Chapter 21

When the city was built, we found it had spread to cover a lot of ground. Everybody could live in a park like setting and tend a garden out the back but this didn't work for the present residents of this world. There were no office jobs to go to and no manufacturing jobs either. The entire city we found was just a bedroom community with nothing to keep it alive. For the city to live, we needed employment and transportation which had not been adequately addressed.

After working so hard to build the city, we put a strong screen over it so it would not be defaced and sadly left on our beautiful road system.

On the way back we found that our wood had been pilfered but didn't go after any of it. Some went into wagons while some of the smaller pieces were left. We did a lot of thinking again as to the direction to go and even more about law for the people and law for us.

Sonya finally saw the statue but I now knew that many others knew of it already. She just stopped and stared at it for a long time then said quietly to me, "Is that the way you see me? With all those children?"

"Not exactly but you are a very good portion of what holds our family together." She kissed me lightly but now kept her mind closed off to think.

When we got to the dock we unloaded the wood then built a chapter house and base then linked it to the ship's base again. This time only the chapter house and a small area were protected by a strong spell to keep out intruders.

We were not in a hurry to tackle building Redac so we replaced the locks we made with our new road material. We travelled back up the other tributary and changed the first set of locks we made and now removed the plug we had put there. On the island and at the dock on the plain we built chapter houses because of the prime locations.

I thought it important to tie all our locations together. Sonya and I were transported with the help of the remainder of the family to Fortune's Bay. The location we had worked so hard to find had made it far easier. The area had not changed any and there were no humans around. With some crystals we concentrated on our end of a travel spell and more of the family appeared.

A lot of thought had gone into this area. The city had been roughed out but now we just wanted the chapter house to be built with its accompanying base and portal. The tall column of fused stone was next as our standard marker.

The bomas were seen while we spent eleven days here but they never came close which made me think that they were capable of learning.

Above the narrow entrance was the ledge that could be part of the city's protection. The ledge allowed us to see a great distance and the cool wind was very welcome. This time, instead of making a building, we hollowed out the rock for a large set of barracks and mounted the base to the back of the room on the rock itself.

Some of the rock was fused but kept its original colour. It now spanned the gap to the other side. Another set of rooms were placed on that side too. The rock above was sculpted or added to so the base could not be taken by a team of attackers using ropes.

The portals first use was to provide two very good telescopes so they could be used to find any approaching ship.

With a bit of regret we left for the Epoo river and what would one day be the city of Redac. The villagers were happy to see the ship but not all of them. Magic was not understood and they had bad experiences with Yossich.

My cart was ready and portions of the farmer's cart had been incorporated into the ideas. The wheelbarrow had been done and it looked like it had been test-driven by everybody in the town.

With a lot more thought than any other city, we planned what this area would one day be like. Plans were laid out for smaller manufacturing and farming towns that would feed Redac what it needed. We scaled back on Redac but built the necessary infrastructure including the roads. Room was left for future expansion.

Six months after we started, we moved the dirty village into a modern town. They had slowly been coaxed to use the latrines and even have a shower. To assist the population we bought goods from them that we would not use. They made crude clothing and we even wore some on occasion. We supplied anvils and tools and encouraged people to learn about iron and its various alloys.

Yossich's former guards were altered just a bit to civilise them and then educated in various trades. We at least had a better tasting beer after a while. Others came to the city to see what was happening and were offered what they thought was paradise. They too were trained in something each found enjoyable. When they found a home they were instead sent out to recruit before coming back to stay.

Metal from the mines now came more frequently and the blacksmith bought all of it on credit from us. Ploughs seemed to be very popular and then so did the hand tools that we showed them. Brass and bronze was cast for bearings and then we had to show them how to make a simple metal lathe after giving them one to start with.

Our chapter house was very large here. I had given my secret of the portal out and a few could make use of the incantation. The 'Lady' had only stayed for a while to assist us with some of the major work. It was now continuing its task of mapping the planet.

The continent we were on and half of the other major continent had been mapped but only a few kilometres in from the shore. As predicted, we found many more cities that were even larger than our Redac. Chapter houses were built and linked to each other.

The next objective on our agenda was to teach the people to read. Only a very few could see a reason for learning. We could not stop slavery in the larger centres without a fight. We bought slaves then and trained them. It was a long process but this was the best we could do.

The portals were used a great deal, and the former slaves found a new life in a different city. Slaves disappeared from the worse of the estates to suddenly turn up on another continent. Brands were removed and the memory of their former status was obliterated as well.

There were a lot of kings and some sent troops to take one of our small families. The resident mage sorted through the captives and all that were not needed to support a family were sent away. Some of the soldiers even went and retrieved their families when they found out what was going to happen.

Five years after first coming to Sookra, we graduated our first class of teachers. They could hardly read themselves but had many other handy abilities that they could teach.

Religion has started to solidify and now these people came against us. We attacked back with our own miracles which the priests could not duplicate. With reason and the obvious ability to counter the priests argument, organised religion suffered.

