Chapter 3

I was definitely going back in, but this time with friends.
Linda heard that more than one person could enter and word of mouth did the rest, there were 5 new people, (we didn’t know at the time that there was a 6-person limit). We were learning as we went.
None of these guys (and girls) had been in before, they were all my age or a bit older, but looking at me to lead. To be honest, I was scared.
There were some prayers and ceremonies, all on camera. Word was that the videos had over 5 million views already, calls were coming in to the band to try to get interviews. We were becoming both celebrities and the go-to source for real information. It was heady stuff.
Cameras on, (and carefully oriented to not give away the location) the six of us linked hands and I walked into the portal at our rental unit.

I arrived alone, nobody home, nobody here. I turned around and the grey curtain was gone. With a mental sigh, I asked for information.
“What’s my Status” I asked, out loud.
The screen popped up beside me to the left, stats the same, except for a note at the bottom “Level Clear”
I thought about it for a minute, tightened my belt, pulled my Spud (I hadn’t replaced it yet) and walked down the steps to the grey portal at the bottom. Reappearing in the same place, I could see that it was just as I left it yesterday morning ... god, was it that recent?
I wandered the forests and clearing, finding my previous battle sites. I even found another blue stone, and one yellow one and the same dry creek bed as before. I Stored these along with some more wood branches and stones. Feeling kinda heavy, I marched to the caves and the exit. One was still blocked off; the other was a grey Portal.
I walked through it to the “Start” room, checked my stuff, then exited into arguments and yelling in a crowd that basically filled the garage. Everyone paused when I reappeared.
“Why didn’t you take us?!”
“Where were you!”
“Did you kill them all, are there any left?”
The Chief was silent through all this, so I this copy him. Hands folded on my chest, I stood there silent until the last hothead finally ran out of air.

“Chief,” I asked “Can we please go to a pink portal on your lands? This one is cleared.”
The Chief smiled at me, I think it was because I followed his lead, and didn’t try to shout anyone down.
It may have been because I deferred to him though...
Nodding, he said “Let us go.”

We all piled into cars, a small argument broke out as who would ride with me, but I dodged that by saying I wanted to travel with my child and her mother. Ellen was quiet for the first few minutes into the trip, but it wasn’t really her nature. “So you know what happened?” She whispered.
“Damned it I know for sure...” I actually had a pretty good idea, but for some reason I thought that keeping it to myself was a good idea.
We arrived after some gravel roads, at what looked like a truck stop. Behind the old pumps at the back of the place, two older Sea Cans sat, shoulder to shoulder just off center of the parking lot. Suspicious if you were that kind of thinker.
The cameras were out, the ceremonies were completed, and the six of us linked hands as I led us into the pink portal buried inside the left Container.

There were a couple of startled breaths behind me as we all popped into what I was now thinking as the “Green Room” (a kinda play on words, I thought it’d be cute since it’s actually grey stone) in front of us were 5 weapons. A short-ish spear at about 5 feet, a simple bow, two staffs (one black, one brown) and an absolutely beautiful stone headed war hammer. The two ladies picked up their staffs, rubbing the wood-like surface. Chuck picked up the spear and carefully wiped his hand along the 6 inch long, 4-inch-wide blade.
A fellow with very short hair and a scraggly goatee grunted as he picked up the bow, a few arrows were in a quiver on his shoulder. I’m not certain how they came to be there.
Lastly, a very thin, pimply boy who looked like he was of mixed ancestry, part Black African, part Native North American just stared at the stone War Hammer.
“I thought I had another nightmare” he said quietly. I watched silently, desperately trying to think of something to say. Finally I asked the ladies to tell me what they knew about their staffs.
The older of the two spoke first “Fire, I’m a fire mage. This staff can throw fire, it’ll hurt friends and foes alike.
The younger of the two stared quietly ... finally saying “Medicine Woman..., I’m a ... Healer?”
“I don’t have anything to attack with ... do you think we could trade? ... I don’t know anything about healing, or health or the spirits or anything!”

She was shouting at the end of this outburst

Chuck stepped up to the now crying girl, as she was obviously more girl than woman and held her. The rest of them surrounded her and placed their hands upon her, even the young pimply boy with the War Hammer. It was probably the most touching scene I have ever seen. They stood silently as she sobbed for a minute or two, never moving, never speaking, never letting their hands off of her.
“Medicine Woman,” the older man with the bow spoke once the girl had calmed some. “Bless us and protect our spirits and our bodies, as we the warriors prepare to defend our lands with all our strength of arm and heart and mind.”

With a cracking voice and tears running down her face, the young girl spoke the proper words of an elder of her tribe.
“May the Spirits of our people watch over those who protect our people and our lands” touching faces of her four warriors.
I’ll admit it, I cried to see this girl who (I later discovered) was an addict and prostitute days ago, stand tall and take a leadership role, if only for a moment, in this most unusual place.

