Chapter 22

I didn't know the pressure or the flow rate but we were there over twenty minutes before I saw a lot of rapid eye movement. Sonya saw this too and disappeared. The hose slowly deflated.

She came back out and said, "Would you like some more after you have eaten?"

The eye blink came again.

"You better open up now. The food is coming."

I was handed a hind quarter of a large animal. I knew that we rarely ate real animals on the ship so I knew that this was magically produced. I threw one in the mouth and it hardly made a dint in the capacity. The mouth closed and in a second it was gone. I put two in this time and they disappeared just as quickly. It got up to five then back to just four at a time. I had not been keeping count but a great many went down the colcha gullet.

Eventually I got some rapid eye movement but I threw the one I had in my hand and the one Sonya passed me.

Sonya came out fully and said, "Would you like a drink now or to wait a while?"

It took a long time for the blink and Sonya said, "I think I am not asking the right questions. I wish you could send your thoughts to us."

I felt a scratching at my mind and had to think that it was the colcha trying to communicate. After ten minutes the colcha let out a breath and blinked its eyes three times.

I said, "I was not born to magic but my children were. They can communicate much better than we can. Can my child come here? He is much smaller than me and not very strong in magical abilities."

Sonya said, "What are you doing Adam? I don't want my children in danger."

"Keep them at the portal."

Sonya looked at me like an exasperated mother and disappeared. It took a few minutes but Dylan came out. He had one look at the colcha and said, "Wow!"

"Dylan this is my friend the colcha. We are having some problems talking to him. See if you can understand the way he thinks."

The two seemed to be trying while I had stayed still and allowed the colcha to do all the work. This time ten minutes brought a beatific smile to Dylan and the colcha closed its eye and let it remain closed.

Dylan said, "Its just like the mabomas but not quite. You have to push sideways a bit then wiggle around something that is hard to move."

"What does he want?"

"He says thanks first of all. He has two broken legs and wants to see if we can pull them straight so that the magic can work on them. He then needs a lot more healing spells. He was saying that he trusts us now and the magic will work better."

"We can pull but he has to move too. We cannot do this on our own and we need to have a lot more people come here to help. I don't want Mr Colcha to think we are attacking him."

Dylan stayed under his mother's watchful gaze and in a moment said, "You should move the portal to a safer place he says. He then said he will not harm anybody that is not evil to him first. He also says that he knows there will be pain and that he knows that we are going to be helping if we do this."

I said to Sonya, "Either take Dylan in or let him go. We have to move the base."

She looked at me then said, "Dylan, go to your father. I have to get some people ready and some crystals too."

Dylan was very happy now and ran to me and I picked him up out of the mud. The hose disappeared back into the base. Sonya came out in a moment and we folded up everything and moved the base nearly a kilometre away but in the direct view of the colcha.

As soon as it was set up the family started to come out. Some had to be pushed aside so others could come out too. Everybody had two charged crystals in their hands.

Dylan relayed orders and the colcha got on its side. We saw some very large wounds but they were not leaking blood now. With the same method we used to lift heavy stones we pulled one leg and listened carefully to Dylan's thoughts. When the bone was in place we got very close and touched the colcha with our hands and cast a healing spell into the wound. The leg shifted on us but just a bit then the wound began to close.

This was done one more time with the same results. The colcha had to move into some uncomfortable positions and we took care of other broken bones and open wounds. We had to go back many times to get more charged crystals but soon the colcha was able to stand. The wings were now stretched out and they covered a very large area. We healed the membrane and a few of the remaining bones until the colcha could stand tall and by itself.

"Thank you humans," we heard in our minds. "It has been a long time since humans have helped some of my kind."

Sonya said, "I do not think you are ready yet. We have prepared a lot more food for you and the water is ready too. You can then have a nap if your kind sleep. Healing spells work quick but take a few days to complete their work. What I am saying is that you should not try to fly for a few days."

"I will follow your advice. I am very hungry again and I would love to eat."

This time the hinds came through like the buckets at a fireman's brigade. The first one going out was numbered a hundred and sixty seven and climbed from there.

I didn't think our tanks of raw material were that full but it lasted until the colcha was satisfied. The hose this time was turned on all the way and the colcha seemed to be pleased with the flow rate.

When the drink was enough the colcha said, "Thank you once again. It has been a long time since I have really been this full. Usually when this happens we sleep for a while. I think in need even more sleep as I recover from my battle."

Dylan was close to the colcha and said, "Who did you fight?"

"I fought Meffost. My name is Prostana. When a male of my race gets old, a younger member fights for control of the females. I happened to lose but Meffost did not go unscathed."

"Are you going to fight him again?"

"No, young one. He won honourably and I will remain an outcast though I like to see my children once in a while."

"Can you talk to them the way we are doing?"

"This is something new to us. We could feel others and when it was important we knew what was happening but never this clear."

"Why don't you and I go and teach them?"

We all heard Sonya's mental gasp and I said quickly before there were some hurt feelings, "Prostana, we are willing to help but this one's mother worries about her child being hurt."

