The Dawn Volume II

8/3/2019 The Dawn Volume II

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Adventures of Jacko the Conjurer

The Dawn

By Jamie Ott



The Dawn

Chapter 1

“Where are we?”

“The dawn,” Lucem replied.

Jacko looked around, trying to

see some form of something, but all he

saw was white haziness all about. He

was closed in by clouds through which

bits of golden light randomly brokethrough sections. Looking down, he saw

that he stood not on ground, but upon

the same cloudy substance.

From all around, there was a

loud humming noise. The hazy clouds

shifted about him as well as under hisfeet, yet he stood without tumbling.

“Why are we here?”

But Lucem didn’t respond.



A soft voice came from all

around them.

“Lucem?” it said.

Jacko looked for the source of

the voice when, from his left, the most

beautiful woman he’d ever seen floated

toward them. She was wearing a gauzywhite robe, and her hair fell down to

her waist in long white curls. Her eyes

were the color of bluish crystal. She

reminded him of the many paintings

he’d seen of goddesses from the darkages.

“Meet my mother, Aurora.”

Briefly, Jacko had a flashback

to a time when his mother told him a

story about the goddess Eos, or asLucem introduced her, Aurora.

She was the dawn.

“Son,” she said.

“Hello, Mother.”



She leant over and kissed Lucem

on his porcelain white cheek.

“I see you’ve brought Jacko.”

She, then, bent over and kissed

him with her ruby red lips that, unlike

Lucem’s skin which was like cold stone,

were soft and warm.Such was the plight of a god

that wasn’t born out of the chaos,

which was another universe that died

so long ago that man didn’t have a way

of measuring such distance yet. Godslike Lucem were another sort of half

breed god. As they aged, their skin

would harden, turn white, and then

slowly lose corporeal form, leaving

behind pure consciousness. Not

Aurora, however, for when she kissedhim, he felt life flow into him. She was

an essence form that was above the

realm of physicality.

They all stood motionless for a

moment. Aurora peered eerily intoLucem’s eyes, yet they said nothing. It



occurred to Jacko that they were

communicating without him. Then

Lucem disappeared without a word.

“Lucem? Don’t leave me alone.

Come back!” he panicked.

“He’s got work to do. Someoneor something has disturbed his place

of rest.”

At the moment, the gods were

engaged in pre-war. Much of the

fighting was taking place in space.Lucem’s place of rest was Venus. To

destroy Venus would be to destroy

Lucem, as some gods were tethered to

their place in the heavens.

Jacko looked up at Aurora’s

enormous form. She stared back downat him with the eyes and face of a

ghost come to life. There was

something about these figures whose

supernatural life gleamed from their

pores, making their beauty just asfrightening as it was eye catching.



“Please don’t look at me like

that; it makes me uncomfortable.”

From the corner of Jacko’s

eyes, something gleamed at him. He

ignored it at first because he was

waiting for Aurora to speak, but thegleam turned to a bright shine.

He looked left and right and saw

a strange silvery substance bleeding

inward and soaking up the white clouds.

The substance spread out, snuffing outthe light.

“Aurora,” he yelled. “What’s

going on? Stop it!”

She remained motionless and

unblinking.

He backed away from the silverliquid which got too close to his feet.

It looked as though it would swallow

them both up. Jacko tried to back up

more, but there was an invisible wall

that kept him from getting furtheraway.



The silvery substance caught up

to Aurora and coated her supernatural

form, blotting out her bluish eyes until

she was like a hardened statue.

When Jacko screamed in horror,

her voice came back.

“In the rise of my time, we werenothing but dimensional matter. The

Earth was a molten rock.”

The scene changed.

“This is what it was before the

gods.” His heart jumped in his chest as

he looked around and saw they were no

longer in the hazy cloud that was

Aurora’s form, but instead stood upon

a bright orange-red runny substance

that he suspected was magma. Therewere no land forms and, in the

distance, he saw a herd of black

cherubs galloping across the land.

Thankfully, the scene changed,and next, they were standing on floors



so white that they pained Jacko’s eyes.

He looked left and right and saw the

walls weren’t walls at all, but a fluffy

white wispy, cotton-looking substance.

To their right there was a grand

dining table that Jacko couldn’t see

the end of. It appeared to go onforever, yet at the end closest to

where he and Aurora stood, sat an

earlier version of Aurora and several

other majestic looking gods.

“My parents,” present-day

Aurora said, “Pallas and Styx.”

“Eos,” said the largest figure of

them all. He had curly brown hair

pushed down his forehead by the

weight of a gold crown. He sat at theend of the table with an extremely

large goblet in front of him. “Why do

you want to save the world? It’s not

your problem.”



“Why would you do nothing as

the demons destroy her?” asked the

younger Aurora.

“Gaia’s old, and she’s strong. If

she doesn’t want the demons there,

then let her expel them herself.”

“She’s lost in unconsciousness,as is what happens to our kind over

time. When the demons first inhabited

the Earth, there was progress and the

crusts were forming into something

beautiful. Why, didn’t you see thosepatches of green and brown substance

near the Eastern divide? They were

spectacular! Now it’s nothing but red

liquid heat everywhere! Do you think

Gaia would be happy in such misery?”

“I don’t care,” said Pallas. “Youneed to mind your business. Focus on

your nuptials and leave the Earth to

the demons.”

“And what about your son,

Helius? How long will you keep himexiled?”



“Forever!” he shouted at her.

“Once a son turns on his father, he

must start his own house. Helius is,

now, his own man.”

“Because he doesn’t agree?

Because he has different ideas of

what his life is supposed to be?”Suddenly, Pallas stood up,

knocking over his goblet. “Be quiet! I’ve

had enough of you!”

“Mother!” Aurora cried to the

woman who sat across from her.But the woman merely bowed

her head, looking intently on her plate

of grapes and bread.

“That is enough! To your room!”

shouted Pallas.

When she wouldn’t leavewillingly, he flicked his arm and she

was whisked away by a large funnel of

wind.

The scene changed once more.

They were in a misty chamber of somesort. Aurora was there and, by the



looks of it, she’d been confined for

some time. Over a large stone

structure with a basin she leant,

looking into some silvery substance it

was filled with. Images played

themselves across the surface, though

Jacko couldn’t make out what theywere. All along the structure were

strange carvings of snake like beings.

Although he couldn’t see inside

the stone basin, whatever happened in

there upset Aurora. She ran to a sideof the room, for there were no doors,

and commanded the white cotton

looking substance to allow her through.

When it didn’t yield to her, she called

out to Ananke to help her.

“Who’s Ananke?”

“She’s our goddess: the very

beginning of time and fate. If it wasn’t

for her, I would’ve never been able to

do what I was destined. Watch.”



Ananke must have heard her cry,

for the montage-Aurora was bathed in

a golden light that shone down through

the white cotton substance ceiling.

Aurora glowed golden light out of her

pores and eyes, and without further

hesitation, she ran through the walls.The scene followed her as she

ran down an endless hallway of doors,

and then suddenly seemed to be

outside where the ground was nothing

but clouds, and the sky was space,itself.

She ran across the cloud-ground

up to a set of enormous shiny silver

gates. Instinctively, Jacko knew it was

heaven’s gates.

Just like his mother told him,she pulled back the gates, allowing

copious amounts of the cloud-ground to

spill down into the next viable

absorbing source: the Earth.

Jacko and both Auroras’ stoodat the gates and looked down as the



substance fell into the Earth’s

atmosphere, turning the sky from red

to a blanket of fluffy white.

He saw something move from out

of the corner of his eye, and turned

his head.

“Helius!” the montage-Aurorascreamed.

“Your brother is the sun?” Jacko

said with surprise.

Helius was as large as the star,itself. Just like legend said, he steered

a chariot of galloping pegasus’ across

the dark matter of space. With his

mouth wide opened, Jacko watched as

Helius cantered toward the Earth’s

atmosphere. Trailing behind him was alarge gold beam of light that streaked

across the atmosphere, blending in

with the clouds.

Then a roaring sound came from

behind Jacko. He and both Auroras’turned and saw that a mass of sparkling



blue substance moved toward them,

leaked around their ankles, and spilled

down. Instead of blending with the gold

beams and clouds, it blasted through

them, revealing the magma earth.

Jacko’s heart sped as the

substance met the magma, cooling itand filling the craters of the Earth.

Someone stood behind them;

Jacko turned. A man with skin as blue

and fluid as the water: Oceanus. He

gently hugged Aurora.“Good job, little sister,” he said,

and then walked across the dark

matter of space, through the clouds,

and descended down to Earth where he

cooled the surface and blended into

the ocean.Even from where they stood,

Jacko could hear the demon cries

coming from the Earth. Light and

warmth wasn’t conducive to their

genetics.



Although Jacko and Aurora

remained dry as the substance

continued to wash around them,

montage-Aurora stood there, drenched

in water and watching the Earth’s

atmosphere turn to a crystal blue

color.The atmosphere was fresh

looking unlike the dullness of today’s

sky which was so heavily polluted.

Helius, continued, on his golden

chariot, west ward across Earth’s sky;gold trails still following.

“So what happened to the

demons?” asked Jacko, feeling

completely awe stricken.

“They died.”

“Why are you showing me this?”“Because it’s important that you

know your family’s history.”

“Why didn’t Pallas want to help

Gaia?”



“She’s an outcast for leaving her

husband, Ouranus. Her demon

defilement was a punishment.”

A large grumble sounded out

from Jacko’s stomach. One thing the

gods kept forgetting was that heneeded rest and nourishment regularly.

Aurora must have understood,

for the scene changed to the same

room that she dined in with her

parents. There, as before, was a granddining table with chairs that went on

for miles.

“How far does this table go?”

“As far as the heavens stretch.”

The table was laden with food

and drink that went on for just as longas the table. Jacko looked for the

point where the food would begin to

repeat its order, but there didn’t seem

to be one.

His oral glands salivated at thesight of the suckling pig as big as a



horse, the vine that held grapes the

size of apples, and the bucket sized

carafe whose ruby red liquid gleamed

with certain richness.

Hungry though Jacko was, he

was uncertain about touching one bit

of food, as in heaven, it had a funnyeffect on the mind and body. His first

time eating, he became extremely

giddy and shoveled pizza, burgers and

fries into his mouth at an alarming

rate. It took immense concentrationfrom a living human to eat such food

without getting what they called “the

helium effect.” At the moment, he

wasn’t sure he would be able to keep

control of himself, and especially since

he was dead tired.

Just as he was considering

excusing himself, so he could return to

Earth and eat, she said, “Don’t worry,

Jacko, you’ll be fine. This place isn’t



the same as the place where the

demigods rest.”

“Why do gods eat?”

“As Althenio said to you, one

needs to live off of something that

lives, in order to live. We like to take

something that lives in food formbecause it’s pleasurable. We invented

eating.”

“But what about meat? It’s dead

when we eat it?”

“Yes, but only recently. Themolecules live, though they slowly die.

It takes much time to consume, and

literally snuff out life force energy,

than you realize. More than fire or

your digestive system has.”

Not wanting to wait anymore,Jacko shuffled into a chair and

reached to pull a leg off the pig.

“One moment, Jacko.”

He froze with the pig leg meat

just touching his lips.



Suddenly, bodies began to

appear around the table. Immediately,

he recognized two of the figures from

the montage.

“This is my brother, Helius.”

He sat directly across from

Jacko.Instead of hair, flames danced

on his head. As he nodded, the fire

momentarily lost its balance, making it

look as though it had extinguished, but

appeared again once his head setupright.

To Jacko’s relief, Helius looked

away quickly, because in his eyes,

flames danced across the surface

showing no regard for the boundariesof his pupils, irises, or scleras.

Gesturing to the man who sat to

Helius’ right, she said, “And this is my

other brother, Oceanus.”

He was much easier to look at,as he seemed to be made of sparkling



blue fluid that moved about inside his

bluish-clear skin. In a way, his

appearance reminded him of a human

shaped water globe. In his eyes, Jacko

could see the oceans of the Earth sway

and sparkle.

“Gaia,” Aurora said, soundingsurprised.

Left of Helius, three seats over

and across, sat the ghost child he’d

met some weeks ago.

“I heard you’d awakened but Ididn’t believe it.”

She stood, walked over, and

kissed her on both cheeks before

taking a seat next to Jacko.

Right as Aurora sat, they were

joined by one more guest.A bright light shone right beside

him, even more blinding than the white

of the floors.

“Aah!” screamed Jacko. He

covered his burning eyes with hishands.



“Lucis!” said Aurora. “It’s okay,

Jacko, you may look now.”

“What was that?”

“This is Lucis, the infamous light

demon.”

Where the white light was, a

moment ago, stood a man with skin andeyes as black as coal, like the skin of

the demons from the red lands; only

their skin was shiny black like patent

leather. When not luminous, this demon

appeared to be absent of all color andlight.

“If he’s a demon, then why is he

here? Shouldn’t he be on the other

side?”

“Unlike the others, he cannot

survive in the dark. Ever hear storiesof burning bushes and men being

blinded by lights? What they really

saw was light demons, like Lucis.”

Like marble statues, the godslooked strangely mechanical as they



chewed hill sized bits of food that

they shoveled into their enormous

mouths with their ruler sized forks.

The size of the dinnerware was

also a problem for Jacko, who had to

scoop water from a mug with his hand

because it was made with a materialthat was very heavy. Finally, Oceanus

was kind enough to summon an angel to

serve him.

“Actually, Jacko, this is a putti;

they’re not angels.”“What’s a putti?”

“Servents of Cupid. They’re

lesser gods that were made to serve

Eros. Eros is long gone into

unconsciousness, so sometimes we

borrow the putti; otherwise they’dhave nothing to do.”

Jacko observed the little winged

baby-like creature. It was almost

exactly like the bat babies Jacko saw

in the red lands. Bat babies were littleblack leathery infants, except with the



head of vampire bats with chubby

cheeks. They were actually quite cute,

despite that they’d tried to eat him

and stuck their fangs, repeatedly, into

his body.

The putti didn’t have a bunch of

eyes in their wings, like the angel hesaw at Oganat’s, the African god of

war and ambassador to the red lands.

“That was Sam,” Aurora said,

reading his thoughts. “He’s an angel

from the tribe, Seraph. They’resmaller but proportioned like a man. I

warn you, though, don’t ever refer to

any angel or god as a baby. You will

regret it!”

“What kind of angel was the one

that dropped me from sky? The onethat flew me to Ouranus?”

“They serve the Seraph; they’re

called ophan. They’re smart creatures,

and they’re great for transport. They

usually travel in herds.”



Another problem in dining with

gods is they could eat forever. After a

while, his eyes began to droop.

“Jacko, wake!” said Aurora.

“It’s rude to doze at the table,”

Helius said grumpily.“I need sleep!” Jacko snapped.

“As I was saying,” said Oceanus,

sounding impatient, “when souls were

discovered, they were simply

intelligent little flecks of light, similarto the tadpoles you’ve seen in the

Fountain of Youth. When we turned

them to the Earth and watched them

grow to form, they were like

interesting pets, but they grew in the

image of the gods. Perhaps because ofthe energy they absorbed from us.

Still, their evolution took much

more time then did other species. In

the early days, they were primitive,

beastly, and went from bad to worse.That is why some agreed to turn over



the Earth to the control of the Titans.

The other gods had given up, except

for a few of us who fought for

humanity. That is what my father and I

were divided over, and that’s why he

disowned my brother and imprisoned

me. Wake up!” he shouted.“Sorry,” he sighed. “Can I go,

now?”

Ignoring him, Oceanus

continued, “It was all because of

Lucem who saw the potential that manhad, if only they were educated, and

then given choices. And so he sent his

first piece of goodness into the world.”

“The first conjurer?” asked

Jacko.

“Yes.”“Tell me about him.”

“He was a boy born to the early

dark ages, long before the Rome

Republic. It wasn’t a pretty time. War

was everywhere, and there were partsof the Earth that were still inhabited



by the demons and their half human

offspring.”

“What happened to the

conjurer?”

“The demons fought him all the

way to the Garden of Eden. Tired and

severely beaten, he hid there for many years while the Earth went to hell as

the Celts fought desperately to save

humanity.”

“He hid while people died?”

“He was not so different from you, Jacko. After all, wasn’t it you on

the mountain hiding these last few

weeks?”

“That was different; there was

nothing I could do to help.”

“Wrong, Jacko!” yelled Helius. Inhis outburst, his hair flamed several

feet off his head, and his eyes literally

blazed. “You were told to seek the

orchard, but you didn’t listen.”

“Helius, sit down,” said Aurora.



When he’d rested back into his

seat, Jacko asked, “So he was Lucem’s

first son? What was his name?”

“Like others, he’s had many

names. Most recently, he’s been known

as Jove, but he’s in rest right now. He’s

not supposed to come around for thiswar; in fact, we’re not sure that he’ll

ever come around again.”

“But Jove couldn’t have been

Lucem’s son. His father was Saturnus.”

“Though Lucem had many, manyhuman sons,” said Aurora, “Jove was

really his first. They bonded in a way

that only a father and son could. When

Saturnus found out, Lucem protected

Jove as if he were one of his own,

training him in battle, and giving himthe skills he needed to defeat his

crazed father.”

“Will he be mad if I visit him?”

“I don’t recommend it, Jacko,”

said Aurora. “Never wake a sleeping



god, lest it be the last thing you ever

do.”

The conversation carried on for

some time during which Jacko

repeatedly nodded. Finally, he’d had

enough and said, “I think I’d better begetting home, now.”

“What home? You have no home,

boy!” Helius bursted. “You’ll stay here

until battle time.”

“Helius,” said Oceanus, “the boymay leave if he wishes.”

“Where will he go? What if the

demons get him?”

“He’ll go to the summit, of

course,” said Aurora.

“Excuse me, gods,” Jackointerrupted. “I’ve taken care of myself

my entire life. I don’t need you telling

me what to do. However, I do plan to

go to the summit, but there’s

something I must do first.”“What is that?”



“Bury my sister and my father.”

“Out of the question!” stood

Helius.

“Sit down!” Oceanus also stood.

“War hasn’t officially begun! The

demons know not to touch him yet. He’s

lost enough. At least allow him tomourn properly. Jacko,” Oceanus

turned his eerie fluid ocean eyes to

him and said “you may go.”

A mere second after Oceanus

excused him, a traveling whirl of windswept him up into its funnel.



Warring World

Chapter 2

He was in the funnel a few minutes

before it cleared.

The first thing Jacko noticed

was how the world had changed.Looking up, his heart pounded at the

unnatural charcoal gray hue of the sky.

There were also no clouds.

Perhaps the gods warring in space

polluted the atmosphere. He couldn’teven see the sun; there was no wind

and it was terribly cold.

The emotions of the gods were

connected to the Earth’s atmosphere.

Just like in the old stories, when the

gods warred, so did the skies; thatmeant natural disasters. However,

never had he ever heard of a sky so

dark that it blocked out the sun and

moon.

Eyes glued upward to the sky,Jacko put a foot forward and yelped.



Painfully, he slammed backward onto

his butt. He’d almost walked off a cliff

the height of a small mountain.

He laid a moment, examining the

topography below, which seemed to

have many massive piles of rubble. At

first, he thought he was looking at atrash dump. But after a second, he

realized the funnel dropped him off on

the mountain that towered behind his

hometown, Mariton.

Jacko gagged on his breath,sitting further up on his elbows.

Since he’d been gone, the entire

shopping district had been leveled. He

wondered how many other cities had

been destroyed so completely.

He pushed himself up and lookedfor a way down. Upon seeing nothing,

he decided to use his power.

With just a thought, he was

instantly there, in front of his father’s

house.



The neighborhood seemed to be

deserted. Most of the houses, up and

down the block, were turned to rubble.

His was the only one still standing,

although just barely.

There were no birds in the sky,

power lines were strewn about, andtrees were upturned. Not a single car

that wasn’t buried or crushed in

rubbish was there.

He walked up the stone steps

and, hesitantly, over the threshold ofthe unstable looking house. Inside

wasn’t much different than last time.

Stepping over a pile of broken

wood slats, he made his way to where

the living room used to be. He braced

himself for the sight of his deadsister.

Jacko’s jaw dropped when he

saw that his sister was no longer

there, lying on his father’s couch. His

breath quickened and his eyelidswidened.



After a moment of seething in

anger, wondering if the demons came

back for her, he told himself to focus.

There wasn’t any more time to fall

apart.

He stood at the foot of the

stairs, noticing how more of the plankshad collapsed.

Jacko jumped to the very top of

the landing, which shook dangerously

when he landed. Extending his arms

outward, he focused on keeping thelanding up and intact.

Wood continued to splint as he

walked gently down the hall.

Slowly, he walked into his

father’s room. The sight of him there,

decayed, made him lose focus so thathe fell through the ceiling, slamming

face first down onto a pile of wood and

drywall.

