THE VROL TRILOGY (74 page)

"So, erm, what's the charge then," asked
Miles.

"2,000 teeth, plus fifty more to cover travel
costs."

"What? 2,050 teeth? That's insane!"

"There's also a surcharge of 500 teeth if you
go back on the deal. I don't even talk for free."

Miles grumbled and nodded his head in
agreement. They all sat by the fire pit as Lykanrol's leader spun a
tall tale about the horrible Max Gunnarsson, including the best
description they could provide of him, making sure at least
that
part was accurate.

###

As the sun started to set to the west a large
crowd gathered outside Seven Sins, with more than the usual number
of people going in and buying drinks. Dons walked about, talking
with various friends, as Adam appeared to be doing friendly little
levitations for small children and keeping them entertained. Even
Minnie's neko clan showed up, but Cassandra had specific orders to
stay away from them - especially Minnie, who was instructed to not
leave her scent anywhere.

By the time the waning moon was lighting the
sky, Max came out of the club. Standing at the top of the steps to
the main entrance he called for everyone's attention. After more
than a few minutes it quieted down, mostly after Marko barked out
at everyone. It seemed that the previously injured lycan had
learned a small lesson of respect, and was seeking to help with the
order of things. Max cleared his throat, took a swig of his beer
and then called out to everyone in earshot. He was heard very
clearly, as he had recited a cantus that magnified the volume of
his voice.

"Thanks for coming tonight. I… um, I just
wanted to explain a couple of things to you, the problems we have
with the Vrol - the demons, and how we're going to sorta solve
them."

The crowd started fidgeting and rustling
around, with hushed whispers shared between some. No one had ever
heard of being able to be anything more than an unwilling victim of
the alien invaders, but Max was standing there telling them
otherwise.

"What you all need to understand is
that the demons aren't really demons at all. They're an alien
species from a distant world. They came here to steal from our
planet, and when they couldn't beat us they stayed, and then used
us for hunting and food. Now, I suspect they've done a bit of
experimentation too, because nearly everyone here has a tracker
implanted in their bodies - it's a tech device that allows these
invaders to find any of you once you have left this area and are
out in the open. It also keeps you from leaving a specific region.
But, as many of you already heard, I have… abilities. One of them
is to deactivate these devices, so you can roam more freely, and
even sneak up on the Vrol. I only ask that if I do this for you,
then please kill them. Decimate them. Destroy them and drive them
out. I've seen no traces of their command carriers - only flyers
and ground troops. They
may
be the only ones left."

Max seemed to be finished, and turning, he
hesitated momentarily. Then, he faced the crowd again and said,
"Oh, and I need you all to buy lots of drinks here."

The crowd roared in laughter, applause and
approval, but Max had to wave his hands out madly in order to get
their attention again.

"We'll start tomorrow. I don't know how long
it will take, but I want to help everyone in the local vicinity.
Form a line off to the side here and Dons' girls will put you on
the list."

Max pointed to a small table where
Pandy and Jessica were seated; with Jessica having a pencil and
paper, and Pandy ready to use her ample talking skills to sign
people up for Max's
magic
surgery
. He ducked inside the club just as Lennie and
his band started playing some of their typical thrash metal music.
Grabbing a beer and a shot of Scotch, he went over and sat with
Dons, slamming his shot and sipping his brew.

"So, mate. Think ya can do all those things
ya said?" asked the height-challenged clan leader.

"Oh yeah, quite certain. I
will
need to have a lot of food to
keep my reserves up though. Magic doesn't drain my
strength
, per se, but it taxes my
stamina badly. I just don't know how long it will take to clear
everybody up. I'm starting with you guys first, of course. That'll
give me a general indicator of how much time I'll need per
person."

"So, I'll be your test subject?" asked
Dons

"Um… yeah, pretty much."

"Cool, mate!"

