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The Elemental Portals

Book I – Terra

Chapter VI – A Tragic Return

“It’s been two days, and we have yet to see another human let alone a younger redheaded one.” Sevade announced. “This man is obviously our target.”

Despite his dislike for his fellow fox Chris had to agree; there were no other possibilities. The boar Wart agreed also, he had been watching the bathing pond like a hawk and no one remotely as furless had appeared. He would miss watching the human wash all that glorious bare skin though.

“I’ll let the client know.” The boar said.

“What? How do you intend to do that?” Sevade sneered. “Norumbega is six days away and Dainis, where he said he was headed, another week beyond that. Unless you’ve got a homing pigeon stuffed up your considerable ass there is no way you can report to him before we do the deed, and we need to do the deed soon, before we are discovered by some yokel ducking into our hide to take a leak.”

“You’re right about needing to act soon.” Wart replied, but then he added with a grin, “But you’re wrong about me not being able to report. Not as long as I have this.”

Wart pulled what looked like a flask from his robe, but instead of pulling the top off for a swig he swung the front open to reveal a wonderful sight. Inside the container there was something that looked like a miniature whirlwind that glowed with a dim blue light.

“It’s a portal!” Chris gasped. “A tiny portal.”

“That it is.” Wart nodded gleefully. “The client gave it to me and told me to use it when we had confirmed the target but before we executed the contract.”

Sevade’s lip curled. “Why you?”

“Because he’s got seniority.” Chris answered for Wart. “In Norumbega, he is the one Journeyman Assassin that is closest to becoming a master. All the local assassins know this.”

Wart leaned over and grinned at Sevade. “The client also said I was the most trustworthy.”

Sevade growled deep in his throat and inched his had toward his cloak but Wart had already produced a sharp-tipped arrow which he held up under the fox’s chin.

“Calm down, sonny. Assassins with a temper end up as dead as their targets.” He waited a beat before lowering his arrow. “You good?”

Sevade looked down, humiliated. “Yes.” But he vowed to get even with the boar, one day.

“How does it work?” Chris asked to change the subject.

“Like all the other portals, I suppose. It’s so small that no one can pass through it, but small objects and sound can. You can look though it too, although it’s all black now because the other end of this ‘portable portal’ is inside another container like this one, one in the client’s possession. To alert him I just need to tap the inside of his container like so.”

Wart took a thin twig and stuck it into the middle of the whirlwind. It disappeared as it entered but after only a finger’s width it stopped up against some unseen barrier. Wart jiggled the stick in and out several times in rapid succession and they could hear a muffled tapping coming through the portal.

“Now we wait.” Wart said, keeping the container open in the palm of his hand.

“What are we waiting for?”

“For the client to reply. He said it might be a few minutes before he could get to a private place.”

They waited, and like all trained assassins, counted their heartbeats to mark the passage of time. Chris had marked of just over three hundred beats when a voice emanated from the centre of the glowing storm.

“Report.”

Wart spoke into the portal. “We have confirmed the target and are ready to move on him.”

“When?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

“Good. Contact me as soon as you can after you are done, but report immediately if anything goes wrong. Is that clear.”

Wart made a face, being careful that the portal was not pointing at him but answered in a straight voice. “Perfectly clear.”

“Good. Until then.”

The three assassins remained squatting around the miniature portal in Wart’s hand for sixty beats without moving. Wart snapped the container closed to break the spell.

“So, there you have it. We move into position an hour before dawn.”

* * * * * * * *

Rory Douglas snapped his container closed as he sat on the toilet of his private office outside of Darwin Australia, where the Earthen headquarters of his multi-world trading empire was based. Australia’s northernmost city was a convenient location as many exotic Asian goods passed through there and Roy could blend his other-worldly goods into the mix without raising eyebrows. It was also a good place to intercept the tons of scrap and waste was being exported out to poor Asian nations for ‘processing’. Rory’s Terran recycling plants were no less exploitive than the ones in the poorer Asian nations but no one from the BBC or CNN would ever show up to do an exposee on the slaves of Dainis that spent long days extracting precious metals and useful plastics from earth’s unending supply of garbage.

