Portals of Infinity

Book Two

The God Game

Published by John Van Stry

Copyright 2014 John Van Stry

Copyright John Van Stry 2014

Cover Credits: eBook Launch (http://ebooklaunch.com/)

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Any resemblance between characters in this story and people living or dead is purely coincidental. This is a work of fiction created by the author and the author retains all rights to the material in this story.

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One

The ways of the gods are subtle, well at least that’s what people (and even the gods) often say. The fact is, gods have a really poor sense of time, especially the older they get. Fel was a new god, he’d been doing it about three or four hundred years – so time still meant something to him, which was good for his people.

Aryanna had been a god for several thousand years from what I gathered, and while immediately to her was now, soon could be anywhere from a month to a decade. I got to see my son born, which was nice. Rachel was very happy with my being there. The priestess bore me a daughter, which I was also there for, and which was also nice. The priestess’s full name, I finally discovered, was Narasamman and she named our daughter Tirumalamman. I was considerably happier with Rachel naming our son Baron.

I also spent a lot of time with Darlene, who apparently had a bad dream while I was gone. I suspected it was about the time I had been killed by Stephanie. As I felt it was Stephanie’s fault, I asked her to ask Aryanna if she could do something to keep my wife from having nightmares after we left.

And leave we finally did, six months later. There were five of us, Stephanie was in charge of course, and was the oldest and most experienced. Conversely, I was the youngest and least experienced. The other three were Joseph, Cenewyg, and Dezba.

Dezba and Cenewyg were actually from the same Earth as I, Dezba was a Navajo Indian and she’d been recruited in the eighteen hundreds, I wasn’t sure when, my knowledge of history wasn’t the best sadly. Cenewyg, or Cen, was from England, the early nineteen hundreds, 1919 to be exact. He had been in the war and was apparently not happy with life afterwards. He was quite fond of being a champion and told me so. More than once.

Joseph was well, Joseph. The sphere he came from was technologically advanced well past that of my own; I gathered that he came from the same place as Stephanie had, just much more recently. He was the second newest after me; he’d been doing this job for less than a decade.

“So, where are we off to?” I asked Stephanie. We were on earth of all places, riding in an airliner on our way to Athens. I’d never been to Athens, though I had the feeling I wasn’t going to get any time to do any sightseeing.

“Ithaca.”

“Ithaca? What’s in Ithaca?” At least I knew there was an Ithaca in Greece, and not just the one in upstate New York I’d visited.

“You’ll find out when we get there,” she said scowling.

“What’d I do?” I asked looking around at the others. We were all sitting in first class on a British Airways flight. I guess Stephanie had some connection or something in London that got us all the paperwork we needed rather easily. After she parted with the proper amount of gold I’m sure.

“This is neither the place nor the time to discuss this matter,” She said.

I looked at the others, Cenewyg smiled and shrugged, “Don’t look at me, I just work here!” He laughed. “Though it is possible that our fearless leader here doesn’t yet know herself.”

Stephanie scowled at Cenewyg then, and he just smiled more.

“We need to rent a car and drive to the coast. Once there, we should be able to find a fishing vessel or a ferry or something to take us to the island. That’s all I can tell you right now.” She said.

“Do we need any weapons?” Dezba asked softly.

“Probably.”

“What kinds?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

“So,” Cenewyg said looking at me, “any idea where we can get a sword in Greece these days?”

I looked back at them, “Hell, I don’t know where to get a sword back in London. Why didn’t we bring any gear with us?”

“Aryanna said we wouldn’t need it. So I didn’t.”

“I don’t know about that,” Joseph muttered.

“Trust me, airline security has gotten a lot worse in the last decade,” I told them. “I’m sure it would have complicated things.”

I looked back at Stephanie; I’d known the others for less than a day. We had all been introduced a little while before getting on the flight. “I guess we’ll find out when we find out.”

She nodded and I lay back in the seat and tried to do my best to just relax and enjoy the flight. At least things were easy.

The drive from Athens to Patra was anything but. Apparently, only two people knew how to drive a car, and Stephanie I knew from experience didn’t care much for doing it. Joseph was game to try, but he was used to something so radically different that he almost put us in a ditch when he drove. Obviously, some skills just did not transfer well from sphere to sphere and driving was one of them. So I drove the whole trip and the quality of the roads and the other drivers wasn’t anything I was used to.

At least we were able to find a boat to take us to the port on Ithaca. It wasn’t till we were well out to sea that Stephanie gathered us up on the bow of the boat out range of the prying ears of others. Not that they probably would have understood us, we weren’t speaking any local language, but I guess she wanted to be safe.

“We’re looking for a gate,” she said. “It used to be down near the shore, by the port. It could be anywhere now; the last reference to it was from three thousand years ago.”

“Where does it lead?” Cen asked.

“Ithaca.”

“I thought we were going to Ithaca?”

“The city of Ithaca was named after the sphere of Ithaca, and founded by a gate to it. Over the ages, the gate fell into disuse Aryanna guesses. Maybe the line of kings that used it died out or something. Whatever it was, Ithaca is the sphere where we need to start, and this is the only way into it she knows into it. So this is what we do, we get into town, we find some rooms, and we spend however long it takes combing the area until we find that gate.”

“What if there is more than one gate?” Dezba asked.

“Then we examine each one. But Aryanna is fairly certain that it will be obvious once we have found it.”

“Where is Aryanna getting her information from?” I asked.

Stephanie scowled at me.

“If you don’t know, just say so,” I sighed. “Look, I’m here for the duration; I gave my word on that. I’m not here just because Fel told me to be.”

“Aryanna is only telling me what I need to know, when I need to know,” Stephanie said.

“Why’s that?” Cen asked.

“Yeah, doesn’t she trust you?” Joseph added.

Stephanie, Dezba, and I all gave him a dirty look for that. Cen just looked amused.

“She gave me her reasons, which I’m not going to share, and I agreed with them. That’s all you need to know.”

“So let’s go find a hotel for the night and we can go start looking in the morning,” I said and pointed towards the dock that was coming into view. “Not like its going anywhere on us.”

Everyone agreed and we broke up to wait for the boat to dock.

It took about an hour for us to get off the boat and find a place to stay. It was a quaint little hotel, and by quaint I mean run down and kind of shoddy. It wasn’t half as nice as my place back in Riverhead was and I mentioned as much to Stephanie.

“I thought you were from around here?” Joseph said, overhearing.

“I am.”

“Then why do you have an inn on her plane?”

“Because I do.” I didn’t really want to share my private life with these people, they were still strangers to me, and Stephanie’s little lesson was still fresh in my mind.

“He started building a nice little financial empire before Aryanna got around to recruiting him,” Stephanie said, rescuing me. “He twigged on quite the moneymaking idea and was doing rather well with it.”

“Inns huh?” Joseph said shrugging. “Sounds kind of boring if you ask me.”

“Sometimes, boring is good,” I replied. “I’m going to go for a walk, get the lay of the land. Meet you all back here later.”

They nodded and I walked out. I was a bit surprised when Dezba caught up with me a few minutes later.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“We will be traveling together for some time. I think it would be better if we got to know each other.”

“So why pick me first?”

“Well Steph and Cen have gone off together and I know enough about Joseph to know I do not care for his company tonight.”

“Stephanie and Cen went off together?” I repeated a bit surprised. And probably a bit jealous too. I wanted to spend some quality time with Stephanie now that I knew she had once been Jennifer, that whole trick with the knife not withstanding. So this came as a bit of a surprise.

“Yes,” she looked at me, “upset?”

I looked at her and shrugged. “Maybe, I don’t know. Yeah, there once was a little something between us. But I’ve been told I think with my dick too much, so maybe this is better.”

Dezba started laughing at that and I tried not to blush too red. “So, you would sleep with me then?” She asked between giggles, which on her looked kind of strange as she was more of the ‘wonder woman’ athletic build, than Stephanie’s slender one.

I stopped and looked at her, she was smaller, by about three inches, had a figure that was athletic but definitely female. Her Navajo features made her look exotic, but her eyes and her general overall demeanor made it clear that this was a woman not to be taken lightly, that she would kick your ass if you weren’t careful.

“Is that a proposition?” I asked. I hadn’t considered her in that light before.

“What, do you think only men get lonely for companionship?” She said and laughed again.

“Yes, I would definitely sleep with you; you’re a very lovely woman. Is that what this was all about?”

Dezba shook her head still smiling, “No. Or not originally. I figured I’d set my little trap for you when we got back, if you did not pick up on any of my hints. However your candidness about your dick problem made me decide to be honest instead.”

I blinked, that was a mouthful. “And why was that?”

“Because, Will, people who think with their ‘dicks’ are the kind of people who seem to end up being champions!” And she giggled some more.

I shook my head and we both started walking again. “So what do you think we’re after?” I asked.

“Not an idea. But I’m sure it will be difficult.”

“Why’s that?”

“I’m a very accomplished warrior. So I know is Cenewyg. I’m guessing that you?” She turned to look at me and I nodded.

“Stephanie is also, so it’s not as if we are here to solely escort.”

“What about our gods being in debt to Aryanna?”

“Oh, I’m sure that is important as well. But whatever it is, it does not matter.”

“Why?” I asked surprised.

“Because we’re going to do it. It will be interesting, and an exciting memory to add to our stories. I’d rather be surprised at the end than to know.”

“I guess I’d prefer to be surprised as well,” I said and grinned.

“I guess we will see then,” she smiled.

We talked some more as we walked. Mostly about our home spheres. She found my feline one to be rather interesting. Hers was more human, but the society was different, a nomadic herder society with hyper intelligent working ‘pets’ which they controlled via telepathy.

I didn’t feel so peculiar anymore, after hearing all of that.

We did eventually make it back to the hotel and I did spend the night in her room. It was enjoyable, and it was different. She didn’t cuddle well however, she was more the type to do it than receive it.

The next morning Joe looked a little put out, but I felt that was his problem. Stephanie looked a bit surprised, but I just looked at Cen, then back at her, and she had the good graces to blush.

It took us a week to find it, we had to split up and search the isle, but Dezba found it halfway up the mountain, not very far from a road either. There were some temple ruins on the location that made it fairly obvious that this was what we were looking for.

“So, let’s see what Ithaca looks like,” Cenewyg said as we all stood there looking at the gate. It was early morning; Stephanie thought it would be best to start then.

“I still think we should have brought weapons,” Joseph said.

“Eh, no one sells anything around here. Maybe we’ll find a shop there.” I said while I was studying the gate and trying to get a feel for it. This was only the fifth one I’d encountered and something about it agitated me. I couldn’t place it.

We stepped through then.

And we were slaughtered. It happened all so fast that even with my time adjusted senses it was over before it began. There were at least a hundred soldiers, who charged the moment we appeared. Behind them were archers, who let arrows fly and didn’t stop. I know I shifted into high gear, but I only killed a couple before I died. I had no idea how the others fared.

And then it got worse.

I spent the next three days in the worst hell you can imagine. The pain started the instant I got there, and it never ceased. There was taunting, there were voices, there were insanities. I kept trying to focus on making the time go faster, trying to keep my sanity, trying to keep my mind together. I could be destroyed here, and I knew it, and that knowledge fed my fears.

What ended up on the floor of Fel’s metaphysical bar three days later was a quivering mass of fear and insanity.

“Well, that didn’t go well.” Fel said as he put me back together.

When I could finally make a coherent enough thought to talk I asked him what happened.

“You were ambushed. All of you. Dezba lasted the longest, but only because she walked through last. There was a huge force apparently waiting for you.”

“What about, that, that torture?” I asked and shivered in fear of a remembered pain so great that it actually still hurt if you even just thought about it.

“The first time is always the worst, and whoever it was you fell afoul of, they were particularly bad. The key is to concentrate on me, and here, and who you are. Next time it won’t seem so bad.”

“Next time!” I wailed. “You can’t be serious!”

Fel looked at me and nodded. “Yes, I am serious. But not right away, you need to heal more. Walk with me a while.”

I staggered to my feet and followed him out of the bar.

We were in the mountains, same as the last time I had been here, but it was different this time. It was the highland valley, only there were no buildings, beyond the bar, and a hut where the castle now stood.

“This is what it was like when my people first came to the valley. The hut was the first thing they built.”

He talked about the evolution of the city, and as he talked I watched it grow before my eyes, I saw it all, slowly, moment after moment, day after day. When it was finally finished, I realized I wanted to see Rachel; I wanted to see her very badly. I looked at Fel and he smiled.

“You’ve been here two weeks. You still have some healing to do yet, but I think it’s safe to let you go home.”

“Two weeks? I thought it only took three days?”

“Three days is the soonest. I’m a god Will, your god. I can keep you here as long as I want. Or as long as you need. Go.”

I went.

I spent the next month in Rachel’s arms. She knew something bad had happened, but didn’t ask any questions. The second month I spent riding the mountains and rounding up brigands and taking care of other similar problems. It might have been below a champion’s station, but I felt I needed to do it. I was still scared and I had to get over my fears. Another month and I was feeling better, so I kissed Rachel good bye and went to see Darlene.

The ride home there was nice and uneventful. She cried out my name in delight when I walked in the front door, and we disappeared to the private rooms for the rest of the day.

The next day I walked down to the temple, and walked into smaller sacristy in the back and put a silver coin on the altar. I don’t know if I needed to, I still wasn’t up on all the rules, but I knew it couldn’t hurt.

“How is Stephanie?” I asked.

“She is fine, my adopted son. Joseph and you had it the worst.”

“I need a while still,” I said softly. A priest walked in and looked at me surprised. He started to say something, suddenly stopped and quickly turned and left.

“I can give you a while. Joseph is being difficult as well.”

“I’m not being ‘difficult,’” I protested softly while staring at my feet. “I’ll do it, I promised. I just need a little while.”

“Then a while you shall have, my adopted son. Stephanie sends her regards, be well.”

“Thanks, Mom,” I said and smiled a little. I left the temple to the sounds of laughter in my mind.

I spent the next three months with Darlene. I practiced my fighting, I learned a little more about running the inn, though at this point I admitted to myself that Darlene would be the one to run it, I’d just help when I could. I rode a few patrols with Sergeant Chaucer to get the lay of the land, and then I went out and cleaned up a few of the more problematic bandit nests that were out there. With my champion abilities, it wasn’t too much of a strain, though I had to shift into my champion form for one of them that proved difficult.

Some of the bandits I brought in, though most of them I just buried. I didn’t want to attract too much attention to myself; just enough to make people think they had to respect Darlene and to make any con men decide to look for safer prey. Plus the bounties helped push my bank account deeper into the three-figure range.

On the home front, things were nice and relaxing. Darlene was sweet and attentive as always. When she wasn’t working in the bar, she’d wait on me. When I’d come home from killing bandits, she’d give me a massage and then we’d make love. There really wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for me, and I only took advantage of it a little bit. I mean she was my wife after all, so I was entitled to all of the lovely submissive service right? Though when it was her ‘time of the month’ I didn’t sleep with one of the girls working there, even if she told me I could and she wouldn’t mind. I figured that as time went on I’d be lucky to be here even just half the time, so I might as well make the most of my time with her when I was here.

By the end of the third month, I knew it was time to go try again. I said my goodbyes, knocked Darlene up with child number two, got the usual blessings, and rode off telling her I’d be back in the spring hopefully.

Once I got a few hours out of town and was sure I wasn’t being followed, nor leaving a trail, I gated back to Saladin, then took a gate that went from the outside of Rachel’s city to outside of Hilshire’s capitol. It wasn’t a regular gate, Fel and Aryanna had to work together to open it, but I made it into Kingstown by nightfall.

“Well, round one sucked, ready for round number two?” Joseph asked me as we met up in Ithaca. It had been decided to meet there, and filter in, in smaller numbers. Mainly so we could smuggle in some weapons.

I shrugged, “This time, we’ll be ready for them. We’ve got armor, swords; we’ll take ‘em.”

“It will not be easy, William,” Cenewyg said.

“I don’t think it will be,” I agreed. “But we will win.”

“We’ll meet in the morning,” Stephanie said. “For now, get a good night’s rest and check your gear.”

“Spend the night with me and I’m sure it’ll be a good night,” Joseph said leering a little at her.

“But it wouldn’t be restful now, would it?” She said leering back. “Now off with all of you, I want to sleep.”

We all filed off to our rooms, Dezba took up with Cenewyg this time, but I didn’t mind, I was more than happy to curl up by myself, though I did switch to my champion form. When Stephanie joined me an hour later though, I was rather surprised.

“Aryanna is a little concerned about your frame of mind, so I thought you could use a little companionship.” She whispered as we got comfortable.

“I thought Joseph was the problem child?”

“Yes, but I like you more,” she giggled.

“Thanks.”

“Plus, you’re nice and warm when you’re all furry like that.”

“Yeah, the sheets on these beds are kind of thin.” I purred.

We spooned and fell asleep fairly quickly without any further byplay.

The next morning we moved our stuff to the gate, put our gear on, checked each other out, went over our game plan, and then charged into the gate.

And of course got wiped out again, a second time.

Oh, we weren’t a pushover, by any means. We lasted a good thirty minutes, I think, maybe even an hour. Cenewyg and I were the last two to be cut down, and I know I slew hundreds of them. The problem was, there were thousands of them there. You just couldn’t kill them fast enough. Swords were definitely out for the next time around, I was thinking maybe some man-portable mini-guns when I finally died.

Then came the torture and the pain again. It was worse at first, but then I remembered what Fel had told me and I concentrated on him and the bar, and it got better. I was still a quivering mess when I finally ended up on the floor of his bar at his feet. But I recovered a lot faster this time. So much faster that, two months later, we were there ready to try it again, and this time we did have much heavier modern weapons. I even had a mini-gun.

And we lasted a whole lot longer before we were again wiped out. I’m sure we went more than an hour.

“This is getting rather frustrating,” I growled at Stephanie. We were all sitting in the same inn as before, and we’d all been complaining. “There were thousands of them out there. Maybe more. We can’t kill that many.”

“Well, sooner or later they’re going to run out of men. They just have too.” She replied, equally upset.

“One would certainly hope so!” Cenewyg laughed. Out of all of us, he seemed to be the one least affected by all the torture we’d seen thus far.

“Why do we not just go at night?” Dezba said.

“Why at night?” I asked.

“Yes, why?” Echoed the others.

She shrugged, “It would make us harder to see, and if we fight through them, it would make it easier for those that got through to hide.”

“Yeah, hide. I like that idea!” Joseph said looking up rather angrily. He definitely had been having a harder time of it than even me. But he wasn’t quitting either.

Stephanie sighed. “Okay, sure. Let’s try it tonight.”

I looked around; everyone else was doing the same.

“Well, let us get to it then,” Cenewyg said.

We went up to the gate, geared ourselves up once more, and then, as a team, rushed through the gate again.

“Hey, where is everyone?” I think it was Joseph talking. I looked around, it was dark, but my champion form’s eyes adjusted quickly. We were definitely at the place we had been before, all the landmarks were there. But there was no one around. Not a soul.

“Okay, this is weird.” I said.

“Weird or not,” I know where we have to go, let us be on our way quickly!” Stephanie said.

We started off down the hill, and around the many battlements that had been constructed as cover for the defenders. Still we saw not a single sign of anyone.

“What’s that over there?” I said as I noticed a small flickering glow to the southeast.

“Looks like a fire,” Dezba said.

“Let’s be careful,” Joseph warned.

“Obviously,” I said and motioned to the others to spread out more. We did that and slowly flanked the spot, eventually it resolved to a small fire behind one of the battlements, with an old woman sitting by it.

“Ah, come to plunder our fair city?” She cackled at us.

“No, we’re just passing through,” Stephanie said moving in front of us, but not getting too close.

“Pity that,” The old woman laughed.

“Where is everyone? What has happened here?” Joseph blurted out before Stephanie could ask anything.

“Night time belongs to the goddess; the god’s troops don’t venture out of the city once the sun comes down. That’s the old agreement; the god guards the gate during the day, the goddess during the night.”

“So why aren’t there any troops here at night?” Stephanie asked.

“Because the king drove all of the goddess’ priestesses out of the city and into the hills. There are no followers of the goddess here anymore, beyond me.”

“Just why do they guard the gate so fanatically?” Cenewyg asked.

The old woman shrugged, “I have not any idea. I was told to watch the gate, and watch the gate I do.”

“Well, I guess that’s that then,” Cenewyg said and Stephanie shrugged and headed off, leading the group.

I paused a moment and tossed the old woman a silver.

“What’s this?” She asked giving me the eye.

“A donation for letting us pass,” I said.

She cackled a little, “Afraid I might stop you?”

“Just thought it was the polite thing to do....” I said and followed the others.

“She following us at all?” Dezba asked.

“Nope, just watched us walk off then went back to watching the gate,” I had been keeping an eye on the old woman until I lost sight of her.

Dezba turned to Stephanie then. “So where are we going, Steph?”

“To the next gate.”

“You know where it is?”

“Yes. It’s on the edge of the water.”

“How far?”

“A few miles. We should be there before the dawn.”

“So this is the famous Ithaca,” I mumbled while looking around. There were ruins everywhere. Once it had been a thriving area, I guess we were heading through what was once their equivalent of suburbs.

“Looks like a dump,” said Joseph.

“Makes me wonder what their city looks like now.”

“Who cares? Probably another dump.”

“The gate was probably the main source of this city’s income,” Stephanie said as we walked. “When people stopped coming through it, the economy most likely collapsed.”

“Do that many people have the ability to sense the gates?” I asked curiously.

“Not really, no. But it is often inherited and odds are the royal family on one side or the other had the ability and over time it either stopped breeding true....”

“Or someone killed off the royal family in an attack of some kind,” Dezba finished.

“Exactly,” Stephanie finished.

“Hey, you don’t think that old lady was the local goddesses’ champion, do you?” Joseph asked.

“No. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t her. If I had to guess, I would guess that the goddess here really doesn’t care about that gate anymore. With the driving off of her followers, she’s probably lost all interest.”

The conversation descended into idle chat and died off completely shortly after. The first signs of dawn were on the horizon when we reached the water’s edge.

“Spread out, everyone, see if you can find it.”

We grumbled a little, more out of habit I think than anything else. With the dawn, that meant the soldiers would probably show up soon, even if we were now a few miles from the city. So finding the gate and moving on was probably our best bet.

“Found it!” Cenewyg called.

We all hurried over to where he was and as we drew near, I could feel it myself.

It was offshore, a good hundred yards or so.

“I’d hoped to get a boat here,” Stephanie said. “The Ithacans were once great boat builders. Maybe they still are. But I think we’d be better served swimming out there and seeing what we can find on the other side.”

“I’d rather look for a boat first, at least until the soldiers get here,” Cenewyg said looking out at the water. “There may not be any land anywhere near the other side.”

“I agree,” Dezba added.

Stephanie sighed but nodded her head. “You’re probably right. Okay, Dezba and Cen, you go north, Joseph, keep watch here. Come, Will.”

We split up and didn’t really have all that far to go, when we rounded a dune on the beach we found a bunch of small fishing vessels pulled up on the beach. They looked sort of like outrigger canoes. We grabbed one that looked big enough and trotted back carrying it between us. Even in our champion forms it was heavy.

When Joseph saw us, he called for the other two who came back fairly quickly.

“Anyone know how to sail?” Stephanie asked looking around.

“Yes,” I said. I had grown up on an island after all.

“Some,” Cenewyg said.

“Yes, actually,” Joseph said looking pleased for a change.

“I can paddle, but that’s about it.” Dezba said.

“Well, let’s shove off!” Cenewyg said and dragged the boat to the water where we all piled in and started to paddle for the gate.

Two

We had sailed in our small boat maybe an hour before the first ship came into sight. Stephanie had told us the locals we were looking for were called the 'Phaeacians' and that they were reputed to be amazing sailors who possessed amazing boats.

"What the hell is that?" Cenewyg said pointing.

I looked stunned at the huge monster of a ship as it turned a graceful arch and headed right for us, making rather amazing speed.

"It's a hydrofoil," Stephanie said surprised.

"A jet powered hydrofoil," I added wondering if we were going to have to dive over the side.

"Heave to!" A voice called out over some sort of megaphone and the ship made a half circle around us, decelerating quickly and then sinking down until the main hull was in the water as it pulled up and rather smoothly stopped next to us with nearly no wake at all.

"Be you Ithacans?" A man on the deck called out to us.

"No, why do you ask?" Stephanie called back to him.

"Because you have come from that direction in one of their boats."

"Well, we did come from there," she admitted.

"Ah good!" He said, "We have not heard word from Ithaca for many an age. But we still maintain the patrol on the way to and from. Are things well there?"

"I could not say, they did not seem to take well to strangers so we avoided the city."

"That's an understatement," Joseph muttered softly.

"We're bound for Scherie," Stephanie continued, "could you point us the way?"

"Come aboard and I'll take you there," he said and threw us a line so we could draw our small boat to his.

"I'm called Halius," the man named himself shaking hands with Stephanie as she boarded the boat.

"I'm Stephanie," she replied and then named each of us as we boarded.

"Welcome to my most humble boat," Halius said. "Let us secure your boat and then we shall be on our way."

We all watched rather interested as he took the line that was fastened to the fishing boat, and dragged it around to the stern of the boat, which had a ramp rather than a transom. He hooked the line to a cleat on the floor, which moved up the ramp and pulled the boat in, then a line looped down from the ceiling and two arms came up from the floor and a moment later the boat was secured.

"Neat trick that," Cenewyg commented.

"Anyone hungry?" Halius asked and led us into the ship; I could feel it starting to move forward, it was rather smooth. By the time we were seated at the table I could tell we were back up on the skis under the boat and moving rather fast. Food came up from the center of the table and he bid us to help ourselves to whatever we wanted.

"So where is the rest of your crew?" Joseph asked looking around.

"Crew? What would I need a crew for? This is a small vessel after all."

"Small? This thing must be fifty meters!" Joseph said.

"Fifty-two to be exact." Halius said looking proud. "Built it myself, took me four years, but they won't let you captain on the big ships if you haven't built at least one small boat on your own."

"Small?" Dezba said looking around. "If this is small, what is big then?"

"Oh, anything over five hundred meters is considered big. But the really large ships start at one thousand."

"So if there is no crew, who is piloting the boat?" Joseph asked looking a little white faced.

"Oh I am of course," Halius said. "So, what can you tell me of Ithaca?"

"It would seem," Stephanie said, "that the followers of the Sun God and those of the Moon Goddess have had a falling out. Traveling at night is safe, but during the day, the followers of the Sun God do not take well to strangers. We were advised to avoid the main city and only pass through at night. So we really don't know much."

Halius nodded and sighed, "We used to do much trade through Ithaca, but it is rare now that anyone comes through the portal."

"You know of the portals?" I said surprised and got an immediate kick in the shin from Stephanie under the table.

"Oh yes, we know all about them. We ourselves can not pass through them, it is forbidden to us. But there are still several through which others come and trade with us."

"I see," I said, even though I didn't.

"So, what takes you to Scherie?"

"We've been sent on a quest to find a rare herb that is needed to cure the prince, err, the prince of my country that is," Stephanie explained. She had told us when we started out that this would be our cover story if questioned. "I am a member of the king's army and have experience in matters such as these."

"So you're in charge then?"

"Yes. So what can you tell me about Scherie? It has been a long time since any from my country have come here. I thought Phaeacians were a shy people? Especially those that inhabit Scherie?"

"Oh those days are long gone. When trade stopped coming from Ithaca, we were forced to find new lands and peoples to trade with. Scherie has become quite the trading hub."

"Well that is good, we may be able to find what we need there and return quickly."

"So, would anyone like a tour of my humble boat?" Halius asked looking around.

"I certainly would," I said and both Cenewyg and Stephanie nodded in agreement.

"I'm afraid I'm not much of a sailor," Dezba said. "So I'll just wait here with Joseph."

"Fine, come, let me show you around."

The next hour was interesting to say the least. There was no bridge or control room on the boat. There actually wasn't a single control anywhere on the ship for anything. Stephanie didn't seem surprised by it and Halius did tell us that he controlled it all with his mind. Whether or not that was true, it was evident that there was a huge amount of automation onboard. Halius was very proud of his creation and I personally couldn't fault him. It really was a nice boat.

We made port not long after that. The island looked a little like Manhattan, only more grown up, if such a thing were possible. It reminded me of pictures I had seen of Hong Kong, there were boats everywhere of all sizes. It was incredibly busy.

Surprisingly there was a delegation at the dock awaiting our arrival.

“Greetings,” one of them said. “Who is the leader of your group?”

“That would be me,” Stephanie said stepping forward.

“I am Awie, I am the Master of the Eastward Port. Welcome to the island of Scherie. It has been long since travelers have come here from Ithaca and I have been asked to convey the king’s request for you to attend him for the evening meal.”

“I am Stephanie, and on behalf of myself and my companions I would be happy to accept the invitation. Is there someplace we may retire to, to rest and clean up for this event?”

“Most certainly. Aoe here,” Awie gestured and a rather attractive young woman stepped forward and nodded her head, “will be your guide for your stay here. If you have need of anything, she can show you where you may acquire it. Now if you will excuse me, I have other duties to attend to.”

And with that, Awie bowed to us and left. Stephanie smiled at Aoe.

“There is a nice hotel close to the palace that visitors to the king use. I will take you there,” Aoe said.

“Lead on.” Stephanie told her and we grabbed our packs and followed.

Getting out of the port took a few minutes; it was definitely a very crowded and busy place. When we finally left it, she led us to a limousine that wasn’t much different from what I was used to seeing back on earth.

“Why is there a driver?” I asked as we settled in the back, “can’t this be guided like the boats are?”

Aoe looked at me a moment as if I had sprouted a third eye. “Oh, that’s right you are not from around here! The god of the waters grants the power to steer the boats only to his chosen, and only on the seas. That power is forbidden to those on land.”

“Oh” I said and gave her an apologetic look.

“How hard is it to book travel to Thrinacia?” Stephanie asked Aoe.

“I know of no such place, Mistress. You would have to ask one of the navigators, or someone who knows more than I.”

“I see,” Stephanie said and pondered a moment. “Can you take us to someone who might know after we’ve dined with the king?”

“It would have to be tomorrow, Mistress; the shops will all be closed by then.”

Stephanie nodded and I turned to look out the windows of the limousine. From this vantage point, it really seemed like any other modern city. I watched the other vehicles and the people go by until we finally pulled up in front of a rather small and old looking hotel.

“Ah, we are here,” Aoe told us and a doorman hustled out and opened the door for us.

“Where is the Palace?” Joseph asked getting out behind me.

“Over there,” she said and pointed across the street.

We all turned and looked. What I had mistaken as a park with a fence around it was obviously the palace grounds. Set way back was a rather colorful and large building reminiscent of the Taj Mahal. None of the buildings from the city came anywhere near the surrounding park from what I could see, every building across the street from the park surrounding the palace was three stories or less. I suspected it was like that all the way around.

“Impressive,” Cenewyg said looking it over.

“Yes, very,” Stephanie said; which I found interesting as the palace in Kingston was far more impressive. She turned to Aoe, “Are there rooms already reserved for us?”

Aoe nodded. “Follow me inside,” she said and led the way once more.

Once inside, the concierge at the front desk quickly assigned us a large suite on the second floor. The suite itself was interesting, a large central sitting room with six attached bedrooms, three to a side. We each claimed a room and then looked at Aoe expectantly.

“What time do we have to be ready for dinner?” Stephanie asked her.

“Eight.”

“Ah well, thank you for your time, if you could come back say at seven to take us there, I would be grateful.”

“Oh, I’ll be staying here with you until you leave.”

