Werewolf

Avalon 1.12 The Name of the Game part 3 of 4

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

At three in the morning, Lockhart woke Roland and Captain Decker to take their shift and the horses got restless. Boston and Katie jumped right up.

“Better than watchdogs,” Boston said, as she started with her own horse and worked her way down the line.

“Something is moving around out there,” Mingus reported. Lockhart nodded and spoke.

“Decker, that side. Roland, this side. Mingus and I will watch from the camp. Don’t engage, just try to find out what it is and where it is headed.” He knew Decker, the marine and Roland the hunter were the two best suited for the work. They nodded, both instantly wide-awake, and headed out, silently.

The quiet returned for a few minutes, which felt like hours, before something stood only a few feet from Lockhart. The bear growled, an exceptionally big bear, and it looked like it wanted their leftovers. Lockhart had his shotgun and did not hesitate, but it only appeared to make the bear mad. It roared. Alexis shouted.

“Get out of there!”

Boston grabbed two horses to keep them from running off. Lincoln shrieked and shuffled away from the beast. Mingus ran back as several shots came from a marine rifle and put the beast down. Lockhart needed to empty another shotgun slug to finish the job. Then he looked around. Boston, Lincoln, and Alexis had the horses. Katie Harper stood right beside him with her rifle.

“Thanks,” Lockhart said.

“Anytime, Robert,” Katie responded with a look up at his face and in his eyes.

Roland and Captain Decker immediately came back, of course, but their reports brought no comfort.

“I guess this is what I heard,” Mingus pointed at the bear. Both Roland and Captain Decker shook their heads in response.

“I saw a man, essentially naked, who ran off into the distance at the sound of the gunfire. I could not catch him and come back here at the same time,” Roland said. “My guess is the wolf man.”

“I saw movement near the trees,” Decker said flatly. “It appeared to be human in shape. It might have been orange, but I did not get a good look.”

“Great!” Lincoln said, once they dragged the bear carcass downwind and the horses settled down again. “Something to look forward to running into tomorrow.” Mostly, they ignored him.

Everyone went to bed after that, except Captain Decker and Roland who went on watch. The captain headed to the tree side of the camp so he could keep an eye on the forest. He got out his night goggles just in case. Roland pulled his knife to skin the bear and cut what he could for the next day. The bear turned out to be a tough old beast, so they left most of it for whatever animals might stake a claim. Probably the night creatures, he imagined, if any of the bear was still there the following night.

It turned four-thirty when the horses became unsettled again. Boston huffed, “Now what?”

Captain Decker walked out on the perimeter. He felt something he felt before and growled silently. He slammed on his night goggles and headed out toward what he believed was the source. Almost at once, he dropped to a knee and fired. He felt fairly sure he did not hit anything, and then it was gone. Naturally, when he got back to the camp, he found everyone awake.

“Ghoul.” That was all he had to say.

“Good, that’s everybody,” Lincoln said. “Now I can get some sleep.”

“That’s the trouble with being so popular,” Alexis said.

~~~*~~~

The next day, they traveled in a slow but a steady pace. The horses walked, and sometimes they walked the horses. Boston commented that it looked to her like the Kairos had to be moving south because they were getting closer to the gate faster then she calculated they should.

Mingus said nothing that day. He stole occasional glances at Alexis who rode contentedly beside Lincoln, and Roland, especially when he nudged forward to ride beside Boston. Lockhart noticed, but he stayed quiet as well. In fact, since Captain Decker had taken the mantle of occasional quips, he found he had little to say. He did not mind the conversation when Katie rode beside him, but otherwise he stayed as quiet as Mingus, so he did not think much about it.

For lunch, they sheltered in a hollow full of trees. The horses were left to wander for the first time, but they needed the grazing time and at some point, they had to trust their instincts. They knew they were each tied to their horse. The horses would not wander off on their own, and since all around the hollow they had good pasturage and open fields, where no predator could sneak up on them, they let them lunch as well.

“I’m only sorry we don’t have something more scrumptious, like oats for them to munch on.” Katie felt like talking, though she directed most of it toward Lockhart.

“Apples would be nice,” Boston suggested.

“Or a sugar cube,” Lincoln decided. “I could really go for a chocolate bar right now. Alexis?”

“I think you’re mean even bringing up chocolate. I’m trying to break the habit.”

“Well, I think I’ve decided,” Captain Decker said. When they all looked at him, he spoke again. “I think I’m going to call my horse Weber.” Everyone understood that was commentary on the man, but Mingus spoke first.

“You are naming your horse?”

“Why not? The women have all named theirs.”

“Misty,” Alexis said, of her gray.

“Beauty,” Katie said. “I liked Black Beauty when I was a child.”

“Honey,” Boston said. “Because he’s sweet.”

The women looked at Lincoln. “Cortez,” Lincoln mumbled the name before he spoke up. “It was the name of a horse I once rode.”

“Valiant,” Roland said with a look in Boston’s direction. Mingus erupted.

“Elves don’t name their horses.” He stood. “What is wrong with us? Alexis, what is wrong with you, and Roland, too. We are elves, not stinking mortals. What are we doing here, hanging out with humans? We are becoming just like them, foolish, stubborn, and stupid. I studied them and their history for centuries, and sure, some of them had to rub off on me. Not to my betterment, mind you. But I never expected it to pass on to my children. Okay, so everything I studied was wrong—”

“Not wrong, father,” Alexis interrupted.

Mingus raised his hands. “Okay, but terribly incomplete. Most of what I learned is in the database there that pinhead is carrying.”

“Father!”

“He was a pinhead when you married him. I don’t see any great changes since then.”

“Father!”

“Oh, Alexis. Someone needs to wake you up.” He threw his hands down and stomped off.

“Roland,” Alexis spoke sharply, and Roland hesitated halfway through standing up. “He just has some steam to blow off. Leave him alone. It will pass.” Roland sat down, and they all got quiet until Katie nudged Lockhart.

“So, what are you naming yours?”

“Dog,” Lockhart said.

“Dog?”

Boston laughed. “You can’t name a horse Dog.”

Lockhart whistled and Dog came trotting right up to him. “Any questions? Time to go.”

That afternoon, they paused because of a distant sound of engines. Lockhart thought they had better play it safe. “Cover,” he said, and they made for a stand of trees. They dismounted and walked their horses into the stand and waited, eyes on the sky. After a moment, they were not disappointed. A shuttle of some kind passed overhead.

“A step up from the one we saw in Odelion’s time,” Lincoln whispered, though he hardly had to whisper considering the whine the shuttle made.

“What do you think?” Lockhart turned to the marine captain with something else on his mind.

“Definitely landing. It is coming down somewhere ahead of us.”

“Probably intend to cut us off and catch us just before dark,” Katie added.

“They have made us,” Lincoln said, and stepped out from among the trees.

“I would guess, yes,” Lockhart said, as he followed and mounted.

“Roland and I need to take the point to try and find them before they find us,” Lincoln finished his thought, and added another. “I’ve done this kind of work before.”

Lockhart looked at Captain Decker, but the captain shook his head.

“I would be no help on horseback,” he admitted.

Lincoln nodded, leaned over, and gave Alexis a fat kiss on the lips before he started out. Roland stared back at Boston but waited for Lincoln. “The man is full of hidden talents,” Alexis said with a grin. Mingus looked like he had not finished steaming yet.

Lincoln came galloping back after only two hours. They still had a couple of hours before dark, but he had a report. “They are up ahead at the end of a long, open space. At this end is a small hill and a great boulder. Roland and I figure we can camp at the bottom of the hill, on this side of the stone. We can tie off the horses with their backs to the boulder to protect them better in the night, and the hill should hide our camp and campfire. Maybe we can meet the Gott-Druk in the morning.”

“Maybe when we don’t show up, they will come out to find us,” Captain Decker suggested.

“And maybe they will leave because it isn’t us they are looking for anyway,” Lockhart countered. “It’s a good plan, as far as it goes.” So that is what they did.

Of course, Lincoln had to have the final say for the night. “You know I won’t sleep a wink knowing that they are there.”

Alexis just pulled him down to the blanket, pulled her blanket on top of them, curled up half on top of him and said, “Good night,” thereby getting in the actual final words.

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

MONDAY

Battle and Loki. Don’t miss it. Until then, Happy Reading

*

Avalon 1.10 Kidnapped part 4 of 5

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

It did not take long, before a wolf came back with five more wolves in tow. The big one appeared to be a red wolf instead of brown, gray or black. It looked covered in red fur, but they did not get a good look in the night because the minute it spied the strangers it transformed from wolf to woman. That transformation happened very fast, but it looked smooth and painless and appeared fascinating to watch.

“Lockhart.” The woman, Faya, recognized him right away. “What is the trouble?”

Lockhart could not answer. Faya had long, flaming red hair, and indeed had a beauty and projected a desirability, something like the goddess Innan, and certainly made of the same stuff. She glowed much stronger than Raini, like she had swallowed a piece of the full moon and it kept escaping through her every poor. She made some effort to tone things down, but by then Mingus stepped up to answer.

“We met three men when we came into this time zone, and they kindly guided us to your mountain village. But when we arrived and became occupied at the gate, they grabbed Boston and went back into the wild. No one noticed for some time as we waited for your cousin Raini to arrive. By the time we realized Boston was missing, they had an hour or so head start. Raini and Roland have followed after them. Master Koren was kind enough to bring us here so we might find you.”

“Children, show yourselves.” Faya did not wait to hear more. She clapped her hands and the four wolves that came with her transformed into two beautiful young women and two fine looking young men. The eldest and youngest were the girls, the eldest being perhaps twenty-three, or Boston’s age. She clearly took after her mother, red hair and all, though not so strong. They guessed the youngest, maybe fifteen, took after her father.

“Children. You must go with Uncle Koren and escort our friends back to the village.” Faya turned to the travelers. “It is not safe for you on the plateau. The night is still young, but as the night wears on and the moon rises, the blood lust of the wolf will increase and anything that is not of the Were will not be safe.”

“Mother!” One of the boys, likely the elder wanted to protest.

“Go.” Mother was not going to argue.

“Scout.” She turned to the wolf who brought her. “Fly back to the tower and tell my beast we are seeking the one taken and pray we find her before it is too late. The rest of you, I ask you to forego the wolf for a time on this one night. I need the eyes of the owl and the raven in the dark.” Every one of the wolves that were present transformed directly from wolf to bird—and birds that were bigger than any bird ought to be. One took off for the tower, even as Faya herself became a red owl. Then her flock headed into the sky to be lost in the darkness as Faya’s eldest daughter spoke.

“This way,” she said, and smiled a most attractive smile.

“Yes,” Koren said with a look around at the trees. “I have found it is best to listen to Faya.”

“Beast?” Alexis caught the word and wondered about it.

“Of course,” Lincoln nudged her. “Beauty always marries the beast.”

