Story of fiction and fantasy and science fiction

[LostNFound]

The smell of ozone and sulfur was overwhelming. Lionhawk and Arie uncloaked and moved to Shadowself and Chephirah. Lionhawk looked at Shadowself and checked for any wounds. She was untouched physically but she grabbed him and held him tightly. They both knew this was not over but the emotional stress was building and they had to be strong enough to finish this task. The lions were feeling the same thing and all four of them gathered together and touched minds to gather the strength needed for the coming battles. Maria, Mark and Jim felt the stress and touched their minds also to help foster more strength. The next level was going to be a hard one so as they gathered into the elevator car they all steeled themselves for the next confrontation. Shadowself, Maria and Chephirah as well as Jim were to go to the computer room and dispatch any beings and get rid of the computers. Once that was done they would meet Lionhawk, Arie and Mark on the other side of the elevator to dispatch the remaining Burnsacka in the large meeting chambers. Lionhawk, Mark and Arie would be scouting that room for how many of these beings were in there and getting ready for the battle to come.

When the car reached level two, Shadowself, Chephirah, Maria and Jim opened the door that led to the computer room. The corridor was not long and they all had cloaked so no one or anything could see them coming. Lionhawk, Mark and Arie opened the opposite side and saw a short corridor with two ornate doors at the end. There were two doors in the corridor and both turned out to be restrooms. The two ornate doors did not have windows in them so they knew it was going to be a touch and go situation to get in and check it all out. Fortunately on the other side, the double doors into the computer room did have windows so Shadowself had walked up and peered into the room. She saw 3 humans sitting at computer work stations and at least 5 computers. On a wall at the back of the room were monitor screens and they showed the main entrance to level one and a road that came to a hidden parking area. They also showed the road that lead to the cave at the 3rd level entrance but that was all. The humans were all sitting with their backs to the doors watching the monitors. She decided they could enter the room as long as the humans did not turn around. She pushed the door lightly and opened it just enough to let Chephirah through. Chephirah moved in and waited for the others to get in. Shadowself touched Maria and Jim both in the mind and told them to get in and move to the wall where they would be out of harms way. They both moved in and walked to a wall at the side of the room. Shadowself began to slide through the opening when a fire brand smashed into the side of the door. She dove to the floor as another one hit the door itself and splattered fire streams and sparks all over. Some of them landed on her and started to smolder her clothing. She quickly brushed them off and rolled away from the door.

Firetongue had been fiddling with the computer to help Scorchmouth fix the camera system in the cave on level three. Scorchmouth was in the room with all the electronic gear that operated the computers in this room. Firetongue had spent the last few nano time clicks working on getting the things to work. As he was moving through some screens he noticed one of the doors open through a reflection on the screen. He waited to see if it might be a breeze or something that made it move. When he realized that it was staying in the same position and not closing he knew something was wrong. He built up a fire brand spear and stood quickly and threw it at the door. He made another quickly and threw it also. The first one hit the wall next to the door but the second one hit the door close to the edge. The door then moved shut. Firetongue made another fire spear and prepared to throw it at anything that came through the door. Coalface and heliumeye both had stood by this time click and were making their own fire spears.

Shadowself had rolled behind a desk even though she was cloaked she was not taking a chance of one of the fire spears by chance making contact. Maria and Jim both had moved away from the wall and found their own pieces of furniture to hide behind. It appeared that all three beings were alert now of something entering the room and everyone had fire spears at the ready. This was turning out to be a very tricky situation. Maria and Jim both had twisted the time and space dials to send these beings to a very cold place. Maria got an idea and materialized a bucket of ice behind the couch she was crouched down behind. The bucket was not invisible so she would have to wait for the right time Chephirah new she would have to become visible to fight these beings and was waiting for the right moment to become visible as she sprang. Jim had crawled over to the wall that had the monitors on it and was watching the beings standing at their work stations and looking towards the doors. He was looking around the room when his eyes stopped on the hand held Fire Extinguisher hanging on the wall just above him. He knew these things had been outlawed back in the late 20th century but had come back somewhat after the great disaster of 2001 in New York City. He stood up very quietly and hesitated in short movements toward the extinguisher. He checked out the attachment and saw that it could be removed by pulling a Velcro strap. The hose and trigger could be used in one fluid motion. He stood by it and waited for an action. It did not take long. Chephirah became visible as she leaped through the air and with her paw outstretched and the claws fully extended she swiped the first human across the back of the neck as she carried herself into the second human. The first one dropped like a rock with a deafening screech. She hit the second one and they both flew over the computer station to the floor about 10 feet away. She bit the human in the neck and it dropped the human body immediately as it screeched. The first one she had swiped dropped the human body and came up in a column of fire. It was screaming as it thrashed around and was loosing liquid fire from its neck area. As it had been hit while falling it tossed its fire spear in a hap hazard way and the spear actually hit the one standing in the front. It made contact with the back of the thigh and the being dropped its human body also. It hit the floor in a screeching agony but came back up in its full column of fire.

Shadowself watched Chephirah move and turn into a streak of blue white light as she became visible. She saw her swipe the neck of the first one and saw it go down as Chephirah hit the second one and both flew backwards. She saw the middle one throw its fire spear and how it hit the first one in the back of its leg. Flames had shot from the eyes of both and they both spit flames of large gobs as they both dropped the human bodies and then stood back up. Shadowself had instantly begun to move as she saw Chephirah leaping. When the first one had fallen from the spear in its hind leg she was halfway across the room towards it and becoming visible at the same time. She raised her sword to chop the head area of the first one as it was rising. The speed of the thing surprised her but she managed to bring her sword to within a few inches of the head area. The thing had produced a fire blade of its own as it came back up in its natural state and bounced her sword to the side as it moved away. Shadowself had her own prowess and turned in an instant to deflect the fire sword. The room was becoming full of smoke and the stench of sulfur and ozone was overwhelming. The being she was fighting was loosing liquid fire from its leg that was scorching the floor and some of the furniture every time it danced around her blade. It was growing weaker but it still fought off her advances. The first one that Chephirah had hit on her way to the second one was twisting itself about and loosing liquid fire from its neck area. It had made a fire sword and was trying to reach the lion and the being that was loosing its battle.

Maria had witnessed the entire battle so far and finally stood up with the thought of helping her companions. The being that was trying to reach Chephirah was screeching and moving erratically towards Chephirah when she picked of the bucket of Ice water and moved close enough to the being to toss the contents on it. The reaction that happened next knocked Maria to the floor and she had to roll quickly out of the way of the being as it was thrashing wildly. The noise it made caused the lights in the ceiling to start popping, Chephirah had finally gotten a solid bite into the being she was fighting and it screeched and fell limp as its fire diminished and then it disappeared. Shadowself was dodging and weaving as the column of fire threw all of its energy at her. She could feel the heat of the thing getting hotter by the moment as it pushed its way into her parries and thrusts. She was being pushed back to the wall with the monitors. It was as if the being had gained energy from the spear wound. The being that Maria had thrown the ice water on was loosing its flame rapidly, dark black spots were growing on it by the second and finally it stopped and froze in motion. Maria watched, as the thing turned completely black and begin to fall like a tree being cut down. She watched as the thing fell in slow motion. When it hit the floor it shattered into a thousand pieces and then it all began to disappear.

Shadowself had been pushed all the way back to the wall and narrowly dodged a killing blow from the being. Its fire sword had hit the wall were she had been standing and burned a large gash in a downward line. As she came off the wall she had swung her blade in a wide motion and connected with the beings sword arm. That entire piece with the fire sword fell to the floor and the being screeched loudly as it spun itself away and came up with a fire sword on its other side. Jim had watched all the battle and had managed to retrieve the Fire Extinguisher from the wall. He primed it and was holding the thing ready when a door opened in the wall and another column of fire moved out. He saw it moving toward Shadowself and stepped in its way. The being raised an arm with a fire sword in it just before Jim rammed the end of the extinguisher into its mouth area and pulled the trigger. The Halon 1301 filled the beings mouth and kept pumping into its column of fire. The being tried to scream and screech but the fire suppressant did its job. Jim had held the bottle and hose while the entire canister emptied into the being. His clothes had caught fire and his hands and face were burned but he kept the trigger pulled. The being stumbled back with foul smelling smoke emanating from it as the suppressant began to ooze from it entire surface. . The being that was fighting Shadowself made the fatal mistake of hesitating for a split second and Shadowself thrust her sword straight into it at the chest height. The blade pushed into it like a knife through butter. She pushed it all the way through and pulled back. As she came back she pulled the blade in a downward motion and it opened the front of the column up. The being just stared at her as all of its liquid fire drained out and the thing disappeared in a rank cloud of smoke. The being that Jim had pumped full of the suppressant began to turn inside out as the suppressant fizzed and ate away like formaldehyde. The thing oozed and twisted as the entire column turned outward and then reversed itself and everything turned inward on itself and fizzed out with a pop.

Jim had fallen to the floor and rolled to put the fire out on his clothes. He kept his hands in front of him and Maria brought another bucket of ice water and gently stuck his hands into it. It eased his pain somewhat but his face was a deep reddish and purplish color. Maria was weeping at the sight of him but he was smiling and she could not figure that one out. Shadowself was sitting on the floor trying to regain her strength when Chephirah walked over and bumped her and then sat next to her. Maria was beginning to weep louder when Eryne and Evelyne but floated down from the ceiling. They looked at every body and said “Well done my beloved. We will take you to the healing place and bring you back and no time will be done or lost. You all must complete this part and go to the others as they are about to do battle also. With that the two girls gathered the team and they all disappeared. The dream place where Carolyne and Christine had been and Carolyne had learned from the book was like a hospital and like a paradise and like a resort and there they all spent days or months or did it seem like years resting and recuperating. They all had been to a school and they all had read the books of knowledge. The love and the light had healed them of their physical and spiritual wounds then one day Evelyne and Eryne found them all resting around a wonderful little lake and told them that they must return to Lionhawk, Mark and Arie.