He lay stunned a moment,

waiting for the pain to subside, and



then he pushed himself up and off the

pile.

Back in the living room, the quilt

that lined the couch was still there.

Jacko pulled it off, shaking all the dirt

and rubble away, and then went back

into the kitchen where he fell throughthe ceiling and leapt up into his

father’s room.

Trying desperately to stay

focused, so as not to go through the

floor again, he covered his father’sbody with the quilt and lifted him onto

his shoulder.

With a blink of his eyes, he

disappeared from the house and

reappeared in the city graveyard

where the majority of his father’sfamily was buried. Jacko commanded

the dirt to clear itself into a pile next

to his grandfather’s grave. He gently

laid the body of his father in and

commanded the dirt back into the hole.



He stood there, looking down at

the grave for a long time. Even of

himself, he couldn’t understand why he

felt the need to do his father justice.

He was cruel and abusive.

He sighed long and loud, and

looked up at the sky. No longer couldhe see beams of antimatter and

lightning bolts zooming across the sky.

Maybe the gods were taking a break

from pre war? Or the sky was so

severely polluted.Once, he thought Mariton was a

terribly dreary place. Never had he

imagined that it could be worse. He

just hoped his uncle was okay.

Wait a minute, he thought. He

had one other family member in town,and he was actually good to him; better

than his father ever was.

Only problem was Jacko didn’t

want to use his new powers to get

there. He needed to be careful of the



exposure risk. But how was he to

travel?

And then the answer came to

him. Jacko imagined he had a bike

again, so he could ride around the

neighborhood.

A blue scooter appeared thereon the grass. Jacko kicked up the

stand and got on.

He rode into what used to be

the town center. Along the way, he saw

more of the same: leveled houses andbuildings with not a sign of a human

being anywhere. In the very center of

town, the mall looked as if Thor,

himself, split it; half was in rubble and

the other still stood. An overwhelming

smell of grease, sort of like Frenchfries, permeated the air. Looking

around, he noticed the Mac Donald’s

across the street had also been

leveled.

Past the town center, he wentuntil he approached the stretch of



strawberry fields, and beyond that,

spinach. The fields were completely

destroyed. Any remaining fruit and

vegetables were shriveled up due to

lack of sunlight.

He continued along for another

mile or so before turning onto a longdirt road.

His uncle had a typical redneck

home with lots of cars on the front

lawn.

Jacko pulled up to the frontdoor and parked his bike.

“Uncle Bally,” he called out.

It was better not to sneak up on

him, or else a person might get shot.

He banged on the door of hisdouble wide trailer. When he got no

answer, he tried to open the door but

it was locked.

“Damn it!” he cursed under his

breath. “Uncle Bally!”



Jacko peered through the glass

window. All was still inside.

He jogged to the back of the

trailer-house and tried the kitchen

door. When it wouldn’t open either, he

decided to break in. He looked down at

the knob and told it to unlock, and witha little pop-click, it did.

Jacko pushed open the door and

jumped to the side of the wall. When

after a minute nothing happened, he

craned his neck over and looked aroundthe room.

Bally was notorious for setting

trip traps.

The living room was just as he

remembered it, with its ugly dirty

brown couch and tiny little windows.Inside, the air was dank and smelling

of cigarette smoke.

He walked down the hall, calling

out.

He almost walked past the roomwhere he normally slept. Spotting the



lumpy old bed reminded him that he

hadn’t slept in days.

Fatigue propelled him forward.

He sat at the foot of the bed, took off

his shoes and crawled up towards the

pillow.



Ancient Nobility

Chapter 3

“Jacko.”

Someone was grabbing at his

cunnan. “No, let go!” Jacko said.

“Jacko, wake up.”The hand shook him harder.

He fought to open his eyes.

“Uncle Bally!”

“Yeah, boy,” he said. “I thought

you were dead! Some dream you werehaving, kept shouting at me to let go!”

“I dreamt someone was trying to

steal my cunnan, only I have no clue

what a cunnan is.”

“Must’a dreamt you was a

marksman.”“Huh?”

“Bows and arrows, ya know, a

cunnan, a bag.”

“Oh.” He rubbed his eyes. “So

how’s everyone?”



“I really can’t say, kid. I need to

get out and skin these.” He wiggled a

handful of Squirrels he held by their

tails. “Follow me outside and we’ll talk.”

Groggily, Jacko pulled himself

out of the sunken bed.

“Why are you hunting? Isn’t it

early in the season?”

“It’s all about resources now,

and it won’t be long before winter is

here. We’ll need enough food to last.”Jacko watched as his uncle

pulled back the skin of a squirrel, like

pulling off a glove.

“I came by a few weeks ago and

found dad and Sissy dead. I couldn’t

stay because…” Jacko paused, trying tothink of a good excuse. He couldn’t tell

him he’d totally lost his mind and

murdered a bunch of demons on a

snowy mountain peak, and then found

himself dining with immortals inheaven. “Um, there was another storm



coming. I’ve only just got back and

their bodies are gone.”

“Could be they came around and

got ‘em. Government came and

gathered and burned a bunch of

bodies.”

He emptied out the guts intosome aluminum foil he’d spread out on

the table.

“Shouldn’t you bury that?”

“I know what I’m doing, Jacko,

okay? Been doing this since I was akid!”

Bally’d always had sort of a

short temper.

He propped the gutted squirrel

on a clothing line to cool, and then

started another.“The town’s been ghostly a while,

now. The storms kept coming. I

could’ve gone with them, but I figure if

this is the end, then I’m not gonna

survive it. Even if the government hasa safe place for us, why would they



want a stinking old fart like me? So I

hunkered down here. After they’d all

gone, I went into town and gathered all

the leftover supplies and hid them.”

“It’s gotta be lonely, for you, out

here.”

“I never was a people person,Jacko, you know that.”

“What about the news?

Television? Radio?”

“Most everything is working, but

the most I can gather is no one knowswhat’s going on. No one knows why the

storms keep coming, or why the sky

has changed. Scientists say it doesn’t

make sense; that there isn’t anything

wrong with the Earth, moon or sun.

Global warming just wouldn’t act thisway, and not this soon or without any

indications. They all got theories

though.”

“What kind of theories?”

“Uh, some predict thatsomething big is happening in the



universe – something that we can’t see,

like a universe or a planet passing,

maybe a black hole. Most think this will

end and the sky will return to normal.

But people are acting like it’s the end

anyway: looting and shooting, killing. I,

myself, have a hiding place in casepeople come to take what I got.

By the way,” he said, looking him

directly in the eyes and pointing his

gloved finger. “I’d be careful, if I were

you. Walk on the right side of the dirtroad. There are some tricky bombs and

trip wire in the grass. I buried

ignitions all over the place. Only I know

exactly where each igniter is, so only

walk on the right.”

This didn’t faze Jacko. Everyonein the family knew Uncle Bally was a

militia-survivalist type. Probably a good

thing, too; if anyone could survive the

war that was coming, it was him.

“Have you heard from anyfamily?”



“Yeah, the cell phones and

electricity is working, but most phone

lines aren’t. Electricity was down a bit

but it came back on. Not a problem,

though, I got five generators and I

cleaned out enough propane to last a

couple years. Then I went to thethrift store and found an old wood

stove and wood heater. So we’re set, if

you want to stay that is. Just need to

worry about food. You can help me with

that.” He dropped the last bunch of

guts into the foil and wrapped it up.

Then he set the last squirrel to cool.

“I get text messages every so

often,” he said, pulling off his glove.

“Aunt Maggie is playing host to Lily andMichael and their four kids, so she’s

got her hands full, plus I heard

Grandpapa was gonna go stay, too.”

He pulled out a cigarette and lit

up. “I guess I got off lucky. Grandpapaalways drove me crazy, and he’s getting



worse as he gets on in age. And all the

screaming kids…”

He took a deep inhale and said,

“So anyway, now it’s my turn.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s my turn to ask

questions, like where ya been? Last Iheard, you’d run off.”

“I couldn’t take it anymore,

Uncle Bally. I went to Sissy’s. She

moved to New Hampshire to live with

our real family. Did you know?”“Know what?”

“That John wasn’t really my

father?”

“Did Sissy tell you that?” he said

around a mouthful of smoke.

His eyebrows furrowed up intohis forehead. He took a long drag off

his cigarette.

“Well, Jacko, it’s like this: your

mama was too good for John. She

helped him even though he was a nogood junk head. I think she needed



something from him, and I don’t think

it was money. We knew something was

up with that arrangement because it

just didn’t make sense. John was my

brother but he was screw up, and your

mother was different. Why deny it?

John was a junk head.”He tossed his cigarette on the

ground and said, “Well, come on, boy.

Let me show you about the property

because there’ve been some changes,

and then we’ll get some lunch andwatch a movie. I ransacked that movie

place, downtown. Damn sure cleaned

them out!”

Uncle Bally grabbed the foil

containing the squirrel guts and ledJacko down into the basement he built

to fit the trailer home. That part of

the basement looked like any other,

with lots of food on the shelf, and

dried meats hanging from the ceiling.Then he showed him his underground



storage, which Jacko would have never

noticed. Since the basement was built

into the ground, and Bally’d never

gotten around to laying down flooring,

the ground appeared to be nothing

more than a foot of dirt.

Now, he understood why he’dnever taken care of the floor. Over in

the furthest corner of the basement,

Bally swiped at the dirt a couple times,

pushing it to the sides and revealing a

door that was made with the sameigneous rock that made up most of the

ground in that area.

Jacko followed him down a set

of aluminum steps into the

underground room.

Unlike the basement, the lowerroom was extremely clean. Uncle Bally

had turned it into a tiny bomb shelter

complete with basic camping essentials,

and jam packed it full of supplies.

“Don’t get excited, though,Jacko. If the world should end, none



of this will matter. It’s just in case,

for some reason, we should survive or

get attacked by lunatics. There’s

enough food and water to keep a

person for a year or so. I’d only just

started building it, thinking I’d retire

here since the government wasplanning to foreclose on my property.

So, make no mistake, we got work to

do, just in case we survive.”

After showing him the storage,he led him upstairs and back outside to

a hole he was digging in the ground,

some 150 feet away.

“This is gonna be an outhouse.

Plumbing works fine, but if it should go

out, we’re gonna need a place to go. Ineed you to finish this hole later. It

needs to be 6 feet deep, and then we’ll

fill it in and move it every 6 months or

so.”

After Bally showed him the mainadjustments to his property, he took



him back inside the house. He pulled

out a pot of stewed venison and rice,

which he heated on the stove.

Lunch was just the uplift that

Jacko needed. The venison was so

tasty but hard to chew.

Bally put in a funny movie duringwhich Jacko fell into hysterics. It felt

strange to laugh, and it felt so good

that he made himself laugh even

harder than he needed. He forced it

through his tears, through his fear,and through his sadness.