~~~*~~~

Roland and Raini came to the river and paused. “I thought we would catch that werewolf,” Raini said, with a quick look around.

“It must have run a different route. We were not following the wolf,” Roland said.

“Yes, but I imagined the wolf would pick up the spoor of the three men and young woman. I thought we might follow the wolf straight to them.”

“After you, it might have felt safer going after a deer,” Roland said, not really in the conversation. He examined the bank of the river and came to a conclusion. “They have a boat.”

“I don’t see it across the river,” Raini said, as she extended her senses to take in the far side.

“They may have pulled it up on the bank and covered it with branches and leaves to make it hard to find,” Roland suggested.

“But that would imply they are intelligent.”

Roland almost smiled. “Not intelligent, but clever, perhaps.”

Raini returned the smile to the elf and then some. “So, when are you going to tell this girl that you love her?” Roland paused to look at the woman. “I can’t help it,” she apologized. “My mother’s blood shows me things about love that others cannot see.”

Roland bowed his head to the demi-goddess before he responded with a word. “Never.”

“Oh, that would not do at all.” Raini played with him now.

Roland took a second to explain about his sister Alexis and Lincoln, and how they ended up so far back in time. “I could never do that to my father.”

“Give love a chance,” Raini encouraged. “Your father is grown and can handle more than you think.” With that, she raced across the top of the water, hardly getting her feet wet in the process. After a moment, Roland did the same.

~~~*~~~

Thag held the boat while Bruten shoved Boston to the shore. “Grogor. You and Thag need to cover the boat with branches so it is not seen.” He shoved Boston and kept shoving her to keep her feet moving up the small hill. He only paused when he imagined a great splash on the other side of the river. He looked but saw nothing in the dark and finally decided he was being paranoid.

By the time they started down the other side of the little hill, Thag and Grogor had caught up.

Boston saw a flat rock at the bottom of the hill, something like a stone of sacrifice. When they got close, Boston thought she saw some dried blood on the stone. She also thought that now she would add her blood as well. She already bled from any number of places and felt weak because of it. Bruten made her sit on the rock and hit her several times, just because he could. She became dizzy and fell back. Her head struck the stone as she fell, but it felt no harder than Bruten’s fist. Boston went unconscious for a time.

“Now we will take the source of her power,” Bruten said, and they pulled off Boston’s clothes, starting with her top. Bruten immediately took the amulet from around her neck and stepped into the clear to get a good look at it in the moonlight. Thag and Grogor finished undressing Boston and got excited. Thag only paused and turned away when he thought he heard something.

“Father. I want her. Can I take her, Father? I want her. Please father.” The young man could hardly contain himself.

“What was that?” Thag spoke at the same time and took two steps back the way they had come.

Bruten ignored them both, his eyes focused on the amulet as if staring at it might suddenly make him understand it. “Yes, son.” He spoke without thinking.

“No, please. Help me.” Boston said weakly, as the young man got close and slapped both hands to her breasts. He appeared to stop. He turned away before he could do anything else, and Boston could not focus well enough to see what was happening.

Grogor faced his father. He floated a foot off the ground; a horn stuck right through his middle where it made a big hole in his chest. “Father,” he managed the word and Bruten looked on in horror as the unicorn tossed Grogor from his horn with a flip of its head. Grogor crashed into a bush like a rag doll. No one imagined he was still alive.

Thag might have done something then, but he became occupied by the snarling, drooling creature that came down the hill. The unicorn backed up to protect Boston, while the werewolf paused to take in the scene. Thag panicked as the fear took him, and he turned and ran off into the wilderness. Bruten kept perfectly still and watched. The werewolf continued to stare at the unicorn for a moment. Then once again, whether by some inner knowledge that it was outmatched, or because it saw Thag as easier prey, it ran after the man. Again, no one imagined that the wolf would not catch the man.

When the unicorn turned again to look, Bruten had started to climb the hill as fast as he could, making for the boat. The unicorn let the man go and turned to Boston. It used its horn to toss Boston’s clothes back to her chest. The fairy weave clothing reformed around Boston’s body.  It covered her in a dress from neck to ankles, and with long sleeves. She had ballet slippers on her feet but hardly felt aware enough to notice any of it. Then the unicorn got down in front, and Boston slipped off the rock and on to the unicorn’s back. It started out at a gentle walk and carried her along the riverbank. All the while, the virtue of the creature seeped into Boston and began to heal her life as well as her body.

~~~*~~~

Faya arrived where Raini and Roland were searching and frustrated. “They had to take her downriver,” Raini said, as Faya landed. “Faya!” Raini recognized her even in bird form. Faya quickly transformed back into a woman so she could hug her cousin who was really more like her sister.

“Boston?” Roland’s worry came out in the word, as he dipped his head in honor of the two deim-goddesses.

“She is safe. I have seen her from above. She will be here shortly, only the one man has escaped in his boat and I must go after him.”

Roland relaxed and Raini smiled. “The good elf has pursued her with his whole heart,” she said. Both Roland and Faya looked at the woman. Raini apologized again. “I can’t help it.”

Faya just smiled, returned to her red owl form, and took to the air.

Avalon 1.10 Kidnapped part 3 of 5

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Roland and Raini stopped to check the prints in the soil. Roland sniffed the air. Raini glowed a little and let all her senses range beyond human range.

“They have been here,” Raini said.

Roland merely nodded. He felt certain as well, but presently he looked around his feet. He saw a light for a brief moment. It did not look like a fairy light. It might have been a glow bug of some kind, but he felt sure there was something.

“What?” Raini wondered.

Roland shifted his foot and shifted a leaf with it. He picked it up. He found Boston’s wrist communicator left open and glowing in the night. He examined the wrist strap and Raini made the pronouncement.

“Torn from her wrist. No doubt painfully.”

