish light escape from the man’s fingers.  It struck each person, and everyone froze where they were, except the Gott-Druk who was spared.  Boston got mad.  The firelight rose in her against the blue, and in a moment she was free even if her friends were still frozen.  But then she was new at this and could not control it well.  The campfire behind Ogalalo also flared and his wolf skin was set ablaze.

            “Sorry!”  Boston spoke right up.  Ogalalo looked startled for a second before he smelled the smoke.  He tore off his wolf skin and dashed it to the ground as Boston repeated, “Sorry.”

            “Little Fire,” Ogalalo said, and he did not sound unkind.  “A big fire, maybe.”  In that moment the sky darkened and the wind picked up suddenly.  There was a wail, like a banshee set loose and the leaves began to shake in the trees.  Boston, Elder Stow, Ogalalo and the people in the camp all looked up and saw a ghost-like creature that began to fly around the camp with great speed like one trying to create a tornado on a clear day.

            The people screamed and ran, some aimlessly in their panic.  Something like lightning shot from the ghost, but Boston noticed it had to become more solid to do that.  The lightning struck at several tents and those tents were set on fire.  Ogalalo lost all concentration, and Katie, Lockhart and Lincoln were slow to come around.  Boston named the creature for Ogalalo and Elder Stow who was searching for his sonic device.

            “Bokarus!  You cannot have us!”

            The bokarus zoomed up and paused to face her and the others.  The expression on that ghost face said it thought it did have them, but Ogalalo did not hesitate.  He grabbed Boston’s hand and she felt something taken out of her gut as she watched a ball of flame form in Ogalalo’s hand.  It shot at the bokarus who had to fly back quickly to avoid being hit.  The bokarus wailed again and began to circle the camp once more, but as long as Ogalalo had his hand up, the ball of flame followed the creature.  What is more, it was gaining.

            Elder Stow finally found his device and he let it rip, though the frequency was mostly above human hearing.  The dogs in the camp howled bitterly, and the bokarus made a sound like pain and rushed away.  The flame ball dissipated and Ogalalo fell to his knees, exhausted.  Boston fell with him.  She felt totally drained.  Katie was right there to hold her up and Lincoln and Lockhart helped Ogalalo back to his feet where they neglected to let go of his arms. 

            Several men came running with spears, but Lockhart put a knife to Ogalalo’s throat and threatened to cut it, so they stopped short.

            “Please,” Ogalalo begged.  “I mean you no harm.  You are free to take your things and go.”

            “It’s alright,” Boston said.  She had seen inside the man enough to know what motivated him.  He was desperately in love with a woman who did not love him in return.  All Boston could see was sadness.  She missed the cunning.  She should have remembered the wolf

            As soon as Ogalalo was set free, he stepped back and called his men to come in close.  “You brought the bokarus creature among us.  I saw how it looked at you.  If we sacrifice your lives to it, it will leave us alone.”  He was thinking like a cave man.

            “On the contrary,” Katie stood and placed Boston in Lockhart’s arms.  She stepped right up to Ogalalo’s face and was not at all worried about the ring of men with spears.  “The bokarus wants us for itself.  If you let us go, it will follow us and leave you alone.  If you kill us, you will make it mad by depriving it of its prey.”

            Ogalalo would have to think about that.  He did not get much time before a woman’s voice echoed through the camp.  “Ogalalo.  Let my friends go!”

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Avalon 2.5:  Unbroken … Next Time

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Avalon 2.5: Broken Days

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

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After 3675 BC , The Northeastern U. S. woodlands.  Kairos life 25: Huyana

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Recording…

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            “Where are we?” Boston asked again.

            Lincoln could only shrug.  “My guess is somewhere between Pennsylvania and Nova Scotia.  The database is not exactly clear.”

            “Smells like upstate New York,” Roland said.

            “As good a guess as any,” Lincoln responded.

            “How do you figure?” Boston asked.

            “I can smell the fall foliage, and the recent man-made campfires.  Smells like man-made global warming to me.”  He was kidding.

            “I had an earth science class in college,” Boston said.  “I remember there was a kid who answered man-made global warming for every question.  The sad thing was he got a B.”

            “The sad thing is earth science and global warming for that matter are impossible to calculate without knowing how the actions of all the little spirits of the earth connect to it all.”

            “How do you figure?”

            “Huyana.”

            “That is the one we are looking for,” Lincoln interrupted from behind.  “Another woman if you were wondering.”

            “She is also sometimes called Mojave,” Roland ignored the interruption.

            “Mojave?”

            “Yes,” Lincoln started to speak, but with a look from Roland he shut off the database and put it away.  Then Roland began.

            “Father would know this story well, but as I remember it, she was an unruly and not exactly popular child.”

            “Always picked last for the team?”

            “Yes, well, she wanted the power to get even, and by the time she became a teenager, she found out she did have power over the little spirits of the earth.  She was suffering.  They call it dementia, and in a fit of teenage pique one day she called all of her little ones to come to her.  The gods prevented most of them, but the ones that were near could not resist or be prevented.  Suddenly a whole swath of plains was depopulated and despoiled.  Without the Little Ones to tend it, it all rotted.”