###

Some 20 clicks to the northeast, a perverse,
six-legged humanoid creature scrambled over broken chunks of a
freeway overpass. Having just left the Santa Clarita Valley area,
he looked southwesterly towards the San Fernando Valley, which he
would have to navigate before arriving at his destination. As he
walked by a tree he saw a squirrel out of the corner of his eye.
Without even hesitating, his tongue shot out at least four meters,
snagging the unfortunate rodent. What was truly disturbing wasn't
the fact that Kylen had a four meter-long tongue, but that it was
fully prehensile and guided the squirrel into his abdominal eating
portal, which consumed the squealing creature by rapidly and
voraciously chomping on it, his razor-sharp teeth shredding the
creature to bits.

Chapter 15 - Loser

"He has to be around here somewhere," said
Gabriel, as he scanned the area. "He has no skills that would allow
him further travel, and besides that, there are region locks on
this world."

The only person who noticed the team appear
out of nothingness was a lone camper preparing coffee over a
campfire. He gave the group a clueless stare as they started
fanning out a bit.

The lycans sniffed the air (and noted that
they had full command of their enhanced senses) while Draagh and
Gabriel brought up infoscreens, commanding them to do DNA scans of
the local area. Draagh looked at his son and wiggled his eyebrows,
apparently pleased that they were on a quest together. Then,
without notification, his infoscreen blasted up into the air,
almost as if it had been attached to a rocket. Waving his hand in a
circular fashion to his front, Draagh conjured an oval interface,
much like an elongated, semi-transparent disk. Watching the
readout, he checked diligently for any indication of Michael's
DNA.

Liliana skipped around the group, while
Jennie sniffed the air, detecting compounds similar to the herb
that her grandfather-in-law frequently smoked. She wrinkled her
nose in disgust as she drew in the scent.

"Jennie, I smell that. It is similar to
Grandfather's herb. Is this land full of Prīmulī?"

"No, sweetie. It's a land that's like Earth
of the distant past, where people smoked stuff that made them
stupid."

"But why would anyone make themselves stupid
on purpose?"

"Not stupid, my young child," boomed Draagh,
"but more perceptive to their environ!"

"Shut it, Draagh!" commanded a
near-screaming Jennie, causing Bagatelle to almost leap back, the
force of her demand having been so intense. "Weed is
not
for Lili,
understand?"

There could be no doubt that Jennie's
motherly instincts had come into full bloom, but her outburst woke
up nearly everyone in the campsite. People started appearing,
coming out of vans and tents, and causing the team to become very
self-conscious of the fact that they had set up a base of
operations without permission; not that they needed it.

A woman, roughly twenty-five years of age and
wearing loose-fitting cotton robes, walked up to Gabriel while
wearing a curious expression, her head cocked to the side. She
appeared almost to have sniffed the archangel, surging her face
forward slightly and examining the fabric of his fatigues.

"Greetings, brothers and sisters. Where are
you all from?" the woman lazily asked, speaking almost as if she
were medicated.

Gabriel tried to suppress a look of disgust;
the woman smelled terribly, due to an almost complete lack of
hygienic habits or care. At the same time, Liliana wrinkled her
nose and whispered to Jennie, "Does she not have a mother who tells
her when to bathe? She nearly matches a vampire with her rank
fetor."

"Shhh, quiet sweetie. We need to talk to the
people now. Just… can you make a no-smell cantus? Do you know how
to do that?" Jennie looked at her daughter pleadingly, but the girl
shook her head, and then dramatically pinched her nostrils together
with her fingers.

Draagh deftly hid the circular display he was
using to watch his flying infoscreen and walked to the center of
the group.

"Greetings, young lady, and an
amazingly odiferous
good
morning to you and your equally mephitic clan! I am Draagh,
and I am accompanied by Bagatelle, Jennie, Liliana, Krynos and
Gabriel. We are travelers from a distant land, looking for one of
our lost brothers."

"Hello, I'm Amy. Welcome to Woodstock. I
would offer you breakfast, but I'm afraid we're short on supplies
right now," said the young woman as she adjusted her colorful,
paisley headband on her light brown hair.

"Oh, that is such a wonderful thought, but
thank you so much anyway. We are actually in quite a hurry."