He had more important things to attend to at the moment though. It had been risky giving one end of his only portable portal to the hog and his juvenile cohorts, but it was only way he could coordinate his final act of revenge on Arthur.

Quickly calculating the time difference between Earth and Terra, Rory took a conventional but untraceable cell phone and dialed a number with a Canadian area code.

“Get the package to the warehouse in Renfrew as soon as you can.” He said when a voice at the other end answered with a grunt. “Make sure it is set up and ready to go at my command.”

* * * * * * * *

At one time the area just north and west of Ottawa was rife with working mines that extracted gold, lead and mica, and while the industry had tapered off in Southern Ontario there was still enough business in the ‘Ring of Fire’ region of Northern Ontario and West Quebec to keep the mining supply stores in busy. Large orders of explosives were not unusual.

On Tuesday morning one such enterprise received a call from a client who had placed a special order. The owner listened, gave them the information they would need to make the final payment and then confirmed that the funds transfer had gone through before he hung up.

“Mike!” He called to a group of men and women that were sitting around by the coffee machine.

“Yeah boss?”

“You got a delivery to make. Take your rig and hitch up to the white trailer parked over in the back corner of the lot.”

“What’s the load?”

“Thirty metric tons of ANFO.”

Mike whistled. Ammonium Nitrate - Fuel Oil explosives, known as ANFO, were about the bang for your buck when it came to making big holes in the ground. “That’s a lot of juice. Someone want to blast out a new Great Lake?”

“A start-up. They wanted enough to see them through to next year. The call came from Australia and they have some pretty big international operations there, so I’d guess they’re expanding into Canada now. Here’s the directions to their operation.”

Mike looked at the map the boss handed him. “Christ, this is in the middle of nowhere down in Renfrew county.”

“We used to do a lot of business down that way back in my father’s day.”

“What’s the name of the company?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Well boss, if they’re ordering this much ANFO they must think there’s a lot of whatever they’re looking for under there. I might just go online and buy a bit of their stock on spec.”

“Hmmm, not a bad idea. Let’s see ...” The boss rifled through the paperwork from the original order. “Something called ‘Foreword Trading, Inc.’, Rory Douglas, CEO. Let’s go check out the load.”

Mike followed the boss out to the yard. Explosive shipments had to be inspected and all the permits had to be in order before leaving the yard. Mike was done insecting the trailer he joined the boss who was checking the load before sealing the doors. The first thing he noticed was that the first dozen rows of triple stacked ANFO drums were arranged in a big ‘vee’ with the open end pointing toward the rear doors.

“Jesus, What’s up with this?”

“The client asked that it be arranged like this way to make unloading easier. I guess they don’t have a big forklift on site.”

“Is it going to shift on me? Some of the roads up that way are awful twisty.”

“Nah, we strapped it in good.” The boss plucked a braided metal cable to demonstrate and it thrummed against the steel drum. “See?”

“Okay. I guess I’ll sign for her.”

“When do you figure you’ll have it there?” The boss asked as they completed the paperwork. He had to call a local number with the estimated time so someone would do be there to accept the shipment.

“I’ll be taking the back roads to minimize the risk and keeping it slow so, around five o’clock I guess.” Mike replied.

Mike took his copy to his rig while the boss took the rest to the office. He backed his rig up and hitched it to the trailer cleanly. He eased it out through the gates and onto the highway, keeping it slow and even just in case one of those straps snapped from the strain of a tight, fast turn. Not because he was afraid that a falling drum could ignite, ANFO was very stable without a detonator in it, but because he was proud of his work and wanted to deliver his load in the same condition as it had left the lot.

The boss only hired workers like Mike, those with a high standards and a good work ethic. It had made his company the most reputable explosive supply business in the region, a factor that weighed heavily in their being chosen for this particular shipment.

Rory wanted that load to arrive requiring a minimal amount of preparation to detonate what was in effect, a gigantic shaped charge.