Why couldn’t he just escape his

fate? Hide out there with his Uncle?

~~~

The next day, Jacko woke with a

minor ache in his lower back. His bed

was sunk so low in the middle that his

rear touched the box springs.



In the living room, Uncle Bally

was bent over, lacing up his boots with

a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

On the television, a woman was

broadcasting the weather. “Clear, grey

skies,” she said.

“Coffee,” he said with clenched

teeth, “in the kitchen. Grab yourself a

piece of fruit because we gotta go.”

Jacko wandered into the kitchen

where a piece of linoleum, sticking up,nailed him in the ball of his foot.

Despite the dubious look of the

old yellow coffee pot, which Jacko was

sure his Uncle Bally probably never

cleaned, he poured himself a cup and

grabbed a banana.Back in the living room, the

anchor lady was talking about what an

unusual week it had been.

“… Rain has stopped in most

parts of the country, but the Earth,itself, will not rest…” then there were



shots to places where people were

trying to get about, but were having a

hard time walking on the ever-

trembling ground. “In other parts of

the country, there is little sunlight,

and though we’re pressing the

government for answers, there is stillno explanation as to why the skies

remain unchanged, or where the clouds

have gone. Activists blame man’s global

warming, saying that if they’d reduced

chemicals in the atmosphere sooner,than this wouldn’t have happen.”

His uncle turned off the

television. “I don’t understand why

they keep putting out that global

warming crap! Something’s happening,

alright, and it ain’t got nothing to dowith us.”

“What do you suppose, then?” he

asked around a mouthful of fruit.

“It’s God! ‘And the angel took

the censer, filled it with fire from thealtar, and threw it to the earth. And



there were noises, thunderings,

lightnings, and an earthquake. So the

seven angels who had the seven

trumpets prepared themselves to

sound. The first angel sounded: And

hail and fire followed, mingled with

blood, and they were thrown to theearth. And a third of the trees were

burned up, and all the green grass was

burned up,’ revelations.”

Whoa, thought Jacko.

He was so off, yet so close.

“Put on your shoes; let’s go.”

“Why?”

“I started setting up a miniature

green house down in the shelter. Weneed to gather seeds to try and grow

down there; although I’m no green

thumb. More like black touch of death,

but we’ll try anyway. I got this book

though.” He walked over to the mantle.“Maybe you can look it over later.



Plants require gentle kind of caring,

which I’m unable to provide. But first,

we’re going hunting. Some pigs have

been burrowing out by the river.”

“Hunting’s not my thing.”

“What do you mean, it’s not your

‘thing?’ What do you think we ate lastnight? What are you gonna eat when all

the meat, in the grocery stores, spoils?

Hunting is the ancient nobility. Now,

come on, boy. You’re gonna stay here,

you gotta contribute.”He stubbed out his cigarette,

grabbed a gun and a large net that lay

on the floor and walked out.

Thirty minutes later, they were

following a trail that seemed to beleading them to the river. He talked

the whole way, telling Jacko the

difference between mountain lion and

dog tracks, deer and reindeer, and how

to track boars or capture squirrels.



“You see them holes right there.

Pigs digging up some tubers, I bet.

They may even rest near here. We’re

gonna track ‘em down that way --” he

pointed to some faint tracks and

chewed shrub. “Now if we can catch us

some, great. Likely, they’ll run backhere. Once we’ve chased them back

around here, you’ll use this, here, net

to catch one. I’d give you a gun, but I

don’t trust you. I’ll shoot one and you’ll

net one, and we’ll have enough meat tolast six months.”

Jacko was intrigued by his

uncle’s fervor. He wondered if that

was the way the demons looked at him:

like a pig running across country.

After walking through the

forest, another twenty minutes or so,

Jacko started to wish he was anywhere

but there. The cold touched, easily,

through his light parka and sweater.He longed for another hot cup of



coffee that was still in the pot back at

the house.

Some time passed when his uncle

suddenly put out his arm like a bar to

his chest. Shhh, he mimicked with his

finger to his lips.

Gently, he raised the binocularsthat hung around his neck to his eyes,

and then motioned to Jacko to stay

still.

He watch as Uncle Bally walked

carefully to a small space between twotrees whose limbs hung down,

obscuring Jacko’s vision so he couldn’t

quite see what Bally was looking at.

He put the gun up to his

shoulder and pulled the trigger. Then

there was the sound of many feet,running.

“See that, Jacko! That’s how

they communicate: gruntin’ and

squealin’! Let’s go!”He walked, fast, past Jacko.



“These pigs have a real routine!

Now I just shot the tree to scare

them, but I know where they’re going.

If we play our cards right, we could

catch two of them.”

As quiet as they could, theyback tracked, only veering off the trail

just slightly. It didn’t take long for

them to find several of them standing

by a small stream of the river, drinking

and lying about.

“Now, how we’re gonna do this is

you’re gonna stand here, okay?” Uncle

Bally whispered, mimicking positions

with his hands. “I’m gonna go around

and shoot one. Now they’ll get scaredand, I’m bettin’, their gonna come right

through here, right at you, because up

that way is a dead end cliff. Pigs

remember things like that. Also, don’t

underestimate their strength. They’reshaped differently, but that doesn’t



mean they aren’t heavy, fast or strong.

Don’t break your neck, just try to

catch one, and we’ll be set for quite a

while.”

Jacko looked at the pigs that

barely reached past his knees andthought they couldn’t be that hard to

catch.

Poised, net at the ready, he

waited for Bally to come around.

It happened quicker than Jacko

expected.

Uncle Bally stood out along the

side of the clearing. The pigs had yet

to notice. He took aim and shot thelargest one. Jacko was relieved, but

he didn’t have long to linger on that

feeling because the four other pigs

came charging toward the only clear

spot, which was right where he stood.



They ran like miniature charging

bulls. He didn’t know they could be so

agile!

Jacko’s heart pounded.

The first two approached.

He swung the net, but the pigs

ran around and between his legs whilethe other two ran off the trail and

into the bush.

“Well, don’t just stand there,

boy! Get one!”

He turned and ran. It took everyounce of strength to catch up to the

fast little blighters. His net was raised

skyward.

Suddenly, the two pigs that

went into the bush appeared, nearly

knocking Jacko over. He didn’thesitate. He flung the net at once,

holding the pole as hard as he could.

It landed over the smallest one,

entirely, but instead of stopping, it

yanked on the net with such force thatJacko slammed flat onto his front, and



then it dragged him for a couple of

yards before he was able to dig his

feet into the ground and heel himself

up.

The pig, which didn’t stop trying

to escape, further entangled himself in

the net until it was lying on its side.His uncle walked up behind,

“We-e-ell, looks like the pig took you

on a trip!”

He laughed hysterically at his

clever pun.Jacko looked down his muddy

front.

“Boy, you need a bath,” he

laughed jovially. “Good job.”

“He’s such a little guy, though.

Maybe we should let him go.”Looking over at the pig, he

concurred. “Yeah, you may be right.”

He tugged the cord and shook the net,

and the pig ran off, honking.



“Well, come on, boy. I’m gonna

show you a thing or two about cleaning

a kill.”

They walked over to the water

where the dead pig lay. He heaved it

onto his shoulder, and then Jackofollowed him back to the house.

When he’d set the pig on his

cutting table, he said, “First thing you

need to remember is to give thanks to

the lord. You just killed a living thing;it gave up its life for you. Second, you

never cut any of the organs if you

don’t want disease and pea and poo

runnin’ all over your food. Water is the

universal solvent but it doesn’t work on

all bacteria and virus’.”He, then, took his foot long

machete-like knife and made a cut

from the bottom up, baring all the

animal’s organs.

“Next, you cut here and here.Normally you can skin an animal’s hide



real easy, but this one we’re gonna save

most of. Don’t know if you’ve ever had

pigskin, but it sure is good: too good to

waste. We’re gonna keep the head,

which has ample meat on it. In other

countries, it would be wasteful to

throw it away. Some like to keep theeyes and eat those too, but I don’t

care for them.”

“Why are you saving the guts

again?” he asked, looking at the mound

he’d placed in foil.“To lure other animals; for

fishing and to set traps,” he replied

incredulously, rolling his eyes. “Man,

you city kids get things too easy, I tell

you what. It makes you dumb is what it

does.”He threw the newly gutted body

of the pig over his shoulder, and

disappeared into the house.

The rest of the day, Jackospent reading about planting while



Bally worked on his irrigation system

down in the green house.

Later, they sat down in the living

room and watched the news over

dinner. For the most part, the world

was unchanged, except for sunlight

that broke out at the North Pole for afew hours.

The next morning, Uncle Bally

took Jacko out into the forest to track

a deer. Earlier, he’d seen some half

eaten leaves and scat lying about. Thistime, he wanted Jacko to lead the way

and kill one.

“See, you’re gonna find the most

activity if you can get up and look

around at sunrise or before. You know,

that’s when animals get going.Somehow, it’s like they know they’re

less likely to meet people, which is

exactly why a hunter gets up earlier.

Besides, some animals rest when it’s

hottest, which is afternoon and you



don’t want to be out here at that time,

neither.

Only problem is sometimes

tracks and scat aren’t reliable. Dew

might make scat look moist, or other

predators might have tracked the

animal first. Despite all the externalfactors, when you see activity, you see

the patterns; then you know where to

hunt.” Bally, slapped him on shoulder,

“See, look over there,” he pointed.

“Don’t you think you’ve gotenough meat for now?”

“That’s a really good question,

kid. We’ve been really lucky in catching

lots of meat because no one else is

around, right now. Normally, it’s just

good ethics not to over fish or overhunt, but with the atmosphere like

this, it won’t be long before they start

eating each other, and it won’t be long

before the animals that don’t convert

to meat eating, will die. I especiallymean the deer and cows, and maybe



even some squirrels. Better we get

them before that happens. That way

we have that much extra supply, and

that much extra time to plan for

future resources.”

He motioned that Jacko should

take the lead, following the trail;telling Bally where he thought they

should go.

By lunch, Jacko had his own deer

to skin. As he worked on it, he

wondered if the demons would skinhim, if they got their their blackened

claws on him.

No , he said to himself, they’d

likely just take his head and put it on a

totem, like an Amazonian.

All nobility and wars aside,Jacko found that he liked being an

outdoors man. The simple nature of

working with his hands was instantly

gratifying. Everyday, he had a job to

do, and when he’d accomplished hisgoals, his conscience was rewarded



with just the simple knowledge that he

was capable.

Unlike life at school or with his

father in which problems always

persisted, and at the end of the days,

he’d lie in bed, worrying, out there,

when the day was done so were hisworries. As such, he never slept so

peacefully, not ever as long as he could

remember.

Even mealtimes were different.

Food sustained his soul as well as hisbody. It made him wonder if the life

he lived, at the moment, was the way it

was supposed to be for mankind.

As usual, they were up at the

crack of dawn the next day.

Jacko sat on the couch eating anapple while Bally stocked up an igloo

with ice and animal guts. He went into

the kitchen where he filled two

thermoses with coffee.



He handed one to Jacko and

said, “Get them fishing poles, boy. I’ll

carry the chest and a rifle.”

Twenty minutes later, they

trekked up the hill to the lake. Fog

from the mountain tried to weigh them

down, chilling them to the bone, andmaking it appear as if it were eleven ‘o’

clock at night, instead of six in the

morning.

When the ground leveled off,

they walked on for another ten milesbefore they reached the lake.

Tethered to the dock were a couple

boats.

His uncle got in the largest one

and said, “Hand me the stuff and get in

carefully.”Jacko did as he said, and then

clambered into the shaking boat.

Looking down into the water was

quite eerie. It mirrored the sky, only it

looked nearly black. Fog hugged thesurface, making it hard to see around



them. He just hoped the boat didn’t

accidentally tip. Something about the

idea of falling in and not being able to

see the surface of the water as he

swam up was frightening.

Uncle Bally immediately got to

work, showing Jacko how to line andbait the hooks.

Showing Jacko how to bait was

the most exciting part of fishing.

After that, they sat, motionless and

speechless, for the next couple ofhours. Finally, the coffee half way

finished, and the sky having lightened

a bit, Bally said, “Let’s try another

spot”

They reeled in their lines and

then Bally paddled the boat to otherside of the lake.

Several hours passed in stone

cold, quiet. Several times, Bally

smacked or shook him. “Hey, you’re

gonna scare all the fish away withsnoring.”



Jacko slept a couple hours with

his chin on his chest. Then about noon,

the line tugged. Bally reached over him

and grabbed the pole from his hand.

Jacko jumped. “Sorry, but you

were sleeping. You almost lost the

pole.”He rotated the lever a few

dozen times, and pulled up a large

perch.

“Not bad. The perch might be

headed in this direction.” He handedthe pole back to him. “Try to stay

awake, now.”

Uncle Bally was right. Over the

next couple of hours, they managed to

fish a dozen perch out. Then just as

they were about to call it a day, theywrangled out a twelve pound catfish.

Things went on like this for a

few weeks. Jacko thoroughly enjoyed

his time. Time and time again, he did

think about his family who were stuckon the summit of the gods, and that



they might want to go home, but he

just didn’t know what to do. That was

the thing about the gods. They kept

telling him he needed to end the war

but never told him how. Either way,

they were safe on the summit. Until

Jacko found out what his part was tobe, he felt better knowing that his

family was tucked out of harm’s way.

But a few weeks later, as Jacko

and Uncle Bally sat watching the news

and eating their slow cooked squirrelsand rice, he got worried. The news lady

talked about the increase of storm

patterns, and heaps of sulfur rains. As

he sat there, fork frozen mid air, he

realized that, sooner rather than

later, he was gonna have to leave thecomfort of his uncle’s fortress.

It pained him to think about

leaving, for he’d become fond of even

the dank cigarette smoke that hung in

the air, the soggy, back breaking butwarmth of his bed; the moldy but hot



heat from the generator. It was

comfort he’d never known. He was

snuggled in his own little world.

A blanket of guilt fell over him

as the anchor spoke of a new wave of

deaths in northern Europe. Towards

the circle poles, people witnessed astrange phenomenon that Jacko knew

too well about: fiery snow the size of

baseballs, pummeling the ground and

buildings, catching fire to all they

touched, and burning out in the snow,leaving blackened ashes behind.

Scientists suggested it was bits of

asteroid, raining down from space.

Jacko knew better; it was the

gods warring and smiting with their

rods, spears and tridents. They were just as powerful as the elements, as

they fired lightning bolts, laser beams

and antimatter, obliterating whatever

they came into contact with.

He sighed.



Can’t Hide Forever

Chapter 4

The next morning, Bally proposed

they’d get more work done if they

separated.

Jacko didn’t mind because he,

sometimes, got tired of working withhim. He could talk nonstop for hours.

By noon, he’d managed to track

another deer.

After a bit of lunch and a cup of

coffee, he put on the thick boots hisuncle lent him, as his shoes were no

good when hiking the more strenuous

trails. He looked for wild edible plants

he could dig up and take back to his

uncle’s green house.

For miles, he went into aparticularly thick part of the forest

when, up in the tree, he saw several

squirrels running with nuts in their

mouths.

He was thinking he should havebrought his rifle. Then something fast



and dark whizzed past both sides of

his head.

Jacko spun around thinking they

couldn’t have been wasps or June bugs;

they were too fast. When he didn’t see

anything, he turned his attention back

to the trail.Onward, he went until he

spotted a weakened wild patch of

strawberries. Puny and nearly dead in

the nasty cold, hard soil, its shriveled

fruit hung low to the ground.As he stooped to carefully

examine the roots, something whizzed

past both sides of his head again. The

air whooshed through his hair and

ears, which he swatted with both

hands.He stood up.

“Show yourselves, now!”

He walked in the direction the

black things seemed to fly. It didn’t

take long to spot them. There, withwings beating fast, keeping them



suspended in the air, were two bat

babies.

They were so dark that, if not

for the whites of their eyes, he

wouldn’t have been able to see their

large irises, as black as their shiny

skin, staring down at him. And if notfor the green of the leaves against the

charcoal gray sky, their shapes would

have been impossible to distinguish.

Little gleaming fangs poked out

of their thin lipped mouths.Normally, the bat babies lived in

the red lands.

“What are you doing here?”

They didn’t answer.

Although they were relatively

harmless, they were still on the sidesof his enemies. He couldn’t let them go

and risk their telling others his

location.

With that thought, he pulled his

backpack off and said, “Get in.” When



they wouldn’t, he bound them with his

magic and stuffed them inside.

Then he went back to the patch

and, with the mini shovel, got to

digging up the strawberry plant. When

he’d carefully collected all the roots,

he pulled out a plastic bag, carefullyput the plant in, and filled it with the

dirt. Then he poured in some water and

left the forest.

When he got back to the house,

it was to find that his uncle was,thankfully, still out. He wasn’t ready to

tell his uncle everything. Besides, he

wouldn’t believe him anyway.

He stowed away to his room,

where he pulled the two bat babies out

of his bag and placed them on thecloset floor.

“Stay quiet,” he said, and then

closed the door.



Spirit Mother

Chapter 5

Overall, the bat babies were rather

well behaved. In the morning, Jacko

gave them pork sandwiches. They

threw the bread to the floor, ate the

meat and drank down the cups ofwater.

“Why are you here?”

They tried to respond but Jacko

just didn’t understand the pigeon

vibrato they uttered. He didn’t speakdemon, and they didn’t speak English.

“Stay.”

He closed the door and went

about his day.

Out in the forest, he

immediately spotted a tree with abroken branch. Judging by the color of

the exposed wood, it was damaged

recently. Below the branch, the dirt

was recently trampled.

“Whoa,” he said to himself,kneeling to get a closer look.



From end to end, the track was

two feet width of tossed dirt.

He couldn’t quite make out the

shape of the foot print, but it

measured, maybe, six inches, he

guessed. It kind of reminded him of a

dog but way bigger.His heart pounded and he

grinned, thinking, Bally is going to be

so proud of me.

He picked up his pace. Obviously,

whatever the animal was, it was huge.If he could conquer it, maybe it was a

sign that he was ready to face his

demons.

Right now, in the red lands, a

demon that was picked to battle Jacko

was taking a sojourn, too. It was theircustom that they should go into the

forest and live by the land, proving

their battle worthiness. The

coincidence that he should be with

Uncle Bally, doing similar things, didn’tescape him. In fact, it gave him hope



that maybe, despite his fear, he was

battle worthy, too.

The sky lightened by several

shades. He looked at his watch. An

hour passed and he still hadn’t found

the animal.

He stopped a moment and took asip of water.

A low groaning sound came from

beyond a tree several yards to his

right.

Jacko put the lid back on hiswater, stuffed it in his bag, and got his

rifle to the ready.

He lightly walked to where the

sound came from. Standing close to

the tree, obscuring his body from full

view, he looked through tall grass. Lessthan a hundred feet away, the biggest

bear he’d ever seen was ripping out the

belly of a pig.

Although he couldn’t see its

face, the size and shape of its headand body was way too big for a brown



or black bear. As this thought

occurred to him, sweat broke out all

over his face and neck. He should have

known the moment he saw the size of

the tracks.

Stepping backward slowly, his

eyes never leaving the bear, heaccidentally tripped on a large fallen

branch. He accidentally squeezed the

trigger; it shot up in the air.

Quickly, he jumped to his feet.

He locked eyes with the bear.It roared and stood on its feet,

and then charged him.

Jacko turned to run again, but in

panic, tripped on the same log,

slamming face first into the dirt.

He should have stayed on theground and played dead, like Uncle

Bally told him, but fear took over. He

got on foot to run but wasn’t fast

enough.

The grizzly bear leapt at him.



Jacko flung his arms up to his

face.

A few seconds passed, but

nothing happened.

He opened his eyes and saw the

bear sitting by the tree with its

tongue hanging out, looking at him,curiously.

Looking around, he realized that

things seemed brighter than usual.

Instead of the grey atmosphere, it was

quite yellowish.Jacko looked up at the sky and,

seeing that it was blue, gasped.

Did he jump worlds again?

Jumping worlds in his sleep was

originally how he got caught up in this

god versus demons business. Whileasleep, he accidentally astral

projected into the red lands.

A woman was humming. He also

heard the sound of running water

coming from the clearing where thebear was eating a kill, a moment ago.



The bear roared lightly, and

nodded his head in the direction the

sounds came from.

Jacko got the hint but was still

wary.

Slowly, he walked just past the

tree, eyes still watching the bear.When he was sure it wouldn’t attack,

he chanced glancing ahead.

There was a woman sitting in the

grass, watching a silvery river run.

“Hello?” he half said half asked.“Can you tell me where I am?”

The woman turned around. Jacko

instantly recognized her face. She had

long white blonde hair and the darkest

brown eyes to contrast, like his sister,

Sissy.“Mother?”

She smiled.

“Is this real?”

“After everything, do you even

have to ask that?”



His cheeks hitched back in a

wide smile. He almost ran to hug her.

But then he got scared as a realization

sunk in: his mother had died and gone

into the fountain of youth, where all

souls return after death. Only the

most powerful, like Lucem and a veryfew select humans, could go into the

fountain without losing their mortal or

immortal life. For most, be you god,

demon, angel, or human, once you got in

the fountain, you could never go backto your physical body, except for

rebirth.

“Are we in the fountain?”

“Yes! Very good! I see you did

pay attention to my stories.”

A look of panic must have shownon his face, for she said, “Don’t worry,

you’re not dead.”

“Then, how am I here?”

“I asked a friend for a favor.

She brought you here.”He sighed and sat next to her.



“She must be a powerful friend.

You swear I’m not dead?”

“You’ll return to your body when

we’re done.”

“With what?”

“I need to talk to you, and I

have to do it now because I don’t havemuch more time left, here, in the

fountain.”

“Where are you going?”

“My time to be reborn is

nearing.”“How do you know when that’s

about to happen?”

“It’s just a feeling one gets.

Sort of like when people know their

time is coming to end, well, sometimes

people can tell when their time is aboutto begin.”

“Do you have to go?”

“No, but I want to.”

“Come back to Earth as yourself,

or retire in heaven! Why do you haveto be reborn? You won’t remember me.



Essentially, you’ll be leaving your

children behind.”

“I can’t, Jacko. The thing is I

want to leave this life behind. I want

to be reborn into a normal family, and

live a normal life. Besides,” she sighed,

“when the martyrs break their circlesof life, then humanity is no longer

saved.”

Jacko hadn’t a clue of what she

meant. All he knew was that he was

angry. How could she be so selfish?“So why did you call me?” he

asked, trying to keep his feelings from

sounding in his voice.

“To give you something.”

She reached into the pocket of

her white linen smock and pulled out ahandful of figs.

“Food?” he asked sarcastically.

“They’re very special. I don’t

want to tell you how for fear that

you’ll use them at the wrong time.There aren’t very many of these left in



the world, so it’s important you keep

them as long as possible.”

He considered her a moment. It

sounded strange but he knew not to

question the gods, so he put them in

his cargo pocket.

They sat in silence a few moremoments.

“Why did you leave me behind,

when you left home?”

“When I met John, the man you

thought was your father, I wasdesperate. We needed a safe place and

a new legal identity, and we needed it

immediately. I didn’t know anyone else

who could help me. The quickest way to

get those things, I figured, was to get

married, so I enchanted him. The thingwith enchantments is they don’t last.

Year by year, the spell wore off until

he woke, one morning, and couldn’t

remember who I was. You were too

young to remember, but he threw meand Sissy out. I didn’t leave.”



“Why did he allow me to stay?”

“Because I paid him. I could’ve

re enchanted him, but I’d already

taken five years of his life. He may

have been a bad man, but I had no

right taking his will.”

“And your suicide?”“I don’t know,” she said. “I

swear, to you, that I didn’t kill myself.

Someone poisoned my tea; they mixed

the hemlock root into my canister. I

remember pain, and then I was here.”He watched the water a