            “Don’t tell me.  The Mojave Desert.”

            “Actually, yes.  They say it was Maya, the Corn Woman who healed her as well as she could be healed.  Huyana realized what she had done and regretted it, but it was too late for many in her own village.  They had to move, and quickly to survive, and Huyana was exiled.  She wandered some five years, slowly going East and North.  She may have been looking for the Amazon lands in the East, now that I consider the last time zone.  Some think that might have been the case.  But for whatever reason, she finally settled in the woodlands of the northeast, and that is where we are.”

            “This is a good place for lunch,” Lockhart spoke up from behind, and the group that had been listening to Roland paused to look around.  They were in a clearing in the forest where a circle of stones was already set for a fire.  A clear, bubbling stream wandered by just down a little slope from the camp. 

            “Good choice,” Katie dismounted and wandered up to look at the ashes in the fireplace.  She met Roland there who wanted to estimate how long ago people camped there.

            “Three days,” he decided.  “Not Alexis,” he added for Lincoln who was just getting down.

            Elder Stow got down with a groan.  “I will never get used to riding on the back of that beast,” he said.  “I am thinking I will end up bow-legged and looking like a gorilla.”  The others did not have the heart to tell the Neanderthal he already looked something like a gorilla, certainly more gorilla-like than an ordinary human.

            The travelers gathered around the circle of stones for a moment of pleasant conversation when a dozen men dropped down out of the trees, spears in hand.  Roland and Katie started to jump to the defense, but Lockhart grabbed each by an arm.  “No reason anyone should get hurt,” he said.  “Let us see what they want.”

            The warriors or hunters, unpainted, went straight for the horses and pulled all the rifles.  “They seem to know something,” Lincoln remarked.

            “Father,” Roland said.  “He has great mind magic as witnessed by the fact he has kept Alexis enchanted for so long.  I would guess Zoe successfully delayed him from exiting her world and he imagined we were getting too close.”

            One man stepped up to the elf and sneered.  “Not you,” he said.  “You can go.  Tell the witch of the woods we have no quarrel with her.”

            “Hey, Tumak, do you think these animals will be good to eat?”

            Roland stepped to the horses and spoke to the man.  “Touch one animal and I will see you haunted until you go mad and eat your own children.”  He quickly tied the horses in a line, using the rope from Decker’s bag.  Then he mounted and trotted off with a word to the group, in English.  “I will find you.  Boston, don’t be afraid of the magic inside you.  I love you.”

            “I love you, too,” Boston said even as the men poked their spears in the traveler’s direction and told them to move.

            The men had tied their hands behind with vines and now pushed them forward.  “We still have our pistols,” Katie pointed out, though they were hardly worth much with their hands tied.

            “I think Mingus wanted to delay us, not harm us,” Lockhart suggested.  He got a slap in his back with the butt end of a spear for speaking.  Katie turned.

            “Do that again and I will hurt you,” she told the man.  The man paused.  He clearly saw something in Katie’s eyes.

            “No more!” The head man shouted.  “Let them walk.  The Shaman will decide.”

            There was silence all around for a long mile.  Finally, Boston edged up toward the front.

            “Tumak?” Boston guessed the speaker was the leader of this hunting group and the man confirmed her guess when he turned his head to look at her.  “Your Shaman is a man of power?”  A year ago, Boston never would have asked such a question.  Even a month ago after seeing fairy magic and the magic of the little ones, she might not have asked.  But now that she had seen some small power in herself, she knew ordinary humans were not immune.  There really were witches in the old world, so she asked.

            “Ogalalo is a mighty man,” Tumak confirmed.  “He can do things, magic things beyond your dreaming, young doe.”

            “I am not such a young doe, but I have been called Little Fire,” Boston responded.  The man looked again.

            “So I see.”  He eyed her red hair, a color he surely never saw before.

            “Yes, and I advise caution.  You don’t want to get burned.”

            “Keep moving,” the man beside her said, and Boston quieted.

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Avalon 2.5:  Camp du Jour … Next Time

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Avalon 2.4: Unexpected Magic

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            Ah, Mary Riley but everybody calls her Boston, there are more secrets to be revealed.  It isn’t the fact that she is in love with Roland, the Elf,  That is a secret even a child could see.  The Sybil called her Little Fire, but not just because she had short, red hair.

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            The Sybil got back up on her pony and had Roland help Amira up so the girl could ride with her.  Roland and Boston remounted to follow as instructed, but the Sybil paid them no attention at first.  She turned her pony back the way they had come, right out of the village, through the farmland, and right back up the hill to the cliff face border, all the while whispering to Amira like she was already beginning her time of instruction.

            One of the defenders rode off as they arrived.  Several men were walking back down the far side of the hill to the open field.  They could see the army of men still arrayed there, a hundred or more, and Boston and Roland wondered what had transpired.  They did not have time to ask.  The women defenders were too busy bowing their heads to the Sybil and to the elf, and checking their defenses, and the Sybil spoke.

