Sisters

Avalon 2.4: Fight to the End

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            The oldest war of all is that between men and women.

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            Zoe led the others down to the open field and stopped some distance from the line of men.  Chloe and Zoe got down, and Iris held the reins.  Katie stayed up on her big stallion where she could look down on all the others and she held her rifle gently in her arms like a mother might hold a baby, just in case.

            After a short wait, three riders came out from the other side.  Two of them looked like tough old hunters who were no strangers to battle.  The man in the middle looked to be Zoe’s age and appeared in Katie’s mind like the proverbial tall, dark and handsome that she so despised.  That man dismounted when he arrived to face Zoe.

            “The child,” The one who also dismounted to hold the reins recognized Chloe.

            “She is here only to observe,” Zoe said quickly.  “She will be Queen after I am gone and must learn.”

            The dark man paid no attention to the girl.  His eyes were all on Zoe and he stepped up to face her.  He was a head taller than her and looked very strong and in excellent shape for a middle-aged man.  He looked down at her when he spoke.

            “Zoe,” he said.

            “Revelon,” she responded, and they simply looked at each other for a long minute before he spoke again.

            “Are you expecting to die so you have selected a Queen to follow after you?”

            “I am not even expecting to fight unless you insist on the foolishness.”

            Revelon touched his well-trimmed, dark beard that was only just showing signs of the coming gray.  “Lord Ares is not pleased with what you have done, you know.  You stand in the way of wars between many lands and build a nation of women.”  Revelon shivered slightly, turned up his nose and spoke his sentiment.  “It is unnatural.”

            “Ares has no place here,” Zoe said.  “And peace is always better than war.”

            “Ares is welcomed all along the coast of the sea.”

            “And he better not show his face, besides.  He has been warned, you know,” Zoe finished her thought.

            Revelon took one step back.  “I will never understand the attitude you sometimes display toward the gods.  It is a wonder to me why they don’t strike you down dead where you stand.”

            “Because they know I speak out of love,” Zoe said in a very coy voice.

            “What do you know of love?” Revelon suddenly sounded angry.  “You are not haunted by it and unable to sleep,” he yelled.

            “You do not know how I sleep.  Everything haunts me,” she yelled back.

            “But for you, love is a mere moment of passing pleasure.  It is the man, not the woman who goes away feeling ashamed.  It is unnatural.  You are unnatural.”  The man drew his sword and took a great swing at Zoe’s head.  She ducked, stepped back and drew her own sword from across her back.  They went back and forth for a good five minutes, and Zoe got in the stronger blows, but after five minutes, Revelon stepped back and raised his hand.  Zoe waited.

            Revelon threw his broken copper sword away.  The man who was still mounted put a new sword there.  “I brought extras,” Revelon said.

            Zoe lifted her sword and looked at it.  “Bronze,” she said with a glance at Katie.  “That won’t happen for another thousand years.

            “It is a wonder to remember that some of the gods actually like you.”

            “Hephaestus does good work,” Zoe said, and they started again.  This time they traded barbs between swings.  They got nasty, personal and ugly.  And it went on for another five minutes before there was an explosion in the rear among the men.  Everyone stopped and a beautiful young woman appeared behind Chloe.  She put her hands on Chloe’s shoulders and looked around.  Iris went straight to her knees.

            “Hello Chloe, Zoe, Katie,” the woman said.  She knew them all, well.

            Katie squinted, but recognized something in the bow, the dark hair and sparkling eyes.  She swallowed before she said the woman’s name.  “Artemis.”  Artemis smiled for her and she smiled down at Chloe who took one look with her mouth open and then closed her eyes like she was waiting to see if those soft, motherly hands on her shoulders were going to hurt.

            “Poor Boston couldn’t keep the wall up any longer, and Roland refused to help her more,” Artemis reported.  She looked at the two men with Revelon and they jumped.  All of their weapons vanished.  “I hate poison knives.  That’s cheating.”

