by Dave Hazel
“I agree, but no. For sure they’re not gonna go on the night mission, and I’m still trying to decide if I wanna take them during the day. Even though they’re on our side, they’re still the left wing media and they will turn on us cuz they don’t have a friggin clue what savage bastards the Sosos are. Sir, yesterday we flew over the two little villages I came across back in June. I wish you could have seen the two little villages I came across just a couple of days into my first visit. It honestly changed me. It scarred me for life. And the things they did to our people when they were prisoners was the Sosos being gentle because they needed to keep the prisoners alive. And you wouldn’t believe the things I’ve heard from Towbar and his people about the real Sosos. They live to torture and kill. They believe their filthy god desires that nonsense and they really do believe they will get a better place in paradise when they do that crap.”
“You don’t have to explain to me Myk. I don’t have a problem with it, but like you just said, the lefties of the bunch will have a problem with some of the things you told me earlier you are going to do.”
“Yeah, I really don’t care what they think.”
“I understand that, but I want you to be careful because they do have the power to make us look bad and turn the general public against us.”
“I will make sure the men keep the facts of their actions from them.” Mykal didn’t want to make a threat should something happen later, but he looked down at his ring. ‘Let ‘em try,’ he mused in thought.
“You make sure to stay safe Myk. If you need me I’ll be at my tent,” Major Chick rose and took his tray. He carried his own tray to the trash cans to eliminate his waste personally.
Mykal knew some of the other officers left their trays on the tables for the food service personnel to clean up after them. Mykal really liked Major Chick as a person and as the senior officer.
“There he is ma’am,” Mykal heard one of the food service personnel say from behind him.
“Thank you,” Doninka said softly. “Mykal,” she exclaimed with happiness and joined him just as he finished his breakfast.
“Hey Doninka, how are you doing? Come here, come here and sit with me,” he said and pointed to the seat Chick vacated. “Are you hungry?”
“No. I have eaten earlier,” she answered but her focus was him. She looked dreamily into his eyes.
“Would you like something to drink?”
“No Mykal. I just wanted to say hello and see how you were doing,” she said and stared into his eyes.
Mykal felt a little awkward. Looking into her eyes he felt as if he was doing something wrong. “How are you doing?”
“I am fine. When you and the others disappeared we all feared that you died or that you became a prisoner of the Sosos. I am so glad you are well,” Doninka said and gave a big smile. “After your people returned I looked for you. Towbar informed me that you had an important errand to run. I only wanted to tell you that I am happy you are safe and that we all missed you.”
“Well I really appreciate it,” he said and suddenly his emotions tugged on his heart. He and Doninka had been through a great deal together. He knew if he had never been married he could easily fall for her. Part of him wanted to reach out and hug her in a friendly way, but he knew that would be taken wrong by her and that in turn would only lead to trouble for him. He would never betray his love for his wife, but he couldn’t deny that he felt something stirring inside. ‘Could it be the ring playing with my emotions again?’
“I have heard others talking that you plan to attack the Sosos in their camp again.”
“Yeah, we wanna knock them off balance and keep them guessing. We wanna make them afraid that they could be hit any time and struck from any position.”
“I do not understand what that means. Do you think that is wise after all you have been through?”
“It’ll be alright. That last thing was just a fluke,” he snickered at her concerned expression though he believed it was a deliberate assault to send him on the other side of the world. Only Zizmon-Tarl would be capable of such a feat.
“I hope so Mykal. You have endured much during your short stay in my world,” she said and looked deeply into his eyes. “You are the only person I know of who has survived a Soso death arrow. Our adventure into the mountain had its moments of death defying thrills. You survived our battles with the Sosos and I do not even know all the details of your journey to the other side of the world. I heard some of the strange happenings and I am astonished. I am terrified that you take far too many chances with your life.”
Mykal smiled but listening to her suddenly made him feel old. “So what are you up to? What have you been doing?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary. I have been helping warriors in the preparation of the coming Soso attack. Towbar has asked me to travel back to Beramus to speak to my father the King. We need more soldiers.”
“When are you leaving?”
“I do not know,” she answered and frowned. “My place is here. However, I understand why Towbar would like to send me. He can not leave the front lines and he knows my father would listen to only Towbar or myself.”
“I would like you to go back there too.”
“Why?” Doninka asked and sounded devastated.
“Only because I know you would be safe there. No other reason. I wouldn’t want to see anything happen to you. Yes I know, you can take care of yourself, cuz you’re a tough girl,” he quickly added with a roll of his eyes before she could respond angrily. They laughed together. “Honestly, I don’t wanna see anything happen to you.”
“Really?” She asked as if he just proposed to her.
“Yes, I care about you and you mean a lot to me. We’ve been through a great deal together.”
“That is true,” she said with a smile, but her mood suddenly changed as if sadness washed over her. “Your heart is still in another place, am I correct?”
An urge came over him to lie and take advantage of her. Mykal knew that wasn’t his heart and he attributed it to the ring. “Yes Doninka. I will not lie to you. My heart is committed to my wife in another world.”