moment, thinking about her words.

“Am I gonna die in this battle?”

“Perhaps; it has happened

before.”

“What do you mean by that?”But he didn’t get his answer

because the scene faded.

His eyes opened once more. He

was lying facedown, breathing in thedirt.



He sat up, coughed and spat, and

rubbed the granules off his face.

The bear had gone.

“I just want things to go back to

the way they were,” he said aloud,

hoping someone would grant his wish.

Of course, nothing happened.He made his way back down the

trail and through the forest.

At the house, he found his Uncle

Bally standing in the kitchen and eating

a sandwich.“Why don’t we take the rest of

the day off, son,” he said around a

mouthful. “I’d like to go to the mall

before it completely levels. Maybe we

can get you some clothes. Winter is

coming, after all.”Right before he walked out of

the room, he said, “Tonight, I want you

to set traps all around. I think we got

mice.”

Jacko huffed and rolled hiseyes. Then he grabbed a couple slices



of pork and two cups of water. From

down the hall, he heard grunting noises

coming from his room.

He walked in and closed the

door.

The bats were making a ton of

bumping noises and talking loudly.He opened the closet door to

find them playing with the spare chess

set that was in the closet.

Jacko set down the food and

water.“Be quiet! I don’t want Uncle

Bally to think we have rats!”

Without saying anything, they

pounced on the food and each grabbed

a cup of water, and continued playing

as if he wasn’t even there.The bat babies had really short

arms and legs; too short to move the

pieces. So they took turns flying the

chess pieces to their places on the

board, and then returning to their spot



on the floor, making thump noises each

time they landed.

Jacko looked around for

something they could use as a mat to

soften their landing. He grabbed the

large blanket on the shelf of the

closet.“Hey, move! I want to put this

under you so my Uncle doesn’t hear

you.”

They just kept playing.

As he watched their game amoment, he started to take in the

subtle differences in their appearance.

This was hard to see before because

he couldn’t get past their shiny

leathery look. However, the one playing

the black chess pieces was waychubbier than the one playing the

white. In fact, the one playing the

black had an air about him that made

him seem more like a follower type,

while the one playing the white wasmore of a leader.



“Okay, so this what I’m going to

call you: Larry,” he said pointing to the

skinnier bat, “and Joe,” he pointed to

the chubbier one.

But they still weren’t paying

attention.

Joe took Larry’s rook with hispawn, making him angry. Now, he was

peeling bits of pig fat, Larry hurled at

him, off his face.

“Hey!” he said more forcefully.

“Joe,” he poked him in the gut. “Larry,”he poked the thinner one, too.

“Joe, Larry, Larry, Joe, Joe,

Larry, Larry Joe,” they chanted

together.

“Jacko!” came his uncle’s voice

through the door.They all got silent.

“Coming!”

“You be good, and I’ll let you out

for exercise later. If I come back and

you’re gone, I’ll find you and it won’t be



good. Put this blanket under you. I

know you understand me, so just do it.”

He closed the door, and then ran

down the hall.



Skill of the Past

Chapter 6

Jacko hadn’t left Uncle Bally’s since

after he’d dined with the gods. There,

he was safe from the dangers of war,

and there, he was in control of his life.

Nothing bad could happen in thefortress of his uncle’s, but as they left

his property, fear perspired out of

him.

He drove them into town in his

old blue pickup. Along the way, he sawthat not a thing had changed, except

for the plant life. Every tree they past

appeared shriveled and had lost nearly

all its leaves. The fields of

strawberries and spinach turned to a

smelly slime that coated the soil.Structures that still stood had a sad

and ghostly look about them.

The planet was dying, and he

needed to war with the gods to stop it.

As if being on the ledge of a burningbuilding, he could leap into the hands



of his pitchforked enemies, or he could

return to his dying asylum; either way,

it felt like he was destined to go down.

They turned into the parking lot

of the mall. As before, half of it lay in

a huge pile. Dangling from the secondfloor was part of an escalator that

looked as though it would smash down

with the slightest quake.

Suddenly, Jacko didn’t feel so

good about going in. He didn’t wanteither of them getting hurt.

Uncle Bally didn’t seem fazed at

all. He continued through the parking

lot to the north end where Macy’s was.

“You don’t think really think weshould go in there, do you?”

“I admit it’s not safe, but we

need things,” he said, parking up on the

sidewalk, in front of the glass doors.

“We’ll just be real quick about it.”



He stepped out of the truck,

walked up and held open the glass door

for Jacko.

LEDs in the floor gave off faint

light, but the store was still very dark.

Stuff littered the floor and many

perfumes heavily fragranced the air.For a brief moment, Jacko thought he

smelled the scent of dryer sheets, like

in a laundry mat, and bacon and toast.

“Uncle Bally,” he whispered,

“what if someone’s living here?”He pulled his hand gun and a

small flashlight from his hip and said,

“Stay close.”

They looked left and right, down

the aisle that led in a circle around the

store.A few steps in and down the

right path, a cash register appeared on

the left side.

“Grab a couple bags and start

filling them. I’ll keep watch.”



Jacko did as he said. He ducked

behind the register and pulled a

package of the largest bags, shook one

out, and then they proceeded, slowly.

They passed a section of purses

and bags, followed by women’s shoes.

When they reached the men’s section,they took a moment for Jacko to look

through. Uncle Bally’s shoes were too

big.

A few minutes later, Jacko came

out of the back with a pair of boots,and then they moved along until they

got to the men’s clothing section. He’d

also been wearing Uncle Bally’s clothes

since he got there; it was a relief to

get some jeans that didn’t have to be

tied up with rope.By the time they reached the

bath section, Uncle Bally had put away

his hand gun and was helping Jacko

clear out as many towels and cloths as

they could.



He almost leapt for joy at the

sight of the bed section. Together,

they heaved a queen sized mattress

and box springs out and into the back

of the truck.

In the camping section, Jacko

gathered as many sleeping bags as hecould when, from behind, he heard a

loud crunch-like noise.

Swiftly, he turned.

His uncle was lying on the

ground. Standing before him, with a .22 rifle, was a dark haired man with an

overgrown beard.

“What did you do that for? We

just need some supplies and we’ll go.”

“This is our mall,” said the

vagrant. “You’ll go now, or else.”He’d never been much of a

fighter, but since he’d been to the fig

orchard and had his blessing, he had

senses of what to do in dangerous

situations. Now that he understoodabout the fountain of youth, it made



sense that he could’ve been drawing on

lessons learned in a past life. So when

something moved behind him, rather

than feel fear as most would, he felt

relief.

He turned his head just slightly.

Standing behind him was a woman withunkempt hair. She had a baseball bat in

her hand.

Fast, Jacko yanked the bat

away, and then swung the handle

around, at the barrel of the gun. Rightas the handle hit it, he leapt right.

Startled by his actions, the man,

accidentally, fired the weapon. The

bullet missed Jacko’s side by inches.

Without hesitation, he swung

the bat, whacking the man on histemple. He fell to the ground. Jacko

picked up the gun and aimed it at him.

Behind him came a moaning

sound.



“Uncle Bally, are you okay?” he

asked, without turning his eyes away

from the fallen man.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

While holding his head, the man

rolled into a sitting position. His eyes

went from squinted with pain to wideand quivering.

“You made me kill her! ” he

shouted.

Foolishly, Jacko turned his head

to see the woman. As he did this, theman charged him.

He pulled the trigger, shooting

the man in the heart.

The man’s eyes bugged out as

the force of the bullet pushed his

midriff back, and then he dropped tothe ground.

For a moment, Jacko was

motionless, watching the expression

that lingered on the dead man’s face.



Grabbing onto the shelf, Bally

pulled himself up.

“It’s okay, Jacko.”

“It’s not okay.”

“You did what you had to. This is

the sort of thing that happens when

law doesn’t exist.”“I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I

was just scared, and I reacted.”

He pulled a tee shirt from the

nearby rack and pressed it to the back

of his head, which was bleedingcopiously.

“Look, I know you feel bad but

we gotta go. There might be more than

just these two. Can you pull it

together, long enough for us to get out

of here?”Uncle Bally swayed as he

struggled to stay upright.

Jacko put his arm under his

shoulder and heaved him forward.

Uncle Bally was right. Themoment they stepped outside, it was



to see a handful of men pilfering the

old pickup.

Two, who had rifles, pointed

them immediately.

Uncle Bally tried to pull his hand

gun, but he’d lost his coordination. His

arm merely flopped around and healmost fell.

Carefully, he set him on the

ground. “Don’t worry, I got this,” he

whispered. “I don’t want you, further,

injuring yourself.”One of the men, long and tired

looking, walked around to face him and

said, “Is this your truck?”

“What do you think?”

“Better get walking if you don’t

wanna get dead,” the guy said, pointingto the road. “We’re taking everything.”

Jacko punched him throat,

leaned into him and yanked the back of

his opposite arm, forcing him to turn

into a chokehold.



“You got two minutes to put

everything back, and then get out of

here.”

“If you don’t want your friend to

get shot,” said a man with bloodshot

eyes, “you’ll let him go, now!”

Jacko, instantly, tightened hishold on the man’s neck. A sound like a

belching drain issued from his throat.

The look on the man’s face must have

been distorted as he struggled for

breath, as suddenly, one of them said,“Alright, alright, we’ll put the stuff

back. Just loosen your grip, there.

Don’t hurt our buddy.”

Uncle Bally pushed himself off

the ground with gun in hand.

When they’d put everythingback, they carefully walked to their

sides of the truck.

“Get inside, Jacko. I got my gun

on ‘em,” he said, once he’d settled into

the driver’s seat and closed his door.



Jacko opened the passenger

door and pushed his hostage away from

him. Just as he was about to get inside

the truck, they fired several shots at

them.

His nerves already thoroughly

frayed, he reacted, once more, withoutreal intention.

He raised his hand and the

bullets reversed direction.

At that moment, the Earth

rumbled and quaked. Blinding lightshined down from the sky, making him

duck and cover. Finally, there was a

deafening sound of an explosion.

After a few moments, as the

Earth continued quaking, Jacko dared

to look up. Every cloud in the sky hadbeen illuminated, making them look like

bright white celestial seas. For a

moment, it got really hot.

A voice from the clouds that

vibrated to the core of his being said,“It has begun!”



And then the light withdrew,

leaving them, once again, in the cool

semi darkness of the charcoal gray

sky.

“Come on, get in!” shouted Bally.

But just as he pulled the lever

on the truck door, he saw that one ofthe men lay on the hood of their truck,

bleeding to death. All the other men

had fallen as well.

Then it made sense: what had

begun was the war. His sojourn wasover because he’d proven himself

battle worthy.

“Jacko, what are you doing?”

As they made their way home,

he watched the sky. Colorful beams oflight flew across the atmosphere, and

then exploded into bits of light that

trickled out.

Uncle Bally was completely

oblivious.“How’s your head?”



“Throbs but I’ll be alright.”

They rode up the right side of

the driveway. Jacko held him all the

way to the door, and then fished the

keys from Uncle Bally’s denim pocket.

He pushed the door inward, and

it banged against the wall. Then hetried to shoulder him into the living

room, but he wouldn’t move.

“What’s wrong?”

Rage distorted his face.

Jacko turned his head and sawwhat infuriated him.

The couch had been destroyed.

Foam shredding blanketed the entire

floor, and polluted the air with

particles, giving the room a hazy

atmosphere.Uncle Bally pulled the gun from

his hip again.

Gently, they crossed the

threshold. Looking left and right, and

seeing no one, they proceeded into thekitchen.



Jacko should have known.

The contents of pot roast, from

the prior evening, lay on the floor; the

meat gone, and the potatoes smeared

all over. An entire loaf of bread was

ripped to shreds and tossed about.

There, wings beating wildly, andhurling pieces of frozen fish at each

other were the two bat babies.

Joe was covered in mustard, and

Larry was glistening wet with some

substance that dripped onto the floor.Uncle Bally shrieked and took

aim with his gun.

“No!” shouted Jacko, pushing his

arm down. “It’s okay!”

He set Uncle Bally in the chair.

Then he looked at the bats who stared,unfazed, back at him.

“You, two, are in BIG trouble! ”

Jacko knew they understood him

because their wings slowed their

beats, making them bounce further upand down in the air.



“Now, you got ten minutes to get

this mess cleaned up, or I’ll cage you!”

They turned to each other and

spoke. Larry pointed his finger, and

Joe went and got the broom and

started sweeping it with his little

arms.“Don’t you guys have magic to

clean this mess up with?”

They didn’t answer.

Larry went back to the

refrigerator and pulled out the poundof freshly sliced chicken meat.

“Get out of there, Larry! You

help him clean, now, or I swear your

punishment will be worse!”

Larry dropped the bag and got

the rag that was in the sink. He set towiping the floor after Joe’s broom

strokes.

“I’m gonna take my uncle to rest.

When I get back, if you guys are

messing around at all, I’ll bind you sothat you can’t even blink.”



He bent over and heaved Uncle

Bally out of the chair. They made their

way to his bedroom where he laid

down.

“What were those things?”

“They’re,” he paused, wondering

how much he should tell him. “Uh,they’re my pets. They’re harmless.”

“Enough with the bull, now out

with the truth.”

His uncle was a bit redneck, but

he could always tell when someone waslying. Jacko figured he might as well

test a bit of the truth on him, and see

how he handled it.

“You won’t believe me, but here

it goes,” he sighed. “They’re demons

but not in the bad biblical sense.They’re just another species, kind of

like dogs or cats, except they have our

level of intelligence. And they’re

pretty much harmless.”



Although Uncle Bally said

nothing, Jacko saw disbelief in his

eyes.

“Well, I’d better go check on

them. They may be harmless, but as

you’ve seen, they can be mischievous.

Can I get you anything?”“Did you bring them here?”

Such a plain question surprised

him.

“You believe me, then?”

He stared, silently.“I brought them because they

were hungry.”

Uncle Bally’s lip curled and his

eyebrows furrowed down.

“Okay, okay,” he said, putting up

his hand in a please stop motion. Hecould tell his uncle was about to snap.

“I brought them because I didn’t want

them telling others that I’m here.”

“Who’s after you?”

Jacko merely stood there.



“Are you gonna answer my

question, or am I gonna have to shoot

it out of you?”

He just didn’t know how to tell

him everything. Even more importantly,

he didn’t want his uncle to look at him

differently. He was a judgmental type.Uncle Bally must have seen the

wheels turning in his head, because he

sighed and asked, “It’s not drugs or

money they’re after, is it?”

“No, I swear that’s not it. Look,if I tell you, you won’t believe me. You’ll

think I’m crazy or evil.”

“Alright, so what do we do?”

“There’s nothing you can do. It’s

all on me. I’ll know what to do when the

time is right; that’s what they said.”“Who said?” he asked strongly.

“Some friends.”

“Friends?”

“Yes.”

Uncle Bally looked like hewanted to pressure him for details but



thought better of it. Then he asked,

“Why is ‘it’, as you say, on you?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“How am I supposed to help you,

if you won’t explain?”

“I gave you a bit of truth just

now. I don’t want to tell you anymore.Not just yet, but I’ll give this much:

there are other species out there, like

those in the kitchen. They’re bigger,

meaner, and more dangerous than you

can imagine.”He waited for Uncle Bally to

reply, but he only looked at him a

moment, and then said, “Well, Jacko, I

need some rest. My head’s killing me.

Shut the door on your way out.”

He rolled over onto his side.

Back in the kitchen, Joe and

Larry were levitating around the pile

of food they’d swept into the center

of the floor, eating and chatting.



“Why do you keep tossing the

potatoes? They’re quite good. Try

them.”

Larry pigeon talked in a

demanding manner to Joe. He, then,

picked up a quarter size piece of a

potato and stuck his fang in it, thenpulled out. The soft whiteness

crumbled slightly in his hand, and then

he licked it with his tongue. Deciding

to go for it, he plopped the whole piece

in his mouth and chewed. As he didthis, his pointed ear tips poked up and

down, repeatedly. He plunged both

hands in and started shoving as much

into his mouth as he possibly could;

Larry followed suit.

Jacko walked across the kitchen

and peered through the window, up at

the sky. Action was still heavy up

there. The war had, indeed, begun.



And the Gods Came Down

Chapter 7

After Larry and Joe finished their

mountain of food, he let them outside

for a bit of exercise. They, too,

noticed the sky, and were struck by it

for a moment before resuming theirchildlike behavior of flying about, play

fighting and taunting each other.

Uncle Bally stayed in his room

for the rest of the day, though he gotup to use the bathroom, once. Jacko

wondered if he should have used his

power to heal him, but then thought

better of it. No doubt, he’d call Jacko

evil and go on about witchcraft.

He spent the rest of theafternoon unloading the truck.

When he went to move the old

mattress out of his room, he saw that

someone had been there.

Lying on the crusty old blanketwas a gold arch and light tan leather



bag with gold arrows. They looked

exactly like the ones he’d dreamt

about weeks ago. Beside it lay a gold

belt with a gold colored sword and gold

round shield.

The sword was quite heavy, and

the belt was stiff and cold. The bowand arrows had a bit of moist

perspiration on them. On the sword

was etched the words ‘And the light

lead you.’

That night, he magically lockedthe bats in his closet. Before he shut

the door, he said, “Go to sleep.”

The next morning, he found

Uncle Bally in the kitchen, reading anewspaper and smoking a cigarette.

Immediately, the bat babies

started hacking. They’d probably never

smelled smoke before.

Jacko opened the back door tothe kitchen.



“Go out and get some exercise.

Hunt, if you will, but you’d better be

back before twilight, or I’ll find you

and bind you. Now, go!”

They zoomed out of the door.

“I must admit,” he said, taking a

sip of his coffee. “I was hoping it wasall a dream.”

Jacko pulled a cup from the

cabinet.

“I’ve been wishing this was all a

dream every day for months now.”“So is it safe for you to be

here?”

Jacko sat down at the table with

his steaming coffee and said, “Not

anymore. It seems someone knows I’m

here. I would’ve left yesterday, but Iwanted to make sure you were okay

first.”

“I’m fine,” he exhaled and

rubbed the back of his head. “I’m just

sore is all; had a killer headache yesterday, naturally. Listen, I’m not



kicking you out, I’m just wondering if

more things, like those demon things,

are coming? You said some of them are

dangerous.”

“Yes.”

“You mean, yes, other more

dangerous demons could come for you?”

He nodded.

“Just answer me this,” he said,

staring him right in the eyes. “Are you

the antichrist?”Jacko choked on his coffee.

“Uncle Bally, it’s not the

apocalypse, like in the bible. You just

have to understand that there are

many things that man got wrong -

including the antichrist. You mustn’tbring that up, ever again.”

He watched his uncle put the

butt to his mouth and take a long drag.

“What should we do to get

ready?” he exhaled.



“This isn’t you’re fight. You’ll get

killed. Just be prepared to go down

into your shelter. If someone comes

looking for me, just run. These beings

are strong. You can’t beat them.”

“Son, I’ve been readying for this

ever since the storms. I appreciate your concern for me, but war is what

the end of the world is about in every

religion! So yes, my life is on the line,

just like any other man, woman, and

child. If you’re fightin’ demons, thenwe must be on the same side: the right

side. I know you think I’m not ready to

know everything, but I want in on the

fight. You can’t do everything alone;

you’re gonna need someone. Now, what

do we do?”Suddenly, it hit Jacko that

there was something he could help him

with before he had to go.

He got up and went to his room.



A second later, he returned,

carrying the bag of arrows and the

bow.

“Wow! Where did you get them

beauties?”

“Someone left them for me

while we were in town. I think I’msupposed to use them, but I don’t know

how.”

Jacko didn’t realize how heavy

they were. Ever since getting his

blessing, he’d become stronger than anormal man. So without thinking, he

handed the bag and bow to his uncle,

who plopped to the ground like a sack

of potatoes.

“Ooof!” shouted his uncle.

The bag clanged noisily to thefloor, making a huge dent.

“I - I’m sorry! Did you hurt your

head?”

“I’m fine, dammit!” he shouted.

“What hell? Is that really made ofgold?”



“I don’t know. I think its gold

and platinum. Mom used to tell me

stories about these kinds of weapons.

They’re meant to kill things that don’t

wound easy. Demons have thick skin.”

He helped Uncle Bally off the

floor.

That afternoon, he and his uncle

set up an enormous foam target in the

back. He taught him how to aim far and

high, and how to adjust for speedaccording to target and distance. Uncle

Bally used a spare set of bow and

arrows he had in his garage while

Jacko used the gold ones.

The bat babies, having returned

from hunting, seemed to the think thearrows were a game. Cackling like

witches, they grabbed them, midair,

and threw them back at him and Uncle

Bally. The arrows left painful welts on

their bodies. Uncle Bally was especiallymiffed when he saw how easy even the



little bat babies could throw the

arrows, yet he could barely hold one.

“You stupid sons!” he yelled,

when he saw that the arrows were

putting dents in the side of his house

frame. “You’re gonna fix those!!”

Then as they shot the foamtarget, the bat babies would fly across

the path of the arrows, ducking around

them. A couple of times, Uncle Bally’s

arrows caught them, but they just

bounced off their leathery skin.“Will you get out of here?”

yelled Jacko.

After a few days, they found

Uncle Bally’s soft spot. They brought

dead squirrels and birds to him, looking

for his approval.“Well, you guys are little

warriors!” he laughed.

Although it took a couple days,

Jacko got pretty good at archery; sogood that the bats started staying a



number of feet away. His arrows

would’ve surely split them in half,

killing them.

He found that he could get the

arrows going faster than his uncle

could see.

His uncle had since make shifteda catapult that flung bottles and cans

into the air, which Jacko’s arrows

shattered flawlessly.

“Jacko, have you noticed how

the bag keeps filling itself?”“Huh?”

He looked down at the bag.

Uncle Bally was right. He hadn’t

retrieved any of the arrows that he’d

shot in the last couple of days, yet the

bag was full.

That evening, as they and the

bats sat down to a stew dinner, there

was a loud explosion on the front ofthe property.



Uncle Bally grabbed his .22.

“Here, take this,” he said,

handing him one, too.

They ran to the front door.

The sky was a gleam as usual

with white and greenish explosions,

here and there.The right portion of the yard

was on fire. A figure leapt out of the

flames, dancing around in a circle,

screaming like an elephant. Its black

leathery legs and horned head werevisible as the flames melted down its

midriff.

“That’s a demon, Uncle Bally.”

But Uncle Bally was distracted,

looking at the sky. He said weakly, “I

think your friends are here.”Jacko looked up and saw bodies

as big as mountains walking across the

atmosphere as though it were solid

ground. They were slightly hard to see,

as their bodies were mostly fluidly



clear, indicating that they were the

gods of Ouranus.

“Those aren’t my friends, Uncle.

They’re with the demons.”

One of the gods aimed a spear

at them. A giant red bolt shot down.

Jacko pushed Uncle Bally out ofthe way. The beam blew out the front

of the house.

“What did he do that for? ” he

shouted.

Behind the gods, a tribe of blackcherubs with demons on their backs

galloped across the sky, toward them.

Their heads of many eyes a gleam, and

their massive wings spread wide.

“Get inside the house! ” shouted

Jacko.But Uncle Bally was frozen in

fear. He wouldn’t move; he prayed,

rapidly, under his breat.

He grabbed him by the collar

around his neck and shouted, “UncleBally, this isn’t the Christian



apocalypse! This is a war between

species, like I tried to explain to you.

If the demons catch you, you’ll be

recycled into the volcano of life, and

then you’ll be reborn a demon. We have

to move, now.”

More bolts hit the lawn,combining with the bombs that Bally’d

already buried. Grass and dirt covered

them.

Jacko dragged Uncle Bally into

the house.“Listen,” he said breathlessly,

wiping dirt off his face, “go down into

your shelter and stay there. I gotta

get out of here, but I’ll be back as

soon as I can.”

“Jacko, if you think I’m gonna just let you run off, alone, you’re

crazy!”

But he didn’t have time to

respond, for they were clobbered,

painfully, to the ground.



It took a moment for Jacko to

realize that what clobbered him was

the roof of the house.

He struggled to push the wood

and shingles off. Once he was free, he

saw that the house was completely

leveled. The gods that were on his sideappeared to have arrived, as all around

him, giants jumped about, sword

fighting and dodging beams that sailed

from the points of tridents, rods and

spears.One demon on cherub, seeing

