Young Adult Fiction

Avalon 2.5: Getting Out Alive

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            The Buffalo burgers were good, but now it is time to move on.  Lincoln and Lockhart especially want to get back to the twenty-first century before they became old men again.

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            Lockhart secretly set a watch in the night.  It was only one person for a couple of hours each so no one went without rest.  Even so, when he woke up in the morning he found a stranger beside the campfire and a pile of their things beside him.  With his eyes half closed, his feet stumbling and his brain lacking his morning coffee, Lockhart nevertheless recognized that the stranger was not human and patted himself on the back for that realization.  For one, when the stranger stood and turned to face Lockhart, he proved to be nearly nine feet tall.  For two, Lockhart thought his sleepy eyes were tricking him at first since it looked like a bush grew up in the night beside the fire.  Even when the stranger faced him, he looked something like the trees with bark-like skin, vines for hair and tree trunk knots for his mouth and eyes.

            “I am Deep Roots,” the stranger introduced himself.  “I cannot stay long away from my trees, but I thought I should help.  Huyana is not always on top of every situation and I suspected the little diggers would rob you in the night.”

            “My thanks,” Lockhart said. 

            “Think nothing of it,” Deep roots said and let a smile creak across his face before he vanished.  Huyana came stumbling up, Aster trailing, as Katie brought Lockhart his coffee.

            “What is all this?”  Huyana pointed to the pile

            “Your dwarfs borrowed a few of our things in the night,” Lockhart said.  “I hope they didn’t break anything.”

            Huyana looked suddenly unhappy.  “Lady, remember the Earth, the sea and the sky,” Aster whispered.  Huyana took a deep breath and then called, “Dwarfs!”

            All seven appeared, tied together in a group with Decker’s rope.  They were gagged as well with bits of leather, and not one of them could wiggle enough to get free.  Boston came out of her tent in time to laugh.  Roland, who was with the horses also laughed as he came over to untie them and collect the rope.  The dwarfs pulled off their own gags and yelled, mostly all at once.

            “It was Deep Roots.  We found this stuff fair and square.  We could have been rich.  He stole it from us.  We just want what is ours.”

            “These are our things,” Katie said, reasonably.  Boston interrupted.

            “Three second rule.  All this stuff has been sitting here untouched for three seconds.  I claim it.”

            “Oh, buggers.  Toots.  Twaddle,” the dwarfs swore and added a few real words as well.

            Huyana put her hands on her hips and tapped her moccasin.  It made a surprisingly crisp sound on the dirt.  The dwarfs noticed, whipped off their hats and put on their most humble and sorry expressions.  Huyana was not fooled.  “Three seconds or not, everything these people brought with them is theirs, not yours.  You so much as touch one of their things again and you should have your fingers burned.”

            Aster stepped up and took Huyana’s hand, but it was too late.  Digger cried, “uh-oh,” and whipped something out of his pocket and tossed it to Picky who tossed it to the next one.  It was the ultimate game of hot potato, but the potato was Boston’s Beretta.  Finally, Gome had the sense to toss it to the pile.  It went off when it landed, but by some unknown grace, the bullet missed everyone.

            “Now, enough,” Huyana had to take several breaths and squeeze Aster’s hand several times before she could speak.  “I am asking you, will you escort my friends to the next time gate.  They will know the way, but I need someone to guard them from the bokarus.  Will you do this for me?”

            “Bokarus is spooky,” Picky spoke for the group.  “And what might we expect –“

            “This is not a bargain!  It is yes or no.”  Huyana shouted and squeezed Aster’s hand several more times while the dwarfs all said, “Yes, sure, of course.”  Huyana squeezed once more before she said, “Thank you.”  Then she let go of Aster’s hand.  Aster whipped the hand to her mouth to hold back the tears.  Her hand got a serious workout, squeezed again and again by her own goddess, but she would do it again.  She did not mind, really.

            Ogalalo came up to join them for breakfast and marveled at the bread they offered.  Then he saw them mount to ride out.

            “We may not make it in a day if we walk the horses the whole way,” Boston said mostly to herself.  Huyana heard.  She was ignoring Ogalalo.

            “The dwarfs will protect you in the night.  They will take you all the way to the time gate as promised.  Isn’t that right?”

            “Oh,yes.  Yes mam.  Absolutely.  Time gate it is.”  Gome was the one who asked.  “What’s a time gate?”

