It was midnight when the forest came to an abrupt end at the edge of a stream. Beyond the stream lay a rolling valley with large patches of randomly scattered forests. The night light gave everything a deep blue tint but everyone could see that it was clear from here on.

“Think it’s a trap?” asked Shaniddia softly.

“Once we’re in the open we should be able to put some distance between the us and them.” Noliea replied, “I’m sure they know that and are thinking of ways to stop us.”

“Or they may not have gotten this far.”

“True. But we’ll never know until we start,” said Noliea, stepping into the stream.

The herd was tense as they made their way through the stream and into the field of long grass.

“Look!” Melinda whispered loudly. She pointed over the forest.

There, far above the trees, a bright blue object was moving across the sky. It seemed to move directly against the wind; moving back and forth slowly without falling. Suddenly it changed course and headed directly towards them.

“Spread out and stay quiet,” Noliea said, “Be ready to run on my signal.”

Before anyone in the herd could take two steps the thing was already on them. It landed at the back of the herd.

{Paul, it’s me. Gabriel.}

“You fell from the sky,” the giant man said in shock.

{It’s the way my people travel,} he said, looking at the others in the herd, He stopped when he saw Noliea. Even in the green tints of the night vision goggles she was still the most incredible woman he could imagine. But he also saw something else that shocked him.

{Shahira?} he said, seeing the healer standing a short distance from Paul.

“How do you know that name?” she asked. The voice told him it was Shaniddia.

{I thought you were your sister,} he replied, {I didn’t recognize you without the curse.}

Shaniddia raised an eyebrow and looked at Paul. He shrugged his shoulders. She looked at her hands. “I still have the curse on me.”

{Huh?} he unintelligently replied. Daring he might give away their location, he took off the goggles and pulled out his lighter. In the dim light of the flame he could see Shaniddia still looked like a walking corpse.

{Interesting,} he said holding up the goggles, {My people use these to see at night; and when I look through them I can see you without the curse.}

“How do you know I have a sister?” insisted Shaniddia.

{I met her near Lendoren,} he replied, {As well as your mother.}

Even though he could not see her through the utter blackness, he knew the healer was giving him a skeptical look.

“What is my mother’s name?” she asked.

{Shalynnda.}

Shaniddia gasped.

{And Noliea’s mother is named Lenora.}

Another gasp was heard in the distance, followed by the sound of hoof beats. “You met my mother?” Noliea’s voice said through the darkness.

{Yes. She is alive and well.}

“Gabriel,” came Paul’s baritone voice from somewhere nearby, “Will the thing you use to see in the dark work for me?”

{Sure. Just hold them in front of your eyes like you saw me do. Everything will look green but you will be able to see.}

He held the goggles out into the darkness and felt Paul take them from his hand. He was now completely blind.

“How did you get to Lendoren?” asked someone whose voice he didn’t recognize.

{I can move over the trees at great speed,} he explained, {It is much faster than moving on the ground.}

“By the Blessed Goddess!” swore Paul. Gabriel assumed the giant man had figured out how to use the night vision goggles.

“What?” asked Shaniddia.

“I... I can see you,” he said excitedly, “I can really see you.”

Gabriel truly wished he could see the look on Paul’s face. Someone else came near them. “May I look through it?”

{You may all look through it,} he said, tuning his watch to the locator he had given to the painted mare. {Noliea; I met one of your people earlier this evening and gave her something that allows me to easily find her again. She is a short distance south of here.}

“A woman?” asked a male voice from the dark, “Was she a paint?”

{Yes. She was with your group when we left the city.}

“Rowena!” exclaimed the male.

“Shh!” scolded several others in the herd.

“We have to go back,” said the man, “We can’t leave her behind.”

{I can find her,} said Gabriel. He took off the backpack and pulled out a red cylinder. {This device is called a locator. If you carry it then I can find you no matter where you travel. Here Noliea.} He turned on the one in his hand and held it out in the darkness. {Keep this with you at all times. When I find Rowena I’ll bring her to you.}

“I’ll go with you,” said the man.