him helpless, sent a dozen red beams

at him, but a large white body blocked

them all with his sword.

Quickly, he sifted the debris,

calling his uncle’s name. Finally, hefound his hand, but he was out cold.

An alabaster hand, the size of a

garbage truck, lifted the debris,

cupped Jacko and his uncle in his hand

and shouted, “Go, now!! ”



And then he threw them high

over the mountains.



Meeting Oganat

Chapter 8

With Uncle Bally still passed out, they

flew through the cold dark air for

nearly an hour until he found a

mountain that was covered in the

tallest trees he’d ever seen. There wasnot a single light there, which lead him

to believe it might have been

completely deserted.

He settled them in amongst thetrees. Then he conjured a couple cots

and lay his uncle down on one. Next, he

tried to heal Uncle Bally the way he

healed himself, back in the fig

orchard. But for some reason, his

powers weren’t working. This scaredhim because he already had a head

injury. So he listened to his heart beat

and when that seemed strong, he

monitored his pulse.

After a while, Jacko determinedthat Uncle Bally was merely



unconscious, so he called fire to keep

them warm, though there was no

kindling, and layed back on his cot and

fell asleep.

By the time Uncle Bally woke the

next morning, Jacko had dandelioncoffee brewing; although he used his

powers to goad the process forward a

bit. He also conjured his uncle’s

favorite brand of smokes because he

was often cranky in the morningswithout them.

A couple fish smoked on a spit

he made, just like his uncle showed

him.

“See you’ve been busy.”

He cried and groaned as he triedto sit up.

Jacko rushed to his side and

helped him. Then he filled two large

bamboo shoots with coffee and handed

one to him.



“Phew, that’s good! Much better

than any I’ve ever made.”

Jacko tasted his, and then

laughed. It was good; too good, but

that was because he’d cheated.

“I was worried that you might

not wake.”“What? I’m fine!”

He tried to stand, but then,

immediately, sat back down. He

clenched his face, trying not to yell.

“I hurt all over!” he said throughgritted teeth.

He lifted the hem of his jeans,

revealing a severely swollen ankle.

“I don’t think I’ll be moving much

today.”

“Yeah, just relax. I goteverything, uncle.”

He picked up a large banana leaf,

placed a fish on it, and handed it to

him.

Uncle Bally took a bite and said,“Hmm. Not bad.”



Jacko, then, helped himself.

They ate in silence a few

moments before Uncle Bally said,

“Well, Jacko, I’m ready.”

“For what?” he said, spitting out

a bone.

“You to tell me everything. Iknow why you held back the truth,

because you didn’t think I’d believe

you. Well, I do, now.”

Jacko fed the fire a few logs.

“Why are they after you?”“They’re fighting for control of

the Earth. In the beginning, the

demons ruled, but then their

atmosphere was destroyed. The gods

moved in, along with mankind. Every

millennium since then, there’s been awar between demons and gods to take

back the Earth.”

“But that still doesn’t explain

why they’re after you.”

“They think I’m going to end thewar, leading the gods in a final victory.



Some think this will be the last and the

biggest war.”

“But you’re just a kid.”

“Not to the gods.”

Jacko continued to answer Uncle

Bally’s questions. Despite his gut

feeling that he shouldn’t have told himanything, he spilled his entire

misfortune and how it all began. From

the night he left home, to the accident

in Reno, when he first flipped into the

red lands. He explained about hismother and why she married John, the

man he thought was his father; how he

found out he had twelve brothers and

sisters – all with powers, too, and how

they were stuck on the summit until he

finished a predestined battle againstsome demon.

“Well, Jacko, that’s some story.

Now I understand why you’ve been so

up and down. I thought you were just

mourning John and Sissy, but I can’t



imagine what it must be like to know

the world is waiting on you.”

“Yeah,” sighed Jacko.

Though Uncle Bally said he

understood, he really didn’t know the

fear that kept him up every night. He

knew he was, likely, going down to die.If he just went to the heaven of the

gods, he’d be okay with that, but being

demi meant that he, likely, had a soul.

All those with souls went into the

fountain of youth, and once they werereborn, they forgot everything from

before.

After breakfast, Jacko

conjured a couple canteens and went

back to the stream to get water. Then,finding hare tracks in some shrubs, he

set a couple traps.

His uncle slept most of the day

while Jacko gathered brush to make a

shelter. It was a lot of work. Hecould’ve used his uncle’s help.



Occasionally, Jacko tried to heal him

but his powers still wouldn’t work that

way. He could conjure whatever he

willed -- though he chose not to abuse

his powers. Still, why couldn’t he heal

others?

“Here, let me help you, boy,” hereached to grab a branch. “OH!” he

cried, snapping his arm back.

“It’s okay, uncle. You just got

clobbered by a house. I got this.”

“Yeah, well, the rain’s coming. Ican smell it in the air, and you’ve got a

ways to go.”

He looked to the Fourth of July

sky. It had an icy look as if it were

inlaid with glass.

“So those flashes of light jetting across the sky are the gods

warring?”

Suddenly, there was thunderous

sound, as a black cloud pushed out, in

the sky. A moment later, ash rained



down, heavily on them. Some of it was

kind of tender, like flesh.

“Does this answer your

question?” asked Jacko, holding up a

piece of leather that had red slime on

one side.

He tossed the black skin intothe fire and said, “You know, I’m just

gonna do this over there because I can

spread out and get this done faster.

Besides, the ground is harder, so we

should camp over there, tonight.”He picked up the brush and the

palms. “Yell if you need anything.”

Uncle Bally was right. The rain

was coming, and it was coming fast.

There was just no way that he could

finish the shelter on his own.In the bald center of trees, he

looked over his shoulder to make sure

his uncle couldn’t see him. Then he

commanded the branches to entwine,

and the leaves of the palm tree tobraid themselves securely.



As he watched his shelter come

erect, he felt someone near.

“What do you want?” he asked

aloud. “Are you demon, Titan or

friend?”

But no answer came.“I know you’re there.”

When the shelter was done, he

moved the fire and cots to the bald

spot, and then helped his uncle over.

“Wow, Jacko, you’re quite thewoodsmen.”

He’d managed to cover the

entire three foot, in diameter, circular

bald spot. He’d tied the entwined palm

branches to the trees, and layered

them, thick, with brush, creating aceiling tent.

Atop the brush, Jacko created a

slope with banana leaves that ran into

large bamboo shoots, collecting water

for them to drink later.



By the time they were

comfortably settled in the shelter,

twilight had come and gone.

“I know it’s late, but I’m gonna

check the traps anyway. I’m starving.”

“Of course you are, son. Here,”

he said, reaching into his pocket. “Takemy flashlight. Be extra careful

because, if you get hurt, I can’t help

you.”

He traipsed into the tall trees,where every shadow danced sinisterly.

Rain ferociously petted his head,

running into his eyes, making it harder

to see his direction.

The bush to his right shook

rapidly. He was sure he saw a littlefoot.

He froze.

When after a minute, nothing

more happened, he continued.

His first trap was empty.“Damn,” he cursed aloud.



The sound of crunching leaves

came from beyond the trees behind

him.

He spun around.

“Show yourself!” he said shakily.

But all he saw was darkness and

tree branches waving, violently, in thewind.

A hundred feet out to the other

trap, he was stoked to find a good

sized rabbit.

“You’ve been eating well,” he saidto it. Too tired to kill it, he said,

“Heart, stop.”

The rabbit slowly closed its

eyes, and it lay motionless on the

ground.

He opened the trap, picked thehare up by the ears, and made his way

back to camp.

“Woo hoo, boy! Hallelujah!” Uncle

Bally laughed jovially.



An hour later, they feasted,

happily, despite the dreary weather.

He pulled the roasted rabbit from the

spit, ripped it in half, and handed one

to his uncle.

“Well, I’m surprised this shelterhasn’t blown down yet. You must have

done a really good job twining.”

“Hardly,” he laughed.

“You did good, boy. Not a drop

of rain on us.”He laughed again.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Because I cheated.”

“Oh, you mean you used your

witchy powers.”

“They’re not witchy! There’s nosuch thing as witches.”

“Yeah, okay, okay, I believe you.

Listen, you couldn’t get me my whiskey,

could you? I mean, you said you’re a

conjurer, right?”



He focused on a point on the

ground, and slowly coming into view was

Uncle Bally’s bottle of Jack.

“Well, what the hell are we doing

out here? If you can do that, can’t you

at least get us a house?”

“No, I think it’s wrong to cheatfate. Little things are okay, but not

stuff like that.”

“Can you heal my ankle?”

“Actually, I tried already. I

can’t, for some reason. My power isn’tlimitless, you have to understand. The

gods have a thing about crossing the

wills and fates of others.”

“In other words, you think the

gods won’t let you heal me?”

“Exactly. If it’s your time to behurt, then you’ll be hurt. In their eyes,

this all serves a higher purpose. One

thing leads to another. That’s their

philosophy. There’s a reason for us

being here, indisposed at the moment;although we might not ever know why.”



The next morning, Jacko woke

to the sound of his uncle pouring

dandelion coffee into bamboo shoots.

He limped around, handed one to

Jacko and said, “So?”“So, what?”

He took the coffee and sipped.

“Did one of your friends visit

you last night?”

“What do you mean?”He pointed to under his cot.

The gold bow and bag of arrows

lay there, next to the belted sword

and shield.

“Huh!” he exclaimed. “I don’t

know how those got here! Honestly!”“I thought not,” he said, lighting

a smoke in the fire. “Someone must be

looking out for you though. Got any

ideas who?”

“I haven’t a clue! I swear!”



Jacko spent the rest of the day

hunting with the bow and arrows while

Uncle Bally limped to the river, with

the rabbit guts, and fished.

That evening, they ate more fish

as they stared at the fire. Uncle Bally

occasionally took swigs of his whiskey.Suddenly, there was the sound

of someone walking toward them.

Jacko rose with bow and arrow

at the ready.

“Who are you? Speak or I’llshoot?”

The sound of footsteps got

closer and closer. An outline of a very

tall man appeared.

“Put that down, boy!” said the

figure.A few feet closer, and Jacko

recognized the figure.

“Oganat!”

Although smaller on Earth than

in the red lands, he was still six andhalf feet with the belly of Buddha,



bald and no shirt. His baggy pantaloons

swayed around his legs with each step.

He lowered his bow and arrow,

and asked, “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve come to talk.”

He conjured a stool and sat

close to the fire.“This is my uncle, Bally.”

Oganat nodded to him, and then

noticed the bow Jacko set on the

ground. Then he turned and eyed the

bag of arrows, sword and shield lyingon the ground, behind him.

“You’re nearly ready to fight,”

he said. “The divine ornamentum don’t

come to you at any time. Only when

you’ve done something to show that

you’re ready to handle them.”“Someone left them under my

cot.”

“They’re the divine weapons of

the first conjurer, forged by Lucem,

and blessed by the chaos. Rightfully,they’re yours; they’ll never leave you



until the end of the battle. Then they’ll

return to their rightful place in

heaven.”

“What are the elders saying?”

“They haven’t met since before

you left heaven.”“What about the dark gods?”

“No, Jacko. Everyone is sitting

back and watching the war, though

some are cheating.”

“What do you mean?”“Some have, clearly, interfered

so their favorites – like you – might

win, or at the very least, survive the

battle.”

“I’m not anyone’s favorite. I

haven’t had any help.”“Of course you have. How do you

think it is that you’ve come this far?

The gods have watched your every

step. Every time the wind blows, and

every time you feel fortunate, thankthe gods.”



After a moment, Oganat said to

Uncle Bally, “You’ve done well, teaching

the boy.” He, then, turned to Jacko.

“You must draw on those strengths in

the final phase of your journey.”

“Jacko is not ready for a journey,” said Uncle Bally.

“Of course he is. He’s a man.”

His uncle was about to argue,

but Jacko put up his hand. Simply, the

gods didn’t view what qualified a manas being age and experience.

They stared at the flames in

silence for a long while.

“Have you been to the summit?”

Oganat finally asked.

“No.”“Don’t you miss your family?”

“I worry, but I hardly know

them. How can I miss them? The only

family I have is Sissy, and she’s dead,

now.”



He waved his arm and images

appeared, dancing in the flames.

On one flame, Bordra and Dienla

played chess while Alica read a book.

Another flame depicted Anle walking in

the rose garden, whispering to them

the way Sissy used to talk to hertomatoes. The boys were engaged in a

game of basketball.

“Where’s Manlo and Althenio?”

“Aurora has them.”“Why have you come?” asked

Uncle Bally aggressively. “It would be

best if you got to the point.”

“To congratulate you on the

progress you’ve made, the last few

weeks. I know you think you’ve beenhiding, but there is no hiding from us,

boy. No, you’re right where you should

be. But soon you’ll have to leave here,

and go into the red lands, alone.”

“Why?”



“Because you started this, and

now you have to end it.”

“I didn’t start anything,” he said

defiantly.

“You know that once a demon

gets your scent, it’s for life. Heaven

and hell had an agreement that eachwould keep to his own side. You started

this war when you broke that

agreement by wandering into the red

lands. This is your war; it started with

you and it’ll end with you.”“Who is the demon that hunts

Jacko?” asked Uncle Bally, exhaling a

stream of smoke.

“Manik. He’s Jacko’s equal in

every way. Young, inexperienced, and

to some extent, brave. He’s the son ofCaliga, Lucem’s dark godly

counterpart.”

He sighed, wondering how he

was to fight a tough as leather demon.



“When the time comes, you’ll

know what to do,” Oganat said, reading

his mind.

“I wish that I could just hide. I

don’t wanna do this.”

“Well, there is one safe place

that you could go to: the summit. It’sshrouded in mystery. The demons

would never find you.”

“It wouldn’t be right, though.”

“Surely, you want to say goodbye

to your family, before going to yourfate? Now, you’ll find the summit by

instinct. When you get close, you’ll

settle to the ground, and continue on

foot. Like the fig orchard, it can’t be

found by will, alone. Once you get to

the mount, you’ll find a sacred path.”They sat in silence for a few

moments.

Uncle Bally watched Oganat very

intently.

“Well, I think that’s all. I shouldgo.”



He disappeared in a wisp of air

without saying goodbye.

“I don’t like him. He gives me a

weird feeling,” said Uncle Bally. “Are

you sure you can trust him?”

“He’s strange, I know. They’re

all strange, the gods.”“I think he’s right about one

thing: We should go to the summit.”

Jacko considered him a moment

and said, “As soon as your ankle is

better, we will.”Jacko didn’t sleep that night. He

stared at the ceiling, wondering if it

would hurt, much, to die. He couldn’t

help but contemplate what it must feel

like to be stabbed, or to have his body

cut in half, which he was sure apowerful demon could easily do.

Thinking these thoughts made

him realize that he did, indeed, need to

seek the summit. He may have done

well at hunting, and shown some ability



to fight, but he had not a clue as to

how to use the sword and shield.

He rolled over onto his side and

stared at their smooth, light yellow

shine. They were weapons of war that

Manik was sure to be prepared for.

The average demon was asstrong as fifty men, one of his

brothers told him. After his visit to

the fig orchard, his strength had

increased, but not that much. Even

with divine weapons, would he evenhave a chance of survival?

And that’s why his fear

immobilized him; that’s why he’d been

hiding. No matter what advantages the

gods said he had, there was no way he

could beat a hunter.Then Jacko remembered

something his mother said to him a

long time ago. “An angry man is scary

but predictable, a scared man is the

one you should fear the most.”



She explained this as fear being

the only emotion equal to love in power.

At the moment of ultimate fear, a man

would do extraordinarily, unpredictable

things to survive.

Once he was cornered in an alley

by a couple guys from school. Joey,Blake, and Young were their names.

They were from the poorer part of

town, and they were dangerous. Three

on one was their favorite game, but

Jacko was taller than most kids theirage.

When they realized beating

down Jacko wasn’t easy, Joey pulled

out a red stained, pitted knife. He

could tell by the scent that the red

was real blood; that he’d used itbefore.

All he remembered was his

heart pounding so hard that he felt it

in his stomach. His muscles tensed up

so awful that, in a mere moment, hiswhole body hurt.



He did things he didn’t know he

could; things that some would consider

hitting below the belt. But mainly, he

acted without contemplation, only

realizing what he’d done when his

primal instinct told him he could have

control over his body, now that hisenemies were down.

When he’d come to his senses, it

was to see that Young was turning blue,

with his neck in Jacko’s grip. He

released him, immediately.On the ground, whimpering,

Joey’s and Blake’s face was almost

unrecognizable, as they were covered

in blood. The knife, also bloodied, lay

several feet away.

Before that day, he’d neverfought, ever, in his life.

The next day at school, both

boys had stitches in their faces, yet

he still couldn’t exactly remember

hurting the boys.



Then he remembered the gods

told him that Jove was beaten back so

severely, and it was at that moment

that he saved the world.

Was that what he looked

forward to? Being so physically and

emotionally damaged that he’d save theworld? As it was, even before his

blessing, and after he’d discovered his

dead family, he’d had a meltdown that

gave him extraordinary strength.

Suddenly, Jacko felt sick. He just didn’t want to think anymore. He

rolled onto his belly and tried to sleep.

Over the next few days, the

storms got worse and worse. Hiswonderful bush ceiling had finally

broken through with rain, making leaks

in several spots. At first, they took

advantage of the leaks by gathering

much water, as they’d need it for whenthey made their trek to the summit.



But that morning, he was woken by the

dripping of rain on his forehead.

After a brief breakfast, Jacko

put out the fire and pull down a couple

sections of brush and banana leaves.

They were just too beaten and

needed to be replaced. He went intothe forest, setting up traps along the

way, until he found what he needed.

On the way back, he spotted

Uncle Bally fishing at the river. He was

covered with a gray plastic bag to keepout the rain, which hadn’t stopped

drizzling all day.

He was doing better, but his

ankle was still too hurt to travel. It

was healing so slowly. That didn’t stop

him; he did as much as he could toprovide. However, Jacko was worried

that they might be attacked any day.

He just hoped Uncle Bally could handle

it. The hunters were known to be

excellent trackers. If Oganat could



find them, certainly the demons could,

too.

“What in the world?” he said,

walking down the rocky bank.

There, hanging in the tree, was a

line with nearly a dozen fat fish.“Told ya fishin’ is better in the

rain,” he said, taking a sip of whiskey.

“I’m gonna need some of that pine

needle tea later, though. Think you’d

could fix up some?”“Yes, of course, uncle, but how

are we to eat all that?”

“We’ll smoke it. It’ll be great for

when we go to the summit. Smoking’s

the most important thing a man, who

lives off the land, should know. Thisway, we have plenty of protein, and we

won’t have to worry about hunting.”

“Well, guess I’d better get back

and finish that brush ceiling.”

“Hold on, I’ll come with you.”



Back at their camp, Jacko

immediately got to braiding and

entwining his new brush while Uncle

Bally cleaned the fish.

After he’d done, Uncle Bally

went and put the fish guts in the

traps, and returned with a possum.Upon seeing its mask like face,

he said, “I’m not eating that.”

“Oh, yes, you will,” he said. “It’s

ugly but it’s good eatin’, believe me.”

Jacko clung to a side of thetree, trying to arrange the banana

leaves to slope just right.

“Get down, here. I want to show

you how smokin’s done.”

He climbed down, pulled off his

wet clothes and wrung them. Afterhanging them close to the fire, he

wrapped up in his sleeping bag and

watched.

“Now because we don’t have

brine or seasoning, we’re gonna dothings a little different. Fish has lots



of parasites, so you want to get a hot

fire going. For extra smoke, you wanna

use some wood chips.”

He pulled a little sack from his

pocket.

“These are oak. I don’t

recommend pine. You want a good filet,and you want to keep them cold, or

smoke them right away. Two different

methods for smoking: hot and cold.

Today, we’re doing the cold method

because it’s rainy and windy, andkeeping up this fire is hard enough.”

He threw in the chips and set a

twine weaved grill above it. Then he

layered the top with banana leaves.

When it got nice and smokey, he placed

several filets under the leaves.“We left the skin on to give it

some flavor, and especially to keep it

moist. Often, people make a mistake,

discarding the fatty skin, which is

actually pretty good. Now, we wait afew hours.”



Immediately, their camp filled

with a delicious scent. It drew animals,

for which Jacko kept his bow and

arrow at the side, just in case they

were attacked.

“Here, take a swig,” he said,

handing his shoot of pine needle tea.“You’re shivering, and you don’t need to

get sick right now. Don’t worry, I’ll

make more.”

Pine needles littered the camp.

He swept them into a pile, with hishands. As soon as he’d made more room

on the fire, he set the metal can to

boil.

Occasionally, they heard

shuffling in the bushes.

“Probably just hungry animals.Hard to hunt in this weather. Keep

your bow and arrows at the ready

though.”

He filled a shoot with tea.

“Whoa, not bad,” he said aftertaking a sip.



He’d used extra pine this time.

The broth was pungent and

tasted just like pine should. It wasn’t

sweet but quite tart. He relished the

way it warmed his chest. After being

cold and wet for a while, it was arelief.

They sipped their drinks awhile,

and then Uncle Bally said, “So where

did you meet that Oganat fellow?”

“In the red lands.”He sighed.

“Well, I suppose we should get

movin’, here, in a day or so.”

Jacko flicked his eyes at his

uncle.

“Really? But your ankle?”“Yeah, my ankle. Look I know

what you’ve been thinking, and so have

I. I’ve seen you lookin’ at my ankle, and

then getting that worried look on your

face. You think that if that fellow



found us, how long before the others

do?”

“Yes, but we shouldn’t go until

you’re ready.”

“It doesn’t matter if I’m ready.

We hang out too long, and we’ll both be

dead, or in worse shape. If we leavenow, we can plan a safe trip. One where

we can get to the so called summit

without further injuring me. We can

take our time. If we wait and get

attacked, and I further get injured,then we got a problem.”

“What do we do about your

ankle? Obviously, a summit is gonna

have a hefty incline.”

“We’ll wrap my foot with a bit of

cloth. I’ll whittle me a hand comfywalking stick.”

“Alright, but let’s leave

tomorrow. What do you think?”

“I think that’s a good idea.”

They sat in silence a fewmoments.



“Do you really think something’s

funny about Oganat?”

“Well, sure, but it’s nothing to

worry about. In war, there are always

traitors; it’s what you do when you find

out you’ve been betrayed that

matters.”“Don’t you think it’s wrong, me

ducking out on the fight? Do you think

I’m a coward?”

“No, I don’t think you’re a

coward. You’re not ready to fight in awar. They don’t understand, but you’re

just a kid. You need to be kept safe.”

“Why?”

“Because as much as I’ve taught

you, let’s face it, there’s more you

need to learn. I’ve seen you, not onlystaring at my leg, but also at the sword

and shield, both which you’ve hardly

touched. It’s something I can’t teach

you, but I bet someone at the summit

could.”



Jacko nodded his head in

agreement. Sometimes it was like

Uncle Bally could read minds.

He was about to speak but was

distracted by the sound of something

large splattering in his face. Hand

sized pieces of ice, fully enflamed,flew into the fire and sizzled out.

He stood up and walked to the

edge of their camp.

“Have you ever seen anything

like it?” Uncle Bally half asked and halfsaid, from behind him.

“Yes, and it’s not good. The

weather is getting worse, which means

the fighting must be getting nastier.”

The ice burned out on the

ground, leaving black splotches behind.“Look at that.”

He pointed across Jacko’s face.

Over in the eastern part of the

sky, a blotch of red had colored the

sky.





brace and a walking stick out of soft

vine.

By the night, they were

exhausted.

“I have to admit,” said Uncle

Bally, taking a swig of whiskey, “I’m a

little afraid.”“You are?”

“Yeah, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, but you’re not afraid of

anything.”

“Boy, don’t be stupid. Of courseI feel fear. I’m human; it’s what you do

in the face of fear that counts. In our

case, we put one foot in front of the

other. But I think we should leave in

the morning. It’s already dark, which

won’t be good. We won’t be able to seegood places to camp.”

Jacko concurred. So for one last

night, they lay on their cots.

They weren’t down long before a

white flash zoomed into their camp,blowing out the ceiling, and leaving a



huge hole in the ground where the fire

was.

“There here!” shouted Uncle

Bally.

Jacko grabbed his packs – as did

Uncle Bally, his bow and arrow.

“Take my hand!” he shouted ashe ran over to him.

They disappeared into the air

right as a black horned demon with red

eyes rode into their camp, wailing and

shot a beam of antimatter at them.



Garden of Hera

Chapter 9

The crisp air shot daggers in their

eyes, through their clothes, and

touched every bit of their skin.

Oganat was right: he could feel

the summit emanate from somewhere.Almost like it breathed on his skin, but