I still think about that moment from time to time.

Going around the room, I pointed to everyone in turn, “So, we have a Fire Mage, a Medicine Woman, an Archer, a Spearman, a Mauler and me; Weaponless”

“Weaponless is a terrible name,” said Archer.

“It’s not a name, it’s ... my profession?” There was a look of skepticism around the room. “Look, I didn’t pick it, ok? Speaking of names, I don’t know any of yours.”

“Chief said we shouldn’t use our real names, at least not anywhere there might be cameras watching. He suggested we come up with our own names once we claimed our weapons, like our people did when we came of age.” Archer posed with a dry pull of the bow, “You can call me ‘Arrow that splits the sky’.”

I gave a snort “And you said I had a terrible name.” This got a couple of chuckles from the others.

The older man slowly released the tension on the string before turning and tapping me on the chest with the tip of the bow, “Oh, you can think of something better, can you?”

I wasn’t expecting to be put on the spot. All he could think of were the silly superhero names from the comic he’d read growing up, like ‘Blue Arrow’ or ‘Eagle Eye’. Looking down to the bow and back up again he said, “Bent Stick?”

This caused the others to break into full laughter. The archer looked like he might hit me for a moment before clapping my shoulder instead and joining in with the others. “Yeah, ok. still terrible, but I can live with that.”

And that’s how it went, we bonded first with tears and then with laughter. A couple of silly superhero name later (that didn’t manage to totally avoid sexual references) and we were a group. They called me ‘Guide Dog’ or just ‘Guide’ for short since I was the one that brought them all in with me. (I was just as glad that they didn’t choose “Dog”)

“Are we ready?” I asked, getting nods all around. “Good, grab your bags, be prepared to fight immediately, Short Spear and I will take point, Bent Stick and Swift Fire, you are mid. Shaman you are at the back with War Hammer at rearguard. This is initial formation; it will change as needed. Bags up! Off we go”

We walked down the steps and through the grey portal at the bottom and emerged in a grassland savanna, it was cool, clear and sunny. The ground was firm, and in the distance, I saw a few large trees around a small hill. All around was nearly waist high grass.

“Ok, stand firm. This is nothing like my first visit. We need to assume that the monsters here are different also. I don’t like what I don’t know, so I want us to get to know our weapons. Short spear, bag down, step away from the group and go through some warmups.” He did so, and mowed down a large area of grass with his wickedly sharp spear. I thought his fast two-step lunges would kill anything I could imagine.
“Bent Stick, can you use that thing?” I asked. He smiled, “I’ve used one like it for about a dozen years now. I could hit a moving man at 20 yards, 19 times out of 20”
Swift Fire, throw fire into that area that Short Spear just cleared. We all stood back and watched her move her staff in an arc, seemingly throwing a flaming ball off the end of it, missing her target completely and setting fire to the grass where it landed.
“War Hammer, with me, we need to put that out” I shouted. “Everyone else on lookout”
We stomped for about 5 min and got the majority of the fire out, just a few embers left

“Ok. No fire in the grass, Shaman, see what you can do about this,” I said, pointing to a mild burn on War Hammers leg.
She hummed, and placed a hand on the red, (now hairless) part of his calf. After removing her hand, the skin looked much better. “How does that feel?” she asked her patient.

“Odd, my body knows it was injured, but nothing feels wrong...”
We were interrupted by a twang of a bow, and a shout “Something in the grass!”
I was pissed at myself, watching the “healing show” while we were “in enemy territory” so to speak.
Another Twang of the bow, and a squeal this time. Bent Stick was standing on a pile of our bags, his initiative to take lookout likely saved us all some injuries.
“Is the one you hit down!?” I shouted.
“Yes! The dimpled grass, 11:00!” He replied turning his head left and right “Now shut up, all of you. Best thing is to hear them moving in the grass, they move at running speed and they are less than 3 feet tall.”
We silently waited, naturally moving into a circle around our archer, perched on the small hill of bags.
Nothing happened for a few minutes. I finally whispered “Short Spear, with me” and the two of us moved off to where the downed monster was. It was about 15 yards from us, lying on its side. I motioned to Spear, and he lunged in and stabbed it in the neck. Blood came out, but nothing was flowing fast. It was already killed. I reached out and stored it in inventory, moving quickly back to the protected area. Once there I dumped it out. Overall, it looked like a goat (later we would name these Fauns) has sharp horns that were about 6-8 inches long, and a mouth like a raccoon, or maybe more like a possum. Black eyes, not like a goat at all. Bent Stick had shot it through one eye and out the other. “Are you that good!?” I asked, surprised.
Stick hopped down, “Nope, I got lucky with that one” he said, pulling his arrow back out carefully. I noticed it was all black, but one blue feather.
“How many arrows do you have left?” I snapped out.
“11, this one’s good to go again”.
“Ok team, we’ll have at least a dozen of these beasts before us, and probably one bigger one at the end of these places follow a pattern. They weigh about 40 lbs, can move at running speed, have sharp horns and small sharp teeth. They appear to sort-of hunt together, so we need to do the same. We are going to move to the water over there away from those trees. Hammer and I are going to move two bags. Spear, you are then going to advance to the new spot, hammer and I return and get two more bags. At this point, Stick you run to your new vantage point. And Hammer and I escort Fire and Woman to the new spot while carrying the last bags. Any questions”
“Yea, why are we doing all the carrying?” Asked War Hammer.
“Cause you and I have the only one-handed weapons ... any other questions?”
Silence
“Good let’s begin”
It took about an hour to move about two kilometres. Hammer and I were totally exhausted by that time. At the second-to-last move, three of the Fauns charged our Healer Woman and Swift Fire. Our fire mage slammed her staff down on the neck of one who was charging Healer Woman, claiming her first kill, and a second downed Faun. She didn’t escape unharmed though, an off-balance kick to the other one charging at her resulted in a fairly bruised shin and scraped calf, but no blood as her shin pad deflected a horn to the side. We took a break at the water, not drinking it, but using it as a safe backstop.
“Anyone got any ideas how to effectively fight these Goats?” I asked. “They aren’t armored, but they are fast. Any one of us should be able to take one on, but if we get surrounded without help, we’d be in trouble”
Swift Fire piped up “The wind is at our back, we can step into the water, and I can burn this place to the ground. They can run away or die in the flames” she said, with heat.

