03-Janace warns Carl and Yori

Yori was busy getting lunch put together, when the knock came at the front door. She put down the sandwich she was assembling and went to the door, wiping her hands on her apron. At the door was one of the last people she expected to see.

“Hello Yori. How have you been?”

Yori just stood there looking for a moment. Janace was road dirty and her hair almost a uniform color, but otherwise essentially unchanged by the ten years it had been since they had last crossed paths.

“Come in.” Yori’s mind got back into gear, sort of, as she turned and walked away leaving the door open.

Janace took her shawl off and gave it a shake, then stepped in and closed the door. She sat down on the bench in the front hall, removed her boots and left her shall and shoulder bag there. She followed the smell of stew to the kitchen. She knew she was unexpected, and had not parted on the best of terms, but had not expected so cool a reception.

Stepping into the kitchen, Janace noted the passage to her left leading into the mudroom, before the first counter of the kitchen proper. The kitchen had an informal dining room attached with a large window on the far end looking out on a grassy backyard. To Janace’s left the island-kitchen had stone countertops in a u-shape, with stools set up on the two outer portions with raised surfaces above the counters. The stew pot simmered on the cook surface off center in the close counter, with the sink under a side window, at the bottom of the ‘U’. Ahead in the dining room was a table with bench seating against one wall, and chairs the rest of the way round. Half of a meal was already laid out on it Yori kept a clean house, and Janace was too much the good guest to wantonly dirty a place. But she still felt that she was trailing road grime. Janace stood at the end of the counter Yori was working at the middle of.

“Anything I can do to help?” Janace tried again.

Yori was busy assembling another sandwich. At that moment a boy came blustering through the side door. He stopped only long enough in the mudroom off to remove his muddy boots, then bee lined for the food.

Yori stopped him with a look. “Go back out and tell your father that we have company.”

“I want something to eat.”

“Fine. After you tell your father that we have company.”

The boy looked ready to argue noticing Janace, but instead grabbed a piece of fruit and all but ran back out the door, stepping into his boots almost without breaking stride.

Yori continued to make lunch, in silence.

Janace tried to start the conversation again. “I’m fine, Yori. Thanks for asking. Sure, lunch will be fine. Let me wash up and I will give you a hand.”

At that Janace went to the sink and washed her hands. She then pulled a bag from her belt and dumped the fruit from it into the sink and rinsed them. Yori set a bowl by the sink, and Janace put the fruit into it and set it on the table with the other stuff already there.

Yori then handed her the other bowl of fruit and a plate with a brick of cheese and a knife. Last was a container of fruit juice. Yori brought the plate of sandwiches and bowls of stew. All the place settings were already there.

They sat, Yori to the side of the head of the table, Janace at the foot. Yori selected some fruit and cheese, said grace for herself. She then just started in, paying little heed to Janace.

For her part, Janace was getting a bit flustered at this behavior. But a quick glance at Yori psionically brought a sharp rebuff. But it did finally provoke a reaction.

“You could have picked a better time, and let us know that you were coming to visit, Janace.”

As if on cue, a baby in another room began crying and fussing, having just woke up. Yori put down her half eaten sandwich and left after the baby.

Janace was sitting politely, nibbling a slice of fruit, when the boy came back in, grabbed a sandwich from the plate and a hand full of fruit and left again. She was watching his progress toward the orchard through the kitchen side window, when a little girl and a toddler of undetermined sex came into the room. Both were carrying toys, which were dropped when the food was spotted. They got half way to the table when they spotted Janace sitting on a chair at the far end.

They were about to turn and flee when a heavy set of boots tramped on the porch outside the mud room. The sound of much mud being kicked off continued for a short time, then the door opened and Carl came into the mudroom.

“Whose horse is out…”

He stopped upon seeing Janace sitting at the table. He took a moment, and then turned to removing his boots and overalls.

Carl’s daughters, as soon as the overalls were hung, both ran onto his outstretched arms as he greeted them. They told him they loved him as he carried them to wash their hands in the sink, and then set them on the bench against the wall. They scrambled to their places and sat down. Carl sat in his chair at the head of the table and helped his older daughter say grace. Janace bowed her head for this. Once the prayer was done, the kids attacked the fruit and sandwiches.

Carl helped himself to one of the larger sandwiches, and alternated between it and his stew. Janace followed his lead. After finishing half a sandwich, Carl felt fortified enough to deal with Janace.