“I guess I am aware of that. I hoped things may have changed for you. No, I do not mean that. Well yes, from a selfish view I do. However I desire only your happiness. Oh I am so confused. Mykal, you mix up my thinking. You always mix up my thinking,” she said and sounded slightly flustered. “You know I desire you, yet I desire your true happiness and I understand that your wife gives you true happiness. You are important to me even if that means I can not have you. You saved my life a number of times.”
“And you saved my life too. Doninka, I do think the world of you,” he paused because he knew no matter what he said next wasn’t going to be helpful. “And I adore your friendship,” he added and saw her lips dip into a small frown. “You mean a great deal to me. Do you remember the big battle on the 4th of July?”
“I do not know what 4th of July means. However, I do remember the big battle.”
“Well at first I was so ticked off that Towbar made me babysit you, but it turned out not to be babysitting cuz you held your own when the shit hit the fan,” he said and she giggled.
“I do not know exactly what that means,” she giggled again and blushed.
“Honestly, it’s a gross mental picture cuz a fan is something that has blades that spins really fast,” he said and used his finger to show a circular motion. “And so when the shit hits the fan it goes flying everywhere,” he said and started to laugh at her laughter. “Thinking about that, that saying we have is gross. Anyway, when the shit hit the fan you definitely held your own and I was so glad we spent that entire battle side by side. I was proud of you. You’re a real life princess and you could have easily demanded to be taken away, but you wanted to stand and fight with your people. I was glad we spent that day together. And then the next day when we went into the mountains I was so glad I spent that time with you too.”
“I am glad also.
I enjoyed it when you locked our wrists together so the Dwarves could not separate us,” Doninka said with a smile as her eyes looked upward as if bringing back the memories. “You were my hero that day.”
“We needed each other, but I agree, that was a great time,” Mykal said and smiled at the thought of the two of them being handcuffed together for an entire day. Mykal sensed his emotions multiplying inside and suddenly he felt a sense of loss. He felt the same kind of hurt he experienced over the loss of his friends. That didn’t seem right. He shouldn’t experience loss and hurt over a decision to reject Doninka’s advances and remain true to his wife. The death and loss of his friends was real and genuine emotions. This didn’t make sense. ‘I’m not gonna toy with her and have two women in two different worlds,’ he thought and couldn’t understand why his mind even entertained such an idea. He couldn’t comprehend why he felt the sense of loss because of his decision against taking advantage of her. Mykal knew he could easily have an affair with her and no one would really know about it. ‘I would know about it,’ he scolded himself in thought. ‘I will not do that to Pam. I can’t! I know for sure, if I give in to my flesh, I will hate myself for hurting Pam. This doesn’t make sense. I make a right decision to not do wrong and I feel terrible about it. I feel like another friend just died. Why?’
He looked down at the gold band of the magic ring and wondered if it really was the effect of the magic. He glanced at the gold wedding band on his left ring finger and he pushed the foolish thoughts aside. Diaz, Ski and Towbar were right; there could be danger in playing with magic. ‘Why is this getting to be so hard? But I need this friggin ring for my survival,’ he believed but wanted to yell at the confusion flooding him.
Mykal heard her speak but didn’t understand what she said while he battled the thoughts in his head. He nodded and smiled though he realized his thoughts were going in many directions. ‘I’m becoming a friggin basket case over this damn ring.’
“…So please be careful when you venture into the enemy camp. I do not understand why you take such risks,” she said and her face bore her frightful concern.
“Well, first I wanna do as much damage to the Sosos as possible,” he said calmly though his insides raged with blood lust. “Plus I would never send the men to do something that I wouldn’t do especially if there is risk involved.”
“Your men already understand that about you Mykal. Let others do that work if it must be done. Do not put yourself in danger,” she said more from a selfish point of view. “You are too important a leader for your men to lose.”
“I understand what you’re saying,” he said and laughed. “I’m gonna be careful,” he added but had to keep quiet that he had a ring of invisibility that would prove to be a devastating weapon against the Sosos and their allies. “Let’s talk while we walk,” he offered and stood. He followed Major Chick’s example and cleaned up his area and took his trash to the trash can and put the tray, plate, drinking glass and silverware in the proper receptacles on his way out of the mess tent.
“I know I have expressed my thanks and my appreciation to you on several occasions Mykal,” Doninka said while they walked. Despite the busyness and flurry of activity around them, she could only hear and feel the two of them as they walked. “I truly want you to know, on behalf of my people, my parents, the King and Queen of our land, and myself, we are grateful and forever in your debt. Without your help Mykal, my people would be destroyed and those not killed would become slaves until they are tortured to death. You may ask of me anything at any time and I will never refuse you. I am beholden to you Mykal.”