Jim was sitting on the floor and his hands tingled. He was laughing and Maria was kneeling in front of him asking if he was alright. He said he was fine and shouldn’t they make these computers go to a place that Evelyne and Eryne had showed them. Shadowself stood up and dusted herself and patted Chephirah on the head as they all began to move towards the double doors. Jim and Maria twisted the dials on their TMG’s and sprayed the computer room. They had taken care of the little room that had all the electronics first. On a lonely asteroid or a world sized ball of Ice rock a pile of computers and electronic gear was building up. This very large Ice ball had been traveling through the heavens (space) for eons and its destination was just a short time away. It had been gathering things from different dimensions for thousands and thousands of years. The ice ball was almost the same size as the star it was headed towards

Lionhawk, Mark and Arie had heard voices coming from the room. Mark had noticed that the doors were swinging slightly in a breeze from the corridor. Lionhawk could feel hot air coming from the room beyond and new that the beings were emanating the heat from the human bodies that they had assimilated. He moved to the doors and waited for a moment as the doors swung inward and pushed one just a little further and let it come back. He waited for any possible action but nothing happened. The doors kept moving in and back so he waited for the next inward motion and told Arie to be ready to go in. The door moved inward and he pushed it just enough so Arie could slip through. He let the door swing back and he and Mark moved back to wait for Arie to give them some Intel of the condition and number of humans in the room.

[LostNFound]

Arie slipped into the large room and saw right away that he was in a wide aisle or walkway that ran around a circular shaped room. When he first slipped in, the wide opening ran straight from the double doors towards the front of the large room. He had moved to the side and slipped up to the wall of seats and peered around them. He could not see any humans but he could hear them talking. He turned and crept along the wall of seats moving around the circle towards the front of the room. As he approached the front the voices grew louder. He came to another wide area and peered around the edge of a seat. The wide area ran across the seated area from side to side and he still could not see the humans. The noise of their voices was coming from the front so he crept to the next wall of seats and moved towards the center opening. Approaching that area he could here the humans quite loudly. He peeked around the seat and could only see a few humans talking. He needed to know how many were in here so looking around he saw an upper area towards the back. He crept back to the side aisle and padded up to where the doors were. On his way he saw an opening in the back wall and darted into it. The stairs led up from there so he climbed them and came to the upper area. It was lined with seats so he moved to the front area that had a wall. Once there he could barely see over the wall so he hopped up into a seat and had a perfect view of the floor level below. He looked at the area in the front of the room and counted about 12 humans sitting in a front row of seats with one more sitting in a seat behind a small desk. Their conversation would become louder sometimes then it would get quiet. He spoke in the mind talk to Lionhawk and told him the entire layout and how many humans where in here. Lionhawk told him to come back to the doors area and wait for the others so they could all be in there together.

Shadowself, Maria, Chephirah and Jim entered the elevator and opened the back doors. They all saw Lionhawk and Mark standing just outside the double doors leading to a room. Lionhawk motioned for all of them to come so they all quietly walked over. Maria hugged Mark and Shadowself did the same with Lionhawk. He told them what Arie had seen in the room and how they all should take turns getting in before they began to battle with the beings. Chephirah was the first through and paired up with Arie. They both stood guard behind the back row of seats while the others got in. Shadowself was the next and as soon as she moved in she stood against the back wall and watched the assimilated humans down at the front. Lionhawk was next and when he got in he moved to the opposite side of the doors from Shadowself and stood against the wall also. The lions eyes were ablaze and the swords were a bright blue white tint. Shadowself’s headband symbols were lit and appeared to be spinning on the leather band. Maria moved into the room and placed herself up against the wall on Shadowself’s side. Jim and Mark were the last in and the Doors kept moving with a slight breeze of some kind. The assimilated humans at the front paid no mind to the doors moving in and out as if it was a normal thing that happened all the time. Chephirah moved to Lionhawk’s side as Arie moved to Shadowself’s side and they all began to move around the circular shaped room two on one side and two on the other side.

Blowtorch was trying to tell the rest of the group about how to proceed with the humans in the seat of power He was telling them that they would have to bring at least 20 or 30 more of their sect through the dimensional gate and train them how to assimilate this species. He had discovered where the main power structure of humans were located and one in particular had to be assimilated and the sooner the better. By gaining control at that level they would be able to bring their soldiers through and little by little they could assimilate the warriors of this species until it would be to late for the greater population to resist them as they annulated them to prepare this world to become populated by the Burnsacka and the entire world could be transformed into a small star. Matchtoast had argued about the timing and said it was not the right time yet. They were still outnumbered and some of the ones below were still being trained on how to assimilate. He wanted to wait for a time click or two before they could make the move to assimilate the upper power structure of these human species. Lavatoe had argued that the human leader needed to be assimilated first and as quickly as possible. Blowtorch had shaken his head knowing that Lavatoe was in agreement with his assessment. Incineratore had been on Matchtoasts’ side and had hotly contested the idea of bringing any more through the dimensional gate. First of all when the gate had first been placed on this world it was much hotter down at that point. By waiting for the time clicks that they did they had lost the memory and ability to open it until some humans had done it for them. When they first started to come through it was walking into ice and that killed the first ones until they had gotten through and started moving lower immediately to keep from freezing. The gate was still in the same place and the only thing that kept the sect members alive was the black rocks that would catch fire and keep the cold at bay.

Volcanno had been wondering where Scratchstick and Wonderburn were. They had been sent down to the bay of transportation devices earlier to check on the slaves that were brought through to control the mobile devices. The conversation of this assembly had been interesting of course and quite important as to the timing of their takeover of this world. Just before he had come through the gate he had been part of another discussion of the leaders. The 13 worlds in other dimensions had been able to rebel and only two were transformed into stars but had fallen apart shortly after the transformation. The other 11 had all managed to expel the Burnsacka and close the gates. What had been sent through for control and take over had mysteriously disappeared so they had lost all 13 dominions. This world and dimension had been left and rediscovered and now was their only hope of expansion. Once this world could be controlled and turned to another home like star they could then proceed to conquer the dimension. Volcanno knew that their very existence could depend on this one world and dimension. He kept thumping the human fingers on the arm of the seat he was sitting in and fretting about Scratchstick and Wonderburn. They both were so new and just because they were of royal fire both of them were given this mission even so they both were inexperienced. He had told the high order that this mission was their only hope and sending the two young idiots could cause a mishap. Blowtorch was a tool for the high order and went along with anything they said to further his own agenda. So when he Volcanno had objected, Blowtorch had told him to mind his ovens or he would have him relieved and find another that would obey the direct orders of the high order. So here they all were and something was going on that he could not get a smoke of. The two that went below were unusually late and he hoped that they were just sidetracked as young idiots would be. He decided to go out and see about finding them.

Solarflaren was sent through the gate to warn the group. A very large ball of solid ice was heading straight for the home star. It was expected to be twice the size of the star by the time it reached the horizon event of safety. All the high command brains on the Star could not stop the ice ball. Not even the heat of the star would keep it from destroying their home star. He had been told that it would strike within a few hundred time clicks. And to warn the group that they had to speed the process up and get the world turned to a star so they could all migrate. Of course it would only be enough to keep the species alive and start a new base of columns. That is the way of the Burnsacka; even if the flames were small they could survive and build the inferno to a new and bigger group. When he came through the gate he almost expired from the coolness. Smallfire fortunately was there to take him directly to the fire area that was burning with the black rocks. Once he was somewhat comfortable he asked why they had not created the fires around the gate. They told him that the high fire columns had wanted the gate as uncomfortable as possible because they were not ready to actually receive any more from the star. The black rock surrounded the gate but if they started it to blazing the gate would no longer be stable so they left it as it was. Solarflaren told them that he must speak with the high fire columns immediately and it was very important. They asked him what the issue was but he had his orders and his information was classed only for the high column.

Chephirah and Lionhawk both had watched the tall human with the black hair on his face stand up and head up the aisle towards the back double doors. Lionhawk spoke in the mind to Chephirah and asked her to follow the lone being to see where and what he was doing. She padded around the side aisle and timed the meeting of this being as he went through the doors. She moved through just as the doors where beginning to close. She watched the human walk towards the elevator car. Padding after him she barely climbed in before the door shut and the car began to move downwards. At level three the door opened and the human began to move towards the guard’s door in the corridor. Chephirah followed and stopped as the human knocked on the door. There was no answer so the human walked to the doors that led to the corridor around the large vehicle area and went through. Chephirah had been almost at his heels and went with him. They both crossed the corridor and entered the vehicle bay.

Volcanno left the elevator can and tried the slave’s quarters, there was no answer so he moved toward the transportation device storage area. When he had gotten through the doors into the large area he stopped and looked at the wrecked device against the large doors that led to the outside. Something was definitely wrong. He saw burn marks on the floor by the transportation device and turned to go back when a blue white light that was ice cold hit him and knocked him over. Whatever it was bounced off him and moved away. He immediately dropped the human bag and came up in his full column of flame. He was almost to his peak heat when the blue white light struck again and this time he twirled and the thing and him began to swirl around and around. He was trying to create his sword flame when a very cold feeling entered him just at the ignition lighter spot below his speaker area He screeched and screamed due to the ice that was dampening his flame. His last spark of flame was the vision of the ice ball that they sent the slaves to that disobeyed the high flame masters and seeing his home world just before he froze and exploded across the ice sheet.

Chephirah bounded off the column of fire just before it shrank into itself and disappeared. She had been singed on her belly and the smoke was roiling from her as she moved to the doors. She knew that the elevator door had been left open when she and the human had exited. So she was going back to try and go back up. When she entered the corridor to the elevator the door was closed. She could see a dial and lights above the door and the dial was moving back up towards the place she had started from. Her belly was still smoking when she lay down next to the wall and waited. In the large room above Arie was standing next to Shadowself when he felt the pain of Chephirah. He padded up to the double doors and waited for them to blow open. When they did he squeezed through and headed to the elevator. It was moving back up towards him so he waited.

In the large room Blowtorch had noticed the back doors move more than usual. He looked at Lavatoe, Fireye and Burntround. They all looked at him with a big question and as they did Blowtorch glanced at the back doors and nodded. Incineratore saw the motions and began to prepare himself. The other 7 assimilated humans caught on fairly quick that something was not right so they all begin to prepare themselves for whatever may be happening. Blowtorch kept talking but kept watching the doors with downcast eyes.

Lionhawk and Shadowself were alerted to the fact that the assimilated humans down in front had become aware of something. They both began to prepare themselves for this battle. Both lions had left the room and Lionhawk had heard the mind speak of Chephirah and her encounter with the human that had left the room. Shadowself had heard the same thing and now Arie had left and they could not hear his mind at the moment. Lionhawk spoke to the team and told everyone to wait and see what these beings were going to do before they made a move. He knew they were outnumbered and this could really get hot and sticky. He was keeping his eye on the one that seemed to be the leader sitting behind the desk. The other ones looked to be getting awful nervous for some reason and he knew what that might be.