"Yes," Gabriel interrupted gruffly, "we are
looking for Mickey."

"Mickey?" everyone in the team cried out in
unison.

"Yes, that is the name I believe he took in
this world."

"What sort of name is this, this
Mickey
?" asked Krynos, speaking for
the first time and causing Amy to practically jump back from the
boom in his voice.

"It would be a diminutive form of his real
name, used to make him sound non-threatening, I would imagine,"
stated Bagatelle.

"Quite correct, Luigi," said Draagh, "but
Mija-El is not the type to cower in the shadows." Looking at
Gabriel, he asked, "My son, what has become of your brother, and
why is he here?"

Gabriel paused for a moment, and then
shrugged his broad shoulders. Resigning himself with a sigh he
said, "Father, we could not resolve an argument, so we made a
wager. The loser was to live in exile, powerless, for 100 years. He
lost. I chose this place - flowers, peace, love and a near-complete
lack of hygiene. It seemed perfect, and for the last 25 years I
haven't had to see his face nor suffer his ridiculous
moralisms."

"What was the wager?" asked Bagatelle.

"You do not want to know," the archangel
responded soundly, "and it really doesn't matter anyway. We need to
find him and…"

"I believe I see something, yes, something,"
Draagh stated plainly as he looked as his circular display.

"Oh my god, you mean you found Michael?"
Jennie asked.

"It's beautiful, oh my. Yes, it is…" he
murmured.

"What is it, Grandfather?" asked Liliana

"It is… um," the old mage stuttered as he
looked at Jennie, who was giving him a stern glare. He then looked
back at Liliana and said, "It is a beautiful field of flowers, my
dear! Perhaps we shall pass through it as we search for
Michael."

Jennie, Krynos and Bagatelle all gave
Draagh a look that seemed to say
you are
so full of it
, but then looked around to the people of
the campsite that had gathered around. It was obvious that the
locals lived a sparse existence, and were probably even
vegetarians; each person was thin, but fairly healthy looking.
Children rambled out of tents, their hair matted and unkempt, but
what upset Jennie most was that parents weren't concentrating on
making a morning meal for the children - rather, they were smoking
herb from waterpipes as the children mulled about, looking for
scraps to nibble on. Seeing this, and noting that Jennie was about
to become upset, Draagh stepped up to the campfire, and with a wave
of his hand conjured bowls of delicious honey porridge.

"Children! Come! Please have some breakfast!"
he exclaimed, as eight kids ran up, smiles on their faces, taking
hungrily to the bowls of steaming food. Liliana looked at the
children with a complete and deep understanding. She never forgot
the fact that she was an orphan before having been adopted by Max
and Jennie, and there were many times when she went hungry. Looking
up to her adoptive mother, Liliana saw an approving glance and then
skipped over to the children.

"Hello," said one of the girls as she saw
Liliana. "What's your name?"

"Lilia… Lili. My name is Lili. What is your
name, little unhygienic one?"

"Flower. Flower Sunbeam," the little girl
happily responded in between mouthfuls of hunger-satisfying
porridge, not understanding the title Liliana had given her.

Liliana looked at the other children
who were smiling as they enjoyed their morning meal, but out of the
corner of her eye she noticed one of the adults trying to take a
bowl of porridge. Quickly shooting over, she yanked the bowl out of
his hands and glared menacingly at the obviously stoned individual,
wagging her finger as she silently mouthed the words,
no, no you don't
. The emaciated
breakfast thief skulked back, eyes cast toward the ground. Gabriel
watched Liliana's activities with an interest that almost bordered
on pride. She was showing leadership skills, and was fulfilling the
genetic role that was intended for her subspecies.

"My friends! Again, we are looking for
someone, and I believe you may know him as… Mickey," stated
Draagh.

"A skinny, blonde young man named Shaylo
cautiously stepped up and said, "I know Mickey, but I haven't seen
him for a couple of weeks. Said he was gonna go on a walkabout -
you know, a trip on foot."