Mykal looked at her and smiled. The first time she made such an offer happened to be before her true identity, daughter of King Loankore III, had been revealed. At the time he thought she was only a poor servant girl working for Towbar. Then and there he believed she offered her body to him because they were the visiting ‘knights in white armor’ coming to rescue them. All his men had women offering themselves to them as a display of their gratitude. He refused her advances due to his love and devotion to Pam. Now that he knew she was a true princess, daughter to King Loankore III, he would never believe she would offer her body just as a token of her thanks. Nevertheless, Mykal knew her feelings for him were strong and her stated desires to have a relationship with him led him toward thinking she would offer everything about herself to him. As tempting and flattering as all of that could possibly be, he would never jeopardize his relationship with his wife. Some would call him a fool for passing up such an opportunity with a young beautiful princess, but Mykal knew himself to be a happy fool with a clean conscience. In the area of fidelity he was a man of integrity and no one could take that from him except Mykal himself.
2.
“You know you guys don’t have to go,” Mykal said to Larry and Jake who walked with him.
“We know that,” Larry laughed. “I wanna go cuz I gotta break up the boredom. Besides, I wanna kill as many of them Soso bastards as I can before we really go home.”
“And I wanna go to keep you outta trouble,” Jake said and the three of them laughed. “I have to break up the monotony as well. If I thought you were being foolish I wouldn’t go.”
“And also I keep telling our buddies Terry Burns, Big Jeff Cann, Douglas and Spencer that we’re having a good time and they should come along,” Larry laughed with his sarcastic bite because of those four being their friends.
“I don’t want to know anything,” Jake said and threw his hands in the air.
“That’s fine Jake,” Larry scoffed at him. “Me and Myk will do the heavy lifting to take care of our problem.”
“Our problem?” Jake fired back. “How is this in any way my problem?”
“Cuz you were our supervisor and you never stopped us,” Larry laughed and tried to make Jake feel guilty. “If they go after Mykal they’re gonna come after us too,” Larry said and pointed back and forth between Jake and himself. “From what Boris told me, they were saying that Mansfield’s death needed to be looked into, and that means they will stir up other shit as well.”
“Mansfield’s death?” Jake looked stunned and bewildered. “Why Mansfield’s death? Mansfield died by a Soso death arrow, right? Didn’t he?”
“Yes of course,” Mykal answered.
“But since his body had never been recovered what kind of problems does that bring up?” Larry asked. “Remember Lieutenant Edwards was squawking and saying we did something to Mansfield. How are we gonna fight that when fat assed Mansfield’s body was probably carried off with the other dead to the outside of the mountain wall and he could have been one of the ones that had been burned. But those idiots opening their mouths and making false accusations could cause all kinds of trouble for us back in the world. We need to shut them up.”
“Stop,” Jake said forcefully. “I don’t want any part of something like that and I don’t wanna know if you’re serious. Because I believe you’re just joking around. We’ll talk about it later,” he said when Roy Jr. and Randy approached them. They were both carrying a couple of rifles.
“Hey Myk, do you mind if we come along?” Roy Jr. asked.
“Sure. You guys know I’d always take you.” Mykal answered and smiled at them. “We’re gonna do something a little different. We’re going to strike them twice. We’re gonna fly out to the west and hit them a couple of times and then we’re gonna go to the east and hit them after dark to really spook them. I wanna be as vicious as possible so hopefully it’ll put a fear in them of what we’re capable of. Anyway, when we get to the choppers just tell two of the men they can go on the next trip,” Mykal said to the brothers. “I’d rather have you guys come along.”
“Oh boy, here come the friggin pencil neck brigade,” Larry said in response to the mob of reporters and cameramen approaching them. “They look like angry villagers looking for Frankenstein’s monster.”
Mykal and the others laughed at Larry’s remark.
“Mister Graves, Mister Graves, c
an we have a word with you?” One person out of the media group called to him as they approached.
“Sure,” Mykal said with a friendly smile but took notice that at least three of the video recorders were recording.
“Is it true that we are being banned from going on this mission?”
“I never said that,” Mykal replied politely. “I haven’t decided yet, because I wasn’t really sure how I wanted to go about this. But I’ll take a couple of teams on the day time raid.”
“So are you planning to conduct a night raid also?” David Brooks asked.
“It’s not definite, but I’m thinking about it. Besides looking for those who are still unaccounted for,” he quickly added though most knew there would be hardly any chance of finding anyone still alive after all the time that had passed. “My goal, just so you know, is to create mayhem, instill fear and hopefully scare them away. I wanna kill as many of them as possible. If I could I would wipe them all out.”
“Are you in essence saying you are attempting to exterminate the enemy in the same way Hitler tried to exterminate the Jews in the late 30s and early 40s?” A different heavyset reporter asked. The man looked angry, but Mykal had never spoken to him before.
Mykal looked at the man to see if he was joking. “Are you friggin serious?”
“Yes. I am asking you a direct question, and I am as serious as I have ever been,” the angry sounding heavyset man stopped writing on his little notepad and looked at Mykal eye to eye.
Mykal looked to the leader, a much bigger man who was already sweating. The leader shrugged as if to say he didn’t understand where the question came from and what the purpose of it was.
“Are you from the north?” Mykal asked as a joke to imply the man came from one of the Soso countries, thus insinuating he was a Soso plant. “Cuz that’s a bullshit comment you just made.”
“Excuse me?” The angry reporter asked and looked confused. He didn’t catch Mykal’s attempt at humor and glanced at Jake and Larry who started to laugh with the two Dosch brothers.