[LostNFound]

Solarflaren had been given a human bag to assimilate. It seemed that there was a small cage of these creatures being kept in an area that would not destroy them due to complete heat of the fire pit. They were kept just for the convenience of someone having to go up and give news to the high columns. No one could leave this area for more than what it took to get someone from the gate to the pit. Being away for more than a few time clicks would kill them without being in the human bags. His first try at assimilation had caused the human bag to expire. So he had to wait and be given additional instruction. His second try was more successful but he only got a little way with the bag before it collapsed and expired. He could not believe how fragile this species was and wondered why they had not conquered it yet. He knew of course that this species could survive on the world were as they could not at the time without using the species shells. His third try was successful and he tried it out for some time clicks before he ventured up and found the entrance to the steps. He was told to go through the other opening and then wait for a can that came down a shaft. Take that up to a level called 2 they had told him and there you will find the high columns.

Solarflaren had found the can that ran up the shaft and he had to wait for it to reach his position. When it had come a door opened and he climbed in. He pushed a button that had a mark on it of 2 and the can began to move upward. He waited impatiently as the thing moved. When it reached its destination he stood at the door and waited for it to open. It would not open so he hit another button and something opened behind him. He turned and something knocked him back against the wall. The door from where the thing had come from closed and the can began to move down. It stopped almost immediately but the blue white light had a hold on his neck area. He immediately dropped the human bag and came up with a fire sword but it was too late, as the bag fell to the floor and he raise his fire sword an excruciating pain entered his being and he screamed and screeched as his fire de-ignited and he disappeared from this dimension and saw for the last time of his existence his home star in the heavens as his torch had gone out and his black column shattered into a billion pieces.

Arie had waited for the door to open and leaped at the human as soon as it did. He became visible just before the door opened and leaping he caught the being in the neck with his mouth. The Human body fell to the floor but he kept his hold on the column of fire at the neck area and bit down with a powerful crunch. The fire completely went out and the thing disappeared. He lay on the floor as the box moved. He could not tell which way it moved but the door opened and Jim stepped in He bent down and patted Arie on the side of his head and told him that they were going to get Chephirah. The elevator dropped to the 3rd level and when the door opened they both saw Chephirah lying against the corridor wall. She was breathing normal but her belly fur had been burnt and singed. Arie padded to her and bumped and rubbed her. She managed to stand up and they both got back into the elevator, the door closed and Jim pushed the button for the second level.

Inside the large room Mark and Maria could see Lionhawk on one side and Shadowself on the other. They both had their swords drawn and were steeling themselves for the coming battle. Maria knew that they were outnumbered and even with Arie and Chephirah they would still be outnumbered. Her and Mark both looked at each other and had their TMG’s ready. Maria moved close to Mark and spoke into his mind, do you remember that pond we used to go Ice skating on in the winter? Mark shook his head and smiled a big grin. Maria kept looking at the low area where all the assimilated humans where now standing and pretending to talk the same as before. She spoke again and said do you think that area around those beings is about the same size as that pond? Mark studied it for a few minutes and said it is just a little smaller and as I remember that pond was only about 5’ deep at its deepest part. That podium and those seats would be standing in water or ice as you are insinuating if I am right. He turned his face towards her and gazed into her eyes. She was smiling and kissed him as she twisted her space and time dials. He did the same and they both waited as the beings moved towards each other into a close group.

Blowtorch was standing in the middle of the group and gave the order to drop the human bags as he came up with a fire spear and prepared to fling it at the doors. Several things happened at once. The human bodies dropped from the 12 columns of fire, two fire spears flew through the air together and a large body of ice formed around the entire group. The ice enclosed their waist area and they all began to scream and screech. The fire spears hit the double doors and bounced back with streams of fire sparks splashing back to the seats. The seats caught fire and an archaic sprinkler system began deluging the entire rotunda. The species caught in the ice pond were all screaming and trying to burn their way loose from the ice and water and when the sprinklers cut loose all the water dropped on them. The scene was so chaotic and horrific Lionhawk and Shadowself backed up the aisles hugging the walls as fast as they could at that moment. The pond of ice had almost caught both of them within its formation. Once they got far enough in height to escape they both turned and watched the scene.

Lavatoe had been standing next to Blowtorch and had been the second one to throw a fire spear. When the ice formed around them all the excruciating pain caught them all and they could not move. Incineratore had been caught dropping the human bag but it had only barely fallen and was caught by the ice at his waist. He tried to thrash around to remove the burdensome thing but the ice stayed solid around his column and it lost its fire from his waist down. His screams were distracting for all the rest. As the same thing happened to the front line of 7 the cacophony became so high pitched that Lionhawk and Shadowself both had to cover their ears. The back row of seats close to the double doors had caught fire but when the sprinkler system came on they were put out quickly. The ice pond and the sprinklers falling on the columns of fire began to put them out. The noise was deafening and then began to lessen as the beings began to disappear. Jim, Arie and Chephirah came through the double doors just as the last of the Burnsacka disappeared. They all decloaked and stood there in amazement. Maria produced a pair of ice skates and asked if anyone was in the mood for a little skating. They all turned and looked at her in abject astonishment and then they all cracked up laughing. Chephirah had lain down and was breathing heavily. Arie was bumping her and licking her. They all turned and saw her and moved as quickly as they could to her. Shadowself knelt and put her hands on the cats head. Her headband began to spin again and the symbols were blinking faster and faster. A light came from Shadowself’s hands and engulfed Chephirah. Both of them vanished for a few seconds and reappeared. Chephirah was standing up and looked like nothing had happened to her. Arie bumped her and rubbed his head against hers and they turned and walked out of the rotunda room into the corridor. The Ice pond had water on its surface and the human bodies began dissolving and the dust flew up in a swirl and looked like it melted into the ceiling.

They all walked out of the room into the corridor and headed for the elevator. Lionhawk turned when they had reached the elevator door, stretched his hand out and pointed at the metal latches of the double doors. A blue stream of light shot forth and hit both latches. They melted together and the doors were fused together. He turned and spoke. “Shadowself, I, Chephirah and Arie must go down and take care of the beings below and close that gate forever. You three must go up and destroy the main level and make sure it will never be used again. When we are done below we will meet you at the plane”. Jim and Mark understood but both knew that it was going to be a very dangerous task below. They both had thought to themselves to go down once they had cleaned up the main floor. Maria had been thinking the same thing but she kept her thoughts to herself for the moment. Mark said “okay but you must call us by mind talk if you are being overrun, we will open a portal now to the stairwell where you can enter the pathway to the pit of those creatures. You must give us some time to take care of the upper main level before you proceed to that pit of hell. Is that a good agreement?” Lionhawk shook his head and Arie came over and raised himself placing his paws on Mark’s shoulders and bumped his face with his own.

The crew stood in front of the elevator door and opened the portal to the landing in the stairwell at level 4. Lionhawk had drawn his sword as Shadowself had done while Arie and Chephirah both stepped into the landing area. Lionhawk hugged every one and stepped into the landing. Shadowself did the same and winked at Maria. The portal closed and the three left in the corridor stepped into the elevator car closed the door and pushed the button for the main ground level. All three cloaked themselves again from the corridor experience and waited for the elevator to stop. Down below in the landing of the stairwell at level 4 Lionhawk moved to the door that led into the exterior pathway of the coal pits. His and Shadowself’s blades began to glow a little brighter with the blue light. The lion’s eyes were beginning to glow as they all stood at the door. Lionhawk spoke in the mind to all and asked if they were ready. They all acknowledged and he opened the door. The lion’s went through first and then the humans. They stood on a narrow path that rapidly sloped down. The walls were a mixture of limestone and coal. They all had become cloaked and began to move down the path.

The elevator came to a halt and the door began to open. Jim was standing toward the front when Mark grabbed him and pulled him back into the car toward the back. When the door opened a fire spear bounced off the edge of the elevator door and shot sparks into the car. Maria had set her TMG for the planet Neptune which is mostly an Ice planet and as soon as she saw the being standing about 20 feet away she pressed the button and the blue beam connected to the assimilated human. The being had burnt the human arm away so it could make and throw the spear. When the blue beam hit the being it disappeared with a screech. Mark and Jim moved to the door way and jumped to the floor outside and rolled away just as another fire spear hit the side of the car where the exterior controls were located. Maria hit the floor of the elevator and rolled herself out. The fire spears kept coming at a steady rate now and they went into the car and a complete blaze of fire had piled up on the floor and the walls were scorched. The two Burnsacka that were left were standing close to the control room for the mountain side door. Both of them had dropped the human bodies and were nothing more than two solid columns of fire.

They were making spears in one side and had swords on the other and began to move towards the elevator. Maria had rolled to one side and was on her hands and knees scooting away from the elevator area as the two columns were working their way towards the elevator. Mark and Jim both had rolled to the other side and were beginning to stand. Maria spoke in the mind to both and told them to brace themselves on something just as she had set her TMG on a small lake she knew of and transferred a large chunk of water into the elevator car. The water filled the car in a flash and spurted out the door in a giant fire hose gush. The water hit the two columns of fire and knocked them back towards the control room. They both let out blood curdling screams and screeches as their fire began to diminish. The water began to fill the cavern area and Maria, Mark and Jim had to prepare to swim as the water rose around them. The Burnsacka were screaming but their flame was still burning somewhat as the water engulfed them.

[LostNFound]

Maria levitated herself up towards the ceiling and floated towards Mark and Jim. They both saw what she was doing and did the same thing The lake water kept gushing out of the elevator as the three floated about 10 feet above the surface. All three of them set their TMG devices and turned the water into Ice. The screams and screeching almost deafened them at that point and then there was silence and it was very cold. The elevator was a solid block of ice and the entire cavern was a lake of ice. There were two burned holes in the ice and the burn marks scattered out like a starburst at each blackened hole.