            Huyana sighed.  “You will know when you get there, only you are not permitted to go through the gate.”

            “Oh yes, absolutely.”

            “Just like a real goddess,” Dingle spoke up with pride in his voice.  “Cryptic as the best of them.  What’s a time gate?  You’ll know when you get there.  Yes, sir.  Just like a real goddess, she is.”

            “Ogalalo?”  Huyana could not ignore him any longer.

            “I wanted to warn your friends to beware the Onakatta if their way takes them into the next valley.  They are a treacherous and cruel people best avoided.”

            “Thank you for the warning,” Lockhart said as he started out.

            “And thank you for the feast,” Katie added. 

            Boston thought to say something else.  “Good-bye Huyana.  We love you.”  Huyana started to cry when she heard that and Aster and Ogalalo did their best to comfort her, but the dwarfs all began to argue about which one of them was really about to say that, except the dumb human beat them to it. 

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            The tapestry of life is three dimensional.  It has layers, but life gets confusing when the layers begin to interweave and the colors bleed into one another, and when war is the reason, it also gets downright dangerous.

Avalon 2.6:  Multiple Worlds … Next Time

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Avalon 2.5: Things of Power

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            Only a guess, mind you, but I believe the bokarus is not finished finding new and inventive ways to try and kill the travelers; and if the natives and native village gets crushed in the process I imagine the green man would think all the better.

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            The hillside just outside the camp was clear of trees and covered only in the tall grasses of late summer.  The camp itself was nestled among the trees and the edge of the forest proper.  At the moment, more than a hundred buffalo were careening down that grassy hill in utter panic, a true stampede, and the only thing that stood between the buffalo and the camp was nothing.         

            “Lincoln!”  Lockhart shouted and pulled his thirty-eight.  The pistol might prove of little value, but it was better long range than the shotgun.  Lincoln stepped up beside Katie.  They had the high powered rifles, and Katie started the action. 

            “Go for between the eyes,” Katie said.  “Hit the ones out front.  The ones behind might stumble or turn aside.”  Three of the beasts fell in short order.

            “Easy for you,” Lincoln said as he began to fire.  Five more fell before the buffalo reached the bottom of the hill and the far edge of the camp.  Several were also standing or stumbling around like they were injured from tripping over the fallen ones, but the majority were not slowing significantly.

            “Rapid fire,” Katie said, and she and Lincoln turned a switch on their rifles.  They sprayed the front of the herd with bullets even as Lockhart chimed in with his police pistol.  Boston added her Beretta, though it was pretty useless against such big animals.  Roland retrieved Decker’s pistol from Decker’s old saddle bag and fired as well.

            Another half-dozen went down along with several tents before Elder Stow stepped up and let his sonic device whine.  “Within range,” he said.  The buffalo turned.  They did not exactly race back up the hill, but the high-pitched squeal finally turned them so they roared off at an angle to miss the rest of the camp.  Everyone breathed deeply.

            `While the travelers talked softly and patted each other for reassurance, Huyana reached up and closed Ogalalo’s mouth.  “You see?” she said.  “They could have wiped out your whole tribe before supper if they wanted to.”  She paused and kissed that mouth, and it was a poor-Ogalalo-will-never-recover kind of kiss.  When she was finished, Huyana kept talking like she was uninterrupted.  “Fortunately for you these are good people, like I said.  You should learn to ask.  Asking is good.  Demanding sometimes just makes people mad.”

            “Hey!”  Lockhart interrupted.  “You have fifteen or so animals ready to supply meat and warm skins for the winter.  You better get your people on them before they start to rot.”

            Ogalalo broke free of the trance he was under.  He might have been excused.  He was holding his beloved, and with that in mind, he quickly kissed Huyana again on the lips and then stepped away to begin shouting at all of the men in the camp and most of the women and children as well.

            Huyana raised her eyebrows and touched her lips like this was the first time Ogalalo kissed her.  She looked at Aster who came up and also kissed her, but on the cheek.  “Are you going to introduce us to your friends?”

