The Return

by Campbell, Sean M.

  “She is the light of my life, but there are times I wish I could turn her off like a lamp at night.”

  I chuckled quietly. “How long have I known you, Taina?”

  “I was a girl of Laina’s age when you left. You had found me in the mercenary camps of the Mage Kings a few years before. I had been scheduled to be distributed to one of the men. I was lying in my cage squalling when you came in to pick me up and tell me I would be alright. You held me tight against you all night and carried me back to your camp where you handed me to Morgana.

  I was sure you were going to take me that night, but when you came in that night, you kissed me on the forehead and told me I would be starting training with the group’s Armsmaster in the morning. Then you simply lay down and went to sleep. I stayed awake half the night just watching you. You were so different than any man I ever met. Even my father had given me to the mercenaries to buy his own escape.

  A few days later, I saw you in combat for the first time. Morgana told me you were a Warmage. I watched you take out whole swaths of enemy forces as if they were but straws before a hurricane. I wanted to be like you, but Morgana told me I had no magic in me. She did say if I trained hard I could be an Armsmaster. I couldn’t believe that your forces allowed women to fight, let alone be Armsmasters.

  “I trained hard. Then the Mage Kings managed to outflank us, you made that dreadful bargain with them to spare the forces that were left. We had all vowed to die with you. Damn you! You surrendered yourself to keep us alive! You promised them you would leave until the First Star winked out. Here you are, back, though the First Star still burns bright in the heavens.”

  I started chuckling.

  “What is so funny?”

  “I did not tell them I would leave till The First Star winked out. I told them I would leave until the first star winked out. A star has died in the heavens, Taina, but it was the first one since I left. This time, it will be different. There will be no war. It will be me against them. It is time I learned the true extent of my abilities. Likka! Start talking.”

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  As we made camp that evening, Laina was bragging about everyone she could beat in a sword fight in the town of Quinn. “I can take the captain of the guard, and the governor. I bet I could even beat you.”

  Taina stiffened and looked at me. “You need to retract that statement, Laina.”

  “Why, momma? You trained me to make sure I could defend myself against anyone.”

  “There are certain people who could still take you down, little one, and you never know who they are. Now apologize to Rhys, and retract your statement.”

  “No! Rhys, I formally challenge you! First one to yield, wins!”

  “Laina!”

  I looked at Laina. “You should go set your tent, and get ready to rest.”

  “What is wrong? Are you afraid? I challenged you, so I set the prize of challenge. If I win, I get those fancy swords on your back.”

  “And if I win?”

  “It doesn’t matter -- you won't win.”

  “Yes, it does matter.”

  “Very well! If you win, you can have me, to do as you will for the night.”

  Taina turned pale. “Laina, retract your challenge now.”

  I looked at Taina. “She can’t now. Her honor has been set. If she retracts, she forfeits the prize.” I looked back at Laina. “Over there, and choose your weapon wisely.”

  I stood up and set my bow aside, then strode to the area I had indicated. On the way there I picked up a fallen branch from a tree. I snapped the end off the branch over my knee, leaving a stick about three feet long and two inches in diameter.

  Laina came and stood in front of me with her long sword drawn, laughing at my choice of weapons. She stepped forward and swung at my right hand with the flat of her blade. I dropped my hand under her attack, and back swung my stick to strike her hand, hard enough that she dropped her sword. As she tried to jump forward to retrieve her weapon, my foot shot out and swept her legs out from under her. When she rolled on her back to try to rise, I was standing over her, with her sword pointing at her throat. “Do not force me to hurt you, Laina. Yield, and put your pride back where it belongs.”

  “If I yield, you could...”

  “You're right, and I will. So do I need to hurt you badly before you yield, and make your night extremely painful, or do you put up with the pain that is normal for this night?”

  She gulped and looked at the sword at her throat, then said meekly, “I yield.”

  I flipped her sword around and handed it to her hilt first. When she took her sword back I helped her up and told her, “Now go over there, and help us get the camp set up before nightfall.”

  When she went to the fire, she looked at her mother. “Mom, you won’t let him do anything to me, will you?”

  “Yes, I will. You decided to brag and spout your mouth off, now you have to live with what it got you. If he wants to use your mouth, pussy, or ass tonight, he will do as he pleases.” Taina spat out in anger.

  Laina started crying, as she went about setting up her tent.

  As we finished eating the rabbits that Likka had brought to us, I looked at Laina. “Go down to the stream and clean yourself up. Then go into my tent and get your clothes off. Climb into my blankets and wait for me.”

  When Laina went down to the stream, Taina looked at me. “Please, Rhys, be gentle with her. She has never been with a man before.”

