Wizardness

I felt my cart roll to a stop. The gravel crunched beneath the hooves of my mule. It was a dumb brutish animal and didn’t like stopping only moderately less than starting again. It was an animal that liked things to be consistent. I tried to understand why the mule had stopped. We were on a straight section of road. Which in a high desert isn’t hard to have. This plateau was an arid, hot scrub land.
I shook the reins, but the dumb animal didn’t move. It snorted, SNORTED at me.
I muttered to myself in Ellean. The curse words sounded the most guttural in that language. The mule hated the sound of that language. The last owner only spoke Ellean. He had mistreated the mule. Likely giving it the foul temper it had. The mule was giving me a look then jutted its large chin down at the road.
Ok. the mule wasn’t dumb. It was easy to call the animal dumb when it did unexpected things.
I sighed. I shuffled to the side of the cart and looked on the ground. There was a man laying across the road. Where the mule stopped, the only way to get passed would require moving the man.
I jumped down. If i’m honest with himself, and I’m working on that! It was more of a series of steps down. I’m getting older and my knees aren’t very good any more. It’s the wine barrels. They’re heavy and don’t move on their own.
After getting down I walked to the man. He was pale, paler than he would be if he was a local.
I surveyed the area. The road ahead didn’t look recently used. I had seen no traffic in the past two days of travel. This plateau was scarcely traveled. I only took it because it was the fastest route from my vineyard to Mont Temtron, the closest village with relatively fast transportation to Kingsmont west of here.
There were no tracks leading from either direction of the road. It’s almost like the man had just appeared here.
His lips were cracked. Despite my observation that he was pale, he was still rather red faced. The top of his head was actually beginning to bubble from the sunburn there. He was missing most of his hair. The top of his head was entirely bald. The sides of his head was cut fairly short and was a mixture of dark brown and gray.
His clothing was clearly foreign. My own being light colored wraps that covered nearly my entire body, but lose enough to let air pass through. My cart had a number of layers of cover, that allowed air to pass easy through, each layer was cooler than the last.
In the short time I had been on the road, I had already begun to perspire. I looked to the mule. I pulled an apple out of my shirt and let the animal chew on it. This time it only grazed my skin, rather than biting me firmly, like it had when I first started this journey. I think we were starting to come to an understanding.
I looked at the man. I kicked his boot. He didn’t move. I squatted, well, I tried to squat, my knee didn’t really let me squat, so I ended up half kneeling and half squatting to get closer to the man.
Dust was moving from around his mouth, so he wasn’t dead, yet. I touched his skin. It was hot and dry. A bad sign. He was already dehydrated.
I picked him up. He was shockingly heavy. But then bodies always are. I managed to get him over one shoulder, like a farmer carrying a sack of roots. I shuffled myself around to the back of the cart. There, I lowered the gate and managed to shift him into the cart. I pushed him between some of the barrels to the coolest part of the cart. It was a solid 20 degrees cooler there.
Once he was there, I dripped some water into his mouth. Then I wetted a rag and let that slowly drip into his mouth. I made sure he could breath. Then I continued on my way.
Ok, that’s not completely true. I did search him, see, here’s his knife. It’s really unique, isn’t it? He let me keep it when we got to Mont Temtron. I did save his life after all.
I had another day on the road before getting to Mont Temtron, so it was really touch and go if he’d make it there, at all. The mule was excited that I had saved the man. It gave me a look that let me know it was pleased.
As I got back into my seat I glanced at the sun. It was going to be at its zenith soon. I knew I’d need to stop to protect the mule soon, but I wanted to get a little bit farther.
As the mule was continuing down the road. I studied the man more closely. he had a thin beard, like it was only a week or so old. It also looked like he didn’t know how to care for it, even at his age. I could already see the beard was getting damaged. I felt bad for the man, not taking care of his beard. Not covering his head. It drove me to shake my head.
I looked at his clothing. They were of a style I’ve never seen before. They looked to be from a very far off nation. No one in Kingsmont would dare wear such a thing. He wore blue trousers of some kind with a simple belt. His shirt was a light green with a row of buttons going down the center like this. He had a jacket of some sort, but it looked more decorative than functional. It only had two buttons and left most of his chest exposed.
I noticed there was a cloth in the left breast pocket, I turned it into a bandanna to cover his head.
As I was administrating to his head, he suddenly cried out. Now, I know I had been very careful. He was not crying out about me.
He cried in a language I’d never heard before. He looked at me and cried in fright. I held out his cloth square bandanna. He gave me a look, one of pure malice and untied the knot and folded it back up. The entire time he was yelling at me. Almost like he was demanding something from me.
When he went into a coughing fit, which I knew he would, being that dehydrated and all, I gave him a small bit of water. He drank that greedily and tried to grab for more. I sighed and pulled it away.
I could tell I couldn’t trust him alone, even with my trusty mule leading us down the road. I quickly scanned the immediate surroundings and noticed a small clump of shrubs with one tree. There might be some water there.
I leaned over and told the mule to go there. It nodded and directed the cart over that direction. It knew rest and water was coming.
The man was still yammering at me. His language wasn’t nearly as gutteral as Ellean, but it was a fairly harsh sounding language. It sounded like none I’d heard before, so I cast a simple translation spell. You know the one, it takes what you’ve heard and lets you understand things and lets you speak back. Yep. He nearly jumped out of his clothes when I responded back in his language. I’m sure it wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough.
I told him to calm down and if he drinks any more water he’d retch and be in an even worse state.
The Mule had gotten us to the little clump. I could see its smile. I told the man to wait in my seat. I told the mule to ignore the man so it could get food and water. It nodded.