he couldn’t see it.

Uncle Bally was hyperventilating.

“Breathe, uncle, breathe.”

Just as Oganat said, the summitseemed to evade him. Below was a

mountain that called to him, yet he was

lost as to where, specifically, they

should land.

Wanting to get as close to the

mount as possible, he continued flyingin circles until Uncle Bally started to

retch.

Upon touching down, he felt the

summit, like it had a heart that beat

into him.“How far is it?”



His uncle, on all fours, breathed

hard.

“I’m not sure.”

“Which way do we go?”

He turned around in a circle and

said, “That way, toward that peak.”

All around was flat land, but inthe distance a mountain loomed all the

way up into the cloud layer.

“Oh, Jacko, that’s gotta be a

hundred miles. Getting there could

take a week, or longer with my ankle.We don’t’ have enough supplies for

that, and I’m not counting climbing the

actual mountain, either.”

“I can try to get us closer.”

He reached out for his uncle’s

arm.“No.” He yanked his arm away. “I

think I’d rather walk, but can we rest

first?”

Uncle Bally slowly lowered

himself to the ground, where he laidback against a tree trunk.



“We didn’t get any sleep, and it’s

still night, might I remind you.”

Jacko made a fire and sat next

to him. Together, they looked at the

sky which was a burgundy wine color, at

the moment. It was strange the way

the moon and stars gleamed whiteagainst it.

“In a strange way, it’s kind of

pretty,” said Uncle Bally.

By morning, the sky turnedbright red, like a cherry. After a bit

of coffee, they began their trek.

As they made their way through

a mile of short, crisp leaved bushes,

Jacko noticed an herb like fragrance

came from them, almost like basilexcept fresher and with a bit mint.

He’d never smelled nor seen bushes

like them before.

Another mile and they

approached a small orchard of treesfrom which the crispest green apples



hung. He and Uncle Bally stopped and

packed as many as they could.

Like biting into a carrot, a loud

crunch noise sounded when he took a

bite. Juice that had a light lemon-like

tang rushed over his tongue. One thing

he knew was apples didn’t taste likethat; not where they were from – even

the air smelled different, cleaner.

He looked around and wondered

aloud, “Where do you suppose we are?”

“Well, if the stories told thetruth, isn’t Mount Olympus the summit

of the gods? And if so, that means

we’re in Greece. Even I know that,

Jacko.” He leaned on his staff and

pointed at the land to both sides of

the mountain. “The highest peak inGreece supposedly borders what used

to be Macedonia and Thessaly. Kind of

interesting how, here, it’s pure bush,

and there, it’s mostly flatlands.”

“Oh, uncle,” he sighed. “I haveno idea how we’re gonna get up that



mountain. Oganat said to follow the

trail, but look at that incline.”

“Don’t worry. I have some

knowledge of making rope pulleys. We’ll

figure something out. We’ll need to

forage and hunt, so we’ll need to break

before we actually climb anyway. Ifwe’re forced to climb, we’ll be too

tired to hunt along the way.”

The atmosphere, even where

they stood was thinner than in

California. The temperature wasextremely chilly, which actually made

the conditions ideal for Uncle Bally’s

ankle.

Another strange thing Jacko

and his uncle noticed about the forest

was that it was too quiet. They neitherheard birds nor the random cracking

of brush limbs; no patter of animals

running away as they approached,

followed by the shaking of tree and

shrub limbs.



In short, there was no sign of

other life, and nothing to hunt.

“That’s impossible, Jacko.

There’s got to be something here. We

just don’t know how to find it is all.”

“I hope you’re right. We can’t

live on apples. They’ll dehydrate us, andif we can’t find water, we’re screwed.”

Uncle Bally, who was determined

not to be slowed down by his ankle,

kept up rather well. Jacko cleared all

pathways for him, holding backbranches and moving rocks or tree

trunks out of the way, when he could.

Finally, it was late afternoon,

and they were, both, hot and thirsty.

They nestled in along the ridge

of an enormous boulder that jutted outof the ground.

“How does your ankle feel?”

“Surprisingly good, though I

regret holding you back.”



“Uncle, you’re doing great,” he

said as he got a fire started. “Much

better than I thought you would.”

“Yes, well, I’m afraid we haven’t

even walked more than a few miles. At

this rate, it could take longer than I

estimated just to get the base of themountain.”

“That’s alright. I’m happy taking

our time. If you think I really want to

go to the mount, you’re crazy! I’m sick

of this whole god business.”“It’s more than a boy, your age,

should have to handle.”

He pulled out their sleeping bags

and food.

That evening, they fed on

reheated smoked fish, which Jackoliked very much. Even the fatty skin

was too tasty to toss.

The next day was more of the

same. They walked and walked, but only

covered half a dozen miles beforeUncle Bally needed to elevate his ankle.



But at about noon, they heard

something.

They stopped.

A throaty whistle, like a mating

call, came from their left.

“What was that?”

“It sounded like a bird call,” saidhis uncle.

“Should we check it out?”

“No, we’re making terrible time

as it is.”

So they continued on foranother mile when they stopped at the

sound of a branch breaking and a

crackling sound.

They followed the noise to just

beyond the brush to their left. Before

a small fire, they found a teen boy, nomore than fourteen, skinning a black

and reddish bird.

He was skinny with blond hair

and blue eyes. When he looked up at

Jacko, he was struck with a nostalgia



so powerful that his knees almost

buckled.

A name burned the end of his

tongue, yet wouldn’t pass through his

lips, though he tried to force it out.

“You frightened me,” the boy

said. “Are you good people, or do wefight?”

He stood and raised his bloodied

knife to an en guard position.

“We won’t hurt you. I’m Jacko,

and this is my uncle, Bally.”“I don’t have extra food, so if

you’re here to beg…”

“We have our own supplies,”

Jacko interrupted.

“Have we met before?”

“Maybe.”

The way the kid looked at him,

Jacko knew he was just as struck. And

in the last few weeks, he’d learned

that nothing was coincidence in thisgodly time of war. So although he’d



never met the kid before, he knew it

was possible they’d spent time

together - in some other life.

“I’m Julius.”

“No, that’s not your name,”

Jacko said a little more accusatorythan he meant.

“Oh and Jacko is yours?” he

asked sarcastically.

They looked at each other a

moment.“Translation?” said Uncle Bally,

looking at Jacko.

“Huh?”

“What’s going on? What’re you

guys talking about?”

“It’s okay; I speak English, too,”said the boy.

Suddenly, comprehension

dawned on Jacko. Ever since Lucem

possessed him, he’d left behind a

strange knowledge of languages. Asbefore, and at that moment, he didn’t



realize he was speaking Greek, he just

did it.

“This is Julius.”

“Please, why don’t you sit?”

He gestured to the ground.

Jacko helped Uncle Bally withhis bags, and then they sat opposite

Julius, in front of the fire.

“Now, what is your real name?”

“I told you, it’s Jacko.”

“Maybe it is; maybe it isn’t,” hesaid, his eyes glistening with

determination.

“If anyone shouldn’t trust

someone, we shouldn’t trust you,” Uncle

Bally said. “A young boy out here, all

alone. Seems suspicious to me.”“I’ve been alone for a while,

now.”

“How long?” asked Jacko.

“It’s been over six months. I

came when the skies turned gray.”“Why did you come here?”



“The people in the cities were

going crazy, and I knew I’d be safer in

the forest. It’s loaded with fowl and

other resources, and there’s plenty of

water.”

As Julius talked about the state

of civilization, Jacko expanded his fireand put on a pot of tea.

Julius finished gutted his duck

and was slicing it into chunks.

Noticing the scent, he asked,

“What is that?”“Pine needle tea: it’s loaded with

vitamin c. Helps our immune system,

and especially in this cold and dreary,

sunless weather. Helps us not get worn

down, peps us up.”

“Yes, and what is that?”He pointed to the green cylinder

in his hand.

“It’s a bamboo shoot.”

“Where? They’re not here?” he

said in broken English. “Where-youfrom?”



“California.”

His mouth opened and his eyes

got wide.

“Have you been stuck here, in

Europe, a long time? It must be hard

not knowing if your family is well.”

Uncle Bally and Jacko looked ateach other.

“May I see?”

Jacko handed it to him.

“It’s hard as a rock.”

He gave Jacko back the bamboo.Then he watched the pine needles hop

about the boiling water, which turned

light brown.

“May I try? I’ve been sniffling,

lately,” he asked, holding out a little

silver cup.“Sure.”

Jacko trickled the water into

his cup and watched him sip.

His eyes widened.

“That is good. I never thoughtof that. Wait, I have an idea.”



He went up to a green leafy

tree, right behind him, and came back.

“Maple,” said Uncle Bally,

spotting the mold of brown sap in his

hand.

He dropped it in the pot and

gave it a stir for a bit.When Julius had done, he served

them.

“That is very nice!” said Jacko,

licking sap from his lips.

“Listen, you wouldn’t mindshowing us a few things, around here,

would ya?” asked Uncle Bally. “We can’t

seem to find food, yet here you are,

with a beautiful bird.”

“You’re kidding right? There’s

food all around. Look at this!”He pulled a large sack of the

brightest green olives from his bag.

“They’re the best I’ve ever had.

Try?” he offered.

Jacko, who’d had fresh olivesbefore, wanted to resist, but took one



anyway. And like he remembered, it

was bitter, but Julius’ olives were oily-

smooth like he’d never had before.

“That’s really good,” said Uncle

Bally with enthusiasm. He’d always had

a taste for briskly things.

“There’s something about thisplace. Maybe it’s just well preserved,

but everything tastes real good. I

don’t know how to explain it. Look at

this,” he produced a small jar with

light greenish-clear fluid into UncleBally’s hands. “I grinded them and

sieved them myself.”

“Very nice,” said Uncle Bally,

looking thoroughly impressed. “This

forest is a luxury, compared to where

we’re from.”“This place doesn’t have a wide

variety – like I’ve never seen any deer,

squirrel or rabbit, but there’s an

overabundance of pheasant, peacocks,

and ducks. When I first came, theylittered the forest like rocks at every



turn. Now, they know I want to eat

them, so they’re more careful. But

they have a very specific routine that

follows day break and twilight. They

wake, they walk to drink and spend the

day foraging, and then they walk back

to their sleep spot; almost neverchanging their route, except when one

of theirs is hunted. But they still don’t

change much.”

He placed a small pan on the

mesh grill he’d set atop the fire.Jacko’s insides quivered when he

poured a bit of the olive oil into the

pan and tossed in the chunks of duck

meat.

Jacko could tell Uncle Bally was

just as affected by the sight of oiled,hot meat.

The rest of the evening, they

ate savory duck and olives with pine

needle tea. Jacko and Uncle Bally

licked their fingers as they told Juliusa little more about themselves, leaving



out the bits about the gods and

demons and wars.

As it turned out, Julius had lived

on a small farm outside Edessa, a city

in the north. His mother and father

went to the coast to find his brother,

who was a fisherman. It didn’t makesense why they left him behind, but he

figured it was better not to ask. He

didn’t want to ruin the first enjoyable

evening he’d had since his uncle’s house

got blown up.They sat in silence, staring into

the flames of the fire and sipping

more tea.

“Gaia gave Hera a garden on her

wedding day,” said Jacko dreamily. He

didn’t know why he said it; it just cameto him.

Julius dropped his jaw.

“What?”

“Nothing, but why did you just

say that?”Julius looked surprised.



“I don’t know. What’s so special

about it?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all. Just

some dreams I’ve been having.”

“Oh yeah,” Jacko perked up.

“Like, what?”

“War, devils, gods, angels, allfighting. And a boy whom I’m kin to,

and try to save, but for some reason, I

never see if I succeed. The dream

always fades at that point.”

He observed Julius’ eyes whichwere white-like by the light of the

bright fire.

“Have you ever met someone who

didn’t seem,” he paused coyly, “human?

Maybe had really hard or shiny looking

skin? Maybe seemed like he hadsupernatural powers?”

“I don’t believe in the

supernatural. I understand, not, what

you ask.”

Jacko and Uncle Bally looked ateach other a moment. They read a



million thoughts in each other’s minds.

He didn’t know what the purpose of

meeting the boy was, but he knew that

he wasn’t going to let him out of his

sight.

“Well, I’m so glad to have run

into you. Really, you’re so nice and, well,listen, my uncle and I are headed to

the mountain. At the top, there’s a

safe haven. My family is already there.

You should come with us!” he said with

too much enthusiasm.When he looked about ready to

protest, he added, “I mean it’s nice out

here, but wouldn’t you like to have a

hot shower and sleep in a bed?

Wouldn’t it be nice?”

“I don’t know if that’s a goodidea,” he looked away. “Actually, I kind

of lied about how I got to be here. It’s

just that it sounds really bad.”

He sighed and then continued,

“It was my mother who brought me tothis forest. Only, we camped about a



100 miles south of here. She wasn’t

bad, like you must think; she was a

great mother, and I know she loves me.

She used to tell me stories about

Hera. That’s why I was surprised when

you mentioned her. My mother likes

the old stories, too.Anyway, we went to sleep, and

that night, I had a dream. In it, she

who came to me, telling me how to

reach the Garden of Hera. She told me

as long as I stayed here, I’d neverstarve or suffer. When I woke the

next morning, she’d gone. I looked for

her for days, but then she came to me

again, in my dream, and said to come

here and stay until it’s time; not to

look for her anymore.”“I thought you didn’t believe in

the supernatural?”

“I don’t, but I think that dream

was real. Besides, she might come back

for me.”



“Aren’t you tired of being

alone?” asked Uncle Bally.

“Sometimes my mother talks to

me. I hear her whisper through the

leaves of the trees, and at times, her

soulful vibrato in the rushing river

water. So I’m not really alone.”They didn’t press the matter.

But that night, they slept feeling

better than they had in a while. Jacko

told Uncle Bally that nothing would

dare get them in Hera’s garden, and hebelieved that was exactly where they

were. His uncle must have believed

him, too. For the first time, he didn’t

stay awake, keeping watch while Jacko

drifted; instead he was out the minute

he laid down.

To their surprise, the next

morning they woke to Julius puttering

about the camp.



“Sorry if I woke you. He placed

a pan on the fire and cracked half a

dozen eggs into it.”

“Are those duck eggs?” asked

Uncle Bally.

“Yeah, they’re a little game

tasting, but they’re still pretty good.”Jacko and Uncle Bally pulled out

some apples and coffee to go with it.

“So I was wondering, is your

offer still good?”

“You mean for you to come withus? Yes. Why have you changed your

mind?”

“This is gonna sound crazy, but

she came to me, again, last night. She

told me to go with you to the mount.”

Jacko and Uncle Bally looked ateach other again.

“What is it?” he said, sounding

slightly annoyed. “You, two, exchanged

looks like that before.”

“It’s nothing,” said Jacko,shaking his head.



“Like hell. You guys aren’t

tricking me, are you?”

“No, why would we?”

He looked at them a moment,

and then returned to pushing the eggs

across the pan. Still, Jacko had the

feeling of distrust from him.Trying to lighten the tension

Uncle Bally said, “You are quite the

survivalist.” He poured Julius a cup of

dandelion coffee. “And this forest is

real luxurious. Who knew outdoor livingcould be so delicious.”

“You just gotta know what to

look for. It’s real easy to live here.

Everything is so fresh. Although

learning fire was kind of a hassle, but I

got it down,” he said, nodding to a littleblock of magnesium that lay next to his

bag.

“Oh, hell, I can teach you to

make fire the natural way, but first, I

gotta take care of some business.”



“Oh, let me help you,” said

Jacko, knowing that he didn’t need it.

He pretended to heave Uncle

Bally for several feet, until they were

blocked by some trees. Jacko said, “So

how much you wanna bet he’s like me

but doesn’t know it?”“Well, you can’t tell him.

Something tells me he’s even more

stubborn than me. He won’t believe

you, yet. But I think you did well by

inviting him along. Better to sticktogether. Maybe he’s powerful, too.”

“What if he’s not really on our

side? One thing you gotta understand

is demons, gods, and angels all have

human offspring, and not all are good.”

“I don’t know, Jacko. I get thefeeling he may be sincerely ignorant.

If you want my advice, we should bring

him along. However, I’ll let you make

the call since you’re the one whose

neck is on the line.”



“Well, if you think he may be

true, then yeah, we’ll bring him. But

you gotta keep an eye on him. I’m not

good at reading people like you.”

“No kidding, Jacko. I’m no idiot!”

He traipsed off, by himself,

behind some trees.

Fifteen minutes later, they

returned to camp.

“Is there water nearby?” Jacko

asked.“Yep, the freshest stream you’ll

ever know. You can wash, and the water

never stagnates, so it’s safe to drink,

too.”

They followed him several

hundred feet to the clearest waterthey’d ever seen. Instantly, Julius

went down the side bank and dipped his

water bottle in, collecting from the

top, climbed back up, and took a long

drink.



“Surely, you boil your water, boy!

Are you crazy?”

“It’s the cleanest safest stream

in the world. Trust me.”

Jacko moved closer to the edge

of the bank and watched the water

gush. It glistened almost like diamonds.He went down and stuck his cupped

hand in the flow.

Julius was right. It tasted

sweet-like with an essence of nectar.

When Jacko splashed it on his head,face and hair, his skin seemed to drink

it through his pores.

“This place is amazing,” said

Uncle Bally, who’d managed to shimmy

his way down. “You think it’s magical?”

he asked Jacko out of the corner ofhis mouth.

“I do,” he replied certainly.

Then another memory came back

to him as he watched his uncle, sitting

on the ground, unwrapping his sorefoot and splashing water on it.



“Come on,” he said, pulling him

up.

“I don’t want to get into the

same place we’re drinking.”

“No, if it is what I think it is, it

won’t matter. This water will never get

us sick.”He helped his uncle limp his way

down the mud.

“Stick your whole foot in the

water, past your ankle.”

All the while, Julius watched,silently.

His uncle got a funny look on his

face after a bit.

“What’s wrong?”

“My ankle doesn’t hurt anymore.”

He turned and walked up anddown the bank a few paces.

“It’s almost like it was never

sprained.”

“The River Styx,” said Jacko

under his voice.



“The River Styx,” said Julius,

who’d come down the bank and, now,

stood beside him, “was a place where

dead souls go.”

“Yes, but not according to the

epic poem about Hera, who favored the

goddess, Thetis. She gave birth toAchilles, who was dipped in the River

Styx. That’s what made him

indestructible, well, except his ankles

and feet.”

“Maybe his ankle wasn’t astwisted as you thought,” said Julius.

“You Americans have quite the

imagination. You think we’re all

superstitious. Look I’m Greco-Latin,

and not even I believe this stuff.”

Though they didn’t argue withJulius, they couldn’t help but exchange

knowing looks again.

They spent the rest of the day

hunting pheasants and peacocks, which

Uncle Bally, then, taught them how tosmoke. It made their packs heavy, but



now that his ankle was better, he could

handle it.

That night, Jacko caught Uncle

Bally smoking and watching Julius with

a look of curiosity. He shifted his eyes

to Julius. He looked too innocent to bea warrior. But then, who was he to

judge? He asked himself and rolled

over onto his side.

The next morning, they had

their dandelion coffee and headed outafter some eggs and apples.

For a brief time that day, the

sun broke out, though it hardly looked

cozy against the terrible cherry red

sky. Instead it broke out into a violent

orange that burned the eyes upon eventrying to look upward. For a while, they

even contemplated traveling at night.

Luckily, it was only temporary. Several

hours later, the clouds moved in and

covered the sun almost completely.



Up the Rise

Chapter 10

Over the next week, they made much

progress. To Jacko’s delight, they

covered fifteen miles each day, only

breaking for lunches of smoked fish

and water. But the day they finallyreached the mountain base, the

temperatures dropped, dramatically,

and it even rained.

“This has never happened

before,” said Julius, from under aplastic green parka. “This place has

never been affected by weather. It’s

just been the same every day, except

for when the skies turned red.”

Jacko and Uncle Bally didn’t like

the sound of that, but they kept quietas usual.

They stood, facing a fifteen

foot mound that, right above it, was a

jagged rock cliff. The cliff was

approximately 10 feet thick, andappeared to go around the mountain



and wind up to the top, disappearing

into the thick cloud layer that

shrouded the summit.

“I don’t see any paths,” said

Uncle Bally to Jacko.

“What do you think we should

do? Climb up the hill, or walk aroundand look for the supposed trail?” asked

Julius.

Jacko looked at Uncle Bally who

was looking at the circumference of

the hill, which was as big as a mall.Then he stepped back a bit and looked

at the jagged rock above the hill.

“Uncle Bally, look,” he said,

pointing to the cliffs.

The winding white-ish rock had

deep horizontal lines etched,purposefully, into them: long lines from

the top to the bottom that looked

almost like a sign, telling them they

were in the right place.



“That does look like it could be a

trail,” said Uncle Bally. “But what if it

really goes around like that?”

He was right to be concerned.

Such a trail could increase their travel

time from a couple days to many

weeks.“We have no choice but to turn

back,” he said, sounding hopeful that

Jacko would agree.

Something was nagging Jacko,

though.“We have to get up this hill,” he

said, scratching his head. “I don’t think

that’s the trail; it’s just a sign, letting

us know we’re in the right place.”

“Jacko, a climb up this hill could

kill us.”“Yeah,” said Julius. “And even if

we make it, when we get up there, we

won’t have enough food to endure such

a winding trail!”

“That’s not the actual trail!” hesaid more forcefully. “We’ll climb this



hill, and if we don’t see a more obvious

way to the summit, then we’ll turn

back.”

“Yeah, but it’s raining. We might

hurt ourselves, trying to get up there,”

Julius suggested, motioning to the

slippery, muddy hill.“I’ll go first,” said Uncle Bally.

“No, I will. When I get up there,

I’ll throw down the rope. Julius will go

second, because if he falls, I can hall

him up. Then you’ll go last, Uncle Bally,that way there are two of us to pull

you up, if you should fall, too.”

Uncle Bally handed Jacko the

tied up rope, which he put in his

backpack. Gently, he put his right foot

on the incline of the hill. He pressedhis foot down, hard, testing the

sogginess. Then he bent over, placed

his hands on a large rock that

protruded, and used it to help pull him

up the first few feet of the mountainbase.



Easily, his toes pushed into the

soggy mud, creating a bit of slip each

time, but settling just right, almost

like a foot divot in a wall.

A few more feet up, he noticed

a row of jagged rocks that he climbed

over to and followed to the top of thehill.

Ten minutes later, he stood

atop, turning around, looking for some

other sign of a trail.

Next, went Julius, who seemedto be part monkey, as he scaled up the

base in half the time. Julius turned and

tossed the rope down to Uncle Bally

who, then, tied it around his waist. He

struggled the most but got there all

the same.As they stood there, looking

about, they were momentarily

disappointed. There weren’t any other

signs of trails, but then, all of a sudden

it appeared.“Did you see that?” asked Julius.



Jacko turned his head to see

what he spoke of. Where the down

side of the hill was, a moment ago, now

laid a dirt trail that was lined with

trees and bushes. He followed it with

his eyes, and saw that it led up and out

of sight, behind the other side of themountain.

“That must be it,” Jacko said

and walked on.

They followed the trail, which,

except for the rock grades, was fairlyeasy. However, Uncle Bally seemed the

worse for it, as he wasn’t accustomed

to hiking such tight angled inclines.

From the ground, the mountain

looked like a dry dirt rock with some

green. But now, they were drenched ina moisture rich atmosphere,

surrounded by scented plush green

grass and tall coniferous trees that

blocked out much of the sky.

As before, they didn’t see anysigns of other life. They had a ton of



food but there was no telling how long

it would take them to reach the actual

summit. Hunting could be dangerous,

especially if they had to go far off

trail to find food.

The intensity of the trail led

them to take frequent drinks of water.Thirst was, quickly, becoming a

problem, so when Julius wasn’t looking,

he tried to enchant their bottles the

way he’d enchanted Uncle Bally’s

whiskey and cigarettes to replenishitself. It didn’t work. Puzzled, he tried

a dozen more times, and finally gave

up.

In the evening, when Uncle Bally

asked why he looked so worried, he

told him.“What do you think it could be?”

Jacko asked, running his hands,

agitatedly, through his hair.

“I don’t know. This place must be

anti-enchantments.”



Jacko looked at Uncle Bally, a

moment, and wondered if they’d, also,

spent time together in another life.

“Why are you looking at me like

that?”

“I don’t know. Sometimes you

say such smart things, and it makes mewonder if you and I have been here

before. How would you know to make a

suggestion such as anti

enchantments?”

Uncle Bally merely looked at him,and sipped his whiskey.

“I don’t believe in reincarnation.

What sort of Christian do you think I

am?”

Ignoring his reply, he asked,

“Have you ever had a sense of deja vuwhile with me?”

Lightly, he pursed his lips and

looked away.

“Uncle Bally?”

But he said no more, as Juliushad emerged from the trees.



“I’m worried; it’s getting colder.”