{You can’t travel through the air like I can,} he said, {I can be there before you could take ten steps. And whoever has my goggles please give them back. I can’t see without them.}

“You cannot see at night?” asked Shaniddia waving her hand in front of his face.

{Not without a source of light or the goggles.}

Someone handed Gabriel the goggles and he placed them back on his head and put on the backpack. {I’ll return with Rowena shortly,} he said, and jumped into the sky.

“He looks different,” observed Henna.

“He’s had a bath,” said Shaniddia.

“Yes,” agreed Noliea, “But there’s something else. He’s seems more...”

“More what?” asked Paul.

Noliea shrugged, “In control of himself I guess. More confident.”

The herd continued westward. Alec stayed on the extreme left side of the group peering into the darkness. Occasionally he would stop and strain his eyes, but it always turned out to be nothing. Meanwhile Paul and Shaniddia were bringing up the back of the herd.

“You are more beautiful than I imagined in my dream-visions,” he whispered in her ear.

“Shhh,” she whispered back, “The others will hear you.”

“The others can here you,” Serena whispered.

Shaniddia swatted Serena’s rump, “This is a private.... Where’s Alec?”

Everyone who heard her comment turned and looked. He had walked out of range of their vision.

“Noliea,” whispered Shaniddia as she trotted up to her, “Alec is gone.”

“No I’m not,” whispered Alec as he came within view, “But look who I found.”

It was Rowena.

The herd stopped and welcomed their hero back as quietly as they could.

“What happened once you left us in the river?” asked Amanda.

Rowena explained about her chase with the masters, and how she finally ran out of places to run and jumped over the waterfall. The next thing she remembered was waking up under the waterfall with two strange furry creatures. They had covered her with a blanket that hid her from the masters until they gave up searching for her.

“There were about forty of them,” she said, “they stand on two legs and they’re only about this tall.” She indicated on the upper part of a foreleg. “They’re covered in gold fur and have these huge eyes. They hid me in the woods and gave me food and water. Then they took me to a thinellis bush but it was too dark to tell what they were trying to show me.”

“We hid under a thinellis bush to hide from the masters,” said Alec.

“I thought that’s what they were trying to tell me,” she said, “but I couldn’t find any trail. I started traveling westward but the masters had set up an ambush and I was captured. Then Gabriel came and gave me this.” She held up the locator, “I kept walking westward until he came back and told me the herd was over here.”

“Where is he now?” Noliea asked.

“He said he would come back in the morning, and to be sure to give you this.” Rowena said, handing Noliea her locator. She turned to Shaniddia, “He also told me to tell you that your twin sister Shahira is safe.”

Shaniddia looked skeptical. “He’s lying. There’s no way he could have traveled all the way to Lendoren and back in three days.”

“I don’t know if he's lying or not,” Rowena said, “but he said the Blessed Goddess is in some kind of trap and Noliea’s mother is trying to get her out.”

{You’ve been very quiet,} Gabriel said to the Klidz he was carrying.

“I am frightened,” she replied.

{Of what?}

“Flying.”

{I didn’t know your people knew of flying.}

“I was told stories about my ancestors and how they rode great winged beasts high over the ground below.”

{We are not very high above the ground,} he lied.

“For once, I am glad I cannot see.”

{There is not much to see. We are over a large forest.}

They had been flying half the night and into the morning. He had carried the insect woman back to the carrier to get fresh batteries for the goggles. Even with fresh batteries, they had died before daylight had come. He had flown blind, using his watch as a navigation tool and praying there were no mountains between here and Lendoren. Carrying Merek had been a real chore. It had taken him several tried to figure out how to carry her the most efficiently. Finally they had settled with her upside down pressed against his chest. They were literally face to face. He was flying just fast enough for his flight shields to kick in and shield her from the wind. Luckily dawn brought relief from the utter blackness and he could now see the forest rolling by below him.

“How much longer before we get there?” asked Merek.