We all looked at each other.

“Seriously?” Dezba asked.

“Of course. Hospitality demands that one be assigned to assist you in any ways that you require, as you are strangers here. To be honest, it is a great honor for me to be the one chosen for this. No one has come from Ithaca in my lifetime. Normally I’d be assigned to any coming from Cheblise.”

“Ah, I see.” Stephanie said and nodded. “Well, I’m for a bath; care to scrub my back, Cen?”

“I’d be delighted!” He laughed and the two of them headed off to one of the bathrooms, each bedroom had its own.

I looked at Dezba and she smiled at me and we headed off together.

“I’d be happy to scrub your back, sir,” Aoe said to Joseph, her face blushing slightly.

“You do realize they’re talking about more than just bathing?” Joseph asked her.

“So am I, sir, so am I,” Aoe replied.

“Guess Joseph won’t be the odd man out,” I whispered in Dezba’s ear as we stripped and made for the bathroom.

“What, you don’t think Steph or I don’t take care of him?” She laughed at my expression.

“From what I gathered I thought neither of you were that fond of him.”

“Oh he’s okay; we just like you and Cen more.”

I looked at her questioningly; I was already helping her out of her clothes.

“Men are second-class citizens in Joseph’s original culture,” Dezba said causing my eyes to get wide in surprise, “now Joseph is a lot more independent than most and didn’t fit in well back there, but with a strong woman he has a tendency to revert.”

“Huh, I had no idea.”

“Well, now you do. And I personally prefer my men a bit more independent.”

“Well then, let’s celebrate my independence!”  I laughed.

Three

Dinner was an interesting affair. The royal family was apparently rather large, there was the king, the queen, their two sons and three daughters. The oldest son and two of the daughters were married and were there with their spouses. Add to that about a dozen royal cousins or uncles and aunts, I really didn’t quite catch that bit, and there were about twenty some odd royals there. Of course there were another twenty or so members of the royal court in attendance as well. Some of them were important, most weren’t. I did the ‘eyes and ears’ bit for Fel while introductions were being made, I had a feeling he might want to know the people in charge here.

The table setup was interesting, the king and queen and their children sat at a kind of dais, it wasn’t any higher than the rest of the table, which butted into it opposite the king and kueen, with all of us arrayed down from there. Stephanie and Cenewyg got the seats of honor on either side, and then there were a few high-ranking court members, then Dezba and myself, a few more nobles, then Joseph and Aoe, then the rest of the royal family followed by the rest of the court members.

Attire was relaxed, the men mainly wore business suits, the women gowns, though there were a few outfits that made me stop and take a second look; namely that several younger members at the dinner were wearing jewelry and not a stitch of clothing. Both males and females, and it included the two unmarried members of the royal family!

“Excuse me,” I asked the young woman sitting to my right who was dressed in this fashion, “I’m a little unfamiliar with the customs here and I have a question.”

“Yes?” She said smiling at me and making sure that I got an eyeful of her rather generous charms.

“Why are some of you unclothed?”

“Does it bother you?” She asked still smiling.

“Not at all, the view is after all rather nice,” I said and winked, “but it only seems to be some of the younger people here, but not all.”

She nodded, “I can see where that might be confusing,” she acknowledged. “It’s simple really; if you’re single you’re not allowed to wearing clothing at any social function of the royal court.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “Really?”

She nodded, “It’s a very old tradition, to encourage those of us who are single to find partners and get married.”

“I see,” I said and nodded. I suspected it was more so the king and princes could scope out the available single women more easily for the kinds of affairs that kings and princes were famous for.

“So, are you single?” She asked smiling at me.

“Sadly for you, no,” I said.

“Is she your wife?” She asked nodding to Dezba who was engaged in conversation with a rather attractive young man who was also wearing only jewelry.

“Dezba? No, just a friend.”

“Ah, I see. Well maybe I can be your friend too?” She said and gave me a smile that made it clear what kind of a friend she wanted to be.

“I don’t see why not,” I said smiling at her. Interestingly enough, the other three were not getting this kind of treatment. Then again, Joseph did seem rather enamored with Aoe who was extremely attractive and I now noticed wasn’t wearing any clothing either. I thought the robe she had worn here was a bit strange.

As the small talk along the tables died down, the king started to ask Stephanie about our trip so far and I turned to follow the conversation.

“So, Miss Stephanie,” the king asked, “how fares Ithaca?”

“Not well, Your Highness,” She said. “We ourselves are not from that area, having had to travel some distance to reach it. The previous members of this quest were wiped out nearly to the last man when they approached the city. So when this task became ours we decided to give as much space between ourselves and the city as possible.”

“I see, that does seem to agree with some of the small things we have learned over the centuries. Did you see none of the city then?”

“What I saw of the city wasn’t much, but it did not do the old tales of it any justice. The outskirts were mainly rundown ruins, most of which were deserted.”

“I see. You know I’m sure, that we greatly miss the trade we used to have with fair Ithaca.”

“Oh I am sure, Your Highness.”

“So if someone else were to wish to open trade from there, I’m sure we could provide some manner of help and support. In the cause of helping develop future relations of course.”

I smiled as Stephanie got that look in her eyes that told me she was definitely doing some sending Aryanna’s way. I’m sure to the rest it just looked like she was being thoughtful.

“Oh, of course, Your Highness,” Stephanie said and gave him a very long and seductive smile. “I’m sure a great deal could be done to help improve future relations if someone else were to decide to once again ply the portal.”

“I’m glad to see you agree,” the king said and got a rather predatory look of his own. “Do you think you could stay after dinner that we might further discuss this interest?”

I returned my attention to my dinner and my dinner companion then as Stephanie agreed. The next course was being served and the lovely woman on my right was making inroads on my lap with her hand.

There were some questions bandied about the table about our quest, and our backgrounds, where we were from, the kinds of questions you'd expect nobles to ask strangers. My story is that I was from a country allied to Stephanie’s and sent by my king to help, along with Dezba. I don’t know why Stephanie set us up with that story, but I stuck to it.

When dinner was finished, we all adjourned to a rather large and well-appointed lounge. There was soft music being supplied by live musicians, and entertainment, which was provided by jugglers and dancers and other such entertainers. It was a rather nice low-key party and my dinner companion, whose name I had discovered was Jocelyn was now occupying my lap. Dezba had disappeared with both of her dining companions and I suspected I wouldn’t be seeing her until the morning. The same was true of Cenewyg who had disappeared even before Dezba had. Meanwhile Stephanie and the king appeared to be rather engaged with each other, and not just with conversation.

“Will!” I heard Stephanie call and I turned to look at her.

“Would you terribly mind a demonstration of your fighting skills for the king?”

“I would be more than happy too,” I said and carefully deposited Jocelyn on the seat I had been occupying as I stood up. She looked rather unhappy about this development.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back,” I told her and gave her a kiss.

“Be careful,” She whispered to me showing a lot more concern than I would have expected.

I blinked at that, and used one of the many cantrips I had as a champion. The one that purged alcohol from my system, going into a fight drunk was never wise, even if it was just a demonstration.

“So what kind of demonstration would you like?” I asked stretching and limbering up.

“Sword,” the king said.

“Sure thing, Your Highness. Do you have any I could use?”

One of the king’s men gestured and a cart was rolled into the room with a rather nice assortment. I walked over and looked through the swords there testing their weight and balance. They were all wonderful pieces of work, the craftsmanship was amazing.

I turned to look back at the king who had a hand under Stephanie’s blouse, but to be fair she had a hand down his pants. The queen was nowhere to be seen. I tried to recall if she had left when Cenewyg had. Definitely a very lusty people.

“What kind of demonstration would you like, Your Highness?”

Stephanie gave me a dangerous look at that point, so I stood at parade rest with my hands behind my back. Time to be a soldier. She gave a slight nod.

“Well it seems we have a bit of a problem. Mistress Stephanie tells me you all need passage on one of my ships. However that is something we do not give easily, not without a price.”

A rather large man entered the room then. He was wearing some rather nice armor, definitely something modern made with a lot of strength to it. He had a shield and a broadsword at his side and was holding his helmet in his hand. He was not a very handsome man, far from it. He had the look of someone who tortured puppies for fun.

For some reason I didn’t like him.

“Now we all hear these stories about, excuse the term, barbarians such as you. We hear how you grow up with a sword in your hands, how fighting is in your blood, how vicious and even feral you are. But you have come here as meek and mild as can be, so I have to ask myself if these stories are true.

“So, I would like you to fight my champion, he claims that no barbarian can beat him, especially not one such as yourself. If you win, Mistress Stephanie will have the use of one of my ships.”

I came to attention and bowed to the king. “I see, Your Highness. What are the terms of this fight?”

“Oh the usual, to the death.” He said with a wave of his free hand.

I smiled my best evil smile. I wasn’t crazy about the idea, but then I wasn’t the one making the terms here. But I had a role to play and I might as well get on with playing it. “Are you sure you want me to kill him, Your Highness? He has such pretty armor that it would be a shame to ruin it with his blood.”

“Brave words, popinjay!” The man in the armor called.

I saw Stephanie mouth the words ‘kill him.’ I rolled my eyes, like I needed to be told that! Of course, everyone thought I was making fun of the king’s champion.

“We have already made the deal with Mistress Stephanie. The terms remain.” The king said.

I shrugged and turned back to the swords. There were several shields there as well, but I didn’t want to go sword and board against someone who was kitted up to fight exactly that way. I grabbed the set of heavy gauntlets they had and put them on. I could hear the tin can put on his helmet. What I really needed in this situation was a war hammer, to peel him out of his little tin can, but swords were all they had so I grabbed a bastard sword with my left and a short sword with my right deciding to fight him left handed.

Let’s see how this guy did against a crazy foot. A lot of fighters never came up against a lefty in their entire careers; most schools wouldn’t even train it. So those that did fight it were often untrained or self trained. But Master Burdon back in Riverhead had insisted on training me in it as I was already fairly ambidextrous. I’d found at the Ren Fairs that it really did screw up a lot of people when I switched to it.

I walked over to the center of the room where a space had already been cleared for us. I was surprised at the expressions on the faces of the spectators; apparently this wasn’t all that unusual. For all their obvious technology, the king’s guards were all carrying side arms and stun guns, not swords; they were still a pretty bloodthirsty lot.

He banged on his shield with his sword and then saluted his king. I bowed to the king as well and saluted with my sword and turned back to my opponent who was standing there sword and shield ready.

“What, scared?” I asked him.

He growled a bit but held his ground, so I laughed at him. “You’re armored from head to toe and you’re afraid to attack me? I had no idea a silk suit was such a put off. Would you rather I strip naked so you feel safe?”

A number of the ladies laughed at that, and clapped. The king scowled at his man who lowered his sword and attacked.

Once again, everything slowed down and I simply stepped aside and smacked him on the ass with the flat of the sword as he went by. From the sound of it and the way it felt I suspected it was something like titanium. Getting through that would take a lot of strength. In my champion form, I know I could do it easily, in this form, I didn’t think I could. And I had a feeling from that special place that changing was not a good idea.

He turned around rather quickly, but not quickly enough to be a god’s champion like I was. That made me feel a lot better about the fight; when the king had said ‘champion,’ I had assumed he was one of us.

He came at me more slowly then and we engaged. He was actually fairly strong and he was rather good. He was having problems with my left-handed style because when we were toe to toe my power side was not to his shield, which was making it hard for him to bring the shield to bear against me in the fight. This was good for me because it had short spikes sticking out of it and a wicked sharp edge on the right side for the purpose of trying to maim my sword hand whenever we got in close.

If I had been fighting right handed that is.

I started off slow and easy, blocking his sword with the shortsword and punishing him with hits from the bastard sword whenever I could. I was using the edge on it; I didn’t want him to know I could be a point fighter too, especially as all the edge strikes on his armor weren’t even denting it. I’d have to get him at the joints, plain and simple, like one of those Filipino fighters who used to do a number on the Spanish.

“Ha! You cannot hurt me, popinjay!” He said to me as I continued to lead him to the left so I could keep attacking his open side.

“Says the slow man in the can,” I laughed back at him. “Do you win fights by boring your opponent to death?”

“I will piss on your grave!” He growled and I suddenly saw my opening. I let go of the shortsword and grabbed the bastard sword with both hands switching to a right hand grip as I did so. I had been winding up for another hit to his side but with the change in grip and stance I spun the sword in a wide arc and came down hard on his elbow.

He screamed in pain when I did that. Amazingly the armor’s joint held, but his elbow inside did not and I could tell I had shattered the joint as his arm came down and the shield fell out of position. I did two spinning attacks to his head with the sword putting my strength into it while he was disorientated. The first hit his helmet and he gave another cry of pain, but he blocked the second one and tried to drop the shield. I knocked his sword to the side and put the bottom of my foot against his chest and shoved, he back peddled.

I did it again; he gave ground again still trying to lose the shield. I guess his hand wasn’t working right. I did it two more times until he was up against the wall. When he hit the wall his sword arm went wide and I switched grips again and drove the sword in point first putting all my weight behind it. For a brief moment I thought his armor was going to hold, but then it slid home, through his body and stopped when it hit the back piece.

He tried to hit me with his sword then, I ducked under the first strike and grabbed his wrist with both hands and bent it back forcing him to drop the sword to the floor. Taking a step back, I put my foot on the pommel of my sword and put all my weight into driving it through the back piece and pinning him to the wall.

Turning I walked back to my shortsword and picked it up. He was cursing and swearing at me the whole time, blood was leaking out of his armor at this point rather copiously.

I undid the catches on his helmet, pulled it off, and took him under the chin with the sword, driving it up into the brain and killing him instantly so he wouldn’t suffer any longer. I’m not sure which the applauding guests would have appreciated more, but the idea of letting him suffer didn’t sit at all well with me.

I turned and walked halfway to the king, bowed to him, and then returned to Jocelyn who was very happy to see me and started whispering in my ear that her rooms weren’t that far from here.

Looking up, I saw the king and Stephanie were departin, arms entwined, and all of the guests had paired up and left, except for one of the princes who was rather energetically pairing with his wife who obviously was not the shy type at all.

I let Jocelyn lead me off to her room then while listening to her gush about what a brave, talented, and strong barbarian I was.

“So does the king do that often?” I asked her much later as we lay in her bed, which I had to say, was the most comfortable thing I’d ever laid down on in my life. Someone could make a fortune selling these back home.

“Most barbarians that come through here are a pretty rough crowd. The king would use Harker to take them down a notch when he killed their champion. You’re the first group that ever showed up to dinner dressed in suits! I thought you were going to die for sure.” Jocelyn started running her hands up and down my body again. I guess she had quite the fascination for barbarians. I thought about telling her I wasn’t one, but she wouldn’t believe me anyway I was sure.

“He won’t be mad at me, will he?”

“Oh, I’m sure he’ll have Harker replaced within a week. I’ve heard this does happen every so often.”

“Does he often sleep with barbarian women?” I asked with a chuckle.

“Only if they remember to bring him an attractive one!” She giggled. “Of course, I think everyone was surprised that your leader was a woman. Normally, women don’t hold much sway in barbarian societies.”

I let my fingers do a little exploring of my own; she really did have a lovely body. “Not all barbarian societies are the same. Why I’ll even demonstrate by allowing you to be on top this time!” I laughed.

Of course I had to spend the rest of the night upholding the reputation of barbarians everywhere. Or at least that was the excuse I gave the rest of the group when I caught up with them late the next day in the hotel.

“So where is Stephanie?” I asked yawning when I looked at all of the other tired faces gathered around the table.

“Still with the king I gather.” Dezba said, “These people sure are a lusty lot.”

“This from the woman who took two of them to bed?” Cenewyg teased.

“What can I say? I miss my husbands,” she replied without a trace of embarrassment.

“How many do you have now?” Cenewyg asked.

“Three.”

“Joseph, where’s Aoe?” I asked looking at him.

“Passed out in my bed,” he said preening. “I rocked her world all night and into the morning.”

“Well, let’s order some room service, I’m famished.”

“Order a lot for me too,” Stephanie said opening the door and entering the room.

“What, he didn’t even buy you breakfast?” I laughed.

“That was hours ago. We worked up a healthy appetite since then, I tell you that man in insatiable. Nice job there, Will. You didn’t make it look too easy and impressed the king. He’ll have a ship ready for us to borrow a few weeks from now.”

“Thanks, and I think any of us probably could have taken him. I didn’t even have to use anything special, just the basics.”

“I noticed. That’s why I’m impressed.”

“Why is it going to take them so long to get us a ship?” Joseph asked. “This place is like crawling with them.”

“He’s having one specially built. The gate we need to go through leads to another water world like this one. Their boats won’t work there, so he’s building us one that not only will, but that we can use.”

“Wow, that’s really nice of him,” Dezba said. “How many times did you have to get laid to get him to give us that?”

“I told him that if he wanted to get you in bed, he’d need to give us something really special.” Stephanie said sitting down and putting her feet up.

“Really?” Dezba sat up eyes wide and looking excited, “Oh when, when, I can’t wait!”

“You’re a lousy liar,” Cenewyg said picking up the phone to order room service.

“Oh? What gave me away?”

“The fact that you’re still here.”

“There is that. So what’s the real reason?”

“He figures that if he helps us, when we get home and tell of his good deeds with promises of help and support that our armies will move on Ithaca, take the city, and open trading back up.”

“Not a bad idea.”

“Guess he’s king for a reason,” I added.

“Too bad for him it probably won’t happen,” Joseph added softly.

“Don’t be too sure about that,” Stephanie replied, “The right word in the right ear and it’ll happen. That city back there is ripe for the picking; someone just needs a little incentive.”

“Sounds like something for Aryanna to worry about.”

“Exactly. Now where is that food? I’m famished. The king is taking me out later for a few days on his private yacht.”

“Well, have fun with that,” Cenewyg grumbled.

“Oh please, I know you spent the night entertaining his wife.”

“You’d never know she’s had five kids. Medical science is pretty advanced here.” He smirked.

“Anything else we need to know?” Dezba asked.

“Not really, party all you want, but don’t get too out of hand. Expect to get a lot of propositions to spend the night. Oh, and, Will.”

“I know, I know,” I raised my hand, “keep it in my pants.”

Stephanie laughed, “Wrong! You’re a big hero now. Custom has it that any woman who wants to bear your child is free to without any shame or dishonor. So don’t be surprised if one of the princesses shows up in your bed.”

I sat up and blinked. “I can breed any gal I want?”

“If she’s willing, yup.”

The other’s all looked at me.

“What?” I said looking back. “I like having kids. What’s wrong with that?”

“You’re such an idiot,” Dezba sighed and shook her head.

I grinned back at her. Part of me wanted to tell Dezba how I liked having kids because I liked to dote on them. But I remembered what Stephanie had said, so I just let them think the worse.

The next two weeks were definitely different. The princess who was single was the first to make a move on me. Then one of her sisters and after that the floodgates broke open. I ended up staying at the palace living in Jocelyn’s room. As far as I was concerned, she had me first, so she had priority. She had no qualms about admitting she was trying to get my child in her. The whole reason she had been seated next to me at the table was because her time was right.

Stephanie's little comment about thinking with my dick however was still in the back of my head, even though it had been almost a year ago. While the occasional romp in the sack with someone else was always fun, after a few days here I started to feel at times like a breeding stud and not much more.

When we set out on the sea, I knew for sure that Jocelyn, one princess, and one other woman had my child in them. And I felt guilty as hell about having to leave them behind.

“That’s why you’re an idiot,” Dezba told me our last night there as we rode the king’s ship to the portal and I looked back at the island feeling somewhat dejected. “Aryanna would never have picked a guy who could walk away from his kids that easily.”

It took a full day’s sailing to get us where we needed to be, it was quite the distance away. They lowered our boat to the water; it was a rather nice one, a trimaran with rather large hulls. Made more for stability than speed.

We all boarded, pushed off, and headed for the portal. We could all feel it at this point.

“So where are we headed now? Thrinacia?” Joseph asked.

“No, Ogygia.” Stephanie said. “I thought Ogygia was an island here and Thrinacia was the next sphere. But I was wrong. We have to pass through the sphere that Qgygia is in, then we get to Thrinacia.”

“So what do we have to deal with in this next one?”

“I’m not too sure, but I have some information. The king’s scribes had some maps that I copied; in the spring and in the fall, they meet several times to trade with the fishermen from here for food. So they have gathered quite a bit of information over the millennia. I gather at one time these spheres were all linked a lot closer than they are today.”

“Does that mean you know where we’re going next?” Cenewyg asked.

“I have a pretty good idea; we pass within sight of the island Ogygia and then head due west. But....”

“But?”

“I’m not sure we need to go by Thrinacia.”

We passed through the portal at that point and I was surprised to see that we all changed rather drastically. Stephanie and Dezba had both become rather attractive to put it mildly, and began to shed their clothes immediately. Joseph, Cenewyg, and myself also changed, we all had pointed beards, long hair, balding heads, long pointed ears and horses’ tails. I found the desire to have sex with Steph and Dezba completely overwhelming and shed my clothes as fast as the rest.

I’m not sure how long the orgy lasted, and it seriously was an orgy. Cenewyg was the first to gain some semblance of control and shifted into his champion form. That pretty much triggered all the rest of us to do the same and we all literally fell to the deck and passed out from exhaustion.

“What the hell was that?” I groaned when I awoke some time later as the sun came up, the light in my eyes waking me as I lay on the deck. I was sore in a number of places, but the worst case was my crotch.

“We were turned into satyrs,” Cenewyg told me as he slowly gathered himself up and crawled towards the galley. “Steph and Dez were turned into nymphs, who are pretty much the sexual prey of satyrs, and often fairly willing ones at that I would now suspect.”

“I thought satyrs were half goat?” I groaned and rolled to my hands and knees and followed him. I noticed the other three were stirring and doing the same.

“That’s the Roman ones, not the original Greek ones.”

“Damn, how long did that go on?” Joseph grumbled.

“Not nearly long enough!” Dezba laughed and Stephanie took a weak swing at her.

“I myself do not approve of suddenly being turned into a wanton slut whose only interested is getting laid.” Stephanie grumbled.

“Well if I remember my ancient classical history well enough,” Cenewyg said getting to his feet and opening one of the cupboards to pull out a box of food. “Satyrs and nymphs only tend to act this way when they’re in the company of each other.”

“So then we just need to make sure that we stay in our champion forms,” I said opening the box Cenewyg handed me and digging into the cereal inside. I didn’t care what kind of food it was, I just needed food. And lots of it.

“Any mixed crew sailing into this place would probably starve to death,” Stephanie said starting in on her own box.

“Still, it was fun,” Dezba sighed and smiled.

“And you talk about me!” I grumbled at Stephanie who started to giggle loudly between mouthfuls of food.

We discovered later that our little unexpected party had lasted almost three days. The worst part about it however was that it really hadn’t been all that enjoyable. Oh it had been kind of fun at first, but after a while it was more of just an instinctual response. Something those forms were conditioned to do. Being as we were all on a boat in the middle of the ocean, it wasn’t even possible for us to have gotten away from each other. I suspect that normally the nymphs run off while the satyrs are lying on the ground exhausted.

At least we were pointed in the right direction and had passed the isle of Ogygia during our little sojourn. But we hadn’t passed it by that much, as most of the sails were down. So we got the rest run up and were on our way after a decent meal and a nap.

Stephanie and Cenewyg spent quite a bit of time apart from the others talking about something while Joseph and I rigged the sails and Dezba steered the boat. Much later, after the sun had set I cornered Stephanie myself.

“What were you and Cen going on about earlier?” I asked.

“I’m not sure that’s any of your business, Will,” she said looking a little cross.

I threw up my hands, “Steph, it’s a small boat and I have exceptionally good hearing like this,” I gestured to my felinoid form. “I’m sorry if I’m out of bounds, but I can’t help being curious. You can just tell me to drop a subject; you don’t have to get snippy with me.”

“Would you?” She asked, “Drop it?”

I nodded, “You’re the boss.”

“You know while we were changed you went after me quite a bit more than Dezba. More than the others even did.”

“Yeah well, I like Dezba, but I was in love with you. Still am, I guess.” I shrugged and sat down on the deck. My feline form had almost two feet in height on her more human champion form. “Sorry if it bothered you.”

“Actually I think it bothered Cen.” She sighed and sat down next to me.

“What?” I looked over at her shocked, “You bunk with him far more than you do with me.”

“Well, apparently he thinks I preferred you over him during that little episode.”

I stopped and stared at her a moment, Stephanie looked up at me and blushed.

“You do prefer me, don’t you?” I whispered surprised.

Stephanie blushed even deeper.

“Okay, I’m lost.” I admitted.

“Cenewyg has a pretty good idea where we are going.”

“Oh?”

“He figured it out from adding up what has happened so far. Apparently it is in your ancient literature.”

“And that’s a bad thing?”

“It might be, I don’t know.”

“Can I ask why it might be a bad thing?”

“Sorry, Will, I can’t tell you.” Stephanie sighed. “I don’t even remember everything about this mission. Ary has blocked out parts of it I don’t need to know until I need to know it.”

“That just sounds weird.”

She shrugged, “I agreed to it actually. If it’s blocked by Ary then another god can’t pull it out of my mind, even if I’m dead and in his domain.”

“I see, so the fear is that if Cenewyg dies, the destination could get pulled out of his mind, and then the mission might be compromised.”

“Something like that.”

I sighed. “In that case if at any point it looks like he’s going to buy it, I’ll put myself in the way.”

Stephanie smiled a little wanly, “Thanks, Will.”

“Eh, dying sucks but at least for us it’s not permanent. Besides, I know this is important to Aryanna, so I’ll do what I have to do.”

“It’s important to me too.” Stephanie said and reached over to take my hand. “Let’s go to bed.”

I smiled, “Okay.”

I was a bit surprised at Stephanie that night, she showed me quite a bit of passion and affection in bed.

“I’ll still be spending a lot of time with Cen and Joe,” Stephanie told me the next morning, giving me a rather contented look as she lay on my stomach.

“I’m surprised you agreed to have sex with me, seeing as I’m not in a human form,” I said while purring at her.

“To be honest, it was kind of fun, especially with the fur and the purring.”

“Well, it’s just nice to know that you care.”

“Of course I care, and no I won’t marry you!” She teased.

“Trust me; I’m not looking for a third wife.” I grinned back at her. “I don’t mind if you want to spend time with the others. I’m just happy we had last night, I hope we get to do it again.”

“You make it sound like I haven’t slept with you since we started this,” She said eyeing me.

“Last night we didn’t sleep together, we made love. We haven’t done that since we broke up. There’s a difference.” I purred.

“Oh really now?” She said looking at me slightly askance.

“Take it from the man who has two wives,” I said with a wink. “I know the difference.”

Stephanie blushed again, then getting up she gathered up her things and left for her cabin. But not before giving me a kiss on the nose.

“So, have fun?”

It was much later on the deck and Cenewyg had come up to me as I took my turn at the helm.

“Yes, of course,” I said and smiled at him. “I like Stephanie.”

“I’m sort of surprised she’d sleep with you like that,” he said gesturing to my still feline body. We’d all decided to stay in our champion forms, it was safer that way. All the others were pretty much human looking, so I definitely stood out.

I shrugged at him; he seemed a little edgy for some reason so I felt a little misdirection might be interesting. “I think she was being nice to me because she had just told me that your living to the end is more important than me.”

Cenewyg’s eyes opened a little wider in surprise, “How’s that?”

“Simple,” I said checking our course, “if it looks like something is gonna kill you, I get to step in front of you and take the hit.”

“She tell you why?” He asked sounding a little suspicious.

“Nope.”

“Did you ask?”

“Nope.”

“Why not?” He said sounding genuinely curious.

“Cause then I get to go home and play with my toys,” I said and gave him a wink.

Cenewyg looked startled for an instant, but only for a very brief one. I almost missed seeing it. He then smiled and laughed. “Ah yes, I believe I heard you have a couple of hot women waiting for you back home.”

“Yup, certainly would be a lot more fun hanging out back there then being here. But well I promised, so here I am.”

Cenewyg nodded. “Indeed.” Then as I watched, he went and found Stephanie and gave her a hug, then started talking to her. I couldn’t really make out much of what they were saying, but he did sound both rather smug and contrite at the same time. When Stephanie glanced at me over Cenewyg’s shoulder, I winked at her and went back to steering the boat.

“So where are we off to now?” Dezba asked coming up to me.

“Not sure exactly. Thrinacia I guess. Stephanie told me she was hoping to bypass it, but after what happened she’s not willing to stop at Ogygia and ask for information.”

“Can’t say I blame her. Do we know anything about Thrinacia?”

“Not yet.”

“Do we know where the gate is?”

“Supposed to be in that general direction about a week from here.” I said pointing to the northwest.

“What comes after that?”

“Not a clue.”

“What’s up with Cen anyway?”

I looked up from the compass at her, “What do you mean?”

“He’s been acting a little funny all day.”

“How so?”

“Well first he wanted to sleep alone last night. He’s never done that before.”

I thought about that, was he jealous? “And?”

“He kept to himself pretty much all morning. He only started talking to anyone when he came up to you, though now he is talking with Steph.”

“I’m wondering if he’s a little jealous of me.” I shrugged.

“Of you?” Dezba laughed. “Why would he be jealous?”

“No idea. But Steph kind of dropped a hint he might be. Maybe it’s because I’m the new guy? I haven’t really been doing this much more than a year now.”

“I heard about the job you did, pretty impressive. I don’t see... oh wait. Maybe I do.” Dezba said stopping and thinking.

“Where did you hear about it?” I asked surprised.

“My god told me. I wouldn’t be surprised if Cen’s god told him as well.”

“I had no idea.”

“From what I gather, all of our gods and goddesses keep in touch. Aryanna apparently has quite the little circle of friends.”

“I still don’t understand that. Well if they were in the same sphere I would understand. But my Fel’s sphere and Ary’s sphere aren’t even close.”

Dezba shrugged again and dropped into one of the seats by the controls putting her feet up on the console. “They’re not human, or whatever you are this week,” she added the last laughing. “So don’t even begin to try and understand everything they do. I gather it’s some kind of a game they all play amongst themselves. This is above and beyond their cut throat battles within their own spheres of course.”

I shook my head. “So anyway, I don’t know what’s up with Cen, or why. Not even sure I want to know. Hopefully we’ll be done with this in a few more weeks and I won’t have to deal with him ever again.”

“Oh, don’t be too sure about that.”

“Now what?”

“This isn’t the first time some of us have had to get together to take care of some sort of task for Aryanna or one of her friends. This is just the largest one.”

I sighed, “I thought you all seemed a little too friendly with each other.”

“Oh this is only the second time I’ve met Joe, but I’ve had to do things with Cen or Steph a number of times. Plus Steph and I do like to visit each other. After a while, it’s kind of hard to relate with the norms. They just don’t live as long as you do, but other champions?”

“I guess that makes a certain amount of sense.” I thought a moment, “How many champions do you know, by the way?”

“I’ve met about fifty or so. I only know about twenty of them well and I’d say I’m probably on good terms with maybe a dozen of them.”

I had a moment of inspiration then. “Is Cen in that dozen?”

Dezba scowled a little bit. “Not anymore.”

“When did that change?”

“I’m not sure,” she said looking over at where Cen and Steph were still chatting. “I just know that I don’t exactly like him anymore. I think it started after Steph had you fight the Phaeacians champion instead of him.”

“Oh?”

“Cen’s supposed to be the better fighter.”

“Really?”

“Yes, but he almost always fights in his champion form which isn’t much different than what he looks like normally in most spheres being as he’s a champion in a human sphere. You took that guy on in a base form. I was impressed.”