* * * * * * * *

It was almost noon when Jimmy and the rest arrived at the Renfrew warehouse. He had passed the company truck heading back to Kingston on the way up the private road and had exchanged honks with the driver, who recognized the owner’s son at the wheel of the familiar SUV.

Gael’s shipment had been left close to the door in the wall that separated the main room from the old cabin that surrounded the portal. After disabling the alarm they propped the door open to make carrying the load of steel ore and charcoal over easier.

Junafir looked at the heavy sacks of Tamahagane steel sand from Japan and cherrywood charcoal from Europe and then at her claws, which Annie had decorated them this morning with something she called ‘nail polish’. The ones on her hands were red with little yellow lightning bolts.

“Uh, I’m going to go ahead and tell my mother that we’re back. She’s probably worried.”

“She’s probably prowling the village with her cleaver, hoping to ambush you.” Gael muttered to Jimmy. Jimmy ignored him.

“That’s okay, Junafir. We’ll bring the stuff over. Can you stop by the cottage or the warehouse and let my dad know too?”

“Sure.” She followed him through the portal and watched as he unlocked and opened the big doors overlooking the village.

“You going to go down to meet your dad after you’re done with Gael’s stuff?”

Jimmy shook his head. “No. Tell him that I’ll wait in here for him. I’d rather get yelled at for being a fool here in private than down there where everyone can hear.”

“I can relate to that. Fortunately, my mom will probably be in the cold room at the back of the butcher shop and it’s almost sound proof.”

“Good luck.”

“Thanks Jimmy.” She stood on her toes to plant a kiss on his lips before she ran out and down the lane leading to the village.

She didn’t look back until she had reached the cottage, and by then she could not see anything inside the compound’s building. When she turned back toward the village she saw Vikki and Mikki playing on the lawn and asked after their father.

“He’s at the warehouse.” Mikki answered.

“Paul is off today, so father is watching the shop.” Vikki added

“And Mother is in the kitchen, baking.”

Junafir thanked them and continued toward the Douglas Trading store to let Arthur know that his son was back on Terra.

* * * * * * * *

Paul Collieman was spending his day off on his back, in a big soft bed that wasn’t his own, with his wrists tied to the brass rail headboard by a wool scarf and his feet wedged between the bars on the footboard. The female who has tied him up was currently petting his silken fur, nuzzling him and calling him her pet.

They were both naked, but up until now neither had touched the other’s genitals. She had avoided laying hands on his and he, being tied up, could not reach hers unless she brought them close, which she was also avoiding. It was part of the game that they played, she would tie him, tease him and eventually drive him wild, literally. He just had to lay back and enjoy it until he couldn’t resist anymore.

One thing did bother him though, and he cleared his throat t get her attention before vocalizing it.

“Ruth, do you think your daughter Junafir knows about us?”

Ruth stopped nuzzling his neck and lifted her head. The thought of her runaway tigress brought a worried frown to her face and made her ears sag on each side of her head.

“No, I’m sure she didn’t … doesn’t … suspect anything, Paul. Why do you ask?”

“I was just wondering if she ran off with Arthur’s boy because she heard us … you know, in the throes of passion.”

“No.” Ruth sighed. “She’s been a wild one since she turned thirteen. It’s been a full-time job keeping the young males away from her, let me tell you.”

Paul laughed. “One look at you with your blue cheek stripes and your big shiny cleaver is all it takes to suppress their sexual fantasies, believe me.”

“Yours’s too?” She asked.

“Not me, I’m made of braver stuff.”

She leaned on his chest and peered down into his eyes. “If that’s so why do you let Selina do the things she does to you?”

“She provides me with something I need.”

“That I can’t? I can be cruel too, you know.” She twisted one of his nipples to demonstrate.

Paul winced and shook his head. “Yes, you can be cruel, but it’s not about cruelty or inflicting pain. I let her dominate me in order to build up my willpower.”

“How does forcing you to wear a penis clamp all day build willpower?”

“I don’t have to wear it, that’s the point. I wear it because I want to, to see if I can bear the humiliation and the pain. Knowing I can do so makes me stronger. And Selina knows her stuff. She never asks too much of me, but neither does she make it too easy, because that would not help build my character at all.”