Again, Roland merely nodded as he lifted his head. Something else prowled nearby.

“Up!” Roland shouted, and he scrambled up the nearest tree as only an elf can. The wolf growled and leapt, but too slow. Raini also went up, but she went straight up into the air, about six or seven feet, where she hovered and the glow around her increased. Her eyes lit up and a light came from them that looked hot as fire. The wolf’s back got singed and it leapt back into the forest and ran, like it knew when it was overmatched.

“Faya is much better at that than I am,” Raini said, as she floated back to the earth and Roland climbed down.

“I thought you did that very well, m’lady.” Roland understood that Raini was not a goddess, but she had to be a half-goddess to be sure, and worthy of all respect.

“But what was that?”

“A werewolf. The future kind. A poor diseased human driven mad by the transformation its body is not designed to make. It has been following us, through several time zones.”

Raini nodded this time. “So now we have to find your friend to protect her from more than just three dead men.”

The leaves stirred as the two figures ran so fast, they appeared to vanish.

~~~*~~~

Bruten leaned over the side of the bank. “Good, it is still here. Quick, get in.” A crude boat had been tied to a root with some of Bruten’s primitive rope.

They struggled to get Boston into the boat, but two more punches to her face and a punch to her kidneys brought her to her knees, and then she got tossed in. Boston felt sure her nose had broken, and probably a couple of ribs got cracked, at least. She hurt everywhere but felt better when she did not move at all. She thought instead how glad she was to have Thag’s hands off her, even if it was only a temporary condition.

Bruten sat beside Boston in the middle, and he held her rope tight to be sure she had no thoughts of jumping overboard.  Grogor sat in the stern with one paddle. Thag took the paddle in the bow. The boat was not exactly a canoe, but it functioned like one, and it took no time to cast off and reach the middle of the softly flowing water.

Thag had a thought now that he was unable to exercise his lust. “But we are at the big bend in the river. The current will take us closer to the high country and the mountain village before we turn toward the Great Blue River.

“Yes,” Bruten said with a wicked grin. “So even if they follow us to the riverbank, they will think we crossed over and should waste hours trying to pick up our trail on the other side. They will never guess we moved downstream, especially since it will take us partly back the way we came.”

“They don’t know we have a boat,” Grogor understood.

“But tonight is the wolf moon,” Thag protested.

“Easy, Thag. We are not going to the High Country. We are not going anywhere near the wolves. We will keep to the river and go to the side away from the wolves when we come to the big bend.”

Thag shivered. He found an emotion to replace his lust for the moment. Fear. Clearly, he wanted no part of the wolves.

“When we pull back to the shore, can I have her, father? I really like her. I want her really bad.” Grogor was obviously not as afraid.

~~~*~~~

They all heard the howl. It got answered several times over. “Here.” Koren came to a stop. “We will not have long to wait.”

“Decker. Keep your rifle on your shoulder no matter what, is that clear?” Lockhart wanted to take no chances.

“Understood,” The captain responded, but he made sure his knife remained handy all the same.

Lieutenant Harper talked, because she could not stand the wait, and Alexis agreed with her. “So why is your village protected by such a wall. Are you at war?”

“No longer,” Koren said. “Years ago, some say for a hundred years the whole world was at war. The gods were at war, you see, and we fought for our gods.”

“The gods were at war?” Lincoln asked. He did not get that far in reading the database.

“The gods of the Vanir and the Aesgard fought because of the witch no one wanted, the witch they could not get rid of.”

“Which side were you on?” Captain Decker asked.

“We served Queen Nerthus,” Koren answered. “Specifically, her two grandchildren by Njord, god of the sea, Vry of light and fertility and Vrya of love and war.”

“Njord, Fry and Freja,” Lincoln clarified.

“You fought for Aesgard? Weren’t they in Aesgard?” Lockhart guessed.

“Not originally,” Lieutenant Harper interjected before Koren could speak. “Originally, they were of the Vanir. They went to Aesgard with their father as ambassadors of the peace while Odin picked some pretty poor ambassadors to go to the Vanir.”

“Yes,” Koren confirmed. “The peace made by Faya, but once we were all at war. Once we lived in the north. Faya and I were both conceived there. We were losing, so we ran to this place. Faya and I were both born here on the same day. We are birth twins, being born on the same day. That was forty-six years ago.”

“I would not have guessed you were that old,” Lockhart said. Koren smiled.

“My wife, Raini keeps me young.”

They heard the howls again. They sounded closer, but not on them yet.

“Tell me about Raini.” Alexis asked to keep the conversation going. She did not want to think too hard about what might be coming. “How is it that she can run with the elves?” Elves could race at supernatural speed, like a fairy in flight, though hardly as fast as a fairy. Alexis understood perfectly when Raini said Lockhart and Captain Decker could not keep up.

“My wife,” Koren said, as he turned to Alexis with a broad grin on his face. “She is the daughter of Vrya, goddess of love and war. I am the most fortunate of men having her love to wife.”

“And she is cousin to Faya?” Lockhart started piecing it together.

Koren nodded. “Faya’s father is Vry, god of light and fertility, and even at forty-six years she remains a beauty beyond compare among mortal women.”

“I don’t know,” Captain Decker said. “I have seen the Princess.”

“As have I,” Koren said. “She is certainly beautiful. But Faya is a beauty to rival the gods.”

“Think Innan in human form,” Mingus suggested, as the wolves arrived.

Seven in the pack arrived snarling and drooling at the group. They paused only when they saw Koren in the lead. Koren held up his hands to be sure he had their attention, and he spoke plainly. “These are friends of Faya, the queen. Please, we must find her. One of her friends has been taken and is in need of rescue. Find Faya, please.”

One wolf barked and bounded into the woods. One wolf stayed where it paced, to block the forward progress of the group. Five wolves stepped forward to sniff the travelers. They walked around Koren and ignored the elf but gave the humans the once over.

“They may smell the fairy weave in your clothes,” Mingus said. “That may stand in your favor.”

Lockhart, Captain Decker, and Lieutenant Harper stood at attention and kept as still as they could. Alexis pulled her hands up to her chin but otherwise practiced calming thoughts as the wolf butted its nose up to her thigh. Lincoln shut his eyes, gritted his teeth, and tried hard to think of anything he could other than being surrounded by wolves. One growled at Captain Decker, but the captain wisely made no response.

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

MONDAY

Roland and Raini need to rescue Boston before the worst happens. The rest of the travelers need to find Faya to see if she may help. Until Monday, Happy Reading.

 

*

Avalon 1.10 Kidnapped part 2 of 5

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

 In the morning, the three goons were anxious to get moving. Bruten said it would take a full day, or two if they did not get moving. Boston confirmed that they were about seventy-five miles or so from the next gate, so they hurried.

All through the day, Lincoln and Lieutenant Harper pointed out where the trail their guides followed turned out better than following the straight line given by the amulet. When they came to a cliff they would have had to climb, but the three guided them a half-mile to a sheltered trail that led gently up the side. Captain Decker finally told Lincoln and the lieutenant to shut up, and at least Lieutenant Harper said, “Yes, sir.”

The sun got very low in the sky by the time they reached the foot of the mountain. They stood at the top of a small hill, in an open field where they had a fair view. Bruten explained as he pointed up the mountainside.

“You see? Real mountains. Not like the hills we have walked through. They say beyond the mountaintop is a high country, much higher than the land we have been on. No one goes there. There are stories.”

Grogor interrupted. “The Were people live there. The stories say they can appear as a bear, and once as an eagle. They say when the moon turns full, they hunt as wolves.”

“Stories to frighten children,” Bruten interjected.

“But Bruten,” Thag had something to say. “Tonight, the moon will be full.”

Bruten slapped the big man on the arm. “Child,” he said.

“What is that?” Alexis wondered.

“Transylvanian Plateau,” Lincoln answered, but that was not what she pointed at.

“A wall of trees,” Roland answered. “I would say our fort.”

“Yes,” Bruten smiled and nodded for the elf. “Your eyes are like the eagle. That is the way up, blocked by the great wall. Behind it is much flat land and the village, and they say a way to the high country that does not have to climb the mountain peak.”

“You don’t know?” Lockhart got suspicious.

Bruten paused before he answered. “We trade, skins and such, but only at the village gate. We have never gone past the wall.” If it was a lie, it was skillful.