            “What?” Revelon was too angry to think straight.  “So you blew up my sorcerer?”

            “No, I did that,” a man said as he appeared on the men’s side of the action.  “I hate magic.  That’s cheating.”

            “Ares,” Zoe named the man and she did not say the name like he was a particular friend at the moment.

            Revelon’s anger finally overflowed.  He threw his weapon away and took a swing at Zoe’s head with his fist.  Zoe dropped her weapon and swung back.  Revelon got in a few good hits, but again Zoe got the better of it.  She beat the man.  He kept trying to grab her to wrestle, believing his weight would prove to his advantage, but Zoe used the man’s weight against him and tossed him in several directions.  Still, he got up and came back for more. 

            At last he grabbed Zoe by the shoulders, and though she tossed him, this time he did not let go.  When he landed on his back, Zoe landed on top of him, and they stopped and lay there, face to face for a long time.  Revelon finally spoke.

            “Can I at least see our daughter?”

            “Of course,” Zoe said as she appeared to squirm a little to find a more comfortable position.  “You know the rules.”

            “Come alone and unarmed,” he said and Zoe nodded.  “But you know I could steal a weapon after I arrive.”  He was being clever.

            “You would not live long enough to make it out of the valley.”

            “I will not be a consort.”

            “I don’t want a consort.”

            “Good, so we understand each other,” Revelon said and he reached his hand behind Zoe’s head to draw down her lips.  After that it was hard to tell who kissed who more passionately.

            Chloe turned away embarrassed, and Artemis looked away with her.  “I agree,” the goddess said.

            “I hate happy endings,” Ares said and disappeared.

            Revelon and Zoe stood and immediately turned away from each other.  Zoe retrieved her sword while Revelon made sure there were no stray weapons to be found on his person or the back of his horse.  Katie holstered her rifle as Revelon turned to his men.  “Tell the men the bitch defeated me once again.  Tell them to wait, I will be back in a few hours.”  Zoe coughed.  “Tell them I’ll be back in the morning.”

            Zoe gave Artemis a sisterly kiss on the cheek and Artemis kissed her in return before she vanished.  Iris got up, but looked reluctant to touch Chloe so Katie called her over so she could ride with her.  It was four horses that climbed back up the hillside, Katie with Chloe, Zoe, Iris and a humble Revelon.

            The Sybil took Amira on her pony again.  Roland tied the reins of Boston’s horse to his saddle and picked up the sleeping Boston very gently.  He cradled her in his arms as they followed the procession back to the village.

###

            Lockhart filled Elder Stow’s tankard with that poor ale they were drinking.  The Gott-Druk had no jokes to tell.  He swore his people had no sense of humor, but he laughed readily enough, and all the more as he drank, even if he did not drink much.  The four woman escort them stayed with them as well as the husband and wife that brought all the food, and they laughed as well, no matter how bawdy the jokes got.

            One of the escort got close to Lincoln and only looked slightly disappointed when he said he was married.  Two of the others cozied up to Lockhart and they were not at all put off when he said he was seeing someone.

            “Harper?”  Lincoln asked.

            “Of course Harper,” Elder Stow yelled.  “Your human eyes are too small.  The mother-father relationship is as plain as can be to my big eyes.”

            “Oh, I see it,” Lincoln responded.  “I just wanted to see if Lockhart might be too embarrassed to admit it.”

            Lockhart said nothing.  He was feeling very much like a sixty-eight year old man.  Then he thought of Katie and felt like a teenager.  It was confusing.

            The door opened and Zoe came in followed by a man with a little girl in his arms.  The escort slid away from Lockhart and Lincoln and looked a little embarrassed, especially when Elder Stow laughed.  The couple that brought the food stood, bowed and exited no doubt to get more food.

            “Fine chefs you have,” Lincoln told Zoe, but before she could answer, two women came in carrying a cot.  Roland followed with a sleeping Boston that he laid down gently and covered with a blanket.  Katie came in next and went straight to Lockhart.

