Chapter 3

Selected scenes from the Zoltan's Village episode:

A tattered mob approached the hasty barricade of wagons and carts that blocked the street into the village and the nervous collection of ill-armed men and women congregated behind it. A large man in a bearskin cloak, a tall man in a black cape and a woman with a helmet, shield and leather armor walked through a gap to face the mob. The large man said to the woman, "Remember, Talia, you have to guard the gap. Morgan and I can't fight that entire mob if they attack us after we take care of their leaders."

The woman replied, "Urgah, you can count on me." She stopped a couple of steps away from the gap while Urgah and Morgan advanced on the mob, drawing their swords as they went.

Most of the mob stopped while about a dozen leaders kept advancing to meet the two men. Angry words were exchanged and the leaders attacked Urgah and Morgan. Roars of anger, the clang of swords, the sounds of wounds being inflicted, and screams of pain filled the air. The leaders attacked three or four at a time instead of encircling Urgah and Morgan and closing in.

Three members of the group broke away from the fight and ran at Talia. The two in the lead waved large broadswords over their heads while the third, with a shield and sword, lagged a couple of strides behind them. Talia's shield came up above eye level as she took one step to her right, then lunged forward on her left foot and stabbed her nearest assailant in the throat. He fell at her feet and she turned to her left, blocked the other sword with her shield and stabbed its wielder in the side of his neck. Both strokes were snake-fast and delivered with all the strength her arm and shoulder. The third man halted with his shield in front of him and his sword waving in his right hand. Talia took two strides, hit him shield-to-shield and pushed him backward. He took a step back with his right foot and Talia ripped the inside of his left thigh with a backhand stroke. She took two steps backward and looked left and right for any more targets, her chest heaving. No one was approaching so she lowered her sword and shield and watched with pitiless eyes as her last victim bled to death.

Zoltan, the village headman, was addressing Morgan, Urgah and Talia at the end of their farewell dinner, "My three friends, you have saved us twice: first from the brigands and then by giving us invaluable help preparing for the next season. You have allowed us to give you some small tokens but please, let me give you this gold as well."

Urgah's eyes lit up and he started to respond when Morgan elbowed him in the ribs and said, "Zoltan, thank you for the offer but we can't accept. The horses, the clothing and your gratitude are ample payment for our efforts. You're establishing an outpost of civilization here in this land and you'll need your money in the times to come."

Urgah, Morgan and Talia were sitting around a campfire after a day's travel away from the village. Talia was wearing her sleeveless shirt and knee-length trousers; her shield, helmet and armor were on the ground beside her. Urgah said to Morgan, "What was that you said last night about civilization? There's no city around here."

Morgan shook his head as he replied, "Today Zoltan is the headman of a village. Soon, he'll be the mayor of a town. One of these days it'll be Lord Zoltan of a city. This land is rich but one family can't make it on its own. Zoltan's their leader and he's organizing them to help one another do things that one family can't do alone, especially things like defense or building that aqueduct, and he's providing the things that single families can't afford like the blacksmith's forge or the mill. That's what civilization is, not just taverns and brothels. Once word gets out this will become another stop on the caravan trail and that's another part of civilization - communication with the rest of the world."

"What about the money?"

"Over half of that mob were slaves or dispossessed farmers. Zoltan let the slaves and farmers with families stay. That's why he needed the money. We still have plenty."

"Oh. Okay."

Talia said, "Morgan, Urgah, I don't know what makes you do heroic things. I'd just like to say thank you for having me along. Helping with this made me feel good."

Urgah said, "You did well yourself. You worked hard, you fought well in your first fight. I'm glad you were here."

Talia grinned. "There's something else, too. Did you two sleep alone while we were there?"

Both of them looked sheepish and embarrassed. Morgan said, "Uh, no."

"Zoltan's wife asked my permission. Those women were thanking you in the only way they could. And every one of them is hoping to have a hero's child."

Morgan and Urgah were speechless for a minute. Urgah finally said "What?"

Talia's grin grew wider. "Yeah. First babies are a larger risk so she sent women who'd had one child already. Too bad we won't be staying around, I might be able to make good money by renting you two out."

"Cut!" a disembodied voice called out. "That's it. Marvelous job, everyone."

Chuck said, with a perfectly straight face, "Urgah and Morgan, at stud. A zorkmid per pregnancy, return visits free until results are obtained."

The three of them broke up and laughed until they cried.

Random thoughts from Dorothy's journal:

Talia was digging with a big hoe. The second time I smacked my toe with it the property people changed my boots for some with steel toes. They didn't fit as well but were safer. Brick explained that I could hurt myself on my own time if I wanted to but the scene needed me instead of a stunt double and he didn't want to run any risks with the production.

Talia, Urgah and Morgan did a lot of carrying - logs, buckets, all kinds of stuff. One of the hard parts was making it look heavy. The property people had props that looked heavy as hell but were actually really light. I had one scene where I was supposed to pick up and carry a box. It was empty and didn't weigh too much but before each take someone would distract my attention and someone else would put some rocks in it. On the fifth take it was so heavy I almost dropped it on one of those steel-toed boots. I opened it and started throwing rocks at everyone who was laughing. I found out later that they were careful to make sure I was wearing the right boots before they tried it. Brick got really pissed at all of us.

Brick let me try the fight scenes myself. Simple, right? The first one was 'step, shield, stick, turn, block, stick.' Six motions. Modern, really light theatrical versions of the armor, helmet and shield. It took about eight tries to get one that Brick liked. I thought my arms were gonna fall off. I have a vague memory of a line, in Shakespeare I think, that goes something like: "A rich armor worn in the heat of day that scalds with safety." He wasn't kidding. Every couple of takes I'd change Talia's shirt and wipe off the inside of her armor. I must have sweated off a kilo.

I used a holo sword for the fight scenes. Really cool. The projector part was as big around as my thumb and twice as long as the hilt but it put out a yellow-green field as long as my arm that disappeared when it hit something. They had clear stuff that the field turned the same blue-green to put on whatever the sword was gonna hit, like people's bodies. They also had camouflaged things that would pop open and squirt blue-green liquid when the field hit them. Brick told me that post-production would morph the yellow-green into something that looked like a real sword blade making real wounds squirting real blood. Eeek. Just thinking about it makes me queasy. One of the special-effects guys was gleefully telling me all about it and I had to kick him out of my trailer before I threw up on him.