            “Come.”  She led them to a place aside where they could sit among the rocks, face each other and still keep an eye on the men in the plains.

            “You are betrothed?” Amira spoke up as soon as they sat and the Sybil hushed the girl and in a kind way scolded Amira for speaking out of turn while Boston and Roland looked at each other for a long second.

            “I haven’t asked her,” Roland said.

            “I haven’t asked him either,” Boston agreed.

            The Sybil instructed Amira.  “It is not always wise to say everything you see.  You cannot see their faces or the language of their bodies so it will be especially hard for you.  You are young.  You see the love in their hearts, and know it is true and it is exciting and, um, romantic at your age.  I understand.  I was young once myself, believe it or not.  But you must understand that it is not your place to make decisions or to use what you see to manipulate others.  You must never be the decider.  The goddesses will be very cross with you if you try to decide or control things or make them come out the way you want.  We have a Queen who decides.  That is her place.  And people must make their own decisions for their own lives.  You keep your thoughts to yourself.”  The words were sharp, but not cruel.

            “I’m sorry,” Amira responded, and she sounded like she meant it.

            “Besides, that is not what we are here for.”

            “Why are we here?” Roland wanted to change the subject.  He glanced at Boston and saw that she agreed with him.

            “We are here for the magic,” the Sybil said.  “Amira.”  The old woman waited for the young girl to speak.  Amira paused first, like she wanted to get it right and not say too much or too little.

            Amira covered her eyes with her hand as she spoke which said to Boston that the girl could perceive light and dark, and the light might be interfering with her vision.  “There is a man of magic among the men down below.  You are the only two people of magic among us right now.  We ask if you might be willing to, inter…”

            “Interfere.”

            “If you might be willing to interfere with the man’s magic so the events that take place below may happen without interference.”  Amira uncovered her eyes and smiled.

            “It is not the way of the elves to intrude in human events,” Roland answered.  Boston had another thought.

            “I don’t have any magic.”

            “But you do,” Amira blurted out.  “It is more than enough, and I feel it.”

            “Amira!”  The Sybil scolded again and the girl fell silent.  The Sybil turned to Boston.  “I understand in your world magic is considered foolishness.  In you it has been blocked by many things, but mostly by your own thoughts and words.  Your, um, preconceptions.”

            “No, you don’t understand.  I tried to do magic when I was a little girl.  I couldn’t do anything.  Even after I saw what Alexis could do, I still couldn’t do anything at all.”  There was the sound of desperation in Boston’s voice, like she would give anything to be able to do magic.

            “The truth is magic comes with maturity, like the strength of the elect.  I understand in your world by the time people are mature magic is considered a childhood fantasy.  The pressure to be adult is overwhelming and even seeing magic with the evidence of your own eyes, the mind’s way is to invent some reason to explain why she can and you can’t.” 

            “Like reminding yourself that Alexis was once an elf and that must be the source of her magic,” Roland interjected.

            “By the time you were old enough, you were convinced that magic for you was not possible.”

            “You mean?”  Boston did not finish the sentence.  She thought quietly for a second before another thought crossed her mind  “But what about you, don’t you have any magic?  Can’t you take care of whatever it is you need magic for – that man?”

            The Sybil shook her head.  “It is forbidden for a seer to practice magic.  It is also forbidden for an elected one.  The gods are very careful about not concentrating such power in one person’s hands, and would be swift to punish any who try to defy those boundaries.”

            “But.”  Again Boston did not finish her thought before she had another thought.  “What can I do?”  She had no confidence in the matter.

            “By yourself, right now, nothing.  It is up to the elf.  He alone has the power to unblock you and he can teach you all that you need know about the ways of magic to exercise your power.”  The Sybil smiled at the elf.

            Roland felt trapped.  He responded with a frown which he turned first on Amira, though she could not see his face.  He turned the frown to the Sybil and spoke.  “It is also forbidden for elf kind to be involved in the events of women.  But you knew I would do this thing for Boston.  I don’t think I like you.”  He did like the Sybil and thought Amira was precious, but the Sybil had the good sense not to correct him.

            Roland put out his hand, and for the first time Boston hesitated.  She looked the elf in the eyes and found some reassurance there so at last she settled her hand comfortably in his and closed her own eyes.  After a moment she began to glow very softly in a fire yellow, slightly orange color.  She could not see the man or the field or anything like a seer, but she sensed the dark power not far away and with Roland directing, she set her firelight up against that power like a wall.  Roland cheated and added a bit of himself to the wall just to be sure.  That power seemed very dark.

            The wall wavered and nearly fell completely as horses came by.  Boston looked and saw it was Zoe and Katie.  Chloe was riding with Iris.  They were going down the hill and out to the field.  But then Boston closed her eyes again and concentrated and the wall became firm.  She still had her doubts, but could not help thinking about pulling rabbits out of hats for real.

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Avalon 2.4:  Fight to the End … Next Time

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