Chapter 1

Khurick Atorn was just now leaving his brother Kruzax’s place. He had just opened a portal to travel to his tower when an outside force hit him. His knees began to buckle, and his vision grayed out. He knew he was being shifted elsewhere or else-when.

When his mind cleared, he knew by the lack of moons in the sky he was not on his home planet, Rukac. His home, Rukac, always has at least one moon overhead.

Khurick’s essential core had been depleted to get him here. It takes a few minutes and the muttering of a sub-audible spell before he begins to grow his power level back.

There is the issue of where exactly he is now and what danger he may soon encounter. He no longer senses the portals on his home planet of Rukac, so escape is out of the question. Khurick is stuck here on whatever planet he is upon for now. For how long, he doesn’t know.

His master, Loditte, is also known by many as an unnamed God. Khurick knows him well, by extension. He troubleshoots and fixes problems on other worlds for Loditte. As an older arch-mage, Khurick receives various boons. One is a greatly extended lifespan and additional powers from Loditte.

He knows his God’s name but is sworn never to reveal it.

Khurick is not much of a fighter. He has not been trained to protect himself in a physical sense. There was little need because Khurick is a powerful Arch Wizard. He always wears his wizard’s robe, and everyone at home knows by seeing him that he is a powerful man. He is not to be tampered with. He is a natural wizard and able to handle most things. Everyone at home knows by seeing him he is not to be tampered with.

After standing up, Khurick dusted himself off and performed a basic cleaning spell. That got the dust off of his royal blue robes. He then exchanged his robes for a set of desert-patterned trousers and a shirt.

He put his hat on his head. Since he had no idea what he was up against, he removed the spell on his hat that made it look like a tall wizard’s hat. What he wore now resembled a mesh straw hat with an overlarge beret floating above it. The beret kept him dry and out of the sun. It allowed the hot air to pass between the two hats, keeping his bald old pate cool.

Khurick is bald because he doesn’t care about such things anymore. At 138 years old, he looks 25-ish, but in his head, such trivial worries are irrelevant. He could have hair if he cared. He didn’t want the bother. He actually prefers no hair at all. Most ladies like that.

He had come from a desert area on Rukac to a different desert wherever he was now. This place was not sand dunes but arid grassland with gently rolling hills and rocks, lots and lots of rocks.

Looking around, Khurick sees mostly desolation. He appears to be standing in a large field of dry prairie grass. Off to the West, he sees a small group of something besides grass. A greener area, perhaps a small grove of trees or bushes? At least there, he might find water or something edible.

Khurick reaches into his null space, withdraws a water bottle, and takes a long, cold swig. He screws the lid back on and puts it back in null, and heads towards the lone greenery on the horizon.

His null is through a small portal that is tied to him. In his null are many cabinets and rooms where he has things he needs for his job as a troubleshooter for Loditte. He has many needs when he travels to other less civilized worlds. He has several walk-in size closets. His large kitchen has a giant, fully stocked pantry.

Khurick has slug-throwing weapons, weapons that can disintegrate people or wild animals. He has a multitude of pointy things like knives, swords and archery equipment of every style and era. He has long spears and short ones for every conceivable need.

He does not go into null. He puts his hand in its entryway and calls an item to him. To do this, he must remember each room as if he was standing there. He must remember each item and where in the room it is. To do this, he has to have a perfect memory, which he does.

As Khurick nears the area in question, he palms his wand in case he needs it. He walks around the stunted trees he sees many different mushrooms and other fungi. Some are red, and others have white and brown polka dots. Some are orange. None of them make him comfortable, so he decides to do the smart thing and avoid them altogether. He steps back and walks around that immediate area, and other fungi have white and brown polka dots. He feels less stress from being near them.

There is a stream there and it has fish in it that resemble trout. Well, even if he is the only person alive, he can get and eat at least one local food. Khurick notices that it is getting close to dusk.

He calls his three-man tent out of null and sets it up. He pulls a fishing rod out and uses a hand spade to pry up some rocks and finds plenty of fat white grubs. They look like the perfect bait. He baits the pole and casts it near one of the trout things.

The fish in question takes it, and Khurick sets the hook and reels it in. He uses a knife to clean it. He dusts it with flour, salt, and pepper and puts it in a frying pan. He pulls a folding saw from null and visits some dead trees for firewood. He’s soon cooking his small fish in ghee butter. He sprinkles it with a pepper spice. It’s more than enough fish for him.

Khurick puts a small pan of water on, and when it starts to boil, he adds a handful of rainbow flint corn to the water. He adds a mix of various red peppers and salt to that pan. He sets the fish on the edge for the fire to await the corn. He gets up to walk around and sets his wards surrounding his little camping area.

Khurick sits on a folding camping chair and eats his meal as the bugs begin to come out. He wards his body from the biting critters, of which there are several varieties.

The following morning he enjoys a travel sausage with black tea and gruel. As the sun rises higher, he can see something worth investigating across the broad stream. There may be a trail over there that loosely follows the stream.

Khurick packed everything up and put everything away in null. He followed the stream to a narrower area. He called up a portal to pop across the stream. On the other side, he moves over to scout the trail. It looks to be a narrow cart trail. Looking at the faded hoof prints in the dust, he turns south as that’s where the latest horse and cart had headed.