“We best move if we expect to get there before dark,” Captain Decker said, and they started down the other side of the hill.

It got dark by the time they arrived, but just twilight dark. The land appeared covered with spring, and the light stayed long in the sky. If it had been winter, they never would have made it. As it was, the men at the gate were hesitant about letting them in. They told them to go away and come back in the morning. Lockhart figured he had nothing to lose.

“We have an important message for Faya, and it cannot wait until morning.” He pulled Roland to the front so they could get a good look at the elf.

“A message from the gods?” one of the guards asked.

“It cannot wait until morning,” Lockhart simply repeated those words and with that they were let in but told to remain by the gate until the elders could come. They waited, and sat, and waited some more until Captain Decker made a confession.

“I wish you brought a deck of cards, too.”

Then they waited some more, until at last they were approached, not by village elders, but by a lone woman, a beauty of the first rank.

“Faya?” Alexis said.

“No. Hair is all wrong,” Lincoln answered.

“I am—”

“Wait, wait. Don’t tell me.” Lincoln had the database out and announced the woman’s name. “Raini. She is Faya’s younger cousin.” The woman smiled and then several men came up to join her.

“And you are?”

“Robert Lockhart, Ma’am. Ben and Alexis Lincoln, Captain Decker, and Lieutenant Harper.”

“Military,” the woman interrupted. “And with weapons I have never seen before. I can see they are formidable.”

“Yes, and Roland and Mingus are friends. Mingus is father to both Roland and Alexis.”

“Yes, the elves,” Raini said. Both had removed their hats out of respect for the Lady and though this was no goddess, they all felt she was not far from the designation. “Welcome to our homes.”

“And Boston,” Lockhart paused. “Boston?” He raised his voice. “Where has that girl gotten to?”

“Where are Moe, Larry, and Curly?” Alexis wondered, referring to their three trail guides. Katie Harper thought to speak into her wrist communicator.

“Boston. Are you there? Where are you?”

The answer came back. “Help! I’ve been kidnapped. Bruten and ow!” The voice cut off.

 “It’s damn Captain Hog all over again!” Alexis got upset. Normally, she never swore.

“Worse, I would guess,” Mingus said. “You were relatively safe with Hog. No telling what they will do to Boston.”

“Can you get a geo-position?” Captain Decker asked.

“No, sir.” Lieutenant Harper answered. “No satellites.”

“I will find her,” Roland insisted. Captain Decker already started checking his weapons.

Raini came back from wherever she had run decked out in bow and arrows, spear, and a long copper knife. She came dressed in leather reminiscent of the leather Saphira wore. The man beside her talked quietly.

“I am ready,” she said, when she arrived. “This is my husband, Koren. He will take you to the plateau to find Faya.”

“I am going to find Boston,” Roland said, and Raini smiled at him.

“I am sure you will, young elf.”

“I’m coming,” Captain Decker and Lockhart spoke together.

“No,” Raini turned to them with a firm word. “You would never keep up. You are both fine men, I am sure, and Captain, I know you are a true warrior, but we will be moving faster than an ordinary human can follow. We must if we expect to catch them before the worst happens.”

“Gentlemen, and ladies,” Koren got their attention, but only for a second. They all felt the wind, and Raini and Roland were gone.

~~~*~~~

Boston stopped screaming some time earlier. As soon as they were far enough away from the village, Bruten beat her so badly she became dizzy and imagined she had a concussion. Her hands got tied behind her back and they made her walk. She tried to go limp and refuse to go forward, but they just dragged her over rocks and through the bushes. It became less painful to keep stumbling forward.

Thag kept a hand on her rope. He kept his other hand on her person and touched her everywhere. He seemed to have a particular fondness for her left breast. She kicked him, but he just laughed. Her only respite came when Grogor complained.

“Thag,” Bruten spoke, but did not slacken the pace. “Wait until we are far enough away. You will get your turn.”

“Father,” Grogor also spoke. “I want to go first. Can I have the first turn?”

“We’ll see,” Bruten said. Thag said nothing. He just kept fondling her.

~~~*~~~

Koren explained. “The highland belongs to the Were people. The rule is no weapons. You must keep yours put away. Whatever happens, do not kill any of the animals. The Were people are the men, women, and animals. Some of the animals may be children.”

The others did not exactly understand, so Lincoln spoke up. “I read about the Were in the database. They are not exactly human—not from this earth, though no one knows where they originated. They are shape shifters, able to take on not just the form, but also the characteristics of the animals. If you see a deer or bear or hawk, there is no way of knowing if it is a natural animal or a Were person in that form.”

“Yes,” Koren said. “And when the moon is full like it is, they run with the wolves. It is the strongest of all the animal forms they take and the most possessive of their minds. They become wolves which is why it is generally the worst possible time to go up to the highland.”

“The database suggests they may have had some dog-like form on their native world,” Lincoln added.

Koren shrugged. “The main thing,” he said. “Is to keep your weapons put away, and no matter what happens, do not injure any of the animals we may meet. If you do, they will kill us all.”

With that word, they came to an upper meadow and walked silently in the night under the light of the moon, their ears open for any sound. Lockhart and Mingus followed Koren. Lincoln and Alexis took the middle. Captain Decker and Lieutenant Harper brought up the rear as they had at first back in the days of the twins, Pan, and Iris, but this time they kept their rifles safely shouldered.

They entered a forest on the other side of the meadow and Lockhart had a question.

“How far is it to the home of the Were?”

“Half the night,” Koren answered. “But don’t worry. The wolves will find us long before then.”

Avalon 1.7 Peace and Prosperity part 3 of 3

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Dayni led them all down the grasslands path for a short way before she turned on to a side path and reentered the jungle. The jungle did not seem as thick in that place and the path looked good as well, worn down by years of sheep. The clearing where the house sat looked barely inside the trees, like a border house between two lands.  That turned out to be what it was. Dayni was of the jungle people. Vanu was born in the village on the grasslands, and their marriage brought those two tribes into peaceful relations, but neither Dayni nor Vanu wanted to live with his or her people.

“Just as well,” Dayni said, as she closed the gate to the pen where they kept the sheep in the night. She shook her head sadly at the mention of Vanu’s people and turned her nose up at her own.

“Lockhart!” The word came before they saw the young man. Dayni ran to him for a big hug and kiss. Gana ran a little slower, but he wanted to be picked up, and Vanu did just that, as he carried the boy to the door of his house.

“A front porch on a log house,” Katie Harper noted. “Aren’t you playing a little with history here?”

“A little,” Vanu admitted sheepishly. He, above all, was not supposed to do that. “But wait until you taste my barbeque sauce.”

“I could go for some of that,” Captain Decker admitted.

Vanu nodded. “No tomatoes, of course, but a pretty good recipe. I’ll invent it about a hundred years from now.”

“That’s my Kairos.” Lockhart smiled.

It became well after dark by the time they were all fed and ready to call it a night. Some lounged on the porch. Some sat down below on the grass. Gana sat in his mother’s lap and struggled to keep his eyes open. The stars came out by then, bright in the sky. The moon also came up, full. “It is the third and last night of the full moon,” Vanu said.

“What do you mean the last night?” Boston asked.

“I mean the last night with the moon full enough. You see, every time the moon goes full it is not just a one-night deal. There are three nights where there is enough power to make the wolf.”

“Werewolf?” Lincoln asked.

“No,” Mingus objected. “It is way too early in history for a Werewolf. The Were people are still present and haven’t mated with humans enough to pass on the genetic anomaly. And there is no record of the virus this far back.”

Vanu shook his head. “It is the only explanation. Ashtoreth must have thrown the poor man back this far to see if it was possible.”

“Were people?” Katie Harper had a different question.

Lincoln got out the database, but Mingus answered first. “Shape shifters. They were among the many people the gods brought from other worlds to fill the dead spaces. You humans were all bunched up around Ararat and the Plains of Shinar if you recall.”

“But the amulet is gone. Varuna protect us,” Dayni spoke, and looked up into the night sky.

“Ah, the amulet,” Alexis said. The topic had not come up. Vanu took Alexis’ words like a question.

“The amulet of peace and prosperity. My bloodstone ruby fashioned by the dwarfs in the mountains and endowed with the powers of peace and prosperity. It seemed to hold the beast at bay on the first two nights.”

“But you lost one sheep,” Roland said.