  I reached over and lifted Taina’s face in my hand. “Did I ever take you by force?”

  “No.”

  “I will not take her by force either. She will lay awake in my tent by herself all night, in fear of my coming. But that is all she will get; a healthy dose of fear. I will never take a woman who does not come to me willingly.”

  Taina hugged me and whispered, “Thank you. You’re still the man I remember, after so long.”

  “Now I am going to wander off into those woods and look around a bit. Likka will help alert you if something comes into camp.”

  The next morning, I was sitting next to the fire with a small pig-like creature, called a rooter, roasting on a spit. I looked over as Taina crawled out of her tent. She looked over and smiled at me before slipping off into the woods. Before she came back Laina slipped out of my tent. She stood there staring at me for a few minutes before slipping off into the woods.

  Both girls came back from their morning needs and sat down near the fire. I could almost feel Laina wanting to ask a question. “Spit it out, Laina, before you drive yourself crazy trying to figure out the answer.”

  “Why didn’t you take me last night
?”

  “I never take an unwilling woman to my bed. If you had come to me in the night on your own, it would have been a much different night.”

  “Why didn’t you just tell me that, so I could sleep?”

  “You needed the dose of fear, so that you would think a little more clearly about who you challenge and for what you challenge, next time.”

  Her mother looked at her. “Laina, this man is the greatest warrior I have ever met. He could take me down just as fast as he did you, and I am a full Armsmaster. Do you remember the stories from the town about the warrior that killed all those Lithan at the gates? This is he.”

  “Did you really just jump over the wall and into them?”

  “I think the story got a little exaggerated with the telling, I am sure it was not twenty-one hundred Lithan I killed,” I mumbled, feeling a little embarrassed.

  “It was twenty-one hundred and thirty-four. I was on the clean up detail to remove the bodies,” Taina murmured.

  I just shook my head and threw a little salt and pepper on the pig.

  , Likka thought to me.

 

  I did not even think it was possible for a wolf to blush, but Likka did a damn good imitation of blushing. “What is wrong with Likka?” Laina asked looking at the wolf trying to hide her face.

  “I embarrassed her, and she is doing her best not to show it.”

  Likka stood up and became a woman as she walked over to sit in my lap. When she sat down, she put her finger rather pointedly into my chest and said out loud, “I will figure out a way to get you back for that one, Rhys.”

  Taina and Laina both just stared in shock.

  As we rode during the day, I spoke with the ladies about Likka being a familiar, and that we could talk in our heads. I explained about the other world, which seemed so long ago now. I explained about the amnesia and the fact that I could not remember my life here from before, but things seemed so familiar to me. And that I sometimes seemed to remember things.

  The movement in the trees caught my eye as we rode. I thought at first it was a bird but the shape was wrong. It almost looked like a thick bodied lizard with wings. Likka commented with distaste in her mental voice.

 

 

  There was a loud scream off in the woods. Before it even ended I was riding hard in its direction. Likka was on Reaper’s heals, the ladies a short distance behind. I broke into the clearing at a dead run on Reaper, as I drew my pistol, taking in the situation in a flash.

  The woman was tied face outward to a tree, her clothing ripped and hanging, leaving her front completely bare. There were twenty men standing in the clearing, and one of them had his pants around his knees. They all turned to look at me as I burst into the clearing.

  I fired a single shot through the head of the man with his pants down; to make sure I had their undivided attention. As I holstered my pistol, I called out, “Every man better be running away, or be preparing to fight.”

  “The woman is ours! We caught her.” One of the men said, as others began to draw weapons.

  “Consider her under my protection.” A said as I slid out of the saddle, drawing one of my long swords.

  The two men that had pulled out bows were first. A double flick of my left hand sent flechettes into the eyes of the first, as the ladies burst into the clearing behind me. The second set of flechettes took the eyes of the second bowman as he released his arrow. His shot went wide, and was headed for Laina. A step to the side and I plucked the arrow out of the air, spun, and slammed it into the chest of the first man to reach me.

  I drew one of the short swords in my left hand just as the brunt of them reached me. I slipped into the dance.

  A few seconds later found me bending down next to the two blinded archers. “You have a choice to make. Get up, walk away, and try to make a life as blind men, or I give you a quick, painless death.”

  They made their choices, and a minute later, they lay there bleeding out from slices in their upper thighs.

  As I approached the girl tied to the tree, she began to scream and tried to twist out of her bonds.

  “I am not going to hurt you, and I think it would be a good idea if you didn’t hurt yourself.”

  “Do you promise?”, she asked as she stopped struggling.