“So, what brings you to our home, Janace?”

“So solicitous. I’m fine, thank you. I see that you and Yori are well, and prospering.” Janace paused briefly “I think the company is back. Or someone is using the same methods.”

Carl was unmoved by this. Janace continued.

“I was attacked by one of their Beasts a few days ago. Someone used magic and psionics to find me. If they can find me, they can find you and the others. I thought you should be warned.” She took a bite and after swallowing, “This is a good sandwich.”

Yori entered the room, a sated infant on her shoulder clutching at a burp rag. She sat down to her food, around the corner from Carl, and began again at her own lunch. Carl reached across the table and briefly took her hand. He finished his second sandwich before speaking more.

“If they are back, what is that to us? We retired 12 years ago.”

“I think someone is going to want revenge on those who stopped things 15 years ago.” Janace was finishing her stew, and ready to go after the fruit she had brought with her.

Yori and Carl glanced at each other, dubious.

Janace snapped at this. “Why don’t you want to believe me, or take me seriously?”

Carl looked again at Yori, who just shrugged and kept eating. He grunted a sigh.

“Walk with me, Janace.”

Carl got up and got his boots from the mudroom, and took them to the front entry, and put them on. Janace put hers on, and they went out. He then untied her horse from the front hitching post, and led it around the house to the trough in front of the barn, and tied it there while Janace further loosened the saddle. Carl then led Janace to the orchard between the barn and the road. The horse shook itself under its tack as they left. One of Carl’s horses in its corral next to the barn wandered over to greet the stranger.

They were several trees into the orchard when Carl finished the second fruit, and spoke again. “Janace, we saw him dead. Jochquin pulled his sword out of him. Magic users are hard to kill, and I know you don’t lie. But I do find it hard to believe he’s back. Especially with his amulet broken up. Nor do I think anybody in that company would try to follow in his steps.”

“I don’t think it is truly him. But somebody is following his pattern.” Janace looked at the small fruit growing on the trees.

“Yori and I can handle anything that comes. But we aren’t going looking for trouble anymore.”

“I didn’t expect you would.”

They walked for a while before Janace spoke again. “Is your thinking that I would try to drag you off on some crusade why the two of you are treating me so coldly?”

“No. The truth there is that you are a chaos maker. Always causing trouble and never solving it. Yori and I decided a long time ago that while we value you as a friend, we are not going to allow you to cause anymore trouble for us, or our children.”

Janace thought about this, and liked it as much at having a drink thrown in her face, thought it hurt worse than any drink ever did.

The fruit on the trees was in various staged around half grown. They walked out of the orchard, and started along the fence line between the stockyard and the garden, the gorse corral and barn on the far side of the garden. The garden was sectioned with a few bits still fallow, most of it showing pre-mid season growth. The stockyard was populated by several horses and a small population of cattle, and other interspersed stock animals. As she looked over the farm, Janace found little to fault.

“You have done well here. Looks like a good place to raise children. How would you defend it from a Monster?”

Carl smiled, and whistled loud.

Within a few moments five large hounds were bounding over the fields toward them, with several smaller ones in pursuit. To Janace’s initial surprise, they seamed to run down the row, or across them, and never hit a plant in their travel. They even jumped the irrigation ditch as they came. The pack stopped short at seeing Janace with Carl, and was unsure what to do.

Carl knelt and called the leader. He came and buried his head in Carl's hands, then carefully padded over and sniffed Janace.

Janace had never felt very intimidated by animals, but was ever cautious about them, especially in obvious packs. After the hound was content, he wondered back to Carl, putting his head under Carl’s hand. The rest of the pack alternately sniffed and ignored Janace and began to disperse. One of the puppies started back across the garden, when one of the adults started after it, and chased it off the field.

“I taught the older ones to respect the furrows, and they are slowly teaching the pups to do the same.” He dismissed the hounds, and they went bounding into the stockyard, and began chasing around, the larger animals drifted away from the frolicking hounds. One of the males stayed in proximity, following Carl and Janace.

Janace watched them. “Impressive hounds.”

“They are enough to trouble anyone that tries to trespass. Anything they can’t handle, they can slow down enough to allow a weapon to be brought to bear.”

She had noticed weapons of some sort on virtually every wall of the house, above toddler reach. “I figured them to be at least partially decoration, as well as functional.”

They finished the circuit, and were back at the hedge separating the farm from the back yard.

Janace looked at her watch and the sun. Then stopped and looked at Carl.