~~~

When they woke at sunrise, it

was to discover temperatures dropped

another ten degrees; then there was alight afternoon snow. Julius wanted to

continue, but they decided to give it a

rest for Uncle Bally who’d started

complaining about his arthritis.

Off the trail, toward themountain side, the incline of the actual

rise made excellent protection against

the elements. They settled as close to

the mountain wall as they could.

Combined with the trees, not only were

they shielded from the snow fall, butthey found good insulation that stayed

their fire from withering, keeping

them warm through the night.

As much couldn’t be said for the

next night: Twenty more miles up thecold mountain, Julius tried to get a



fire going, but even with a magnesium

block and a piece of char cloth, it was

too moist and cold. Uncle Bally asked

Julius to help him gather more wood so

that Jacko could give it a try. Fire

wasn’t a problem when you could

control heat, but as with the waterbottles, his efforts were useless.

When Julius and Uncle Bally got

back from the bush to find Jacko still

running the back of his blade along the

flint, sending sparks into themagnesium shavings, his uncle gave him

a look that said a thousand words.

“I know, I know,” Jacko said and

exhaled loudly. He passed the flint and

knife so Uncle Bally could try. “We

need to get to the summit as quickly aspossible.”

Thankfully, Uncle Bally got the

fire started that night, with a

combined effort of spark throwing

from all three of them.



Relieved, they both settled in

and relaxed.

“You know,” said Julius, pulling

out the cookware. “I sort of think we

should go back, especially since neither

one of you knows how much further we

need to go.”“I know, and I’m sorry. If you

need to go, it’s fine.”

Jacko pulled out a pack of

pheasant meat and the bottle of olive

oil and handed it to Julius.“By myself? That might be more

dangerous.” He poured some olive oil

into the pan. “No, I’m staying. Mother

came to me last night. She said to stay

with you both; that we’d make it,

though it would be rough.”Uncle Bally who was puttering

with the metal can, gathering snow for

water - for tea, looked at Jacko.

Julius looked at them, looking at

each other, and said with blue eyeswide, “I know I sound crazy, but my



dreams have never let me down before.

So I know that you, two, must be

worried, but don’t. We will be fine.”

Uncle Bally smiled, shook his

head and kept gathering snow.

“You know, that makes me feel

so much better. Yes, I was reallyworried,” said Jacko, the relief

sounding out in his voice. Even if Julius

didn’t know why his dreams always

panned out, Jacko and Uncle Bally knew

it was a good omen. And that night,they slept most restfully, knowing

that, soon, they’d be in a place that

would protect them from the end-of-

times war.

The next morning, they were,each, so sore that they were

practically crippled. Jacko’d never had

such a painfully stiff neck. His shins

felt as though they’d been through a

cheese grater. Every step taken was aleg in an iron maiden.



Jacko helped Uncle Bally

stretch his muscles for a good thirty

minutes after breakfast before they

went on their way. For good measure,

Julius joined them in their exercises.

The weather dampened

considerably, wearing away at theirgood nature like rust on metal. By

nightfall, temperatures were down

another twenty degrees. A heavy snow

fall had begun; the sky turned almost

purple, and the moon looked grey, asdid the clouds.

Poor Uncle Bally couldn’t

continue, and Jacko had no intention of

forcing him.

At first, Julius was disappointed

that they should lose a day of walking,but then he conceded, stating that

everything would work out the way it

was meant to be. His words were just

another grouping to pass his lips that

made Jacko wonder, with killercuriosity, who the heck he really was.



Nothing is a coincidence

anymore, he muttered under his

breath, as he followed Julius and Uncle

Bally off the trail.

Over the next few days, it wasmore of the same. They pushed on in

spite of their pain, yet every other day

they had no choice but to rest. It was

one thing to push on in a warm

atmosphere; however, the cold had away of contracting not only muscles,

but tendons, touching right down to

the bone, making an otherwise normal

person have to work twice as hard just

to flex. Each step taken in the cold

was a step taken with a ten poundweight strapped to his calf.

The higher they got up the

mountain, the more force the elements

used to beat them down. Dense gravity

became their mortal enemy,manipulating wind and snow to act like



darts to pierce through every single

layer of clothing, and stab right

through their skin.

But the lowest point of their

trip would come when they found

themselves facing a grade so steep

that they needed a rope pulley to getover it.

Finally, on the sixth day, it was

just too cold to continue at all.

“I don’t think I can go on,” said

Uncle Bally. “I’m so sorry. You’ll have tocontinue without me. I can’t take much

more pain. I’m just an old man.”

“Nothing to be sorry for,” said

Julius, sounding relieved that Uncle

Bally spoke up. “I think we should all

rest. My legs hurt badly. How are youfeeling, Jacko?”

“Like crap. I agree; let’s rest.

Anything to get out of this horrible

weather.”



Like wading through water, they

took giant steps off the path, sinking

feet deep each time they stepped

toward the mountain rise. Sounds of

branches breaking echoed through the

trees. Every so often, a throng of snow

would shake loose from a branch andblanket Jacko’s entire head.

An indescribably soft sound of

relief sung out from him. In the rise,

there was a five foot clear black hole.

“Do you think it’s safe?” Jackoasked his uncle.

“Give me a minute,” he replied.

He reached into his backpack

and pulled out a flashlight, then

disappeared into the black clearing.

“Are you okay?” he shouted intothe cave.

“Yeah, come on in!”

Carefully, they walked into the

darkness. Several feet in, Uncle Bally

stood in the middle of an empty cave,looking quite pleased. Jacko grinned at



the ceiling that rose well above their

heads. They were walled in with ten

feet of space, around.

“It’s perfect,” said Julius,

looking just as happy as Jacko felt. He

set his bag down. “I can already feel

that it’s warmer in here than it is outthere.”

“I’m gonna go get firewood,” said

Jacko.

He set down his pack and left.

When he came back, it was tofind his uncle had already gotten a fire

started. Warmth of the blazes

bounced off the cave walls and

smothered their skin. Julius looked

happy; his cheeks, rosy.

That night, Jacko relishedsleeping without having to bury his

head in his sack to keep in the warmth.

It was a luxury to spend the entire

night in slumber without constantly

shivering. The next morning, when he



woke, all the aches in his body had

gone.

Happily, they rested the next

two days in the cave. They hoped the

snow would let up so they could keep

hiking. The hours were spent mostly

sleeping. On the third day, when theysaw the snow wouldn’t let up, Julius

became sullen.

“Don’t be so down,” said Uncle

Bally. “You know we’ll make it.”

“I know. I’m just sick of thisweather, and I keep thinking about

what will happen if we run out of food

while waiting, here. I know we’ll make it

but I don’t want to suffer until then.”

“If we need to, we’ll send Jacko

out to hunt. He’s skilled. Can youtravel?” Uncle Bally asked, winking his

eye.

If he meant fly off the

mountain or conjure food, he was sure

the answer was no. His powers stilldidn’t work on the mountain.



How long could a person could

survive without food? He was pretty

sure he’d heard two weeks, depending

on a few factors including body fat

ratio. Looking at Julius and his own

skinny frame, he doubted they’d last

that long.When Julius left the cave for a

moment, Uncle Bally asked, “Are you

sure we’re still going in the right

direction?”

“Yes, I’m sure. I can feel thesummit like a heart. The higher up we

get, the stronger the beat. We’re still

a good ways off, though. My gut tells

me that it’s at least a few days away,

but with the snow mounting, making it

safely will be a challenge. The onlything that keeps me from despair is

that Julius’ dream-mother seems to

know our fate.”

He pulled out his whiskey and

took a sip.



“Maybe you should fly ahead,

and then come back for us.”

He screwed the cap back on.

“No, I can’t. Remember, Oganat

said the summit can only be found on

foot. And besides, my powers seem to

be limited, here. If I leave, I mighthave to trek all the way back.”

~~~

A few mornings later, siftingsounds echoed off the walls of the

cave, calling Jacko from the mists of

his mind. He tried to disappear back

into the world where the sun shone

again, and the Earth hadn’t had rain in

weeks, but the sounds madeearthquakes in his ear drums. And

after each quake came the splattering.

The splattering increased in frequency,

followed by a huffing noise.



He rolled over and rubbed his

eyes. Then like peeling an orange, he

forced back his dry lids.

Repeatedly, Julius pushed and

pulled at something white that blinded

him for a few seconds, and then he

threw the stuff into the corner of thecave.

Jacko sat up in his sleeping bag.

“Uncle Bally,” he said.

“Hm?” he groaned.

“We’re snowed in.”

For at least an hour, they pulled

snow in with their hands because they

only had one tiny shovel.

The cold traveled from the tipsof his fingers all the way down to the

middle of Jacko’s body. He could tell

Julius and Uncle Bally were just as

affected.

To conserve heat and wood, theyreduce the size of their fire. Instead,



they settled for huddling when they

took breaks from digging snow.

Then Uncle Bally told them to

stop.

“We need to stop just pulling all

the snow away, and dig a smaller hole.”

“Why do we have to dig at all?Don’t you know any good survivalist

tricks?” Jacko whined.

“What? You mean the one where

we just walk through solid snow, like

we’re ghosts or something? Thattrick?”

“This is no joke, Bally,” said

Julius. “We might freeze.”

“We won’t freeze,” he said,

rolling his eyes and rubbing his damp

hands over the fire. “Snow providesgreat insulation. Haven’t you ever

heard of an igloo? Right now, this cave

is blockaded by so much snow that we

need to focus on burrowing out a small

hole. To do that, it’ll be easier if wetake turns at it. The hole will be just



big enough for one of us to pass

through, at a time.”

“Why?” asked Jacko.

“Because if we haven’t reached

the top yet, it means that there’s so

much snow blocking us in that we could

kill ourselves trying to get out, if we’renot careful. If we focus on digging out

a smaller area, we’ll dig out a longer

trail more quickly. The only problem is

there’s still a chance that the weight

of the snow, if it keeps dropping, couldmake the tunnel cave. If it should

collapse on one of us, and we can’t get

out in time, we might suffocate.”

He paused a moment and then

continued. “On the other hand, I can’t

help but think that even if we get outof here, we can’t continue in this

weather and survive. There are all

sorts of dangers, like avalanches,

running out of food, injuring ourselves,

frost bite. We might not find shelteras good as this. So we may not entirely



be at a loss, though we lose time.

Maybe we should think about simply

waiting it out, rather than go through

the trouble of digging.”

“No, Uncle Bally. You, both, can

stay behind, but I can’t. I have to get

to the summit. We have to try,” saidJacko. “Please, let’s keep digging.”

Digging a smaller hole didn’t

speed things along, as they’d hoped.

After a couple hours passed, with onlya few feet of trail, they realized they

needed to burrow even smaller.

By the end of the day, they’d

managed approximately 7 feet of trail

with a slight incline. The diameter was

merely 4 feet wide, and a tight fitespecially for Uncle Bally. But they’d

doubled their displacement time which

made them happy, except Julius.

“I just can’t believe how many

hours we spent at this,” he shouted.



“We’re still stuck in here. I feel like a

corpse in a coffin.”

“Don’t get riled up,” said Uncle

Bally with a mouthful of smoke. “The

most important thing is to stay calm.

Besides, we got plenty of food, for

now. We just gotta take it easy.”“Remember your dream? We’re

gonna be okay.”

“Jacko, are you crazy? If it

keeps dropping feet of snow, we’ll

never get out of here. As it is, we’redigging outward and not upward

enough.”

“That’s the way it has to start,”

said Uncle Bally, sipping his tea. “The

rise of the mountain will collect the

most snow because of how it’spositioned. Because of that, we need to

make sure the entrance of the tunnel

is going to hold. The topmost part of

the snow will continue to harden, and

will hopefully hold additional snow fall.Now, if we burrow too far up,



disturbing the snow we hope will

harden and hold, then we risk it caving,

sending that much more snow in here.

We’re gonna continue burrowing out,

moving upward gradually. The further

from the rise, the thinner the snow,

and the higher up we’ll dig.”

~~~

A few days later, though they

worked at the snow for many hours,they were still stuck. Their food

supplies diminished, and they’d run out

of ground dandelion and pine needles.

But like Uncle Bally said, the snow atop

hardened and held. Though they didn’t

see it, they knew the snow fell speedilyby the incline of their tunnel, which

now tracked out for over twenty feet,

and rose up by five and a half. That

day, they decided to dig only upward,

afraid that to burrow too far outmight be to fall off the side of the



mountain. And they did so successfully,

only to have a minor cave in; an

indication that, as Bally said, they were

disturbing snow that was higher up and

less compacted. As they continued to

use the snow from the farthest part

of the tunnel for water, it wasn’t toobig of a deal.

Jacko hated the digging. On a

couple days, he was sure his fingers

would fall off; that he’d gotten frost

bite. “Quit your whinin’” yelled Uncle

Bally, taking a drag off his cigarette.

Even worse than dealing with the

tunnel was the boredom. Julius was

going stir crazy. On a few occasions,

Jacko caught him staring at him with astrange blankness in his eyes.

Fortunately, Jacko had a couple

books in his bag; all of which they read

through quickly.

One evening, as Jacko zoned outwhile staring at the ceiling, imagining



that he was at his favorite fifties

restaurant having a burger so juicy

that he used his tongue to catch the

liquid running down his wrists, Julius

asked, “Do you think we could run out

of oxygen?”

Uncle Bally rolled his eyes asusual. “I swear, you boys ask the

stupidest questions.”

On the tenth day, Julius was

brave enough to mention that theirfood was running dangerously low, and

they only had a few sticks of wood to

burn. Jacko noticed it before but

couldn’t bring himself to speak of it.

As it was, they were still trying to dig

their way up and out, but there justdidn’t seem ever to be an end to the

snow.

“How can we keep digging if we

can’t warm our hands?” asked Jacko.

“Here,” said Uncle Bally, handingover his bottle of whiskey. “Normally,



this isn’t good in a survivalist situation,

but since we’ve got plenty of water, it

might be okay.”

Jacko smelled the bottle. He

didn’t know what to think of the deep

sugary, oak scent that came from it.

All he knew was he was bored andanxious, so without thinking, he took a

huge drink.

“Ahack! ” he choked and

sputtered, spittle rolling over his lips.

The brown confection steamedits way down the back of his throat

and bled down his lungs. Warmth

spread from his gut to his toes.

Suddenly, his muscles relaxed as did

his brain.

He sighed and settled back,feeling better than he had in days.

He passed the bottle to Julius

who didn’t seem bothered by the liquid

heat as much.

“This is not good whiskey,” hesaid.



“Well, excuse you, you ingrate!”

A few days later, when their

stomachs were rumbling and their

morale at an all-time low, they looked

at their last pack of meat.

Just as he wondered who wouldstarve to death first, there came a

sifting sound, echoing from the tunnel.

“Do you hear that?” he asked.

All three of them scrambled to

the snow tunnel entrance.“Maybe someone’s found us?”

said Julius. He didn’t hesitate as he

climbed into the tunnel and crawled out

to the end.

Jacko and Bally watched him

disappear into the white hole.“See anything?” shouted Uncle

Bally.

“No, whoever it is, they’re

digging hard and fast. I’m going to help

from this end.”



After fifteen minutes of

listening to Julius pulling at the snow,

Jacko and Uncle Bally returned to the

fire where they made breakfast.

When the duck was done, Jacko

put a couple pieces on Julius little

silver plates.“Julius,” he screamed.

“Breakfast is done.”

“AAAAAAaggghhh! ” he

screamed.

Jacko and Uncle Bally jumped.They ran to the tunnel.

“What’s wrong?” asked Jacko.

“Julius, are you okay?” shouted

Uncle Bally.

“Get away, get away …” was all

they heard.

Uncle Bally heaved himself into

the tunnel, and was about to crawl out

to help Julius when a couple black-as-

night things zoomed through thetunnel and into the cave.



“What the heck was that?”

He turned his head, trying to

see what just past him.