Ruth shook her head, still baffled by the concept.

“Maybe you can go see her, Ruth, on a professional basis. You might learn a thing or two about yourself.”

“For now, let’s concentrate on how much I know about you.”

She had continued petting him absently as they talked but now she let her hand drift down across the scant hairs of his flat belly to the fuzzy sheath above his furry balls. She pressed her ample figure up against his side as she went back to nuzzling his neck with her muzzle while her claws made lazy circles around his sheath. Each circuit brought her hand closed to the sensitive covering.

Paul took a deep breath and fought to control his pulse and his breathing. Selina had taught him certain techniques that would keep him calm and in control whether he was being softly seduced or roughly paddled. Using them he was able to keep his cock from extending at Ruth’s expert touch.

She continued to diminish the circumference of the circles until her claws were tracing the contours of the sheath itself. They were small but sharp, and they parted the close-cropped hairs with an electric tingle.

Still he managed to resist.

She spread her hands so that the rough pads below each claw rubbed against his sheath, pressing down to feel if his cock was getting hard inside. Try as he might Paul could not keep it from inflating somewhat, and when she felt it thicken inside she squeezed it through the skin of his sheath.

Her body moved harder and faster against his. Her nuzzles turned to kisses and love bites as she mumbled endearments meant to arouse him. She stroked his sheath relentlessly and wrapped her legs around his thigh to press her cunt against muscles made firm by military training and maintained by scrambling up and down the shelves of the warehouse all day.

Paul felt her hot and wet against him. He bit his lip while he strained against his bonds to distract himself but he was losing the battle to resist her.

Ruth rolled on top and straddled the collie, her hand still stroking and squeezing his sheath between them as she slid her furry form up and down along his body. Her breasts felt warm on his chest but her twat was hot on his thigh as she dry humped him, rubbing herself on him until his thigh was slick with her juice and the smell of her desire filled his nostrils.

Paul could not take it anymore. With a cry of surrender his cock slid out of his sheath fully erect. It was painful because his knot was already forming and its girth almost tore the opening. But it was a sweet pain and his knot swelled, pushing the loose skin back against his balls.

Ruth cooed with delight at her success, but instead of hopping on the angry red pole she arched her back to avoid touching it as she continued to hump his leg.

That was it as far as Paul was concerned. Submissiveness only went so far. Stretching his arms until his shoulders threatened to dislocate he got enough slack in the wool scarf to slip his hands free. At the same time, he twisted and pulled his feet back trough the bars of the footboard.

Now he was free to move, and Ruth was distracted by her pending orgasm against his thigh. Paul gathered his strength, tensed his muscles and before she could stop him, he flipped them both over so she was on her back and he was laying on top of her between her legs.

“You bastard! How did you get out of …”

“Quiet, doe.” He said harshly, but he softened it with kisses and nips at the corners of her mouth. Keeping his weight on her he reached back and hooked an arm under each of her knees. He pulled them up until her knees were against her big soft breasts, then he shuffled into position. The tip of his quivering cock found the glistening gap at the junction of her legs and his back arched for the plunge.

“Don’t you even think of … Oh, by the Maker … Yes!”

The first thrust sank him knot deep, the inflated ball of flesh coming up hard against her clit. He twisted his knot against that button of love a bit before pulling back for another deep dive.

Having lost control, his moves were frenzied. His hips rocked rapidly as his prick slid in and out and his knot pleasured her clit. His pulse raced in time with his thrusts and he had to gasp for air to keep his strength up while the pressure in his balls mounted.

Ruth had started out with her head back, her mouth open and her ears spread as she revelled in the sensation of his hot, hard flesh sliding back and forth over the sensitive patches inside her twat, punctuated by the slamming of his knot on her engorged clit. But she had already been close to cumming against his thigh and now it was her turn to bite her lip as she fought not to be the first to finish.

Paul saw what she was doing and would not have it.

“What was it you were saying?” He asked without interrupting his rhythm.