            “Sadie Hawkins,” she said and bent down to plant one right on his lips before she moved a chair up to sit beside him.

            “I said I was seeing someone,” Lockhart told the young women who looked at each other and scooted a bit further away from the elect.

            The Sybil was the last to come in.  She had an arm around each of the sisters, Chloe and Amira.  They looked happy, and Chloe began to cry.  This caused Katie and Zoe to both turn to her, but Amira stopped them with her hand and her word.

            “It’s okay.  She is just so happy to be home.”  And Chloe nodded and proceeded to hug everyone in the room, except maybe Revelon and Elder Stow.

            “I like this place,” Lincoln slurred through his ale.  “It is quiet.  Nothing ever happens here.”  He laid his head down on the table and shortly began to snore, and the two women who brought in the cot were sent to fetch some more.

###

            Depression, anxiety and a little dementia are hard to cope with, especially when there is not a convenient pharmacy on the local street corner.  Heck, around 3650 BC there aren’t even any streets, or corners for that matter.  But when the dementia strikes the Kairos, that means the travelers need to figure out this time zone on their own.

Avalon 2.5:  Broken Days … Next Time.

…

Amazon 2.4: A Country for Young Women

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

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            With the help of the Amazons, the travelers outrun the “bad men” to the safety of the Amazon border, only now they are curious and a bit concerned to see what this fabled land contains.

###

            The travelers, the old woman and a half-dozen young women rode down into a valley full of huts, simple homes and farmland.  Both the village and the distant sea – the Black Sea could be seen from the heights but both disappeared behind the horizon as they came down the hill.  The mountains turned out to be off to their right and still some distance away.  The coast land was hilly, but held the promise of several such fertile valleys.

            There were men in that valley, not nearly equal in number to the women, but some were armed.  One looked like he just returned from a hunt and arrived in time to kiss his wife.  The people gave no notice to the group of armed women on horseback.  They did show some interest in the strangers, though the travelers all supposed it was the mustangs they were really interested in.

            As they approached the village, Katie perked up her nose.  “Foundary,” she said, and amended her word.  “Blacksmith.”

            “Not iron,” Lockhart said, but it was a question.

            “Probably copper, tin and other soft metals.  But just so you know, I don’t intend to leave here without taking a good look.”

            “And the potter,” Iris said and she looked back at the couple.  “My sister is the potter.”

            “I thought all Amazons were like sisters,” Lockhart said, and again it was a question.

            “After a fashion,” Iris responded.  “But some of us are blood as well.”

            “I want to see it all,” Chloe said, but she had to hold on to her seat.  She was not used to horses and Iris’ pony was not as easy a ride as Katie’s with the saddle.

            Boston and Lincoln flanked the old woman who now rode more comfortably at a walking pace.  Roland on the outside held tight to Amira who turned her head everyway as if she was looking at it all and not blind.

            “We are a society of women,” the old woman explained.  Once again she paused to find the right word.  “A matriarchy.  We always have a Queen who may have a consort.  But we treat our men as equals.  There are no slaves here.”

            “Good to know,” Lincoln said.  “My wife would be happy here.”

            “Your wife would be happy where you are,” the old woman responded.  “She is not happy now, but she is remembering.  Give it time.”

            “Be patient?”  Boston was kidding.

            “Little Fire,” the old woman called her.  “If you lived here, that would be your name.”

            “I like that name,” Amira spoke up as Boston turned to look at Roland.

            “It matches your hair,” Roland said.

            “So maybe I’ll shave my head,” Boston responded and Amira and the old woman spoke as one.

            “See?”  It was like she proved their point.

            “But how is it that this land came to be?”  Katie took everyone’s attention.  “And why are there so many women and so many young ones that are mostly girls as far as I can tell.”