The man did his best to get the mule walking again, but as I said before. Its a stubborn mule. I got the mule settled. I extended my covering. I created some water for the mule to drink in a rock trough. I could see how happy that made the mule. I’m glad, because I’d hate for that mule to try to kill me.
The man was spitting mad. He was crying about not being able to feel a Jesus or something like that. Jesus is apparently his god, or the son of his god, but also the same god. It’s a bit like when one of us become an avatar for our gods.
I guess this man was a priest or something. He kept asking me what year it was, but never liked my answer of 2321. He claimed it was only 1995. I laughed at him. I told him he couldn’t be from 1995, because the gods were warring on this plateau then. I pointed to the broken summit of Mont Fury, I tried to explain that Cassias, the god of Greed, had been shattered on that mountain top by Zewn, god of gift. You can still see Cassias’s ribs if you’re closer to Mont Fury. The god died there. Sadly, greed didn’t die with Cassias.
He fell into a black silence then. It was nice. I was able to reflect on what he had been saying. Something about the United States, whatever that is, and that he needed to get back, they were in the middle of an election.
I gave him some more water slowly. He eventually slept. I made sure the mule was comfortable. We’d start out again when Mob flew from the sky.
I dozed for a while. The man had no weapons and was no threat to me. I woke to the sound of him retching. He was vomiting water. I simply rolled over and got some more rest.
A short while later he shook me awake.
“I can’t feel him,” He said over and over again.
“Your god?” I asked
“Right, I can’t feel him,” He sounded desperate.
“Are you sure you’re on your world. Maybe your god isn’t on this world. Maybe you’re alone,” I replied, annoyed.
“What country is this?”
“This is the landless land. No one dares claim this. Who would be so foolish to claim the battle ground of the gods. Their wrath would be unimaginable. We dare not call it anything but the plateau.”
He squinted at me then. “I’ve never seen anyone that looks like you.”
“Me? I’m not so uncommon. This blue skin is common in this part of the world.” I gestured towards the sky, “Mob is very harsh here, Mob is smaller in Kingsmont. The blue gives me strength when Mob is large. My black eyes allow me to see in brightest of days up here. My beard helps filter out the dust storms.” I pointed at him, “You are very uncommon here. I’ve seen people that look like you before, well, sort of like you, you’re pinker than they ever were.” I laughed then. He didn’t like that.
“I’m American!”
“Hi american. I am called “Rufly. I hope you will survive the trip to Mont Temtron. Get some rest. Sip some water. I need rest.”
After giving him a small sip of water, I rested again.
While I slept he had taken this large black block. He had pulled a large stick out from the back of the block. He was frantically pushing at button things on the block. Then he would cry in frustration.
“Why isn’t anyone answering?” He cried in anguish
I glanced more closely at the block,“Does that allow you speak with people not here?”
“Yes, it’s a Satellite phone. It uses things in space to call people in other parts of the world.”
“Hmm. I don’t understand any of that. Maybe call your Jesus. Maybe he can help you,” I said helpfully.
He scoffed at me then, “Jesus only speaks to you when you pray.”
I scoffed back, then. “My gods answer when I speak to them in a fire. Come look.”
I summoned Dyredir then. She wasn’t thrilled to talk with me, but she is the goddess of knowledge and knows all. “Dyredir, this man claims he’s from nearly 400 years ago, can you help us?”
She gave him one look and laughed at him, “You are from another world. You are not from the past. Did you only summon me to ask this obvious question?”
I shook my head an prepared to ask another question.
He interrupted. I am still stunned that he survived his impudence. He asked, “Can you help me get home?”
Instead of smiting him, she gave him a sad look. It was heart rending to see her reaction. I’d never seen a god filled with such grief. She looked a touch helpless too. “No, I cannot. None of us can. That is useless here. You will need to find a way to live here.”
She was gone then. You all are here to honor her. That goat is for her. A god should never be helpless, hopeless, and grief-stricken.
Instead of wailing the man stared into the fire. He had an odd look of determination on his face.
He put the block down and went to sleep. It was then I realized, that he had a warriors build. It was hard to see before with the strange jacket and clothes and being passed out and all. Now I saw it. His jaw was set. His shoulder were large and square. The shirt was tight across his chest and arms.
In the waning of the daylight we awoke. He asked me if other lands had other gods. I told him yes. He nodded and asked if I would help him get to another land. I said I would. He nodded and didn’t say another word for several hours.
As we got closer to Mont Temtron, he asked he for different clothing and a weapon. I told him I had no weapons, just my magic. I offered to heal him. He accepted that and my extra clothing.
The mule gave me a look. I sighed. I reached behind me an pulled out my well worn sword. I cast a spell and duplicated it. I gave the duplicate to the man, American.
He drew the sword and tested it. He must have been satisfied as he nodded and then rested again.
When we got to Mont Temtron, the man hugged me and thanked me for helping him get through his moment of crisis. That if he can, he will repay me for everything I’d done for him. I gave him back everything else I had taken from him. He let me keep this knife. I gave him some money and explained how to get to Kingsmont. I also gave him a necklace to learn languages faster.
Now, I’m back home. I have no idea how he’s fairing.
Dyredir, I just hope I’ve pleased you with this story, goat, and company. I cry. I stare in shock as Dyredir comes full body out of the flame and consumes the goat. She turns and consumes my father in-law. I can’t act. What can you do against a god?
Dyredir turns and faces me, “You. You are the reason there’s a war in heaven. That man. He’s trying to bring a new god into our pantheon. It’s an angry god. One that’s unwilling to share power. You must right this wrong.”