I got the idea she really, really wanted to do just that.

“I’m concerned what would happen if the wind turned, we would have smoke in our eyes, and still have to defend ourselves.” “Let’s think of something else”

“Have Spear mow down the entire 100 acres with his spear” Bent Stick offered, a smile at the thought of Spear doing all that work.

“Combination deal,” said our fire mage again. “Cut or stomp a fire break in the grass, and I burn it out in sections.”

No other suggestions were in the works “Ok let’s go with that. Spear, cut a small loop, let’s go forward 20 paces, then loop back. Hammer, you watch his back, Stick stays on his perch here as oversight. Fire, guard Shaman. Let’s go”

It took a few min to cut the small line. The two of them also stomped the line flat for what was left. The Fauns didn’t approach or seem to react, and Swift Fire didn’t need to be told to light it, indeed, she was positively eager...

The test burn went well, but it was slower than we thought it would be. At this rate it’d take days to burn out this meadow and remain in control. We stopped and regrouped.

“That method might work, but we’ll be at it for days...” stated Swift Fire. You say that the head beast will be at those trees, why don’t we just force our way there, go at ‘em?”

“Shaman, can you heal from a distance?” I asked.
“Let’s find out!” She gamely stated.
Making a gesture with her staff that was unlike the one that Fire made, Woman managed to put a mild Heal to Hammer. So far so good.

“Look”, I said, “Any one of us can kill one of these things, maybe we Should take the fight to them, avoid letting them snipe at us, go at them hard. We are outnumbered 2 to 1, but we are much larger, and stronger and we can be healed when injured.”

There were no objections, but some clarification was needed. Armour was adjusted, all the bags but one large, flat one were piled near the water. We took a drink, peed (became known as the “pre-game water break” after a while), took some minimal supplies with us and set off for the trees at a quick pace.
Hammer and Spear were leading, Fire and I (with the bag) were next, followed by Stick who was guarded by, and guarding Shaman. Stick shot at something moving parallel to us at one point, but nothing really happened until we were about 20 yards from the first tree.
“Contact!” Shouted Spear (where he got that term from, I have no idea) He poked about and actually lifted an impaled Faun up out of the grass. Hammer rushed up to him and started long sweeping strokes in the grass just in front of him. Spear brought his weapon (and the dead Faun) back down to join in the melee in front of him. Shaking it off in the process.

By this time Fire and I caught up to them. My free arm swung the heavy head of my Spud like a short club at one Faun looking to come at Spear from the outside. Two meaty “thunks” later and it was down for good. I took another 10 or 12 paces past them and dropped the bag, kicking it quickly to make sure it was flat. Stick jumped up on it right away, facing toward the three other fighters, with Shaman at his back.
4 arrows brought down another 3 Fauns, it looked like spear had another one, and both Hammer and Fire had one each. I think that was nine total ... maybe 3 more plus the Big one.

Turns out there were 6 more smaller ones, and one very large one. They approached at speed, and 3 veered off to one side to try to flank us.
Thank the gods for Stick, he shot off his remaining 4 arrows, killed 2 of the flanking Fauns, and put another into the side of the Big Boy, making him scream in anger.
Fire went against instructions and threw a fireball while the Boss was turning and hit him hard in the neck. Hammer stepped up and dropped him with a single blow to the back of the head, narrowly missing being gored by the Boss’ 10-inch-long horns in the process.