            “Oh, yeah.”  Huyana was being neglectful in her duties.  She clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention and then she said everyone’s names, beginning with herself and pointing to each one along the way.  “Huyana, Aster, Roland, Boston, Katie, Lockhart, Lincoln, Elder Stow, Tooter, Dingle, Blocker, Digger, Piebald, Picky and Gome, and I’m Huyana.”  Gome was the smallest of the lot, but he had a hard look on his face like he was not going to take any guff from anyone, least of all a bunch of human beings, big as they might be.  Boston imagined with that look he might stare down an ogre.

            “Mostly she calls him Gomer,” Tooter said, “Like Gomer Pyle,” and he snickered.

            “Yeah?” Gome spoke up.  “Well at least it is safe to be in the same room with me.”

            “And what is it you do?” Katie changed the subject.  There had already been a couple of fistfights since the arrival of the dwarfs and she thought a change in the conversation was in order.  Anyway, she was enchanted by the little ones as always.  Lockhart was more the opposite.  He kept one step behind Katie and stared over her shoulder.

            “We’re prospectors,” Digger said.

            “We were prospectors,” Picky corrected the dwarf.

            “What?”  Lincoln stepped up.  “Like there’s gold in them thar hills?”

            “What? Where?  Which hills?”  the Dwarfs got excited.

            “Just an expression.  Not real.  I was kidding.” Lincoln said quickly.

            “No surprise.”  Piebald moped.  “All we find around here is black gooey stuff in the ground.”

            “Oil?”  Lincoln wondered.

            “That’s the stuff,” Piebald said.

            “And granite.  Lots of granite,” Picky added.

            “Hey lady.”  Dingle came up to Boston.  “Want to buy a diamond.”  He pulled a crystal the size of Boston’s fist out of an unseen pocket and held it up to her so she could see the dazzle in the late afternoon sun.

            “No money,” Boston admitted with a shrug.

            “What’s money?”  Tooter asked.

            “Never heard of money,” Picky admitted. 

            “You got trade.”  Dingle was not going to stray from his mark.

            “I don’t think so,” Roland interrupted the bargain as he stepped up and slipped his arm over Boston’s shoulder.

            “Ooo, uppity elfity –“

            “Ahem!” Aster cleared her throat and the dwarf swallowed his words and moved on to Katie.

            “How about you, Lady?”

            “That is not a diamond.  That is quartz,” Katie said and turned her head to Lockhart.  “I took basic geology in college.”

            “Quartz?  I got snookered?”  Dingle put on a good show.  “Still, very sparkly, mind you, and mighty fine to look at.  Make a fine necklace.”

            “She’s one of the elect.”  Blocker tapped Dingle on the shoulder.  “Dangerous trade if you ask me, especially if she feels taken.”

            “Sorry mam,” Dingle tipped his hat wanting no part of crossing Katie.  He went right back to Boston like he had never talked to her before.

            “Mind you, very sparkly.  Make a fine bracelet.  Maybe a wedding crown?”  He smiled way too much.

            “She’s a witch,” Blocker said.

            “Oh, never mind.” Dingle slipped the quartz back in his pocket and quickly faded into the group as Ogalalo ran up.

            “You must stay the night,” he told the travelers who looked around at the camp outside of what was happening in their little circle.  It would be dark soon enough.  Staying was not a bad idea.  “All of you.  Stay.  We will have a real feast.”  Ogalalo looked very happy, and Lockhart and Katie both imagined it was as close as they were going to get to an apology.  “If those Onakatta thought that stampede would hurt us, how wrong they were.”  Ogalalo thought the turn of those tables was delicious.  Lockhart hated to pour vinegar on the man’s treat.

            “I doubt it was the Onakatta.  Probably the bokarus started the stampede.”

            Ogalalo lost his smile and looked again to the sky and all around.  He had forgotten.  He spoke again, but this time with far less conviction.  “You stay anyway.  We feast.”  He ran back to the kill.

            People looked at Lockhart.  “Unpack.”  That was all he had to say and they went for their tents.

            “Aster,” Huyana said and Aster stepped up to walk beside her.  Huyana was going down to the kill site herself.  She wanted another taste of those lips.

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Avalon 2.5:  Getting Out Alive … Next Time

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Avalon 2.5: Unbroken

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            After the attack of the bokarus, the shaman wants to sacrifice the travelers, and he has a dozen armed men to back him up.  The travelers still have their handguns and steel knives but then a woman’s voice interrupts the Mexican standoff.  A referee, or more fuel to the fire?

