Chapter 2

Jack and Sue had traveled for about 30 minutes when they were approached from the rear by a wagon loaded with farm produce. As it drew up beside them, they stepped back off the road to allow the wagon free room to pass. The elderly man driving the wagon halted his draft animal, which looked somewhat like a cross between a mule and a zebra. The man said, "Good day, Sir and Lady. May I offer you two a ride in my humble wagon?"

"Thank you, sir. My lady and I would be grateful for a ride." Actually, they didn't need the ride, but Jack wanted an opportunity to gain some information about the country from a local resident. Playing the part of the courteous and considerate male, Jack helped Sue into the wagon and then joined the both of them at the end of the driver's seat.

The man said, "My name is John Small. And what are your names, if I may be so bold?"

"I am Jack Argo and the lady is Sue Ulna. We are passing through and know very little of this neighborhood. Do you live around here?"

"I am pleased to meet you, Jack and Sue. Yes, I live on a farm about 5 miles from here. I am headed into Heron to sell my wares to the local food broker. How far are you going?"

"We plan to travel to Asmia, but we are sight-seeing as we go. We have no particular schedule to keep. How far is it to Heron?"

"We should be there within the hour. Mable, here, will pull us along at a pretty good clip. Won't you, Mable?"

"I will do the best I can, Master John," answered the draft beast.

The farmer chuckled and said, "Mable never wants to commit herself when it comes to work, but she does a good job of taking care of her business."

Jack and Sue were dumbfounded when the animal spoke. However, the farmer acted as if this were no special event, so they didn't want to look foolish by over reacting. Both simply grinned at the farmer's words, and Sue changed the subject before they got into trouble. "How are the crops doing in this area. We haven't seen many farms near the road, so we don't have any idea of that."

"You aren't tax collectors, are you? No, I guess you aren't, since I never heard of a female tax collector. Well, the rain has been moderate and..."

The draft beast interrupted with, "MASTER JOHN! LOOK! DEMONS!"

John immediately did something that neither Jack nor Sue could see, and the reins and traces dropped from Mable. She was free of the wagon and stepped away as she seemed to sprout spikes all over her body. John took up a stout cudgel and climbed to the ground. Jack said, "Sue, you fight from here; I'll fight from the ground." He leaped out to cover his side of the wagon as Sue turned to face to the rear from a standing position on the seat of the wagon. Up there, she could see a lot better.

They were surrounded by dozens of little beings who looked like men, but were about 3 feet tall. They were dressed in red leather and carried bucklers and double-bitted battle axes. The demons were closest in front, and Mable charged into the line of the creatures. She struck right and left with her spikes and "killed" as many of the demons as she could reach.

John struck all of the demons who came close to him, but he was wise enough not to go charging in among them. His arm with cudgel was long enough that the demons had considerable difficulty getting close to him. But one of the demons had a bright idea and hurled his ax at John. John was hit by the ax, but not by the cutting edge; however, he was knocked down and stunned by the weapon.

Sue happened to see this and reacted without thinking. She was already holding her staff in her left hand in preparation for hurling fire balls, so she was ready to point her finger at John and shout, "BE CURED!" This may not have been particularly elegant medicine, but it worked. John immediately recovered and was able to beat off the demons who attacked him.

Meanwhile, Sue turned her attention to the rear of the wagon and started hurling fire balls at the demons in her sector as fast as she could pick out a target. Flame seemed to be erupting everywhere, but it was hardly slowing the demons. In desperation, she asked, "Hat, what more effective spell can I use?"

Change to ICE BALL.

Sue started shooting balls of cold at the demons instead of heat, and these seemed much more effective. Any demon struck by an ice ball froze in place, and a second ice ball caused the demon to shatter into a multitude of small pieces of what looked like ice chips. Whatever it was, it was effective.

Jack appeared to be having a ball! He was jumping about and swinging his pole ax with gay abandon. It was slicing demons into pieces every time he struck one. They simply could not withstand the strike by the ax, there was so much strength and speed behind the blow. Jack was actually swinging his ax with one hand more often than he was using two hands; he was simply strong enough to swing and control the pole ax with one hand.

Jack caught sight of the demon-in-charge. He was about 4 feet tall and wearing a fancy headdress. Jack started working his way toward the leader and clipped him into two pieces with one swing of the ax. Suddenly, there was a flash of darkness, if there could be such a thing, and all of the demons disappeared. John, Mable, and Jack made their way back to the wagon, and Sue cast a spell of general restoration.

Mable was refastened to the wagon, and John and Jack climbed aboard. John told Mable to get moving and turned to Sue. "Lady, I had no idea that you were such a powerful sorceress! Please accept my heartfelt thanks for what you and Jack did to save us. Mable is a powerful fighter, but I doubt that we could have survived without your help. What can I do to repay you?"

Sue looked at Jack, and he nodded. Sue said, "John, I am going to tell you a story that you will probably not believe, but every bit of it is true." She told John of what had happened to them since they had been transported to this new world. "We don't know how it happened, but here we are. You saw what we can do, so there is not much more that I can say. We don't know exactly who we are, but we have been told that we will be the new rulers at Asmia. Can you enlighten us?"

"That is truly an amazing story, but I see no reason to doubt it. A little less than 20 years ago, Lord Drago appeared on the scene. We know nothing about him, but he has amazing magical abilities. He marched in with an army of demons and other strange creatures behind him and took over the whole country, even the whole world, for all I know.

There was a rumor that two children, a boy and a girl, from the two major ruling families disappeared just after he showed up and took over. We all assumed that they were taken by him as hostages, but maybe you two were those children and were spirited away to return later to rescue us from Lord Drago.

For the last 15 years, life has been hard and getting harder each passing year as Lord Drago has consolidated his power. Rumor has it that he is about to become all-powerful and rule this world forever. If that is true, then I fear that we are doomed! I hope, in the name of all that's good, that you two can defeat him and return us to the happy times of 20 years ago."

They continued to talk as they rode into Heron, and Jack and Sue learned a lot of localized information that was not available from the magic hats. For one thing, they learned that, at their present rate of travel, it was going to take them over 2 months to get to Asmia. This was alarming news, but they didn't know how to speed up their rate of travel.

It was getting dark as they pulled into Heron, so John decided to look up the food broker tomorrow. He had figured on staying in town over night, so he was not inconvenienced by the small change in plans. He drove them to an inn where they took rooms for the night, with Jack and Sue sharing a room. They were used to sharing accommodations while they were out camping, so this was no hardship.

They ate supper in the common room with John that night. John treated them to the meal in partial payment for the fighting that they had done that day, so they were able to save some of their meager resources to pay for their trip.