“Why thank you,” I said flicking my ears in embarrassment.

“You know, you look good like that,” she said turning back to me and smiling.

“I know,” I said with a smirk.

“Hey, this a private conversation?” Joseph asked coming over.

Nope, pull up a piece of rail and join in.”

“So, Cen getting over his snit fit?”

“Wow, even you noticed!” Dezba laughed.

Joseph shrugged, “Cen’s barely polite to me to start with. So yeah, I notice when he’s really feeling pissy; ‘cause he tries to take it out on me.

“So where are we off to now?”

“Thrinacia,” I said.

“Any idea what we’re going to do there?”

“Nope.”

“Would be nice to know how much longer this is going to go on.”

“Well, don’t look at me, I don’t have a clue.”

Dezba shook her head, “Don’t ask me.”

“I bet Cen knows,” Joseph said.

“Really?” Dezba said surprised. My own ears perked up at that.

“He’s got that smug ‘I know something that you don’t know’ look on his face. Seen it on my sisters’ faces while growing up a thousand times. And look at how he’s playing up to Stephanie now.” Joseph shook his head. “I’m sure he’ll rub it all in when we finish this, you know how he likes proving he’s superior to the rest of us.”

“There is that,” Dezba said nodding and looking back over at me.

From the look Dez gave me I started to suspect that Cen and I were going to have a confrontation at some point in the future, over what, or why, I didn't know. But the feeling was there all the same.

Four

The atmosphere on the boat subtly shifted after that, Cenewyg would only sleep with Stephanie from that point on, though I suspected that might have been more Dezba’s refusing him than the other way around. Dezba and I did get together a few times but oddly enough she was spending more time with Joseph. I myself was spending more time with Stephanie then I had been which was nice, even if it did make Cenewyg a bit surly at times.

But even I could tell that Cenewyg had withdrawn from us, well not from Stephanie, just the rest of us. If he wasn’t spending time with Stephanie he might try to chat one of the rest of us up, either trying to find out what we might know about what was going on, or asking questions about our pasts, but he didn’t take part in any of the group conversations anymore.

I remembered Stephanie’s rule number two however and was not only careful in what I told him, but lied quite a bit as well.

It took us two weeks to find the next portal, once we got to the general area Stephanie was told it was in, it took a week of sailing around the area until we actually located it. It was near one of the islands thankfully, or we’d probably never have found it. Finding things on the open sea seemed almost impossible.

We turned back to humans, natural humans, when we went through the next portal. I think I was happiest about it, because I did not want to stand out if we should run into anyone.

“Well, which way?” Dezba asked Stephanie.

“East,” she said pointing.

“Is that a beach I see?” Joseph asked.

"Yes, we need to find some fresh water and refill our tanks."

"So we really can sail through to the next portal then?" Cenewyg asked in a voice that suddenly made me believe that he did know something I didn’t.

I noticed Stephanie stopped and looked at him a moment. "I'm not sure."

Cenewyg shrugged and said nothing more and Stephanie glanced my way a moment. "We'll anchor off the beach," She looked up at the position of the sun in the sky, "And in the morning we'll go ashore and look for a source of water."

We all set to work then and Joseph turned the boat to head to the part of the beach that looked easiest to land on. He got us to about a hundred feel of the shore before it was too shallow for the boat to get any closer, so I set out the anchors and reefed all the sails.

Joseph got the small dingy unlashed from atop the main cabin and set in the water while I checked the anchors.

“Might as well do a quick check of the beach while we still have some daylight left,” he told Stephanie. “Mind if I take Will?”

“No, just don’t go too far.”

“Sure thing. Will?” He turned to me and I nodded.

“Why me?” I asked as I climbed over the side and got into the small boat with him.

“I figure we’re the only two who really know how to row a boat and I don’t feeling like teaching anyone else tonight,” he laughed.

I grinned at him and took the oars while he took the small tiller. Not that it really mattered on a boat this small. It only took a couple of minutes and we were grounded on the beach. Climbing out, we pulled the boat up past the waves.

“And what’s the real reason?” I asked Joseph as we started to walk up the small hill behind the beach to take a look around.

“Just wanted to get away from Cen for a while. Guy is driving me nuts.”

“Why’s that?” I asked curious.

“He seems to think I’m some sort of faggot or something,” Joseph sighed.

“Wait, what?” I asked and laughed, “With all the times you’ve slept with one of the girls, how can he say that?”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Joseph said looking confused.

I stopped and thought a moment, “Where I come from that means you prefer partners of the same sex.”

“And people care about that?” He still looked confused.

“Well, what does it mean to you?”

“Where I come from it means you’re a man who wants a woman who will treat you like a baby and protect you.”

I tried to wrap my head around that. “I don’t think I understand.”

“Women are the ones who run things, who are in charge where I grew up.”

I nodded; Stephanie had told me he came from a rather matriarchal society.

“Well, it’s the job of the men to protect the women and children, do all the work, gather the food, fight the wars, enforce the laws that the women give us. Calling someone a faggot is a huge insult, it implies that you’re not man enough to do your part for society,  that you’re less than a man, that no woman would want you.”

“So has he called you that? I think to a Brit like him a faggot is a small piece of wood or something.” I said remembering something I once heard.

“Oh, he hasn’t said anything directly, but he was getting on my case a little about my being reluctant to come back after we got killed that first time.”

I shrugged, “You weren’t the only one. That was a first time for me and it took me a while too.”

“Still, he’s really been bugging me the last week. Just wanted to get away from him.”

We got to the top of the hill and looked around.

I pointed to the north, “That look like a stream to you?”

Joseph shaded his eyes a bit. “Yup. Probably a half-hour walk from here. Doesn’t look too hard to get to either.”

I nodded. “So what do you think we’re doing?”

He shrugged, “Really don’t care. My god and Aryanna want it done, that’s good enough for me, why?”

Now it was my turn to shrug, “This is my first time doing something like this. I know so little about this larger...” I paused lost for words a moment and waved my arms at the world around us, “Hell I don’t even know what to call all of this we’re involved in! I just feel so lost at times, the others maybe understand it, but I sure don’t.”

“Yeah, I can understand that. I’m still coming to terms with all of this myself. Stephanie told me that it gets easier with time.”

“I just wonder at times what could a goddess want that we have to go and get it.”

Joseph laughed, “Ask Cen, he sure acts like he knows!”

“You think so?”

“Maybe, he can be a pretty smug ass at times, but he’s rarely wrong. Course knowing him, he probably wouldn’t tell you.”

“Really? I’d think he’d want to rub it in when he was proven right.”

Joseph shook his head, “He’s the type to just enjoy lording over you that he knows and you don’t. Haven’t you noticed that he’s been teasing Steph about it?”

I had, but I didn’t say so. “Not really.”

“Well, he is. Let’s get back to the boat; the sun is starting to get pretty low.”

I nodded and followed him back. It was funny, when we first started out I thought I had Joseph pegged as a whiner and Cen as a straight up guy. Now I was starting to realize that Joseph was the straight up guy, but Cen, well I was no longer sure about him at all.

When we had started this whole job, I really didn’t care that much about what it was, I pretty much felt like Joseph did; Ary and Fel asked me to do it, so that was good enough for me. But now that it seemed that Cen was starting to get an idea of what we were up to, his attitude was changing, and Stephanie was worried about what he might know.

So not only might he have guessed where we were going, but he had suspicions as to why we were going, and that was apparently a bad thing. But if it was because Stephanie and Ary were worried about some god or goddess picking it out of his mind if he was killed, or some other deeper and darker reason, I had no idea. It just bothered me, because it bothered Stephanie.

Because I still loved her.

I sighed as I thought about that, I had two wives, both of whom I loved quite a bit, and I still had a thing for yet another woman. Stephanie was right, I really did think with my dick.

I made sure to sleep alone that night, and told Fel I wanted to dream about Darlene and Rachel before I went to sleep. Apparently he was listening because I did, and I had to admit it was wonderful seeing them again, if only in my dreams.

The next morning we got an early start. Joseph suggested that we move the boat to where the stream came to the sea, to make it easier to get the water loaded, so we weighed anchor and did just that. As it turned out, we were able to sail into the mouth of the stream, and just waited for the tide to change so we could get fresh water instead of brackish. Then a few cantrips to purify it and we were ready to go when high tide returned.

“I think I’m going to take a walk and stretch my legs,” Dezba said after we got things squared away.

“Mind if I come along?” Cenewyg asked. “I could stand to get off this boat for a while too.”

“Sure, I don’t mind. How long until you think the tide turns?”

Joseph looked at me and I shrugged, “If it’s like my home sphere, about three or four hours from now?”

“Okay, lots of time.” With that she stripped down to her panties, dove over the side, and swam for the shore, Cenewyg stripped to his boxers and followed.

“So, think he’ll have any luck?” I asked Stephanie as we watched them climb out of the river and start to hike inland.

“Oh I’m sure she’ll use and abuse him,” Stephanie laughed.

“That wasn’t actually what I meant,” I said shaking my head.

“I know,” she said grinning at me. “Dez knows how to handle men, whatever it is that’s come between them, it’s going to take a lot more than a walk and a brief roll in the grass for her to forgive him.”

“Well, maybe he’ll stop acting like a putz if she does,” Joseph said coming over and sitting down by us, “sleep with him that is.”

“Any idea why he doesn’t like Joseph?” I asked Stephanie curious as to what she’d say.

“Oh, he just has problems with the proper natural order of things,” she said with a smirk.

“Natural order?”

“Women being in charge obviously!” She laughed.

“Umm, yeah.” I said as Joseph laughed with her.

“Cen grew up in much more ‘chauvinistic’ times, back when women on your home sphere weren’t allowed to do much, and were expected to listen to men. He used to have an issue with strong women, he’s gotten a lot better about it, but still has issues with men who accept women as leaders.”

“Yeah, he sees us as weak and not very masculine.” Joseph grumbled.

“So you told me,” I said looking out over the railing back towards the ocean. “So how far do we have to sail? Any idea?”

“It’s pretty far, a couple of weeks if the winds are right, more if they’re not.”

“Where are we sailing to?”

“Well, Cen already seems to know; we’re sailing to a gap between this land,” she waved her hand at the area around us, “and a neighboring one. It’s pretty narrow and the water can be pretty rough. Just past that is the gate to the next world, one which we really want to sail through as well.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” Stephanie shrugged, “Ary’s blocked it I guess. Sure we’ll figure it out when we get there.”

I nodded.

We talked for quite a while, not really discussing anything in particular until Dezba and Cenewyg returned.

When they returned, Cenewyg looked rather pleased with himself and Dezba just smiled. I wasn’t sure what, if anything, it meant, but figured I’d hear about it eventually. I hoisted the anchor and Joseph sailed us back out into deeper water and then we headed east, with the shore not far off on the horizon.

“So did you and Cen make up?” I asked Dezba much later that night when the others were below decks eating.

“He thinks so,” she said with a smile.

I shook my head. “Any idea what he’s up to?”

“Nope, not a clue. Whatever it is, he’s not saying. He definitely knows something and isn’t sharing it, he’s way too smug.”

“Do you think he’s just doing it to rub it in our faces when this is all over, or that there’s going to be trouble?” I asked softly. Personally I felt the later; I’d seen too many schemers in my young life.

She frowned, “I’m not sure. He’s done stuff like this before, and that’s the angle I’m playing with him, that I’m trying to get him to share the secret with me so I can be in on it too when he surprises everyone with his superiority.

“But this time? This time he’s a lot more serious about it. I don’t think he just knows where we’re going, but I think he knows what we’re going to do.”

“Well, look on the bright side,” I said, “at least it’s been an easy trip since we got past Ithaca.”

“Way to jinx it Will,” Dezba grumbled at me. “Just for that you can sleep by yourself tonight!

The storm hit ten later days, as we started to get near our destination. It started out bad and only got worse as time went on.

“We’re going to have to head for land!” Joseph told me after the second day. “This isn’t a natural storm and if we stay out here, we’ll all drown.”

“I’ll go tell the others,” I said and slowly made my way across the pitching deck to go below. I was surprised that Joseph was even still able to sail the boat, considering that two of the sails were in shreds and the mainsail wasn’t looking all that well. The boat itself had held together, thankfully, but it was taking a serious pounding on the waves and I had no idea how much longer it would last.

Going below, I found Stephanie laying on her bunk moaning. Her, Cenewyg and Dezba had all gotten very seasick and had been throwing up for hours.

“We have to make shore,” I told Stephanie.

“No, keep going,” she gasped.

“We have no choice. The boat isn’t going to last much longer and Joseph is positive that this isn’t a natural storm.”

Stephanie groaned, “I was afraid of this.”

“What?”

“We have to pass by a whirlpool guarded by a god. Or at least that’s what used to be here. Either that’s changed, or one of the local gods decided they didn’t like having so many champions in their domain.”

I took her canteen and filled it with water, then did the same for the other two, then went back on deck to help Joseph. I was glad he was sailing the boat, he was a lot better at it than I was.

“Crank the main sail down and lash it,” he yelled to me. “And if you can’t do that, just cut it loose.”

“You sure?” I asked surprised.

“We’ve got too much wind to beach it safely, it’ll tip the boat. Be ready to cut the other sails loose when I tell you.”

I nodded and did as he told me. Even in my champion form dealing with the mainsail was tough, but at least I could dig my claws into the deck to hold on and get decent footing. He had me cut the foresail loose not long after that, there wasn’t much really left to it at that point anyway.

The jib had a rather large hole in it, but with the winds we were getting it didn’t seem to matter. I could hear the sound of the breakers before I saw them, even over the sounds of the wind and the storm. When we hit them the ship was tossed around worse than it had been, and the ship shook heavily and I heard a loud cracking noise as we jerked almost to a stop as we hit bottom, then a wave picked us up again, slammed us forward, then down, then the foremast split and I was too busy cutting the rigging, to pay much attention to anything else until I got thrown off my feet as we jerked rather hard to a stop.

“Get everyone and get off the ship!” Joseph yelled at me.

“What about this?” I said pointing to the last few pieces of rigging holding the mast to the boat.”

“Leave it, the ship is lost! If we don’t get off it soon, we’ll be dead!”

I left it and followed him below decks; there was water everywhere and more coming it. I grabbed what I could, got the others moving and up on the deck. The ship heaved every time another wave hit it.

“Take Stephanie and swim for the shore, then come back and take Cen. I’ll take Dez when you come back. Got it?”

I nodded and waited for the next wave, then jumped in as it passed.

The swim to shore was rough, but not as rough as I was afraid it would be. I dropped Stephanie, who was still groggy and sick, on the beach above the waves and swam back out. That turned out to be almost impossible and I lost several claws climbing back up onto the boat when I got there.

While getting hold of Cenewyg the port hull broke off as the next wave hit us and tossed both him and me over the side while Joseph jumped with Dezba and started to swim for shore.

To be honest I almost left Cenewyg there and let him drown, but Stephanie’s fears came to mind at that moment and I swam after him, got his head above water and struck out for shore as well, coming out of the surf a hundred yards down from the others. When I finally got back to them with Cenewyg, Stephanie was actually sitting up and drinking from her canteen.

“Well at least the rolling stopped,” she said with a grimace.

Dezba just groaned and Cenewyg tried to throw up again.

I looked out to where the boat was, but didn’t see anything.

“Broke up on the rocks,” Joseph told me. “If we’re lucky, some of the stuff on board will wash ashore.”

“And if we’re not lucky?” I asked.

“Then we’re gonna get real hungry and thirsty. We can’t ration their water; they’re still dehydrated from being sick. At least they won’t be wanting any food for a while.”

“Well, let’s move further inland and see if we can find some water and a better place to wait out the storm.”

Joseph nodded and we gathered everyone up and got going.

Eventually we found a nice copse of trees, and settled down inside them, it broke the wind down and gave some shelter from the storm. I then went searching for some water and found a stream not too far away and spent the rest of the day and that night making trips to fill up the canteens we had as they got empty. We had three of them, the one I had given Stephanie, because she had clipped it to her belt while sick so as not to lose it, and the ones Joseph and I had been wearing because it was too difficult to go below decks whenever you needed a drink.

Other than that, we had the clothes on our backs, and whatever was in our pockets. Most of us weren’t even wearing any shoes. The rest had all gone down with the boat.

When morning came, the storm had passed so I went down to the shore to look for any debris that might help us. I was able to find a few things spread along the beach. I piled them up and then waded out into the water to see what else I could find. It was still a bit murky from the storm stirring up the bottom, but I found one of our packs and a few more articles of clothing. Gathering it all up and bringing it back to our camp we had that one pack, which turned out to be Stephanie’s, two pairs of shoes, three pairs of pants, which belonged to the girls, and seven shirts.

“Well it’s not much, but at least it’s something,” Stephanie said and dumped out her pack. “Here, might as well eat these now,” she said handing out the food that had been in it.

I unwrapped one of the meals and wolfed it down pretty quickly, the others following suit.

“So now what?” I asked.

“We walk,” She said.

“Should I go back tomorrow and see if I can find anything else?” I asked.

“Go at first light, and don’t take too long. I don’t want to spend any longer here than we absolutely have to. If one of the local deities has decided they don’t want us here, it would be best to move along quickly.”

I nodded and went to gather wood for a fire.

It got pretty cold that night, remnants of the storm I figured. I ended up changing to my champion form, the fur made a definite difference with the cold. I wasn’t too surprised when a little while later Stephanie and Dezba both curled up against me, with Joseph and Cenewyg laying up against them. We had one sleeping bag from the backpack, so we unzipped it and laid it across all of us. At least it didn’t rain.

I didn’t manage to find any other packs or food the next morning, but I did find a piece of one of the sails. It could definitely serve as either a cover or a tent, depending on what we needed.

“Which way?” Dezba asked as I re-joined the group.

“East,” Stephanie said and pointed.

We were all in our champion forms by this point, because of the better endurance. It did warm up some during the day, but fortunately it didn’t get too hot. With no more food and not a lot of water, we’d have to be careful from this point on.

When we made camp that night I went off to look for food, Stephanie had told me not to kill any cattle I might find.

“Why not?”

“They’re protected.” She told me.

I shrugged and went off to see what I could find, which wasn’t much. I’m not a huge survivalist kind of guy. I did see some rabbits, but I didn’t have a bow, or even a throwing knife, just a folding knife. But I did manage to stun one with a rock long enough to grab it and twist its neck, after about two hours of trying.

When I got back to camp however I found Dezba with a rather nice looking sheep that she was skinning with Joseph’s knife.

“Damn,” was all I could say as I sat down and started skinning and cleaning the rabbit.

Dezba smiled, “I learned to hunt from the best.”

“Still that’s impressive.”

“Well Cen helped, he drove a bunch towards me.”

I looked around, “Where is he anyway?”

“Went off to help Stephanie,” she grinned. “She wasn’t back with the water yet when we got here.”

I laughed, “And here I thought he was going to help you find some food.”

“Well, obviously he did!” Dezba laughed and returned to butchering her catch.

Joseph had a nice fire going by the time Stephanie and Cenewyg returned with the water. .

“Oh shit,” Stephanie said when she entered the camp and saw us.

“What?” Dezba asked.

“I’m getting a bad feeling. I think the sheep are protected too.”

“Well too late for that now, we might as well eat it.”

“If you’re really worried, Steph, you can have the rabbit I caught,” I said as I started to skewer it onto a branch to put over the fire and cook.”

“That might be best,” she said.

We cooked it all, and Stephanie ate the rabbit. Dezba, Joseph and myself ate the sheep, almost finishing it off. Cenewyg I noticed didn’t eat any of it, just some fruit he had found while looking for Stephanie.

It felt nice to go to sleep with a full belly. I don’t know how long I was asleep but suddenly I was in Fel’s Inn and Fel was there.

“Hi, Fel!”

“I don’t know what you did, but one of you pissed off the god of the area you’re in.”

“Oh no, the sheep?”

“I don’t know, but WAKE UP!”

I woke up instantly and jumped to my feet before I was fully awake. Dezba and Stephanie came awake almost instant after I did. Joseph wasn’t much longer after that, as Stephanie shook Cenewyg and he opened his eyes.

“What?” Cenewyg complained.

“We have to go, Now!” Stephanie said, and grabbing the open sleeping bag she stuffed it in her pack and took off running. Dezba and I followed immediately with Joseph bringing up the rear. We could hear Cenewyg swearing as he scrambled to his feet and followed us.

We had been running for maybe a minute before I heard it, it sounded like thunder, but I knew it wasn’t that, it was the pounding of hooves.

We picked up more speed and ran as fast as we could. The sound got closer and I glanced back and saw it, a large herd of cattle was stampeding towards us. They had already trampled the camp and were getting closer. I dropped back to help Cenewyg, who appeared to be having a bit of trouble. The idea of getting trampled didn’t appeal to me, but I did remember what Stephanie had told me.

“You okay?” I yelled as I took his arm and started to help him move faster.

“Didn’t expect this! Guess I should have eaten more last night,” He yelled back.

The cattle were starting to catch up with us slowly. I was a little surprised we were able to stay in front of them, but the few times one got close to me I raked its nose with the claws of my free hand and it veered off.

We ran for hours and hours, with Stephanie up ahead leading the way. Twice we crossed streams, and yet the cattle continued to follow. I don’t know how long we ran, but when the sun started to come up, I had a feeling that it wasn’t going to end anytime soon.

“Dammit!” I heard Dezba swear and I turned to look behind us. What I saw was rather shocking, the herd behind us was gigantic; there must have been thousands of cows and bulls chasing us. But the shocking part was the one huge bull urging them on, and they were getting closer to me and Cenewyg, who seemed to be having trouble keeping up.

“This is my fault, I’ll deal with it!” Dezba yelled and suddenly stopped and turned around. I stopped as well and started to turn with her, a bit surprised as Cenewyg suddenly pulled away and put on a burst of speed.

I’m sure that the idea of being trampled to death probably helped with that.

“Keep running, Will!” Dezba yelled at me. “I’m the one that killed it, hopefully they’ll stop!”

I heard Stephanie also yell my name at that point, so I turned tail and sprinted away after Cenewyg and the rest. Not my finest hour I’m sure. I did catch a few glimpses of the fight, Dezba was knocking them down left and right and bringing her powers to bear, but interestingly enough it didn’t look like she was killing any of them, but she was definitely laying a smack down on them something fierce.

We topped a small rise then and could see nothing further of the fight. It appeared to have worked, either they were held up by dealing with her, or she was the only one they wanted, but by the time we got to the portal that evening, there wasn’t a single one in sight.

“Everybody through,” Stephanie said panting; we had continued running all day, just in case.

We all switched out of our champion’s forms and went through, I gave a last look behind me as I stepped through the gate, if the dominant species here was cattle and sheep, how come we had come through as human?

Strange.

Five

“What the Hell?” Cenewyg was swearing as I stepped out of the portal causing me to stop and look a moment, then to look again; then I started to laugh. Cenewyg had turned into a woman. And a rather attractive one at that.

“Oh right, laugh all you want, Will, or should I say Wilma?”

I looked down at myself and was surprised to see something blocking my view, namely my chest! I put my hands up and sure enough, I had breasts. I laughed some more, then looked at Joseph next; he was now also a woman, and also a rather attractive one; actually I’d say pretty hot.

“You’re just jealous ‘cause Joseph is hotter than you!” I said and went back to laughing. All things considered, it was pretty funny after spending the last day being chased by killer cattle.

“You think so?” Joseph said looking at himself like he’d grown a third arm or something.

“Well, I’ve had enough!” Cenewyg said and shifted to his champion form.

“What, can’t stand being a woman?” Came a rather masculine voice. I turned and there was Stephanie. I could tell because she or now rather he was wearing the same clothes as before. Which didn’t fit at all well. Especially the bra.

“Whoa,” I said looking Stephanie up and down, “You look like one of those male models from the cover of a romance novel!”

She / He smiled, “You like?”

“It looks good on you, Steph. How do I look?”

“Like a movie starlet. Now strip.”

I laughed again, “But I’m not that kind of a girl!”

“We need to swap clothes. I can’t be seen in this getup, and trust me, with a chest like that, you’re gonna want a bra.”

I shrugged and started taking my clothing off. “Can’t argue with logic. What about Joseph?”

“I’m with Cen on this one,” I heard him say and glanced over, he had turned to his champion form as well.

“Well, I guess I’m kind of stuck,” I said as I peeled off my shirt and tossed it at Stephanie, “If I change, I’m going to stand out rather badly.”

Stephanie had already shed her clothes so I started to put those on as she dressed in mine. I noticed that both Joseph and Cenewyg were watching me rather closely, thought their eyes didn’t seem to make it up past my breasts.

“Eyes up here guys!” I said, then started to laugh all over again as they both actually blushed.

“Now you know what its like,” Stephanie sighed.

“Actually, now I know what its like to have a bra two sizes too small,” I grumbled and took it back off. “How does that thing work where you tie the end of the shirt up in a knot?”

Stephanie laughed and showed me.

“How the hell did someone like you end up with such a hot body?” Cenewyg grumbled. I had to laugh again, for someone who didn’t want to be a woman, he sure was jealous enough about how he looked as one.

“His Mom was a fashion model,” Stephanie supplied. I remembered having mentioned that to her back when I dated her as Jennifer.

“Well, this is all well and fine,” I said, my own voice sounding a bit funny to me, I’d have to get used to that. “But do you three handsome gentlemen think you could find this poor little girl some nicer clothing, and maybe a nice warm bed to spend the night?” I tried to pout and bat my eyes at them.

“You’re enjoying this way too much,” Stephanie said smiling.

Joseph laughed and Cenewyg just grunted. I looked around, it was dark and we were on the side of a hill, with trees scattered around us. Not too far off I could see a sea of bright lights and hear what I think was music. Definitely a town.

“Well, let’s get going. I wouldn’t mind some nicer clothing, a good meal, and a place to stay myself.” Cenewyg grumbled and started off down the hill.

“What’s wrong with him?” I asked Joseph.

“Look in a mirror first chance you get,” he whispered to me.

“Hey, now that I’m a woman, can I like, tell you what to do?” I whispered back.

“Sorry, I know the real you.”

“Well shucks,” I said and pouted causing him to laugh again.

The walk to the town took about four hours. I could definitely hear music, and it was pretty good. It kept getting louder as we got closer, I guess there was a big outdoor concert going on someplace as after an hour or two it stopped and then different music started. When that stopped, which was when we finally approached the outskirts of the town, none picked up to replace it. I guessed the show must have ended for the night.

The town itself was different somehow, but I couldn’t place it. We were in what I guess were the suburbs, there were major streets and side streets and it looked like a lot of small parks at the end of every street. There were some people out, but most seemed to be going home due to the late hour, and there were some cars, but most were vans of some kind or other.

“Why is everyone singing?” Cenewyg asked.

“Probably just came from the concert,” I replied. “And they’re not all singing.”

“What are we going to do for money?” Joseph asked.

“Find a money changer to convert some of our jewelry to cash obviously,” Cenewyg said.

“This time of night? Also, haven’t you been paying any attention to the shops we’ve been going by? They all seem to be instrument or music related. I haven’t seen a single bank.”

“Well that looks like a food store up ahead,” Stephanie said. “Let’s go see what it’s like.”

We all nodded and followed Stephanie inside.

“Hello!” The girl by the cash register actually sang the word to us.

“Hello,” Stephanie replied, singing it as well, which made the girl smile.

“You all spend the day in the mosh pit?” She asked but didn’t actually sing it to us, but still her voice sounded rather musical.

“Worse, we had to clean it!” I said grinning and trying to talk in that same musical manner. Surprisingly it was rather easy.

Stephanie scowled at me, which made me grin. “Actually,” she said, “we were camping out in the hills and got caught in some freak flood. We lost most of our stuff.”

“Eww,” the cashier said.

“So know of any place we could pawn a few things?”

“Got any instruments?”

Stephanie shook her head, “Just some jewelry and stuff.”

“Oh well, there’s a pawn store a few blocks over from here. They’re open all night. Go try them.” She said and gave us directions.

Stephanie and I thanked her and headed out, Cenewyg and Joseph had been browsing the aisle, they followed and we went off to find the pawn shop.

The pawnshop was interesting; it only had musical instruments, other musical equipment, stage equipment, costumes, and jewelry. I’d never seen a pawn shop that catered only to performers. I wandered around a little while Stephanie dickered with them over the price of some of the necklaces she was trying to pawn; we’d each contributed one.

I picked up one of the guitars there and checked the tuning, it was a little different from what I had learned back when I was in school, but surprisingly I was still able to find the right chords instantly. I guess that stuff translated with language as well.

“You know how to play that?” Joseph asked a little surprised.

I nodded, “It’s actually not much different than back home.” I played a little tune and had to admit I was surprised at how easy it was, it felt like I had been playing for years and I was suddenly able to recall every note of the song.

“Okay, that’s weird.” I said softly to Joseph. I noticed also that a couple of the guys working the store had looked up curiously.

“What?”

“I was never that good and I haven’t played in years, but suddenly it’s the easiest thing I’ve ever done.”

"Huh, must have something to do with the way things work here,” he said.

“Hey, play something!” One of the guys behind the counter said smiling.

I shrugged and looked at Stephanie who nodded. I put the strap on and decided to play ‘Sunny Afternoon’. I’d played it as a kid in elementary school, and maybe a few times since.

It was like I’d played it only yesterday and I could remember every single word as well! So I sang the lyrics and played whole song. To be honest, I couldn’t help myself, and the feelings I was getting deep inside were indescribable, things were happening that felt really good. I started to wonder if this was what a woman felt like when she got excited. I’d have to ask Stephanie because I knew nothing about being a girl.

When I finished, I know I was a little flushed and all of the guys in the shop were staring at me. Then they all clapped and I’d swear I must have had an orgasm or something.

“I’ve never heard that song before, did you write that?” The guy behind the counter said looking rather interested.

“Umm,” I blushed.

Stephanie walked up next to me and put an arm around me, I couldn’t help but lean into her male body. “She’s very talented.”

“You know, I could get you a spot on the play list tomorrow.”

“Thanks, but we still need to replace the stuff we lost, maybe a few days from now?” Stephanie said.

“Well ask for Mike when you come back. We don’t get much new talent here in Lionesnesc, we’re just a small group of Sireens after all. But we send enough of our own performers to the big amphitheater down by the coast.”

“Thanks, I’ll remember that,” Stephanie said.

“How much for the guitar?” I asked softly.

“I don’t think....” Stephanie started and I stepped on her foot. She shut up and scowled at me.

“It’s five hundred.”

“I’ll give you three and tell everyone where I bought it from.”

“Deal!” He said and I took off one of the three necklaces I had left and had Stephanie take care of it.

“We didn’t need that,” she grumbled at me as we left the shop. There was a case to go with it, thankfully, but they had put a big sticker on the side with the shop’s name.

“I needed it.” I said and smiled up at her. “But I have a sneaking suspicion about this place. Where are we anyways?”

“I’m not sure; we were supposed to sail by this place, not actually land here.”

“Can we still get to our next portal?”

“Yes, but it will take a while. We have a ways to go. I don’t know exactly where the sea is, much less the portal we were aiming for.”

“Let’s get some food and find a place to sleep,” Joseph said and yawned.

“Yes, let’s,” Cenewyg agreed.

I nodded and Stephanie agreed. We returned to the food store, bought a bunch of stuff, and then got directions to a small motel-like place not far away. When Stephanie asked for four rooms I kicked her and said ‘three’ while she scowled at me.

“What was that for?” She growled. I had to admit she made a pretty good man.