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            “Huyana.” Ogalalo recognized the woman that bounced up and down on the back of the great beast.  Huyana was far from a horsewoman, but rode up and got down carefully.  Roland brought up the rest of the horses with strange looking riders in his trail.  There was a beautiful elf maiden on one horse, and the other three horses carried dwarfs.  Two bounced on Lincoln’s horse, two on Lockhart’s and three on poor Decker’s horse, and they complained the whole way.

            “You let my friends go!”  Huyana yelled at the Shaman as soon as she felt the earth under her feet again.

            “I have no quarrel with you,” Ogalalo said and took a step back.

            “You have a quarrel if you mean to harm my friends,” Huyana responded.

            “But the Elder Elf and his daughter said they were people of great power.  You know the Onakatta tribe we struggle with.  I only hoped to help my people.”

            “By stealing?  By holding innocent people hostage?  By making more enemies?  Did you ask first if they might help you?  These are good people.  If you have a genuine need, they would help.  No.  You never thought to ask.  All you think is to take, you brute.”

            “I’m sorry,” Ogalalo borrowed Boston’s word.  “I didn’t think.  I am sorry.”  He waved his hand, angrily and the men with their spears went back about their business.

            “We had a visit from the bokarus,” Boston told Roland.  Roland relieved Lockhart of holding duty, but Boston was about able to stand on her own by then.

            “Ahem,” the young elf maid coughed.  It was a time honored nudge.

            “Boston, this is Aster.  Aster, Boston.”

            “Hi,” Boston said and gulped.  This maid was lovely beyond words, or anyway beyond her words.

            “Good to meet you.  I have heard so much about you,” Aster said, and Boston fought to keep her nose from turning up.  Aster even sounded beautiful.

            “Oh?” Boston stood up instead and looked at Roland who gave Aster a mean stare.

            “So then the bokarus flew off,” Lincoln finished explaining as Lockhart moved Katie off to the side.

            “What did you think you were doing?” he asked her.

            “I was trying to get us out of here.  I was trying to get him to let us go.”

            “You were busy showing off.  elect or not, you don’t willingly step into a circle of spears.  That is a good way to get yourself killed.”

            “I don’t work for you,” Katie said.

            “No?  You going to go back to some Marine Corps, Pentagon desk?”

            Katie paused.  “Okay, I work for you, but that doesn’t mean I can’t show initiative.”

            “It doesn’t give you the right to behave stupidly either.”

            “What I did was not stupid.”

            “It was stupid showing off and you are not allowed to get hurt.”

            “Well, you are not allowed to get hurt either.”

            “Yes, but I still have those Gaian healing chits running through me.” 

            “But the Kairos said not to depend on them.” 

            Well, the same goes for you.”

            “Well, I didn’t get hurt.”

            “Well I’m glad.”

            “So am I.”

            “People!” Huyana yelled as one of the dwarfs put his fingers to his lips and let out a shrill whistle.  Roland, Boston and Aster looked up from one direction.  Katie and Lockhart looked up from the other.  Lincoln stopped babbling with Ogalalo and Elder Stow.  “You need to get your things back for the journey.  Am I the only one here with any sense?  There’s a switch.”

            “Nice crew,” Lincoln said, referring to the dwarfs that crowded around and made the people in the village keep their distance, the ones that were not already keeping back.

            “Thanks,” Huyana said before she realized Lincoln was not being serious.  She explained anyway.  “Aster keeps me sane.  She is my nurse in the Dryad’s house in the forest.  I left the ogre at the house because Ogalalo is scared of him.”

            “I am not.”

            “Yes you are, and good thing it wasn’t the right time of day for the goblins.”  She winked at the Shaman.  “Then there are my dwarf buddies.  There are seven of them and I don’t want to hear one wisecrack.  I can’t get rid of them.  I think if I went to the moon they would track me down.  They followed me all the way from the desert, where I used to live.”

            “The Mojave?”  Boston asked innocently and Aster touched Boston’s arm and shook her head but it was too late.

            “Yes,” Huyana said, and she began to cry.  “And I am so sorry I made them come.  Please.  I didn’t mean to make them come.”

            Aster moved as did Katie, but Boston got there first to hug Huyana. 

            “Why am I alive?” Huyana said quietly in Boston’s shoulder.  “Why can’t I just die and be done with it all like any normal person.  I’m so tired and I screw up everything I touch.”