Vanu nodded but raised an eyebrow. “Dayni was bringing the flock home just after dark. The wolf caught the straggler. I am just happy it did not catch Dayni.” He reached for her hand, and she squeezed his.

“Let us hope the wolf is far away tonight,” Dayni said. It was not. As they were thinking and preparing to end the night, they heard it close. Captain Decker and Lieutenant Harper armed themselves. Lockhart got out his shotgun. It appeared on the other side of the clearing, drooling and snarling, and looking like it was trying to decide which human to kill first.

Decker and Harper both tried to fire at the werewolf, but the guns just went click, click. The same nothing happened with Lockhart’s shotgun. Roland had an arrow, but Vanu stopped the elf.

“It won’t do you any good unless you have a silver tip.” The wolf moved slowly and paced back and forth, looking for the best way to approach this killing spree. As it moved, the answer to why their guns did not work became apparent. The wolf was wearing the amulet.

“Oh that poor man,” Alexis breathed, thinking that surely the wolf killed the man. No one else got fooled. Clearly the wolf was the mad man in wolf form.

“Wait,” Vanu said. “I may be able to do something here.” He held his hand out and called to his stone. “The necklace was made, and the stone cut and fashioned by my little ones. I may have some power over it. He concentrated, and the amulet moved. It did not fly off the wolf and return to Vanu like Thor’s hammer might fly back to the hand of its owner, but it did wiggle. Then it began to glow. The glow in the stone increased, and it warmed.

“It is picking up the moonlight and amplifying it, like a laser,” Boston said.

At first, the wolf paused and appeared to enjoy basking in that glow, but the heat kept increasing, and after only a few moments, the wolf began to howl. It stood up on its hind legs, not exactly like a dog, and not like a man. Clearly, it could stand and be stable, and it could use its front paws like hands. The heat still increased, and they began to catch the smell of burning hair and flesh. The wolf began to scream, like no real wolf ever screamed, and it pushed the chain away as it wriggled its long snout through the necklace.

The amulet fell to the ground. The wolf eyed them warily before it spun around, fell to all fours, and darted back into the jungle. It left only a trail of the smell of burning flesh and hair for anyone to follow—not that anyone was so foolish. Vanu relaxed. He almost collapsed, but Alexis and Boston caught him. Lockhart, Lincoln, and Captain Decker all moved to retrieve the amulet, but there came a distant explosion that caused them to pause and shut their eyes.

The sudden flash of light left them seeing spots. Before anyone could clear their vision, two young men came crashing through the underbrush. They dove into the clearing, screaming. “Help! Save us!” A tiger came, chasing them. Curiously, the tiger stopped at the edge of the clearing and started to lick its paw, while the two young men crawled over to hide behind Vanu and Dayni.

“Dayus ordered me to eat them, you know.” The tiger spoke without moving its lips. Everyone heard clearly, and no one doubted it was the tiger speaking.

“You are welcome to have them,” Vanu said. People paused to look at him and wonder before all eyes returned to the tiger.

“Can’t. The amulet,” the tiger said. “Anyway, I told you once. I don’t like human meat. Too stringy and distasteful.” The tiger made a face. Everyone saw the disgust just before the tiger vanished.

“Look! There it is!” One of the young men shouted, and both made a dash for it as Lockhart, Decker, and Lincoln all jumped. None got it, because a man in ragged clothes stooped down and picked it off the ground. The ragged man eyed the amulet with some concern on his face while Dayni and Vanu went to their knees. The others joined them; the two young men last of all. They made up for their tardiness in reacting by falling all the way to their faces.

“You know, you should really keep a better watch on this,” the ragged man said, as he tossed the amulet back to Vanu. Vanu immediately handed it to Dayni who slipped it around her neck. Then another man showed up.

“What have you done?” he yelled at the raggedy man.

“I returned the amulet to its rightful owners,” the ragged man said, calmly. “Should I have not done that?” He sounded innocent enough.

The new arrival got hot. In fact, they all felt the heat. He turned on the crowd and shouted again. “What are these still doing here?” He pointed at the two on their faces.

“Ah,” the ragged man spoke like this was a question he could answer. “I believe the tiger said he could not eat them because of the amulet.” Alexis at least thought she saw steam rise from the other man.

“And who the hell are all these people?”

“Travelers,” the ragged man said. “They will be gone in the morning and out of our land before two days have passed.”

The other man paused while he looked around at the travelers. None of the travelers lifted their eyes. Then the man spoke to Lockhart, and Lockhart knew it even without looking. “Take these two with you,” the man said, and again Lockhart knew the man meant Vanu and Dayni even if it did not get spelled out. The man left in a flash of light so bright it rivaled the sun. In fact, it was the sun, the sun god, but fortunately, the ragged man did something to prevent everyone from being burnt and blinded.

“You two.” the ragged man spoke while people once again lifted their heads, except the two on their faces who began to tremble. “If you dare to touch that amulet again, I will be very angry. Just so you understand, I am not like Dayus. I do not have to follow the rules in order to maintain my position. I have ten thousand eyes in the night sky. I am always watching. If you so much as touch it, you will regret it.”

“Lord Varuna.” Vanu lowered his head in a bow. He wanted to be sure the two young men knew who was speaking to them.

“For the rest of you,” Varuna spoke in a different, light and airy voice, and he smiled. “Get your rest. The wolf will not bother you again tonight. But understand, none of us are authorized to end its life. You travelers were kind to it after a fashion. You healed it and fed it, and it now has your scent. It will no doubt follow you through your next time portal and beyond. At some point, I do not doubt you will have to deal with the man wolf. May the gods in that place be able to do more than I am allowed.” He vanished, and they were alone apart from the two, now humbled young men who joined them.

“You see. It is a man wolf like I said.” Mingus looked satisfied.

“A rose by any other name,” Alexis said.

“Not a help,” Lincoln countered. “Ghouls ahead of us, a werewolf following us.”

“Don’t forget the Bokarus,” Boston reminded everyone.

“I kind of hoped we lost that one and saw the last of it some time back,” Lincoln said.

“Don’t count on it,” Lockhart spoke quietly as he stood and brushed himself off to ready himself for bed.

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

MONDAY

The  First City is another 4-part episode so there will be a post again on Thursday. Anenki and Bashte entertain the travelers but they keep getting interrupted by the bokarus, the ghouls, and worst of all, Anenki’s ex-wife. MONDAY. Happy Reading.

*

Avalon 1.7 Peace and Prosperity part 2 of 3

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

“We found this one sleeping beside the path,” Captain Decker explained.

“Oh, but he needs help,” Alexis hurried forward to meet the man. The man took one look at her and shrieked. He tried to back up, to get away from her, but the Captain and Roland each had an arm, and they were not going to let go. “Lay him down and hold him,” Alexis ordered, and the men complied.

She stepped up then and the man struggled, but he could not escape. Alexis laid her hands a few inches from the man’s chest. A warm glow of golden light covered her hands and then covered the man. The cuts began to close and heal, and the bruises lightened in color and became less pronounced. With that, the man relaxed, and as Alexis worked, the man’s hand bent up at the elbow. Roland noticed and almost slapped the man’s hand down again, but the man did not reach for Alexis. He reached for the amulet, cupped it gently in his hand, and for the only time, smiled, his eyes only on the stone, and he said one word, “Pretty”—the only word he ever spoke.

Mingus stepped up as Alexis finished. He had a bit of fairy weave and made a loincloth grow around the man’s private parts. Lockhart had another thought.

“We don’t have a strait jacket. Handcuffs would not help.”

“Lockhart?” Several sets of eyes turned to him and wondered why he thought such things. Obviously, the man had been mistreated and driven mad.

“My thoughts, exactly.” Captain Decker had no trouble understanding what Lockhart had in mind. He produced some rope from his own backpack, and since the man lay on his stomach so Alexis could heal his back, he took advantage of that and grabbed the man’s hands. He tied them securely and lifted the man to his feet. The man made noises at him. He growled and whimpered at having his hands tied, but no one set him free.

“Move out,” Lockhart said, and they found they had to drag the man with them at first to get him to move at all.

After a couple of hours on the path through the jungle, they found a clearing large enough to stop for a late lunch. Man, as they called him, got good after a while. He stumbled along with the pack and only turned his head at sounds. He paused now and then to sniff at the air. He drooled now and then, but never showed any sign of comprehension in his eyes. Estimates got revised. Man was entirely mad. Obviously, he could not have been born mad or he would have never survived his childhood. Something must have happened, and all anyone could think was it must have been horrendous.