“I was saying … oh-oh-oh … don’t you even … oh fuck, yeah … even think of … ah-ah-eeee … of knotting me you …”

A toothy grin spread across his face. “Like this?”

With a grunt and a heave of his hips his knot forced itself past the pink petal gates and inside.

“Aggghhhh …. Maker! Oh, Fiver bless me! I’m … I’m …”

A sudden hot, wet sensation surrounded Paul’s cock as it was trapped inside her, negating the need for her to finish her sentence.

Her cunt spasmed around his cock, squeezing the shaft and sucking the knot deeper as Ruth went through several intense orgasms in a row. It was enough to drive Paul over the edge as well, and his balls contracted repeatedly as he filled her hot cum. The seal around his knot kept it all inside, and most would find its way into her womb, he was sure. But it did not worry him; ever since the incident with the wandering tiger eighteen years ago Ruth had kept a close watch on her cycles and never let him visit when there even a remote chance of impregnation.

“You Bastard.” She said as she eased her legs down, her smooth tone and sweet caresses sending a different message than her words. “Now we’re stuck here.”

Paul stopped kissing her soft muzzle long enough to reply. “You had someplace better to be?”

“Not really.” She giggled; it sounded strange coming from her otherwise stern visage. “The shop is closed today and it’s not like anyone’s going to walk in and …”

“Mother! Mother, I’m back! Are you home, Mother?”

“Shit shit shit shit … get off me.” She whispered loud enough for the neighbours to hear.

“I can’t … ouch! Stop kicking me with your big feet! It’s not helping.”

“Mother, is that you?” The door, which Ruth had not bothered locking, swung open. “Oh, the Maker! Mother! What are you doing?”

Ruth tried to pull the covers over them and twist around to face her daughter at the same time. As a result, she ended up on her knees with Paul painfully pulled up behind her and tangled in the white cotton sheets like a horny ghost.

“Uh, hi, Junafir.” He waved a hand weakly. He wilted at her scathing look and brought it down on Ruth’s big round ass, quickly removing it when he saw her eyes blaze.

Ruth tried to pull the sheets around her but only succeeded in covering her short puffy tail. She crossed her arms in front of her pendulous breasts and looked up at her daughter.

“I can explain.”

Junafir rolled her eyes to the ceiling and shook her head. “No need. You’re an adult. You can do what you want.” Then her eyes dropped to her mother’s and a hard ‘vee’ formed between them. “Like me, right?”

Ruth sighed and lowered her head to the mattress. “Right. Like you.” Then she looked up. “But Junafir …”

“No. No ‘buts’ mother. Whether Jimmy becomes my mate for life or not, for now I’m with him the same way you are with … uh … Mister Collieman here.”

“You can call me Paul, considering the circumstances.” Paul gave a little experimental pull to see if his knot would come out, but it was still firmly trapped.

“Paul. Nice to, uhm, meet you.”

“Where is the boy now?” Her mother asked.

“Up in the barn at the compound, waiting for his father. I just stopped by the store and told Mister Douglas. He had to finish some business and find someone to take charge since Mister Collieman … Paul … was not there before he could go up to have words with Jimmy. That’s what he said he would do … have words with him.” She twisted her hands together. “Do you think he’s going to be okay … Jimmy I mean?”

Paul answered for Ruth. “Jimmy will be fine. Arthur is a fair and even-tempered man, even if he can raise the roof when he’s upset. But there are other threats about. Did Arthur not warn you about the assassins that have been seen in the area?”

“Assassins? What would assassins be doing here in Dougs-ur-Mark?”

“There is a bit of family history involved, but …”

Paul’s chain of thought was interrupted by a commotion outside on the street. People were yelling and shouting. Cries of “Murderer!” and “Assassin!” came clearly through the partially opened window.

“Arthur!” Paul gasped.

“Jimmy!” Junafir screamed as she turned and ran from the room.

“Junafir!” Ruth screamed as she jumped forward after her daughter.

The lunge, propelled by legs built for jumping, was enough to pull her off from around Paul’s still swollen knot. He grabbed his cock as the pain threatened to overwhelm him, but he remembered his training with Selina and forced it down to somewhere where he could ignore it.