            “Hush,” Boston said softly in return before she did something that surprised everyone, most of all Ogalalo.  She placed Huyana in the man’s arms.  He held her at first like she was a soft flower, easily crushed.  But after a moment he bent to kiss the top of her head and pulled her in to comfort her.

            “We have to find our own things,” Elder Stow said.  Lincoln shrugged and they went in search.  Katie and Lockhart stared at Huyana and Ogalalo and at each other. 

            “I’ll make sure the horses are ready,” Roland said and went down the line.

            Aster stepped up to Boston’s side and spoke to her alone.  “I have only just met him, but I would say you are a very lucky woman.”

            “I know,” Boston said as she watched Ogalalo’s face turn to one of pure joy.

            “As long as you know you are lucky, I am content.” Aster said.  

            When the men came back with their equipment and supplies, Katie checked her rifle first while Lockhart checked his shotgun.  There was the sound of distant thunder and one of the dwarfs stepped up.

            “Weather’s coming.”

            “Powerful weather,” A second said.

            “But I am smelling something more,” a third spoke up.

            “Something is on the hoof and sounds like thunder,” said the fourth, and they saw it as a woman screamed and came running into the village.  A herd of Buffalo was headed straight toward them.

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Avalon 2.5:  Things of Power … Next Time

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Avalon 2.5: Broken Days

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

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

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Recording…

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            “Where are we?” Boston asked again.

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

            “Smells like upstate New York,” Roland said.

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

            “How do you figure?” Boston asked.

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

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

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

            “How do you figure?”

            “Huyana.”

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

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

            “Mojave?”

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

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

            “Always picked last for the team?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Avalon 2.5:  Camp du Jour … Next Time

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Avalon 2.4: 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.

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Avalon 2.4: Unexpected Magic

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

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

###

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

            “Interfere.”

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

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

            “I don’t have any magic.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

###

Avalon 2.4:  Fight to the End … Next Time

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Avalon 2.4: The Elect

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            Both Chloe, the young girl native to 3700 BC, and Lieutenant Katie Harper, the Marine from the early twenty-first century have been called “Elect,” and neither one of them has any idea what that means.

###

            They arrived in front of a great, long log house and found a woman of about thirty-five years standing out front.  The travelers had no doubt who this was.  Her hair had the same extra light golden brown look that the Princess had and she was also clearly a warrior, being in the same excellent health and Princess shape.  She was the same height as the Princess as well, or just a smidgen taller at about five foot, eight, which made her a very tall woman in that world.  But the give-away was the armor she wore.  It was the armor of the Kairos they had seen before.  Only her eyes were not like the Princess, being sparkling green instead of penetrating blue, and while this woman, this Kairos was beautiful, perhaps very beautiful, she was not the Princess.

            “Glen?”  Boston felt obliged to say it.

            Zoe frowned before she smiled and said, “No.  But about time you got here, Boston.  I was getting ready to worry.”

            “We had some followers,” Lockhart said.  “No big deal.”

            “Revelon,” Iris said as they all dismounted.

            Zoe nodded before she spoke.  “Lockhart, Lincoln and Elder Stow, you need to go with the escort.  They have prepared a place for you and some food.  Roland, you and Boston need to escort Amira and my Sybil wherever the Sybil tells you.  Katie, you and I need to talk.  Iris, go fetch Minas.  Chloe, come in.”  And with that said, Zoe turned and stepped inside the long, log house that had to be city hall and the national government offices as well.

            “What is this place?”  Katie looked around and found Chloe stuck close to her side.

            “The hall of the goddesses,” Zoe said.  “You may meet one or more at their pleasure, of course.”

            “Goddesses?” Chloe spoke with a shiver in her voice.

            “Chloe,” Zoe put her arm out to invite the girl in.  Chloe looked at Katie first.

            “Go on,” Katie said.  “Zoe is probably the best person you will ever meet.”

            “Now, I don’t know about that,” Zoe said as Chloe stepped in close and Zoe slipped her arm over Chloe’s shoulder.

            “Man or woman,” Katie said.  “I haven’t found one to complain about yet.”

            Zoe did not answer directly.  She brought them to the center of the room where a table was laid out with all sorts of fruits and vegetables, greens, flowers and breads.  “Our offering table,” Zoe said.  “No blood, though some of the goddesses would not mind if there was.  We always give the best of the first fruits.  You must learn this if you would be Queen.”