            “It is our Queen who saved us from death,” Iris said and then quieted as the old woman coughed and spoke up.  She spoke as loud as she could and even some of the escort leaned in to hear.

            “It began some twenty years ago when a plague devastated the residents of this place.  We are surrounded by many gods and many worlds.  Cimmerians and Scythians to the East with the lands of the Brahmin.  Slavic tribes of all sorts and Asians ride across the northern plains.  Germans rule in the West with the Greeks.  South is the land of the Tigris and Euphrates and the many diverse gods there that stretch all the way to a city I have heard of called Jericho.  South and east also is the no-one’s land of Persia.  This land is in the middle of it all.

            “All of the gods of these worlds around us sent people to attack each other across the borders and over time we became too small in number to defend ourselves and keep the border secure.  When the plague attacked us, we believed it was the end for us, but the gods had something else in mind.  It was the goddesses in particular who saw the real danger in these endless wars.  They feared the gods themselves might go to war and destroy the earth.  They decided a buffer was in order.  Buffer is what Queen Zoe calls it.

            “It was Zoe, the Queen who convinced the goddesses to give her the land.  Then, by her great power, she sent her little ones in search of babies.  All over the world people pray for sons.  Daughters are tolerated, but sometimes they are set out on the rocks to die.  The little ones saved those girls and brought them here to be raised.  My Queen has said it has not done her little ones good in their reputation, to be seen as baby stealers, but now we have a safe place for women to live, though we treat our men well.”

            “So that is why the eldest is generally eighteen or younger,” Boston said.

            “But you are older,” Katie pointed out.

            “Yes, I survived the plague, and there are others, but soon enough we will pass away and this great buffer land will belong to the Amazons and to their daughters.  May they stay ever strong to defend the borders and may the whole council of goddesses from all the halls of all the worlds around speak ever of peace.”

            “So what?”  Boston was listening, but also thinking that whole time.  “We left the Neolithic and suddenly we found civilization?”

            “No,” Katie said.  “Different parts of the world discover things at different rates.  Some only learn of things like horses by trade.  Here they have pottery and plows, copper swords and copper tipped arrows, but that is simply several things, not exactly civilization.  Really, it is only one thing, learning how to make a fire hot enough.  Hot enough to heat metal for shaping is hot enough to bake pots, so it kind of goes together.”

            “So here copper is King,” Lincoln concluded.

            Boston corrected him.  “Here I think copper is Queen.”

 ###

Avalon 2.4:  The Elect … Next Time

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Avalon 2.4: One Side of the Coin

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

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            Roughly 5715 years in the past and 97 time zones from home, the travelers try to avoid interaction with the locals, and especially violence that might leave a mark on the future, but when two young girls invade their camp and ask for help against the “bad men,” what can they do?

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            Roland moved out into the dark.  He had the speed, eyes and ears, but was willing to admit in this situation he would not have minded Captain Decker’s help.  Fortunately, they were far enough from the Black Sea to not have the air filled with salt and sea breezes.  He had no dwarf’s nose.  He had to get clear of the cooking fire to pick up anything at all, even anything as smelly as unwashed human males.

            It turned out the men, a dozen, were not hard to find, and not far away.  They had seen the fire in the distance and stopped only to argue about whose fire it might be.  They feared it belonged to what they called the women, and Roland understood they were not talking about the girls in the camp.

            “That blind one gives me the creeps,” one man said.

            “We should kill it,” another suggested.

            “No,” a third protested.  “It may be useful, if properly broken, like a good horse.”

            Roland left them to argue, but he knew they would be along soon enough.  He went back and told the others and they set something of a trap.  The horses were moved to the other side of the clearing in which they camped.  The men backed away from the fire so they would be hidden by the dark.  Boston, Katie and the girls stayed by the fire and talked.  They were the bait. 

            Boston fingered her Beretta.  Katie had her pistol and her army knife just in case.  An escape route had also been planned in case they had to run.  It was where they could get to safety without running across anyone’s line of fire.  And so they waited.

