by Dave Hazel
“Yeah. Sure do,” Roy Jr. said and studied both sides of the wide trail they were following. “It seems like the forest is really dense in these here parts. “You’d done think they got the name Black Forest from being here,” he giggled.
“Yeah, I think we better really make sure we’re being careful and watchful during the night,” Mykal said. “I’m just kinda feeling like I’m on edge.”
“Well if anything comes near us we open up, blow the hell outta it and then ask questions after it’s blown apart,” Roy Jr. said and raised his rifle over his head.
“He’s right,” Randy agreed with him. “If anything comes near us while it’s dark, it can’t be something good.”
“I agree,” Mathis replied. “Cuz you know whatever is out here, they’re not selling girl scout cookies,” he added and they all started to laugh. “They might be selling a subscription to Big Zee’s monthly. A catalogue that sells torture tools, odd weapons, some monsters, freaks and weirdoes. Each monthly issue has a centerfold to die for,” he added and they continued with the humorous remarks.
CHAPTER TWENTY 01/27/1984
1. Friday, January 27th 1984
0456 hours, Camp on Path in Black Forest (20th Day)
Mykal had been awakened by the bad dream he was having. He sat there in silence so as to not wake the men sleeping. ‘I hate having these friggin nightmares all the damn time.’ He looked at the gold ring on the middle finger of his right hand and saw the slight glow that told him it was magic. He desperately wanted to turn himself invisible, but he knew he had to avoid that and use it only when necessary. He believed the magic of the ring was playing a role with his emotions spiraling out of control, thus he believed it helped play a part in the negative effects on his nightmares. ‘But I was having nightmares before I found the magic stuff,’ he thought and debated getting up to join the men on guard duty.
He looked over to where Towbar would have been sleeping but the giant was gone. He wondered if Towbar was trying to make contact with Doninka through Mind Talk. ‘Would it work if she was sleeping? Cuz she’d probably be sleeping right now,’ he wondered. ‘I wanna ask Towbar to use me to try his Mind Talk, but I’m terrified after that dream I had,’ he thought and had to shake his head. ‘Am I gonna let that bastard William control what I do? No!’ He shouted in his head. ‘He might not even be alive. This is all a figment of my imagination. If he is alive he would still be a prisoner of the Goblins under that mountain.’
‘But William has played a big part in interrupting my dreams,’ Mykal declared in thought. ‘And he has also bugged Towbar a couple of times and Towbar said he never dreams. Something is going on with William. It just can’t be me getting all paranoid over his stupid ass,’ he thought and sighed. ‘I’m gonna kill that piece of shit,’ he snarled in his mind and wanted to punch something.
“Hey Roy and Randy,” Sergeant Simmons whispered from the front of the transport vehicle.
“I’ll get them,” Corporal Nelson whispered from standing in the turret. “Hey Roy Jr. and Randy. It’s oh five hundred hours,” he whispered and kicked the bottom of Randy’s foot. “It’s time to get up and pull the last shift for watch,” he whispered. “Oh hey Mykal, I didn’t mean to wake you Sir,” he whispered.
“You didn’t. I was already up,” he whispered back.
“You damn people are whispering like a couple of girls at a sleepover,” Roy Jr. said angrily and rubbed his eyes.
“Shut the hell up bro,” Randy rebuked him in a hushed whisper. “There are other people still sleeping. It’s time for us to get up anyway.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” he agreed when he looked at the illuminated face of his watch. “Sorry about that. It seems like I just laid my head down,” he added and snickered.
“He was always the crabby one when we had to get up in the morning,” Randy said with a laugh to apologize for his brother.
“Don’t forget I’ve spent the past couple of months with your brother,” Mykal laughed. “Come on and I’ll go out with you guys. This way if you wanna get something to eat I’ll be there with you.”
A short time later while in the middle of eating their meal Towbar returned. He had a puzzled look on his face. “Has Hidtotim and his men awoken yet?”
“No but they should be getting up shortly,” Randy answered. He looked at his watch. “It’s a little after five thirty and Captain Diaz wanted everyone up by six so we can get an early start.”