            “Me?”  Chloe asked and looked back again at Katie.  “But you are the Queen,” she spoke to Zoe.

            “But the gods require me in some way I cannot explain, but I cannot be Queen for much longer.  Someone must be Queen and you are the elected one.  In the future days, there may be regents, but only an elect can be Queen of the Amazons.”

            “What about Katie?”  Chloe took a step back.

            “I don’t belong here,” Katie said.  “And I don’t even know what an elect is.”

            “One in a million,” Zoe said.  “Though in your day with over a billion inhabitants that has become more like one in ten million.”

            “But what does it mean, elect?”  Chloe asked.

            Zoe squatted before the girl and took her hands.  “An elect one is a woman with a strong mind and a pure heart who is gifted by the gods to protect and defend her family and community.  Strong as any man, she has great speed, dexterity, agility and coordination.  She has a high threshold for pain, is hard to injure, but when hurt, she heals quickly.  An elect has an uncanny ability with whatever weapon comes to hand, but she can fight just as well with no weapon at all.  She is a strategic and tactical thinker with great energy, perseverance and courage.”  Zoe turned her eyes on Katie and stood but kept hold of one of Chloe’s hands.  “Does that sound about right, Katie?”

            Katie shook her head to deny it, but Zoe would not let her.

            “Didn’t you out shoot and out run and beat up the boys in your training?  Even back in high school and college I am sure you surprised yourself and often deliberately kept yourself hidden.”

            “No, I –“

            “And on this trip you matched Decker, the expert Navy Seal every step of the way, though you are a lowly scholar.  Don’t think the Marines did not notice.  That is why you are here.”

            “No, but –“

            “Minas.”  Minas stood.  They had not seen Minas and Iris come in.  The two women were kneeling with their heads bowed.  “Iris, give me your sword.”  Iris gave it to Zoe who immediately handed it to Katie.  “Minas came to us just a few years ago, but she has learned quickly.”  Minas was one of those women who were much too big and strong to ever play the helpless role.

            “But I have never held a sword before,” Katie admitted and felt good that she knew which end to hold.

            “Then this should be fun,” Minas said, and she drew her own sword, and smiled.  Katie felt cornered as Minas made three quick swings.  Katie backed up and parried, but on the third, a backstroke, Katie lost her grip and her sword crashed to the floor and slid well out of her reach. 

            Minas hesitated until Zoe said, “Finish it.”  She moved in, but Katie dropped to the floor and kicked Minas’ feet out from beneath.  Katie at least knew Karate.  As Minas stumbled, Katie rolled and grabbed her sword.

            This time, Katie was the one swinging, and Minas was hard pressed to counter.  Katie might have been swinging out of fear, but it seemed more than Minas could handle.  In a moment, Minas was backed to one of the many posts in the room that held up the ceiling.  The last stroke was hard enough to wrench Minas’ arm.  She dropped her sword and grabbed her arm as if it might be dislocated.

            “Oh, I’m sorry,” Katie used the line she had used since she was Chloe’s age.  It was the first part of her litany about how it was an accident and she was just lucky and it probably would not happen that way again in a million years.  But she did not get to say it all.  Zoe interrupted.

            “Give Iris her sword,” Zoe ordered, and Katie did.  “Here.”  Zoe tossed a knife to Katie, or at her, but in any case, Katie caught the knife without being cut.  “Now, Iris, kill her.”

            “Majesty?”

            “Kairos?”

            “You heard me,” Zoe said and she squeezed Chloe’s hand to keep her out of it.

            Iris was trained to the weapon since she was a baby, and this strange woman only had a knife, but Iris was wary.  She circled and danced in and out at first to test Katie’s defenses  Katie turned the knife back and countered every stroke, but she felt confused.  It was all happening too fast to think.  At once, Iris moved in for the kill, but instead of backing up as expected, Katie appeared to be waiting for this and moved in as well.  That move negated Iris’ longer reach sword and made the knife the stronger weapon.  Katie could have cut Iris, badly, but instead she kicked Iris in the solar plexus.  Iris flew back several yards and crashed her back against one of the poles.  Her sword clattered to the floor while she groaned.   But then Iris was trained well.  She quickly got to her knees as Katie hovered over her.  Iris bowed her head in submission and spoke.