"Mothers are always like that. My own kind are very similar."

We managed to talk for another hour and found a lot of similarities between our two races. Prostana then walked further away to relieve himself then walked past us to find a comfortable place to sleep. He curled up like a cat but he was much more like a snake with wings to really copy the procedure.

The family started to disperse through the portal and soon it was only Sonya, Dylan, Lauren, Owen and Durra with me. We all looked at the sleeping form.

Dylan said, "I like Prostana. I'm glad he's our friend."

I said, "He is much too big to be an enemy."

We took the children back to the ship. The moddas and mabomas came too. I knew that it was time for a rest. I went back to the portal through the torn up valley. For a moment I watched Prostana myself trying to see how he fit into the scheme of things.

I walked nearly twelve more kilometres further along before I attached the base to a large rock and returned to the ship.

The family seemed to be waiting for me. We had a very large gathering with many rings of people. Sonya pointed to Durra to be first and she went to the left. I guess she was saying that she wanted a break.

Durra was ready to have our child and I was not going to enter her. She lay on her back and wanted me to try. Instead I lay beside her and was as tender as I could be. She turned out to be one of the most responsive of my family. The spells that had been placed on her when she was a male ensured that this would happen. The wives loved her too for the same reason.

Durra was now free to enjoy sex with more than just the master. The wives would suck on her very large clit and Durra would soon be in a world of her own. She was also able to enter the women though most could do better with a finger.

Durra's breasts had got noticeably larger and more sensitive in the last few months and I drove her to an orgasm that never seemed to end for her. I wanted to go further but she could not take it in her present condition. When I stroked her clit the stimulation was just too much and she passed out. When I knew that she was safe I still waited until she came around. With a final kiss I went on to the next of my ladies.

There was a lot of energy to replenish. The base had used quite a bit producing food for Prostana. If we had to do much more we would have to take diesel fuel to make what was needed. We stayed for hours making love but with diminishing returns because most could not take all that stimulation.

Four hours later Durra went into labour and in an hour presented me with a little girl. The labour was lessened with magic but it seemed to have worked on the child. She too had a very large clit. I knew she would be very happy with what she was born with and so would her family.

We all slept together as family should not be segregated as to who was more important. The former crew had large rooms where their ever enlarging families were housed. The wives usually found a good female from among the natives and if the girl liked the wife and the crew member she was asked to stay. The man of the family soon had to boost up his production of sperm to keep up to the women's demands. This produced all the children they wanted and they could add some of the power to the base. It was when we all got together that the atmosphere was so much more charged that we made even more energy per person.

It was a few days later that Sonya and I got ready to resume our quest. With full packs and now fully charged crystals once more we stepped out of the portal then the base. The mabomas came too and were happy to get into the sky once more. Sonya collapsed the base and hid it on her necklace. From the eyes of the mobomas we saw that Prostana was still sleeping so we didn't bother to disturb him.

It was only another kilometre until there was a sharp incline to the ridge. We had to get off and assist the animals to make it to the top. Petta's need was used once more. The girl now was happier than ever before. She had been adopted into all of our family but one in particular was more important to her.

Sonya and I checked each other to see that our real identity was safely hidden under our phony one. The straps on the saddles had to be adjusted. When we were done I rubbed Sonya's shoulder because she had pulled very hard on it.

"Do you really love me, Adam?"

"How can you think differently? You are the most important person in my life. Durra and our newest child does not take any love from you. All the women in my family look at me as their husband and I see them as wives. You are still the first one I think about in the morning and the last one I think about at night."

"Do you think we should have another child?"

"I will not love you more for doing this or less. You have given me three lovely and talented children. You have given me you and that's enough."

I got a kiss and a hug and I could see that Sonya was now much happier.

Over the next three days the terrain was easier to travel than what we had been used to before. The valleys were usually much longer than wide and when our route went along them we had less climbing to do. As usual we had a lot of predators interested in us and the moddas. The mabomas steered us clear and sometimes dined on the ones that wanted to eat us.

The valleys started to turn more to the west so we had to climb the walls going east more often now. We still found isolated groups of humans. Only a few were like the predators and we did what we could while spreading the good word. Usually they were in small isolated groups that were in danger of inbreeding too much. I cast some spells in this situation that did some minor adjustments. I knew that in a few years the children would look a lot different than their parents.

Some of the families got a plough blade if we had the time to make the plough itself. It was made of the tar. It was much better than steel or iron but could not be manufactured by the natives. When the wood rotted or broke it could be replaced but the blade would stay like new all the time.

One family that we gave this too gave us their greatest treasure to this time. It was a small coin about the size of a quarter. The writing on it was very clear because it looked freshly minted but I could not understand any of it. There was a human looking face on one side and a stylised tree on the other. By looking close a lot more detail could be found. We had no idea of even what it was made of.

I thanked the family and asked where they found it. They claimed it came from the next valley. The family unit had moved here six generations ago because of its larger size and fertility. Sonya and I decided to shift to that valley instead of going more east when we left.

