by Dave Hazel
“I was just thinking about how much I wanna rescue Doninka,” he lied and put his finger to his lips slyly and quickly shook his head to let Towbar know something else was on his mind.
“I see. I think I understand.”
“Alright ladies, let’s saddle up and get this damn show on the road,” Gunnery Sergeant Ratner shouted like a Drill Instructor after receiving his orders from Captain Diaz. “You can play with yourself on your time, but now we’re on my time. Move it!” He barked and winked to Diaz as the men rushed to their respective vehicles.
“Are you thinking about William again?” Towbar whispered as they held back before entering their troop transport vehicle.
“How’d you know?”
“I can see it in your face my friend,” Towbar said with a slight smirk. “I have seen that look before. However, I have had strange thoughts of William while I slept last night. He instructed others that I must be killed.”
“Really? Again?”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe he’s still alive?” Mykal whispered.
“I do not know my friend. I only know that it is strange for my thoughts to be attacked in such a way.”
“Alright, we’ll talk about this later but we gotta be watching for anything to happen,” Mykal answered as they took their seats inside the roomy vehicles. Mykal motioned for Hidtotim to sit beside him. “Come on over here cuz I wanna talk to you for a little bit.”
“Yes Mykal,” the soldier said and looked at the giant with awe and respect.
“I just wanna shoot the breeze a little bit while we’re killing time.”
“I do not understand what you just said,” Hidtotim said and looked very confused. “I do not know how time dies. And what would you shoot at the wind or breeze with?”
Mykal burst out with laughter as did the Dosch brothers and Mathis who sat close to them.
“It’s just a figure of speech we have. It’s a saying we have but I guess I can’t expect you to know some of the things we say just like I probably wouldn’t understand some of the things you might say to your friends. I just wanna have a little talk while we have some time.”
“Yes, yes. I would like that. As I have spent much time talking with Diaz and Finley, they informed me that you and Towbar are equal leaders among your people.”
“Yeah, that’s true,” Mykal said with a friendly smile and a nod.
“And I have assumed that was likely prior to the two of them revealing that to me. I see how the men respect and look up to the two of you. Thus it all made sense.”
“Good. Well, first of all, whadda ya think of our weapons and the things you’ve seen at our base camp?”
“I do not know how to put into words all the wonder and amazement I feel. I would have believed that it was the forbidden dark arts of magic. However, you and your people have been very clear in explaining that these fascinating items are not items of magic, instead they are fascinating tools of advanced weapons and strange new modes of travel and everything else in between.”
“Yeah and that’s cuz we’re from another time and place. We’re not from around here, but what have you seen that we have that has really gotten your attention or something that you like a lot?”
“There are so many things to list,” Hidtotim said with the excitement of a teenager who just returned from a field trip to an advanced science center. “One of my favorite things,” he said and paused to dip his head with a bashful smile. “Is what they called Luck Chums or Luck Carms. I am not sure of the word.”
Mykal and the others started to laugh. “Lucky Charms. You picked a great one. That’s my favorite too,” Mykal continued to laugh. With their advanced technology and all the equipment and vehicles present, Mykal didn’t think the one stand out item that Hidtotim would choose as his favorite would be a bowl of Lucky Charms breakfast cereal. Mykal thought for sure he would pick the flying helicopters or any of the vehicles that covered the massive area they were in. Or he thought Hidtotim would pick any of their weapons since Hidtotim saw them in action and it was the weapons of Mykal’s men that save Hidtotim’s life when he and his people were surrounded by Goblins. “But yeah, good choice, Lucky Charms,” Mykal joked.
“They’re magically delicious,” Mathis shouted with an Irish accent in an attempt to imitate Lucky the Leprechaun, the mascot of Lucky Charms cereal. “So yee has got a wee taste of Ir’land, do yee?”
Hidtotim gave Mathis an odd look which showed them that he didn’t understand what Mathis said let alone what he meant by that comment.