“I need someone to explain to me how all of this works,” I said and motioned towards my body.”

“This from the man with two wives.”

I grabbed her hand and put it on my chest, “Pants feeling tight yet?”

Stephanie looked down at me and then reached down to ‘rearrange’ that new part of her own anatomy. “Okay, you have a point, but it can wait until morning. First food, then sleep!”

I agreed with that, so she handed out the keys, then we went and sat down and ate most of the food in the room Stephanie and I were sharing. After that the other two went to their own rooms.

I hopped into the shower, cleaned up fairly quickly, and took a few minutes to examine my new body in front of the mirror after I was done. That old joke about if a man got tits he’d never leave the house was almost true, but Stephanie interrupted by coming in and showering next.

Joseph was right; I was stacked and had a nice body and a truly lovely face. I turned to look at Stephanie who was in the shower and unsurprisingly, she was doing a little self examination of her own.

“Damn, sure feels weird having one of these,” she said and looked up at me.

I smiled back and felt an almost instinctual response down in my guts again. Naked and in the water like that, she... he was hot, incredibly hot. I’d never been attracted to a man in my life, but suddenly I was. Of course now I was a woman and when I reached down to my crotch I found I was rather damp down there.

Stephanie saw this and then looked up into my eyes. “Let’s go to bed,” she growled.

All I could do was smile back, “Yes, lets!”

She toweled off rather quickly and we spent the next several hours learning all about the opposite sex, only this time it was a first hand experience. I used my knowledge of the male body to drive Stephanie crazy and she used her knowledge of the female body to do the same to me.

“Wow, that was different,” I said much, much later.

“Definitely,” Stephanie sighed and pulled me close and gave me a kiss.

“Do you know how to play any instruments?”

“Yes, why?”

“Playing that guitar and singing was an almost orgasmic experience. I’m curious if it will have the same effect on a male.”

“Well that at least explains why you were leaning into me!” Stephanie laughed.

I gave a little shrug and pulled the covers up to get warm. “I think this change of sexes isn’t the only thing that is affecting my thinking; I think there are some serious changes to the way people think as well. Music seems to be second nature here, as natural as breathing.”

“Do you think its part of the laws in this sphere? Or does it come with the natural body of this place?”

“I don’t know. Can our champion bodies be affected by rules changes?”

“Normally no, but I’ve never seen a zone where people changed sexes either.”

I yawned, cuddled, and fell asleep then.

I was in Fel’s Inn again, wearing my champion form.

“You do make a pretty cute girl, you know that?” Fel teased.

I sighed, “How’s Dezba doing?”

Now it was Fel’s turn to sigh, “No idea. She has a number of realms to pass through before she gets to her god. Until she turns up there I won’t know.”

“Several realms?” I asked surprised.

“When you die your spirit travels back via the same portals you travel by. You spend some time in each of them, and that slows things down if there isn’t a direct connection. The place you are all in seems to be an ‘isolated’ segment so to speak. Inside they’re all joined together in a number of different ways, but you have to go through the Ithaca sphere to get to your home world, which appears to be its only connection to the rest of the greater reality. It’s very strange; I’ve never seen anything like it.”

I shifted uneasily in my chair, “Does that mean Dez is going to have to deal with that vicious god in Ithaca?”

“Probably not. We know that there is at least one other goddess in that sphere, so as she’s just passing through she should hopefully be able to avoid everything. It’s only when you die in an area that is controlled by a god in another sphere that it becomes an issue. And even if she couldn’t, as her spirit is just passing through her time there would be less than a day.”

“Sounds complicated.”

Fel nodded, “It can be.”

“So why the social call?” I asked curious.

“Mostly I just wanted to make sure you didn’t feel forgotten, you’re far enough away that the things I can do for you are going to start getting less. I also wanted to make sure you were aware of that.”

“Which things?”

“Healing primarily, I won’t be able to send you as much of that, and it’s going to get worse as you get farther away.”

“Are the others going to be affected the same way?”

Fel nodded. “Those abilities based on your body shouldn’t be affected, but anything that comes from me will start taking longer to replenish. So use those things carefully.”

I nodded. “Anything else?”

“Yes, your wife has been asking to talk to you, so I thought I’d dump you in the middle of her dreams tonight.”

“You can do that?” I said surprised.

Fel laughed, “Of course I can! I’m a god, Will.”

“So how do I...?”

He pointed to one of the doors. “Just go right through there.”

“Thanks, Fel!” I said and ran through the door almost immediately.

Rachel’s dream was interesting, and rather enjoyable. We did talk, but we also did a lot of other things as well. For the first time in quite a few weeks, I woke up feeling rather happy.

Six

We spent the next day getting clothing and other basic supplies. When we got back to the room, we discovered a few things, the first of which was that Cenewyg would not assume the local form no matter what. Apparently being female was something he refused to do. Joseph was willing to do it, briefly, and during which time he could both sing rather well, and claimed to remember how to play the piano, as well as every song he’d ever heard or seen.

When he switched back to his champion form however, he lost almost all of that.

I myself found that in my female local form, I could sing and play quite well. As a champion I could already sing okay, but I could barely play anything. Stephanie exhibited the same as well.

We had also noticed, because you really couldn’t miss it, that the show at the amphitheater had started. It started fairly early in the morning and it sounded very much like classical. Around noon, it seemed to change more to country or folk of some sort, moving to rock and roll around dinner, and turned to heavy metal as it got later. When I asked someone about the ‘schedule’ they told me that it was pretty standard, and that after the metal show it would go to progressive, which here apparently meant anything not already played during the day.

“So everything here is based around music,” Stephanie said as we sat around the table in her room, “and as far as I can tell, performers are the first-class citizens, those that support them directly, by either working on the stage or making their instruments, are second class, and everyone else are pretty much serfs.”

“So any idea where we’re going next?” Cenewyg asked.

“Nope, not yet.”

We all looked at her in surprise.

“None?” Joseph asked shocked.

“Getting thrown off course as far as we did, got us lost,” Stephanie said looking around at us. “The portal we were supposed to go through was out on the sea. Fortunately Aryanna knew the locations of a few other portals, so we grabbed this one as it was closest.

“However the next portal is also out to sea, and she doesn’t know of any others. Or even where it is, as we don’t know where we came out in relation to the portal we were supposed to go through.”

“What do we know about it?” I asked. I was sitting a bit closer to Stephanie than anyone else was, and had my leg pressed against hers under the table. I think as a woman I was even worse about hiding my feelings than I was as a man, if such a thing were possible.

“We know it was close to a place were there were a lot of singers on shore.”

“Do you think that’s the amphitheater that guy at the pawnshop mentioned?”

“It could be, we’ll have to go there and take a look around.”

“So we just need to go there then,” Cenewyg said.

“Sounds like a plan to me,” I said smiling and suddenly the lyrics and notes to the song ‘I’m Glad’ popped into my head. “Okay, that’s weird.”

“What?” Joseph asked as the others looked at me.

“This just popped into my head,” And I picked up the guitar, which was sitting by the table and played the first part of the song.

“I’ve noticed you haven’t let that guitar get out of your reach all day today either,” Stephanie said.

“Not unlike somebody else as well,” Joseph teased and I blushed.

“Well, I’ve had more than a few songs popping into my head throughout the day as well,” Stephanie admitted. “But I haven’t felt the urge to buy an instrument.”

“Maybe picking it up and playing it does that?”

“I haven’t noticed anyone else with instruments,” Cenewyg said.

“I saw a few, earlier this morning.” Joseph supplied. “They were all heading towards the town’s center.”

“So the musicians head off to perform and we’re left here with mainly dealing with the second and third classes all day.” Stephanie mused. “That may explain why everyone was watching Will here so much today.”

“Naw, that was just them all looking at her bust,” Cenewyg said with a smirk.

I blushed again and Stephanie just sighed.

“Cen, go find a transit center and find out what it will cost to get to this ‘amphitheater’ place,” Stephanie told him.

“Sure no problem.”

Stephanie sat there and looked at Cenewyg a moment.

“What?” He said.

“I meant now.” And she pointed to the door.

Grumbling he got up and left the room.

“Goddess, how do you guys put up with all these raging hormones,” Stephanie said after he left the room.

“What?” Joseph said and we both looked at her.

“I wanted to punch him in the face for teasing Will and staring at her chest like that all day.”

Joseph and I looked at each other, I giggled and he laughed.

“Nice to see it’s messing you up as much as it is me!” I grinned and leaned over to kiss Stephanie.

Stephanie just sighed and looked at Joseph who was already heading for the door.

“I think I know what comes next, so I’ll just leave you two alone,” he said smiling as he left.

“Damn, this sucks.”

“What, don’t you like me?” I asked pouting.

“No, of course I like you! That’s the problem! I want to drag you off to bed again!”

I really couldn’t help myself, I was in love with her once, and still was more or less. I got up and went to sit in ‘his’ lap and put my hands on ‘his’ shoulders. “Well, not like we have anything else to do!” And I kissed Stephanie again.

“You’re not helping,” Stephanie growled, which as a man came out a rather sexy noise.

I just giggled.

“Oh the hell with it,” Stephanie said and picking me up took me to bed.

“We have a problem,” Cenewyg told us the next day at breakfast. He was glaring at Stephanie quite a bit, and a little at me as well.

“What?” Stephanie asked.

“You have to have a pass in order to go to Sirenum Scopuli, which is the city with the big amphitheater on the coast.”

We all looked at Cenewyg, and then at Stephanie, who was sitting across the table from me.

“Did you find out why?” Stephanie asked him.

“Only artisans who have excelled in their field are allowed to visit there, and only ones who have done well while working or performing there are allowed to stay.” He grumbled still glaring.

“Interesting. And what’s got you all pissed off?”

“You two,” he said shooting me a glance and then looking back at Stephanie. “You’re both carrying on like this is all fine!”

I blinked and Stephanie just smirked at him, “Change into your local form, Cen, and I will be more than happy to accommodate you.”

“No way in hell am I doing that! I’m not letting you or anyone else stick their penis in me! I’m not a damned sodomite!”

“Oh really now,” Stephanie said getting a rather dark look. “But it’s been perfectly okay for you to stick yours in me all these years?”

“That’s different!” Cen said angrily, “You’re a woman!”

“Yes, but now I’m a man and you are supposed to be a woman!” Stephanie said back just as hotly, “and if you want to get any, you’re going to be getting it as a woman. Otherwise, you can just wait until we’re off this sphere and onto the next one!”

“Shit, what’s the big deal, Cen,” I said trying not to laugh, “afraid you might like it?”

“I’m not talking to you, you poofter slut!”

“Poofter slut?” I said and laughed, “With all the women I’ve knocked up this year!” I laughed some more, “I’m just not insecure about my manhood.”

Cenewyg got up and stormed out of the restaurant, cursing the entire time. I noticed we had drawn a few looks, I wondered how many people had overheard that, and what they thought.

“I’m not insecure about my manhood,” Joseph said looking at me.

“Then why are you so worried about changing?” I asked curious.

He blushed a little, “Part of it is my upbringing; a man isn’t supposed to want to be a woman.”

“And the other part?”

“Well, you’re really hot and....”

“No!” I said interrupting him, “Just stop right there. The only guy getting in my pants is Steph,” I said nodding towards where Stephanie sat. “And that’s only because we were lovers long before any of this happened. Sleeping with you or Cen would just be too weird for me.”

Joseph nodded after thinking about that for a minute. “I see your point, it would be very strange when we left here and things went back to normal.”

“Exactly.”

“So what do we do about Cen?”

“I’ll talk to Ary about it,” Stephanie said. “She can talk to his god and see about getting him put back in his place.”

“What if he goes home?”

“Somehow I don’t see him doing that,” I mumbled.

Joseph nodded. “So what are we going to do to get our passes?”

“Simple,” Stephanie said, “We form a band. Will can be our singer and guitar player, you can play keyboards, I’ll play drums.”

“You know how to play drums?” I said surprised.

“I was quite the tomboy when I grew up,” Stephanie said smiling.

“We’ll need a bass player,” Joseph said.

“Can’t you play it on keyboards?” I asked.

He shrugged, “Yeah, I guess I could.” He looked at Stephanie, “I’m going to have to go natural, aren’t I?”

Stephanie grinned rather predatorily at him, “I promise to be gentle.”

Joseph blushed rather heavily then. “What about Cen?”

“We make him our roadie,” I said.

“Not our manager?”

“He doesn’t know enough about how things work here,” Stephanie said. “Also as our roadie we can take him anywhere we go.”

“He won’t like that,” Joseph said.

“Well that’s too damn bad for him. He doesn’t want to fit in, he takes what he gets,” Stephanie said. “Now let’s pay the bill and go see about getting a place to practice and some instruments.”

We found a place to rent; it actually was pretty easy as there were a lot of places set up for that. We got one in a place that wasn’t terribly fancy, so it was relatively cheap. Next we when back to that pawn shop from the night before and I talked with Mike, the guy who had said he could get us on the set list at the amphitheater and worked out a deal: he’d give us a break on the instruments, and get us on the schedule, but in return we’d have to do a little advertising for him.

We then went back and set up, and I started teaching Stephanie and Joseph, who we had to buy new clothing for again as he had gone native like me. I picked a bunch of songs from my youth that had been hits. I knew them fairly well and they weren’t all that hard to teach. Surprisingly, or maybe not that surprisingly because of where we now were, we had the basics down by the end of the day.

Cenewyg came back rather contrite the day after his blowup; apparently he had gotten quite the dressing down from his god over his behavior. He was rather happy with his roadie status as it meant he could stay a guy and stay in the background on things. He wouldn’t have to perform; he really wouldn’t have to do much of anything, but move stuff, which was a pretty simple job for someone with a champion’s strength.

“Okay, we’ve got ten songs that we know how to play, so that’s what, thirty minutes?” Joseph asked.

“We’re only being given the opportunity to play three songs,” I told him and Stephanie. I had just come back from talking with Mike at the store and set up tomorrow’s performance. “If we do really well, they’ll let us do one encore.”

“Then what?”

“Then if they like us we come back the next night, and the night after that and the night after that....” I trailed off.

“How long does that go on?” Stephanie asked.

“If we do okay we get into the rotation to play Monday through Thursday. Once we’ve played that around a few times, if we impress everyone and have a big enough following we get promoted to the Friday night and Saturday night shows. Those are the big ones; you get an hour on stage there.”

“How do we get the passes to go to the Amphitheater?”

“Simple, we blow out a few weekend shows and the scout from Sirenum Scopuli will invite us there for a gig.”

“Do you think ten songs are enough for that?”

I shrugged, “I just picked a bunch of songs that were hits where I came from. I figure at least a few of them should work here. The ones that don’t work, I’ll just replace with others.”

“You must know a lot of songs,” Joseph said with a laugh.

“What can I say, I like music,” I said with a grin.

“Apparently,” Stephanie said. “Well let’s go tell our adoring fans when we’ll be playing.”

We packed up our instruments, we had actually put quite a bit into what we had bought, all good quality electric stuff. The instrument makers here could make a fortune back home, even Stephanie’s drums were electric, I’d never seen anything like them before.

Locking up as we left the room, there were about twenty people in the hallway that all politely applauded. Where they came from, none of us really had any idea, they had started showing up two days ago. Apparently there was some huge underground network that tried to spot up and coming acts.

“We’ll be playing tomorrow at ten twenty,” Stephanie told them.

“Ten twenty? That’s not bad for a new group,” One of the guys who’d been the first one to show up said.

“What’s the band’s name?” Another one asked.

“U. K. B.” I said.

“What’s that mean?” A girl asked.

“Good question,” I said smiling and we hustled out of the hallway and back to our rooms to get cleaned up for dinner. There really were a lot of people interested in us for some reason.

“What does that mean anyway?” Joseph asked.

“I had a tape of a band when I was in college. The band was called ‘U.K.’ and well on one side someone had written U.K.A and on the other U.K.B.” I shrugged and grinned, “And for some reason whenever anyone asked what I was listening to, I’d say ‘U.K.B. as I was listening to the B side.”

“Good a name as any,” Stephanie said. “Wonder what Cen’s up to?”

“Trouble I’m sure,” Joseph said.

“He still trying to get you to sleep with him?”

“Not since I told him I sleep in my champion form,” Joseph giggled.

I shook my head and smiled. Joseph slept with Stephanie and me now, and he definitely did not change at night. Truth was we all spent an hour or two just practicing our own instruments each night before going to sleep. Electrics were actually fairly quiet if they weren’t plugged in and we needed to get that pass to move on. Also because playing felt amazingly good, practicing was rather enjoyable. So yeah, we practiced. From what Cenewyg had been able to find out, you couldn’t just ‘sneak’ into Sirenum Scopuli. Because it was the big important place, it was a guarded walled city. You only got inside if you earned it.

We practiced for only a couple of hours the next day, then got our stuff together and headed to the concert. Cenewyg showed up while we were still practicing and sat through it, then helped us move everything.

We got there rather early; put our gear in the spot assigned to us, and then someone came over and told us how it was going to work.

“Okay, you’re in the second spot of the ten o’clock slot,” she told us. “When the last band from the nine o’clock slot goes on stage, go to the staging area and set your instruments up on the platform, and your monitors.

“When they go off and the band before you goes on, we’ll do your sound checks with the technicians. Have any of you played here before?”

We all shook our heads ‘no’.

“Okay, understand that the stage will move when your time is up, and only when your time is up. You run out of material, and you’ll look pretty stupid. But if you run long and are still playing when we pull you off, and you’ll look even worse. Keep an eye on the clock,” she pointed to a big clock that was on the other side of the amphitheater, “and try not to cut it too close, the next band doesn’t want to have to wait for your applause to die down.

“Assuming you get any of course,” She said and gave a wicked little grin.

“Oh we’ll get some,” Stephanie said and smiled back.

“Yeah, all you first timers think that!” she laughed and walked off.

“So now what?” Joseph asked.

“Let’s go find a seat and watch the show,” I said and nodded to a section that was set aside for performers.

“Might as well see what we’re up against,” Stephanie said.

We were able to grab a row of four and sat back to watch the show, they were in the rock and roll section of the list and most of the acts were really rather good. So good that I quickly found myself being swept away by the music. Looking around me during the breaks as the bands changed, I noticed pretty much everyone else was also being drawn in rather heavily, except for Cenewyg. He seemed rather bored by most of it; I guess Rock and Roll wasn’t his thing.

The rock got louder and pretty soon it was a serious head banger heavy metal concert, and until that moment, I’d never really considered myself that much of a head banger fan. But with the exception of Cenewyg who appeared to be wearing earplugs at this point, the rest of us were all into it pretty heavily.

The assistant stage manager came and found us when it was almost time for us to set up.

“Oh shit,” I said to the others as we started to move our stuff onto the platform and get set up.

“What?” Stephanie looked at me worried.

“The crowd is still going to be winding down from heavy metal, and we’re not heavy metal!”

“Well, neither is the band before us,” Joseph pointed out.

“Yeah, and they’re new too. Want to bet that they end up sucking because of it?”

Joseph swore, “I see your point.”

“So what do we do about it?” Stephanie asked.

“Change our playlist. We need to start off with a loud song rather than a soft one.” I thought about that a moment, I’d given us a pretty diverse list of songs, a few were a bit harder than others, but they were definitely not heavy metal. “Look, we’ll start off with ‘Touch me’, move to ‘Light my Fire’, and just take your clues from me after that, okay?”

They both shrugged and agreed.

I looked over at the band slated to go on before us and I could see that they were not at all happy and they were arguing with the stage manager.

“Wait here a sec,” I said to the other two and set my guitar down and went over to the other platform.

“What’s the problem?” I asked the assistant we had been talking with earlier, the other band was arguing with what I guess was her boss, the stage manager.

“They just found out that they’re going up after a heavy metal song. They’re a bit upset.”

“Didn’t they know the schedule?” I asked acting surprised. Fact was, I really hadn’t known it until now either.

She gave me an evil grin, “There was a last minute schedule change.”

I looked at her and shook my head, “You really are an evil bitch, aren’t you?”

She scowled at me, “These stages move in both directions you know, how’d you like to be up next instead?”

I had a sudden inspiration and grabbing her I kissed her rather hard, shocking the hell out of her. “I love it when you talk dirty to me!” I purred into her ear. “Why don’t you go tell your boss to make it so?”

“Oh, bitch, you are so on!” She said smiling and went over to her boss, said something to him and he looked up at me. I smiled, waved and he pointed to the sound people who literally ran over to our platform.

The other band looked really relieved and I went back to the others and put my guitar back on.

“What’s up?” Joseph asked.

“We’re on next. So get ready!”

“What?!” Joseph said and Stephanie just sighed and smiled while shaking her head.

“If they sucked, we’d have a hostile audience. I don’t want to have our first show ruined before it starts.”

Joseph sighed, “Makes sense. I hate waiting anyway.”

We sped through the sound check, the band on stage was already on their last song, and I checked the headset mike I was wearing one last time as they finished and the applause came up from the audience. They were a pretty good act and definitely had everyone going. The gap between them and us was supposed to be a little longer than normal, an entire minute apparently, to give the crowd a chance to shift gears with the change in format at ten.

As their stage started to rotate out and ours rotated in, I looked around. The rotating stage apparatus that they were using here was pretty neat, and with the number of bands they had playing everyday, I could see why they used it, set up time on stage was reduced to however long it took to rotate out the next platform. I saw the assistant stage manager watching us and I blew her a kiss and winked, she actually blushed and her boss gave her a look and said something that made her blush even more.

I laughed and could hear the announcer over the PA telling the audience about the line up change as our platform moved out into the open. I was looking out at the crowd just as the stage clicked into position and the lights came up. Wow, there were a lot of them! I felt the adrenaline spike and it suddenly felt like I was about to go into combat, the crowd noise dropped for just an instant as everyone waited.

And off we went. The song I had picked could be sung nice and loud, it was one of those you could really belt out at the top of your lungs, it had softer spots, and a nice instrumental part to help keep the pace moving.

The crowd... well I was having a hard time judging them, they weren’t booing which was great, but they weren’t exactly cheering either. I could see they were starting to pick up with the rhythm slowly. I checked around the stage as we drew near the end of the song, I saw the assistant was standing there watching us, she had that same expression on her face, this was different, unexpected. I got it then, we were breaking the mold and they were all undecided.

I danced over towards her as Joseph did the intro rift for the next song, the spotlight following me of course. I was about to make a friend for life, or an enemy.

Coming up in front of her, I started singing; the song was originally a guy singing for a gal, even if the words were mostly neutral. I was originally going to pick a guy in the audience and sing it at him, but I had a feeling that she would be a better target, and I went with it.

“You know that I would be a liar

If I was to say to you

Girl, we couldn't get much higher”

She had that deer in the headlights look as I circled around her and started herding her out towards stage center. She didn’t even realize it as she was so focused on me and what I was singing.

“Come on baby, light my fire

Try to set the night on fire”

She started to blush furiously, and as the last line left my lips she looked around and realized exactly where she was standing and started to look angry at me. I stepped forward as I raised the guitar and brought the neck down behind her, she was trapped, pulled up against me now with nowhere to go and as she tried to push away from me, she suddenly realized that I was stronger than she was. I smiled, looked directly into her eyes and sang the next verse to her.

She settled down a little as I let my voice glide into that sultry range that I was rather pleased to find that I had, and when I finished that verse and we went into the bridge I pulled her closer and kissed her while we worked our way through the instrumental.

When she grabbed me and kissed back, I could hear the crowd start to go wild.

“Bitch,” she whispered in my ear.

I smiled at her and when we came out of the break I sang the next verse, then let her go and sang the final verse, which I belted out at full volume. The crowd loved it.

“Hi, everybody!” I called out to the crowd, “Guess I know who I’m doing tonight, what about you?” I said and laughed and they all joined in. “This next one is called ‘White Room’.” Stephanie counted us off and off we went again.

We finished that one and the crowd was definitely with us now, it was a bit different from the previous song, what they used to call ‘psychedelic’ where I came from. They loved it all the same. I looked at the clock, we had a little over four minutes, so I decided to do the song I’d sung in the pawn store.

“This one goes out to Mike and all the great guys down at South Central Pawn!” I called out, “Without their help we wouldn’t have made it here tonight after we lost our instruments in an accounting mishap. Thanks, Mike!” And we did ‘Sunny Afternoon’.

I changed the part about ‘girlfriend’ to ‘bass player’ on a whim and I actually got the audience to sing along on the last chorus.

We bowed and the stage rotated off to a rather loud applause.

“Wow!” Was all I could say as I looked at the others.

“Yeah, wow!” Stephanie said.

“Definitely wow!” Joseph added.

“That went well,” Cenewyg said and started moving our stuff off the stage, “With any luck we’ll be out of here soon enough.”

I had just put my guitar in its case when I heard someone cough, turning I stood up, it was the assistant stage manager.

“I’m going to get you for that!” She said staring at me.

I smiled at her, she was rather attractive and while I may be in a woman’s body I still appreciated a good looking woman, and to be honest after being on stage I was still rather wound up myself. “I like that idea!” I said and she suddenly looked rather panicked as I grabbed her wrist.

“I call dibs on the dressing room!” I yelled out and dragged her off as she protested to someplace more private.

Seven

When we showed up for practice the next day our 'fans' were already there and waiting for a change. They congratulated us on our debut performance and gushed over us a bit, like I guess fans did.

"So now what?" Cenewyg asked.

"Ask Will," Stephanie said, "He seems to understand this place better than any of us."

"We work on our catalog," I said.

"Our what?" Cenewyg asked.

"The songs we know. We've got ten right now, well from this point on they're going to expect two new songs a night until we've shown the people who run the show here that we can do two weekend shows without repeating any songs."

"That's what, twenty?" Joseph asked.

"More or less, but once we get to the weekend show we're going to be expected to vary the songs from weekend to weekend. So we'll probably need to get our catalog up to thirty or forty. Especially if we want to move on to the big show down at Sirenum Scopuli."

"Where'd you learn all this?"

"Alice told me."

"Alice?" Joseph asked looking confused.

"That gal he dragged off into the dressing room after the show," Stephanie said.

"Gods this is so confusing," Joseph said.

"What?"

"He didn't drag her off, she dragged her off," Joseph said pointing at me. "Look, we're going to be here a while, right?"

"At least a couple of months," I agreed.

"Yeah so all of this 'he' 'she' pronoun stuff is going to trip us up." Joseph pointed at me, "Wilma, she," then Stephanie, "Stephan, he," then himself, "Josie, she."

We all thought about that a moment.

"That's going to take a bit of getting used to." I said.

"Seems obvious to me," Cenewyg laughed.

"She has a point," Stephan said.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," I nodded. "Anyway, Alice told me that if we did well again tonight we'd get put in the weekday lineup."

"So practice, practice, practice."

"Yup."

The show that night went as well, if not better, than our first night; we knew what to expect now after all. The other bands were also willing to talk with us backstage now that we were no longer 'virgins', and our willingness to switch with the other band the night before also made us popular with the stage manager.

Trouble started in our second week. We were getting more and more popular every day; the tunes we were playing were different enough that no one had heard them before, and good enough that we were drawing larger and larger crowds. Alice told me it was a given that we would be working this weekend, and of course a lot of other bands were jealous of our fast rise to fame.

We were packing up our stuff after one of our performances and one of the other bands on stage suddenly played one of our songs! I looked up shocked and the others looked up a bit confused. It was one of the songs we hadn’t done yet, but which I’d taught them just yesterday.

“Son of a bitch!” I growled.

“What?” Alice said looking at me.

“That’s one of our songs,” Stephan told her. “We just haven’t gotten around to doing it here yet.”

“Oh,” She nodded. “Did you practice it today?”

I thought about that a moment, “Yeah, we did.”

“They must have sent a spy around to listen to your practice session.”

I swore loudly at that.

“Guess we need to find a new place to practice,” Joseph said.

“That’s not the worst of it,” I grumbled.

“Oh?”

“They’re messing it up!!” I said loudly. “At least they could get it right!”

I noticed we got a lot of looks then from the other bands that were either setting up, breaking down, or just hanging out by the stage.

“Maybe you should show them how it’s played!” The member of one of them teased.

“Once they get their asses off stage!” I shook my head, “They’re just murdering that poor song!”

A lot of them laughed at me for saying that, because the song was pretty good, but it could have been better. When they finished their performance I jumped up on their platform before it had even stopped moving.

They all smirked at me and I stepped in front of the lead singer and yelled at him, “It’s ‘Girl, I want to be with you all of the time’! If you’re going to steal it, get it right asshole!”

“Hey now wait a minute....” He started to say, but I had already turned on the guitar player.

“And just what the hell were you playing?” I ripped his guitar out of his hands, shocking the hell out of him, “That riff goes like this,” and I played the bridge for him then shoved the guitar back in his hands. “If you were so desperate for a song, maybe you should have asked!” I yelled and stomped off the stage.

The other musicians and half the stage crew were all laughing pretty hard by now, and I could see that the guys I had just chewed out were looking pretty pissed.

“Hey, we wrote that song!” The singer tried to bluster.

“Busted!!” Alice said and laughed in their faces. “What do you want to do about it?” She asked turning to me.

I waved back at the band, “Just put them on after us tomorrow, this way we can perform our songs before they can steal any more of them.”

“That’s all?” She said looking surprised.

“I’ve got so many songs losing a couple isn’t going to hurt, not like we can perform them all anyway.” I sighed and went to help the others finish packing our gear up.

We left Cenewyg to take it back to our room and then went to watch the show for a while. Cenewyg didn’t really care for the music much, whereas the rest of us really got into it. It was like doing drugs without having to inhale whenever a really good band got on stage. In this sphere, music apparently had a pretty potent effect on your nervous system. As performers, I think it affected us less, because I’d noticed the non-performing crowds appeared to almost be in a trance half the time.

“So how do you think they stole our song?” I asked Stephan as we watched one of the bands on stage.

“Like Alice said, probably one of the people who’ve been sitting outside listening to us practice.”

“Joseph was right; we really do need to find a new place,” I sighed.

“Definitely.”

“I know I shouldn’t be all that surprised about this,” I said shaking my head, “No reason for people here to be any different than people anywhere else.”

“You really like it here, don’t you?” Stephan said putting an arm around me and pulling me closer.

I nodded and smiled at him, “Yeah, I do. I’ve always loved music and to be able to actually play and sing like one of my childhood idols? What’s not to love?”

“Thinking of staying?” He asked.

I shook my head ‘no’. “Oh it’s tempting, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think I could live here. Still, it’s definitely a nice place to visit.”

Stephan laughed, “Yeah, it is.”

We stayed another hour but eventually left to head back to the rooms we were renting. We got about halfway there when suddenly the members of the band that had stolen our song were in front of us.

“We don’t appreciate you making fools of us!” The guy who was the lead singer said as the other four members of the band spread out around us.

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have stolen one of our songs,” I replied.

“Because of what you did, all the other bands are now making fun of us. Some of our fans in the audience even heard you and now they’re questioning us.”

“Not my problem,” I said and yawned.

“Now get out of our way,” Stephan growled.

“So you’re going to teach us all of those songs you say you have, so we can prove we didn’t steal that song,” he continued.

“I ain’t teaching you shit,” I said angrily. “If you’d come up to us and asked first, I probably would have. But now? No.”

“Then I guess we’ll have to force you!” He said pulling out a knife and attacking us, the rest of them also pulled out knives and joined in as well.

As I expected, everything slowed down for me. The three of us moved forward, each engaging a different attacker. Even in this ‘weaker’ female form I was still faster than my attacker and almost as strong. I disarmed him quickly, stuck the knife in his chest, and left it there. I turned to take on another one but stopped in surprise; Stephan had literally cut the head of the lead singer off and had thrown it at one of the others. Josie had stuck a knife in the one she was fighting as well, but that one was scrambling away in apparently horror.