Yellowfire had been sitting at his station when the warning signal had sounded at his computer. Blowtorch had pressed the panic button under his desk in the high columns room down below. He had sent Hotstretch out to defend the area while he and Sparkles secured the outside and the transportation device area below. He tried to warn all levels but level four was nothing but static, Level three was not responding to anything either so he tried level two and its computer controls, all he got was the same as level four. The fire pit down below level four was useless the only way to get messages down there was to deliver it manually. He and Sparkles set everything and locked the systems. Looking through the window area into the cavern they saw Hotstretch burn the human bags arm off and throw a spear at the elevator. The door was open but he could not see anything or any body. He saw Hotstretch throw another spear and then he saw a faint blue light and Hotstretch disappeared. He told Sparkles to drop the human bag and join him in the cavern. They both became their organic selves of pure columns and both created fire spears as they went through the door into the cavern. They began throwing the spears at the elevator when all of a sudden high volumes of water gushed out at them. They both were knocked back and struggled to stand up. The water was rushing so fast and so powerful it was difficult to continue standing Yellowfire had tried to connect his flame with Sparkles which would double their power and perhaps turn the water into steam. He was making some headway towards Sparkles when the water turned to Ice. The pain of it all completely overwhelmed him. He began screaming and screeching louder while Sparkles had already been screaming from the water. He noticed Sparkles flame sputtering and the ignition was dying. The last site he saw was his home star as he lay on an ice world and blew completely apart.

The water had stopped flowing from the elevator when it all turned to Ice. The three watched the scene unfold with on edge alertness. When the beings of fire went out and disappeared they relaxed some what. Jim floated over to the area of the room behind the glass windows and looked in. The three computer work stations were almost under the sheet of ice as the water had flooded into that room also and then turned to ice as the cavern did. He set his TMG for the place that Evelyne and Eryne had given all of them and began shooting the blue light beam into that room. The ice and every thing in it disappeared. All three of them did the same in the cavern and all the ice and the concrete floor disappeared and all that was left was the original dirt and rock. The elevator car was left empty with the door standing wide open. Mark fiddled with something and the lights went out inside the car. It seemed that all the power was shut down to that object. The car shifted and dropped down and stopped so the opening was only half of what it was. Maria, Mark and Jim looked at each other and Maria opened the portal to the 4th level stair landing and they all stepped into the landing. Just before stepping into the stair landing Mark had started a process of the ceiling caving in but kept it in check until he stepped back here and gave it the old heave hoe while he would be stepping out and next to the plane. He did not know when that would be but hoped it would be soon.

On the Ice ball that was huge and bigger than the star it was headed for, a patch of more ice showed up with many objects imbedded into it and rested with all the other objects that were piling up on this side of that ball. The closer it got to the star the more speed it gained due to the gravitational pull.

Arie and Chephirah had taken the lead and padded down the path well out in front of Lionhawk and Shadowself They both meant to see what was up ahead and what they were headed into. The path kept twisting and turning on a steady downhill slope. In some places it almost fell straight down and the lions had to jump to the next level to stand and walk downward. The further down they went the bluer their eyes became and the air grew hotter. They both stopped short from pure instinct where the path was gone. Arie peered into the dark hole but could not see a bottom. So far there were lit torches along the walls but this area did not have a torch and further down the path way they could see a torch but it was far enough away that they could not see the other side of the hole. They talked with each other in mind and Arie decided to jump the chasm. He was getting ready to do just that when Lionhawk and Shadowself came around the last bend in the path and stopped. Lionhawk was carrying a torch and stopped Arie just in time. Arie stopped and waited for both of them to approach.

Lionhawk approached the chasm and held the torch over it. The distance to the other side was only about 10 feet. There was a ledge about 5 feet from the top on the far side that looked as it it could hold 1or 2 people and it jutted out over the chasm around 4 or 5 feet. Looking into the chasm no one could see the bottom, all they could feel was a very hot air rising from somewhere below. Lionhawk then asked Arie if he could make the jump and Arie without warning ran the little distance he was from the edge and flew threw the air and landed on the far side. He turned and spoke to Lionhawk and said “yep as you humans would say." Chephirah smiled to herself inside while she backed up and ran to the edge and leapt over to Arie. Arie looked at Lionhawk and Shadowself and said “your turns." Shadowself and Lionhawk both were fairly nimble and had been jumping over creeks and all sorts of things on their property for quite some time now so the leap over this short distance did not seem at all to hard for them. Shadowself was first and walked back about 15 feet and ran like a deer and cleared the edge. In slow motion the jump she performed was a work of art as she sailed to the other side. When she landed it was a thing of beauty. Both lions let her know just how graceful her leap had been. Lionhawk knew how graceful and nimble she could be and was not worried. He knew he could make the jump also but his eye had caught a gleam of something on the ledge and he wanted to retrieve it before they moved on. He actually jumped to the ledge from his standing position, picked up the object and grabbed the top edge and pulled himself up. Shadowself snickered and said “showoff." They all turned and moved down the path.

As they continued down the path the heat started to become unbearable. The two lion’s coats were completely wet at this point. The path became wider and they could hear crackling in the distance that became louder as they closed the distance to the fire pits. They had been walking for about 30 minutes or more when they came to an open cavern. They all stopped and peering into the open area, to the far left of their position was a cage with some humans in it. They all were lying on the floor of the cage and it looked like they were not breathing very well. They did not have much clothing on and it was no wonder as the air was quite hot. Chephirah approached the cage to see how many humans were locked in it. She walked up and a dog raised its head and gazed at her. Its eyes where glazed over and it looked like it was sick. Arie padded up next to her and they both looked at the dog. The dog tried to bark but the only thing that came out was a low whine from a very parched throat. Arie spoke into the poor creatures mind and made contact. He told the dog that they would get him and the others out. The dog tried to wag its tail but it was so wasted from the heat and no water that all it could do was scoot crawl a very short distance. Lionhawk and Shadowself had both walked over and tears were running from Shadowself’s eyes as she began to read the minds of the people.

Martin had been the first to feel something was up when his dog Rocky had moved and whined. He watched him scoot and crawl a little ways towards the side of the cage. He could see his tail trying to wag. He glanced toward the area that Rocky was looking but could see nothing. He reached over and laid his hand on Rockies head and patted him. Rocky turned and licked him but his tongue was so dry it scratched across Martin’s hand. He was so sad for Rocky that he welled up some tears but even those would not come easy in this hell heat. He scooted closer to Rocky and laid his arm over his shoulder area. Rocky looked at him with big sad eyes and lowered his head to the floor all the while looking back toward the Lions and two humans that just walked up.

Martin thought back to when they had been captured or kidnapped and brought to this place. He had been riding his mountain bike on some back trails and Rocky was running and exploring whatever he could find. As he came out of the woods and hit the back road that led to his house, there was a black Humvee with a trailer cage attached to the back. He could not see the trailer completely but he heard someone yelling at him telling him to run. He slammed his brake and spun the bike around and started to peddle away. Rocky was standing his ground and barking like crazy. He stopped and called but two black suited humans snagged Rocky and dragged him towards the trailer. He was not going to let someone take Rocky so he turned the bike and raced back. He ran into the first one and knocked him over and it flipped him from his bike. The other one that still had Rocky by his collar pulled a stick or something from his waist and swung it at him. He ducked and came up swinging. His round house swing caught the human on the side of his head and knocked him side ways. He let go of Rocky and the dog attacked the other one that was starting to get up from the ground. Rocky flew through the air and caught the human on the arm and knocked him back down. Martin started to turn to finish the other one when all of sudden something hit him and shocked him to the ground. His last sight was them doing the same thing to Rocky. He heard Rocky let out a yelp and then everything went dark. When he woke up he was lying on the floor of this cage and it was so hot he could hardly breathe. Rocky was lying on his side hardly breathing and he thought that the dog might be dying. He began to notice other people around him and they were moaning and carrying on like they were in pain. Something came up to the edge of the cage and slid some buckets through a hole in the bars. One of the other humans scooted over and picked up a dipper and began to drink. When everyone saw what was happening they all moved to the buckets and began to drink.

Martin got up on his hands and knees and crawled over to the buckets. Someone held a dipper out and handed it to him. He filled it, stood up and walked wearily over to Rocky and bent down, raised his head and put the dipper up to his mouth. The dog started licking and then lapping the water. He took most of it and then Martin took a small sip and finished the rest, the water was hot but it was water and that is all that mattered at the moment. He walked back to the buckets and filled the dipper once more and took some more sips before handing it to another human next to him. The poor women took it and drank heavily. He reached down and held the dipper so she would not drink to fast. It could be dangerous to do that in so much heat and lack of fluids.

[LostNFound]

It had been 7 weeks since he was brought here and they all were barely surviving with the meager water and scraps of food that were put into the cage at few and far between intervals. They could hear the noise of fire crackling and voices. The voices did not sound like humans and they all huddled together and discussed the connotations of that. Three days ago or as far as they could tell was a very frightening day for all and three of the people had been taken, Two had died of horrible deaths and the third had become something else altogether. They had been sitting around waiting for the water buckets and the scraps of food stuff when from a distance down the cavern two columns of pure fire appeared to be floating towards them. They all moved to the center of the cage and tightened the group as these things moved closer. The heat became unbearable; Rocky tried to bark but could not due to the dryness and heat. One cooled down as it came close to the cage and opened up the door. The thing came in and two people fainted as it approached. The flame turned black and it grabbed the first human. The poor soul began to scream as he was dragged out. They heard his screams as he was taken out of sight. After awhile the screams grew quiet and silence prevailed for a few hours.

Not long after the first encounter the two columns of fire showed up again and the same procedure happened again. The second man screamed and screamed and was dragged away. As before the screams continued and then everything was quiet. After that it was about 4 hours or so when the columns of fire came floating back. As before the one that came into the cage turned blackish and moved to the crowd. Everybody was crying and bunched together. The creature started to grab the closest young kid and he took off running to get away. Martin watched the kid run around to behind the group. The creature reached out with a flash and grabbed the next man. The man tried to squirm loose but the creature slung him around and threw him out the door where the other one was standing. Martin watched in horror at the next thing that happened. The creature outside the door had caught the man and began to melt into him. From Martins view it looked like the thing just became the man. Sure enough within just a few minutes the man was all that was standing there. The other creature walked from the cage closed and locked the door and it and the man walked off towards the end of the cavern where the two creatures had come from. Every body stopped sobbing except a few of the women and sat back down on the floor. Today is when he had seen the man walk up the cavern and continue past where they were and leave the cavern at the upward far end.