“It’s Larry and Joe!”

“What?” he asked incredulously,

and backed out of the tunnel entrance.

“Did you see them?” cried Juliuswho just crawled out.

“Larry, Joe!” Uncle Bally

exclaimed. “What in the world are you

doing here? How did you find us?”

Their wings beat wildly as they

stared down at them with their shiny

black eyes.

“Why are you guys just standing

there? We need to kill those things.”

“No, don’t hurt them. They’reharmless,” said Jacko. Then, feeling

uneasy, he said, “Well, I’m so glad to

see you guys, but you haven’t betrayed

us, have you?”

But the bat babies said nothing.



“Why are you talking to them?

They’re animals, and they’ve probably

got rabies.”

“They don’t have rabies; they’re

fine.”

Curious to see outside, Jacko

climbed into the tunnel. Uncle Ballyfollowed, but before he left, said,

“Don’t touch ‘em.”

They crawled out to the top of

the snow.

“Oh my gosh!” Jacko’s voiceechoed back, as he clambered out of

the hole. “I can’t believe it! There’s

just no way.”

Uncle Bally climbed out next,

and did a 360 degree turn.

“This isn’t good,” he said.Outside was nothing but a big

white blanket. The sky was still a chilly

blood red.

“Wow,” said Julius, who’d come

up from behind. “Look over there.”



He pointed to the lower lands,

where they came from. The ground was

barely visible over the side of the

mountain. It was covered in nothing

but snow with not a tree or rock, or

even the river, visible. From the sky,

enormous balls of fiery snow spunwildly down. Circles of ash charred the

ground, everywhere.

“It literally looks like we’re in a

freezing hell,” said Julius.Larry and Joe came out of the

tunnel and suspended next to them.

“What are they?”

“This is Joe and Larry; they’re

my friends.”

“But what are they?”“They’re bats.”

“Don’t look like any bats I’ve

ever seen.”

“They’re friendly, so don’t

worry.”



“Well,” said Uncle Bally, “there’s

no way we can go anywhere in this

weather. What we need to do is get

bugged in. You guys get as much wood

as you can. Larry, Joe, we’re low on

food. We’re gonna need you to help us

find some. Since you’re small, maybe you can find food that we can’t see.”

Uncle Bally and the two bats

traipsed off into the woods. Jacko and

Julius went to gather as much wood as

they could find.

Hours of foraging went by. They

went off the trail into the parts of the

woods where the trees were barely

visible from their middles to their

tops. They looked like little hats on theground. Fortunately, it made gathering

wood easy. The tops were fairly thin

and required no climbing. Julius and

Jacko just went around and sawed off

as many tops as they could carry.



When they finally returned, it

was to find Uncle Bally stuffing a

charred out tree into the tunnel. He

hung several birds from the branches;

then he slipped inside and disappeared

down into the ground. Jacko and Julius

shimmied down after him.Inside, a huge fire warmed the

cave. In the corner lay a huge sack of

apples, and on the fire, a number of

fish smoldered.

“Looks like Joe and Larry’s magicis still good here,” whispered Uncle

Bally.

“Well, that’s good to know,” he

said, reaching for an apple.

Joe plucked a large duck while

Larry removed pine needles frombranches and set to making tea.

Over dinner, Joe and Larry

bickered with each other by the fire.

As usual, they had to battle Joe andLarry to keep them from eating all the



meat. When Jacko tried to talk Larry

into trying an olive, he hurled it at Joe,

whom it struck in the eye.

“Wow,” said Julius laughing.

“They’re quite a pair.”

Looking like he’d had enough of

Larry, Joe jumped on him, bowling himover, and socked him in the face.

“Okay, stop, you guys!”

Joe climbed off Larry. He held

his eye, which, instead of swelling blue-

black like a humans, turned very red.For the first time since they’d

been on the mountain, Jacko felt

human, but then Uncle Bally said things

that made him sad.

“You know, I feel sorry for even

the poor birds that we hunted today.Joe and Larry knew where to find

them, and when we did, it was such a

sight. There they were all huddled in a

thick log, looking miserable, trying to

keep warm. Their eyes, the way lookedat us; I actually felt like I had to save



them. Of course, we’re eating them,

now, but my point is, you were right,

Jacko. We gotta get this war stuff

over and done with. We can’t stay here

and wait out this storm. What if it

doesn’t end?”

Jacko’s face got extremelywarm when he said this.

“What are you guys talking

about?”

Uncle Bally handed him his

whiskey. He took a long swig andswallowed back the urge cough.

The next morning, they woke to

find the bats had gone.

“Where do you suppose theywent?” asked Julius.

“Hopefully, to look for food,”

said Uncle Bally. “They love hunting;

it’s all they do.”



But Jacko wasn’t so sure.

Truthfully, he was worried and Uncle

Bally knew it, but they couldn’t do

anything about it.

When bat babies didn’t return

that day, Jacko knew he’d been

betrayed. Every so often, he saw UncleBally watching him with a questioning

look in his eyes. Jacko didn’t know what

to do or what to say, so he just looked

away.

“Why are you guys so bummed

out? They found you before, they

might find you again.”

Julius just didn’t understand

that if the bat babies disappeared like

that, it could be for a serious reason.At that moment, they could be leading

demons right to them.

Every day, Uncle Bally said they

needed to get to the summit, but as

the snow continued to pummel theground, they just didn’t see any way to



make it happen. As it was, they’d all

nearly been set aflame by the fiery

snow, numerous times. The sky was

nearly black all day, now, and more

beams of light then ever zoomed

across the sky. It just wasn’t safe;

they had no choice but to stay.

Several dusks later, their spirits

at an all-time low and down to one

duck, Jacko wanted to die. Uncle Bally

and Julius looked just as miserystricken.

How long was this situation going

to last? And as he sat there, thinking

of Uncle Bally’s story about the birds,

and the world and what others might

be going through, he said to himselfthat it was time that he go on and

leave his uncle and friend behind. And

maybe that was what was supposed to

happen all along: maybe a warrior has

to take the last steps of his journey on



his own. As it was, Lucem said that he’d

have to make a sacrifice in the end.

But Jacko didn’t go. Every day,

he sat, frozen, scared, and unable to

move – unable to speak.

It was on a particularly damp

evening when the ground trembledviolently. Jacko looked at the entrance

of the cave, wondering how deep they’d

be buried this time.

“It’s okay,” said Uncle Bally. “We

have enough wood to last awhile.”A moment later, their fear came

true: the snow tumbled into the cave,

snuffing out the entrance.

Just as Jacko felt he might go

crazy with rage, the snow was brushed

back by something large and white.The thing came back for a second and

third swipe. He wasn’t sure if he was

seeing right but he thought it was a

very large hand.

“Hello? Who’s there?” calledUncle Bally.



A deep voice boomed through

the cave, bouncing off the walls, and

buzzing their ear drums.

“I can’t come in. Your cave is

too small. Can you come out?”

“We’re not going anywhere.

You’d better just move along,” said hisuncle.

A large black eye, the size of a

beach ball, suddenly appeared at the

entrance. The eye roved around, looked

at the ceiling and walls, and thensettled on them, sitting around the

fire.

“AAAhhh!!” shrieked Julius.

“Shut up!” yelled Jacko.

Julius stood and shouted, “What

heck is that?”“Who are you?” asked Uncle

Bally.

“I prefer to make your

acquaintance face-to-face.”

They all remained motionless,unsure of what to do.



“Well, are you gonna come and

talk to me? Or do I have to reach in

and drag you out?”

Suddenly, the man’s large hand

trash can lid sized hand slid through

the hole, across the dirt and

attempted to grab Jacko’s leg.“Alright, we’ll come out,” he

shouted. “But you’d better not try

anything.”

Jacko pulled out a bow and

arrow. Scared and somewhat reluctant– Uncle Bally with his gun at the ready,

they went outside.

Standing before them was a

twelve foot man with hair bushier than

a pom pom, and a face more wrinkled

than a shar pei. His features were sostrangely arranged that he looked like

another species of human altogether.

The man’s eyes were too low on his

face, and his nose was extremely flat.

He was completely naked, except forwhat looked like mint leaves that



covered his privates. Even more

amazing was the man had dug out all

the snow around the cave entrance,

and pushed it to the side, creating 8

foot walls. Looking up at the man who

stood atop the snow walls made Jacko

feel like a fish in a bowl.“Who are you?”

His voice echoed off the snow

walls.

“I’m Faunus. I’ve come to help

you up the mountain. You’re friends,Larry and Joe, came to me last night

and said you needed my help. I guess

they read about me as young imps, in

the red lands. Normally, I’d never

interfere with such business as yours,

but the world is changing. It no longersupports a god of my nature. I, too, am

headed to the mount for protection.”

“It’s too dangerous to go

anywhere,” said Uncle Bally.

“And it’ll only get worse. Betterto go now rather than wait. I can help



you get to the summit, if you’ll give me

a chance.”

When they said nothing, he

added, “What choice have you got?

Would you rather sleep in a bed and

see the sun again, or would you rather

stay here in this unnatural element?”“How do we know that we can

trust you?” asked Jacko.

“If you’d listened to your

mother, you’d know I’m a god of the

forest. Being that, I need nature tosurvive. If I need nature to survive,

then I must be on your side of this

war. Don’t you think?”

Uncle Bally turned to Jacko with

a look that said he didn’t detect malice

from the man in mint.“How long do you think it’ll take

to get to the summit?” asked Uncle

Bally.

“Two days.”

“Well, we need a day to preparefor the trip. We’re low on food and



supplies. Also, we can’t leave without

Joe and Larry to confirm your story.

Can you call them?”

“No, I won’t call demons.

Besides, it’s night; it’s not safe even

for me to be out. I’ll make camp. You’ll

decide if you’re coming or not bymorning; otherwise, I’ll leave you

behind.”

“Agreed,” said Jacko. “We’re

going back inside, now. Goodnight,

Faunus.”“Why did you agree? He’s insane.

You’re mad to consider traveling with

that psycho. Did you see what he was

wearing? And in this weather?”

“Julius,” said Jacko as he

plopped down in front of the fire. “Wehave no choice. We need to get out of

here, and he seems to know where

we’re going.”

“I think we should stay,” he

insisted. “What if we get stuck



somewhere worse than this cave? At

least we’re warm here.”

Right as he said this, Larry and

Joe flew into the cave, yammering at

each other in high pitched voices. They

slammed to the ground and rolled

across the dirt as they tugged atsomething brown and hairy in their

hands. After a second, Jacko realized

they were fighting over a dead

squirrel.

Suddenly, the bats zoomed backout of the cave. Jacko, Uncle Bally and

Julius followed. They flew to the high

end of a thick trunked tree, where

Faunus was lying on an enormous

branch, staring at the sky.

Faunus turned his head andwatched Larry and Joe bicker back and

forth, waving their black fists in the

air. Instead of responding in English,

Faunus spoke in the same dialect as

the bats.



The bats seemed to respect

Faunus, for they shook hands and

zoomed back into the cave.

“Okay, we leave tomorrow, or as

soon as we’ve got enough supplies for

the trip,” shouted Jacko.

“Agreed,” he said.“Are you sure you want to do

this?”

Faunus turned his gaze to Julius.

A shadow traveled across his

face. Where only a moment ago, helooked merely strange, he now looked

ferocious, too.

Julius took a step back.

“What’s wrong?” asked Jacko,

looking from Julius to Faunus.

Suddenly he said with coldness,“Nothing. We’ll talk in the morning.

Good night, humans.”

Back inside the cave, Julius

asked, “Did you see the way he looked

at me? That monster of a man?”



“Shut your mouth,” Jacko

replied. “He can hear us.”

Larry and Joe stood on Jacko’s

sleeping bag, skinning their squirrel.

“Hey, do that over there!”

He sat and exhaled.

“What do you think, Uncle Bally?Should we go or stay?”

“Well, it’s like he said, ‘what

choice have we got?’” Uncle Bally

swigged from his bottle. “This planet is

dying. We need to get out of herebefore it’s too late. We need to move

before our last food source – animal -

starts dying off, or worse, killing each

other to survive.”

~~~

The next day, the sound of

something enormous breaking woke

him.

Jacko opened his eyes and foundhe was alone. He put on his shoes, and



forgetting that the snow was gone,

almost fell to his knees as he reached

out to climb into a tunnel that was no

longer there.

Outside, Faunus managed an

enormous fire. On one tiny end, the

water can was steaming. He went overand poured himself a cup of dandelion

coffee.

The sound of hacking came from

behind him. He turned to see Uncle

Bally and Faunus working. Faunus wasbraiding twigs and branches into a

mesh blanket. Uncle Bally chopped up

wood, and placed them on the blanket.

He walked up to them and asked,

“Isn’t all that wood gonna slow us

down?”“Faunus says we should take it

with us. The higher up, the harder it’ll

be to come by trees.”

“What do you need me to do?”



Faunus set down his harness.

Then he set to showing him how to

make snow shoes.

Watching Faunus work was

incredible. His fingers were quick and

detailed. But Jacko’s jaw dropped when

he pulled a tree straight out of theground, the sound of its roots

snapping, and laid it down on the

ground so Uncle Bally could keep

chopping.

Around noon, Julius and the batsreturned with from hunting. Julius had

a handful of pheasants, and Larry and

Joe had a couple more squirrels.

Immediately, they set to skinning and

smoking their meat for the trip.

Overall, it was nice to be out and

about, though his hands hurt from the

braiding. They didn’t break for lunch

until it was nearly evening. Faunus fed

the fire and watched as they stuffedthemselves with hot duck.



“Where do you normally live?”

asked Uncle Bally.

“Down below, in the garden.”

“Why are you only making your

way to the summit, now?”

“The garden has been my home

for a long time. I wanted to hold outfor as long as I could. Now, I see that

things are going to be just as messy as

the time before.”

“What do you mean by time

before? Surely, nothing like this hasever happened.” asked Julius.

Again, Faunus looked at him with

darkness in his eyes.

“Why do you look at me like

that?”

“You don’t belong here, boy, and you know it.”

“What do you mean? I was

invited, you vagrant!”

“Okay, I don’t know what’s going

on with you, Faunus, but Julius is ourfriend.”



He looked at Jacko piteously.

“Well, you should all rest early.

Tomorrow will be a tough day, and we

won’t stop until the sky is like blood.”

Then Faunus climbed up the tree

and rested on the same branch with his

face skyward. Larry and Joe flew upand landed on his calves and pigeon

talked to him.

Jacko, Uncle Bally and Julius

grabbed a couple lit logs and went back

inside the cave.“You know, I’m gonna miss this

place,” said Julius. “I’m especially

gonna be disappointed if we get stuck

somewhere when we could have been

here.”

“What difference does it makeif either way we die? If we leave now,

we still have a fighting chance.”

They climbed into their sacks.

Julius was out immediately. Uncle Bally

watched him sleeping, as he took swigsfrom his whiskey. Almost as if sensing



Jacko was watching him, his eyes

flicked directly at his.

Jacko motioned at him with a

wave of his hand, indicating that he

understood what was going through his

mind: Did Faunus know something about

Julius?

~~~

The next morning, they ate a

couple apples as they geared up,packed the last of their items and set

off.

The weather was just as

unforgiving as the day they started up

the mountain. Only this time, with

bellies full and Faunus as their guide,the day seemed to progress faster. It

was different walking when they

weren’t sure of their direction, but

with confidence, they moved faster,

covering twice much mileage.“Nice work!” said Uncle Bally.



It turned out the snow shoes

he’d braided really did keep them from

sinking.

“It’s nice to take small, normal

steps again,” laughed Julius.

If only they had thought of it

before, they might have made it to thesummit already. Not having to dig ones

legs out of the snow with each step

was a saver on time and their strength.

Faunus walked far ahead of

them, dragging the little crane thatwas full of wood. But they didn’t get

lost because he was so big that his

neck and shoulders was always visible

from many feet away.

The snow fell lightly that

morning, and gradually increased toblizzard status by twilight. But Faunus

insisted they press on in spite of the

biting cold until the last remnant of

daylight was snuffed.

By the end of the day, theywere sodden with muddy snow and had



rashes on their face. Walking behind

Faunus was torture, as each step he

took splashed snow up from the

ground. Each time he kicked up his

heel, they got a face full ice shards

stabbing their skin and eyes, and

leaving behind the sting of dirt.The bats tired of the trek after

only a few hours of flight. Faunus was

kind enough to allow them to rest on

his big bushy head as they traveled.

Uncle Bally was worse for thewear. That night as the bats were kind

enough to make dinner, as they were

dead tired – and Faunus told them to -

Faunus was kind enough to whittle out

a miniature sled on which he could sit

the next day as he dragged him up theincline.

On the following evening, Faunus

used his hands to sweep a blanket of

snow off a cliff for them. Disturbing

the caused an avalanche, and he had tosweep them, quickly, off the ground as



they almost got swept away. The snow

just plowed its way around his ankles,

all the way up to thighs. They laughed

as he couldn’t move, and spent many

hours into the night trying to dig

himself out while Larry and Joe

whizzed around his head, teasing him.Still stuck in the snow, Uncle

Bally shouted over the cliff, “Faunus,

don’t you ever eat?”

“Sometimes, but usually only for

ceremonial reasons.”Jacko knew what he meant only

too well, thinking back to his dinner in

heaven.

They tried to get to sleep early

but it was difficult with the loud

sounds of Faunus still digging.“Don’t you have the power to

move the snow?”

“You can’t use magic on the

mount; it’s a holy place.”



Right as he said this, the cliff

trembled. Then all the snow around his

legs fell down the mountain.

At dawn, Jacko woke feeling

rather well.

He rubbed his eyes and openedthem. Uncle Bally and Julius were

puttering about the fire. Faunus was

standing dead still on the other side of

the cliff.

Jacko slipped out of his bag andlaced up his boots.

He walked up to Faunus.

“Hey,” he said.

Larry and Joe sat on his head,

bickering as usual.

Faunus didn’t turn to face himbut stand there with his eyes closed.

“What is it you want?”

“You remember the last time

this war was fought. Can you tell me

what the last conjurer did to win?”“I can’t.”



“Why not?”

“You need to go forward without

worrying about what those before you

did.”

“Knowing what others did before

might save my life.”

“What is your life compared tothe Earth and the billion souls that in

habit it?”

Jacko said nothing.

“You’ve been told before, and I’ll

tell you, too: You’ll know what to dowhen the time is right. You must do it

on your own. I’m only here to help you

get up the mount and nothing more.

Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like a few

moments to commune with the elder

gods.”

After breakfast, they set off as

usual. Uncle Bally seemed to enjoy the

day much more, as he didn’t have to

walk. Faunus dragged him and the woodalong as if they weighed nothing.



They stopped for lunch and then

continued until the moon disappeared

behind the horizon. The evening was so

cold that no matter how hot Faunus

made the fire, they couldn’t get warm.

He gathered a large ring of

rocks and placed them around them,then layered the rocks with trees. He

promised to keep feeding the fire, as

they slept through the night.

Jacko, Uncle Bally, Larry and

Joe all huddled close together and tothe fire. For the first few hours, they

rested nicely, but about midnight,

there was a rumbling and the sound of

a dozen sonic-like booms.

They sat up in their sacks, put

on their shoes and exited theirshelter.

Faunus stood on the edge of the

cliff, looking down with a stone cold

expression.

“They’ve begun taking over,” hesaid.



They moved beside him and

looked below.

“My lord,” said Uncle Bally.

Below, down in the garden, a

large fissure had formed in the

ground; it went on for miles out of site.

Slowly, bubbling up from within thecrack was a glowing reddish-orange

liquid.

The magma continued to rise and

bleed out over onto the snow, trails of

bubbles formed as it melted the snowand ground into its runniness. The lava

left an impression of a trail as it

melted down and through the snow.

“Look over there,” said Julius.

On the east side, trees were

slowly deleveling, as their trunks slowlymoistened.

“Get your things, now,” said

Faunus. “We must get to the summit

and we won’t stop until we do. The end

of the world is very near; it’s no longersafe to be here.”



The sky was still dark, and aside

from carry fire, they were worried

because they knew they could get lost.

“Here,” said Faunus, pulling out

the harness he was working on the

other day. “Tie this around your waistand make sure you don’t lose it. This

way, we won’t lose each other.”

They did as he said, and he was

right. Jacko couldn’t help but look

down every so often. The magma wasquickly spreading, taking out the entire

garden. He wondered if it could

possibly melt down the mountain.

The answer to his question came

a moment later when there was a large

Earth Quake. They looked down belowand saw part of the mountain base had

fallen. Magma rose up higher and

higher. The smell made it hard to

breath.

Dawn never came, though by thetime they decided to rest, it had to



have been noon. Temperatures leapt

from freezing to nearly 100 degrees.

They peeled off their clothes and sat

Documents

The Dawn Volume II