            “Elect.”

            Zoe let go and Chloe ran up to hug Katie.  “That was wonderful.  That was magnificent, and with only a knife against a trained sword.

            “But I have been trained to fight,” Katie said with a look at Zoe who shook her head.

            “Iris was trained to fight since she was a baby, and trained with knives and swords, and with her hands and feet.  You are an elected one, and you know it.”

            “But how did you know?”

            “I have known since the beginning, but I could not say anything until now.  The whole idea of being elect has just begun with this generation.  One in a million, and right now at Chloe’s age they may be found anywhere around the globe.”  Zoe turned to Chloe.  “You will become stronger as you reach maturity, but remember, finesse can beat strength if you know what you are facing.   You will learn to fight.”  Chloe looked excited by that idea, but Katie wondered if being an elect was such a good thing as Zoe turned to her again.  “Can’t you feel it?  Can’t you feel it in Chloe.  Look at Iris and Minas.  They are both warriors, but Chloe is different.”

            Katie paused and looked at Iris.  Then she looked at Minas.  Finally she looked at Chloe and Zoe beside her and nodded.  “I do feel it.  I understand what you are saying, but I don’t feel it in me.”

            “I do,” Chloe said, and her eyes got big.

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Avalon 2.4: Unexpected Magic … Next Time

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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: The Other Side of the Coin

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            Defending the innocent often has consequences.  The travelers cannot simply abandon the girls when they find the next time gate and move into the next time zone.  They need to find a safe place for them to grow up.  Fortunately, sometimes events can help.

###

            Lincoln and Elder Stow had the morning shift, so they were the first to hear the horses in the distance.  It did not take long to wake everyone, but then there was the problem deciding what to do. 

            “If it is Revelon and the men from the city, our live will be forfeit,” Chloe said.  “I do not wish to cause any more deaths and there will be too many of them.  If it is the women from the East, we will be safe, but I worry about your men.”

            “It is the women,” Amira said.  “But we should all be safe with two elect among us.  Even the men should be safe.”

            “We will be fine,” Lockhart said.  “We will have elect to protect us.”  He slipped is arm around Katie’s shoulder right in front of everyone.  She did not mind, but she elbowed him softly.  Neither knew what Amira meant when she talked about Katie being elected, so it was hard to take it seriously.

            It did not take long to find out Amira was right about one thing.  It was the women, though  Lincoln thought they were more like young girls.  He did not imagine any of them was over eighteen until they brought a horse up from the back where an old lady had been straggling at the rear of the pack.  Lincoln suddenly remembered being that old.  He imagined the woman did her best to keep up.

            There were four large and mean looking women that surrounded the old lady.  Two held the horses while two helped her down and walked on each side of her like Secret Service bodyguards.  The Lady made an unwavering path to Katie where she surprised everyone, even her bodyguards.  She got down on her knees at Katie’s feet.  After a moment of hesitation and a few extra looks at Katie, the bodyguards joined her.

            “Elect,” the woman intoned in her ancient voice.

            Katie looked up at Lockhart, but he could only shrug.  She bent down a little toward the lady.  “Please get up,” and she would have helped if the bodyguards were not there.  The old lady stood slowly, like she was crippled with arthritis, but with her head lowered, she made a straight path to Chloe where she did the same thing and said something that shocked everyone present, including the women still on horseback.

            “My Queen.”

            Chloe’s instinct was to look at her sister, but Amira was simply smiling at her own thoughts.  At last Chloe echoed Katie.  “Please get up,” and the old woman did with a nod and made a new path.  This took her to Amira, and everyone prepared for her to repeat the same ritual; but again she surprised everyone.  She wrapped Amira up in her arms and hugged the girl, and Amira hugged the old lady right back like she was hugging her favorite, long-lost grandmother.  Then at last the old lady turned and spoke to them all.

            “Respect these men.  These two are older than I am in years, but by the grace of the gods they have returned to youth in their bodies.  This one is of the elder races.  Do not be afraid.  He will not harm you.  And this good elf and his betrothed are to be given all respect.  For us, the sign of the little ones is always good fortune.  Respect these men, and respect also these women, the elf wife, the elected one, the Sybil I hold in my arms who will follow after me and the future Queen.  Now let us ride.  The men of Revelon will be here when the sun breaks full above the horizon.”