{I’m not sure. We should be coming up to the mountains soon, then we’ll turn north until we get to Lendoren.}

“And then you’ll take me to the world gate?”

{Yes, the world gate is just outside Lendoren.}

“And you would do this just for the help I gave you?” the insect woman asked.

{Yes. And I see the mountains ahead.}

Gabriel descended to well below the area under the ‘cloudfall’ to avoid as much turbulence as possible. Unfortunately it was still too much for Merek, who tried to protect herself.

{Hold still!} he said as they passed through the turbulence, {I can’t keep a grip on you if you curl up like that.}

“What happened?” she yelled in near panic.

{Just a little turbulence from the wind. You’re still safe.}

“You have a very strange concept of the word ‘safe’,” she hissed.

{There’s nothing up here but you and me,} he said, {Nobody can reach you, and there’s nothing up here but empty air.}

Merek remained silent. He found the path he had originally followed and turned north again. In less than five minutes they passed over the worm pit he had pulled Shahira from. He could see several Klidz camped out at the rim of the creator but decided not to remark on their presence.

{I see familiar landmarks. We will be there shortly.}

“Good,” she said nervously, “This is terrifying.”

Soon the city of Lendoren came within view. Gabriel could see several plumes of smoke coming from several houses throughout the city. He also found a huge swath of hoof prints leading eastward.

{We’ll land here for a minute,} he said as he touched down, {I want to see how recent these tracks are.}

“Where is the gate?” Merek asked, relieved to be on the ground again.

{About a quarter day’s walk north of here,} he replied, studying the prints. There were thousands of them; all heading east.

“A large number of slaves passed this way,” Merek said, “I can smell their passing.”

Gabriel was concerned for Noliea. If Merek could smell these prints then the other Klidz could be tracking Noliea and the others by scent.

Merek’s dropped down on her remaining four legs and examined the ground with her two long antennas, “They are being followed.”

That sent an unnerving chill through him, {Stay here and keep that locator with you. I’ll be back.}

“Not this time false god,” she clicked once he had left.

The centaurs weren’t hard to follow. They left a swath of divots that could be seen from hundreds of feet above the ground. They had traveled about eight miles from Lendoren when Gabriel spotted them.

“No!” he yelled aloud as he flew close enough to see the details of the scene below him, “Oh god, please no.”

The ground here had been churned to bloody mud, and the remains of the people of Lendoren were scattered over several acres. All had been speared repeatedly and many of them were mutilated beyond recognition. Some of the carcasses had even been gutted and stripped of their meat.

Dropping his backpack as he landed, Gabriel panicked as he desperately searched for Shalynnda or Shahira. He had no idea how far their healing abilities could go but he knew Shaniddia could bring someone back from the dead. He found Shahira near the center of the herd. Even in death she still had a peaceful calm look upon her face as she lay with a spear through her chest. Gabriel pulled the spears from her lifeless body and closed her eyes. When he finally found Shalynnda she was near the front of the herd along with Lenora and several others. Both women had been decapitated and their bodies hacked to pieces.

It had taken Merek quite some time to follow the trail the slaves had left. They had been followed by several thousand of her people, and from the smell of it they were in a war frenzy. She knew that if the slaves ran they could easily outdistance any foot solder. However, an occasional breeze brought her the scent of blood and she knew that several slaves had been killed.

As she got closer she came across the remains of one of the slaves. Five spears were imbedded in the carcass; one of them was military issue, the rest were civilian. She guessed it had been brought down by a solder and civilians had swarmed in for the kill. Hunger pangs from two days without food tempted her to feed on the carcass but she knew the false god was nearby. She could feel his presence.

She crept forward, finding more and more dead slaves as she went. Soon she had to crawl over them as there was literally no ground to walk on. She could barely detect the scent of the false god; and as she followed the now familiar odor Merek began to hear his labored breathing.

“It is as it should be, false god,” the insect woman said as she neared him, “The strong survive and the weak perish. Why do you think you can change these things?”

There was a minute’s pause before the false god spoke.