“You can and will do as you want. I just came by to warn you. Something is brewing. I don’t know what or how, but it is. Watch yourself. I would hate to think something happened to you because of my inaction.”

“I will consider that. Please don’t be a stranger. Just leave your troubles at the road.”

They walked around to the barn and Janace’s horse. It had cropped the grass it could reach and was trying to get at more.

Janace watched for a moment, and then turned to Carl. “Have you heard anything about Brian? I looked him up, but all his old addresses are dormant. When the three of you disappeared you did a good job. I only found you because Jochquin said he had bumped into you in town here.”

Carl chuckled a grunt. “Yori keeps contact with him. He set himself up as a doctor in a town a ways from here. We have visited him a few times over the years. You want us to warn him?”

Janace put a slight psionic emphasis as she replied. “Yes. The five of us survived. The three of you disappeared. They found me in a scenic park and sent the Beast, regardless of what else it might have done once it had finished with me. Afterword I contacted Jochquin.”

Carl shook his head. “We expect you have seen him more recently that we have, the both of you heading off together was the last we heard of him. Save for the one time I bumped into him.”

“That was eleven years ago. We split up and have bumped into each other a few times. I am meeting him in Sangelo in a week.” Janace pulled at her horses cinch, beginning to tighten it back up for riding. The horse puffed itself as she did.

“All right. Is there anywhere in town that you recommend? Good beds, and adequate food? A stable for Boulder here?”

Carl told her the best places to go, and where the best watering holes were. Janace gathered her horse, and walked it to the front gate where she tightened the saddle again.

Carl went with, and Yori joined him there still holding the baby, the girls chasing around the yard with puppies as big as they were, after they handed Janace her shall and shoulder bag.

Janace pulled her new comm-phone from her bag. “Do you have one, or a number to call?”

Yori answered. “Yori at 432546.041845. That is the house phone.”

Janace dialed it right there, and they all turned as the house comm-phone chimed then turned off and Janace disconnected. “There. You can get a hold of me on this, if you need to. Be sure you warn Brian, and my greetings to his family.”

Janace put the comm-phone away and climbed onto her horse and pointed it into town. With some mild urging the horse moved into a long stride gate and walked quickly out of sight on the road.

Yori spoke first. “What do you think?”

“I think she fought a Beast, and it had put her on mental alert,” Carl answered. “Whether someone is going to send one after us? That was part of why we changed our contact data and moved ultimately to here. Nothing has happened in ten years. If it does, we will handle it. That is what we decided, and what have practiced for. On the other hand, I do think it prudent to warn Brian.”

Yori nodded. For the first time since before this baby, she wondered if she could fit into her old silver armor, and what Jochquin was up to.

05-Carl and Yori decide

Carl was out in the field, planting some fresh furrows when he heard a commotion from the orchard. The dogs had something in there. A returning snarl stopped him cold. Carl dropped the seeds where he had stood, and taking the hoe as a weapon started across the fields toward the house and orchard, as fast as he could.

As he ran across the stock yard nearing the orchard, he saw his oldest daughter running through the orchard toward the house. Her bow in her hand. The adult hounds were making fighting noises from farther in the orchard than Carl could see at the moment. There were more snarls as well, not from the hounds.

Carl changed his course to intercept his daughter. Five steps after vaulting the fence he intercepted and scooped her up; from this point Carl could see down the rows of the orchard. The five hounds were worrying a Monster, which had two arrows in it. The hounds all had wounds from the thing.

As he turned, Carl all but tossed his daughter over his shoulder and took off full tilt for the house. When he got close enough he began yelling for Yory. Yory came out the door with a battle rifle in hand. Carl skidded up to the porch, and traded Yory, the gun for the girl, and turned back to face the orchard. Stepping clear of the house as he checked the weapons load, Carl then called the hounds to come. They cleared the trees just ahead of the Monster. Carl stood his ground, and once the Monster was clear of the orchard he fired three shots into its torso. It took a few steps, and fell on its face. Carl put one more shot into the Monster's head, finishing it off.

The hounds alerted to other Monsters and were about to charge off when Yory called them to the porch. She had a large bore scatter-gun in her hands, the three younger children gone inside.

“Where’s Jason?”

“Over at the Galloway’s,” Yori replied.

Carl traded guns and called the oldest hound and took off for the barn. There he grabbed his bridle. Going out the back of the barn he went into the stockyard, and whistled for his horse. They were all gathered with the rest of the stock at the far end of the yard, away from the orchard.