            “Pack’em up, people!” Lockhart yelled and the travelers jumped to action.  “Chloe, you better ride with Katie.  Amira, stick with Boston.  She is rodeo trained and won’t let you slip from the saddle.”

            One of the women in the pack dismounted quickly and ran up.  “Male, who are you to decide such things?”

            “One far older and wiser than you, Iris,” the old lady said before she began to reach for the words.  “And one trained for this kind of operation.  Did I say that correctly?”  She looked at Katie who responded with a kind smile.

            “Perfectly.”

            “I’ll keep to the rear and protect the old lady,” Lincoln volunteered.

            Amira, Iris and Chloe spoke as one.  “Sybil.”

            “Exactly,” Lincoln said.  He did not explain what he meant, but Lockhart imagined he wanted to ask what she knew about Alexis.

            It took less than an hour to get ready and mounted.  Lincoln lamented not having any explosives they could rig as a surprise for the men.  Elder Stow agreed with him, but Boston scolded them both.

            “Three are dead.  We want to avoid killing any more if it can be helped.” 

            Lincoln understood, but Elder Stow shrugged like it did not matter to him since we were only talking about killing homo sapiens.

            As the twenty women and the travelers rode out, they heard a much larger group of horses in the distance.  Iris, who rode on Katie’s other side shouted when she heard the pursuit.

            “If we can make the border we should be safe.”

            The travelers discovered that these young women were riders.  At every opportunity, they let the horses ride flat out.  Fortunately for the travelers and in particular Elder Stow who was not so good on horseback, the women rode Black Sea ponies that they called horses.  The travelers rode mustangs from the mid nineteenth century American West. They were real horses, the product of millennia of breeding, and as such were far larger, stronger and swifter than anything the women had ever seen. 

            They came at last to a broad plain that stretched out before the hills began that rose into mountains in the distance.  Iris led the troop in an all out gallop to the other side.  The men were close by then.  The women came to a wide path up the rocky hillside that could not otherwise be climbed by horses.  Iris paused there and Katie and Lockhart paused with her as the women began that climb.

            “That cliff face,” Iris pointed.  “It marks the boundary of Amazon territory.  The men will not follow us there.”

            “Good to know,” Lockhart said as he shouldered his shotgun and snatched Katie’s rifle right out of her saddle holster.

            “What are you doing?”  Katie yelled at him.

            “You have responsibilities.”  He nodded at  Chloe and turned back to the bottom of the hill where he dismounted and got behind a boulder.  Lincoln saw and joined him on the other side, and when Lockhart slapped his horse on the rump, his and Lincoln’s horses followed the herd of horses up the hill.”

            “Quick volleys,” Lockhart yelled.  Lincoln nodded and in a second the men were in range.  They fired, rapid fire, and might have hit a few men, but certainly sent several horses to the dirt.  It slowed things, not to mention the oncoming horses did not like the cracking thunder that echoed off the hill.  Several more quick shots and the charge stalled.

            Katie swore as she raced to the top of the hill, faster than Iris or any pony could keep up.  As soon as she arrived, she let Chloe down.  “Ride with Iris,” she ordered, and Chloe did not argue.  Meanwhile, Boston handed Amira to Roland, who protested.

            “You are not trained for this.”  Boston was not going to argue either, but she added, “I would not trust Amira to anyone else.”  Roland helped the girl up as Boston and Katie sprinted for the bottom of the hill.

            “Lockhart!” Katie was the one who yelled as she brought her horse to a sharp halt.  Lockhart tossed her the rifle, and she did not hesitate to use it.  There were men dismounted and coming up on foot with bows.  Lockhart did not watch.  He simply got up behind.

            Boston did it a bit differently.  Lincoln saw her coming, leaning to the side with her hand down.  He quickly shouldered his rifle, caught her hand and swung up behind her as she passed by.  She turned her horse like going around a rodeo barrel and they started back up the hill.

            Several belated arrows came in their direction once the two horses began to go back up the hill.  They fell woefully short, but they were that close.  At the top, Lockhart slid off and whistled.  The horse he had named Dog came trotting right up.  Lincoln also grabbed his steed and mounted.

            Iris left a dozen of the women by the cliff, well hidden and well protected and also well armed.  The rest of the party she led down the other side into Amazon country.

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Amazon 2.4:  A Country for Young Women … Next Time

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.

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

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