Mykal burst out with a new round of laughter not necessarily because of what Mathis said was funny, but something about Mathis and the way he did things hit a funny bone in Mykal. He always seemed to bring Mykal to that familiarity of his lost friends. “Hidtotim, it’s a long story to explain what he just said. Stop,” Mykal said to make Mathis stop trying to make him laugh while he was talking to Hidtotim. “Well I’m glad you like Lucky Charms. They really are good,” he added just to agree with the foreigner who happened to be a foot soldier under Zizmon-Tarl. He had to fight the fits of laughter that tried to burst forth from within him. When he saw Roy Jr., Randy, Mathis and two of the four man fire team laughing, it made his task of keeping a straight face that much harder.
“Yes and the little colorful bits taste so amazing,” Hidtotim said with a seriousness that struck them all with humor.
Mykal looked at the child like expression of Hidtotim and to hear him talk about his children’s favorite cereal, made him realize he would have a very difficult time eliminating Hidtotim and his men. If it actually came down to him having to kill Hidtotim he didn’t think he would be able to pull the trigger. “Yes they are amazing.” Mykal turned to his friends. “Can you imagine what people are gonna think back in the world if they were to hear this conversation?”
“Yeah, this is definitely Twilight Zone material,” Roy Jr. laughed. The others laughed with him.
Mykal turned back to Hidtotim. “But anyway, we gave each of you a big box that has, I think fifty or maybe forty-eight little boxes of Lucky Charms and all different other kinds that you might like. We can get you more if you really like it.”
“Yes. Yes, oh yes and I am so grateful,” Hidtotim exclaimed with happy excitement like a child being offered a second helping of ice cream. “The men who gave them to us explained that there will be a mix of different tastes. Some of the ones I do not like, I will have to give those to my family and friends. There was one type I did not like,” he declared firmly. “It looked like there were bugs and insects in the little box. The men explained to me that they were not bugs, however it looked like…well it was hard to get the idea from my thoughts.”
“Raisin Bran,” Mykal laughed based on what Ratner told him earlier this morning. “I know what you mean. It does look kinda funny,” he said just to agree with him again. “Now listen, I need to ask you something. The battle we had a couple of days ago with your people, that Commander Ingledoss and all his soldiers. Well first of all I’m glad you didn’t take sides against us like I asked you to. Because if you would have sided against us when the battle broke out, the four of you would have been killed just like the others of your group who did turn on us.
“Yes, I understand that,” Hidtotim said and started to get fidgety. He looked worried. “When you and your men saved our lives I was grateful for my life, thus I consider my loyalty to you and your men to be a strong priority. Otherwise we would have died inside the mountain. I do not know why the others turned on your men. The four of us made a pact amongst ourselves that we would not turn on you when we saw Commander Ingledoss.”
“Good. I’m glad cuz we like you guys and we need your help to get to the castle of Ziggy. He will be glad when we get there. But did you see what happened to your men who turned on us?”
“Yes. Most of them were killed instantly by the weapon that kills rapidly,” he answered and referred to the eight who were cut down with the M-60 machine gun
.
“Well good I’m glad we see eye to eye cuz I do like you guys and I don’t wanna see anything happen to you four.”
“Nor do I,” Hidtotim said which generated laughter though he wasn’t trying to be humorous.
“Obviously all those soldiers didn’t die and they took off and got away,” Mykal continued. “My question to you is, since Ingle-doofus,” he paused for the laughter as he deliberately tried to be comical. “Ooops I meant Ingledoss. But since he went against the wishes of my friend Ziggy-Stardust, what do you think his men, those who fled, are going to do?”
“I do not understand what you ask Mykal. What will his men do about what?”
“Well first of all are they going to hold a grudge against us and come after us? Even after we told them we are on a special mission for the Supreme Ruler they turned on us, so do you think they will come after us. And more important than that, what do you think they will do to you four since you didn’t side with them?”
“Oh my, I have not given that any thought,” Hidtotim said and a worried look grew on his face. He looked at his three men who now looked just as worried as he. “I think I will be able to explain to them that we did not take sides due to the fact that you are on a special mission for the Supreme Ruler and it was Commander Ingledoss who would not back down when he confronted the Elves who are going to give up their lives to become Hawkmen in order to help the Hawkmen patrol the lands.”