Lionhawk had heard the thoughts in the minds of the people and knew that they all had given up and they were expecting to die at anytime in the hands of the fire creatures. He and Shadowself began to speak to them in their minds telling them that they should not give up and that they could go back to their homes. Martin had heard the thoughts in his mind so he stood up shakily and asked in his own mind who was talking to them and where they might be. Rocky whimpered and tried to stand also. Lionhawk had walked to the inner side of the cage away from the open cavern and decloaked himself. He stood just away from the bars and whispered in an audible sound saying “I am here” Martin turned and saw him. The man’s eyes were blazing blue light and he was holding a sword that was also blazing blue light from the blade. As he watched the man a mountain lion became visible standing next to him. The Lion’s eyes were ablaze with the same blue white light. Martin walked the best he could over to the bars and asking in a very quiet voice “who are you”? “My name is Lionhawk and this is Arie, we are here to save you and send these beings back to where they came from.”

Rocky had risen and walked shakily also, over to the bars next to Martin. The Lion came close and looked intently at the dog. They both stood and stared at each other. Lionhawk then said to Martin. Think of where you were when you were taken. Martin began to think of the path and the road where his bike was and saw the man holding something in his hand that looked like a flashlight. The man pushed a button and a blue white beam came out. Martin stood next to his bike that was lying on the side of the road and heard Rocky barking all of a sudden. He turned and looked at the little creek that was running beside the road and saw Rocky splashing around in it. A large fish jumped out of the water and Rocky snagged it in his mouth and came ashore to the bank, ran up and dropped it next to Martin. Martin looked at his bike and it still had the pack on the rear rack. Rocky ran back down to the creek and drank deeply before jumping back in. Martin walked down towards the creek and found an area that was semi level and built a fire. As he got the fire going he then began to clean the fish while Rocky caught another fish and brought it to shore. He lay down and watched Martin clean it also and pull some foil from his pack with some butter he had. He took the fish and wrapped them up with butter and stuck them into some hot coals of the fire. They both ate a real decent meal that afternoon and drank clear cool water to their fill and after resting, they both headed down the road for the cabin where they lived.

In the cavern after Martin and Rocky had been set free, Shadowself and Chephirah both decloaked themselves and began sending the people back to where they had been kidnapped. Once the cage was empty, they sent it to a favorite place in Denver Colorado. Vinnie had gotten the bars dismantled from the last fiasco and still could not figure out where they had come from. He was sitting in his penthouse office when bars showed up in that room and lined the office. He jumped up with a scream and screeching mouthful of vulgar curse words and rushed at the double doors to the office. He had taken his gun out and began shooting the walls and windows again. The secret service men that used to sit in his office had moved out and down the hall for their own safety. They heard the gunshots once again and knew something else had happened. Both of them vacated their desks and dove into a secure room. Vinnie ran at the bars blocking his doors and thought he would kick them aside. When he reached them and kicked out his shoe caught fire from the heat off the bars. The damn things were almost red hot. He kicked his shoe off quickly and watched it burn. He was standing so close to the bars that he began to sweat profusely. His clothes were soaking and he looked as if he had just fallen into a pool of water. He continued to empty his weapon into the walls and blow the windows out while screaming for his security team. He stood there screaming when the fire suppression system cut loose and it began to rain on him. He fell to the floor and began to weep in desperation. All the people outside of his office were snickering but kept moving away and going to their own safety.

After the people had been returned to their lives and the cage had been sent to the emperor. Everyone re-cloaked themselves. In the invisible mode the blue white light was almost blinding. They were standing together and getting ready to move towards the end of the cavern where it apparently entered the fire pit area. Just as Arie started to move a fire column came around the corner and stopped. It screeched when it saw the cage and the people gone. It turned and disappeared around the corner; the team spread out. Lionhawk and Arie moved to one side and closer to the down hill side of the cavern while Shadowself and Chephirah moved to the far side and forward toward the pit area. Arie had padded close to the entrance of the pit area and peered around the edge of the rock cliff and saw the fire pit. It was full of fire with a lava lake. The beings were carving the black rock off the walls and the ceiling area and adding it all to the lake of lava. He watched them leave the lake and jump to the ceiling and the side walls to scrape the black rock and then dive back into the lava lake. He saw roughly about 7 of the columns all toll. The one that had come into the cavern was rushing back to the lake and screeching something to the rest and that made eight. They all stopped what they were doing and rushed to the edge of the lava lake. Arie saw them come ashore from the lake and began to move towards the cavern where the team was.

Arie turned and headed back to where Lionhawk was standing. He warned everyone through his telepathy how many were coming and that they should lure them further away from the Lake of fire, the further the better because their strength flowed from that fire lake. They all moved back at that point and reached the upper end of the cavern. Lionhawk had told them that they would have to let them get to this point of the cavern so the power would be reduced somewhat and then they would attack them. They all agreed and waited as the fire columns came around the edge of the cavern and moved to where the cage had been.

Smallfire had come into the cavern to throw the food scraps to the human bags. When he saw the cage and the bags gone he became very alarmed and moved back to the home ground of the lake to inform his sect. There were only 8 of them down here waiting to have the gate opened so they could help the horde expected to swarm through when the time was ready to take over this world and its species. Up above there were a bunch of the bags to assimilate. The cage down here had just a few to assimilate so they could move up without dying from no heat to keep the life force of fire burning. Assimilating into the bags kept them alive. When this world was completely conquered then they would start the chain reaction to turn it into a livable star. Once that was accomplished then they could begin to conquer the universe in this dimension. Smeltereye and Kelvinhead were the most experienced columns and were in essence the true commanders on this world. The high columns up on the 2nd level were nothing more than slag from the home star. Their kind had brought the home star to its close demise and the sparks in their beings were nothing more than small pilot lights that often blew out. All the other dimensions and worlds that had been conquered were now free from their dominion because of these slag heads.Solarflaren had told him all this when he came through.

When he had discovered the missing cage with the human bags he immediately knew that the human bags may be invading this domain. He quickly informed the others and they assembled to fight off the attacking force. They left the lake and moved into the cooler cavern and did not see anything that might be an invading force. Pilotneck and Melteriron both wanted to go back to the lake. Smeltereye moved to Pilotneck and cuffed him hard enough to knock some flame to the ground. “You are a coward, you will obey my order or you will be put out and sentenced to the Ice planet of wurmster, do you understand?” Pilotneck moved backward and glowed less while cowering as he said “yes sir.” Flickerstick, Lighterfluid and welderburn kept their speakers shut. Smeltereye then directed them all to move toward the higher part of the cavern. They all obeyed and moved that direction. When they had come to the end of the large cavern and stood in front of the narrow pathway to the upper levels they all stopped. Pilotneck and Melteriron both hesitated to enter that narrow path. Pilotneck said “we cannot venture up there without the human bags or we will die”. They both turned to run back to the safety of the lava lake. When they turned and began to run, Smeltereye made a spear of fire and threw it at Pilotneck. It hit him and stuck through protruding from his front column. Pilotneck screamed and fell to the ground. Liquid fire ran from him and like streams of molten steel ran away from his column until he turned black and disappeared. Melteriron stopped short and turned just in time to get another fire spear through his chest area. He screeched and screamed and liquid fire shot from his mouth and eyes. His column began to fade as the fire poured out and onto the ground. His complete flame fizzed and popped and he disappeared. Smeltereye looked at all the others and asked if anyone else was in the way of deserting. All the others did not speak. Smeltereye then turned to move up the path.

Lionhawk and the team watched all that had transpired and knew that now was the time to attack before they got into the narrow path. There were only 6 left and he thought that would be even odds at this point. Arie was the first to strike. He decloaked as he flew through the air and caught the first one in the neck and knocked the thing to the ground. Flickerstick screamed as he hit the ground and shook the blue white light free. He jumped up and ran back toward the lake. Arie flew through the air in a blue white streak and caught the fire column from the rear and they both hit the ground and rolled forward. Arie had gripped the column at the neck area and when they hit the ground he had bit down with a powerful crunch. The being screamed and screeched once again and the fire flickered out as the thing disappeared. Chephirah was next and leaped at the next one in line as Arie was tackling the last in line. Lionhawk and Shadowself both decloaked at the same time and waded into the remaining four.

[LostNFound]

Lighterfluid had watched Flickerstick get knocked down by the blue white light and stood frozen in place as the blue light flew through the air and hit Flickerstick the second time and watched him disappear. He turned and ran towards the lake of safety when another blue white light knocked him down. He hit the dirt and tried to twist away. An ice cold pain ran through his pilot and he screamed just before his last vision was the home star and a very large object moving through the heavens at his home world.

Smeltereye, Kelvinhead, Welderburn and Smallfire all saw the blue white lights attack the members of their sect and watched them disappear. Two humans materialized around them and came at them with blue lights that hurt their beings. Kelvinhead had made a spear while watching the blue light beings take out the members of the sect. He was getting ready to throw it when the humans had materialized. He redirected the spear and released it at one of the humans while making a sword. The spear grazed the taller human on the side of one of its legs. The human stopped and bent down but came back up with amazing speed. Kelvinhead was getting ready to slash with his sword when a blue ice beam took off his top speaking and pilot light. The column dropped to the ground and turned into a black pool and then turned into a solid rock of obsidian. Lionhawk had felt the burn on his right leg but ignored the pain as he swung his sword into the bigger column. The thing swung upward with its sword of flame and blocked his sword. The sparks flew through the air as both danced around. Shadowself had dispatched the column that threw the spear at Lionhawk with a powerful slash to its upper area. A large chunk fell off to the ground as the rest of it fell into a black pool and turned to solid rock. She moved through her swing and turned to block another fire sword from the one behind the one she had just dispatched. She had to dance away as the being brought its other sword at her in a thrust movement. Lionhawk moved to the side and twisted just in time to keep from being chopped by a fire sword. As he twisted he slashed through the other being that was trying to cut him. His powerful slash cut the column in half as he danced away. The column collapsed into two pieces and also turned into a black pool of solid obsidian. Smeltereye had two swords of fire and ran at Lionhawk swinging both in a high ark. Lionhawk saw what was coming and with a quick movement bent down to his knee and thrust his sword up and straight as the creature moved toward him. His sword struck true and went completely through the being as it pushed at him. The being screamed and screeched and stood perfectly still, while Lionhawk’s blade poked through its mid section. Lionhawk watched its facial area and saw the being look directly at him. The eyes formed and were full of fire for a short moment as it acknowledged the superior movement of the warrior in front of it. The fire dissipated and the being dissolved. Lionhawk stayed kneeling and saw Shadowself twist and thrust her sword at the remaining being. The thing tried to slash at her but was stopped by her blade as it melted into its midsection. The beings fire went out and it disappeared.