            Lockhart whispered to Lincoln.  “It’s damn cold out here.  After the last time zone I thought I might never say that again.”  Lincoln said nothing, and Lockhart guessed he was still thinking about Alexis

            “It is chilly,” Roland answered for them all as he moved closer to the Gott-Druk to give his arrows the widest possible angle.  Lockhart looked at Elder Stow, but then Lincoln did say something.

            “He has on a space suit.  Even the vacuum of space would not feel cold to him.”

            “Oh,” Lockhart responded before he fell silent.

            It seemed an eternity, but it was less than fifteen minutes before the men came to the clearing.  Only four walked into the light at first, but Lockhart could make out the outline of the others fairly well.  They were clearly not soldiers.

            “You might as well all step into the light.” Katie, who was a Marine, faced the men and spoke before the men could speak.  The men were too busy trying to look intimidating.  “We were beginning to think you would not get here.”

            “Amazon,” the front man, a big, ugly bald headed man spoke up.  “Give us the girls and we will leave in peace.”

            “Why?”  Boston stood beside Katie which hid Amira and Chloe behind her.  She fingered her Beretta while Katie had her pistol still holstered.

            The man looked like he felt he should not have to explain himself.  “Because, they belong to us and to our village.”

            “All people belong to themselves,” Katie countered.  “Maybe they quit your village.”

            The man looked flummoxed.  “You can’t quit your village.”

            “Maybe they just don’t like you,” Boston suggested.

            “Maybe we will just take them,” the man countered.  “You are two.  We are ten.”

            “Do you think we are the only two here?  Count our tents.  You can count?” Katie asked.

            “Roland.”  Boston called and an arrow sped through the dark and landed perfectly between the man’s feet.  He jumped back, and several others at the edge of the firelight stepped back as well.

            “We are more than two,” Katie took a step forward.  “Chloe and Amira will stay with us.  You would be wise to leave now while you can.”

            The men thought about it, looked at each other and jumped for the girls.  One grabbed Chloe’s hand while she was getting up to escort Amira to safety.  Boston took Amira.  Katie kicked that man in the gut hard enough to bowl over the two behind him, and Chloe was free.  A second man swung a club at Katie’s face, but she ducked, pulled her knife and cut that man across his cheek.  Her bullet discouraged another as she grabbed for Chloe and the guns started to go off around her.

            Chloe just stood there and watched, mesmerized.  As a man tried to grab her, she kicked as Katie had.  That man also flew back to knock over several others.  Then Katie caught Chloe and they were swallowed up by the dark.  A few men fell to the gunfire, but most of them turned and ran when they saw the blood pouring from their comrades and neighbors.

            “I thought you said they were afraid of the women?”  Boston was not exactly yelling at Roland, but she was certainly expressing her fear.

            “It was a calculated risk,” Lockhart said as he stepped into the light to check on the fallen men.  “Double watch tonight.  Roland and Boston first.  I’ll wait while Roland sweeps the area.  I want to be sure they are gone.  Katie and I will take the dark of the night.  Lincoln, do you mind watching with Elder Stow?”

            Lincoln glanced at the Gott-Druk.  “That would be fine,” he said.  He was not getting adjusted to working with the Neanderthal, he confessed privately.  He would just rather see it coming when the Gott-Druk turned on them.

            “And I should watch?”  Elder Stow sounded surprised.

            “Of course,” Lockhart said.  “It is your life too, if they come back.”

            “Thank you,” Elder Stow said, and no one wanted to ask why he should be grateful.

            Meanwhile, there were three dead men around the fire and two wounded. One man caught a bullet in the shoulder, but it went clean through.  They patched him.  They also bandaged the one who had a bullet crease his thigh.  They could walk, well one limped with help.  Lockhart only told them one thing.

            “Don’t come back.”

