Suddenly an air-car pulled up and she saw a Bellasarian youth at the wheel. She was liking this place even more. “Are you, Miss Perez, Carlos’s sister?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said.
The youth smiled again and got out. “My name is, Lycus,” he said. “I’ve been sent to pick you up. Here, let me take your things.”
Heidi numbly handed him her bags and he placed them into the vehicle. The kid looked like an underwear model. “Okay,” he said, “let’s go.”
Heidi looked around as they drove. The town was quite quaint. They were now leaving the so-called urban area and were heading to the outskirts of the town. The area was looking a little more country now, but still nice. When they pulled up to the tavern her brother was working and living in, she was impressed. The place was large with a fish-pond and garden. Her brother had told her this place was just a rustic tavern in some border town when he first wrote to them from Illyria. Oh, it was definitely still rustic, but man this place was cool. Obviously some serious work had been done to the place.
“How was your trip, Sis?” said a voice.
Heidi turned around and saw Carlos at the entrance to the inn, with him was his wife. The picture they’d received didn’t do the lady justice. Quickly they ran over and embraced her.
“You’re pretty,” said Katie. “Are you sure you don’t have Bellasarian blood?”
“I couldn’t get a better compliment,” said Heidi with a laugh. Then she looked at Carlos. “You said it was a tavern.”
“It was,” laughed Carlos, “but there were always some rooms here in case a traveler needed a place to crash for the night, right baby?”
The big woman giggled and said, “Some even stick around.” Then she winked at Heidi who laughed. “We’ve just expanded a little,” said Katie. “A lot of things changed here after the night this rascal and those Barratians happened to wander in here. Come on in. We’ll get you something to eat.”
When they entered the establishment they were spied out by a short attractive blond girl who smiled warmly and quickly waved over a large, red haired man. “Over here, honey!” she cried. With her was a little girl with red hair and blue eyes who looked to be about four years old. The woman was expecting again.
“You must be Carlos’s sister,” she said. “That means as far as I’m concerned, you’re family. My name is Vivian,” said the bubbly blond. “Welcome to Vivian’s Place!”
The big red haired man smiled and put his arm around the blond woman and said, “Yes, you are most welcome indeed!”
******
EPILOGUE
Exploration of the lands to the west was slow and perilous. The empress didn’t want to alarm or even terrify people with airships. Furthermore, without roads, most Bellasarian vehicles were useless on wild forested terrain, so travel would have to be done the old fashioned way, by mounts, carts and one’s two (or four) feet. Flying mutants were very helpful, but it was still slow going and certain lessons were learned the hard way. As quickly discovered, those who had women and children in their parties were attacked less. Those that had only men in their group and numbered more than four or five men were often perceived as potential war parties and attacked on sight.
A black chief of a tribe beyond Matabeland warned one Bellasarian party that anyone carrying weapons was not immediately perceived as a threat. But the sight of a man carrying a shield was almost certainly a sign that his intention was to fight men, not beasts. If he had no one to protect, like a woman or child with him, it was almost certain he was up to no good. This point was wisely heeded by most and those that didn’t lived to regret it…if they were lucky.
Well, despite the inconveniences, the empire was getting a good picture of what the lands and people were like beyond the Barratian Mountains. Also, many very old elders were having the time of their lives. Some had even dyed their hair and traveled with clueless youngsters several centuries younger than them. Drinking in new sights and enjoying the new adventures and peril, they were like children again and the images they sent back were amazing.
As far as religion went, Nana was practiced widely, but so was Christianity and to a lesser extent Islam. However, the original gods of many of these people were still worshiped as well. There even seemed to have been a bit of fusion of certain beliefs.
Cities were few, but they did exist. Some were moderately advanced in some areas, others less so. Some even had electricity. Nearly all depended on less sophisticated sources of fuel for heating and lighting, like coal, wood and methane. Of course, in more primitive cities, candles and oil lamps were used heavily. But even more advance cities used them to some extent as well to help conserve energy or in case of power outages. Windmills were used for energy in some places, but naturally they were not as efficient as the ones in the east and solar energy was beyond any of these peoples’ abilities. Transportation was simple; mounts, drawn carts or one’s own two feet.
Urban communities caused little damage to the surrounding land because both the cities and their populations were allowed to become only so big. Sanitation was done by slaves who, as in the empire, were people who had temporarily or permanently lost their freedom because of criminal offenses. Villages and towns were no different. The majority of the tribes however, lived in very simple villages made of very simple and abundant materials. People closer to the east that inhabited forested areas lived in houses ranging from bark, wood to wattle. Further west, traders from these regions told of earth lodges and sod houses. But on the Great Plains, tipis were the primary form of housing. Grass houses were used by the settled peoples of the southern plains as well as earth. Permanent villages and fortresses also provided a source of education and centralization for many peoples with kin living out in the wilderness. Farther west, nomadic hunters often had bases around or in major fortified towns closer to the east to winter in if needed or simply to stop and settle down from that lifestyle for a time. Naturally, these towns or cities were built by and populated by their own people who had chosen to live in a more comfortable environment and who saw to it that their wilder kin were educated and had a safe haven in times of trouble. Others were towns that were either allied to them or neutral to the tribal warfare that was everywhere. To the surprise of their kin from Earth, in the two thousand years since being brought to the Bellasarian lands beyond the forest Kingdom, the Amerindian population (mutant and human) had rapidly grown and expanded and several nations, both familiar and unfamiliar could be found there. Almost none were exactly what their ancestors were when they first arrived.
One mutant, an American Sioux adventurer from Earth, would later return to Earth and laughing tell his family of a settlement of Siouan speaking people in the country of Lakota he encountered and sojourned with.
“Long ago, Red Cloud and Crazy horse called Indians who camped around the white man’s forts ‘Loafers around the Forts’. On Bellasaria, in their wild west, Indians in tipis are again seen loafing around forts. Only this time the people manning the forts and the loafers outside are all Indians.”
Of course, this was a little exaggerated. The fortified towns were populated by Indians in Lakota, but the people camped around them were of many races. Most of the tipi dwellers were wilder kin that had come from farther west from the great prairie to trade or live in safety. Indeed, like most of the more organized and advanced nations, the Lakotans were closer to the eastern woodlands and only lived on the fringe of the great prairie. Beyond that point, little was known by the empire of the central and northern plains except that the land was populated by fierce beasts and fiercer men. Bellasarian scanners picked up no signs of higher technology anywhere from that vast region. Bellasarian exploration so far had moved north to the great forests, west to the fringe of the Great Plains and southwest to the people of the southern grasslands. But the southern prairie was large and still unknown. The tribes and nations already encountered told tales of forests, deserts and peopl
e further west and south.
Yes, there was much adventure to be had still on Bellasaria for this was only just a part of the Illyrian Continent. An entire planet was still waiting to be explored.
******
OTHER BOOKS IN THE MUTANTS OF BAIN SERIES
BOOK ONE
MUTANTS OF BAIN
BOOK TWO
BELLASARIANS: PEOPLE OF THE HUNGER
To contact the author, leave comments or learn a bit about the world of mutants, visit the Mutants Of Bain page on Facebook.
The Mutant World Page 62