Arie and Chephirah were both singed but other than that they were both unharmed. Lionhawk felt the burn on his right leg but he knew he could make it to complete the mission. Shadowself was unharmed physically but in her spirit was a wound that would have to be healed but for now she needed to complete this mission with Lionhawk and the two lions. They were all connected in the spirit and it gave her more comfort than anything. Lionhawk did not know which of the tunnels from the fire pit led to the gate location but they did want to bury this lava lake They were all sitting around catching their breath and thinking about the next move when Mark, Jim and Maria came walking out of the narrow passageway. They walked up to the team and sat down with them. Maria produced a bucket of cool water and they all began to drink. She kept it full so all could get their fill. Lionhawk asked what they were doing down here and they all looked at the four with sheepish grins and merely said. “We came to help.” Maria giggled and said “My mother made Shake and Bake and I hepped.” Everyone smiled and laughed except for the two lions who just looked at them with total bewilderment.

Shadowself started to say something but was caught off guard when Hava and Luun suddenly appeared. William was standing next to them and he looked like he had grown taller and older with more maturity. He walked to Lionhawk knelt down and presented the sword blade that Lionhawk had given him “This dear brother was made for this occasion. It was given to you for safe keeping of which you gave it back to me for safe keeping while you battled the beings that came here to enslave and destroy this dimension. This key has passed through the ages of your ancestral family to be given back at this very moment for you to close a gate. This key was made many eons ago when the gate was first placed on this world. The key was the only thing that could close and finally destroy the gate but it had to be used by one such as you. The gate was buried and forgotten by the race of beings that created it. The key was hidden and passed into the future by your ancestors”. William held out the blade and it glowed with blue light just like the two swords that Lionhawk and Shadowself possessed. The major difference was the ruuns on the blade. They glowed with a brilliant golden shine. Lionhawk had not seen these in all the time that he had kept the blade. He looked up at Shadowself and the headband she was wearing had the same ruuns on it and they were lit up in the same manner. She smiled at him and walked over to him and sat next to him. He continued to examine the blade and saw more differences. One edge had fine notches in it and as he looked closer the notches grew in depth until they did look like some sort of key. Shadowself reached into her pouch that she carried and pulled out a vial. She opened it and stuck her fingers in and came out with some salve on them. As she looked at her twin flame she rubbed the salve on the burn of his right leg and it almost immediately began to heal itself.

Arie and Chephirah both stood and walked to the two as they sat looking at each other. Arie began to bump and rub Lionhawk as well as Chephirah did. They bumped and rubbed both and then backed up and Hava and Luun touched both and they were gone. Everybody had a question of what just happened. Hava spoke to them in their hearts and minds and told them that the two Lion spirits had much more to do yet in this world but for now they must be given the dream healing time out of this world. Chephirah is to have children and they will continue to unite the animals with humans. These children will be with the Children of Paradise and that is spreading over the world.

The souls within the dreaming healing centre were extremely excited. For some, it was the first time and an honor to meet the two brave souls and for others that knew Chephirah and Arie, it had been a long time coming. The two lions had stood at the front of the doors waiting patiently like all cats do to be let in; the two paused, lingered and sniffed at the doors in order to adjust their energies.

Hava had opened Lionhawk’s mind to the location of the gate by giving him the knowledge and wisdom to read the ruuns on the blade. The ruuns on Shadowself’s headband had one more that was not on the swords blade and when he read that one he knew exactly where to go and what to do. Once Shadowself had applied the salve to his leg he began to feel the energy returning to his spirit and physical being. He stood abruptly and pulled Shadowself to her feet. He hugged her and kissed her passionately and they were standing in front of a semi large crowd of folk. The lions were standing next to him and his team with some of the other folk he knew. He began to talk about dreams and brought the story of Morpheus and the ship of dreams to this campfire. He was holding Shadowself tightly and said that it was a story that she had placed into another campfire awhile back. When he had finished this story, Arie had begun to talk and told these folk about play and their imaginations. There was a small baby that was placed on Arie and they all jumped through a portal back to their own campfire.

[LostNFound]

86 A CAMPFIRE BETWEEN TWO WORLDS 7

Out of the campfire and into this part of the world that was the place between two worlds momentarily jumped the two large tawny lions Chephirah and Arie (looking more singed than tawny), a hummingbird, the bear family, the two deer Honovi and Starbuck, and Yahto the blue bird. They were closely followed by a battle weary Shadowself and Lionhawk. Out of the fire also brought Mark, Carolyne, Hava and Luun, Maria, Bill, Jim, Christine, Kevin, Kristyl, Samuel and Mary. The animals were all sounding their call for all to come to the fire where they awaited Nick, Connie, Aberdeen, Molly and Jake and their baby Jesse along with Reilly, and Deb. Amanda stood next to Rolin. Soon enough, the others arrived and everyone was soon parked in their respective spots; a hush fell around the campfire.

“We only have a moment in this time-frame to share with you” stated LionHawk “because we are simultaneously in battle with unearthly beings who still roam the earth; however we come here in this moment to share with you something…Shadowself wrote something and placed it into another campfire that we started a very long time ago that I will share with you now. It is just as appropriate today as it was back when she first shared it.”

'Morpheus and the Ship of Dreams'

"Morpheus....the god of dreams.... was not only the god of dreams, he was a seaman. He loved the ocean mist and was at peace there always, traveling the far ends of the earth for yet another view, yet another port. One day he happened upon a port where a woman was waiting for him. Assistance she needed... and that would be his demise in the grand scheme of things. But he fell in love with her. Her name was Iris. They played often in the ship of dreams. For he was the master of dreams called upon often to assist kings in their quest for direction.

His fated end came in the hands of those that sought to destroy his travels, and dreams, and most of all, his love for Iris. Irony played fate as he was buried in the cave where his dreams were born...with poppy fields as far as the eye could see. Keeping him asleep until one fateful day a word was uttered.... that word that would come to the ears of one who would wake him up. One who told him to remove and burn the fields to the ground?

Arise Morpheus; wipe the sleep from your eyes. Remember the ocean mists and cool salt breeze. For it is that memory that will spark the true nature of existence itself and the order of man with nature. Work no more for the dreams of kings... be your master and live your own dream...you earned it."

He fell silent and the rest of the group quietly sat and digested this, for they knew that when Lionhawk spoke, the arrow met its mark, straight and true.

And then Arie spoke. "Sons and daughters of humankind, “those who seek to maintain the control over the masses do not truly realize who and what humankind really are for if they did, they would have realized that ultimately, there is no getting over and past you. What the powers that be do not realize, and cannot realize, through their own lack of imagination and severe lack of natural intelligence is that it is through the very act of suppressing your lives and the desire to wipe you out that they cannot and will not win. You have your very own inoculation against the disease that has plagued you for thousands of years and the answer has been hiding in plain sight. It is something about your brain and the role it plays in your vision.”

“Like yourself, Lions have eyes and yet it is not actually with our eyes that we see; even though it may appear this way; it is actually our brain that sees. And how does our brain see, why through the very act of our imagination! And now you may ask yourself, where do your imaginative thoughts come from?"

He growled softly before continuing...”When we do what we love to do, when we have a passion and a purpose in our lives, the imagination is stimulated greatly because we are in touch with the same part of the universe, the whole universal ganglion that is firing up and unfolding continuously. All potentials and all possibilities would have the opportunity to express themselves in a safe and positive environment at the healing centers. The same place that your imaginative thoughts come from are where we can draw upon the very resources that we need to activate, nourish and strengthen the brain's capacity to think outside the box so that there is the real capacity to bring about the mass changes throughout the world. These changes could all happen simultaneously once enough of you have been through this. This is why, your roles in the healing center’s humankind, will be to assist each individual to find what it is that they are passionate about and what they feel their ultimate purpose is through the art of the imagination and what else feeds the imagination and keeps it firing? Why play, of course dear humans. Each must be encouraged to learn how to play again like little children. It is through play that we can learn anything our hearts desire. Play with each other, play is everything when it comes to expanding our hearts and minds."

He paused for a moment and looked straight at Molly and Jake. Molly was holding Jesse in her arms as he slept peacefully but now Jesse awoke, as if on-queue. He held out his chubby soft little arms to the lion and Molly approached. Arie bumped Molly playfully and to everyone's shock and horror, Jesse reached out and tweaked Aries’ nose. They all heard a telepathic chuckle from Arie (you don't think he was a talking lion now did you dear reader's?) and everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Arie motioned to Molly and Molly placed Jesse upon Aries’ back. With an iron grip, Jesse held onto Aries’ mane. Arie let out a roar and with his powerful hind legs leaped back into the fire taking Jesse with him. The last sound that everyone heard was Jesse squealing with delight and the others followed.
Children of Paradise
Source: https://youtu.be/pjZv4QXr8v8

[LostNFound]

87 BREAKING A MIRROR and A COUNTRY ROAD 8

He turned and kissed Shadowself once again. He knew that he and all the team had entered the dream network. He sheathed his long sword and held the short blade out and it pulled him like a water witch would. The team watched as Lionhawk and Shadowself moved toward the area where the lava lake was located. Halfway there they turned and took a side tunnel that no one had noticed until just now. Hava caught everyone’s attention and told them that Lionhawk and Shadowself would have to go this one alone. It was their destiny to complete. She opened a portal and Mark, Maria and Jim found them selves standing next to the plane.

Hava and Luun materialized with William and told them to take the plane to Charleston and pick up a woman by the name of Nancy; she would be waiting for them at a private landing strip outside the city. Hava gave the directions and they all piled into the plane. Maria asked about Lionhawk and Shadowself. Hava told them that the two would be alright after their mission was complete and that they all would see them again in the near future. The plane climbed into the sky as the sun was rising in the east and headed towards Charleston.

At the lava lake below, Hava, Luun and William stood looking at the fires burning. Hava moved her hand and the lake disappeared leaving nothing more than coal rocks. The ceiling began to fall in small chunks and then larger chunks and the entrance to the cavern caved in and totally blocked the cavern and in the cavern the ceiling was caving in also. The pathway to the stairwell above became solid limestone and the stairwell disappeared into solid black rock and limestone. The entire cavern and city of level four turned to Solid Mountain. The elevator to the upper levels disappeared and became an old mine shaft shortly before it caved in on itself. Hava, Luun and William stepped into the garden just before the mountain began to reclaim its natural self prior to the mining operations of the late 1800’s.