“Did you have any luck?” Mykal asked. Towbar would know Mykal referred to Mind Talk. He suddenly became fearful to ask Towbar about using him the next time he tried to make contact with Doninka. He couldn’t understand why his mind froze and wouldn’t allow him to ask. It all had to do with the horrible nightmare of Doninka’s beheading. Though it was only a dream he couldn’t bring himself to risk it becoming a reality.
“No my friend,” Towbar said and gave a slight sigh. “However, I will not cease trying. I must have patience. I must wait and believe the gods will smile down on me during one of these attempts. That is what I had to do when I tried daily to make contact with you my friend. My patience paid off and we are here now.”
“I understand. But please, don’t say that around Captain Diaz,” Mykal whispered and looked behind him to ensure Captain Diaz wasn’t standing there.
“Say what to Captain Diaz my friend?’ Towbar asked and genuinely looked confused.
“Don’t talk about god-za,” Roy Jr. said and laughed. “Don’t say gods like more than one god cuz Captain Diaz and that ol’ preacher boy Ski will get all fussy about that cuz they know their God is the only God. There ain’t a bag full of gods to be playing with.”
“Exactly,” Mykal replied and had to laugh. “The more I get to know you Roy, the more you start to sound like a shit kicker country boy.”
“Welp,” he said and paused to look at Randy. The brothers started to laugh because they both knew he just sounded like their father who always said ‘welp’ instead of ‘well’.
“You know you are becoming more like daddy as each day goes by,” Randy laughed at his brother. “We always said we’ll never be like daddy and his old fogey ways and here I’m seeing my brother change into my father right before my eyes,” Randy laughed. “The older he gets the more he starts to look and sound like my daddy.”
“Yeah yeah yeah,” Roy Jr. quickly cut his brother off and turned to Mykal. “I guess I can take that as a compliment Mykal my city boy brotha. Cuz I am a country boy through and through. And being on the ranch I do kick shit. And when it comes to Sosos or any of these damn Zee-man soldiers I do kick the shit outta them.”
“Point taken,” Mykal laughed and slapped Roy Jr.’s raised hand. “But whadda ya want Hidtotim for?” Mykal asked and brought the conversation back to Towbar’s original question.
“I am curious to know if they would understand the meaning of the carvings I came across on several of the trees,” he said and pointed back to the way he came from. “If it had been on only one or two trees I would not have brought it up. However, I must have seen the symbol thirty or forty times. I almost did not see them due to the fact many of them are positioned rather low on the trees.”
“Well, cool, I’d like to go check it out too,” Mykal said and thought he could muster the courage to ask Towbar to use him when he tried to make contact with Doninka. He suddenly had the edgy nervousness like a teenager preparing to ask the girl of his infatuations for a date. Mykal knew he wouldn’t be rejected in his offer to help the giant, but he was still fearful something bad would happen to Doninka. He still believed William would be behind it and he feared William would be used by Zizmon-Tarl to go after his family.
“That would be something I would like Nordad and his men to see,” Towbar said. “Since they are from these parts of the world they may have some insights as to the meaning and they may know who the people are that carved such a design. I would like the Elves and the Hawkmen to examine it as well.”
“As soon as
everyone gets up and about we’ll go check it out,” Mykal said and suddenly felt like that hormone led teenager who had just passed up an opportunity to ask the girl of his dreams out on a date. He felt like the kid with braces who feared rejection and blew his one great chance to ask the prettiest girl to the prom. ‘What the hell am I thinking? Towbar would never say no. I just don’t wanna have it blow up in my face and cause the poor girl Doninka to suffer any more,’ he thought and couldn’t get the vision of Doninka’s headless corpse from his mind. ‘But I gotta grow up and get past this.’
2.
“We’ll be back shortly,” Mykal said to Captain Diaz and Ratner. “We just wanna see if any of these guys know what this symbol is that Towbar found.”
“I’m curious to see if it may be a clue that would lead to the people who took Jackson and Thornton,” Lieutenant Finley said. He seemed very eager to go along with them.