Rolling out of bed he quickly pulled on his trousers before rushing after the rabbit and her daughter. He leapt down the stairs and, as he passed through the butcher shop, he noticed that Ruth’s big cleaver was missing. He grabbed the largest knife from the rack above the butcher block before running out through the open door toward the cacophony coming from the street.

* * * * * * * *

With Jimmy and Annie helping Gael loaded the cart he had left in the compound with the bags of steel sand and charcoal he would use to forge it. He and Annie shared an embrace then, wishing Jimmy luck with his father, he set off down the hill for his Blacksmith shop.

Jimmy turned to Annie, who was gazing fondly after the big stallion. “Aren’t you going with him?”

“No, I’ll stay here and provide moral support while your dad chews you a new asshole.”

“Thanks, Annie. I appreciate the loyalty.”

“Yeah, loyalty … plus it will be funny as hell watching you squirm.” She gave him a hard punch on the arm. “It’s the least you deserve for not telling me about Terra and your tiger friend.”

“Ouch!”

They waited in the shadows inside the barn-like structure that housed the portal, not wanting to expose their pale, Canadian, early-summer skin to the strong Terran sun. But the barn afforded a good view of this side of the village. They had seen Junafir stop by the cottage to speak with Mikki and Vikki and they saw her go from there to the Douglas Trading warehouse. She emerged now, having spent several minutes inside, presumably explaining and apologizing to his father for causing the accident that resulted in their impromptu trip to Kingston, he supposed.

He watched her as she turned toward the village centre where she and her mother lived over the Butcher shop. He saw her disappear behind the outermost buildings, wishing that she could be beside him when explained why he had brought her home to his father. But Annie was here, he reminded himself, and drew strength from that.

He saw his father emerge from the warehouse and head up the road toward the compound. Jimmy noticed that he was wearing a long, curved sword at his waist, a Katana by the look of it. He also had a mid-sized crossbow slung over his shoulder. As he passed the cottage he paused and called out something Jimmy could not make out. Aurora came to the door at his call and they talked, the subject of which was evident by his angry father’s gestures toward the compound where Jimmy was waiting.

Aurora, he was still finding it difficult to think of the vixen as his mother, retired back inside the cottage as Arthur continued up the road to the compound. As he drew closer Jimmy could make out the stern expression on his face, an expression he had often seen when he was younger and prone to wander the city past his curfew time. It was his father’s ‘I’m relived you’re safe, but before we hug it out I’ll tell you just how much of a fool you have been’ look.

Summer was farther along here on Terra than back on Earth, and the first cutting of alfalfa had already been stacked to dry before being carted off to feed the herbivores that needed the extra protein, like Gael and the bovines that ran the local dairy. It was a good day for it, Jimmy mused, with the sun high and hot. It must have been that way for a few days here because the ditches along the roads and the weeds growing in them were dry also.

Jimmy let his gaze wander as he stood up and prepared to face his father. A movement behind the approaching figure attracted his attention and his head snapped up like a sight hound that had spotted a rabbit. Annie, who had been watching her friend’s face furtively while his gaze was fixed on his father, turned to see what he had seen, thus they both saw the dark-cloaked figure rise up from the ditch behind Arthur Douglas and how it used the soft grass on the verge to cushion the sound of its approach as it closed in on the red-headed human.

“Dad!” and “Mister Douglas!” rang out simultaneously, and Arthur’s head snapped up at the urgency in their calls.

“Behind you!”

Arthur turned and unslung the loaded crossbow in one smooth move that could only have come from years of practice. Before he had completed the move though the assassin was back in the ditch, where his dark cloak, festooned with local weeds, blended in perfectly. Arthur crouched and slid to the opposite side of the road, stalking the would-be attacker. Annie and Jimmy’s eyes were riveted on the spot where the figure had gone to ground, ready to yell instructions to Arthur should he need them.