His horse came cantering up, still very nervous. The hound was mulling about and alerting toward the orchard. Carl slung the rifle and reached out to calm the horse. He knew that the most direct route to ride was through the orchard, it being between the stockyard and the road, and in the direction of the neighbors. He slipped the bridle over the horse’s nose and ears, then gathered the reins, and vaulted onto the bare back. The hound alerted at this. He clamped his heals against the horses flanks and headed across the yard, toward the fence of the orchard, the hound at the horses heals. The horse tried to shy away but he pulled its head back and urged it harder. This horse was used to mostly domestic duties, but it still had instinct.  It gathered and jumped the fence into the orchard. The hound jumped between the rails, keeping pace.

They turned some to cut across the orchard diagonally. As they ducked under and around branches, Carl spotted another Monster running to cut them off.  The horse tried to shy away again, but Carl refused to let it. He pulled the scatter-gun around one handed and let fly with a flichette round, blowing the Monster's hip to a bloody mist. He left it there, and called the hound to keep up, as it went to investigate the felled creature.

They jumped the outer fence to the orchard and were on the narrows of the irrigation easement when Carl turned fully toward the neighbors. He urged the horse on to go faster. One more harry Monster tried to lunge out at them. Carl put a shot in it and galloped on as it fell.

They jumped one last fence into the neighbor’s yard, and galloped across the grass to the house. Carl reined the horse in and vaulted from it and through the front door, adjusting the rifle as he went. The hound ran around the side of the house.

A commotion was coming from the back of the house. Carl ran to the great room to find one Monster to his right tossing furniture aside heading to the hall deeper into the house; another on the left advancing on the kitchen through a steady hail of assorted dishes. Carl thumbed a lever on the grip of the gun, and fired; the Monster going toward the kitchen got a small ball of lightening in its back that stunned it thoroughly.

Carl then brought the gun up as a shield to block the paw of the other Monster as it swung at him. The claws missed, but the force knocked him through the end table and against the bookshelf.

Carl recovered in time to blast this Monster at point blank, stunning it. He thumbed the selector switch again, and pumped two flichette rounds into it. As it collapsed, Carl turned to the first and put a round into it, finishing it.

Mrs. Galloway was almost hysteric, and was about to throw a plate at Carl before she realized who he is. Jason called out from the hall, where the one Monster had been going. Carl moved around the carcass and knelt to embrace his son as he and his friend came into the room. Just then the horse started raising a fuss, as did the hound, from right out side the kitchen. Carl let go of his son and turned to the damage and Mrs. Galloway.

“Get into one room, and bar the door.”

She grabbed the biggest knife she had in the kitchen, and herded the children back into the master bedroom. Carl went out the opening the Monsters had made in the glass picture window, and around the side of the house.

The horse was dancing back and forth and rearing at another Monster, the hound was getting back on his feet after having been swatted across the yard.

This Monster’s fur had different coloring, it had red stripes.

Carl could not immediately remember why that scared him.

So he brought the gun up and let fly at the head.

The flichette round hit a psionic shield and puffed to powder. Now Carl remembered why these scared him.

He switched the gun back to energy and let fly again. An unseen force knocked him on his back to slide twice his own length. He shook his head to clear it as he fought to get air back into his lungs.

The Beast was almost to him as Carl got the gun up and emptied it at the thing, nearly point blank. The electrical discharge wreathed the Beast, shorting out its nervous system. It collapsed in a fit of spasms. Carl switched back and put the last two flichette rounds into that Beast, ending it.

The horse settled down at the ending of the Beast. The hound came over, and sniffed and nipped at it. It did not respond, so it was there after ignored.

Carl took a deep breath. “I hope that’s the last of them.”

He set the gun’s power pack to ambient recharge, and shouldered it. He then went in to the house, the hound following. He knocked at the door of the master bedroom, and almost got shot for his effort to identify himself.

That afternoon and early evening, as Carl had borrowed the Galloway’s bucket loader and buried the Monsters’ and Beast in a mass grave, Yory decided that she and Carl needed to have a talk. So she got a baby sitter for the evening.

When Carl got home, Yori sent him to go get cleaned up when he came in; once he is presentable for company, she took him out to the barn, where the wagon was all hitched up, and she drove them to town. She took them to their preferred restaurant, and a corner booth where they could talk privately. She did not waste time getting to the meat of the subject.