By lunchtime, Man was taking some simple orders. Lockhart told him to sit, and Man sat. Lockhart felt inclined to treat Man more like a dog than a human. Alexis, Boston, and Lincoln all imagined him more like a three-year-old, albeit one that was not yet verbal. Captain Decker just seemed glad Man was willing to take orders.

After lunch, Alexis excused herself. Outside of the general comments about not wandering far, Lockhart imagined no immediate danger. Lincoln added, “Watch out for snakes,” but that had become his mantra, and no one paid much attention except to be a bit more careful.

Back in the trees, Alexis paused and fingered the amulet. She held it and studied it as deeply as she could with all of her senses. It looked and felt ordinary enough. No human would give it a second thought apart from the size and beauty of the precious stone. The stone looked like a blood red ruby. She felt sure it was, and a ruby the size of her fist. When she looked with her magical senses on full alert, she felt the power. It felt way beyond anything she could comprehend, much less duplicate. She did not feel surprised the gods themselves could be stymied by the thing.

“Alexis!” Lincoln called from the camp.

“I’m fine. I’ll be right back,” she shouted. She smiled to think he worried about her. He spent two years looking for her after she vanished. He really did love her. She decided that if he was having trouble adjusting to the two of them being young again, she could wait, however long it took.

Alexis took the amulet off and laid it out carefully beside her. She did not want to get it dirty. When she squatted, she got a surprise. Man came racing through the bushes. Somehow, he freed his hands. Alexis glimpsed the rope burns and would not have been surprised if he scraped off strips of skin to get free. He snatched up the amulet before Alexis could catch her breath and he disappeared into the jungle.

Alexis hurriedly pulled herself together as the others came running. “He went that way,” she shouted and pointed. “And he stole the amulet.”

“What?” Mingus turned on her. “Why didn’t you stop him?”

Alexis frowned. “I was not exactly in a position to stop anyone.”

Lockhart had no recriminations. He simply pointed to Roland and Captain Decker. The captain jumped through the brush in one direction, and Roland picked a slightly altered course. Then they had nothing to do but wait. Boston, Mingus, and Lockhart spread out in case Man doubled back. Alexis set a magical barrier at some distance down the path on either side so she would be alerted if anyone came their way. They waited, and about two hours later Captain Decker and Roland returned together with a negative report.

“There is a river some distance from here. He could have easily run the whole way and jumped in. After that, there would be no way to follow him.” Captain Decker shook his head.

“There is a way,” Roland disagreed, respectfully. “But I found no evidence of that.”

“Get your stuff,” Lockhart said. “Let’s find out where this trail takes us, hopefully before dark.”

~~~*~~~

It did not take long to get to the edge of the jungle. A broad field of sweet green grass spread out in front of them and continued for a good stretch before it came to some distant rock covered hills. The trail split there. It ran along the tree line in both directions—an odd sight. It looked like the jungle simply stopped and the trees stood like soldiers at attention. The line looked straight and made a sharp demarcation between tree land and the grassland.

“Way?” Lockhart asked, knowing they had followed the trail and not strictly the amulet. They might have been turned around.

“This way,” Boston pointed to their right. Roland stared to their left.

“Smoke, I think,” he said. “Probably cooking fires. Maybe a village.”

Mingus squinted but saw nothing, so he took a great whiff of air instead. He shook his head. “Wind is not from that direction.”

“We follow the green arrow,” Lockhart decided. No one argued. They walked quietly, and about an hour before sunset, they found the sheep. They smelled them first before they saw them. As they came up close, a woman stood from the shadow of the trees.

“Hello.” The woman stepped into the light. She looked young, about Boston’s current age of around twenty-three. She had a three or four-year-old that clung shyly to the back of her dress and she looked pregnant besides. “Are you hungry and thirsty? Please, you must come stay the night with us.” The petite young woman glanced at the sun. “It is not safe right now to be out in the dark. Please.”

“Yes, thank you very much,” Alexis spoke out loud, because Lockhart merely took his own glance at the sun before he nodded.

“Oh, wonderful.” The woman looked pleased. “Come Gana.” She pulled the boy from behind. “Say hello.” The boy merely stared at the strangers. “My husband will be very happy to have visitors. He only has me to listen to most of the time, and he says that is all he needs, but I know he will be happy to have a change in conversation. He knows so much, but he has no one to talk to. Sometimes it keeps him awake at night and sometimes it gives him a headache. Do you know what I mean, headache?”

“That can’t be good.” Katie Harper stepped up to take the point with Boston.

“Oh,” The woman said with the biggest smile seen in a long time. “I know how to cure a headache.” She patted her stomach. Alexis and Katie smiled.

“I wouldn’t know about that,” Boston said, but she found her eyes wander over to look at Roland. The elf looked at the sheep.

“Children!” The woman called and several sheep bleated and began to follow as she walked. “My name is Dayni,” she said. Several people stopped, so the rest stopped. Lincoln said it.

“So, of course. Your husband is Vanu.”

Roland had another thought. “You’re the one those two fools on the trail were afraid of?”

Dayni did not seem to hear. She shouted at her stray. “You, too, Lumpy. You better come if you don’t want to be supper.” The sheep let out a loud Baa of protest, but it came from the edge of the trees and rejoined the herd on the path.

Avalon 1.7 Peace and Prosperity part 1 of 3

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After 4289 BC in the foothills of Kashmir. Kairos 14: Vanu

Recording …

Boston sat by the fire and alternately stared at the amulet and Roland. She did not know what to say to the elf, but she felt she ought to say something. Lincoln inherited the database from Boston and found the place for taking notes.

“Beats my notebook,” he remarked casually. Alexis simply nodded as the howl came again. Her eyes got drawn to the sky while her ears tried to judge the direction and distance.

“Full moon,” Katie noted.

“Don’t start,” Lincoln looked up from his notes. Lockhart laughed, but Mingus waved off the laughter.

“There may be something to that,” he said. “But I would think we are too early for a man wolf.”

“Werewolf, father.” Roland and Alexis both corrected the elder elf.

“Man wolf. Were wolf. Anyway, it is too early in history. The Were people still have a strong presence in several places around the globe. The disease and genetic component responsible for that rarest of troubles won’t connect for a thousand years, maybe two or three thousand.”

The howl came again. It sounded closer, but not by much.

“Well, I do not think there are regular wolves in this part of the world,” Lincoln said.

“Ah!” Mingus raised a knowing finger. “But again, this far in the past may prove different. We might find elephants stretching all the way from Africa to India in unbroken herds, even across the plains of Saudi Arabia, before the land there turns to dust and the elephant herds separate, India to Africa.”

“I recommend we watch in the night,” Captain Decker interrupted.

“Father, you are very talkative tonight.” Alexis shifted her seat to sit beside the elf while Lockhart considered the captain’s suggestion.

“Just thinking of my old friend, Procter. I am sorry you did not get to know him the way he really was. He should have been babbling and rambling and sharing all this sort of information all along. He could be very annoying, but he was a likeable fellow. He was likeable.”

Alexis leaned in and kissed her father on the cheek while Lockhart stood. “Team watch,” he said. He knew everyone felt exhausted from lack of sleep over the past couple of days, but he did not spend all those early years on the police force for nothing. His instincts were acting up. Something did not feel right. Team watch put Lincoln and Alexis up first. Mingus and Lockhart got the dark of the night. Captain Decker and Roland watched through the wee hours and Katie and Boston got the dawn shift. A single watch of an hour or two each through the night would have let everyone get more rest, but something tweaked Lockhart’s nerves. Lockhart glanced at Katie, and she nodded as if to say it did not feel right to her, too.

The howl came a third time, but this time it sounded further away.

The morning arrived without incident, but Lockhart’s feelings would not go away easily. Someone had to be engaged in something criminal and dangerous, and not too far away. Katie handed him a cup of herbal coffee to help. He said thanks, but honestly, the coffee was something he still had to get used to.

The travelers did not go far that morning before they came to a jungle. They had to spread out a bit, as each tried to find the path of least resistance through the thick undergrowth.

“Don’t move out of sight and sound,” Lockhart ordered.

“And watch out for snakes,” Lincoln added. He imagined the place was full of monster pythons and cobras.

An hour in, and the elves stopped still.

“Leopard?” Mingus suggested. Their good ears picked up something the others did not hear.

Roland shook his head. “Tiger, I believe.” Most thought that was worse. Tigers sometimes became man-eaters.

Another hour and the jungle showed no signs of thinning, and thus far only had what Boston called rabbit trails through the brush. They looked promising for a few yards but quickly petered out.

The elves stopped again, and this time everyone else stopped with them, quieted, and wondered what they heard. Then Captain Decker heard and raised his rifle. Then the others heard and became deathly quiet.

“This is a good place.” They heard a man’s voice.

“This is the middle of nowhere.” A second man argued.

“So, no one will look here.”

“But how will we remember to look here?”

Roland moved in absolute silence. He leapt past Captain Decker and climbed the nearest tree in the blink of an eye. No one felt quite sure how he did that, except Boston who chalked it up to him being an elf and young and a hunter. Roland stood on a thick branch and spied on the men. He waved down to Decker, pointed to his eyes, and cupped his hand. Captain Decker tossed up his binoculars. Even the Captain knew that elf eyes were as superhuman as their ears, but clearly Roland wanted a closer look at something.

“It is only until tonight,” the first man said.

“Tonight? But there is the wolf about. Didn’t you see Vanu’s shredded sheep?”

“Ha! I’m more worried about Dayni. If she knew we had this, we would be the ones shredded.”

“But the wolf—”

“You worry too much. You know the day god cannot meet us while the sun is up. It has to be at night.”

“Hey, hey. Do you think he will do everything he said?”

“He is a god. How can you question that?”

“Yeah. I guess Vanu isn’t the only one with friends. But how are we going to find this exact place again?”

 “Easy. We just come to the place where that goblin up the tree there is staring at us with boogly eyes.”

A moment of silence followed, before everyone heard two men scream like little girls and the thunder of crashing through the bushes. Roland tossed the binoculars down to the captain and zipped down the other side of the tree. “Over here,” he shouted. He wanted to find whatever it was the two fools dropped.