Vinnie was standing at his big windows that overlooked the lake that he had made when he first took over this building as his new capital. He had the bars removed from his office and the bars had been removed from around the capital building and he was still trying to figure out what had been happening to him. The large alligator had been a very frightening thing and he gave strict orders that no one would speak of him peeing himself over that incident. He told them all that if anyone said anything he would find out and that person would be executed on the spot. Everyone knew that this man was insane but they were all afraid to do anything. Vinnie knew this and used it to his full advantage. The chicken guards or secret service agents had all moved out from his office after the last fiasco of him shooting the walls and window. Just when he had everything patched up those rotten bars showed up inside his office. He had put 28 rounds in the walls and blew the windows out once again. The work crew still had not completed the work this time but at least he had windows back. As he was looking at the lake and the trees around it the trees all of sudden caught fire and exploded. The lake turned into a raging lava fire and all the people around it were running and screaming. Vinnie picked up a heavy metal chair and threw it through the window. The glass shattered into a thousand pieces and Vinnie was screaming. He ran out of the doors to the corridor and began to shoot at anything that moved. One of the security agents pushed a desk chair at Vinnie and it hit him square in the legs knocking him over. Vinnie hit the floor and rolled to the side. Hs stood back up and tried to shoot one of the secret service men when the taser tips entered his back. He lost his gun as he shook and jerked around and peed himself and fell to the floor and lost consciousness. The secret service men both looked at each other and began to make up a story. Vinnie was hauled off to a hospital and put into ICU. Meanwhile the lava lake burned and became a new wonder for the capital building.

As Lionhawk turned into the tunnel, the short blade glowed and the ruuns began to blink on and off. Shadowself’s headband was bright with blue dazzling light and the ruuns were rotating around. They both walked for what seemed like hours but in reality only about 20 minutes. As they continued to walk the ruuns got brighter and moved quicker on Shadowself’s headband and the gold got brighter on the sword. The path kept dropping stepper and stepper and the air seemed to get cooler. They came around a turn in the path and in front of them stood the gate. It looked like an old fashioned oblong mirror with the ornate side posts. The mirror part was the scariest part. Looking into it they could see solid fire. It was very bright and they had to shield their eyes. As they continued to gaze there was movement and they could see the columns of fire moving around as if it was a large hallway. The side posts had ruuns running up and down and they were also glowing but with an orange yellow color.

Sunburnt and Redsplotch stood guard at the gate. They were posted to keep any would be frightened columns from escaping the coming destruction of their world. The gate would only be used by the top high columns, the leaders and the immediate family to escape. The Star king would be taking a small sect of the high command and his family sect. All toll, there would be around 200 which was just enough to start the species over on another star even if is was in a different dimension. The large planet of ice was approaching a point of event horizon and it would not be more than a few time clicks before the star was consumed. The Star king had sent a top aid through the gate to tell the others that were already there to prepare and have enough of the indigenous species ready for assimilation Sunburnt was standing at the edge of the gate waiting for Redsplotch to return when he happened to look through the gate and see two tall humans walking toward the other side. He had heard them called that from a few that had come back. The gate had been shut temporarily from this side and as he watched, one of the humans started to stick a gleaming long tool of some sort into the side ports of the gate. He watched with fascination as the symbols on this side began to go dark every time the human pushed the tool into a slot on the other side.

Lionhawk and Shadowself approached the gate and Lionhawk stared at the ruuns on the side posts and the ones on his short blade. The one at the very tip, he noticed, matched one at the top of the left side post. The blade glowed and became a funny shaped key. He reached up and stuck the blade into the ruun and it slid into place. He tried turning it one way but it would not move until he turned in towards the mirror part. It clicked and the ruun grew dark. He pulled the blade out and a new ruun was at the tip. He began matching each ruun and turning the key, always in toward the mirror. Each time the ruun would turn dark the ruuns on the blade would move to the tip as the last one disappeared. He had gotten down both sides about halfway and there were only three ruuns left on each side when a fire sword poked through and tried to thrust into him. Shadowself had been standing just to a side. She swung her blade down with a hacking motion and the fire sword fell to the ground on this side and burned out. She waited for another but it did not come. Lionhawk kept matching and turning off the ruuns. When he had turned all of them off except one the blade was dark and had no more ruuns on it. He looked at it and could not find another. He stuck it back into the scabbard on his side and turned to Shadowself. The mirror/gate was almost dark but the one ruun at the bottom was still glowing. Some liquid fire began to ooze from the corner. Lionhawk noticed that the headband that Shadowself was wearing still had one ruun glowing She saw him looking and realized what it was he saw. She reached up and untied the band. When she brought it around she noticed one of the stones at the end of the tie was glowing and had the same ruun shape. As she gazed at it something grew from the stone and it looked like a key. She took it and stuck it into the slot of the last ruun on the gate. When she turned it the entire gate went dark. Lionhawk grabbed her quickly and pulled her away. As they both moved back they heard the shattering of glass and the entire gate fell into pieces into a pile. They stood staring at the thing and then it caught fire and melted into a slag heap.

Sunburnt had watched the tall human as he began to turn off the gate symbols. Until he had turned off the symbols halfway down did he react. He finally made his sword and tried to thrust it into the human. The gate was transparent and could be passed through so his sword passed toward the human and all of sudden he lost his entire side with the sword. He screamed and backed away from the gate. Redsplotch came running up to him and saw the black patch on his side. He turned just in time to see the gate pop and fizzle out of existence. He turned back and heard the alarms of the palace and the entire star. The large Ice ball had passed the event horizon and was moving very fast now. All the royal columns were running around screeching and gathering their material flames. The slave columns in the outer areas were all screaming and screeching and running around in madness. The large ball began to spit fluid towards their star and the home star was doing the same toward the large ball Redsplotch watched as the streams of liquid fire shot out at the ball that had grown so big that it looked like he could reach out and touch it. The last thing he saw was the ball of ice colliding with his home. In the dimension of the Burnsacka, a star was snuffed out with a giant ball of ice. Both bodies collided and the resulting effect was a super nova. 3 billion light years later the beings living on a planet in a far distant galaxy witnessed a new light in their night sky.

When the gate had disappeared into a slag heap, Lionhawk and Shadowself both heard the rumbling of the mountain. They opened a portal to a country road that led to their home and stepped out onto that road and began to walk and skip down it singing Country road take me home.
Source: https://youtu.be/1vrEljMfXYo
The trees were dancing with their branches stretched skyward with thanks to the Divine Creator.

They both had been through a very hard time and both had remembered their past lives and knew and understood the things that had happened that did not make sense at the time but awakened them both now. Doors had been unlocked in their hearts, mind and Spirits and they rejoiced in the knowledge. While walking and skipping along another voice joined them and they both stopped and turned to see who it might be. William was walking down the road toward them and came right up and bent his knee in front of Shadowself. He held out another headband and this one lifted up from his hand and entered her heart. She felt the healing power of it as it dissolved into her. He stood up and looked at Lionhawk and then said to him. “You have another gift in your pouch do you not?” Lionhawk opened his eyes in remembrance and reached into his pouch and pulled the white gleaming stone out. He held it up in his open hand and presented it to Shadowself. William reached out and stayed Lionhawk’s hand for a minute. “You both will receive this gift together. The stone began to shine with a brilliance of bright blue light and disappeared from Lionhawk’s hand. The next thing that happened was a tear dropped shaped stone shinned from his and Shadowself’s forehead. They both saw Arie and Chephirah and their cubs and Arie spoke clearly too each saying “you are the spirits of these children and they will be the children of paradise. The stones that have become your hearts will bring you to us when you have the thoughts. Now you must go and gather Buster and come to the Dream healing centre. Lionhawk and Shadowself both smiled and Lionhawk undid the buckle to the scabbard that held the short sword and passed it to William. All three turned and skipped down the road towards home.

[LostNFound]

88 A MAN, AND HIS BAT MEET SASQUATCH

Honovi led the large pack of animals across the arid planes and still they followed. A man also walked, ran or trotted beside Honovi. His name was Jonathan and the pink-eyed mouse permanently stationed upon his right shoulder, chattered to him all the while, offering Jonathan nibbling little love-kisses every now and then. Jonathan also had a bat that nestled in the folds of a trouser pocket. "Batty" as Jon so affectionately called him would come out at night and fly around him as they continued to walk under starry skies. Jonathan's mild blue eyes betrayed a love for animals. He affectionately and tenderly chatted to this creature as they made their way through countless lands. He had an affinity and fascination for animals which had been with him for as long as he could remember. He was drawn to the large pack like a moth to a flame. One night, a large lioness, Chephirah had appeared to him. They had played and wrestled in his dream. She had licked and rubbed her face against him and he responded in kind. She told him where to find the animals. She said that they would help establish the new healing centres because their presence was so vital for the healing of his kind. He felt the spirit of Chephirah now as they trudged through the night and he called out her name. It echoed throughout the lands and she heard him and responded with a roar.

Jon had found Batty one mid-summers evening lying in pain on the ground, under a tree. Someone had foolishly taken a slingshot at late dusk and shot her down, mid-air. Her soft leather-like wing had almost been shredded but under Jon's loving care, her wing had fully recovered. Batty had not left his side ever since then and she now called to him in the night air with her bat blips and squeaks. Jon responded to her unique call with his own unique bat squeak and Batty was reassured and comforted. He had developed the senses and keen hearing of a bat and what was mostly inaudible to others was loud and clear to Jon. He could recognise Batty's cries like a mother can sense her own newborn cries.

Batty had a wrinkly pouty muzzle and incredibly alert eyes. Her fur felt as soft as down and he gently stroked her now as she settled back into the warmth and safety of Jon's trouser pocket. Dawn was breaking and it was time for the animals to get some rest. Those who were able stood guard over the other sleeping animals. The nocturnal animals fell into a deep sleep. The little ones were very tired and rested on the larger ones. It was such a tender sight to see and Jon was greatly moved by their protectiveness.