            When Roland returned and reported that the rest of the men were still running, He, Lockhart and Lincoln dragged the dead a good distance from the camp where they might be found by the fleeing men.  If those men came back, the sight of their dead might deter them.  Then again, it was only right they should be able to bury their own dead.

            All this time, Chloe hung on Katie’s elbow.  “Would you teach me to fight?  That is a magic knife.  What kind of weapons were those you were using.”  Katie expected the words awesome and wicked to escape the girl’s mouth any minute.  Finally, she sat the girl down beside Boston who cried because of the dead.  Then she spoke.

            “Every human life is precious.  Where would you be if your parents decided to kill Amira when she was born simply because she was born blind?  We protected you because your lives are precious.  So far, that has cost three lives and wounded two others.  Are you worth that?  Are your two lives worth the lives of three others?  Think about that.”  She went to finish setting up Decker’s tent which they decided would do for the girls in the night.  Chloe did think about it, and listened when Elder Stow spoke to Boston.

            “Did you cry like that when you killed my children?”

            “Actually, yes, a little.” Boston answered.  It was impossible to tell what the Gott-Druk thought about that answer, but then Roland, Lockhart and Lincoln came back, and Amira, who had been exceptionally quiet all that time spoke up.

            “I shall sleep very well tonight,” she said.  “And thank you very much for saving us.”

            “Yes, thanks.” Chloe echoed.  She was still thinking about her price.  The village men might have sold her for a cow.  Now three of them were dead instead.

###

Avalon 2.4:  The Other Side of the Coin … Next Time

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Avalon 2.4: Amazon

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

 

After 3735 BC near the Black Sea.  Kairos: Zoe, the Amazon Queen

 

Recording… 

            “Chloe, over here.  This way is safe.”  The nine-year-old tugged on her twelve-year-old sister’s hand.

            “Amira, hush.  They will hear you,” Chloe said, but she followed in Amira’s intended direction though Amira was blind.

            “Chloe, what do you see?”

            “Nothing.  It is only dark night.”

            “Not see with your eyes, silly.  I mean what do you feel?”

            Chloe wrinkled her nose at her sister.  Amira asked questions like that knowing full well that Chloe had no such gift.  Only Amira could see things in the dark as easily as the light.  Only Amira had the eyes to see inside people to know their true heart, though she had no eyes to see at all.  Only Amira felt things like that, sometimes even glimpses of the future.  Chloe was just an ordinary girl with ordinary eyes, but Amira asked anyway.

            “I feel fear,” Chloe said.  “We lost the men in the dark, but they have not given up.  We must not stop.  We have to keep moving.”

            “Not behind, silly.  What do you feel ahead of us?”

            Chloe looked back before she made an effort to look ahead.  She saw or felt nothing in particular but more forest and treacherous little ridges like the one they were on.  They were ridges that would surely injure them in the dark if Chloe was not careful.

            “I’m sorry.  I see only dark, now can we move?”

            “Oh, Chloe.  You hardly try,” Amira scolded her big sister.  “I feel a warm fire and good people who will help us against the dark and the bad men.  I can smell the deer cooking and a treat of grain, elf grown grain made delicious.”

            “By magic, I am sure.”  Chloe looked back once more and strained her ears.

            “They are true people of power.  We must go to them.  They will protect us,” Amira said, and Chloe caught her blind sister before she stepped off the ridge and tumbled and fell twenty feet to the forest floor.  There was an easier way down if Chloe was careful.

            It was not long before Chloe caught a glimpse of the camp fire through the trees, and not much longer before she smelled the roasting meat.  Her stomach grumbled, but it only made Amira laugh.  “But can we trust these people?”  Chloe had to ask.

            “We must,” Amira answered with a knowing smile, and in the end she was the one who dragged her sister into the camp without so much as a “Hello, may we join you?”

            The travelers were surprised, but hardly knew what to do as the two young women walked right into their midst.  The young one had her older sister by the hand and pulled her right up to Katie Harper where she made the introductions.