They were so rapt on the scene that they missed the emergence of another assassin who had been hiding inside one of the haystacks. This one’s cloak was also adorned with the local flora, fresh alfalfa in this case. It blended well with his dark, hoary hide and yellow tusks. It was not until it had fully drawn the longbow it was armed with before Annie saw it.

“Mist- …” her words were cut off by the ‘thrum’ of the bowstring’s release and the meaty ‘thwock’ as the long arrow struck Arthur in the back.

Annie screamed, but the assassin with the bow had already nocked another arrow and he let it fly as Arthur instinctively stood up and reached behind him for the source of the pain. The elder Douglas turned and saw the archer calmly aiming another arrow. He struggled to raise his crossbow, but his finger spasmed when the third arrow pierced his chest, and the bolt buried itself harmlessly in the dirt road just a few feet away.

Jimmy was yelling in anguish. He had been frozen in place until the final shot had broken the spell and he lunged forward, but Annie stopped him.

“They have weapons, we’re unarmed. Go down there and they’ll kill you too.”

Jimmy looked out in frustration. The first assassin was back up out of the ditch and leaning over his father’s body with a long, wicked dagger in his fist. The archer was looking up towards the compound and had fit another arrow to his bow in anticipation of a counterattack. A third assassin, one hiding between the village and the warehouse, broke cover and began running toward the others. He had to stop and reverse though as half a dozen armed workers poured out of the warehouse. Evidently, they had heard Annie and Jimmy’s screams too and had seen the murder through the warehouse windows.

Half of the workers peeled off to pursue the third assassin as he fled back into the village, the rest ran toward the compound and their fallen employer.

Finished with his search of Arthur’s body, Jimmy saw the assassin with the dagger place a hand on his father’s neck, feeling for a pulse, Jimmy thought, and hope welled up inside him. But when the posse poured out of the warehouse the cloaked figure reversed the dagger and used it to slit his father’s throat. Then he quickly sliced a fist full of Arthur’s hair and stuffed it inside his tunic as he rose and began running across the field separating the road from the forest … but not before Jimmy saw his face and marked him as a red fox with light eyes and a scar that cleaved the left side of his face.

“You bastard!” Jimmy screamed as he broke Annie’s grip on his arms and staggered out into the sunlight. There was no sense in pursuing the rapidly departing assassin, however. The fox never even turned to look back to see who had screamed at him. He was too busy opening up the gap between him and the warehouse workers that had taken up the pursuit.

But the one with the long bow, who had retreated to the far side of the haystack to report success to the client through the mini-portal, did look, and his jaw dropped when he saw another red-headed human, one with even less hair on his face, standing in the compound’s courtyard.

“Son of a Sow! Where’s this one been hiding?”

Wart looked to the body of the one he had taken down and then back at the one on the hill. The dead one was definitely older, but he had to chuckle. Sevade had run off with a sample of the victim’s hair, as the client had demanded, but he had the wrong victim. So much for the fox becoming a Master Assassin; once Wart showed up with the hair from the real target, with the head still attached for good measure, He would be the one collecting the contract and gaining his Master’s title.

He had eased his bow but now he drew the arrow halfway. He could hear the commotion from the village as the folk that lived there closed in on Chris so there was no threat from that direction. The three canines chasing Sevade had disappeared into the woods in pursuit of the fox so he was alone with the boy, a boy that looked unarmed, but cautious assassins lived to be old assassins, so he started up the hill at the ready.

There was no cover between Wart and the compound, and Jimmy saw the archer coming for him. He retreated into the barn and began to struggle with the doors, but they were jammed.

“Annie, help! There’s a boar with a bow coming for us.”

Annie put her bulk against the door and tried to help, but it had come off the rails when Gael had thrown them open with more force than was necessary and they would not budge.

Jimmy looked around wildly for a weapon, but the barn was bare. “You hide, Annie! I’ll distract him.”

“There’s no where to hide. We have to go back through the portal.”

Jimmy was reluctant to leave with his father’s body lying there on the road. “How will we know when it’s safe to come back?”

Annie shook her head sadly. “It may never be safe, Jimmy.”