{Gabriel.}

“What does that mean?” she asked after a few more moments of silence.

{My name is Gabriel,} the false god elaborated, {It is an ancient word. It means “hero”.}

There was another awkward silence.

{Do you really believe that the strongest should survive, Merek?}

“It is the natural order of the world,” she replied, “Surely you must believe that.”

{Many of my people do,} Gabriel replied, his voice sounding somewhat stronger, {I just wanted to make sure we understand each other.}

“You are going to kill me, correct?”

{No. I have made a promise to get you to your home world and that is what I am going to do.}

He roughly grabbed the insect woman and flew towards the world gate. Merek hissed in surprise, but even before she could object they landed.
own planet once more - Gabriel is forgetting that Merek has never been on her home world. She was born on this planet.

{We are at the world gate,} he said, his voice sending a chill through her body, {When you walk forward you will enter the gate and be on your own planet once more. When you find your people I have a message I want you to give to them.}

“What message is that?” she asked.

{My people harnessed the power of steam thousands of years ago. Since then we have discovered the very power that burns within the sun itself. A fire so hot it can turn mountains into flowing rivers of lava. It can burn forests into ash and turn oceans into deserts. Even the air itself becomes too hot to breathe.}

Merek spun around and faced the flying creature. “Why do you tell me this?”

{Because you are right. The strong will survive and the weak shall perish.}

Gabriel got right into Merek’s face, and she backed away out of reflex. When Gabriel spoke, the amulet didn’t translate the hate in his voice, she could feel it. {I am only one Guardian, but there are many more. I will bring them to this planet and we will exterminate your people. And once we are finished here we will travel through the world gate and burn your entire planet to dust.}

He grabbed Merek by her carapace and held her to his face, {When I am done with your world the word ‘Klidz’ will have no meaning. Now go home, Merek.}

He shoved her in front of the gate and turned to leave.

“You are no hero Gabriel!” She yelled at him, “You are a monster!”

Gabriel spun around and grabbed the insect woman hard enough that her carapace cracked beneath his grip. {There are no more heros!} he exploded, {And how the hell would a Klidz know what a hero is? You’re all a bunch of stupid roaches! You can’t even show enough intelligence to recognize another sentient species!}

He threw her into the world gate. {Go home Merek,} he growled, watching her body pass through the solid obelisk, {Go to hell.}

Gabriel flew back to where he had dropped his backpack and literally ripped it in half. Shotgun ammo and locator beacons rolled into the grass as he pulled out two large cylinders each about the size of a fifty five gallon drum. Both drums had ammo feeds which he unwrapped from around the rims. He pulled a large cylindrical battery pack off the ground and latched it onto the top of one of the drums. He then took the other ammo drum and stacked it on top of the battery pack. The two drums were now latched together with the battery pack firmly in the middle. Next he attached a specially-made harness and placed the ammo drums over his back and strapped them around his waist.

{She’s right,} he said aloud to the bodies lying around him, {I’m no hero.}

He reached into the bottom of the backpack and pulled out “Betty”. It was a gun Jon had built several years ago out of two GE M-134 chain guns. Even though it worked perfectly, he had never meant for anyone to actually use it, and had mothballed it as another one of his ridiculously-large handguns. It was like putting a jet engine in a Volkswagen.

{I’m sorry Shalynnda,} he said as he connected the belt feeds and battery lines, {I promised you I’d bring back Shaniddia.}

How was he going to tell Noliea her mother was dead? The though literally buckled his legs and he fell to the ground screaming in anger.

For the longest time he simply kneeled there in the mud and screamed until his voice would give him nothing else. His ribs ached from the effort and his vision was blurred by the sweat pouring into his eyes. It was late afternoon by the time he had gathered himself together. He stood up and turned on the battery packs.

“Halt!” came a voice beside him. He literally jumped; it was the three Klidz he had first met in Lendoren.

{I’m glad you’re here,} Gabriel whispered, his voice still hoarse, {I have a message for your people.}

“A message, correct?” Uhrup asked, amazed at the audacity of this creature, “What is this message?”