“Do you really think that will work?” Mykal asked to plant seeds of doubt.
“Well yes, we did not raise our weapons against them.”
“That’s true you didn’t raise your weapons against them but I would think that they would think you are just as guilty because you didn’t raise your weapons against us. Depending on if someone convinces the mob, they may turn on you no matter what you say. Now with us being this far away from Ziggy he won’t be able to help us by telling them to leave us along until he hears about this. By then it will be too late and we could all end up dead or hurt.”
“I see,” Hidtotim said and looked at the three men with him.
“You know those men and what kind of men they are,” Mykal continued. “You would know better than me as far as how they would think and how they would react to the fact that you didn’t help them when we killed however many we killed besides their famous leader Commander Ingledoss. Though you men have put in your time and did your job and were on your way home. You fought who knows how many bad guys under the mountain and how many bad guys while you were stationed at your base and now you have to worry about some or all of these guys holding a grudge and coming to kill you before you get to the castle to explain the truth to the Supreme Ruler. If they catch up with you before then I’m sorry to say they will probably rip you guys apart and then when the Supreme Ruler says you four were doing the right thing it will be too late.”
Hidtotim sighed and looked up and then looked to his three men. “I do not know what to do.”
“I would say get them before they get the chance to get you. We are on an important mission and we can’t take the chance of them screwing it up and we already tried to explain it to them. And what if they get to the Supreme Ruler before we get there and turn him against you four by what they say? I know me and my men will be okay because we have a special dealing going on with him,” Mykal lied in hopes of polluting the thoughts of the four abandoned traitors. “But I don’t know what would happen to you guys and I don’t wanna see anything bad happen to you guys. Like I said, we like you guys and we wanna help as much as we can.”
“Oh my,” Hidtotim sighed and grabbed his face as he tried to think through the predicament they were in. “I do not know what we should do,” he said to his three comrades.
“Don’t worry about it,” Mykal said and patted Hidtotim on the shoulder. “We’ll take care of it. We should be coming up on them and we will finish what we started,” Mykal said and paused to see what their response would be.
“If you think you have the capability to stop them then I will agree with you,” he said and looked to the other three who nodded in agreement. The anxiety and pressure seemed to be etched into Hidtotim’s young facial features. Clearly he didn’t want to be caught up in such a strange mental tug-o-war.
“Well if they turned and continued on to where they were originally headed before we met them then fine, we’ll never see them. If they turned around and continued back the way they came like they are going to the castle then we should come across them pretty soon and then we’ll finish them.”
“Hey Mykal,” Mathis cut in. “Just so you know, Captain Diaz made contact with Lanorear because they gave them a radio again like they did the last time. They are not far from here, meaning Lanorear and the rest of his Hawkmen. Lanorear said that the army, what was left of it did turn to head back the way they came so we will probably come across them. From what Captain Diaz is relaying it sounds like they returned to gather the wounded and then turned back to their home base,” Mathis explained while the handset stayed glued to his ear.
“Okay, well that settles that. We will finish them off so they won’t be any problems for you guys,” Mykal said as if he was doing a favor to Hidtotim and his men. In reality he actually wanted to stop them before they reached their base or the castle and spread the word. Mykal was concerned that if he would have just come out and killed the rest of the army, it may turn Hidtotim and his three men against them. Thus they wouldn’t be any help for him and his team to reach the castle that Mykal desperately needed to find.
“If we do not stop them from getting to the castle first,” Hidtotim started and paused as if he suddenly became shy. His three men urged him to continue.
“What is it?” Mykal asked.
“If we can not stop them from speaking ill of us to the Supreme Ruler, the four of us agreed we would like to go back with you to your part of the world. Otherwise we will all be killed.”
