The Guardian

Who knows - it might be my next published book. What do you think? Would you like to see this one published soon?

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The war with the bug-like Cerfcum was dragging on, but we were gaining ground. We were pushing them back - slowly, but only because we were able to turn their magic back on them. When a young queen was captures, scientists were able to take some of her magic resonance and insert it into human volunteers. Eventually, these volunteers learned the right words to make the magic work and they became kown as Guardians. Guardians of the weak. Guardians of the helpless. Guardians of humanity. Guardians of our very existence.

Reed Meyers was one such volunteer. Reed was determined to follow in his father's footsteps so he graduated from the Mercenary School at the top of his class. When he heard of a call for volunteers to become Guardians, he went to see. It was there that he learned of his father's career - and death - as more than just a mercenary, but a Guardian. He could do no less. The sacrifice he had to make in order to do his father proud was the memory of that - of his father, of his loss. The next best thing was to tell himself that. He poured it all out on a disk, and it became one of his most treasured possessions.

With steadfast determination, Reed worked hard to bring about the end of the Cerfcum. He was instrumental in bringing about the death of the Cerfcum Queen Mother, thus bringing down many of her youngest queen daughters and ending the war. But the death of the Queen Mother wasn't the end of the story - oh no. From the heart of the Queen Mother's hive, he brought away a human toddler. At least, he was human in all ways except his lime-green eyes. No, they hadn't seen the last of the Cerfcum. Adam was proof of that. You see, Adam wasn't as human as he appeared, but he tried very hard to be what he was made to be.

Protect the Weak - from THE GUARDIAN - unpublished

Over the next several months, the term ‘mobile infantry’ earned a whole new definition. No longer was there anything that might be called a ‘base’. All of their operations were centered on the big transports. Camps on the ground were few and brief at best; no one slept out in the open any more. Chow might be heated over a campfire occasionally, but more often than not, it was cold. Even the fuel and ammunition was stored in transports and when they began to run low, more would be parachuted down to them from orbital carriers. Sentries always stood watch both in the cockpit, over the sensors as well as on top of the transports with binoculars, long-range motion detectors and radar.

Even with the hard work of the guardians, keeping structures standing was proving to be all but impossible, so they kept moving. Those guardians who had been embroiled longest in the war had become quite powerful, but the enemy spell casters were powerful too. The only way to keep fighting was to keep moving. Casualties were minimized this way, but it was hard on everyone.

Reed looked up from his latest disc-letter from Jennifer where she was tickling his son, trying to wring giggles out of him so daddy could hear him laugh. It was such an infectious giggle; it made him smile every time he heard it. He watched the letters over and over. It helped him to remember just what he was fighting to protect. He wished so much he could be there instead of here.

Other men in the transport were doing much the same thing. Some were watching their own letters, some were reading a book or magazine, a couple was playing chess and at least half of them were sleeping. Everyone looked haggard and tired; it didn’t help that none of them had taken a bath or washed their clothes in weeks; they were doing good to scrape the hair off their faces and keep the rest out of their eyes. There was an exception though. Somehow, Stenner managed to remain relatively clean and groomed.

Reed rested his head back against the cushion and just listened to the voices of his little family. They were due to pick up more supplies tomorrow. With luck, there would be a new letter in there from Jennifer. He missed her.

Rescue from a Cerfcum Queen - from THE GUARDIAN - unpublished

When they reached the others, Brandon cast a 'regenerate' spell on both of the men. Jennifer only had a few scrapes and bruises. the men had put up much more of a fight. Spit Shine had several deep punctures in his torso and he had lost a lot of blood. Low Jack had almost slipped free; he had two long gashes across his chest and another across his back. However, the slip had caused his upper leg to be broken. At least one of the creature's feet had maintained its hold on him.

Reed kept watch as Brandon cast his spells. He had felt a subtle change in the acoustics of a chamber. Then he detected movement on the far edge of his vision and looked closer. He was able to pick it out only because it moved and he saw that it was far bigger than anything he had ever seen before; bigger even than the walker-sized creatures in the other chamber. An odd motion caught his attention and he saw the bounding creature just brought in was moving slower than before. Its leaps were just as high, but everything it did was slow, as if it was moving through water, though it wasn't. He knew what that was. "We have a spell caster in here," he whispered.

Brandon was at his side instantly and the two of them tried to pick out the indistinct figure on the far side of the chamber. "What is that?" he whispered.

