The Return (3 page)

“I am as human as you are in this form, but you would never let me get pregnant. You have always prevented it from happening.” There was a note of sadness in her voice when she spoke.

“When I recover my memories, I am sure I will know more. Please forgive me if I have hurt you.”

“There is nothing to forgive, my love. You have your reasons and I accept them.” She snuggled up to me, and I felt her love seem to flow into me. The link between us was so deep. It was then that I realized her emotions were on full display in my head.

Soon I felt her breathing deepen and then I drifted off with her in my arms.

I awoke to the sound of birds in the morning air. Likka was still asleep in my arms and it took a bit of effort to get out of the tent without waking her. I stirred the fire up and looked through the horse packs and found a coffee pot and some coffee. Nice that this world was at least partially civilized.

I started a pot boiling as I started getting Reaper ready for the day. I checked his hooves and saddled him. Then placed his packs and barding on. Just as I was finishing, Likka slipped out of the tent smiling, then dropped down on all fours as a wolf again. We ate leftover venison, and I drank coffee and gave her more water…

Around noon, we crested a rise to see a small town below us. The town had a stockade of wooden posts all the way around it, and the trees had been taken down for farmland for a mile around it in every direction. We rode down and towards the town.

As we rode up to the gate, the guard standing there looked at me and said, “The wolf will have to be in a cage when in the town.”

“You tell her that. She might only rip your hand off and not your head.”

“I am sorry. She stays out there, or you cage her.”

I pushed past him and Likka started to follow. The guard reached to draw his sword, but mine was many times faster. By the time he had his sword half drawn, I had dropped off Reapers back and the tip of my long sword was under his chin. “I would suggest your hand come off your sword before it comes off your wrist,” I said.

As I spoke a horn blared in the distance from the direction we had come. I looked to see the farmers outside of the town dropping their tools and running towards the town. At the top of the hill, I saw Lithan come out of the tree line. There were literally thousands of them.

I watched as they began to charge down the hill towards the town. I watched as the farmers ran and a young girl fell. She struggled to get back up, but was dragging her leg. I vaulted onto Reapers back and yanked him around to ride out towards the girl. My rifle roared in my hand. Likka howled as we both ran towards the girl. Six times my rifle roared -- six Lithan in the lead fell. I stuffed the rifle back in the spear quiver. I drew the pistol on my right hip. Six times it roared before I reached the girl. I reached out with my left hand and clasped her outstretched arm. Without thought I swung her behind me on Reapers back and yelled, “Hold On!”

Reaper skidded to a halt as I holstered my right pistol and cross drew my left one. As Reaper turned to head back to the town, my pistol roared six more times, and the six closest Lithan fell. Reaper and Likka ran through the gate with only about thirty feet between us and the lead Lithan. The gate slammed behind us, as the bar was dropped into place. “Her leg is broken; do you have a doctor here?”

“What is a dok tor?”

“Medicine man, Leach, Healer?”

“Our healer was killed during the last raid.”

Why I did what I did I don’t know it was just an instinctual reaction. I reached back and brought the girl forward into my arms. I looked down at her leg twisted and already starting to swell. I touched my hand to the leg right above the break and tried to extend my healing into her. I watched as the leg untwisted and snapped back into place with an audible cracking sound. The girl screamed and passed out.

The girl’s mother ran up crying. I handed her down to her mother and said, “She will be fine now. Take her home and let her rest.”

I dropped down off of Reaper and grabbed my backpack off of his packs. I reloaded my pistols and ran for the stairs up onto the battle stage for the stockade. I looked down over the top at the sea of Lithan below. There was no thought – just rage raced through me. I leaped over the top of the wall, drawing my long swords as I fell. As I struck the ground, the world turned red in my vision.

I struck out with both swords, and creatures fell all around me. Then it was just a blur of movement in my vision as I began to dance the deadliest dance known to man. Block, strike, parry, slash, guard, and stab. Within seconds there was a ring of dead at my feet.

These creatures were just attacking instinctively. They had no skills. In minutes, I was cutting my way through the Lithan faster than they could get to me. I heard the guards on the wall telling someone that I had slipped into the battle lust. When half the number of Lithan lay dead in the field, the other half broke and ran. I dropped to one knee, as I readied my bow, and began to fire into them as they ran. I killed nearly a hundred more before they made it into the tree line.

I stood up and started walking towards the town. When I reached the gate, the guards on the wall had their bows drawn and pointing at me. “Open the gate and let me in,” I demanded.

A murmur ran through the guards as one with a crest stepped forward. “Look up at me, warrior.”

I looked him straight in the eye.

“How did you come back out of the battle lust? No one does that once the craze is upon them. They fight all, friend or foe, until they are killed.”

“Reaper, open the gate!”, I yelled at the top of my lungs.

The gates swung open with a loud crash, as my horse kicked back and broke the bar holding them in half. I walked in and mounted Reaper. I looked down and asked a young girl who was standing there. “Is there an inn around here, where a man might find a hot bath and a hot meal?”

“The Headless Griffon, sir, it is but a few blocks that way.”

I reached into the pouch on Reaper’s saddle and pulled out a gold coin and dropped it to her. “Thank you.” I rode in the direction she indicated.

Likka looked up at me.

I looked up to see a sign in front of an inn. It was of a fancy griffon but somewhere along the line the corner had broken off the sign taking the head of the griffon with it. I chuckled to myself as I slipped out of Reapers saddle and walked in through the front door. I walked up to the bar to find a middle aged man standing behind it. “I need a room for the night, a hot bath, a hot meal, a bottle of good whiskey, and stabling for my horse with an extra measure of oats for him.”