Soon, another trail joins with the one he was on. Things could be looking up. Khurick wanted to end this boring, hot, and dusty hike.

Khurick hoped there was more traffic and that he would soon come into a town or village at the least. Sadly, that was not to happen.

As he came up over a rise. He realized he had just barely been hearing crying and yelling at a low level. Khurick saw a cabin with small outbuildings. He realized he had arrived at someone’s place.

The sounds he was hearing were not good. Somebody was being viscously raped. Lots of screaming and crying was going on. Khurick started running as soon as he realized what was happening. Nobody was looking, so he ported to a point just outside the open door. As he got there, he noticed two horses ground tied and looking for nonexistent grass. He paused to get some air in him before quietly entering the door.

My God! Two men were sandwich-raping a woman. They were beating her with leather straps and biting and scratching her all over. I used my wand to send a big spark to the guy on top’s balls. He stood up and fell to the ground.

The other guy was fast getting out from under the woman. The man didn’t leave me much choice; as soon as he was away from her, I zapped him through the head with power. He died on the spot and toppled over.

The first guy was still alive but semi-comatose. I had evidently zapped the first guy’s nuts with a pretty good shot. The pain must have been excruciating.

I went to him and took his head in my hands and pulled all his memories into me. He was a real piece of work. His name was Jedidiah. He had spent his entire life raping, thieving and killing people. Truly an evil shit-head worthy of death. I drew his knife and stuck it into his heart.

I dragged the two dead rapists away from the woman. She looked at me aghast. Her clothes were shredded, so she had nothing to cover up with. I think she was in shock and beat up so much that she was pretty helpless and just lay there moaning.

Now that I knew the local language from Jedidiah’s mind, I told her to stay there. I would see about finding some water to clean her up.

I saw a large soup pot and took that outside to the river. She has a fireplace inside but no firewood. I pulled some of my wood from null and sparked a fire in the fireplace. While I waited for the water to boil, I went over to her and put her to sleep. There is no sense in torturing her more than she already has been.

In ten minutes, I had hot water. I pulled a washcloth and a bar of soap from null. I set to washing her. I did not hold back on the scrubbing. She needed a deep cleansing all over to remove the filth and who knows what else.

When that was finished, I pulled out a fresh aloe from null. I pulled a couple of leaves off and used a rolling pin from null to squeeze the juice into a bowl. I used my fingers to daub the woman’s scratches and cuts with aloe.

Not being an experienced medic, I was not sure about her vagina and asshole. I made sure she had a good dose of aloe up inside those places as well.

I put her in a deeper sleep and began the trash removal. Between the two rapists, they had no weapons that I wanted. They only had a few strange glass-filled things in their pockets. They looked to have flecks of gold inside the glass. Slivers of gold held between two thin sheets of glass? Was this even money? I took it, nonetheless.

Talk about your losers. I used their horses to drag the rapists up the trail. I used a spell to soften and loosen up the ground. I dug a shallow grave and threw the two in. Then, I covered them in the dirt.

I took the scraggly, hungry horses back closer to the house. The woman was still asleep, so I removed my robe and headed for the stream to clean myself up. I sat in a shallow area and washed myself well. A cleaning spell is excellent for clothes. It never replaces the good body washing that soap and water does. I had walked many kilometers the the past few days.

Having noticed what the men had been wearing, I decided a change of clothes was needed. I picked what looked to be rough canvas trousers and a pullover shirt from my stash in null. They appeared to have wooden buttons and ties. They were actually well-made clothes, but they purposely were made to look rustic. The men had not been wearing underwear, so I did not.

In washing the woman, I did not see any plain-vanilla let alone frilly underclothes on or near her. Clothing must be legitimately rustic here. I pulled sandals from null. These were close-toed. They have good ventilation and provide some protection from the environment. I had yet to see socks on either of the men or the woman. Then, this area seems highly backward.

I was not going to search around someone else’s house. Even after the rape, she was a handsome woman to gaze at. She is built stocky, around 30ish, maybe. She has overly large tubular-shaped breasts. She has big plumb-colored circles surrounding her dusky areolas with fat, chewy-looking nipples. Perhaps the fat nipples were recently caused by the mauling she took from her rapists. She does have a ripe “take-me” kind of body.

Why bother with searching the house? That’s rather intrusive and not my business. I’m sure if I woke to a man ransacking my house, there would be negative consequences.

She and I both needed sustenance. I cleaned the stew pot and put on water for a meal. I built a fire using the existing kindling to restart the cold stove. I sprinkled oil on the cold wood from my null and sparked it with my wand. I had almost instantaneous fire.

Thinking she needed broth as well as sustenance, I cut up some jerky from null. I added a dollop of lard, a handful of freeze-dried beans, and some red berries for energy. The beans were pre-cooked and would be ready to eat as soon as the rest of the soup was done cooking.

I let it come to a boil and then moved it partially away to simmer. The house soon filled with the smell of the cooking food. I added two handfuls of barley to round it out; this added more carbohydrates for energy.