Mykal wanted to ask Finley why he thought Jackson and Thornton were taken by people. But he didn’t want to make Finley feel worse about their disappearance than he already felt. As far as Mykal was concerned there was far more chance they were taken by ‘big black furry things’ rather than people. Then again, they could have just walked off together, but that option was probably the most unlikely since that option would have resulted in their deaths in this strange and dangerous land. All the men who knew the two of them said that suicide was the farthest thing from their minds. From what everyone shared the two men were friends but they weren’t close friends, besides there was more evidence to suggest foul play than anything else.
“Okay, just don’t go too far and when you return we will be heading out,” Diaz replied.
“We will not venture far,” Towbar said. “The symbols I saw are very close.”
“Alright, let’s go,” Mykal said and looked at his group. He, Towbar, Roy Jr., Randy, Mathis for the radio, Vick Daring and Ben Milnar to videotape what they found, Nordad, Codlon, Agnor, two of the Elves Egoneal and Uminair who knew more of this area than any of the Elves, and five soldiers from Mykal’s world. Private First Class Anka and Ferria, Green Berets Staff Sergeant Campbell, Sergeant Freeman and Sergeant Aubrey who all wanted to help Lieutenant Finley. Ferria, Campbell, Freeman and Finley were all a part of the original Lost Patrol that had been lost on this side of the world last year. Hidtotim, Nomorek, Clontab and Soonme rounded out the group because this was the land they were from, though they admitted they only traveled this road in route to their military occupations and they always traveled in an army. There was never time for sight-seeing or straying from the path.
‘Twenty-two men to go looking for symbols,’ Mykal thought and scoffed. He used their size to put off asking Towbar if the giant would use him the next time he tried to Mind Talk with Doninka. ‘What if my delay in asking Towbar is making things worse?’ He wondered. ‘What if we would be successful in making contact with her?’ He paused and wondered and tried to push himself in asking Towbar to use him. ‘Yeah, but what if we are successful and what if that bastard William is there? He will know what the hell we are doing. He was there when Towbar made contact with me under the mountain. Damn it, I don’t want to cause her to have any more trouble with--’
“What is troubling you my friend?” Towbar asked and interrupted his mental monologue.
“Nothing, why?”
“We were talking to you and it was like you were zoned out,” Roy Jr. said and started to laugh. “Did you get enough sleep?”
“Oh yeah. I was just thinking about something. Why, what’s up?”
“I had asked if this forest seemed different or the same as the forest you first became lost in as the Lost Patrol,” Towbar said. “Ferria, Campbell and Freeman all seem to think the forest is denser.”
“I would agree,” Lieutenant Finley said. “It seemed darker and heavier. If this path wasn’t here I don’t think we would have any sunlight coming through the tops of the trees down to our ground level”
“Yeah, I’d have to agree with that,” Mykal said and hoped the men didn’t think he was starting to lose his mind since he always seemed to be focused on other things. ‘Damn it. I gotta stay focused.’ “I wonder if that’s why you’re having a hard time making contact with Doninka. Cuz when we first got lost and when we went into the forest you said you could never make contact with me and you said you tried a couple of times a day.”
“You are correct my friend. Those are what my thoughts are too my friend,” Towbar said and stopped. “Here is one of the markings I found on the trees,” he added and pointed to a tree nearest the opening of the path they were on.
“Wow, this clearly looks like it’s put here on purpose like whoever put it here meant for it to be seen,” Randy surmised quickly. “Whoever put it here wanted it to be seen by those who travel this road.”
“I would agree,” Towbar said. He folded his massive arms across his chest and allowed the others to investigate.
“That’s amazing,” Mykal said while he eyed the large clear carving in the wood. “It is so smooth.”
“It reminds me of the perfection of a great tattoo artist,” Private First Class Ferria said while he fingered his chin.