He turned to look at me, and when he saw my blood soaked armor, his eyes got wide as silver dollars. “Yes, sir, and could I interest you in my wife’s cleaning service for your armor and clothes.”

“Armor I will care for -- clothing, yes.”

I reached into my pouch at my hip and pulled out five gold coins and laid them on the bar. He looked at them and then scooped them up to disappear into his apron. He then reached under the bar and pulled out a square bottle of whiskey and set it on the counter. He then called out, “Peotter, get in here, boy.”

A boy of about twelve years of age ran out of the kitchen area. “Yes, sir.”

“Take this lord's horse and put it in the stable. Give it a double measure of oats, and brush it down real good.”

The boy looked at me wide eyed. “Peotter, if you will move my stuff from my horse to my room, this will be yours; if everything is there when I get to the room.” I held out another gold coin.

The barman said, “I will have Missa draw a bath for you, M’Lord. Will you be eating in your room, or will you come to the common area?”

“I will eat down here good sir, and I am not a noble – I am just a common wanderer.”

“I must ask, sir, is the wolf dangerous to my other guests?”

“Only if they are dangerous to her.”

“I would actually be more afraid of the man in front of you right now, Kinal,” A voice said from behind me. “He single-handedly killed twenty-one hundred of the Lithan just a few minutes ago. The only reason he didn’t kill more is because they ran.”

I turned to see a young man dressed in fine clothing of soft cloth. “I am sure you exaggerate, Lord. I am sure if I killed that many, I would be at least a little tired.”

He laughed. “Well, Armsmaster, what brings you to the western town of Quinn?”

“I am traveling east and had hoped to speak with Father before I continue my trip.”

“I am sure he would be glad to speak with you. I can ask him to drop by tomorrow, around noon.”

“You do me a service, Lord.”

“You have done us a much greater one. After your fight with the Lithan, it will be at least a year before they come back here.”

I bowed lightly as he turned to leave.

I went to my room to strip out of my armor and weapons, and my gear was lying on the floor in my room. I pulled out my cleaning kits and started cleaning my armor, guns and weapons. As I was finishing there was a light knock on my door. “Come in.”

A young girl of about seventeen years old opened the door. She had a shock of red hair that hung down past her waist and was thick and curly. It looked more like a mane than hair. She was thin, with small breasts about the size of a couple of tangerines. Her eyes were a beautiful emerald green. “Sir, your bath is ready.”

I followed her to the bathing room to find a steaming tub of water. I placed my clothing and pistols on the table next to the tub, and then stepped into the hot water. Now, that felt good. I dunked my head under the water. When I came up, the girl stepped up behind me and began to wash my hair. As she used a scoop to rinse my hair she stepped around in front of me. She was completely naked. She washed my back and chest, and then had me stand up so she could wash my legs. When she began to wash my private area, I turned red in the face. Likka began to chuckle in my mind.

As I stepped out of the bath, Missa began to dry me off, and Likka jumped in the tub. I chuckled, “Missa, will you help me bathe Likka?”

“Will she bite me, sir?”

“Not while you are bathing her.”

Likka stuck her tongue out at me.

I thought to her.

After Likka was clean and dried, I got dressed in a clean set of clothes. I reached into my pouch and pulled out two gold coins and handed them to Missa “Thank you, Missa.”

She took them with wide eyes as she got dressed.

“Missa, to whom do I give my clothing for cleaning?”

“I will take them, sir.”

“Thank you.”

I headed down to the common room to eat, with a wet, happy Likka following me. As I sat at a table, I could hear whispers of conversation going on around me. Everyone was talking about my personal war that afternoon. I just shook my head.

The barman Kinal came out of the kitchen with a platter with a roast, a tankard of ale, a loaf of bread and a slab of cheese on it, and brought it to my table. As he sat it down I held out a gold coin “Would you bring out about twenty pounds of raw meat for my friend here.”

As the coin disappeared into his apron he said, “Certainly, sir.”

After I had eaten my fill, I sat back to just listen to the crowd. It was the voice saying, “He doesn’t look so tough to me.” That pulled my awareness in his direction. A young street tough was trying to pump him up after a few too many drinks.

As he stood up, I spoke just loud enough for him and his friends to hear; “Sit down, boy, before you get hurt.”

He turned red in the face and started walking towards me. He stepped over and stabbed a knife into the table, right next to my hand. “What do you think about that, mighty warrior?”

“Thank you for the knife. I need a cheap piece of junk to clean shit off my boots.”

He snapped his hand out to grab up the knife. Then fell to his knees as I twisted his fingers back and outward. As he reached with his other hand for the knife, my right hand shot out and slammed his head into the table. As he fell back, with a bloody nose and busted lip, I said “Go home to your mother, boy, you’re not ready for the big leagues.”

He screamed as he got up off of the floor. As he lunged at me, I came up from the table, spun him and slammed him down on the table, with his own knife at his throat. “Do you really want to die, boy?” I screamed in his face. “Is this the day you have decided to be judged in front of your gods?”

He started crying as he wet himself. “Please don’t kill me.”

“Go home, boy, and don’t pick fights, or you will end up dead when you pick the wrong target. Grow up to be a farmer or tanner, not a bully who thinks he can fight.” I let him up and pushed him towards the door. As he fled the crowd started laughing. “What are you all laughing at? Have any of you ever known real fear? Have any of you stood in the face of death and held your own bladder? You should all be ashamed of yourselves. I didn’t see any of you out there on the wall, willing to defend your own families from the Lithan.”