“Carl, what do we do now? These Monsters on the heals of Janace can’t be coincidence. And I don’t think she would send them.”

“I don’t think she would send them,” Carl added. “They aren’t easy to make, either. Janace is more than two days away by now. So they were either following her, or sent for us.”

“And our kids” Yori added. The two that had been after Jason still frightened her. Particularly that one had been a Beast.

“So the question is, what to do about it.” Carl started into his meal as the server left.

“Twelve years ago, we answered that. We’ll defend our home. Someone else can go have the adventure.” Yori was trying to be adamant, but not very well.

They ate in silence for a moment.

Carl broke the silence. “That sounds hollow now.”

Yory finished her bite. “You want to go track down the source of this?”

Carl stopped and looked at her, then around at the place.

“I’m a farmer. Part of that means solving problems at their roots.”

“What about your armor? You are still cursed.” Yori had agreed to settle down with him fifteen years prior despite a wizard having put a curse on Carl that said that if Carl put on battle armor again, he would loose his humanity and soul.

“That didn’t stop me this afternoon.”

“What about the kids, or me?”

“You want to go worse than I do. But you also want to stay with the kids.” Carl knew his wife. She had enjoyed adventuring more than he had, and giving that up to be with him on a farm had initially been a big sacrifice. Then the kids had come.

“We can’t take kids looking for trouble.” Yori again tried to be adamant about this, for different reasons than before. This was mama bear grumbling.

The conversation paused as they both ate some more. Both knowing the resolution that they would ultimately talk themselves into, if they let the conversation run its course. So by mutual consent they let it end there.

Moonlight streamed through the curtains illuminating the room in muted silver. But that was not what woke Carl up. The breeze through the partially opened windows played with the curtains, while Carl tried to figure out what woke him up. The warm softness of Yory next to him was not it, nor her arm across his shoulders. The baby was asleep, as also the other kids.

The hounds.

Carl sat up, Yory’s arm sliding off as he did. He listened for the hounds. They were not in the house. The Barn? Those animals were restless, but the hounds were not there. This was not good.

Carl turned the covers aside, and got some fresh drawers from the bureau, putting a bathrobe on over these. Something was wrong on his farm, but he could not tell by sound. He took his favorite battle rifle from its mount on the wall and checked its load. This sound woke Yory almost as fast as the baby’s cry would.

“What’s wrong?” She was not yet awake, and trying to decide whether to be.

“I don’t know. But the hounds left the house, and the animals in the barn are restless. Stay here.”

Carl pulled the curtains to the doors aside and slid the door full open cautiously. The night was cool, but not uncomfortable. The taste of electricity filled his mouth. There was magic near by. The hounds set up a howl, and alert. Carl sprinted to the hedge, and looked through toward the sound. A blue-white glowing rift hung in the air toward the middle of his wheat field. The hounds were packed together watching it. Then the first Monster stepped through.

A Beast stepped through first, and the hounds and some dirt and wheat flew and scattered. Some of the hounds yelped as three got to unsteady feet. A second flotilla of blasts hit all three, gouging the dirt around them; none of them got back up. Carl aimed and fired an energy blast, then thumbed the selector back and hit the beast twice, dropping it where it stood. Then a half dozen Monsters charged through. They stomped on the hounds as they moved apart and tried to determine Carl’s location.

Carl lined up and started shooting. He had enough ammunition to take them all if he could just keep sighted on them. They split into two groups and ran in either direction as the gate closed and faded. Carl turned to his left, as that was closer to the house, and fired, but with the light diminished, his aim was not as sure, and he did not have electronic sights on this rifle.

Then Yory shows up in her armor, and rips through the Monsters. She then closes the gate and finishes off the still-dangerous Monsters. Carl shoots from his position as he can.

Carl turned the hose on Yory, washing the gore from the Monsters off her chrome-covered form.

Yori was speaking as they worked the entrails off the armor. “Taking an eight-month old adventuring is not being a responsible mother.”

Carl twisted the nozzle from spray to stream. “Neither is sitting around waiting for the enemy to send overwhelming force.”

“You want to go.”

“I want the problem solved, that means tracking the problem to its roots and pulling them out.”

They had gathered the living hounds, and called a vet. The kids have gotten up by now, and start tending the hounds.

They also call Janace.

Carl and Yory then begin planning out what to take and how, and what to do about the rest of their stuff.