“Yeah, it does,” Mykal agreed and eyed the shape. “It looks like a soft swastika,” he said and paused as he thought of old World War Two movies and all the Nazi flags he saw. “A backward swastika, but the lines aren’t hard and straight. The lines are all curved and soft and completely encircled.”
“Yes, I can definitely see a backward German swastika,” Finley agreed and moved to look closer. “Obviously it’s not the symbol for Nazi Germany of the 30s and 40s.”
“It is the sign for the Kachjens,” Hidtotim declared. “The leader of the Kachjens would be Kachjensim, however the group is more commonly known by the namesake of their leader, thus the group or clan is called Kachjens.”
“Who are they?” Roy Jr. asked and looked to Nordad and the others originally from this side of Towbar’s world.
“I would say it is better not to ask who they are,” Nomorek said and gave a look of deep thought. “Rather the better question should be what are they?”
“What are they?” Mathis quickly repeated Nomorek’s question and looked to Nomorek to see if the ex-Zizmon-Tarl soldier was putting them on. “Do you mean like what kind of strange creature they are?”
“They are an odd creature,” Soonme replied. “However they are humanoid. You would recognize a Kachjens if you saw one. They all resemble their queen Kachjensim. Their leader is a female. They are about average height. The same height as we all stand and they look somewhat to be human. Yet they have a very large belly. They are very fat. They look as if they do not stop when they start to eat. Their hair is striking. It is yellow and straight and very long. Not fluffy like most humans have. The Kachjens have very dark circles under their eyes just like their queen leader. Some say it is due to the evil in their hearts. They understand the common tongue. And there used to be an alliance between the Kachjens and the soldiers of the One.”
“What happened to break that alliance?’ Randy asked when they remained silent.
“The Kachjens never kept to their word. They tell falsehoods constantly. It is as if it is not in their nature to be truthful,” Hidtotim said. “It is said that you can always tell when the Kachjens communicate lies, because they are speaking,” Hidtotim said and the people from Mykal’s world all burst out with laughter as if Hidtotim told a funny joke.
“I guess that could be taken as a humorous observation,” Clontab said. “Yet Hidtotim speaks truth, whereas the Kachjens can never speak the truth.”
“Oh, he wasn’t joking,” Mykal said and laughed because he believed it was a funny line.
“Some believe the dark circles under the eyes are the result of the constant lying thus turning the face of deceitful Kachjens into hideous beasts,” Hidtotim continued. “The ugliness of their foul hearts oozes through the pores of their faces, so it has been said. Their lies have cos
t the lives of a great many soldiers of the One. They care only for themselves. They lie, trick and deceive to benefit their kind. They are not very strong and they are not fierce warriors so they are not feared in battle. Yet they are cunning in their trickery and then they try to stab one in the back.”
“Are they a very big group?” Lieutenant Finley asked. “Do you think there will be any threat of us encountering them?”
“I do not think so,” Hidtotim answered. “I have personally seen them only on two separate occasions and both times they fled from our overwhelming size as we passed through these forests on this path.”
“We have heard many a tale where they have attacked from behind or attacked after pulling a deception,” Soonme replied. “They are sly and can be deadly if one’s guard is down.”
“So we gots to worry about some portly looking Buddha type chick that lies all the time?” Roy Jr. asked and started to laugh to make light of their description. “It sounds like my dating life back in North Dakota,” he added and got a loud roar of laughter from those who belong to his world.
“Is that why you’re always an angry old cuss?” Mathis asked and laughed.
“Probably,” Roy Jr. laughed and raised his hand for Mathis to high five him. “That was a good one Radio Boy.”
“If they’re not very strong,” Mykal started and paused while he looked at other trees that had the same markings on them. “Then why do they mark these trees like this? Obviously they’re declaring this land here is theirs. Aren’t they asking for trouble? Cuz if Ziggy Stardust wanted to drop a heavy hand on them wouldn’t it be easy for him to wipe them out?”
“Especially after all the deceit they are guilty of, right?” Private First Class Anka asked.
“That is a good question,” Hidtotim answered. “That has actually never been brought up when we have come through here,” he added and waved his hands toward the forest of trees.”