“These are my women!” Stephan yelled. Brandishing a rather large knife that I hadn’t even realized he’d been carrying.

Just like that, everything snapped back to normal time as the two wounded ones crawled off and the other two ran.

“Wow,” Josie said.

“Your women?” I asked arching an eyebrow.

“Damn right,” Stephan smiled, somewhat covered in blood.

“Works for me,” Josie said in a rather low voice, which surprised the hell out of me, because I’d been about to say the same thing myself.

“Let’s get back to the hotel,” Josie said huskily grabbing Stephan’s hand and starting to pull him along. “You coming?” She said looking at me.

I looked at Stephan who looked a cross between embarrassed, and rather lustful.

I smiled back at her, “Oh, I wouldn’t miss this for the world!”

The next day we found a new practice spot and made sure no one followed us there. Obviously secrecy was now important. We also realized that traveling alone probably wasn’t safe, at least not at night in areas without lots of other people around. Stephan had the good graces to look embarrassed all day as well, but it didn’t help that both Josie and I were almost hanging off of him.

Apparently Joseph had as much of a thing for Stephanie as I did, but until last night Stephanie had never admitted to feeling the same way about us. Josie had made the comment that it took Stephanie becoming a man in order for her to confess her feelings, and obviously that meant that men where just much more honest about their feelings and proceeded to give Stephan one of the smuggest looks I’d ever seen.

Cenewyg became much more important to us as well. Up until now he had been using his roadie status and access to the band mainly to get laid, but after the attack he started on finding out who we could trust and who we couldn’t. Some of our earliest fans he signed up to help with our gear on stage, apparently working for a name band was a huge status symbol among the lowest class. He also found out who else was trying to steal our songs and discouraged them rather physically. He didn’t kill anyone, but a few musicians had their careers interrupted while they healed from either having an arm broken or a good solid thrashing.

This was an underside of the culture that I hadn’t realized existed, but once I saw it, I knew I should have expected it. Being a top act meant a lot of money and a lot of status, so of course there were people who would do anything to get ahead.

When we finally hit the stage that Friday night for our first ‘big’ performance, we played a lot of our new stuff, mainly to prevent it from being stolen by someone else. I was trying primarily to stick to songs from just two bands, that had both been three-piece groups, to make it easier and to try and get a ‘sound’ that was distinguishable. But I grabbed a few from some other bands that I thought would fit in as well.

It worked well for us and a lot of the songs which had been hits back home were very popular here at the show as well. We were a huge hit with the audience that night and I can’t even begin to describe how that felt. Again I was fairly certain that the rules of this sphere were making it feel a lot more intense than it would have otherwise and the result was that the three of us were becoming even closer both on stage and off.

Saturday was another big night for us, after that we were off until the next weekend. Sunday’s shows were a bit different, you played two hours on Sunday, and you only played every other week. We went to Sunday’s show to watch, the three of us that is, Cenewyg said he was busy researching what we would need to know when we got to Sirenum Scopuli, but we all suspected that he really was just chasing skirts.

All we could do was sit and stare, and applaud, as we watched the show. Once again it was almost mesmerizing, the bands were that good. I wondered if we had the same effect on the crowds watching us. It seemed hard to believe, but then again, we were getting more and more popular everyday, so who knew?

“Hi, Wilma!”

I turned and looked surprised, it was Alice! She leaned in and gave me a kiss; we’d fooled around a few times since that first show, but we both had admitted to more serious interests, so we’d just kept it casual.

“Hi, Alice, what brings you out here?” I asked surprised. I knew she worked Sunday nights.

“I’m on my break, I saw you sitting out here and I thought I’d introduce you to a friend of mine.”

I looked behind her and sure enough, there was a guy there. He looked older, I’d guess about whatever passed for fifty-ish here.

“Wilma, this is Henry, Henry is one of the better managers here in town, he’s had more bands go to the big show in Scopuli than any other manager I know of.” She leaned in close and whispered in my ear, “I don’t want to see you get screwed, hon, that’s my job!”

I grinned at her and gave her a kiss. “Thanks, I owe you!” I whispered back.

“Good ‘cause I plan on collecting!” She smirked and then straightened back up.

Henry stuck out his hand and I shook it, “Nice to meet you, Wilma, caught your show last night, very impressive.”

“Thanks,” I said smiling.

“Care to introduce me to the rest of the band?”

“Oh of course,” I poked Stephan and Josie, they both turned and I made introductions.

“I need to get back to work,” Alice told us. “Henry’s the best, so listen to him.” And she waved as she walked off.

“Can we go someplace better to talk?” Henry asked.

I looked at Stephan and he nodded, so we all got up and followed Henry out of the Amphitheater down into the offices that were underneath the seats. I hadn’t even realized there was anything underneath beyond restrooms and cheap food vendors.

“Have a seat,” he said showing us in and sitting behind a large desk. There were pictures all over the walls of different bands, what I guess were awards, and even a few instruments that were signed hanging there as well.

“So who’s in charge of the band?” He asked us.

“I am,” Stephan said taking a seat in the middle and motioning for Josie and me to sit on either side. “But Will is the one who writes the songs and picks what we play.”

“So where are you all from?”

“West of here, a good ways,” Stephan told him.

“There isn’t much out there.”

Stephan nodded, “Yeah, its pretty open. Which is why we came here. We didn’t really have a lot going on for us there. There isn’t much music.”

“Well, it definitely adds a nice amount of mystery to the band, which is good, we can use that. Have you been paid yet?”

We all stared at him a bit blankly.

“You know you get paid for performing here once you’re on the regular schedule, don’t you?”

I snickered and Stephen blushed, “Umm no. We thought you got paid by the places you endorsed.”

Henry laughed, “Oh the big money does come from endorsements, but you do get a stipend for working weekdays, and a bit more when you switch to weekends. Private appearances can be very lucrative however.”

“Private?” I asked surprised.

“Yes, there are a lot of parties on the weekdays, that’s why the bigger acts have it off, so they can go earn money.”

“And you can set all of that up for us?” Stephan asked.

“Of course!” Henry smiled.

“What’s your cut?”

“Twenty-percent.”

“Isn’t that a bit high?” I asked surprised.

“Yes,” Henry nodded, “it is higher than most charge. But I have connections in Sirenum Scopuli, as well as a house there. If you keep performing like you have so far, I can guarantee you shows there, and you can stay at my house rather than pay for rooms, which are extremely expensive. I will also provide you with a place to stay here, as well as meals and a secure place to practice.”

“You’re positive you can get us a gig at the big amphitheater?” Stephan asked him.

Henry nodded, “Your sound is very unique. People like it, so they’ll definitely want to hear it, once it gets around.”

Stephan looked at me and I nodded, he looked at Josie who also nodded.

“Fine, where do we sign?”

Henry got us signed up, moved us to a nicer part of town, and threw in a room for our ‘roadie’ which made Cenewyg happy. He also went and got our pay, which he took his twenty percent out of and paid us the rest.

The rooms were actually fairly nice, and the practice room was far better than anything we’d used so far. He even got us a gig for the following night. It was at some small private house and we played two thirty-minute sets for a small party.

“How much did we make from that?” I asked Henry afterwards.

“Twenty each.”

“That’s not very much,” I said surprised.

“That’s because you’re new and people are just hearing about you. A few weeks from now you’ll be getting a thousand a night each.”

“Whoa,” I said even more surprised.

“Stick with me, and I’ll make you all rich,” Henry said with a laugh.

So we practiced each morning, did a private show each night, and that weekend we did the one hour shows on Friday and Saturday. Then on Sunday we did our first two-hour show and I was glad we’d done all of those private shows. Playing two hours straight was like running a marathon.

But come Monday, we were getting over five hundred a show and suddenly the money was starting to add up. By the next weekend, we had bought back the necklaces we had sold at the pawnshop, replaced the rest of our lost gear, and were thinking about instrument upgrades as well.

We did that for two months, at the end of which we had quite a bit of cash that we didn’t know what to do with, but more importantly we got an invite to go play at Sirenum Scopuli.

“Finally!” Stephan said as we lay there in bed together.

I stretched and yawned. Josie did the same. The three of us had all been living in the same room since the hotel, it was a little strange at first, but even though Cenewyg was no longer trying to bed either one of us, we just felt better keeping close.

It also cut down on getting hit on by the guys. Other than Alice, we three had all stuck very much to ourselves

“So when do we go?” Josie asked.

“I’ll ask Henry after breakfast,” Stephan told us. “I am so looking forward to not being a guy anymore.”

“I don’t know, you sure seem to make a good one,” I said grinning and gave him a kiss.

“What, you’re happy being a girl?”

“Eh, I guess its okay,” I said and shrugged. “Yeah, I want to go back to being a guy, but it hasn’t been all that bad. No use in complaining about it when you don’t have a choice, you know?”

“So now that we’re finally going there, what next?” Josie asked.

“Well, first we’ll need to scout as much of the coast area in the city and around it to see if we can sense the gate. Then we’ll have to find some kind of boat.”

“Sounds easy enough.”

“Are you sure that the gate is close to the shore?” I asked.

Stephan nodded, “Yes. Sailors coming by always had to sail close to the show, which due to the music, is pretty dangerous.”

“Why’s that?” Josie asked.

“Well, haven’t you noticed how much the music affects everyone here?”

“It does kind of draw you in.”

“Well the shore is rather rocky through here, and if you don’t pay careful attention to sailing, you’ll end up on the rocks.”

“Even Cen is affected by the music,” I said. “Haven’t you noticed?”

“What? He hates the music here!” Josie laughed.

“He hates it, because it affects him and he doesn’t like that.” I said.

“So that’s why he doesn’t go to the shows?”

“Next time take a look at his ears,” Stephan said, “he wears earplugs whenever we play or he’s working with us at a show.”

“Huh.”

“Well let’s get dressed and go find Henry and find out the details.”

Eight

Sirenum Scopuli was impressive; it was a fortified city, with a rather visible force of constables or soldiers around and in it. Apparently they weren’t just worried about people trying to sneak in who hadn’t earned the right, but spies and agents from the other main cities as well.

Things were expensive here, but the pay was high as well. We went back to doing weekday shows, but the schedule was a little different here. First, the show ran twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Second, all shows were an hour long, except after eight o’clock in the evening until two in the morning, they were two hours. Third, you played three shows a week, and you played a late show anywhere from once a week to once a month, depending on how in demand you were. Of course, you had to earn the right to do one of those shows, as there were only three a day.

We were booked for private shows on all of our off days, and those tended to be three sets, each set about a half hour long. Usually there were other bands at these private shows as well, and they would play when we weren’t. It was incredibly busy, we would get up at noon, practice up until whatever show we were doing, do the show, go out and party, go to bed, then repeat the next day.

The partying wasn’t just for fun either, Henry had us going to a lot of places, making sure a lot of people got to see us and know us, spreading our name around. Even Cenewyg was being kept busy this entire time, Henry had him managing the details of our shows, and running our security. Even here it was not unknown for bands to get into fights that left them unable to perform, or worse.

“Henry, we need a day off,” Stephan told Henry one morning after we’d been there three weeks.

“Yeah, this seven days a week thing is getting old.” I agreed.

“I’ve got you booked solid for the next week,” he replied.

“Well, from now on we want one day off a week,” Stephan said. “We’ll play the ones you already committed to, but no more of this non-stop stuff.”

“But you’re still going up! Think of the money!”

I smiled and shook my head.

“We’re not here for the money, Henry,” Stephan told him. “Plus with our first big show coming up, we really don’t want to be walking in there worn to a frazzle.”

Henry nodded, “Okay, I can see your point on that. I’ll move the Wednesday show so you can have the day off before you do your first full show. After that I’ll see that you get a day off each week.”

“Thanks Henry,” Stephan said.

“Yes thanks,” Josie and I echoed.

He went off to deal with the schedule change and we all looked at each other.

“Maybe now we can actually do some sightseeing and find that damn gate,” Cenewyg grumbled.

“I can’t believe we’ve been here this long and haven’t had the chance to go look.” Josie said shaking her head.

“Between the shows, the private gigs, the promotional stuff he’s got us doing, I’m amazed we even get to practice, much less sleep,” Stephan agreed.

“Well I’ll see about getting us one of those small touring cars they have, and we can spend Wednesday driving up and down the side of the city on the water and see what we can find,” Cenewyg said. “The sooner we get out of here the better.”

“Yeah, it is getting kind of old,” Stephan said.

When Wednesday came, we got up early and went out to explore the city. Henry had wanted to come with us, but the car Cenewyg had gotten was small enough that it really couldn’t hold more than the four of us. Henry didn’t have his own car; most people here in Scopuli didn’t, as there was a fairly well-designed and maintained central trolley system. So when you needed one you rented.

The car used a tiller instead of a steering wheel, with a hand throttle like the one a boat had. Cenewyg had no real problem with driving it, and as he’d been around more of the city than we had, we let him drive.

The city itself was rather hilly, even when you got down to the water. There were some rather large cliffs that gave a rather nice view off into the distance, and when we got to westernmost edge of the city, you could see the large amount of rocks along the shore and out into the water.

We started east then and drove along slowly, not that we could go all that fast with the traffic and the hills. By three o’clock, we had covered most of the waterfront, but still had a bit to go. We had just driven around the amphitheater about a half hour ago. We knew it wasn’t near there already. Continuing on we got to a point where the road ended, even though the city had not.

“Well time to get out and walk,” Stephan said.

“What is this place?” Josie said looking around.

“I think we’re near the temple for the local god,” Stephan said.

“So these are the temple grounds?” she asked looking around.

“Maybe, but more likely just the surrounding gardens. Doesn’t feel like its holy or anything.

We all nodded and followed him down the sidewalk; we’d walked for maybe fifteen minutes when suddenly I felt it.

“Feel that?” I asked.

Stephan nodded, “Yup, and I’m pretty sure that’s our gate.” He looked around, “Let’s see if we can get a better idea of where it is.”

We nodded and continued up the pathway. It continued to get stronger, until the city wall came into sight, then it started to get weaker.

We all stopped and looked out to sea. The water looked a bit rough, and there were definitely quite a few rocks there.

“So how far out do you think it is?” I asked the others.

“Five hundred, six hundred yards I’d guess,” Cenewyg said.

“So we’re going to need a boat.”

“Do they even have boats here?” Stephan asked.

“Yeah, down over there,” Josie pointed and we all looked. There was definitely a small dock with a handful of boats around it.

“Well let’s go down and see if they rent them out,” Stephan said heading off towards the stairs that apparently led down to the dock.

“Assuming that is we can even sail it.” Cenewyg grumbled.

“Oh ye of little faith,” I teased.

We followed Stephan down the stairs; they went back and forth as they descended, zigzagging down the cliff face. When we got to the bottom, it was a lot more than I had expected.

There was the small dock that we had seen from above, with a few small boats tied up to it, but there was a cave cut back into the cliff face as well, with what I guess was a small marina. There were more boats in there, some in the water, some on stands off to the side on solid ground, and more than a few people walking around or working on things.

“You’re not supposed to be down here!” A rather officious man said walking up to us. “Who are you? And why are you here?”

“I’m Stephan and these are my band mates,” he motioned to the rest of us, “we didn’t see any signs, so we thought it was okay. We were just wondering if you could rent a boat, so we walked down to see what was here.”

“Why would you want to rent a boat?” He asked suspiciously.

“Umm, to go sight seeing?” Stephan said looking puzzled.

“I think you better leave.”

Stephan looked at him, then looked at us and shrugged.

We all turned around and started to climb back up the stairs.

“Well that was rather strange,” I commented once we were well out of earshot.

“I guess we’ll just have to look for another dock.” Josie said.

“I’m not sure there is another dock,” Cenewyg said.

“Oh come on, there has to be,” I said. “Why wouldn’t there be?”

“Because the goddess of the Sireens doesn’t allow it.” A deep voice said.

We had just gotten off the staircase and there was a large group of men standing there. The one apparently leading them was the one who had answered my question. He was pretty big, and he was armed. Actually, they were all armed, and they didn’t exactly look friendly.

“Uh-oh.”

“So who exactly are you, and where are you from?” He said taking a step closer and putting a hand on the butt of the pistol he was wearing. This was the first time I’d actually seen anyone with a firearm since we’d gotten here.

“I’m Wilma, that’s Stephan, Cenewyg, Josie. We’re U.K.B and we just got here from Lionesnesc a few weeks ago and we’re sightseeing is all...”

“I’m Rondall, the god Sireen’s champion,” he said cutting me off, “and you know that is not what I meant! Now who are you and why are you here!”

“Umm, Steph?” I said weakly and turned to look at Stephan who was looking as worried as I felt.

“Well, you see we’re here ....”

“Ronda!?” Josie suddenly cried out.

“Rondall,” He growled at her, his eyes narrowing.

“Ohmysoreass! Ronda!” Josie almost screamed, “It’s Jo!” and she launched herself at him arms wide open.

“Wha...?” Was about all he got out before he had Josie literally plastered up against him, arms and legs wrapped around him and kissing him while babbling about how much she missed him and other nonsense.

Rondall grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back enough to look at her, “Stop!” He said and then starred at Josie who was giggling at him. He turned and looked at his men, then at us. “Nobody move. Just stay right there.” And he walked over to a small guard station, walked inside and closed the door behind him. A moment later the door opened and two rather surprised looking guards spilled out.

We looked at the men who had been with Rondall, obviously guards as well and shrugged.

“Just stay right there,” one of them said.

“Does this happen often?” Stephan asked.

“The dock boss thought you were spies. I guess he’s ... questioning her?” He replied, though he said the last bit a little weakly.

Cenewyg snickered at that, and several of the other men laughed as well.

“What I want to know is where the hell does Josie know him from?” I said turning to Stephan.

“Beats me, guess we’ll have to ask when they come out.”

“Do you mind if I sit down?” I asked the one who seemed to be in charge. “This could be a few hours.”

At this point they were all smirking.

“Unnh” He started but was interrupted as the door to the small station opened and Rondall leaned out. His coat and shirt were gone, and he looked at the rest of us and had the good graces to blush.

“Guy, take them to lunch or something and then take them back to wherever they’re staying.”

“You sure, sir?” He said looking a little surprised.

“Yes, they’re friendly. I’ll catch up with them when I’m err, done here.”

He pulled the door closed then, leaving us all staring at each other.

“So, how about lunch?” Guy, the one in charge said looking at us.

Lunch was a rather pleasant affair; it was the three of us plus Guy, and Rob who was one of his men. The rest he sent back to wherever it was they had come from.

Rondall we learned had been the god’s champion for almost five years now, there hadn’t been a champion here in the Scopuli in a very long time before this, but fighting between Sireen and one of the neighboring city states had been heating up in the last decade so their god had raised one up among them. Guy figured that Josie must have been someone who knew him before he became their champion.

They took us back to Henry’s house, returned the car for us, and wished us a good night. Josie herself did not return until early the next morning looking rather pleased.

“Okay, what the hell just happened there?” Stephan asked as she sat down to join us for breakfast.

“Rondall is sorta-kinda my ex,” she giggled.

“Huh?” I said and the Stephan and Cenewyg both looked confused as well.

“Rondall, used to be Ronda, who was the champion of one of my god’s biggest allies. Well when I was new to all of this, Ronda sort of took me under her wing and taught me the basics and well, one thing led to another....”

“Did you know she was here?” Stephan asked.

“I had no idea. Neither did my god, I asked him last night. Did Ary?”

Stephan shook his head, “Ary had no idea either. Did you tell him why we were here?”

Josie blushed, “Yes. He was pretty worried, four champions wouldn’t be something he could easily run off, so I told him the truth that we were just trying to get to the portal and had lost our boat.”

“What did he say to that?”

“Well, he said he’d have to talk to his goddess about it. That area of the sea has a bit of a religious significance to it, but he was pretty sure some sort of arrangement could be worked out. He said he’d talk to us after our show tonight.”

“Well that sounds good,” Cenewyg said. “I was worried for a moment that we might be facing another slaughter like in Ithaca.”

Stephan nodded, “Me too. Seems their soldiers have a lot better weapons than just knives and swords.”

“Well, let’s go practice,” I said. “We can find out what he can do to help us later tonight.”

The show went well, really well. I’d pulled out six new songs that we’d practiced for only a few days, so almost no one had heard them beyond a few of Henry’s staff.

When we came off the stage, Rondall was there and he asked us to go with him. Interestingly enough he led us to the temple.

Once we got there, he took us to a private room and sat us down at a table covered with food and other refreshments.

“Okay, here is my problem, we’re at war with another city, and I want your help to beat them.”

“You want us to fight a war?” Stephanie said surprised. “We didn’t exactly come here to fight.”

“You want a boat to sail through the gate? Help us win this war and we’ll let you sail back and forth through it as many times as you want.”

“Why us? Because we’re all champions?”

“Because you’re one of the best bands we’ve had through here in ages. Though being champions helps.”

Stephan looked at him, “Huh?”

“Battle of the bands?” I asked.

“Exactly.”

“How bad can that be?” I asked looking around.

“Very,” Rondall said.

Stephan sighed, “So what are we up against?”

“Sanctum’s band has beaten us the last three times we’ve met. They’re good, really good. It’s not just their champion in the band either; they have one of their allies' champions as well. So they’re pushing for an all out battle a week from now. They’re moving their actual troops up. If they win, we’ll be all but incapacitated, and they’ll sack the city and do so much damage we may not ever recover.”

“And if you win?”

“We’ll go out there and slaughter as much of their army as we can before they run away, while they’re incapacitated. That should keep them from bothering us again for a very long time.”

“Sounds bizarre,” Cenewyg said.

“You’ve felt how the music affects everyone here, haven’t you?”

“Well, yeah.”

“During a battle, the champion and the high priest get involved. It’s a thousand times more powerful.”

“Oh.”

“So, what songs do you have we can play?” Rondall asked Stephan.

They all pointed at me.

“You play bass?” I asked.

“Of course.”

I smiled.

We holed up in the temple after that. Fel was fine with it; in fact, he thought it might be a good idea. I gathered that Aryanna was okay with it as well. All of our upcoming shows were canceled, but no public announcement was made; we were just quietly taken off the schedule.

The high priest would be singing, and he had a truly amazing voice, I think I’d only heard one as good in my entire life. I had a lot of stuff to choose from, but it wasn’t that hard of a choice really. I picked four hours worth of songs for the battle, and taught six thinking a few extra might be wise. The songs were all from the same rock band, all of them long involved songs with a lot of imagery behind them and very hard to play. We practiced almost non-stop the entire week, Max, the high priest, really liked the stuff I had picked which helped tremendously. He taught us how these things worked, and went over our ‘battle plan’ as it were.

The day before the ‘battle’ the enemy troops started to show up outside the city, the city was locked down at that point, everyone knew what was coming, and I watched from the walls as they all arranged themselves like attendees to a show.

It was definitely different.

In the morning, their ‘warm up’ bands started to play. They’d assembled a little stage on a rise outside the city that I assumed had been used for this exact thing many times before. We’d be performing on a section of the city wall, that also had obviously served this purpose many times before, but we wouldn’t be having a warm up band, well beyond the usual bands performing in the city.  When the time came, they would stop playing and the crowd would come down here. Then it would start.

Rondall waited until it was full dark. We all went and found our positions, we were literally close to the edge, and that was the first song I had picked of course. When we were ready, we nodded to him in the dark and he signaled someone off stage.

Someone obviously signaled the band on stage back in the city because when they finished their song the music stopped.

Silence. For the first time since we got here, there was silence, absolute glorious and fantastic silence.

And as one we hit the downbeat and we were off. The song starts off disjointed, time changes, pauses broken only by a single sung note, and then back to loud music, repeat but different, until the final break and the actual melody begins.

I could hear the other band trying to play, and son-of-a-bitch they were playing our songs! The ones we’d been playing on stage at the amphitheater that is, not what we were playing now. Max and Rondall had told us, the quickest way to attack was to play the same music and try to take over the song.

That they had guessed who would be performing made it clear they had spies here. But what we were playing was radically different from what they expected. We drove hard through the song, for all that it was more of a ballad, but it had various movements and they were each different which made it hard for them to figure it out. Twice when they were starting to play along they tried to pull the song away from us, but we hit a break and went off in a complete different direction than they expected.

When we started the next song, we didn’t even pause, just did a little almost dystopian jazz break that sounded incredibly wrong, until we fired into the next song and it suddenly made sense. Max had come up with that entire riff by himself; back home he could have sold out the Garden - he was amazing.

It was pretty grueling, the only break any of us got was during the solos, and then you could take a drink and maybe sneak a bite or two. You couldn’t leave your position, and several times we had to change up things on the fly to deal with musical attacks by the other side. Halfway through one song Max jumped us into a totally different song, and then jumped us back when it was done.

It blew my mind, and the affect on the other side was worse. Their playing was starting to fall apart. I could see the rest of the band was looking tired, except for Rondall who looked fiercely happy, and Max who was just smiling as he sang. When we hit the finale Max flagged us that we were doing an encore. I noticed at that point that the other band wasn’t even playing anymore and that the city’s forces were pouring out of the gates, obviously intent on slaughter.

When we finished the encore, we stopped and a rather loud cheer went up from everyone in the city. The enemy troops had started to defend themselves at some point prior to our stopping, but they were being slaughtered on the field and many had already broken and were running for their lives.

The band on stage were dead, all of them. I don’t know if the music had killed them, or something else, and right at that point I didn’t want to know. I set my guitar down and went back to our room. I’d had enough.

That night I dreamt I was at Fel’s pub once more and we just sat there drinking for a while.

Eventually he looked up at me, “Bothered you that much?”

I shrugged, and then shook my head. “I love music, I always have. But to kill people with it? I don’t know why it bothers me, but it does.”

“Well, Sireen is pretty happy with your performance,” Fel said naming the other god. “Even told me she was going to grant you a little favor.”

I grunted.

“Will,” I heard a very musical female voice.

I looked up, it was the goddess Sireen. This was the first time I’d actually seen her in person, I’d only seen her statues before. She was quite lovely; I noticed suddenly that she was a harpy. Why hadn’t I noticed that before? But even with that, she was still beautiful and had a lovely voice.

“Your help was instrumental for our win tonight. I’m sorry if it hurt your love of music, we get so few who come here who have that love long before they ever set foot on our lands.

“So I am going to grant you a boon.”

I blinked, “I’m already a champion for Fel, milady, I don’t know what more than that I could ever want.”

She smiled, and if I thought she was beautiful before, this eclipsed that. “Such a loyal servant, your god truly has a wonderful champion. But I think you might enjoy this.”

I looked at her unable to think of anything to say.

“I have made it so that when you return, your pregnancy will continue uninterrupted. Fel has assured me that you would appreciate the gesture. Your child will simply wait in limbo until then, unknowing and unharmed.”

“My child?” I said and blinked.

She smiled that unbelievable smile again, turned and then was gone.

I looked at Fel, “My child?” I asked shocked.

Fel smiled at me, “You’re pregnant.”

“What?!”

“Apparently neither you nor Stephanie were practicing any birth control.”

“Yes, we were!”

“Not the first few times.” He smirked, “and one is all it takes.”

I could feel my mouth opening and closing, but no words were coming out.

“You’re almost three months pregnant. Normally going through a portal has no effect on that, but with the sex change, well, it destroys the baby. Sireen told me she could take care of that for you, and I thought you might appreciate it. Eventually.”

“So if I go back there, I’ll be pregnant?”

Fel nodded.

“Shit.” I looked away, “What do I tell Stephanie?”

“You don’t,” he warned.

“What? Why not?”

“Because she already has enough on her mind right now, and you’ll have to go back there for at least six months if you decide you want to have that child. Something I know you’re not willing to do just yet.”

I sighed, he was right. “This is... unexpected.”

“It always is,” Fel laughed. “But you have the time now to deal with it later.”

Nine

“Goddess I’m glad that’s over,” Stephanie said after we had sailed through the portal.

“You and me both,” Cenewyg grumbled.

“So where to next?” Joseph asked from where he was sailing the boat.

“Head south east. There should be an island. We need to land there.”

“Is that where we are going? Cenewyg asked surprised.

“It’s our next stop,” Stephanie said.

I was sitting on the bow, just staring out to sea ahead of us. We were all human now, and I was a man again. But what I had leaned last night as I slept was... disturbing. I wondered if I should go back. Or not? I had a choice to make and I had no idea what to do.

“You okay, hon?” Stephanie said coming up behind me and putting a hand on the back of my head.

“Yeah,” I lied, “actually killing people with our music was a little bit of a bummer. That’s all.”

“Well, you’ll get over it.”

I nodded.

“Oh, change into your champion form, okay?”

I looked up at her, “You sure?”

She nodded. “And stay in it while we’re here.”

I shrugged and smiled, “You’re the boss,” and changed into my furry self. I stretched and smiled, it felt good. I hadn’t worn this form the entire time we’d been in the last sphere for fear of discovery.

We sailed a week until we found land. There was a nice lagoon that we sailed into and there was a rather simple dock, which we tied our boat to. Stephanie had everyone in their champion forms and led us off the boat and up a simple path.

I could smell that there were a lot of animals around here, but all of them were nowhere to be seen. I wondered if my feline form was scaring them off.

When we topped the hill that the path was going up, I could see a large mansion of some sort down the other side of the hill. We headed for that and many of the animals I had smelled were now apparent. None got close, they all stayed well clear of us, but there was quite a lot of variety, I saw bulls, cows, horses, chickens, pigs, dogs, cats, sheep, bears, big cats, wolves, and a whole lot more. Surprisingly they didn’t seem to be bothering each other much, which was surprising considering the mix.

When we got to the door, it opened and standing there was a goddess.

I blinked in surprise. I’d never seen an actual goddess in a sphere before!

“Circe,” Stephanie said giving a small curtsey, “I am Stephanie, these are my men: Cenewyg, Will, and Joseph.”

She looked at Cenewyg and then moved on dismissing him. When she looked at me, she smiled rather pleased. When she got to Joseph, she stopped and lingered awhile which made him blush and bow.

“Come inside,” she said in a voice that made my fur feel like someone was petting me. I shivered

“I didn't know goddesses could actually materialize in a sphere," I said surprised to Joseph as we walked inside.

"Depends on the sphere I guess," he said.

"Your Joseph is partially correct," Circe said from the rather nice chair she had moved to sit in while we were entering the room. "The location of the sphere in regards to the rest of the Infinite does have some effects on the rules that hold sway. If your journey continues further down this arm of the Infinite you may meet many more gods and goddesses. I am not alone on this sphere myself, now please, join me in dinner."

All of us sat down, she had a rather nice table set I must admit. I noticed that she was not partaking, but just watching. Of course a goddess probably didn't need to eat. But Cenewyg wasn't taking anything either.

"Not to your liking?" Circe asked looking at him.

"Umm, I seem to recall a story where men who partook of your bounty ended up as animals?"

Circe smiled and laughed, it was a truly delicious sensation for me; it made me want to purr. Joseph also looked a little entranced by it while Stephanie just smirked. "That wasn't the food, that was me! Of course I change those I find wanting into animals all the time, but your champion form cannot be altered so I wouldn't fear the meal."

"Are we umm, eating any umm, former people?" Cenewyg asked next, which surprised me, I didn't think he was the type that would have cared. That I didn't care surprised me as well. Then again, in my cat form my nature was a lot more predatory than it was when I was human.

"Does it matter?" She asked curious.

Cenewyg shook his head, "No I guess it doesn't."