  “You have my word,” I said, as I reached up to cut her loose. “Taina, would you bring a blanket for her to wrap around herself, and then help her find some clothing in the packs.” As I turned to the ladies, I realized they had not been idle during the fight. Each had killed at least three of the men.

  Taina came up carrying a blanket, which she wrapped around the girl, and then looked at me, “Go clean up in the stream. You covered in blood from head to foot. I would have been afraid of you, too, if you had come at me with a knife, looking like that.”

  As I returned to the clearing, Likka informed me that Taina, Laina, and the girl had moved back to the road to collect the pack horses, and were rearranging the packs so they could put the new girl on one of them.

  I stopped to look the clearing over one more time, and the pile of rags that were the remains of the girl's clothing caught my attention. I walked over to look at them and the first thing that caught my attention was that her trousers had been a pair of denim jeans. I then noticed a backpack against a tree with a rifle, the same make and model as mine. I picked up the rifle and slung it over my back, and picked up the backpack. I bent down to look at the scraps that had been her jeans and thought,

  I checked the pockets, and in the first one I found a stiff card. I pulled it out and flipped it over. It was a Texas driver’s license! I turned and started running for the road.

  I stepped out of the woods to see the girls shifting packs and bags. The new girl was sitting on a rock, crying, tears streaming down her face from her hazel eyes. Her blond hair was disheveled from her ordeal. I walked over to her carrying her rifle, pack and the torn jeans. I knelt down in front of her, “Elizabeth, how did you get here?”

  She looked at me with the tears still in her eyes, “Beth, my friends call me Beth.”

  “OK, Beth. How did you get here?”

  “I am not even sure where here is. I have been walking for days, and I have seen monsters and little dragons. I saw a creature that could only be called a unicorn. Then this morning, I was ambushed by those men and they were going to rape me. Then I was rescued by a man who dresses like a Renaissance actor and fights like a madman. Where is here?”

  “This is the world of my birth. Like your world, it is called Earth, but it is not your Earth. But I need to know how you got here, Beth.”

  “I was in a search party, looking for a man named Rhys who went missing while hunting hogs on his son’s property. We knew he had shot a hog and was trying to track it. On the second day of the search, I came across a dead hog in the woods, so I started following its blood trail back. I stepped into a clearing to find what looked like a rip in the air. It was beautiful, and I felt myself drawn to it. As I watched it, it kept getting smaller and smaller. I hurriedly reached out to touch it and I blacked out. Then I was here.”

  “Beth you are going to have to travel with me until we can find a way to get you back home.” I held out her rifle. “Do you know how to use this?”

  “Yes, but I’m out of ammo. I used it all just trying to stay alive here.”

  “Do you have the empty ammo box?”

  “It’s in my backpack.”

  I opened her backpack and dumped it out. Among the things that fell out were two empty ammo boxes and a large pistol. It was a .357 Magnum Colt Python long barrel. I picked up the box for the rifle and held it in my hand. I d
idn’t think about it -- I just did it. I pulled in my will power, focused on the box, and spoke a single word, “Full.” I then repeated this with the ammo box for the Pistol. I handed her the pistol, holster, and ammo boxes. “Load your weapons and keep them on you at all times. Never be more than five feet from the pistol, even when you sleep.”

  I stood up and walked back to the clearing and started checking the bodies. I found a serviceable short sword, a couple of long knives, and a couple of boot knives, I also found her boots near the tree to which she was tied. I took these back to her.

  By the time I got back, Taina had Beth dressed in some of her spare clothes. Beth’s larger than average breasts looked billowed and stuffed into Taina’s shirt. I showed her how to strap the knives and sword into place and how to tuck the knives in her boots. “Let's put a few miles between us and that clearing before we stop for the night. Beth, can you ride a horse?”

  “Yes.”

  “Mount up. Let’s head out.”

  Taina spoke to me softly, “Rhys, are you sure she will be able to keep up with us? We are going to have to be moving for a long time.”

  “She will.”

  Beth looked at me. “The man I was looking for was named Rhys.”

  “You found me.”

  “Not funny. The man I was looking for was a hundred years old.”

  “I am much older than that, Beth; I spent eighty years hiding on your earth. I came back to exact vengeance on some people.”

  Likka looked up at me.

  I thought back to her.

  After dinner that night, I was preparing for bed when Taina walked up behind me and whispered. “May I join you tonight, Rhys? I am in need. Battle always does it to me.”

  “I have already promised Likka tonight.”

  “I can share, if she is willing.”

  Likka thought to me,

  I reached out, took her hand and led her to my tent. As she ducked down to crawl in, Laina exclaimed behind us, “Mom!”

  Then when Likka stood up as a woman and began to enter my tent, Laina said again, in shock, “Mom!”