Gabriel swung the twin 7.62mm guns in front of him and pulled the trigger. Two six-foot long flames erupted from the twelve barrels as several hundred rounds literally pulverized the three creatures.

{Never mind,} he said, letting the barrels spin down, {I’ll tell them myself.}

He grabbed the two assault shotguns, slung them over his shoulders, and headed to the Klidz city.

“Renyik, the stonecutter,” announced the guard.

The mason entered the hall on all six legs and stopped at the distance set for his status. “You summoned me, correct?”

“Correct,” said King Derit. His voice sent a wave of near panic through everyone in the room. Renyik nearly fainted.

“This box you see before you contains a single centaur,” he indicated a crystal container at the bottom of the steps.

“Ye---ye---yes, mm---my king,” Renyik stammered.

The king leaned forward on his mat and glared down in the stoneworker. “Open it,” he hissed.

Renyik squeaked slightly as he fell onto his face.

“Wake him up,” said the king, a slight hint of humor in his voice, “Fetch him his tools and give him whatever assistance or materials he requests. I want that box opened before sunset.”

“Yes, my king.” Several of the guards replied in unison.

A short time later, Renyik was concentrating fully on opening the crystal container the king had tasked him with. It was a puzzle most intriguing: the container itself looked like it was carved out of diamond with seemingly no doors or seams. The corners were beveled and the sides were smooth as still water. But the most amazing thing was the presence of an actual living centaur held within the box. It stood no higher than one of his foreclaws. On the side of the box was a small flared tube just barely wide enough to get a blade of grass through. He was thankful he had stuck one of his metal probes through the orifice instead of his claw; the metal has sputtered and melted the moment he inserted it.

“There is no way to open it my king,” he said with some hesitancy, “The container is made from a single piece of material.”

“I want that centaur dead!” said the king.

“If that is the kings desire then may I suggest that the box be crushed beneath a great stone,” Renyik replied, trying to keep his legs steady.

“My strongest guards have hammered away at that box for hours,” the king hissed, “They couldn’t even scratch the surface.”

Renyik examined the box closely once more, “If the box is truly made of diamond then it can be broken. We only need to score it in the right places.”

“No!” yelled the centaur in the box, causing Renyik to drop it in surprise. “You mustn’t break it! It will be the death of us all!”

“What will you need to score it?” asked Derit, ignoring the centaur’s remark.

“Another diamond my king,” replied Renyik, looking at the tiny centaur that spoke his language. He had never spoken with the centaurs when they had lived in the city and didn’t know they could speak in his tongue. Then, thinking about what he had just said added, “Preferably one that already had an edge to it.”

“I see,” said the king, “Guards, bring Renyik my war totems.”

“My king!” Renyik gasped, realizing what he had just done, “I can’t use those! They could be destroyed in the process!”

“That is unimportant,” the kind said quietly, “Use whatever it takes to break that box, correct?”

“Yes, my king,” Renyik replied.

Renyik saw his life flash before his multifaceted eyes as he picked up the kings war totems. To even touch them without the king’s approval was punishable by death; and now he was going to use them like simple tools. Using a metal rod as a brace he began scratching the surface diagonally with the corner of a diamond. The centaur inside was protesting wildly, screaming something about a world-shattering explosion.

“Ignore it,” command the king, “Keep cutting.”

Outside the castle, one of the guard posts began ringing its intrusion alarm.

“Excellent,” said the king to himself, “I’ve been expecting company.” Then, turning his attention to the guards, he said, “Alert everyone in the city. Kill the intruder.”

“Yes, my king!” they said, and ran out to raise the alarm.

A large crowd was still gathered outside the front of the castle. Most were civilians celebrating their first hunt. Many were still feasting on the flesh they had harvested off the carcasses. They all assumed the bells were ringing in tribute to their success and clicked loudly in tribute to their king. It was only when the two legged creature landed in the middle of the crowd that any of them knew something was wrong. By then it was too late.