Bright people from all over came to be tested to see if they could perform magic. Many could but because of their character-flaws their abilities were subtly turned down even more. Females were encouraged to try. They were a down trodden lot but with education they could help their gender.

My own ladies had given me nearly a thousand children. They were asked to cut back dramatically. I had difficulty to even touch the children. They didn't all breed true when it came to magical ability but they acquired it soon after birth with our spells.

The ladies didn't always stay with me. We had the creche system where working mothers could leave their children when they went to work. A large bureaucracy formed where the ladies left to do important work in reforming the world and were able to come home and exchange ideas and renew the bond with their children.

Sonya and I didn't have that problem. We made a very good wagon that was reminiscent of the gypsies. It was small but the inside had our base and the portal. Our children came with us or as many as could get out of school work. She had given me three children. Dylan was turning four soon, Lauren was ten months younger and Owen was the same way. We had decided that we should have the children quickly and they we could have some enjoyment with them until we started up another family in another fifty years or so.

Our wagon was five metres long including the seat where the driver held the reins. We had bunk beds for the children and a fold down bed for us. Usually we had Durra with us.

Durra was one of the many boys that Mordock kept for his sexual appetite. He was one of the most beautiful but also the most driven to be with me. In the course of finding a treatment for a moddas calf we stumbled on the makings of a spell that would change its gender. A year later the seventeen boys had been turned to young women. For some unknown reason it broke the conditioning most had been given. The spell was reversed on sixteen of them and now they were boys again but had an appetite for girls. Only Durra had wanted to stay in his changed form.

Durra was now six months pregnant and very happy. It got a bit snug on the bed but it was still the way we liked it. Sonya didn't even seem to mind. She had to share me with a great many ladies and now after I managed to tone my own appetite down I found that two were usually enough.

When Durra had changed, she looked like the normal girl with small breasts but she had a very large clit. It would extend ten centimetres when she was fully excited and this was the case most of the time. Pregnancy didn't slow her down in the least. The children loved her as much as their real mother but this was the norm when the children could read minds like the adults.

We were presently in what would one day be Fassie. Far overhead there were four mabomas or new small snakes. They were like their parent stock but were lighter. Their skeleton had been modified to be like a bird. The respiratory system worked much better because of the air sack and the improved lungs. The musculature had changed so that weight for weight the new animal was stronger than a young bomas. Their digestive tract had been likewise improved so they could get by with less food and their smaller size allowed them to chose the more abundant smaller game. The best improvement was that they were much smarter. They could communicate with a human as if they were a child of three.

Dylan was in the seat beside me holding the reins. He said, "Flossy is tired and wants to have a rest."

"Well you tell that chubby friend of yours that she is always tired."

"She isn't that fat."

"For a modda she is. It only takes two moddas to pull this wagon but we have four so they can last longer. Just promise to groom her a bit more tonight."

"Then I have to do the rest the same way."

"Are they your friends?"

"Yes."

"Well you have to curry them anyway and this way they become more of your friends."

"Can't Lauren do more?"

"Do you want to take her turn cooking?"

"No, but she could help a little."

"She already helps you. She feeds the mabomas and grooms them. She does the moddas too when she can."

"But Dad, she likes to do that and I never get a chance to explore."

"Remember what happened a few weeks ago?"

"But that was an accident."

"It may very well have been but you were not prepared and could have been hurt."

"You could have fixed me."

"What if you had fallen where I could not find you. You would be dead now and not hurt."

"But Dad I was exploring. That butterfly was not in the book yet. I wanted to be the one to find it."

"Quite commendable but you were not looking all around for danger. You only had eyes for the pretty creature. One day you will be an adult and along the way you have to learn to focus more on what is around you."

We felt a small tingle and looked into the sky ahead of us. The mabomas could soar while their ancestors could not. One was altering its flight and we saw it dive toward the grass covered prairie. One after the other the other three did the same. The first strike usually startled a family of large rodents into scampering away and this was the time the other three struck.

Dylan talked to the moddas and they shifted where they were headed just a bit. The reins were just for show. Humans saw us and marvelled at what we had but they had to see some way of controlling the animals. The mabomas that followed us were explained away as a way for the animals to hunt. We would make a lot of noise and the flying snakes would get to eat what flew from our path. We always pretended to be afraid of the animals but said that they were difficult to hit with a bow and almost impossible to kill.

The land was quite flat but we came to a ravine and a desperate mental call for help. Our defences went up very quickly. The sliding door opened behind us and Dylan was pulled to safety by Durra. The moddas had stopped and I put the brake on. I reached for the thin sword beside the bow just beside me. The blade was exceptionally strong and sharp. It was made from the white material for the roads and the material was jokingly called tar.

I jumped down and in less than a second Sonya was strapping her own sword on and advancing with me toward the plea for aid. Down in the ravine was a young boy standing over a carcass of a shem. It was a type of herd animal that were sometimes found in this region. Two of the mabamas were contesting for the kill. They were trained to not hurt a human unless ordered to but that didn't make them less hungry.