            “Chloe, this is the second elected one in all the world, and now you are the third.  You must listen to what she says in the short time you have.  Listen to her and her man, for they are wise beyond our years.  Sit.” And the younger one made a reluctant Chloe sit beside Katie.  “My name is Amira, and we are very hungry.”

            Roland, Lincoln and Elder Stow all leapt for the deer to cut pieces to share.  Boston went for the girl and found a place for her to sit.  As she did, she looked close, waved her hand to be sure and then turned to Lockhart with a surprising pronouncement.  “She is blind.”

            “She has always been blind,” Chloe said quickly.  “But she sees better and more than most.”

            “My name is Katie and this is Robert,” Katie said.

            “Lockhart,” he said of himself.

            Chloe nodded, but looked suddenly shy and was glad when Lincoln handed her a piece of meat and some bread.  Chloe touched the bread.  She sniffed it.  “Grain of the elves,” she named it.

            “Yes,” Katie responded.  “How did you know?”

            “Amira told me before we even found your fire.”  She looked at her sister and ate hungrily.  Amira was right about that, too.  They were starving.

            Amira also ate, but more slowly.  It was like she was too busy sensing other things to eat too quickly.  She spoke between bites.  “Elder and elf, please do not frighten my sister.”  She shook her finger at the two before she took another bite, but that only brought something else to mind.

            “Elder Stow and Roland,” Boston managed to say.  “I am Boston and the other man is Lincoln.”

            “Lincoln!” Amira spoke too loud before she turned again toward the elf.  “No, Roland, your sister is remembering, I think.  She disguised herself like an elf the way you disguised yourself like a person.  No one will bother her or her father.”

            “Are they near?”  Lincoln jumped into the conversation.

            “I do not know,” Amira said as she thought about it.  “I cannot judge near and far well at all.  Everything I see seems near to me.”

            Boston turned to face the girl.  “You are what, eleven?  Twelve?”

            “I’m twelve,” Chloe said.  She was beginning to fill up and so inclined to relax a little.  “Amira is only nine.”

            “I bet I can guess how old you are,” Amira said.

            “Don’t bet,” Chloe said.  “Amira only says that when she already knows the answer.”

            Amira stuck out her tongue  in her sister’s direction and lifted her hand to touch Boston on the face.  She touched.  Looked worried.  Touched again.  “Stop it,” she yelled.  “Your age won’t keep still.  I don’t understand.”  The poor girl got upset.

            “That is because I was twenty-five, and then about twenty two or so and then I got very old just recently, only now I get to be young again.  I don’t even know how old I am.”

            “Nineteen?” Lincoln guessed.

            “I would guess closer to eighteen,” Roland countered.  Boston just shrugged.

            “Oh, I see,” Amira started to say something, but then all she could do was say, “I see, oh I see.”  She got really upset and Chloe stood, but Boston hugged the girl and said it would be alright and hush, so Chloe sat down again.  “Angel,” Amira said and cried.  Boston handled it well, almost as well as Alexis might have handled it.

            “So what did she mean, elected?”  Katie asked.

            Chloe shrugged and did not give her full attention until she knew Amira was going to be alright.

            “Better question,” Lockhart interrupted.  “Why were you two girls out in the woods at night alone?”

            “We were running away,” Chloe spoke with some surprise.  “I thought you would know.”

            Katie and Lockhart shook their heads and the others perked up their ears. 

            “Yes.  Mother was killed and the bad men want to sell us, except Amira they might keep or just kill because of her eyes, you know.”

            No one needed to hear anymore.  Lockhart got his shotgun, Katie her rifle.  Lincoln had Decker’s rifle near and checked his pistol.  Boston had her hands full, but Roland eyed his stock of arrows before he checked his blades.  Elder Stow pulled out his sonic device and shrugged.  It was not much on flesh, but it might do in a pinch.

 ###

Avalon 2.4:  One Side of the Coin … Next Time