"Then please, enjoy."

We all thanked her and ate.

"So, what brings you here to my table?" Circe asked Stephanie when we were finished eating.

"I'm on a task for my Goddess Aryanna," Stephanie said. "I'm not able to tell you more than that."

"And you, Will?" She asked looking at me rather directly, it was a very intense gaze and I would not have been surprised to find out she was reading my every last thought as I looked into those eyes. "My God Fel and her Goddess Aryanna both asked me to follow Stephanie, and that has led me here tonight, Goddess."

"Not just your god's request?" She asked looking amused.

"She was very polite and asked me even though I had already been told by my God Fel to go," I said soberly. I had the distinct feeling she liked me because I wasn't human, but feline; however I found the idea of trying to flirt with a goddess to be rather terrifying.

"And you?" She asked Joseph then.

"Ah, my good Lady and most beatific goddess of these wonderful lands, I too am simply a humble acquaintance of my Lady Stephanie and her most wonderful Goddess Aryanna. I was fortunate however to be asked to accompany her and her companions on this humble task."

"Fortunate?" Circe asked and I could see the amusement in her eyes. "How so?"

"Because I have met the most glorious and wonderful goddess of all the Infinite that I have ever had the joy to behold."

I blinked; Joseph was laying it on thick, very thick. I was rather shocked to see him so blatantly flirting with Circe, who appeared to be loving it more and more as he went on. Cenewyg I noticed looked disgusted, he hid it well but I knew him wel, enough to see it. Stephanie just sat there smiling and not saying a word.

"You know I could turn you into a pig, I have done such things to men who have tried to sweet talk me before," Circe said smiling.

"My most gracious and lovely Goddess Circe, while normally I might find the idea of being a pig revolting, how I could possibly be upset with such a manifestation if it came from your desires? I would hardly be able to know any upset, as any pig you might create would surely be the most finest of any swine ever to exist."

I felt the power play, and I knew something had happened.

"Your base form here is now that of a pig," she said still smiling.

"Then a minute while I partake," Joseph said and sure enough, there was suddenly a pig sitting there as he moved from his champion form.

"I must say," Joseph the pig said from the chair it was now perching on rather carefully, "If there was ever a finer swine that has graced this fair land or any land of my travels I would not believe it."

I blinked, because dammit if he didn't pull it off.

"I could make you into other things you know," Circe warned still smiling, but I could see she was intrigued.

"I could be anything you wished me to be my most glorious Lady," Joseph said and ducked his head in a bow.

I looked at Stephanie surprised and she just winked.

"I find this most interesting, Joseph. Let us retire inside to my chambers and discuss this further." Circe looked up at the rest of us then, "You are all excused. Tomorrow we can discuss what you may need."

"Thank you, Goddess," Stephanie said standing, and we all did the same and bowed, except for Joseph who jumped to the floor and on all fours followed Circe out of the room.

I walked up to Stephanie, Cenewyg walked up as well.

"What's going on there?" I asked surprised. "He's not?"

"Stupid idiot is making a play for her, that's what's going on," Cenewyg grumbled, "I can only imagine what she'll do to him. It'll serve him right too."

"Joseph?" I said looking surprised. "She's a goddess, and a strong, very strong, woman. I can't see him even trying to seduce her."

Stephanie laughed, "Joseph likes strong, powerful, dominate, women. You know that, Cen."

I looked at her, "Circe is a goddess that can physically manifest in her sphere, is extremely powerful, and likes to dominate men?" I asked unsure.

Stephanie nodded.

"He wants to be her champion, doesn't he?"

"I'd say it sure looks that way, wouldn't you?"

"But, what about our task?" I said, "We'll be short yet another."

"Oh we can carry on without him I'm sure," Cenewyg said with a slight sneer, reminding us all of what he thought of Joseph and any man who let a woman control him I guess.

I looked at Stephanie and shrugged and headed back to the boat.

"Where are you off to?" Stephanie asked.

"My bunk on the boat. This will all sort itself out come the morning I suspect."

"Well hello there, sailor!"

I sat up wide awake, it was Dezba!

"What are you doing here?!" I said shocked.

"What, not happy to see me?" She smirked.

I gave her a big hug, "Oh no, I'm happy to see you, just how did you get here by yourself?"

"Joseph gated me in."

"Joseph? How?"

"Joseph changed gods this morning," Stephanie said joining us. I didn't see or hear any sign of Cenewyg. "So Circe helped him gate Dezba here."

"Why'd she do that?" I asked curious.

"Probably because Joseph is really smitten with her. She's incredibly pleased with having snagged him."

"Oh?"

Dezba nodded, "She's everything he wants in a woman, and he behaves exactly like she wants her men to. Almost as if somebody was matchmaking," she added the last with a rather nasty smirk and looked at Stephanie.

"Oh we don't know that," Stephanie protested, but not that strongly.

"So now what?" I asked.

"Go say goodbye to Joseph. He's staying and we'll be leaving in an hour," Stephanie told me. "I know where we're off to next, so we're moving on."

I nodded and got out of bed. "Where do I find him?"

"Probably at the house. Cen's getting some supplies, Dez and I will go help. Don't take too long."

I nodded and went off to find Joseph.

He found me, but then I'm not surprised, he didn't look like Joseph when we met.

I looked at him, he was a rather large wolf; I think he was a dire wolf, whatever it was he was as big as a large pony.

"I thought you were a pig?"

"That was just her putting me in my place," He laughed. "She actually prefers wolves, sometimes lions too I gather. I don't care, whatever she wants is fine with me."

"Is that your champion form?" I asked surprised.

"Sort of, she can change it as she sees fit. The rules here really are different in some interesting ways."

I nodded. "So, happy?"

Joseph's canine lips pulled back in a huge smile, "I finally found my goddess, Will. I thought Treyonith was a good god, but Circe? When she's done with me I'll retire here."

"Well I hope that's not till a very long time from now, Joseph," I said smiling.

"Me too!"

"Well, it was nice knowing you; maybe we'll meet again some day?"

"Maybe. Bye, Will.” He stuck out a paw and we shook.

“Oh, and good luck dealing with Cenewyg!" He added with a canine laugh.

I shook my head and left him there still smiling. I wasn't surprised he'd fallen in love with her, but I was going to miss him. Joseph had become a lot friendlier as I'd gotten to know him, while Cenewyg had gone in the opposite direction. But at least Dezba was back.

"So where are we off to now?" I asked Stephanie as I sailed us out of the small harbor.

" Telepylos."

"What's a Telepylos?"

"According to what Circe tells me and what Aryanna has let me know it is a sphere full of cannibals. We'll not be making landfall at all anywhere near there; we're just going to sail through. It's a two-week journey to get from the portal we'll enter in, to the one we'll leave by."

"Well, that doesn't sound too bad then."

"There will be a lot less technology as well from this point on."

"Oh? Why's that?" I asked curious.

"We're nearing the end of a branch of what Circe and a lot of the other gods call 'The Infinite.' Think of it as one of those huge fractal designs they had back on your home sphere. With me?"

I nodded.

"That's how all the spheres link up, and it determines who can link to what. We're moving out towards the end of one of those arms. Each sphere we move to now will have an order of magnitude less connections to other spheres, because there are less there to connect with."

"Is that why the rules are different?" I asked curious.

"Exactly. When we crossed over from the Sireen’s sphere to Circe’s, we crossed some sort of threshold."

"Great," I said. "More unknowns. So when do we get to the portal out of here?"

"Should be about two day's sailing. Now if you'll excuse me, Cen's been pushing for a little 'personal' time," she grinned and shook her head, then left.

I watched as she walked off and went below decks. I sighed and shook my own head; I should tell her something, but what? When?

"You look like a man with a lot on his mind," Dezba said coming over and sitting down next to me.

"The last sphere was kind of different, we were there a while."

"Yeah, so I heard. Is it me, or is Cen different?"

I shrugged, "I hardly know the man to be honest. Until we started this whole affair I'd never met any of you but Steph before."

Dezba looked up at me as I sailed the ship. "I thought he was changing before, back after Ogygia, in that place were I got stomped to death. But it's hard to be sure when someone you're with everyday gradually changes. But after not seeing him for a several months? I think he has."

"For the better or the worse?"

"I don't think he can get any better," Dezba snorted. "He's definitely more of a prick to me than he used to be, and he's kissing up to Stephanie more than I've ever seen him kiss up to anyone."

I shook my head, and kept my own feelings to myself, I had figured he was just always annoying. "You know him better than I do."

"Well the sooner this is all done, the better. Any idea how much longer we have to go?"

I shook my head again, "You know as much as me."

"I get the idea from Cenewyg that this place is all part of your ancient history or something."

“What about you? You’re from the same sphere as us.”

“Yeah well, American Indians didn’t get a lot of European education back then.”

I nodded, she had a point. "Well it does sound familiar, I've heard of Circe before, and the Sireens did ring a bell; but unless we're looking for the Golden Fleece, I don't have a clue."

"What's that?" Dezba asked.

"From a movie I saw as a kid. This guy Jason sails off with a crew of hero's called 'The Argonauts.' They're after this magical fleece made of gold that will supposedly cure some cursed king or something."

"Well, I haven't heard that anyone is sick," Dezba grinned.

"All I know is that if we come across some huge metal statues that attack us, undo the hatch at their ankle and let all the hot water out. That's what kills 'em!" I grinned. It was a dumb movie; wish I could remember more of it now though.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Go take a break, I'll sail us for awhile."

I nodded and let her take the wheel and went below decks to get a bite. I was still in my feline form and as I was eating, I could hear Cenewyg and Stephanie talking in her cabin.

"I don't like him," I heard Cenewyg say.

"You sure seemed to like him a month ago," Stephanie laughed.

"We spent an entire extra month in that last place just so he could enjoy playing that noise to a bunch of idiots. We could have stormed that gate a lot sooner and got out of there when we first got to the city."

"We don't know that, Cen," he could hear Stephanie sigh, "besides which Aryanna's rather happy to be on good terms now with Sireen, that'll help if we have to come back through here later. So it was worth it."

“Then the bastard flaunted that big chest all over the place and would only sleep with you! I was left high and dry!”

"Really, Cen, I had no idea you found Will attractive!" Stephanie teased.

"And then you wouldn't sleep with me for the three months we were stuck there!" Cen said rather loudly.

"Well that was then and this is now. Unless you'd rather sleep alone tonight?" Stephanie said rather seductively.

From the sounds of what I heard next, I guess he wasn't planning on leaving so I grabbed my food and went back up on deck. I really had no desire to listen to them anymore.

Ten

“So what’s up between you and Cen?” I asked Dezba a few days later. I’d noticed they’d both been avoiding each other’s company.

“Nothing,” she replied. “Nothing at all.”

“Nothing as in ‘things are fine?’ Or nothing as in ‘you’re not having anything to do with each other anymore’?”

“The second one. Which reminds me, doing anything later on?” She asked grinning and leaning into me.

I laughed and shook my head. “Sleeping. I’m the only one who really knows how to sail now, so I need to actually sleep at night.”

She frowned at me, “What’s wrong? Did I piss you off or something?”

I looked at her, “Now why would you say that?”

“Because that’s twice now I’ve tried to drag you off and you’ve said no. Steph’s mentioned that you haven’t slept with her since you left that Sireen place.” She looked at me kind of sideways, “You don’t miss being a gal do you?”

“What?” I said looking at her rather surprised. “Where in the hell did you get that idea?” I laughed.

“I think Cen said something about you becoming a faggot or some such now that you’d been a woman and all that.”

I snorted, “He would say that.”

“Well is it true?”

I shook my head, “No it’s not.”

“Well then why don’t you want to go to bed with me?”

I sighed and looked at her, “A bunch of things really messed with my head back there, not the least of it was the music and the effect it was having on my mind. I tumbled into Steph’s bed half the time because the music we’d been performing had me hot and ready to go. Now that I’m not under that effect, I’m kind of just enjoying not being a creature of my lusts anymore. And well ....”

“Well what?”

I didn’t know if it was wise to tell her I was missing my wives, but I did trust Dezba, she seemed to play it straight. “I’m missing my women, that’s what,” I whispered. “I’m missing my home. I like Fel, I like my people, I even like Aryanna’s people and like to visit there as well.”

Dezba nodded, “Yeah, I wasn’t buying that bullshit about you just grabbing the hottest gal in town and getting your kicks on her.”

I laughed softly, “Stephanie told me to say that.”

“Oh don’t worry, I’m sure Cen bought it hook line and sinker, maybe Joseph too at first, but Aryanna told me she likes you, and I’ve learned that she doesn’t care much for assholes who abuse women.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, go right ahead,” Dezba said smiling.

“Are you still with your first god?”

She nodded, “Yup, been over a hundred and fifty years now. Steph’s the only one in the group who isn’t. I think she’s on her fourth one now. She’s been doing this a long time.”

“You planning on sticking with your god?”

“Diannion? Maybe. I’m on my second set of husbands; after the first set passed away, I stayed single for like fifty years until my current ones made a serious play for my affections. But when they pass on, I think I may just move on and work for someone else. It gets hard at times, losing friends and family to the ravages of time, but Diannion and his people are such a part of me. I’ve heard it said you never forget your first job, that when champions retire, most go back to the first sphere they ever worked in and retire there.”

“I still find it all so hard to accept, that a hundred years from now, I’ll still be young and alive. It’s such a strange gift that we have.”

“Don’t be so sure it’s a gift,” she said smirking.

I frowned and looked at her, “How’s that?”

“Well going on to your final reward, the afterlife, is supposed to be the gift. As champions, we’re denied that as long as we’re working, we are putting off nirvana to work for a bunch of spoiled brats who use and abuse us as they seem fit. Seems like more of a curse than a gift if you ask me!”

“Then why do it?”

She shrugged, “Somebody has to or the whole thing falls apart, we’re just the closet masochists who got talked into taking the job.”

I yawned and shook my head. “Well, I’m tired; go tell Steph that she can take a turn at the helm. I’m for my bunk.”

“Aye, aye, Captain!” Dezba teased and went below to get Steph who came up to take over with Cenewyg in tow.

Yawning, I made my way down into the cabin below deck as Dezba latched onto my arm and steered me into the small stateroom she’d been using. There were only two and Steph had claimed the other one, I’d been sleeping on the bunk in the main cabin.

“Dez,” I started.

“Hush, you don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to, but you’re not the only one missing somebody. Besides, it’ll shut Cen up.”

I chuckled, “Okay.”

We sailed through the portal the next day, with no real changes to our bodies that any of us could tell. We stayed a good distance offshore as we sailed, not wanting to encounter any of the people that lived here. One the fourth day, we ran into a rather stiff headwind, but I knew all about tacking into the wind so while it slowed us down a little, it didn’t hurt us all that much. If Joseph had been here sailing with us and had me working the sails for him we probably could have picked up speed.

That night however, we were hit by a nasty storm that the winds blew into us. I spent the next two days and nights at the wheel, keeping control of the boat as Dezba and Stephanie helped with the sails when I needed it. Cenewyg apparently came down with a nasty case of sea sickness.

“How bad is he?” I asked Dezba at one point.

“He’s faking it,” she told me, almost having to shout to be heard over the storm.

“How can you be sure?”

“He’s not dehydrated at all. Joseph told me all about sea sickness during that last really bad storm when the three of us got sick. He doesn’t want to be up on deck for some reason I guess.”

“That or he’s just lazy,” I laughed.

“I think he’s up to something,” she said.

“What’s Stephanie say?”

“I haven’t been able to ask her, we haven’t been up here on deck at the same time since the storm started.”

I nodded, “Check the foresail, I think the line’s slacking a bit.”

She nodded and went back up to the bow and I waited until she and Stephanie changed places sometime later.

“You doing okay?” She shouted

“I’ll survive, though I wouldn’t mind a break eventually. So what’s the story with Cen?” I yelled back.

“He says he’s seasick.”

“Do you believe him?”

She gave me a look that told me she wasn’t sure. “Why would he lie?”

“Why does he hate me now?”

“Oh he doesn’t hate you Will.”

“I overheard him telling you so last week,” I laughed at the look on her face. “Not my fault he’s loud.”

Dezba came running up on the deck then waving her arms.

“What’s wrong?” Stephanie yelled.

“One of the bilge valves broke open; it’s starting to flood the cabin!”

“Shit!”

“Take the wheel!” I yelled at Stephanie and then I followed Dezba down below. Sure enough we’d taken on about a foot of water and it was still coming in fast.

“Start pumping the bilge out!” I told her.

“How do I do that?”

“Give me a minute, let me stop this first.”

It didn’t take me long to check what was wrong with the valve, the handle on it had somehow broken off, so I stuffed some bedding into it and tied it off with a rope. It didn’t stop the water, but it slowed it down considerably.

“Okay, its back here,” I told her and opened the small passage to the back of the sailboat. I showed her the pump, which was really a big disk affair with a lever off the side that you worked back and forth. The intake was just a short piece of hose lying on the bottom of the hull.

“Just pull the lever back and forth, don’t try to force it. You should be able to keep ahead of the leak.”

“Okay, better get back on deck!” She said as the boat suddenly rolled hard to starboard.

“I would have thought she’d learned something about sailing by now,” I complained and headed back up as Dezba laughed.

“How bad is it?” Stephanie asked as I took the wheel from her and got us back on tack.

“Somehow the handle broke off the valve.” I told her.

“How did that happen?” She said looking surprised.

“I don’t know, I wasn’t down there. I can’t close it right now, I’ll need to find the tools and I can probably shut it then.”

“Are we going to sink?”

“I plugged it, and slowed it down. I think that should hold until this storm ends. You need to get below deck and help Dezba work the bilge pump.”

Stephanie nodded and looked at me. “I don’t think he tried to sink us.”

“I don’t care. Just make sure he gets his lazy ass out of bed and takes a turn on that pump.”

Stephanie nodded, “If he doesn’t I’ll tell him to get out and walk.”

I laughed and leaned over and kissed her, surprising her.

“What was that for?” She asked.

“For being the girl I fell in love with all those years ago,” I said smiling.

She blushed and left me, heading back below.

The storm broke about half a day after that. I took a nice long nap then went and found the tool box and was able to close the valve. About two hours later they had most of the water pumped out.

“So what’s the damage?” I asked Stephanie as she came back to the helm where I was sailing the boat.

“We lost over two thirds of our rations; we have enough for maybe five more days. We need to go ashore and find some more food.”

I swore. “Let me guess, Dezba and I go hunt while Cen stays here with you?”

Stephanie frowned, “No, he’s going with the two of you. I’ll stay and guard the boat, but that’s it.”

I nodded. “Well let’s find a place that’s a good one to land. Something we can get out of quickly if we have to.”

“Definitely, I don’t want to land along cliffs like the ones we’re sailing by,” she said motioning to the coastline. “Too hard to see anyone coming and it is a huge tactical disadvantage.”

“Okay, hopefully we can find a good place before the food runs out.”

We sailed for one more day until we found a good spot, without any cliffs. I anchored us out a good way from the shore, then the three of us piled into the small dingy and I rowed us in. Cenewyg wasn’t looking very happy, he didn’t want to come with us, but Stephanie hadn’t given him any choice in the matter.

“Well let’s see what’s around then,” Cenewyg said and started up the beach as I dragged the boat up above the high tide marks.

“Just be careful,” I grunted as I checked the oars and started to follow him, “This is supposed to be a nasty place.”

“Well looks just fine from here,” he said looking around. “I even see a small village off to the north there.”

Dezba and I joined him and looked.

“Well, now what?” Dezba said.

“Looks pretty small and harmless, I say we go see if they have any food we can barter for,” Cenewyg said.

“Sure why not?”

“What about the cannibals?” I asked.

“I see cows and sheep and farmer’s fields, I don’t think these people are cannibals.” Cenewyg said. “They look like farmers.”

I shrugged, “Okay fine. Let’s go.”

We set off trudging across the ground; at least it firmed up as we got closer to the village.

“Something look weird to you?” I asked as we drew closer.

“Yeah, this place is farther off than I thought.” Dezba said, “I think those buildings are a bit larger than we thought.”

“Giants?” I asked worried.

“Maybe, we’ll see when we get closer.”

“Let’s scout out that farm over there,” Cenewyg said pointing off to the west a bit. “Maybe we can get what we need without having to go into town.”

“Sure, sounds good.”

As we drew closer to the farm several of the farm hands noticed us. Cenewyg waved and they waved back, and as we drew closer we noticed that all of them were bigger than we were. Probably ten foot tall to my own six.

“Damn,” Dezba said.

“What?” I asked.

“I hate dealing with Giants; they always seem to have an attitude.”

“Greetings,” Cenewyg said to the first one we approached, “We were wondering if we could trade for some food.”

“I don see ya carry much. Wha’s have you fer trade?” The giant replied looking us over. He was rather strong looking and had quite a few scars on his body. The kind you didn’t get from working in a field.

“Gold? If you can not use it, I’m sure those in town might want it.”

“Yas, gold will trade. Wha’s you wan for trade?”

“Food stuffs.”

“Ah, foods. Come folla me, the barns where ye be wantin whas we have fer tradin.”

Cenewyg nodded and we followed him, I noticed Dezba had a hand on her sword and I started doing the same.

When we got to the barn the one leading us, along with a couple of others who had just ‘drifted over’ suddenly attacked.

“Fresh blood!” One of them yelled and I didn’t even think twice as I shifted into my champion form and attacked. With the time shift and all of us using our champion forms it didn’t last terribly long, we slaughtered them fairly quickly, as well as any others who came over to join the fight.

“Shit,” Cenewyg said, “I see a few running for town.”

“Well, let’s see what’s here and what we can grab.” I said and opened the doors to the barn. “Nothing in here, except a handcart.”

“Spread out, check the outbuildings,” Cenewyg said and headed for the house.

I searched around and found another building with a bunch of smoked sides of beef hanging from the ceiling. I grabbed two and ran outside to toss them in the handcart, then went and got two more. Dezba had found sacks of vegetables and tossed a couple of loads of them in as well. Cenewyg came out of the house with what looked like several large wheels of cheese wrapped up in a large cloth.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said and with him and me grabbing the cart, we started to head back to the boat as fast as we could pull it.

“Anyone chasing us?” I asked as we cleared the farm.

“Not that I see yet,” Dezba said.

I nodded and we continued to haul as fast as we could over the uneven ground. At least things weren’t falling out. I think we’d covered about a quarter of the distance when I heard Dezba swear.

“Well, they’re on to us,” she said. “Looks to be a lot of them too.”

“Think they’ll catch us before we get back to the beach?” Cenewyg asked.

“Yup.”

“We’ll all stop and fight when they draw close.” I said.

“Then none of us will get back.” Cenewyg said. “Dezba, when they start getting close attack them.”

“Why me?”

“Because Will and I can pull the cart faster than you.”

I heard her sigh, “You’re right of course. This is gonna suck. Might as well take them on here. See you around I guess.”

I grunted and just kept pulling.  I guess it was about fifteen minutes later that they caught up to Dezba, cause that was when the yelling began, followed shortly by a lot of screaming as she attacked them. I don’t know how long she lasted, but it was at least as long as they’d taken to catch up to her.

When we got to the beach, I started tossing everything into the boat as Cenewyg started to push it into the water. I heard them before I saw them, and drawing both of my swords, I turned and started to run back up the hill.

“Better start rowing!” I yelled back at Cenewyg, “I bet these guys can swim just fine.”

I clashed with them at the top of the hill, and immediately started to back up, moving down towards the beach as I fought. There had to be at least fifty of them and I wondered how many Dezba had killed before they got her.  They definitely had a size and reach advantage, as well as numbers, but I was stronger and faster.

However, when the ones in the back started throwing rocks, rocks the size of my head, I knew I was in trouble. I probably killed twenty of them, and seriously wounded half that before one of them took a rock to the back of the head with such force that his dead body pitched forward into mine rather unexpectedly.

I got pinned and killed shortly after that.

#                    #                    #                    #

The trip home was not exactly what I expected. No god or goddess in this sphere paid me the slightest bit of attention, which I guess meant that I didn’t die in anyone’s area of influence.

I moved onto Circe’s next.

“Well hello there,” she said to me and patted the spot on the couch next to where she was sitting. I took the hint and went and sat next to her. I was still in my Champion form, which I guess made sense when I thought about it.

“So ran into the cannibals I see.”

I nodded and sighed. “I think Cen managed to get away though, with Stephanie.”

“Cen, he was the rude one, right?”

I nodded.

“Yes, he got away. If he had died I would have seen him go by.”

“Umm, can I ask something?”

Circe smiled and put her hand on my chest. “You’re here because the only pathway back to your Feliogustus’s sphere is through my sphere. There used to be several other powerful gods and goddesses in this sphere, but due to the shifting of the Infinite their power has waned while mine has grown. So I had ‘first pick’ when you came through.

“Now normally I would have just ignored you, but I found you to be rather intriguing shall I say. You were not originally born in that form, but you do seem to be rather comfortable with it.”

I smiled and shrugged, “How’s Joseph doing?”

“Oh Joseph is doing quite well, he is happy with me as his goddess and I am most happy with his desires and attitude. But I’d rather discuss you instead.”

“I’m flattered,” I confessed. “How long will I be here?”

“About three days, you’re not far enough away for the time to shorten appreciatively.” She smiled and patted my furry chest again, “Now, it has been such a long time since I’ve been graced with a guest, let’s talk.”

I spent my time in Circe’s realm rather enjoyably. She was not like any of the gods or goddesses I had met to date, not that I had met many of course. But she was more earthy in some ways, more ‘human’ I guess is the best way to describe it, than others. She was quite interesting and yes, rather sensual. I was very flattered by her attentions, she was also very curious about the worlds I had been to and the worlds beyond. I developed the impression that this was once a very busy place, but no longer was.

When my time to go came, I honestly felt a little sad. While her views on men were perhaps a bit strong, overall she was a nice person – or goddess rather.

I was not surprised to find myself drawn into Sireen’s presence next.

“Ah, Will, it is good to see you again, please, join me.”

I got my bearings, this was a bit different, but in a way it made sense. We were on a stage overlooking the sea and there were instruments everywhere. I noticed then that I was in the female form I had lived in while in her realm.

“I thought you’d find it easier to play like that,” she said confirming my suspicion as it crossed my mind. “I really enjoyed a lot of those songs you brought from your home. Sadly, we get few travelers from there anymore, fewer still that have the appreciation for music that you seem to.

“So if you don’t mind?” She said gesturing to the guitar by her side.

I smiled and bowed, then picked it up and started to play one of the songs in my head, with her accompanying me.

The accompaniment part was a little strange at first, because while I just played guitar, she played all of the other instruments required, and sang background or accompanying vocals as necessary. All at the same time.

I did my best not to let it distract me, she was after all a goddess, and this was her personal realm outside the laws of reality. I did get used to it eventually and while we would stop every once in a while to take a break and discuss the music we had been playing, almost all of my time spent there was spent performing with her.

I think I learned more about music theory than I realized existed in that time. It was a lot of fun, however I wasn’t looking forward to the torture that I knew was only a couple of stops away.

“Oh don’t worry about that, Will,” she told me as soon as the thought had crossed my mind. “Your soul always takes the shortest path, and the one of least resistance. You’ve got two more jumps and then you’re home.”

“Oh, thanks,” I said sincerely. Knowing I would miss that insanity was quite reassuring.

The next two jumps were rather quick from my perspective. No one bothered me; no one cared, so I was just pushed along with no seeming passage of time until I ended up in Fel’s tavern once more.

The first thing I did was hug him, I think it surprised him, but truth was I had missed him. “It’s nice to be back home,” I told him smiling.

“Apparently! I hate to tell you this, but I’m sending you back out almost immediately.”

“Oh?” I said looking surprised. “Why?”

“Aryanna doesn’t think that Stephanie can succeed on her task with just Cenewyg helping.”

“She doesn’t trust him anymore either, does she?”

“Now I didn’t say that,” Fel admonished me lightly.

“Yeah well, I’m starting to think I’m the last one coming around to that point of view. So how will I catch up with them?”

“Circe has agreed to help, you’ll start from her sphere and she’ll turn both you and Dezba into giant birds so you can catch up.”

I blinked, “Wow, that’s awfully nice of her.”

Fel grinned, “Joseph was a set up, Aryanna knew they’d be perfect for each other, so this is Circe’s returning the favor.”

I shook my head smiling, “I should have known. Can I at least spend a few hours with my wife?”

Fel nodded, “Yes, I can let you do that.”

“Is there anything you can tell me that might help?”

Fel smiled, “There is no golden fleece involved, but if you think about it you should be able to figure out where you’re going.”

“Cenewyg has already, hasn’t he?”

“I suspect so.”

“Does he know what we’re after?”

“None of us know if he does or not, even his own god doesn’t know, and that’s what worries me.”

“That gives me uncomfortable thoughts, Fel.”

“I know, I can hear them and I’m going to erase them before I re-incarnate you.”

“What?” I said surprised.

“This is important, I don’t want you acting on those thoughts at the wrong time, or worse yet someone seeing those thoughts if you should die again before this is finished. They might get the wrong idea.”

I shook my head and sighed, “Can I at least have them back when this is all over with?”

Fel smiled, “Of course.”

“Thanks, now I think I’ll go outside and meet the faithful while I wait for you to send me back.”

“Of course.”

I went outside to the mirror of the city and did just that, I spent time with the recently departed; catching up with them on things I’d missed over the last several months as they moved through this realm to their final reward in Fel’s heaven. It definitely passed the time rather quickly and suddenly I found myself in the temple where I was rather lustfully assaulted by the high priestess; then went home to an even more lustful assault by my wife, Queen Rachel.

Fel let me spend the night, but come the morning I was off. Interestingly, the way they did it was to have Joseph open a portal to Aryanna’s sphere with Aryanna’s and Circe’s help. Dezba and I had already gated there directly with our respective god’s help. I think the whole process probably took an hour.

“Okay,” Circe told us as we stood out in front of her home, Joseph was now a lion, apparently they both liked him like that. “I will be turning you both into giant eagles. You will fly to the next sphere and from there you will fly to where Aryanna has told you that Stephanie now is. Once you get there, shifting to your champion form will break the spell.”

We both nodded.

“Don’t worry about knowing how to fly, that is part of the spell.”

“What about our armor and weapons?” I asked. We were both now kitted out in rather nice sets of hard leather that Aryanna's church guard had provided us along with new swords and such.

“Those will also be taken care of by the spell.”

“Thank you, Circe,” Dezba said.

“Yes, thank you, Circe,” I echoed.

“You’re welcome. And if you ask my opinion, you’ll get rid of that Cenewyg person the first chance you get. Now him I’d like to get into my personal realm for a few days,” and the look she gave made Dezba and I both shiver.

Circe waved a hand and suddenly everything looked and felt rather different.

“Well off you go!” She said smiling.

Eleven

Flying was different. It was also a lot of fun.

“She doesn’t like Cen much, does she?” Dezba said after we flew through the portal. I was surprised that we were able to talk to each other like this.

“I think she only likes me because I’m part cat now.”

“What about Joseph?”

“Well, he’s already convinced as to the ‘natural order of things.’” I laughed.

“Yeah, Cen is definitely not one of those.”

We flew on in quiet for quite a while then. Aryanna had told us where Stephanie and Cenewyg were at this point, and it wasn’t good. We’d left them nineteen days ago and in that time they’d been forced to go ashore and look for rations again. They were near the next portal, but for some reason they needed to get food now before going through it.

While looking for what food they could find, they were attacked by a group of locals; unfortunately this group was being led by the local champion. At this point they were holed up in a cave and hoping the locals would get bored and go away.

