Chapter 1: Introduction

My name is Deke Comes. I work as an MMA/Combative Instructor and have been for the last 3 years. I grew up with parents that came from backgrounds that gave me knowledge and experience for this.

My father served 16 years in Mossad and primarily was a Krav Maga instructor due to being medically retired from active duty after sustaining injuries in combat. Both his parents also served in Mossad, his mother was intelligence and died when I was 8. His father was killed in action when he as 11.

My mother is the only child of a rare married couple of Shinobi Masters. Yes, both grandmother and grandfather are registered with Interpol after surrendering to prevent jail or worse. They have assisted with stopping extremely dangerous criminals when asked. Mom has been trained by both her parents since she could walk and is probably more dangerous than they are but it is only suspected not proven.

I have trained in Krav Maga with my father as soon as I was old enough. I have never been officially trained by my grandparents or mother in any formal fighting style. But this is where I get my knowledge and experience.

I stand 5’7” weigh 165 pounds and am only 25 pounds heavier than when I graduated High School. I wrestled in high school and was a three-time state champion but was in a car crash that nearly killed me during Christmas break ending my wrestling season my senior year. I was T-boned in an intersection by a drunk speeding away from police.

I didn’t go to college as my current job pays me $45 dollars an hour and I work 6 hours a day 6 days a week. I take home just over $1100 a week, $200 goes into a 401K as both my parents insisted, it was non-negotiable.

My favorite past-time was watching Anime and Manga, Manga were comics and Anime were cartoons usually based on Manga. I would spend most of my free-time surfing the internet on different Manga and Anime sites. My Japanese was good enough to understand most if not all the anime but I preferred the English dubbed versions.

What has this got to do with anything?

Well, I was watching a new anime cartoon online when the largest Solar Flare in the history of our sun burst directly toward earth. I did not know this happened, only what it caused to happen and I did not know that either.

All I knew was my computer screen flashed bright white blinding me momentarily and when my vision cleared, I was on my back in the middle of a grass field. Naked as the day I was born and feeling like I had just run a 50-meter dash in less than 4 seconds, carrying 100 pounds while getting electrocuted.

After about 2-3 minutes I was able to stand and get a sense of my surroundings.

I was standing in a meadow with grass about knee high and looking to be at least a mile or more in all directions. The first thing that kind of told me something weird happened was the fact that I was naked. The second thing was finding myself in the meadow. The third thing was that there was not one sun, but two. Yes, two, one looked like a normal sun but the second was lower on the horizon and a lot smaller.

I thought I must be dreaming but the strange looking creature walking toward me looked like a werewolf except it would be more accurate to say werecat? She was about 30 yards away and slowly walking toward me and I could make out the cat ears, it was obvious she was a girl because I could also make out the breasts and lack of anything visible between her legs. She was just as naked as I was.

When she was less than 10 feet away, she suddenly moved into a combat stance showing her claws and hissing at me as she spoke. She said, ‘What is your business human, are you alone.’

I moved into a defensive stance and after taking a better look at her noticed the strange collar around her neck and matching bands around her wrists and ankles.

I took a chance and said, ‘I am no threat to you. I am lost and not sure where this place is.’

She appeared to relax some by sheathing her claws and standing in a more relaxed way. I also relaxed my stance and asked her name.

‘Laya of the Lynx clan’ she spoke then slowly lowered to the ground sitting knees together, ankles together and to her left putting her at a slight angle to me.

I introduced myself saying, ‘my name is Deke’ and joined her sitting on the ground I chose to sit cross-legged. I noticed now that she was so close, less than 3-4 feet away, that she was covered with a very short fur that gave her the tan-like coloring and slight spots were now barely visible.

However, the pointed cat ears with the tell-tale black spiked tips common on lynx were definitely real. The fur kind of hid her female genitalia from being blatantly in view, yet the fur did nothing to conceal her breasts as the fur just kind of amplified them, and her nipples protruded proudly easily the size of the tip of my pinky finger. She had a tail, less than a foot long but it was still a tail.

Her face kind of had a cat-like look but it still looked more human than cat. I could not see whiskers but I was not going to be rude and stare trying to look for some.

She told me that her camp had been attacked and those not killed were taken as slave. She had escaped more than a day ago and has been running and hiding since. Then asked where my camp or village was.

I repeated that I did not come from this place and was not sure how I got here.

Laya said that there was a human village half a day to my left as she pointed to her right.

I thanked her and asked if there was any way I could help her or repay her kindness.

She said that if I wanted a reward, I could tell someone at the village where I had seen her or keep our meeting a secret.

I said that our secret was only for us to which she smiled for the first time.

Laya showed me some plants that could be eaten and certain ones that would make you very sick or even kill.

Again, I thanked her and asked about water.

Laya said the closest water would be at the village where they had a well otherwise chewing on the plant, she had shown me, was the only way to get any water in this area. The plant reminded me of celery but was purplish-blue.

I asked what she planned to do next.

Laya said that she would just keep running and hiding until she got back to her lands where she might find a clan or camp she could join.

She suggested I say I had been robbed and left for dead and ask for help at the village.

The next morning after we ate and chewed on some celery Laya sent me toward the village.

I noticed that the small sun for lack of any way of knowing a difference if you set a compass to them would rise in the north and set in the south twice a day and the larger sun would rise in the west and set in the east only once and seem the brighter of the two.

So just as the smaller sun was rising again, I made it to the outer edge of the village. Stopping at a small farm and carefully approached the only building. Lucky for me I came across the owner of the farm. He introduced himself as Yamel and was very suspicious of me. It didn’t help but I played the not remembering anything before the attack and robbery. The confused act worked and Yamel gave me a blanket that was more like a towel in size and cord like item, the towel covered my waist and private parts and the cordage made for a perfect belt to hold it in place. I helped him load his cart and also helped pull it to the center of the village for him to conduct his normal sales for the day.

The village elder Gogon was more understanding and said that I was welcome until I remembered where I belonged or until I could be taken to the capital. He added that the healers could help me. I thanked Gogon and asked if there was any way I could earn my keep. This immediately showed to be a good move by his expression. He asked what skills I possessed.

I figured by saying a fighter or protector would play into the being left for dead story.

He called Wenok who was leader of the village’s protectors. Gogon introduced me to Wenok and asked him to look after me and find out if I could help with protection of the village. Wenok gestured to follow him. The first thing he did was take me to what looked like a shop, store, or trading post. He spoke quickly and the woman just nodded and move away swiftly. A short time later she returned carrying a bundle that she brought to me. Wenok just said to take it and follow.

We then went to the protector hut. Think of barracks instead of bunk beds, you had hammocks, three high and every five feet using the posts that held up the ceiling and the posts making the walls. I was assigned the empty three hammocks near the door giving me my choice. I later found nobody wanted them as someone was almost always coming or going. I took the top as it was as far as I could get from traffic.

Wenok then explained the bundle; it contained a jocel, lonkin, shirk, and botas. These were wrapped in what would be my sleeping cover which was an animal hide that had been treated to be very soft and still waterproof. There was also a bar of what I took as soap and a square about 8” X 8” that looked knit I found to be a washcloth for bathing. There was a leather strap that was my belt and a small pouch that was attached to the belt.