To the mabomas I called, "Flee. Food later."

The two looked at me but still watched the swinging staff swung by the boy. The mabomas took to the air but circled us. The boy looked down at the dead Shem. Our approach was heard and the boy picked up his staff and was ready to fight us too.

"It's alright. We heard the fight and came to see what we could do. You fought off the snake birds better than most would be able to. Are you hurt?"

There was no verbal answer. We heard Durra wanting information and if she should come out and assist. Sonya answered her and I tried to pierce the little one's mind. The he was a she, though it was hard to tell. The mind was very confused. She had been through a lot recently. I could see the attack from her point of view but also what had happened to her family very recently.

One of the shem had wandered off and fallen into another ravine. Petta had the job of watching the small family flock and knew that she had to recover the animal. She could not leave her flock and remembered that there was a low spot quite a few kilometres away. She took the animals with her and came upon the distressed animal that fled back into the flock for protection. It had been getting dark when the trek started and it was much darker when she returned to her camp.

Everything looked fine on her return except there were no family around. She called for her father and mother and heard nothing. There were three older brothers and a sister along with two younger members of each gender. The eight members looked as if they had just got up and walked away. The fire was still burning and the food was bubbling.

Petta knew about wasting food and took it off the fire and ate her share. She walked as far as she could and made a circle around the camp but found no tracks except those they had made the day before when they had arrived. The shem had compressed the grass too but humans footprints could still be detected if they were there.

She had stayed the night in the tent and cried a few time at the loss of her family. She didn't know much except to be a shepherd.

Sonya said, "Petta, come to the top of the ravine and meet our family. Your shem will be safe and my husband Adam will watch out for them. We have something to drink and something to eat too."

I backed up and Sonya just extended her hand for a moment until the girl reluctantly left the body of the shem and came to Sonya. The girl was independent though and climbed the incline under her own power and with the use of her staff.

There were only eleven Shem at the start and now there were nine left alive. I used my magical eye to locate them and then moved past the body of the shem. Looking through the mabomas eyes I saw that Petta had gone into the wagon.

I called to the mobamas. "Food here. Come."

The two dived to the shem and began to feed. The animal was big enough to feed both of them and I was happy that they had not decided to just drop on some of the shem hiding in the clumps of tall grass.

The sight of the mabomas must have frightened them quite a bit and they had spread out quite a bit. They were not like sheep but they didn't see a human as too threatening. I collected the first and had to guide it toward the next. I soon found a bit of PK helped even more. I watched from the sky through my eye from time to time and saw that the animals had not spread further.

After fifteen minutes I had six of the animals and found Petta's camp. The shem were finally gathered and I walked into the camp looking to see what could be the cause of the family's disappearance. Petta had tidied up to await the return of the family but I still searched for the tracks of some slavers or anybody else that would take the family. If they were slavers I felt they would have taken at least some of the property. Petta felt that there was nothing missing.

A warn staff was laying beside the dead fire and picked it up and continued my search. They could have been frightened off and thus leave all their possessions. The bomas could have come and taken the family but usually they fed first. The colcha have been known to eat humans but they were very large and looked for larger prey.

After circling the camp like Petta did, I returned but stopped to look at something strange. When we first came to this world we had bought a lot of new ideas and boots with heals was one of those. The natives wore a mocassin with a thick sole. Ahead of me was the imprint of a heal. I looked around for others and only saw where the matching heal could have been in a clump of beaten down grass. There were none ahead or behind these and couldn't see why this was so.

It finally occurred to me that it could only be someone using magic that had taken the family. A rich person would not have the need for the possessions of his new slaves. The fact that it was a heal would indicate that it could be some of my extended family but we always had more than enough volunteers and didn't take or want slaves. It wasn't the work of a deranged family member. The madness would be seen by the others and something done about it.

The local mages we found had not been very powerful and thus not able to transport themselves to this location or have enough power to transport everybody out again.

I called Sonya and Durra and gave them the evidence I had found and then my suppositions.

Durra said, "Nobody in our family would do this and none of the mages of this world could do it. I can only think that there are some mages we haven't found yet."

I said, "We better report this now. This mage is powerful and we have not been prepared for this eventuality for many years."

"Do you want me to go to the ship?"

"Yes, do it now."

Sonya said, "I think the children should go to. This sort of event was in the training we received. A mage would just take what he or she wanted. The mages on this world were the strongest."

"Ok, send them too but the mages you are talking about are far in the future."

Sonya didn't reply right away but eventually said, "We came back to this time. The Sookra world was going to die and the fact was also well known. Mages could have come back in time as well as looking for other planets."

"I think you're right. Send the children right away and make sure Durra gives them your ideas and stays to watch the children."

I was much more weary now and guided the remaining shem to move toward the wagon then to climb the embankment. The smell of the moddas must have been recognised as nonthreatening as they came closer.