It was dark when we got there, we could see the campfires of the group that was waiting outside the cave. There really was quite a few of them.

“This isn’t going to be easy,” Dezba said as we circled the area, high enough not to be heard. At least we could see well enough in the moonlight.

“Well, you know what they say,” I said flexing my talons; I wondered just how much weight a giant eagle could carry.

“No, I don’t know what they say.”

“Death from above!” I laughed and tucking my wings, I dove.

Coming out of the dive I leveled off and talons leading I was able to grab one of the defenders that was on guard and pick him up. THAT was quite a shock when I hit him, my body kept moving and I had to start flapping like crazy as his body swung beneath me, obviously snatching prey off of the ground wasn’t as easy as I had thought!

I think I got up to a couple hundred feet before he started to struggle, I guess my hit had stunned them. So I just let him go and wheeled over to my right to try and grab another one.

I managed to pick off that one and one more, before the alarm was raised in camp. Dezba had gotten five total, but then she had been smarter than me. She’d picked them up by their heads, which had wrung their necks and killed them instantly.

We dropped in amongst them then and shifted to our champion forms, and drawing our weapons, the fight was on.

It started off as a slaughter, it was dark and we could see in it rather well, also we had a considerable advantage, and it wasn’t just our strength as they were all about twelve feet tall.

We had depth perception. They were cyclops, all of them. In the dark they had very little in the way of visual cues to judge distance and so we were able to use that to great advantage. Their leader quickly saw the way things were going and started to pull his people back as Stephanie and Cenewyg sallied forth from the cave they’d been in and joined us.

“How did the two of you get here?” Cenewyg asked us looking rather surprised.

“Magic,” Dezba said, “Now let’s get out of here before they have time to regroup.”

“We still need more food!”

“Well, we’re not going to get it here, so let’s go!” She snarled at him.

“Yes, let’s get back to the boat, if it’s still there,” Stephanie agreed and took the lead.

“How far is the boat?” Dezba asked.

“Couple of hours run.”

“Why the hell so far?” Dezba asked annoyed.

“We wanted to make sure we had a good place to hide it. Then we just kept coming up without finding anything until we ran across this lot. Found quite a few sheep and a few shepherds along the way, but apparently they don’t like humans, well other than to eat I suppose.”

“Yeah, Cyclops are flesh eaters and they have a taste for humans,” I said. “We really need to get away from here and just sail through to the next sphere.”

“But we need food!” Cenewyg complained.

“What’s wrong with getting it in the next sphere?” Dezba asked.

“Yes, Cen, what is wrong with the next sphere?” I asked him as Stephanie picked up the pace and we all started to jog.

“It’s just best we don’t leave anything to chance, that’s all, we don’t know what the next sphere holds.”

“We didn’t know what this sphere held either until we got here,” Dezba said, “this is just another one of those long and horribly obnoxious odysseys that the gods and goddesses all love so much!”

Cenewyg stumbled then and I almost stumbled as well. Sireens, women singing by the shore, Circe, now cyclops, this wasn’t Jason and the freaking Argonauts! This was the Odyssey! Homer’s Odyssey! I wracked my brain and tried to remember what came next; we were obviously heading the other way than in the story, so Troy was the goal, or someplace near Troy, I guessed.

I kept my face blank, I was sure Cenewyg was looking at me to see if I had figured it out as I thought about it a few minutes. Eventually I remembered: the Lotus Eaters were next. I glanced back at Cenewyg, he knew where we were going all right, but none of this gave me any clue as to what we might be looking for.

Or why his knowing mattered.

We ran the rest of the night in silence; I could see Stephanie looked worried. Considering some of the looks Dezba was giving Cenewyg, I guess I could understand why.

The ship was fine, and when we got onboard, I immediately set to rigging the sails and getting us out of there. I’m sure we’d been followed and I was sure they’d show up eventually. I wanted us to be underway by then. There was a champion out there and I wasn’t sure he was going to just let us go.

“Steph!” I called once I got us underway.

“Yes?” She asked coming over to me.

“Which way to the portal?”

“From here? Northwest by west should get us close enough to feel it.”

I nodded and spun the wheel, which would take us quickly away from the shore.

“But we’re still debating it.”

“Why?” I asked and then lowered my voice; Dezba and Cen were having a rather heated conversation over the food issue. “Do you know where we’re going next?”

“Umm,” she hesitated.

“Dammit, Steph, don’t start doing this to me now. I only got to spend a few hours with Rachel and I haven’t seen Darlene in months! I sure as hell don’t want to be here, and I sure don’t give a flying fuck about whatever the hell it is we’re after,” I said angrily. “I’m here for you, I’m here for Ary, and I’m here for Fel. Now either level with me or let me go home. I’m not in love with myself like Cen, you of all people should know that. So just level with me, do you know what’s coming next?”

“Yes, I do.”

“So why is food such an issue?”

“Because it’s all drugged.”

“All or just some?”

“All.”

“Are you sure of that?” I asked.

Steph stared at me. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“Homer’s tale stated that only the people who ate the lotus became drugged. You can eat the food that’s left on the boat, the rest of us will eat what’s there and avoid the lotus completely and as much of the other plants as much as possible.”

“How long have you known, Will?” She asked sounding concerned.

“Just figured it out, I thought we were going for the Golden Fleece or some such thing until something Dezba said jarred it all loose.”

Stephanie gave a long sigh and looked at the other two who were still arguing. “I wish I knew what was up with Cen.”

“You loved him, didn’t you?”

Stephanie gave me a sharp glance

“Oh please, I know you have feelings for me, or at least had as recently as back in Sireen,” I said and smirked at her and she actually blushed.

“Cen doesn’t love you anymore, Steph,” I said softly.

“And you know this how?” She retorted.

“Because if he still did, you wouldn’t have taken that tone of voice just now.”

“Maybe you’re just jealous?”

“I feel about you the way you feel about him, Steph,” I told her.

“And how would you know about that?” She said glaring.

“Because I spent three months as a woman being very intimate with someone who was once the most important person in the world to me.” I said with a sigh looking down at my feet.

She opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it and I could see the anger that had been building in her fade away.

“Is there something you want to tell me?” She asked softly.

“When this is over,” I said and smiled gently at her. “When you’ve gotten your sense of humor back.”

Stephanie smiled at me, “Well at least that doesn’t sound like you’re going to profess your undying love and devotion!”

“Oh you have that already, however you’re after Rachael and Darlene now,” I grinned, “Sorry about that, but I did marry them!”

Stephanie laughed, “Yes, yes you did.” She turned to the other two, “Dezba! Cen!” She shouted and they looked back at us. “We’re making directly for the portal.”

“Are you sure?” Cenewyg asked looking at Stephanie and then me.

“Yes, I’m sure. We’ll deal with the food issue as it comes. Dezba, Will, you two can take the first watch, Cen and I haven’t slept in days so we’ll rest now.”

“Aye, aye, Captain!” I said and saluted.

“Oh shut up,” She laughed and left to go below decks, with Cenewyg following her.

“So what were you two talking about?” Dezba asked coming over and sitting down next to me.

“Noticed that did you?”

“Why do you think I was arguing with Cen? Didn’t want him to overhear whatever you two were going on about.”

“We discussed the food issue mostly, then a few personal things.”

“Oh yeah, Cen would have just loved that!” Dezba laughed.

“Sometimes I wonder what the people he’s a champion for are like, what his god is like. He’s not the sharing and caring kind after all.”

Dezba laughed, “Most champions are pretentious assholes, Will.”

I raised an eyebrow and looked at her, “Really? Steph isn’t, you sure don’t seem to be.”

She shrugged, “I used to be, but I grew up. Steph either never was or grew out of it long before I met her. What about you?”

I grinned, “I have my moments, but I think Aryanna or Fel would bring me up rather short if I ever took on airs.”

“I think Cen set us up at that farm,” Dezba said surprising me.

“Why makes you say that?”

“That valve didn’t break by itself; somebody broke it in order to ruin enough of the food so we’d have to stop. Remember how Joseph said that Cen knew where we are going?”

“He said he thought Cen knew where we were going,” I corrected.

“Then how does he know that food is going to be an issue in the next sphere? And if he does know, he had to have known that the giants we ran into, as well as those cyclops having a taste for human flesh. Hell, you even knew that about the cyclops!”

I thought about that, she had a point, and as I recalled what I knew about Homer’s tale, I did seem to recall that bit. And then of course Circe had warned us about cannibals as well. And Cenewyg knew that I had been told by Stephanie to keep him alive because she believed he knew where we were going as well.

“Do you know where we’re going?” Dezba asked rather pointedly.

“I suspect, I don’t know,” I told her. “All of this is part of the mythology of our world, well the Greek mythology,” I corrected when I saw her about to interrupt. “Which of course is why you don’t know any of it.

“So you really think Cen’s trying to kill us off?”

Dezba nodded. “Yes, and I think he was hoping to get Stephanie killed off in that search for food of theirs when we showed up. He didn’t exactly look happy to see us. Surprised? Yes. Happy? No.”

“So what do we do then?”

“Kill him obviously.” She said with a rather nasty smile.

“Can’t,” I sighed.

“Why not?”

“Because then all the gods of the realms he passes through can pick his brains and figure out where we’re going and maybe even what Aryanna has us looking for.”

She scowled and thought about that. “Yeah, you’re right. So what do we do?”

I shrugged, “Still thinking about that one. For all we know he may just be trying to one up all of us and curry favor with Aryanna over the rest of us.”

Dezba nodded slowly as she thought about that, “Yeah, he is petty enough to do something like that.”

We sailed for a while quietly thinking about that.

“Two things occur to me,” She said after a few hours.

“Oh? And what would those two things be?”

“Well, the first is that you’re in the same boat as Cen now.”

I looked at her surprised, “How so?”

“Well you know where we’re going, so it would probably be best that you didn’t get killed again.”

I laughed at that, “Maybe, but I have no idea at all what we’re going after.”

She nodded, “Fair point.”

“What’s the other thing?”

“I think that’s a ship heading for us,” she said and pointed off the starboard beam.

I looked over and swore. “Damn and they’re coming at us rather fast too.”

“How far is the portal?”

“No idea.”

“Guess I better go wake the others.”

I nodded, “Guess so.”

“So the portal is at least an hour away,” Stephanie said looking at the other ship.

“And they’ll catch us in about half that,” I said looking over at the other ship. It was fairly large, a lot larger than our craft and it had two good-sized square sails, the second one was a good deal larger than the one it sat behind. It also had oars, which were being rowed rather quickly, which was why it was gaining on us.

“So that’s a Trireme, I think it has a ram on the prow at the water line.”

“Probably,” Cenewyg said.

“Looks like about sixty oars on this side,” I said counting. I noticed there were only two rows of oars instead of three and mentioned it.

“Probably because they’re so large and strong they didn’t need or couldn’t build the third row,” Cenewyg commented.

“So that’s what, one hundred and twenty, plus whatever other crew they have?”

“Rowers don’t fight,” Cenewyg said.

“Sure about that?” Dezba asked as we watched them draw closer.

“Well that’s how the Greeks did it, and if they’re copying the Greeks I’d expect the same behavior. Then again, once we kill the rest of the crew, who knows?”

“How many do you think they have that are fighters?” Stephanie asked looking over the ship like the rest of us. As it was bigger than ours was, we couldn’t see the deck at all.

“After the way we beat them onshore I’d think they’d have as many of them there as they could fit.” Dezba said.

“Well, turn the boat into them and come up along side them. If we let them ram us they’ll destroy the boat. We’ll all climb up the sides and take the fight to them.” Stephanie said looking at us.

“What about the oars?” I asked.

“Dez and Cen and I will stand up front and hack them off with our swords. Hopefully this will slow them down once we’ve done enough damage to sail away.”

I nodded and got ready to turn us about. I had Dezba and Cenewyg drop all but the mainsail. I didn’t need that much speed at this point. I also tied a line to the rail of the ship and tossed it overboard.

“What’s that for?” Stephanie asked.

“In case any of us end up in the water, it’ll be easier to climb back on board.”

“Ah,” she nodded.

“Okay! Coming about!” I called out and turned us into the other ship. We could hear yelling and orders as soon as they realized what we were doing, surprisingly the top row of oars all stopped and they were pulled inside as the lower rows slowed.

“This is going to get nasty really quickly,” Dezba said and then swore as they all took their stations up by the bow.

I was too busy trying to keep us from getting rammed as they did try to turn into us, but our shorter length kept them from being able to turn inside us and do that. As we finally managed to come along side of them the hull of our boat started to snap the oars of the lower row that were still out, which helped slow us. Then several grappling hooks came over the side and hooked to the rails of our boat as they pulled us closer.

I could see that the openings for the upper level of rowers were actually quite large and both Dezba and Cenewyg jumped up and pulled themselves inside the boat as those seats were all unoccupied. My guess was those rowers were now up on the deck. From the screams and yells I started to hear as soon as they were aboard I guessed the lower row of oarsmen was now being attacked.

Stephanie followed Dezba’s path into the ship, but I just ran over and jumped as high as I could, and then grabbing onto the planks of the wooden ship with my claws I climbed up and over the side to drop down behind a group of very confused cyclops sailors who were all looking towards the rear of the boat, which was where I guessed their champion was.

His warnings proved too late however as I attacked, killing a good half dozen from behind before they realized I was not where I was supposed to be. But they got their act together rather quickly after that and the ones trying to go below decks all turned and attacked me rather fiercely.

As fights go, it was a tough one, because they were almost as strong as I was, and they had a longer reach. However, I had my champion’s speed and the ability to heal myself, though nowhere near the extent I would have had healed myself back in Fel’s sphere. I was also lucky that due to the way the ship was constructed that I only faced two or three at a time.

The view below decks was worse, there really wasn’t a lot of space down there and there were obstructions everywhere. The other three weren’t that far from me, but with all the bodies between them and me, I couldn’t see anything.

When I finally killed everything above decks, I started to attack things below decks, using the central opening that ran down the ship that gave access to the top row of oarsmen seats. I could see that Dezba and Cenewyg were fighting the local champion, both of them constrained by the lack of space and the other fighters down there. Stephanie was guarding their backs from the other fighters that were attacking, giving quite a good accounting of herself. Those below were fighting a lot better however with their champion there, and of course the local champion had access to all of his healing spells.

Suddenly I felt it, the portal! We must have still been moving from the sails of the trireme, which were still set. Stephanie looked up and saw me then, obviously having felt it as well.

“Set fire to the ship, Will!”

I nodded and ran to the back of the ship where the helmsmen sat and sure enough, there were a couple of lanterns. Dumping their oil out onto the deck I used a simple cantrip and got the oil lit then ran back to where Stephanie was. The back of the ship started to burn rather well then, the fire picking up speed quickly.

“Done!” I yelled to her and she nodded.

“Everyone retreat!” She called out and then turned and made her way back to our ship.

I did what I could to harass the ones attacking Dezba and Cenewyg to help them retreat.

“Retreat, Cen! I can handle this!” Dezba yelled.

Cenewyg nodded and started to pull back, but stumbled over something and as I watched, he fell back kicking up an oar that hit Dezba square in the back just as the cyclops champion thrust forward. Without the ability to move back and half stunned from the blow in the back, he ran her right through with his sword. She hacked at him several times before she died and I could tell he was pretty badly hurt, but he healed the worst of it as I watched.

“Your ship is on fire!” I yelled at him as he freed his sword from Dezba’s body. Cenewyg, I noticed had already scrambled back to his feet and was jumping off the ship and back onto our boat.

He looked at the fire and then back at me a moment, I could see he was torn between putting out the fire, or fighting me. I looked back and could see our boat pulling away so sheathing my swords, I ran back to the bow and dove off the side into the water. He could try to come after me if he wanted to, but three to one odds didn’t favor him and he had to be getting low on healing spells at this point.

I saw a line and I grabbed it as I came up to the surface. It was from one of the grappling hooks that had been attached to our boat. As I was pulling myself up along it, I felt it suddenly go slack and looking up I saw Cenewyg walking away from it, back turned.

“Bastard,” I swore softly and started to swim as fast as I could for the boat. It came around then and I saw the line I had tied to the back rail was still on, and Stephanie was at the wheel. I snagged that quickly and pulled myself up to the boat as fast as I could.

“Steph!” I called as I touched the stern.

“Will?” She turned and looked down at me. “Cen said you didn’t make it off.”

“He would. Give me a hand here, would you?”

She nodded and leaning over grabbed my hand and helped pull me up onboard, whatever the hull of this boat was made from, it was pretty resistant to my claws so I couldn’t use them easily, unlike the way I had on the wooden trireme.

I went and set the sails as Stephanie sailed the ship and Cenewyg looked at me with a puzzled expression. I wondered if he had seen me when he cut that line. I also wondered if that oar getting kicked up into Dezba’s back had been an accident? I resolved to lock the door on my cabin when I slept at night and not to turn my back on him anymore. If he did have plans of his own, he’d be trying to kill me soon enough. I just wondered if and when he’d try to kill Stephanie?

Twelve

“Okay, this place is weird,” I said looking at myself and then my two companions. Apparently, everyone’s ‘natural form’ in this sphere was whatever your original body was before you left home. So I was back to being a six foot guy who weighed about one hundred and eighty pounds and was in fairly good shape. This was pretty average for a young man who exercised back where I came from.

Stephanie was now about five foot even, with light blue skin, and a rather impressive bust, but also looked to be in pretty decent shape as well. I tried not to drool, she actually looked incredibly attractive.

Cenewyg however didn’t fair as well. While in decent shape, I wasn’t sure he’d be able to beat up Stephanie in a fair fight, and there was no way he’d beat me. Plus he was only an inch taller than Stephanie. I knew people were shorter back then, but I suspect he may have been even shorter than average.

“How are we supposed to get anything done like this?” Cenewyg complained yet again. “We can’t even access our champion forms here!”

“Or anything else,” Stephanie said and looked at me, “put your tongue back in, Will.”

I smiled at her, “Now I see why women rule your world!”

Stephanie sighed, but she was smiling.

“This really cocks the whole thing up,” Cenewyg complained again.

Now it was my turn to sigh, “Cen, you went through one of the nastiest wars our sphere has ever seen like that and as I understand it you did rather well.”

“Easy for you to say, you’re still tall!” He grumbled.

“Hate to tell you this, Cen, but where I came from, I was average height. Half my friends were taller than me.”

He glared at me; I started to wonder if he had issues with anyone taller than himself on top of everything else. I’d had a dean like that in college, he was all of five feet tall and the taller you were, the more he hated you. One of my dorm mates was six-foot-ten and it was all he could do to keep from being thrown out of college by the dean, and he was an ‘A’ student.

“So now what?” I asked Stephanie.

“Well, we only have food for three more days, so we need to land as soon as possible.”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” I said, “As everyone appears to worry about the food here, it’s probably best if only you eat the food we have onboard. Cen and I will be the guinea pigs, if we aren’t affected by it, then you can try it.”

“Why should I have to suffer?” Cenewyg complained.

“I think that’s a good idea, Will,” Stephanie agreed, earning me another look from Cenewyg.

“Any idea where I should head us?” I asked getting up from the table and heading back above. The winds were calm but steady as was the sea so I’d locked the wheel to the mainsail and came down here to talk for a few.

“Just bring us closer to the coast and look for a good place to land. I suspect you and Cen are going to be pretty hungry by nightfall.”

“Aye, aye, Captain!” I said smiling and went do to as she said.

As I sailed I pondered what she had told us, none of our champion abilities worked here, we couldn’t heal, we couldn’t do our little cantrips, I couldn’t do the eyes and ears bit for Fel. I could feel him in the back of my mind where his presence usually lurked, but it felt muted somehow. I was very curious as to if he’d be in my dreams the next time I slept.

But this most likely meant as well that the speed increase I got whenever I was in a fight or other dangerous situation I wouldn’t be able to get here. That meant that not only would I have to rely more on my abilities, but I’d have to keep my wits about me, because I wouldn’t be clued in that something was wrong by everything around me suddenly slowing down.

“So he any good in bed now?” I teased Stephanie when she came back up to join me sometime later.

“Will,” she growled and lightly slapped me on the arm, “that’s rude.”

“Yeah well, so is he. He tried to leave me back in that last sphere.”

“You can’t be sure of that, Will,” Stephanie said softly.

“Well, he cut the line I was using to haul myself back to the boat. If I hadn’t set that other line I would have been left behind.”

“You don’t know that for sure, Will, you even said when you looked up his back was to you.”

“I also think he intentionally kicked that oar into Dezba’s back, so she’d be killed.”

Stephanie stopped and gave me a look. “Do you honestly think that?”

“I just know that I don’t trust him anymore, Steph. He knew about the Giants, yet he led us to their farm. He knew about the Cyclops yet he led you to their town. Hell, he probably knew about the cattle and the sheep, but he still got Dezba to kill one.” I shook my head and looked back at her, “If you told him to leave right now do you think he would?”

“Would you, Will?”

“Of course I would, this is your mission, you’re in charge. Besides,” I grinned at her, “I haven’t seen Darlene in months! Trust me; I’d be gone so fast you’d hear the thunderclap from the air rushing to fill the space I’d just left!”

Stephanie nodded slowly, “Yeah, you would. Plus I know you’re still in love with me.”

I blushed and looked off the bow ahead of us. “Well, yeah.”

“It’s okay, Will; I used to have feelings for Cen, but not anymore, but you? Joseph? Yeah, I still have a thing for the two of you. Too bad we sort of lost him.”

“So, see you tonight?” I teased trying to cover up my embarrassment.

“Of course, Cen won’t sleep with me like this.”

“Why not?” I said surprised, “It’s pretty damn sexy.”

“The fault,” she said grinning, “lies with him, not me.”

“Oh,” I said and tried not to smirk. Apparently Cen had other issues with this form than just his lack of height.

I found us a good harbor a couple of hours before sunset. Sailing into it, I was surprised to see that there was a small village there, but there wasn’t a dock of any sort. I did see small boats pulled up out of the water along the shore, not a lot of them, but more than a dozen.

As I got closer and dropped anchor, I noticed that the boats were all of varying designs, one was even a decent sized sailing vessel that must have either been run ashore at high tide, or blown up there by a storm.

“Well, lets get the dinghy and go ashore,” I said and went to unlash it from atop the cabin where we kept it stowed.

“Who is staying with the boat?” Cenewyg asked.

“Nobody,” Stephanie said. “Pack your gear; we may not be coming back this way.”

I was surprised but didn’t say anything about it. Maybe we weren’t going to Troy after all.

“Are you sure?” Cenewyg said obviously surprised as well.

“Of course I’m sure.”

“Help me with this, Steph?” I asked as Cenewyg went below decks.

“Sure,” she said and between the two of us, we got it lowered next to our sailboat.

We both went and got our packs, Stephanie packed most of the remaining food in hers, and splitting between Cenewyg and myself the small amount she didn’t have space for. Getting into the dinghy next, I rowed us to shore.

“Anyone else notice that almost each of the boats is of a different kind?” I asked looking at the shore.

“So?” Cenewyg asked.

“You’d expect them to mostly be the same if this is a low-tech fishing village.”

“Most of them look like they’re rotting, probably haven’t been used in ages.”

“That’s about what I’d say as well,” Stephanie said looking at the boats as we finally pulled up to the beach.

“Well, let’s go see what’s up,” I said and dragged the dinghy up past the high water mark after the others had gotten out.

I followed Steph and Cen as we walked to the village; there were plants everywhere, though almost all of them were the same kind, large green leafy plants with large flowers. Each of which had a center part that looked something like a big fat green cookie with bumps on the top.

When we got to the village, the villagers were all sitting around eating those very centers, the bumpy part turned out to be acorn-like nuts that were apparently not that hard to chew as they ate that along with the rest of the center, or seedpod I guess is what it was.

“Hi!” One of them said staggering to his feet and coming over to us, “Would you like some food?” And he offered Stephanie one of the pods.

“No, who are you?”

“Oh, I’m Ryan. I live in that hut,” he pointed off to the side. “Want to see it?”

“Sure,” she said and we all followed Ryan to his hut.

“I built it when I first got here, back when, well back when whenever it was,” he said waving his hands in the air dismissively. “A lot of folks just wait for an empty one, but it’s not that hard really.”

We went inside and to be honest, considering the mild climate, it wasn’t that bad. The frame looked like it had been made from tree limbs that had been cut to size and lashed into place. The ceiling and walls were obviously sail canvass.

The furnishings were also obviously salvaged from one of the boats out there as well, there were several chairs that looked like deck chairs, and a large bed on the far side from the door. The floor itself appeared to be woven mats of some kind of plant fiber.

“You from here, Ryan?” Stephanie asked.

“Here? Oh no, I came from an island way far away. Was out sailing with some friends and we got caught in a storm. Real bad storm. Ended up here eventually. It’s nice here, so I stayed.”

“What happened to your friends?” I asked curious.

“Well, Jen’s around here somewhere, sometimes she sleeps here with me, sometimes with someone else. Phil went for a walk one day and still hasn’t come back. Not sure where Jeri is anymore.”

“Your friend went for a walk and didn’t come back?” Stephanie asked surprised. “Why didn’t you go look for him?”

“Oh I will eventually, but he hasn’t been gone that long, so what’s the rush?”

“How long ago did he leave?”

“Uhmm, I don’t know, I was too busy building my hut to pay too much attention.”

I looked at the hut; it had been here a while, years. I looked at Steph and she shrugged at me.

“Are there any animals around here?” Cenewyg asked Ryan.

“Oh yeah, all sorts. I think. Not sure. Some people say to watch out for the striped and spotted ones.”

“Okay, I think we’ll look around a bit more,” Stephanie said.

“Oh you can sleep with me, I like blue women,” Ryan said and smiled.

“Seen many of them then?”

“Well, no, I think you’re the first, but we get all sorts of people here. All sorts of colors.”

“See you later, Ryan,” she said and we walked out.

“Drug addict,” Cenewyg said spitting on the ground. “Saw lots of those from the war, damned opium.”

“Well, let’s see what the rest are like,” Stephanie said.

We agreed and spent the next hour walking around the village, what we found was rather strange. Everyone acted the same way as Ryan, more or less. Some could hold conversations, some really couldn’t. Some functioned well enough to light lamps as it got darker, others seemed to function only well enough to lure others off for sex.

But the strangest part was the mixture of people. I saw several of the giants here, a cyclops, humans of various ethnic origins, and a few satyrs.

“Kind of weird how many of these people just sort of ended up here,” I said looking around.

“Either they were portal walkers who came here by accident, or came with someone else, or some other accident of fate delivered them here.” Stephanie said looking around at the village, “I think once you’ve eaten one of those plants of theirs you pretty much stay here.”

“Well, now what?” Cenewyg asked looking around.

“Might as well find a place to sleep and go hunting in the morning,” Stephanie said.

“Sleep on the boat or sleep here?”

“Here is fine with me.”

We went back to Ryan’s hut; he was out like a light, so we each found a spot to put down our bedrolls and sleep.

I woke up first; I had set my bedroll so the sun would hit my eyes as soon as it came up. Reaching over I shook Stephanie awake and then got my stuff together. Cenewyg woke up while I was putting things back in my pack.

“Damn, I’m starving,” he said getting up.

“Well let’s go see what we can hunt up,” I said standing.

“Yes, we should get an early start,” Stephanie agreed, taking out some of the food in her pack and getting to her feet. “We should also ask where they get their water from.”

I nodded and we set off.

We did find someone who was awake and could tell us where they got water, there was a small stream not far from where we were. I had noticed there were several paths leading from the village; the one for water seemed to be about the most traveled.

“Wonder what the other paths are for?” I asked as we went to fill our canteens.

“Other villages?” Stephanie suggested.

It didn’t take us long to find the stream, not surprisingly those plants were everywhere. Seeing a likely tree, I hacked of a branch that was pretty straight with a sword and started to hack the limbs off.

“Too bad we don’t have a bow,” Stephanie sighed.

“Well let’s head upstream and see if we can find any game trails.”

We did find several game trails as we headed upstream, and set snares on them using some of the wire that was in our packs.

“Wow, quite a view,” Stephanie said looking around. We had been climbing higher as we followed the stream, and had come to a rocky section high up the side of a large hill.

I looked back and you could see the harbor I had sailed us into, our boat moored out in it, and the village on the shore. Looking around I could see another village off to the south.

“So this is the land of the Lotus Eaters,” I said looking around. Cenewyg was nowhere in sight, but that didn’t mean much, he’d been haring off on his own a couple of times now.

“I’m surprised we haven’t seen any other plants, well other food-bearing plants.” Stephanie said.

“Over the years, the villagers probably killed them off to increase the number of lotuses,” I replied.

“Well I think I’m going to have lunch, want any?”

I shook my head, “Nah, I can go a few days without food, won’t bug me that much.” I dropped my pack, “You might as well eat what’s in my pack.”

“Afraid you’ll eat it?” She teased.

“Afraid someone else will eat it actually,” I said smirking.

“Oh go easy on, Cen!”

“Why do you think he keeps disappearing?” I whispered and then struck out to look around the area a little better. There was obviously game in the area, you could see signs of it all over. Problem was getting close enough to kill it.

“Don’t get lost!” Stephanie called out after me.

I laughed at that and waved.

I found a game trail soon enough and decided to follow it a little ways, it was a lot larger than what I was used to seeing from back in the woods of New York or Pennsylvania. I had gone down it quite a ways when I suddenly noticed a rock fly overhead and heard a growl as it hit something.

Turning around, I saw Cenewyg standing up above and behind me on an outcropping of rocks, he was holding several of them and he smiled as he saw me looking at him and threw another.

Swearing I pulled out my sword and hacked off the end of my walking stick to put a sharper edge on the end of it, then turned and ran back to a straight section of the path.

I heard Cenewyg snicker and he threw another rock, this one again hit whatever it was and with a loud growl that I couldn’t recognize. Whatever it was that made it, I could hear it as it started running down the path towards me.

I grounded the butt of my walking stick cum spear, stepping on it with my right foot and lowered it until the tip was only inches off the ground, holding my sword in my right hand as I squatted there.

When it charged around the corner I almost gave a sigh of relief, after hearing Ryan talk about stripes I was afraid it might be a tiger. What it was was a black bear and it looked rather unhappy and got even more so as another one of Cen’s rocks hit it.

I waited until it was almost on top of me, then I raised the spear and I got it in the throat as it tried to swat me with a paw which I almost cut off as I blocked it with my sword. It tried to rear back then so I pushed it back with the spear, which I was still holding with my left hand as I chopped at its head with the sword in my right. I saw a few rocks go by as I was fighting it, one or two hit it, but I was more worried about them hitting me.

It swatted me a few times while we fought and it hurt, but the leather armor I still had on protected me enough to keep from getting cut and to spread out the force.

I hacked at it a few more times and finally it stopped moving and just laid there. I bent over to check it and a rock whizzed right by my head so I turned and looked at Cenewyg.

“Enough with the rocks already, Cen!” I yelled at him, if he threw another one at me like that I was definitely going to go up there and kill him. That rock would have messed me up but good if it had hit.

He glared at me disappointed then turned and left.

“Get back here and help me carry this, you asshole!” I yelled then looked back at the bear. It was probably close to two hundred pounds, it was almost as big as I was. Sighing I got to work on gutting it, it was food after all.

I was just finishing up when Stephanie joined me.

“Where’s Cen?” I asked.

“Said he was heading back to town.”

“Asshole,” I grumbled.

“Why, what did he do?”

“He got the bear to come after me, think he was hoping I’d lose or something. But worse than that, he didn’t stick around to help me carry it back to town!”

“Well I’m here. Think you can sling it from your spear there and we can carry it?”