~~~*~~~

“It appears to be an amulet.”

“Let me see.” Mingus held out his hand, but Roland only held up the amulet. He caught Boston’s eye, but she looked at Alexis, so he handed it to his sister.

“You better hang on to this.”

Mingus followed with his eyes. “There is great power in that amulet,” Mingus announced. “Of course, I have never seen it, but that might be the amulet of peace and prosperity. Reportedly made by the same folk who made Thor’s Hammer and the armor and blades of the Kairos.”

“Peace and prosperity?” Lockhart asked. Mingus nodded, but Captain Decker scoffed. The captain started getting a handle on this Kairos business, but magic still seemed like so much nonsense to him.

“At least there is a clear path here through this jungle,” he said.

“Boston?” Lockhart asked without spelling it out.

“This is more or less the right direction.” Boston pointed. Without being asked, Roland and Decker trotted down the path and out of sight to scout.

“The amulet of peace and prosperity,” Lincoln read from the database. “Made from a stone found by the Kairos and blah, blah. Ah! The greater spirits of Peace and Prosperity willingly filled the stone with a reflection of their own being. Even the gods are restrained from causing disasters and hardship against the owners and their people.” Lincoln looked up at Alexis who gently fingered the stone that hung from her neck. “Sounds very powerful.”

“I can feel it,” Alexis admitted.

“It belongs to the Kairos?”

“Yes.” Lincoln looked again at the database. “In a thousand or so years, it will go north with the Kairos, Devya, and become the centerpiece of the city of Sanctuary that she will build on the silk road.”

“The sun god, Dayus.” Lieutenant Harper remembered and looked at Lockhart. Lockhart nodded and thought like a police officer.

“Dayus was the one who hated Dallah so much he created the Thar desert to get rid of her. Now Vanu is within his grasp again, but he is frustrated by the power of the amulet. So he gets two locals to steal the amulet for him so he can make a desert in the Kashmir to get rid of Vanu.”

“Dayni,” Boston remembered what she heard. “I bet the amulet belongs to him.”

“Her,” Lincoln corrected. “The Traveler’s wife.”

“I read that book,” Lockhart smiled as Roland and Decker reappeared with a man between them. The man looked ragged, cut, and bruised everywhere. He stood stark naked, and he also looked like he was not in his right mind.

Coming Attractions II

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Coming Soon

The editing is done.  The formatting will happen soon.  The covers are ready.

If you have visited this website in the last few years, you have had a chance to read stories of the Kairos, the Traveler in time, the Watcher over history including Greta, the wise woman of Dacia in the time of Marcus Aurelius, Festuscato Cassius Agitus who calls himself the last senator of Rome and is no friend of the Huns, Gerraint son of Erbin in the days of King Arthur, and Margueritte who is not a witch, but is a friend of Charles Martel. I hope you enjoyed these stories.  They will be edited, formatted, and covers will be made so they can go up for sale, soon.  But first, a trilogy of the Kairos origin stories will go up very soon (I hope).  Here are the covers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you think?

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Avalon Stories available as of today

Avalon is a television series in written story form.  Please consider buying the books and supporting the author, and remember, reviews matter. Thanks.

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Or look under M. G. Kizzia in your favorite e-book retail store

I only have one general rule for the Avalon stories: that anyone who reads a story/episode, for example, from the middle of season three, they should be able to pick up on what is going on and basically how it all works.  If you want to start with the episodes that appear on my website, mgkizzia.com, and then want to go back and read the earlier adventures, that should be fine.  Of course, reading them in order will enhance the experience, but I hate accidentally picking up book two of some trilogy and being totally lost.  Especially for a TV show, a person ought to be able to come in the middle and still get a good story.

 

Look for the Avalon books, Season One Travelers, Season Two Bokarus, and Season Three Werewolf at your favorite e-book retailers.  Thirteen Episodes from the earliest days in each book detail the adventures of the travelers from Avalon.  Thrown back to the beginning of history, the travelers struggle to work their way through the days of myth and legend.  They face gods and demons, gothic horrors, fantastic creatures and ancient aliens in this romp through time.  They also quickly realize that they are not the only ones who have fallen through the cracks in time, and some of the others are now hunting them.

 

Avalon, Season Four Ghouls, Season Five Djin, and Season Six Witches & Outlaws brings the travelers face to face with the worst of all monsters: the human monsters.  As they move through the days before the dissolution of the gods, they get caught up in the rise of empires and the birth of great civilizations, but it isn’t what they think—a grand adventure of discovery.  It is never what they think.  It is dangerous around every corner, and troubles rise directly in their path.

******

Avalon Season Seven Wraith can be found in the archives of this website mgkizzia.com.  It was blogged from March 22, 2021 through September 1, 2021.  Season Eight Aliens began posting on April 4, 2022.  Most episodes are 6 posts, so the complete episode will be published Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday over 2 weeks.  A few episodes are only 4 parts long and will be posted in a single week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Avalon Season Nine The Masters will begin posting on Monday, March 20, 2023 and be the end of the series being the third book of the third trilogy.  Editing, covers, and formatting for seasons 7, 8, and 9 are happening slowly, but hopefully all nine books of the Avalon Series will be ready for purchase by the end of 2023.

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Look also for Avalon, The Prequel: Invasion of Memories, where the Kairos comes out of a time of deep memory loss and realizes he is the only one who has any hope of stopping an alien invasion.  To keep from being overwhelmed with the sudden influx of so many memories from so many lifetimes stretching from the deep past to the distant future, the Kairos tells stories from various times in his own life when he remembered who he was; the Traveler in time, the Watcher over history.

Invasion of Memories is both a collection of short stories and a novel of the Men in Black who struggle to prevent an invasion by the alien Vordan, a species given to shoot first, and that is pretty much it, just shoot first.

All of these books are reasonably priced at your favorite e-retailer.  You can find them under the author name, M. G. Kizzia.  Now, also available from Amazon in print-on-demand paper editions.

I hope you enjoy reading the Avalon stories as much as I have enjoyed writing them.  Reviews on the e-book websites are always appreciated, and if you wish to support the author by buying a copy, thank you.

Happy Reading.

— MGKizzia

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MONDAY Book 9, Episode 9,0 Pestilence

The Travelers need to make it over the Alps before the winter comes on strong. At least it appears as if the Kairos in heading in their direction. Until Monday, Happy Reading.