“I can hear you talking in there.” Wart called as he made a leisurely approach. “You’ve got a female friend by the sound of it, but I only want you, boy. Let’s spare her the gore. Come on out and I’ll kill you where she can’t see and, then I’ll be on my merry way. No need for others to get shot.”

“Shot?” Jimmy mumbled. It sounded strange to his ears, but yes, you shot people with arrows. People were getting shot by arrows long before guns were invented, and if guns didn’t work on this world then arrows or crossbow bolts were all you could get shot with.

“Guns.” He said, and his eyes went wide.

Annie was preparing to make a dash for the portal. “What did you say?”

“Stay here. He ordered. “Make some noise like you don’t want me to go. Ill be right back.”

“Wha- …”

Jimmy ran to the portal, being careful to keep out of sight of the doors until he was close enough to slip inside.

Annie was confused. There was nothing useful that she could recall seeing in the warehouse on the other side except for maybe a crowbar or two. But while Jimmy might be lacking common sense sometimes when he got an idea it was inevitably a good one.

“Jimmy, don’t go out there!” She called, hoping that would be the case this time as well. “I don’t want to lose you, Jimmy!”

“So, that’s his name.” Wart said as he stepped into view on the far side of the wide opening. Seeing Annie alone he immediately swung around to cover the other side, in case of an ambush, somewhat impressed with the lad’s initiative, but that side of the barn was empty. Then he saw the portal shimmering at the back of the room.

Wart turned back to the human female, drawing his bow a little father back. “Run off and left you behind figuring that I wouldn’t kill you, did he?” The boar shook his head. “Your mate’s a coward, Miss, and he should have figured that I can’t leave you behind to tell the locals which way I headed.”

“I haven’t, and I did, to answer your questions.”

Wart whirled at the sound and loosed his arrow when he saw the boys face at the back of the room. The shaft disappeared through the portal and wart heard the distinctive sound of it embedding itself in wood somewhere beyond the threshold.

Jimmy stepped sideways through the portal. Figuring that the assassin would go for the centre of mass he had only stuck his head around the edge, keeping his body to one side. The arrow had whizzed by him and stuck in the door of the old cabin on the other side.

Jimmy stopped just three paces in front of the portal. Annie and Wart could both see that he was holding something dark and metallic in his right hand. Annie slipped along the wall to get some distance between herself and the assassin.

“What’s that?” Wart said as he slowly slid his right arm behind him, his fingers searching for the hilt of a throwing knife sewn into his cloak.

“A gun. A very powerful, six-shot gun.”

Wart’s face relaxed. He abandoned the search for the knife and calmly reached for another arrow from the quiver. Unconcerned to be facing an inexperienced boy, Wart flipped the arrow around and nocked it in one smooth motion.

“I wouldn’t do that.” Jimmy warned, brandishing the pistol.

“G’arn, everyone knows that those things don’t work on Terra.”

“Not from where you’re standing, maybe, but this close to the portal, everything works. And once it’s fired here, it’s just a matter of momentum for the bullet that comes out.”

Wart snarled as he raised the bow.

The boom of the gun was made even louder by the cavernous, empty barn. The second shot was no quieter.

Knocked back and turned around by the force of two .357 magnum slugs at close range, Wart loosed his arrow instinctively, sending into the side wall close to the ceiling.

Jimmy stood there with the revolver pointed at the boar as his body twitched. Annie ran forward and kicked the bow out of reach in case there was still enough life in the ugly old hog to try again. Then she ran back to Jimmy, who was shaking almost as hard as the dying assassin.

“Jesus, Jimmy, are you okay?”

“I think I need to lie down.”

Annie caught him as he collapsed and eased him to his knees. Behind her the sound of screams and cries could be heard rising up from the village. Then she gripped her friend’s shirt and hauled him back to his feet.

“Pull yourself together, Jimmy. This isn’t over yet.

Paul Collieman © Collifan

Gael Tholkes © MarcusXLight

Junafir Pawstone © Frostlupus

Ruth Pawstone © Bunners

Chris Cinereo © Kyroo Echos

Sevade © Frostlupus