I nodded, “Yeah, let’s stop at the stream though; I want to wash this blood off before I start drawing flies.”

“You’re already drawing flies,” she laughed.

“Before I draw more then,” I grumbled.

When we got back to town Cenewyg was cooking some rabbits that the snares had caught. I glared at him as Stephanie and I dropped the pole.

“You could have helped carry it you know.”

“Why? You did fine.”

I went back to the carcass and started to butcher it so we could cook it over the fire. Stephanie returned with a bunch of branches that she had stripped and turned into short skewers to cook the meat over the fire.

We sat and ate quietly, the bear wasn’t great, but it was food. As we ate, I noticed that Cenewyg started to get a little glassy-eyed, when Stephanie noticed it I stopped her from saying anything.

“I think I’m going to turn in early,” Cenewyg said yawning as we continued to cook the rest of the bear meat so it would keep.

“Sure, go ahead,” Stephanie told him.

After he’d been gone a few minutes she looked at me, “What did you do to him?”

“Nothing, yet,” I snickered.

“Then what’s wrong with him?”

“I think the rabbits eat the lotuses, and because that’s probably all they eat, he’s getting affected.”

“But bears are vegetarians too.”

“No, they’re omnivores; they eat other animals, fish, and things other than plants.”

I got up and went and found the remains of a pod that wasn’t fully eaten and I dug out a cup and put it in and mixed it with some water.

“What are you doing?” Stephanie asked suspiciously as I used the hilt of my dagger on the pod, combining it with water.

“I’m going to drug him, and we’re going to leave him here.”

“What!?” She said looking at me.

“He tried to kill me, Steph. I’d kill him right now but that might mess up your plans. So I’ll just drug him instead.”

“Luring a bear for you to kill isn’t trying to kill you.”

“Yeah right. What about trying to hit me in the back of the head with a rock?”

“He did what?”

“Tried to hit me in the back of the head with a rock. He threw it at me while my back was turned. That’s why he took off; he thought I was going to kill him. Well, I’ll pour some of this down his throat and with any luck he’ll want to stay here and eat weeds. Even if he doesn’t I’m sure this will slow him down enough to leave him behind.”

“Will, you can’t do this.”

I sighed, “Why not?”

“Because I’m telling you not to. That’s why,” Stephanie said. “Look, I know you two don’t get along, I know you don’t like him. But that’s not reason enough to leave him behind.”

“He set a bear on me, Steph!”

“So? You killed it didn’t you?”

“He didn’t even warn me! Plus, we’re not champions here; we don’t have our powers or our skills.”

“He probably forgot, Will. He’s been a champion for over sixty years now. This is the first place any of us have been where our powers didn’t reach.”

“I don’t trust him, Steph.”

“Do you trust me?”

I nodded, “Of course I do, Steph.”

“Well then, do as I say.”

“Steph,” I said plaintively. “I’m worried about what he might do to you.”

“I’m a big girl, Will; I can take care of myself. Now throw that stuff away and drop the whole idea. We’re moving on in the morning, all three of us.”

I sighed and looked down at the ground. “Yes, Stephanie.”

“I’m not kidding, Will,” she warned.

I nodded, “I understand.”

She got up and patted me on the back as she went off to go sleep.

I sat there and thought about it, I knew if I did anything, Stephanie would be pissed with me, and she’d probably lose any confidence in me. That could end up with my being left behind and her traveling with Cenewyg.

I tossed the mixture and cleaned out the cup, then got up and went to sleep myself. I was rather surprised when Stephanie joined me, but all she really wanted was someone to hold her apparently, but I was fine with that. Sometimes I just wanted to be held and loved too.

We got up early that morning, Stephanie and I ate quite a bit of the bear meat, as I couldn’t carry all of it, and I grudgingly shared it with Cenewyg who was groaning and bitching like mad. Stephanie told him what we suspected about the rabbits having eaten a lot of the flower pods, but it didn’t stop the grumbling and bitching as we hiked out heading north.

“How far are we going?” Cenewyg asked sometime around afternoon as we stopped to take a break and to fill our canteens at a stream we had come across. He was sweating profusely, he had been dragging all morning and had emptied both of his canteens and one of Stephanie’s just getting this far. Apparently, the effects of the plant were pretty powerful, even second hand.

“A few hours maybe more,” Stephanie replied.

“What are we looking for?”

“I’ll let you know when I find it,” She smiled.

Cenewyg grumbled, but shut up. I got some of the bear meat out of my pack and started eating. I wasn’t terribly hungry, but I had a feeling we were getting close and I didn’t know how long it would be before I’d be able to eat once we got there.

We trekked on for almost the entire day before we felt it. It was a portal. But even from this range it felt ... different.

“Finally,” Cenewyg grunted.

I didn’t say anything; I was still trying to puzzle out why it felt so different.

Stephanie did not say anything either, but I noticed the expression on her face was different, a mixture of anticipation and something that might have been fear. I couldn’t really tell.

Our sense of the portal got stronger a lot faster than I was used to, it only took us an hour until we were all standing before it.

“Where does this go?” I asked standing there and trying to figure out just what my feelings were telling me. It felt like a drain, as if everything on the other side was draining out of it and into here.

“To our destination,” Stephanie said and stepped through.

Thirteen

I jumped through after her and made sure to immediately move to the left to clear the space for Cenewyg behind me, because I didn’t trust him to be where I couldn’t see him. When he came through I noticed he was staring at the sky, so I stopped and looked at it as well.

It was breathtaking; all the stars were out in a night sky, and I mean all of them, including the sun and the moon. Everything was visible, it did not twinkle, and it did not even appear to be moving. The sun shed very little light; everything seemed to be in a constant state of twilight. It reminded me of one of those cheesy low budget sci-fi movies.

Looking around, I noticed everything was rocks or dirt. There were no trees, grass, bushes, anything growing. Things weren’t dry, but they weren’t wet either, it just all looked dead, sterile, timeless.

There wasn’t even a breeze.

“Where the hell are we?” Cenewyg said.

I looked around and saw the walled city off in the distance. “Welcome to Troy,” I said and nodded towards it.

I looked at Stephanie, she had already started off towards the city, so I followed, hurrying to catch up. “What’s wrong with this place?”

“It’s dying.”

“Spheres can die?” I said looking around surprised.

“Apparently.”

I noticed then that we were all still in our original forms. Reaching out with my senses I still couldn’t feel any of those things I associated with being able to do cantrips, my champion abilities, or the healing magic we had access to, but I could feel Fel rather strongly oddly enough.

We walked in silence after that, the place really felt like a tomb; we appeared to be the only things alive or moving. The strangest part of all is that without anything else moving it became hard to determine the passage of time. I really don’t know if it took a few hours or a day to reach the city.

As we drew closer, it was obvious that the city had lost a war and been destroyed. The walls were pulled down in several places, many buildings were destroyed, burn marks showed everywhere. Things littered the street, destroyed pots, broken pieces of what I guess was furniture, other debris. But there were no bodies, no bones, nothing organic.

“This place is seriously creepy,” I said looking around. “And where the hell did Cen go this time?”

Stephanie looked around and noticed he was missing as well. “Keep your eyes open,” was all she said and started walking again.

“Sure.” I dumped my pack. I didn’t think I’d need it anymore. Stephanie turned to see what the noise was.

“Let’s eat before we go any further,” She said.

“Sounds good to me,” I agreed and we found a clear space where we could see if anyone approached and sat down to do just that.

“Son of a bitch,” Stephanie swore opening her pack.

“What?”

“Cen stole all of my food. There’s nothing in here but junk from that guy’s hut to give my pack weight.”

“Told you,” I said smirking.

“Yes, you did. Hand over some of that meat.”

I nodded and passed it over.

“I’m surprised he didn’t get yours as well,” she said.

“I don’t leave my stuff un-attended. Too many years of living in New York City,” I grinned. “So now what?”

“Well, Cen’s off the team, so don’t trust him if he comes back,”

“I doubt he’ll do that.”

“Probably not.”

“What else? Is there anything I need to be looking for?”

“No, I know where we’re going and what we’re after. I don’t think there’s anything else alive here beyond the three of us, but Cen may be a problem now.”

“Any idea how long until we’re done here?”

Stephanie shook her head, “Time seems like its messed up here, there’s no way to judge it.” She finished up the meat I’d given her and stood up. “Let’s get moving, I don’t think staying in any one place too long is a good idea.”

I nodded and got up and followed her.

We continued to head deeper into the city, I could see what looked like a small castle sitting on a hilltop off a short distance in front of us; it seemed to be our destination. I guessed the ruler of the city had lived there, so whatever we were after had perhaps been his?

Getting there was proving difficult however; the streets were not nice straight avenues, but instead wound back and forth, sometimes coming to dead ends, which meant we had to backtrack occasionally. I don’t know if the city had just grown up so haphazardly, or if the design had been on purpose to help when fighting invaders.

When we finally made it to the castle, I looked at Stephanie.

“Now what?”

“We go inside, follow me,” she said and I started up the stairs behind her.

We walked through the ruined doors, and once inside we could see that this place hadn’t escaped the fate of the rest of the city.

“Less debris in here at least,” I said.

“Probably everything in here was worth looting so it was all carried off,” Stephanie answered me.

“We looking for the throne room?”

“It’s a good place to start.”

I looked around a bit; the obvious choice was the room with the largest entryway, so that was where I went.

“I think this is it, but it’s sure been picked clean,” I said looking around.

“Let’s check the exit on the other side of the room,” Stephanie said heading towards what looked like the private entrance.

I nodded and followed her. The door for this entryway was also gone. “No wood anywhere,” I sighed.

“No, anything organic rotted away a long time ago.” She said going through the door and into another hallway. Only this one was a lot smaller than the one we had entered from; I guess this wasn’t for public use.

I followed her as she went down the hallway passing several side entrances until we got to the end, there was a gate there, though the lock on it was broken and looked like it had been broken long ago. It took the both of us to push it open; the hinges had rusted almost solid.

There was a stone staircase heading down so we followed it.

“How come it’s not dark down here?” I said looking around. I realized then that it was the same sort of twilight here as it had been everywhere we’d been so far, even when we’d gone into the building.

“I don’t know. Something to do with everything else running down I guess. Didn’t you notice that there weren’t any shadows anywhere outside?”

“Actually I hadn’t,” I said looking around, there were no entries to either side of the stairs and it went down a fair ways. When we got to the bottom there was another gate, but this one had been broken off of its hinges. In front of us was a large room, it had an open ceiling to let light in, and there were several passageways leading off of it.

“What is this?” I asked looking around. There were faint signs of images on the walls, and the bases of a number of statues that apparently had been destroyed.

“It’s the temple of their gods,” Stephanie told me looking around.

“Only one temple?”

“It’s the only one where they all existed together. The gods in this sphere were all part of a group, a pantheon. They each had temples of their own, but this was the big one, the main one, where they all worked together and their high priests and priestesses lived.”

“So less infighting then?” I said looking around.

“Not really from what I understand. There was always a certain amount of competition in the middle and lower ranks.”

I walked up to one of the altars and was looking at it when I suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of my head and passed out.

‘Damn, what happened?’ I thought to myself. I was in a dark place and I didn’t think I was conscious.

“Cen hit you in the back of the head with a rock. He was sitting on the roof at the opening above you.” Fel told me.

“Shit, am I dead?”

“Fortunately, no. You’re just unconscious. But you’re pretty messed up.”

“So now what? I can’t heal myself here.”

“Actually, there is a way.”

“Oh? How?”

“I can’t tell you.” Fel said sounding oddly contrite.

“Can’t or won’t?” I asked just to clarify.

“Can’t.”

“Rules?”

“Yup, rules.”

“Can I ask why you’re able to talk to me while I’m unconscious?”

“Of course you can.”

“Then I’m asking,” I would have sighed if I was conscious. I hated this rule stuff.

“The sphere you are in is almost dead. While it is still connected to the rest of what some like to call ‘the Infinite’, it is only connected at that one point, the gateway you entered by. Because it is only connected at that one point, its borders with the void are rather weak.

“All gods have a connection to the void. So I can send to you and you to me rather easily here when you’re not awake because of that connection.”

“So why can’t you send me my powers via the void?”

“Only thought can travel the void. No powers. Gateways are tunnels through it, which is how the many spheres that make up the Infinite connect to each other and exchanges power.”

“So your power can’t flow through the gateway into here to help me.”

“Exactly.”

“Because it couldn’t flow into the last sphere to help me.”

“Correct.”

“Can I open a gateway to you while I’m unconscious?”

I heard Fel laugh. “You can try!”

“Well let’s try then.”

I did my best to concentrate then and after a period of time, I have no idea how long, I felt the gateway open.

“Heal me please?” I asked as I felt my powers return to me.

“Cen is no longer a champion, he has quit his god. Go stop him.”

“How is Stephanie?”

“Fine, now go!”

Fel must have healed me then because I came to, laying face down on the floor. I could feel blood running down the side of my face.

Getting up slowly I used my sleeves to wipe my face off and checked the back of my head with my hand. I couldn’t really tell where he had hit me, but I saw a rather large and bloody rock lying on the floor.

“Shit,” I swore to myself looking at it. Looking around I didn’t see any sign of Cen or Steph, but I did find another bloody rock on the floor. I had a feeling on which way to go and I followed it.

The feeling led me down one of the corridors that left the room. It wasn’t the one for the god that was the leader of the pantheon, but the one that was his wife or consort I guess. I moved as fast as I could, but I couldn’t run because I didn’t want to give myself away. As I got closer to them I heard voices, or more to be more accurate I heard Cenewyg voice.

“All my years of faithful service and you think I’m just going to pass up on a chance like this? What are you, stupid? Maybe if you hadn’t taken up with that lick-spittle Will and left me turning in the breeze I wouldn’t have thought about this.

“Tell me, what’s it like having your little man-friend turn into a Mary on you? From a bull to a cow, that must have been quite the experience!”

Cenewyg continued on more in the same vein, I really hadn’t realized just how much he hated me, thought I had to admit listening to some of his nineteenth-century curses was rather humorous.

“Well maybe if you hadn’t run off to go get laid leaving me to rely on him back in Scherie none of this would have happened!” I heard Stephanie tell him, then a sound like someone getting slapped.

“Watch your mouth, you little whore! You were showin’ him the goods long before that night! You could have picked Dez to do it; she’s quite the bootlicker after all.”

I heard her mumble something as I snuck closer.

“What was that? You say something?” I heard another slap and I came around the last corner in the passageway as it opened up into a room and there they were.

I took stock of the situation, Stephanie was bloody and had her hands tied behind her back, of course he’d hit her with a rock as well. She was stumbling along, and that gave me an idea. I stumbled out into the room looking like I was barely able to stay on my feet.

“Well, speak of the devil and he appears,” Cenewyg said laughing. “Having some problems there are we, Willie boy?”

I stumbled and looked up at him, “Wha....wassa matter, shorty? Too af... afrai... to face me?”  I fumbled with my sword, trying to draw it.

“Oh I’m going to enjoy this!” He laughed and shoving Stephanie down onto the ground he strode over to me, drawing his sword.

I got mine out and waved it around in front of me, making him stop and laugh. “Not so big and powerful now, are you?” He laughed and knocked my sword to the side, I took a few steps back, drawing him further away from Stephanie as he followed. I drew him back as far as I could, then I attacked.

“Shit!” Cenewyg swore as I came at him, nearly gutting him and landing a cut on his arm.

“Oh, I’m sorry; did I hurt your little arm?” I said smirking.

“I’ll teach you, you fucking whoreson!” He yelled and attacked.

I had to admit that Cenewyg was a better swordsman than I would have thought; he was holding his own against me, even with my superior reach. His sword work was impressive and I debated drawing my second as we fenced and fought around the room. I just didn’t think that would give me much of an advantage as I’d have to turn more of my body to him to use it and he’d already scored hits on me twice.

At least I’d scored an equal amount on him.

“Not as good as you think, are you!” Cenewyg laughed as he lunged at me and forced me to take a step back.

“I don’t know, for a guy who has been doing this for decades you sure aren’t doing well against a guy who only learned last year!” I said smirking at him.

Cenewyg lunged again, kicked a rock up at me, lunged and then suddenly threw his sword at me, causing me to have to jump to the side. His sword missed me, but I lost my foot and scrambling I ended up on my ass sliding backwards.

I still had my sword but rather than press his attack he was just standing there, with a startled expression on his face. That was when I noticed the dagger sticking out of his back.

“Bastard,” Stephanie swore. She was standing up now and didn’t look at all dizzy. I saw the ropes at her feet; she must have freed herself while we were fighting.

“All that time I spent with you, all those years of being your lover, your friend, and this is how you repay me? Repay Aryanna for all she’s done for you?”

I got up grabbing the rock that my left hand had landed on when I fell, more out of reflex than any other reason.

“If you start running now, Cen, maybe we won’t chase you down and kill you. I hear you’re no longer a champion, so if we kill you now, you’re dead!” I growled.

“Yes, run, and keep on running you....” Stephanie stopped and looked at me, “what’s that in your hand, Will?”

I stopped and looked at the object in my left hand; it just looked like a small statue that had been carved from some sort of black rock. The shape was that of person, man or woman I couldn’t tell, wearing some sort of gown. It was warm in my hand and heavier than I would have expected from something so small.

But I could feel its power, it was pulsing with it. And suddenly I knew what it was, why Stephanie was here for it, why Cenewyg wanted it so badly.

It was a god-stone; it could make me a god.

That was why we were here! Stephanie was going to ascend to the next level, she was going to use this to become a goddess and join that bigger game that Aryanna had mentioned and Fel had hinted it. Only instead, it was now in my hand instead of hers or Cenewyg’s.

I looked up; Cenewyg had turned and was running away as fast as he could, a trail of blood running down his back from the dagger sticking in it. I was surprised he was still on his feet. I knew that he could not take the stone from me, no one could. I guess he knew that as well.

Stephanie was looking at me with a mixture of sadness, anger, and frustration. To have come so close and at the last moment to lose out to someone else, and accidentally at that, must have hurt quite a bit.

“I don’t want to be a god, Stephanie.” I whispered looking up at her.

“Well, it’s too late for that now!” She said glaring at me.

“No, really! I don’t want this! Please take it!” I said and thrust my hand out at her.

“What?” she said looking at me shocked.

I opened my hand and it slowly dropped into hers, as if it didn’t want to leave my hand. She closed her hands over it almost convulsively and gasped loudly as she did.

“Will! You, you didn’t!” She said looking up at me in shock.

“I don’t want to be a god, Steph. I don’t want any of that. Not now, not ever. Besides, I know you want this, how could I take it from you? You know how I feel about you, Steph. It’s yours, you earned it.”

“You, you really do care, don’t you?” She said smiling at me.

I smiled back, “I thought that was obvious.”

“You better gate out of here, when I use this it will destroy everything still in the sphere, even a champion. Now go.”

“I love you Steph,” I said.

“I know. Now go, Will, please, hurry.”

I nodded and opened a gate back home. It took only a moment and I stepped through, surprised by how fast it collapsed behind me.

Fourteen

“Welcome home, Will,” Fel said.

I looked around; I was in the temple in one of the private rooms. No one else was around.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Stephanie just ascended.”

I nodded, “I sort of figured as much, but what happened to the sphere? Was everything in it destroyed?”

“Yes, it no longer exists. The gate you had taken to get there was the last gate left.”

“What happened to Cen? Did he get away?”

“He got picked up by another god, but he did get caught in some of the backlash.”

“Which means?”

“Which means it will be a while before he shows up anywhere.”

“Well, I guess that’s something.”

“Aryanna thanks you for giving the stone to Stephanie, and I’m glad you did as well, though my reasons are a bit more selfish,” Fel said with a laugh.

“Well my reasons are pretty selfish too,” I said smiling. “So is that how you and Arayanna became gods?”

“For me, yes. Once centuries ago, I was Aryanna’s champion just like Stephanie was. That’s why we’re friends and why we’re allies. Aryanna took a different route, a longer and harder one.”

“So what made that stone? And why was it there?”

“Just as spheres are created, spheres can also die. Troy was on the end of a branch, without a lot of connections back into the rest of the tree. Normally branch ends like that are where new spheres get added on, but nothing was happening with that one. So the gods that had held sway there engaged in some desperate measures in an attempt to tie themselves into the rest of the spheres.

“Unfortunately for them, they angered enough of the other gods by their actions that what you know of as the ‘Trojan wars’ took place and all of the gods in that sphere were destroyed. That led to the collapse of the sphere and collapsing spheres create a god-stone.”

I nodded. “How did Aryanna find out about it?”

Fel shrugged, “That I do not know. She has access to sources of information that I do not.”

“I’m going to miss Stephanie,” I sighed, “I hope she’s happy though, wherever she is.”

“In time I’m sure she will be. It’s hard when you first ascend. It takes a while to understand the differences and to be able to start your new existence.”

I nodded again and healed my wounds, and used a few cantrips to clean myself up. “I guess we can talk about it later, but if you don’t mind Fel, I’d really like to go see Rachel.”

“Of course. We’ll talk later Will.”

I then left the Temple and went and found Rachel, nodding and greeting the people in the streets as I passed. It was nice to be home.

#                    #                    #                    #

I spent two months with Rachel, helping her settle a few disputes and just basking in the glory of her presence. Fel warned me that come next spring he’d have some tasks for me that would take months to complete. With that information, I bid Rachel good bye for a while and went back to Riverhead to see Darlene.

Darlene was incredibly happy to see me of course, and I would soon have a daughter to go with my son, she was very pregnant when I got home, I’d been gone over eight months and she delivered not long after I returned.

Aryanna was currently without a champion, but I was sure she probably had someone lined up to replace Stephanie. I’d gone to the local temple and asked about where Stephanie was now, but she wouldn’t tell me, all she would say was ‘in due time I would find out.’ When I complained about cryptic answers, she laughed and asked if I would want an old girlfriend hanging around if I was building a new religion.

I had to concede the point. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what Stephanie was dealing with right now.

Surprisingly both Joseph and Dezba showed up two months after Darlene gave birth to visit. Both had been rather pointedly asked not to go to Fel’s sphere because he didn’t think the other gods would appreciate two powerful champions showing up in his domain.

They only stayed for a day; mostly they just wanted to discuss Cenewyg and talk about what had happened to him.

I told them what happened after the fight on the boat, my suspicions at that time, and everything else up until Stephanie had knifed him in the back. I didn’t tell them about my finding and picking up the god-stone first or what it looked like; or even my giving it to Stephanie. I didn’t think that was any of their concern.

“Well here is what I learned from talking to Aryanna and Diannion,” Dezba said, “Cenewyg found a new god and gated out just as Stephanie ascended. However,” she smiled then, “he wasn’t as quick as he should have been, so it’s going to be about twenty years real time for us until he can be reincarnated. If he’d been a bit quicker, he’d be back out there already. If he’d been a bit slower he’d be dead and beyond the ability to be reincarnated.”

“I bet his new god must be pretty pissed about that!” Joseph laughed. “He gets a champion and he can’t even use him for almost twenty years!”

“Well at least he’ll be out of our hair until then,” Dezba smiled.

“It’s just too bad he wasn’t a little slower!”

“Hear, hear,” I said and we all clinked our beer mugs.

“If he’s going to hold a grudge against anyone, it’ll be me,” I sighed. “He really hates me.”

“Yeah, Cen could be pretty petty,” Joseph agreed. “Do we know where he’s gone?”

Dezba shook her head. “Aryanna only knows that he’s not in any of the spheres we’re champions in.”

“Well,” Joseph said hoisting his mug, “here’s to hoping we never see the bastard again!”

“Here, here!” We all laughed and clinked our mugs again and then took a long pull from them.

“So anyone know where Steph went?” Joseph asked.

“Aryanna told me to mind my own business,” Dezba laughed, “How about you, Will?”

“I was asked if I’d appreciate my ex looking over my shoulder while I tried setting up a new religion,” I grinned a little sheepishly.

“She’s probably worried you’d both run off and go to work for her,” Joseph laughed.

Dezba shrugged, “When the time comes for me to move on, I will definitely consider it.”

I shook my head, “I do want to visit her someday, just to see how she turned out, but I don’t know. Would be kind of a weird situation if you asked me.”

“Yes well, I never slept with her,” Dezba said smirking at me.

Joseph laughed so hard he almost choked on his beer. “Damn it! Warn a guy first before you say something like that!”

We drank another few rounds and discussed a few other odds and ends before we finally called it a night and said our goodbyes.

“Well, until we meet again I guess,” Joseph said giving us each a hug. “Have to say, I do like the inn you have here, Will. There is something to be said for a place to just sit back and relax and only worry about the more mundane things in life.”

Dezba nodded and gave me a hug as well. “Steph was right, you really do have quite the setup here. Probably why Feliogustus likes you so much, Aryanna once told me he’s into taverns as well.”

I stopped and thought about that, it had never occurred to me.

“Well, it was nice to see you both again,” I told them. “Until we meet again.”

“Until then,” they both agreed. Then as I watched, they both gated out of the private room we’d spent the day talking in.

“So have fun visiting with ye friends, hon?” Darlene asked later that night as we cuddled in bed.

“Yes, it was nice to see them again, if only briefly.”

“I’m surprised they didn’t spend the night after traveling here to see ye.”

“They have places they need to return to, where they’re needed.”

Darlene nodded and snuggled a little closer. “They be powerful people, aren’t they?”

I gave her a kiss, “What makes you say that?”

“Because ye are powerful, that’s why,” she said giggling.

“And what makes you think that I’m powerful?” I asked curious.

“Because the goddess looks after ye and she also looks after me because I’m ye wife.”

I smiled in the darkness my Darlene was so perceptive. “I love you, Darlene.”

“And I love ye too, Will, and I understand that ye can’t always be here, but the simple fact that ye are here whenever ye can be is enough to make me happy.”

“Thanks for understanding, love.”

“I just want to know what I did to deserve someone as wonderful as ye are, hon,” she whispered and I just held her in my arms until she fell asleep wondering the very same thing. How had I managed to end up with Darlene? Rachel? A ton of money, an inn, children, and working as a champion to a god? It had all happened so fast, but here I was, and I couldn’t be happier about it. I couldn’t believe that all of this had happened to me in the last three years since I’d left home.

Then on top of all of that there was the ‘Infinite’ that the gods talked about; I now had the ability to jump through the gateways between the worlds, to see a million different realities, all of them different, possibly anything I could image existed out there, somewhere, for me to find. And as a champion, I could live as long as it took to go see as much of it as I wanted to see, I could work my way across the ‘Infinite’ like a man working his way across the country.

It boggled the mind. There was just so much out there to see, and I had to admit that I wanted to see it all.

End Book 2

As an author, I would ask that if you liked this book, please take the time to rate it. Ratings are an important part of success as an ebook author, and four or five star ratings are of course the ones that help us the most. So while I feel a little embarrassed about asking for ratings and reviews, the reality of this business is that without those reviews my work will not rise in rankings and will not be seen by others. So please, if you liked the story I would greatly appreciate your taking the time to write a short review and rate the book.

Thank you,

John Van Stry

www.vanstry.net

(vanstry@gmail.com - mailing list signup is at my blog: http://jvanstry.blogspot.com/)

If you liked this book, you might like my other stories:

Urban Fantasy:

Portals of Infinity, Book One: Champion for Hire

William is just your typical engineer fresh out of college with a stressful job, a boring life, and not a lot of prospects of anything better in the future.

Until one weekend while hiking in the woods he stumbles across a portal to another time, or perhaps another place. The more he investigates this new world the more he realizes that it may just be able to offer him a lot more than the one he's been living in.

However, there are forces at work beyond anything that Will has ever come across before and the local Goddess seems to have taken a liking to him. Will may soon find himself getting an offer he cannot afford to refuse.

The Hammer Commission

Mark's job seems pretty dull, working as an investigator into crimes committed against Church property, theft of holy objects, vandalism; nothing terribly exciting but he does get to travel the world.

That's just the window dressing. Mark does work for the Church, but as an elite member of a thousand year old secret society that hunts down devils, demons, and other evils. His job is not just to find them, but to remove, dispel, or kill them: he's on the front lines of the secret ongoing war between Heaven and Hell. However as wars go, it has been a fairly easy one for the last few decades, with nothing seriously evil having been summoned since the last world war.

But all of that is about to change, and the question for Mark may not be can he survive, but can he survive long enough.

Science Fiction:

Children of Steel

Raj is just your average everyday genetically modeled and artificially created anthropomorphic worker for one of the many corporations of the future. Extensively trained and conditioned from birth he's now indentured for the next fifty years of his life; assuming he doesn't die first, or somehow manage to pay off his creation and training debts.

Created by the corporations to deal with the harsh labor shortages of the twenty second century when humans will no longer take on the dangerous jobs Raj finds himself now in the harsh world of space exploration, trading, corporate maneuverings, and sometimes the even more dangerous fanatics that hate Raj and his fellows. No longer in safe confines of the training academies he must learn how to live and deal with both his fellow workers and the humans he encounters and not get saddled with extra bills or fines because he's screwed up or worse yet, get 'put down' because he's lost his temper one time too many.

After all, it's not like he's human ...

Danger Money

Jotun was born and bred to be a corporate assassin, back in the days of the Corporate Wars. Confined these days to life in a gilded cage, Jotun welcomes any opportunity to get out and lately he's been getting out a lot. But as a genetically designed and Laboratory bred animorph by a company that isn't quite sure if it trusts him anymore his choices are few: do the jobs that eventually will kill him, or refuse, which will also kill him.
Of course it isn't like he doesn't enjoy the work, but when everybody wants you dead you start to wonder if there isn't more to life.
When an unexpected betrayal kills the few friends he has and nearly him as well, Jotun realizes he has bigger problems than his lifestyle, namely finding out who betrayed him and paying them back, no matter what the cost.

Danger Money is a Science Fiction story that takes place in my Children of Steel universe, a future where genetically created animorphs serve as second class citizens and handle all of the dirty and dangerous jobs that are part of humanity's extension to the stars.

Dialene

Dialene's Captain decided to play pirate, and one well placed nuclear torpedo later she finds herself prisoner of the Corporation whose ship they were attempting to raid; her friends and lover all dead. With no corporation to ransom her back she finds herself in the unenviable position of having to work off the debt assigned to her for her part in her Captain's actions. With concerns as to where her loyalties lie she has but two choices: Work in the mines on an airless rock where a small fem like her would not last long, or work in the company bar entertaining those very same miners.
At least working in the bar beats the alternatives, until one day an interesting character inserts himself into her life.

A Novella from my Children of Steel universe, Dialene is a foxmorph who until her capture was a highly rated shuttle pilot working a deep space trader for one of the more notorious corporations. Like most of her kind she had no choices in her employer who considered her nothing more than a disposable asset.

Shorts: The Furry Years

A collection of short stories that I wrote years ago for several of different anthropomorphic fanzines. Includes the following short stories:

Changes: The hero of the story wakes up in the morning to find his world has changed, rather drastically for him, hardly at all for others.

Old Business: This is from my ‘Children of Steel’ universe, it’s about the beginning of it all, the very first of the sentient animen (or animorph) ever to be created.

New Beginnings: Jack is the new bartender at a small pub, a nice quiet pub in the business district. The patrons tend to find his opinions humorous, as what does a bartender know after all? (More of a slice of life type story).

Fox Hunt: A joke that I just could not resist.

Easy Money: What happens to spies who come in from the cold? Especially ones who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks? Nothing good I’m sure...

Available in eBook format at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo,  iTunes, and wherever eBooks are sold, available in print from CreateSpace or Amazon.