Mykal looked at Towbar as if to ask and Towbar seemed to sense what Mykal was going to ask and nodded affirmatively. “Well, I’ll tell ya what you guys. Whether we get them first or not, if you guys help us get to where we need to go we’ll take you back there with us if you wanna go back there. Nordad and his two men have already made the decision to live on that part of the world for the rest of their lives and they are here to help us try to find the castle because we are lost,” Mykal said and hoped they didn’t probe any deeper about the Elves. It helped that the Elvin army was farther into the Pass and they were never seen other than the six and they didn’t bring up the point that Gwellon had died but still there were six Elves in their party.
“Does anyone know how many got killed when we fought them?” Roy Jr. asked. “Or how many of them got away?”
“I know there were a couple of guys who counted the dead while the injured were being tended to,” Mathis answered. “They said that we killed a little over nine hundred. I think it was nine hundred and twenty-four. If I remember correctly they also said there were another one hundred sixty-three who were wounded that were left behind but they didn’t kill the wounded. We left them expecting the army to come back and get them which Captain Diaz just said Lanorear confirmed they did.”
“And from what Hidtotim told us,” Mykal said and turned to him to confirm what he was about to share. “The groups usually travel with about twenty-seven hundred soldiers, give or take a few with all the leaders. Am I right?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Well then that means we should be coming up on about eighteen hundred if they are headed back to where they came from. So Sergeant Barry,” Mykal yelled to the driver of his vehicle.
“Yeah Mykal,” he called back and turned his head.
“Tell your teams to be watching for large groups of soldiers and be prepared for action cuz we’re gonna knock them on their ass.”
“Will do. If that is the case,” Barry yelled to be heard. “If we come upon them and if you think there is gonna be problems I’ll let you
try firing the Mark 19. The maximum effective range is 1500 meters which is about sixteen football fields so we will have plenty of distance to sight them in and give it a try.”
“Oh yeah, that’ll be cool. And maybe we’ll let Hidtotim give it a try too,” Mykal said to involve the soldier to ensure his committed loyalty to the end.
“What was that?” Hidtotim asked.
“Don’t worry about it. I will show you after.”
Hidtotim nodded. “Mykal, you may want to let your men know, when our soldiers move out and relieve other soldiers from their posts they will usually travel within days and weeks of each other. Our group had been relieved almost twelve days prior to our contact with Commander Ingledoss. So there could be another group coming up behind the one who turned on you.”
“So there could be another group of about twenty-seven hundred not far behind the one we’re coming up on?”
“Yes. There could be.”
“Well, that’s definitely good to know,” Mykal said with a smirk. “But with our vehicles we should be able to get around them without a problem. Then we have our weapons. Hey Mathis, get on the horn and tell Diaz what Hidtotim just said. There could be another twenty-seven hundred not far from the group of about eighteen hundred bad guys we’re gonna have to deal with.”
“Will do Mykal,” Mathis said and pulled the handset of his radio out again.
The vehicles moved fairly quickly over the flatland. The drive reminded Mykal of his first couple of days in Towbar’s world where he and his six friends drove and drove for hours on end trying to find help. Just like in his first few days the slight rolling hills kept them from seeing longer distances but when the elevation permitted they could see for endless miles. Mykal was so glad they brought vehicles for this part of the trek to the castle because the walk would have seemed to take forever. And if they had to walk and came back in contact with the eighteen hundred soldiers they wouldn’t be able to out run them.
They came across the remains of the previous battle. The nine hundred or so dead soldiers were left where they fell. Some of the weapons and supplies were retrieved, but they couldn’t tell if anything special had been done for the leaders like Commander Ingledoss since they gave a wide berth from the battlefield remains. Mykal glanced over to the bodies but didn’t care. ‘They brought that upon themselves,’ he thought. ‘They shoulda left us alone,’ he declared and thought and turned away from them and didn’t care about them anymore. He was concerned about the eighteen hundred or so who turned and headed back to their home base. ‘They need to be stopped! The one positive is there aren’t any wounded out here, so the main group did in fact return to check on the dead and to take the wounded with them which will have them moving at a much slower pace.’