An unnatural thunder ripped loudly throughout the castle. One of the tapestries that had been badly burned fell from its mounts and landed on the floor with a thump.

“Keep cutting!” yelled the king, seeing that the stonecutter had paused. Renyik doubled his efforts.

“Vin!” yelled a guard as he came charging into the kings hall.

“Speak,” said the king coolly, ignoring the guards lack of respect.

“My king!” said the guard, “A strange creature has attacked your city just outside the castle! It fell from the sky and killed many civilians with fire and thunder.”

“How many dead?” asked the king.

“At least two battalions, possibly more,” the guard replied.

“WHAT?!?” roared the king, lurching to his full height, “How can that be?”

Dozens of guards stormed the hallway. Several of them were being carried by others. “My king!” said another guard, “The creature that attacks us is using some kind of weapon.” A civilian carcass was brought before the king, “Notice the small spear marks,” the guard said, pointing to several holes in the front of the body, “All of the dead have these same markings. And when the creature returned to the sky, it left these.” He held out several small metal pieces and placed them before the king.

Several smaller explosions suddenly echoed through the hall.

“It’s upstairs in the second hall,” said the king, “Get up there and kill it!”

“Yes, my king!” they replied, and rushed the stairs.

As the first guards stormed the second hall they found it completely deserted. The explosions were coming from one of the two large fireplaces. Sparks and shrapnel were spewing out onto the main floor. By the time all the guards had completely stormed the room the explosions had ceased.

“Look,” said one of the guards, picking up a marble-sized steel ball, “It came from the fireplace.”

“And there are others, see?” noted another.

“Gather them up,” said the ranked guard, “We will take them to the king.”

Back in the main hall the king examined one of the dead civilians. “Interesting,” the king said to himself as he rolled the body over, “The holes in the back are much larger than the holes in the front, as if the spear itself exploded.”

{It’s called an exit wound Derit,} said the creature as it entered the hallway from the stairwell opposite the one the guards had used.

The thunderous roar of two rotary chain guns filled the great hall as Gabriel sprayed the room with bullets. Klidz were literally torn in half as hundreds of hollow-point rounds found their marks. Brass casings and belt links scattered and ricocheted across the floor. In ten seconds, not a single Klidz was standing.

“Gabriel stop it!” yelled the Goddess, “You hit the box!”

Gabriel walked over towards the Goddess and kicked off the Klidz carcass that was still twitching on top of it. But before he got the chance to pick it up guards poured in from every direction. Gabriel simply ripped them to shreds with the cannons. They crawled over the bodies of their comrades to try and get to him only to be slaughtered themselves. They were so thick that he was shooting two or three with each round. He completely clogged two of the corridors, and no other guards came through the main entrance.

Letting the now glowing barrels spin down, he checked the ammo indicator. He had less than ten seconds worth of ammo left. The ringing in his ears was giving him a migraine. He reached down into the pile of spent cartridges and links and pulled out the crystal box containing the Goddess. The box had a small score line etched across one of the sides and he could see where a stray bullet had hit near it. But when he turned the box to see if there was any other damage he noticed the cracks radiating out from the bullet mark. They were so thin they were practically invisible looking at them head on. He also noticed the look on the goddesses face: Sheer panic.

“The cracks are getting longer!” she said, her voice filled with fear, “There’s only a few seconds before the box shatters. When it does the planet will go super-nova. Gabriel, it’s- look out!”

Derit leapt on top of Gabriel, knocking him to the floor.

“Yes!” said Derit holding the crystal box in his claw, “As my god Kennek commands: The end of all life!”

The box made a creaking noise and several cracks appeared in the other walls.

The migraine made it nearly impossible to concentrate, and hitting his head on the marble floor hadn’t helped.

“Gabriel get out of here!” yelled the Goddess, “Hurry!”

“You’re too late!” yelled Derit, “We all die now!”

‘No!’

There was a blinding flash of light, and a sound that resembled a large match being struck.
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