 

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Reflections Flrn-10 part 2 of 3

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Faya flew into the dark and picked up a few followers along the way. She had a long flight to the stone tower where the Were king and queen resided. Faya recalled her own days there fondly, with her beast and their many children. Not to say that everything was perfect. The gods were at war in those early days. But mostly it had been a wonderful life, and she hoped Flern and Kined could find some happiness together as well, if she could figure out how to switch Wlvn and Flern back to where they belonged.

When Faya landed, and resumed human form, her followers did the same. She had collected a small crowd behind her on the stone court, and she wondered what they might be thinking, especially since she began to glow over the last couple of miles. “As the crow flies,” she said to herself, and ignored the people behind her as she knocked gently on the door.

A young man opened the door. “May I help you?” he asked, before he took a look at her face.

“Faya, to see whoever is in charge,” she said, and there were several audible gasps from behind. The young man tried to smile.

“One moment.” He shut the door slowly, but his trembling hand suggested he wanted to slam it. A moment later, a rather older and bigger man came and hauled the door open.

“Who dares? I don’t find it funny.” The older man already decided what he would believe before he arrived.

Faya studied the man and saw something of her beast in him these many generations later. She spoke calmly. “I think you may call me grandmother,” she decided.

“Eh?” And for the first time the big old man looked squarely at Faya and into her eyes. Faya let the fires of the sun come up into her eyes. She waved her hand and the vines that clung to the tower grew miraculously and stretched out to the very edges of the door, like they were ready to crash inside the house. Then she rose up until she was able to look him straight in the eye and spoke sternly.

“This is an urgent matter and I have no time to play. Be a good boy and hear me.” She turned and addressed all the ones who had gathered. “My friend Carpasis has likely told you already, but just to be sure. There is a human who rode up on to the plateau with a dragon hot on his trail. Have you seen him or heard of him?”

Everyone said no, including the big man in the doorway.

“I wish to know if he survived or if the dragon caught him. If he survived, I want him treated with respect, fed and rested, and brought safely to the village on the mountainside where Raini and I used to play. Tell him he is to go to the inn of Nadia and her father which is on the road that leads down the mountain and wish him well. If he did not survive, if the dragon caught him, I would like to see the evidence. And if you kill him after this telling, I will find out and I will be very cross with you all.” Faya turned again to face the big man in the door and look at him eye to eye. “Hear me,” she said, and then she could not help putting out her hand and touching the man on the cheek. “My grandchild.”

With that, Faya rose up high into the sky and changed back into the scarlet owl as she headed back toward the inn. Some of her first followers followed her again, and they picked up a group of new ones as well along the way. Faya only hoped she could get back by sunrise. She would be very tired, but she paid for two nights because she knew that both she and Wlvn would need some rest.”

When she arrived, the Were stopped at the wall on the edge of town, but Faya flew freely over the rooftops. She saw a perch erected in the town square, just where she used to land when she visited her cousin Raini. The only thing missing on the perch was the big copper bell. She knew it would be a walk to the inn, but she could not resist. She changed to an eagle with the same red glean in her feathers as the sky in the east turned a corresponding red, and she landed on the perch and paused only to preen her shoulder feather. Then she jumped from the perch and changed simultaneously into Faya as she landed and thought she could not count the number of times she did that in the deep past.

Faya sensed the arrow in the air before she saw it. Her aunt Freja taught her that—aunt Vrya, she corrected her pronunciation. Her right hand came up as she thought and something like a solar flare came from her hand. It turned the arrow shaft completely to dust and the copper head to little melted drops that fell and blended into the soil. At the same time, she raised her left hand and the clouds overhead congealed in a moment of time. A bolt of lightning struck the earth not two feet from the bowman. The bowman got tossed by the explosion. He got singed everywhere, but not badly burnt, and he went unconscious, but did not die.

“Why?” Faya asked out loud. I pose no threat to anyone, she thought, and she started toward the bowman, but stopped after only a step. Wlvn said this should be his job, and she could not argue. All she could do was look around and say it felt so good to be home, and then she went away. Wlvn came back and headed for the archer.

“Jaccar.” Wlvn recognized what passed for a uniform. He wondered how that was possible, but he remembered one of the gods stood behind the Wicca and helped her in her wicked designs. Wlvn had a thought and ran for the inn at super speed before the gathering crowd could block his way.

Coming Attractions

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Coming Soon

The editing is moving along.  The formatting will not take much time.  The covers are ready.

If you have visited this website in the last few years, you have had a chance to read stories of the Kairos, the Traveler in time, the Watcher over history including Greta, the wise woman of Dacia in the time of Marcus Aurelius, Festuscato Cassius Agitus who calls himself the last senator of Rome and is no friend of the Huns, Gerraint son of Erbin in the days of King Arthur, and Margueritte who is not a witch, but is a friend of Charles Martel. I hope you enjoyed these stories.  They will be edited, formatted, and covers will be made so they can go up for sale, soon.  But first, a trilogy of the Kairos origin stories will go up very soon (I hope).  Here are the covers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you think?

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Avalon Stories available as of today

Avalon is a television series in written story form.  Please consider buying the books and supporting the author, and remember, reviews matter. Thanks.

I only have one general rule: that anyone who reads a story/episode, for example, from the middle of season three, they should be able to pick up on what is going on and basically how it all works.  If you want to start with the episodes that appear on my website, mgkizzia.com, and then want to go back and read the earlier adventures, that should be fine.  Of course, reading them in order will enhance the experience, but I hate accidentally picking up book two of some trilogy and being totally lost.  Especially for a TV show, a person ought to be able to come in the middle and still get a good story.

 

Look for the Avalon books, Season One Travelers, Season Two Bokarus, and Season Three Werewolf at your favorite e-book retailers.  Thirteen Episodes from the earliest days in each book detail the adventures of the travelers from Avalon.  Thrown back to the beginning of history, the travelers struggle to work their way through the days of myth and legend.  They face gods and demons, gothic horrors, fantastic creatures and ancient aliens in this romp through time.  They also quickly realize that they are not the only ones who have fallen through the cracks in time, and some of the others are now hunting them.

 

Avalon, Season Four Ghouls, Season Five Djin, and Season Six Witches & Outlaws brings the travelers face to face with the worst of all monsters: the human monsters.  As they move through the days before the dissolution of the gods, they get caught up in the rise of empires and the birth of great civilizations, but it isn’t what they think—a grand adventure of discovery.  It is never what they think.  It is dangerous around every corner, and troubles rise directly in their path.

******

Avalon Season Seven Wraith can be found in the archives of this website mgkizzia.com.  It was blogged from March 22, 2021 through September 1, 2021.  Season Eight Aliens will begin posting on April 4, 2022.  Most episodes are 6 posts, so the complete episode will be published Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday over 2 weeks.  A few episodes are only 4 parts long and will be posted in a single week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Avalon Season Nine The Masters will follow sometime in 2023 and be the end of the series being the third book of the third trilogy.  Editing, covers, and formatting for seasons 7, 8, and 9 are happening slowly, but hopefully all nine books of the Avalon Series will be ready for purchase by the end of 2023.

******

Look also for Avalon, The Prequel: Invasion of Memories, where the Kairos comes out of a time of deep memory loss and realizes he is the only one who has any hope of stopping an alien invasion.  To keep from being overwhelmed with the sudden influx of so many memories from so many lifetimes stretching from the deep past to the distant future, the Kairos tells stories from various times in his own life when he remembered who he was; the Traveler in time, the Watcher over history.

Invasion of Memories is both a collection of short stories and a novel of the Men in Black who struggle to prevent an invasion by the alien Vordan, a species given to shoot first, and that is pretty much it, just shoot first.

All of these books are reasonably priced at your favorite e-retailer.  You can find them under the author name, M. G. Kizzia.  Now, also available from Amazon in print-on-demand paper editions.

I hope you enjoy reading the Avalon stories as much as I have enjoyed writing them.  Reviews on the e-book websites are always appreciated, and if you wish to support the author by buying a copy, thank you.

Happy Reading.

— MGKizzia

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TOMORROW

Tune n for a preview of Avalon Season Eight. The contents of all 13 episodes plus notes on the season, an introduction to the Avalon series if you have not read any up until this point, and introductory notes on the cast (characters).  This information will be on the website under the tab About Avalon so you don’t miss out.

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