William was highly adept at teleportation and as he leaped from one part of the world to another, a displacement in the atmosphere created only a slight ripple in the air followed by a short sharp burst of sound. Batty was the first to pick up on it and she awoke from her slumber, her wings shuddered in response to the ultrasounds in the air close-by. “What is it girl?” whispered Jon to Batty gently. Batty gave one squeak and William now stood before Jon, sword glinting in the morning sun. “Will-i-am at your service,” Spoke the young boy to Jon. William bowed and Jon responded with a nod of the head. “I’m very glad you are here William, I have heard about you through the dreamland networks and I heard that you are an animal communicator.”

His young eyes shone with love as he looked beyond Jon to the throngs of animals either sleeping or on watchful alert. He could see and feel the greetings from each of the wakeful ones and he could see the dreams of each sleeping animal. Some were having nightmares of being separated from their families, some dreamed of eating, whilst others played and communicated with other animals in their dreams. The rhinoceros, such a social creature, dreamed of meeting other rhino's they had never met before, such was their curiosity for other creatures of their kind. Animals are so acutely aware of others in their midst and some now approached William with great curiosity. The great matriarch of the elephant family Yasar, moved towards Will slowly and surely. She greeted him with trumpeting sound she usually only reserved for other long-lost family members.

With the tip of her trunk, Yasar lovingly touched Will’s small nose. She snorted and William laughed with delight. She curled her trunk around Will’s neck and drew him to her. After some time of holding him this way, she let him go and with that slow shuffling movement of the wise and elderly, she moved over to the shade of a large tree to talk with Will. She told him that the large hairy man named Keltor who lived up in the hills was waiting for them. He would provide all the animals with food and shelter until they were well-rested. Animals are no strangers to balance and the large hairy ones were no different. Will was very familiar with the Sasquatch for they often communicated with him telepathically and he was keen to meet Keltor, for he didn’t know this being.

The sun was beginning to set when they reached the dwellings of Keltor. They were so well hidden that the entrance looked like springy moss. Keltor appeared to rise out of the ground as he came out of his dwelling to meet all of the animals. He led them through tangled vines and thick underbrush into a small clearing that whilst cozy in size, was comfortable enough to hold them all. A collective sigh of relief swept through all the beings as they began their preparations for the night. Some grazed on the long grass, whilst others ate from the leaves of trees, or others foraged for the food that would sustain them for another long day ahead.

Jon and William were amazed by the hidden earth structure Keltor resided in. The springy moss door, once opened, revealed a deep and natural cavern. It was dimly lit by something the two could not explain. Keltor saw with those intelligent penetrating eyes that the two were quite puzzled by the lighting. He began to telepathically convey to William that they had access to Mother Earth’s natural energies. Just as Will had finished translating to Jon, much to the two’s surprise, towering over them, stood four more beautiful fawn-colored Sasquatch. They made a crooning noise between them and Will listened intently.

“You will need to excuse me for a moment Jon,” said Will. Keltor’s Sasquatch family has just reminded me that there is something that I must do." Much to Jon’s surprise, Will vanished. The other Sasquatch also disappeared leaving Keltor and Jon alone. Keltor locked eyes with Jon. The Sasquatch is so very sensitive to all beings and Keltor had already felt the energies of Jon and knew that he was overwhelmed by his presence. Being an expert mimic and knowing that poor Jon was in need of comfort, he thought that the sound of birdsong would be most appropriate for Jon. Keltor indeed sounded very much like birdsong at dusk when he opened his mouth to sing; Jon relaxed deeply, hypnotized by the sounds coming from Keltor's lips. A very wise Sasquatch, Keltor had already begun the process of starting to teach Jon the art of telepathy and a very simple image of the Sasquatch eating and the voice of Keltor saying “time to eat” came into his head. With the slightest touch, Keltor indicated to Jon to join the Sasquatch for food. He held out his hand for Jon. Jon felt like a little child again as he reached out to take Keltor’s soft large hand. He felt so small and innocent among these giant beings and yet so comforted. He allowed himself to be led to a round circle where the family sat.

[LostNFound]

89 BANNER WYOMING

The chopper came up the canyon following State Route 87. Kevin climbed higher and crossed over into the mountains and banked back towards Banner. The underground bunker was located under a small Military base that had a landing strip for small jets and choppers. The base was located 10 miles to the west of Banner at the base of the mountain range. The Grand Teton’s were beautiful this time of the year and stood out with a pink rosy hue at this time of the day. He brought the chopper into a tight circle and landed in a small field with tall evergreen trees semi surrounding it from the base. When they had flown over the landing strip they noticed two small leer jets parked off the runway. Bill and Carolyne both had said that they should investigate those planes for any containers of the worm germs that may be aboard. It they had any such thing, destroying them was the number one priority. The chopper was cloaked and had the stealth gear in full operation so landing behind the tree line was all that much more protection for them. Bill spoke and said “we are going to need a military staff car so we can enter the base as a command recon like we did before.” Kristyl mentioned an area of parked vehicles when they had flown up the State route. She had spotted it south of Banner about 20 miles or so and it looked almost like a junk yard or something until she saw movement of vehicles going in and out She had used the magnifier on her gear to see what was happening and then noticed that the entire area was full of military vehicles. She had wondered about that and why there would be such a concentration of military vehicles in that particular place. She did not see many human personnel so apparently it was just a holding place for the vehicles.

Kevin said “we could take the chopper to that place and get the staff car we need and drive back here. When we are done we can then open the portal back to the chopper and get out that way.” They all hashed out the ideas and decided that would be their best shot to get in and out of this base and its mission. Rising in the air once again Kevin banked the chopper to the south as they moved over to the State Route. The parking area was not that far, when they came in over it the entire lot was fenced in and there was a small guard station at the front gate. It looked like it might be abandoned but as Kevin was looking for a place to land the chopper where it would be out of the way Carolyne saw a guard exit the shack and walk towards a small building about 30 feet or so away from the gate. The building was an old fashioned Quonset hut. Kevin had found a depression in the hills surrounding the lot area and set the chopper down. Once the rotor had been shut down they sat for awhile and had something to eat before they would go and find the right car.

Achachak and Nadie the red foxes had been searching for food most of the day and had wound up in this valley. They new that the human beings were just over the rise with the large roaring boxes that had killed there brothers and sisters so much whenever they would cross the large dark smelly dead strip of land that ran through their homes and feeding areas. They both were trying to dig a bigger hole in the hill side where they had seen the squeaker run when the huge bird flew into the lower area. They both ducked down behind the brush waiting for the creature to leave but it just stood there doing nothing. Nadie’s stomach began to growl and Achachak looked at her and thought the bird would hear. He scooted close to her and tried to comfort her but they both had gone two suns and one moon without eating. As they lay by the bush something opened on the side of the bird and 4 humans were expelled from its belly. The humans were moving so they had thought that these humans had killed the bird and cut their way from the inside of the beast. They watched as the humans moved up the hill side and stopped. Nadie was becoming very restless and thought that the bird might be dead and she would go and eat some of it. She jumped up and ran towards it. Achachak tried to stop her but all he could do was run after her. They both approached the giant bird and it did nothing so Achachak was relieved and thought they would finally get a meal.

Kristyl heard a commotion while they were climbing the hill to scope the parking lot out. She stopped and turned to see the foxes running down towards the chopper. She reached backwards and touched Kevin who turned and began to watch the two little red foxes running at the chopper. Bill and Carolyne had both continued to climb the hill and reaching the top stopped and peered over to see the parking lot which was around 100 yards away from the top of the rise. Bill had pulled his binoculars out and was scoping the guard post and the building when Carolyne touched him and he turned just in time to see the foxes stop suddenly in front of the chopper. One of them walked up and bit at the landing skid. It backed up very quickly shaking its head and they both sat back on their haunches and stared at the chopper. As they watched the scene below, Evelyne appeared and walked over to the little furry creatures and bent down to hand them something. She touched the one that had bit the landing skid and it shook itself. Evelyne had handed them some kind of food and they both began to eat. Evelyne then floated up to them and told them the names of the two and how they were starving. The military men had done something to their habitat to destroy the food supplies around here for miles in all directions. She had told them both where to go from here to find plentiful food. Once she had talked with them she bid them farewell and disappeared. They all watched the foxes run back up the draw and over the top of the far hill.

Bill watched the guard exit the Quonset hut building and walk back to the post at the gate. This time the guard had a dog with him. He turned and told the team about the dog. He looked through the glasses again and down at the back end of the lot. He saw another guard walking a dog along the fence. “This is going to be a bit harder than we thought; they have at least to guards with dogs. I would say that the Quonset hut is their living quarters and most likely those dogs stay with them.” He turned and continued to scope the layout while Kevin was doing the same thing. Kevin caught a glimpse of some tanker trucks on the far side. He could not see them fully but he could see the tank trailers partially. What he could see was one of those old radiation symbols and part of some big red letters WAR was all he could see but he had the idea that is said warning. He mentioned this to the team while he was still looking. They needed to find a way in and out without being noticed by the dogs. Once they found the car they could portal it out. While they had been scoping the park, Kristyl had flown down south of the place and over to the east and up toward the north on the State route. She had gone about 2 miles beyond the place and landed on a wide part of the road that was around a bend and behind a small hill. She planted the image in her mind and flew back the same way she had come. When she got back every body was sitting just below the crest of the hill and discussing how they would approach the parking area. The dog walking the fence with the soldier had seen Bill standing on the hill and barked at him. Bill had ducked down and peeked back over the edge and he could hear the dog continue to bark. The soldier was looking their way and began to raise his own glasses.

“JOCK, Quiet down boy, I can’t see anything over there, must have been those foxes again, they are just looking for food.” Master sergeant Andy Comstock had been stationed here about two months earlier. He was sent out here because he punched a lieutenant in the face for being such a dumb ass. He had been stationed at the base in eastern Washington for 3 years and everything ran fairly smooth until the idiot lieutenant showed up and thought he was Gods gift to the peons to control them. The man treated his men like dirt and was always cursing at them and writing them up for one thing or another when they mostly did not deserve it. Andy had been in charge of a platoon of men and they all did real well considering the state of affairs in the country. When the Emperor had taken over after the nuclear disaster in DC, the country went to hell in a hand basket. He had been a lowly private at the time and just barely 17. He was moved all over the country and even went to three of the skirmishes overseas. That is what they were called after the fiasco of Iraq and Afghanistan. Those wars continued until 2019 when all the men were called back to guard that puke in Denver. After that, the military was still sent around the world but it was just called a skirmish and police action.