Just over the ridge, we looked at the small valley below us. There didn't seem to be any difference between it and most of the others we had seen. The trees had taken over and it didn't even look like a former farm now. Petta's need had not changed but now I held the coin with Sonya and tried to find a new need for us. Surprisingly we found a strong pull and it was actually down into the valley.

We took our time going down the slope and then had to go east to get around a two metre drop. At the bottom we again tried to find the second need and were able to generally triangulate the position. Something was close but we could not narrow it down. I began to use some magic hands and fingers to pick up three tonnes of soil and move it behind us. When the need came we were able to narrow this down much better.

Sonya found a coin similar but not the same to what we had already found. I found some as well. We ended up spending the entire day here. We made some interesting finds. There were twenty three coins in what may be five denominations. There was a beautifully wrought knife that could be used for cutting food or for defence. It was when we found a ring with a power crystal that we began to sift the soil much finer. The crystal was without power but it was the kind of crystal that was difficult to make but carried the most power.

The ring fit Sonya and that night we powered it up and I put it on her finger. It was not gold or any metal we knew of and had to assume that it, like the knife and coins, were magically prepared material.

Our finds were placed well behind us but there was more in front and this was what caused our nebulous readings. I found a box about twelve centimetres on a side. It had clips to secure it to a strap but there was no strap evident. I could feel some residual magic about it but it was mostly gone. What I did feel was wrong or better that it made me queasy as if it was something I would not want. The lid was still closed and there seemed to be little in it now.

Close to where the box was found I discovered more crystals but these appeared to be jewels because they were finely cut and polished. They had no feel of magic about them.

The entire area had to be scraped until we were down to where the finds had been located. There were three areas with artifacts and it seemed that the deepest ones happened to be where soil could run off higher elevations to collect on the bottom. Some of the coins were found a few metres into the rocks on the incline at the end of the valley.

Eventually the only indication of this find was behind us. The need was only there and much more defined now. It was close to the end of the day and we decided to stay here for another night.

The maboma had fed recently and were perched in the rocks or a large tree close to our camp. The moddas could wander within the small valley but they now came when called. That didn't mean that they could be trusted not to panic so a perimeter shield was put up.

Sonya and I used every trick we knew to find out more about what we had found. The materials used intrigued both of us. We compared them with the tar. There were some obvious similarities but not many other than strength. On impulse I took out a penny used in trade and worked the same spell on it that we used to solidify soil. The copper changed but because it was not soil its new characteristics were different.

Sonya said, "I think the ring may be gold and the coins may be silver, gold or a different alloy of copper. If that is the case the knife may be steel, iron or bronze."

"That sounds reasonable. I have a feeling for great age but the depth of overburden could have occurred in just a few years if there was enough water to wash the soil down."

The characters on the coins were studied and compared to other coins but we could see nothing, not even the relative value of each. There were seventeen jewels and here they looked like what we might find on earth in a good jewellery store. After another cursory last look we put them away and went to sleep for the night.

The next morning we had breakfast but I dawdled to look at the box I didn't seem to like. There was some characters on it after it was cleaned a lot more but I could only add them to our collection of data. Similar but repetitious characters were on the hilt of the knife. We assumed that this was just a coincidence.

At each valley now we tried to find both kinds of need but the articles in our packs seemed to cloud any other articles further away. This side of the mountain range seemed to have many more large creatures that the colcha could feed on. Some of those happened to be other predators or we would have even more problems with security.

Weeks later we came upon a new artifact that was hard to miss. One canyon wall had some of the characters from the coins over an ornate opening in the stone. When we climbed to it we found it as perfect as the day it was built even to the small details but now sixty metres inside the walls had collapsed leaving a very large room with a beautiful floor and ceiling. I thought of a Greek temple but that was not as good as what we had here.

This was an important find and Sonya brought out her pendant and contacted the family on the ship. We spent a long time providing coordinates so it could be fixed on our maps. At the same time researchers came to inspect our find and actually touch what we had already found.

All our information had been forwarded about the land, people and the animals we had come across. Petta's need had not changed during all this time and that night we found that it was suddenly behind us.

Sonya's communicated this to those still inspecting the ruins. They left by the portal after learning what they could. The artifacts had inspired a treasure hunt and many other teams were finding other old artifacts. The characters on our coins matched what others had brought in.

The next morning we broke camp early and rode back along our path. Every hour we checked the need and found it shifting slightly. We came to a very high wall of rock and knew that the need was beyond this point. It took the remainder of the day to find a way beyond this massive obstruction. In the failing light we figured that the need was beyond the next small dry valley. To the north and south had much more green areas. It was much easier to travel there but we had been on the wrong side of a major ridge.

Sonya said, "We better prepare now. A mage will know we are close."

I said, "I love you," and began to adjust my mind to the native from southern Saranam. It was like putting on different clothes. Important facts had to be hidden away while a fictitious existence had to come out. I had to peek out from far back as the new me did what I urged him to do. All of my old existence was forgotten from my conscious mind.

I read Sonya with difficulty. She was not the same as I knew before. She said, "Come on Adamas. We have to get these valleys mapped too."