"I don't know. I'm going to scan it."

"Be careful."

"Your spells didn't attract much attention," commented Reed. "SCAN." As Reed read and reread the information the 'scan' provided, a shiver ran up his back. "We're in deep shit, Brandon. That's the queen."

"The queen; we're not going to get out of here easily, are we?"

"Well, I suppose we could get lucky and she won't notice us, but I really don't think much escapes her attention in here. She probably won't bother us as long as we don't try to leave."

"That's not an option," said Brandon. He turned back to the others and passed out extra goggles to Low Jack and Jennifer. Then he helped Castle hoist Spit Shine across his shoulders. Brickman and Nighthawk slung Low Jack's arms across their shoulders, and with Jennifer between them, they made their way across the room towards the ramp they had come down. Brandon and Reed brought up the rear.

As they went, Brandon and Reed swung the strings of flash grenades randomly across the room as far as they could. Thinking the same thoughts, both Reed and Brandon hung back as the others got closer to the ramp.

Brickman glanced back; he could tell what they intended. "Oh shit, step it up. We gotta get outa here," he said.

Reed glanced over his shoulder and saw them scrambling up the ramp, and then he heard a wailing screech echo across the chamber, chilling all of them to the bone, but they held their ground. They weren't of interest just yet.

As soon as the men were at the top of the tunnel, they both said, "IFRIT" almost with the same breath. Then, as lava lit up the chamber, firing the miniature horde, they both snatched their goggles off and ran up the ramp after the others. As the molten flow reached the flash grenades, they started to go off like fiery popcorn, and the misshapen, maggot-like blob that was the queen screamed her displeasure and dismay, pain, and anger, then she cast her last spell.

Flairs screamed after them through the smoke and flames. Reed turned for one last look, hoping to get a glimpse of the queen. "SHELL!" he cried, but though his shield was up in time, it couldn't deflect all of the damage.

Brandon turned at Reed's shout in time to see one of the many flairs penetrate Reed's shield. The shield probably absorbed about ninety percent of the energy and velocity, but that last ten percent was more than enough. The phosphorous projectile struck Reed directly in the face and launched him backwards several feet to land heavily where he lay without a whimper or a twitch. The goggles and sword he had in his hands, clattered away from his slack fingers.

Jennifer also heard his cry, though she didn't know what it meant. She too looked back in time to see him get hit and fall. She ran back to him. "Reed!" she called, but he didn't move.

Brandon was at his side too. He touched Reed's neck and cursed softly. "LIFE," he said, and was rewarded by the thump under his fingers. "REGENERATE," he said then he quickly explored Reed's head, neck and shoulders. "Shit," he said softly. He dug out one of the first aid packs and inflated a neck brace around Reed's neck. Then he scooped Reed up in his arms and nodded to the others to move out again. They had to get out of here as fast as they could before shit hit the fan.

The Stoklkit - in THE GUARDIAN - Unpublished

A soft touch on his face and a scratchy squall woke him next. Big green eyes stared at him intently and then squinted as the toothy mouth opened up and squalled again. The kit was hungry and complaining about it.

"I tried to get him to take something from me so you could sleep, but he just hissed at me. He's been working on you for the last fifteen minutes or so."

Reed lifted the kit off his chest and sat up. He saw it was . . . it was Esther who spoke. "I fell asleep here? Sorry."

There's nothing to be sorry about. I'm just sorry the couch wasn't long enough for you." She pointed off to a door. "The bathroom is through there. Go wash up. I'll have breakfast ready for you in a few minutes. What have you been feeding junior there?"

"It eats from my plate." He looked up to see her look of disapproval. "I think you'll get a kick out of it, it has better manners than some men I've seen."

At the table, the kit sat on Reed's lap and peeked over the edge of the table with its front paws resting just at the edge. As soon as his plate was in front of him, Reed cut his first bite of sausage and forked it into his mouth. The kit watched the bite closely until it disappeared and then the green eyes swiveled back to the plate. When the second bite disappeared into Reed's mouth, the kit opened its mouth and let out a tiny squeak and then it reached out a paw an touched the edge of the plate.

Reed looked down as if noticing it for the first time. "What do you want?"

The kit looked up at him and then reached out to touch the edge of one of the eggs.

"Watch this; this is cute." He cut the egg into small bites and pushed them towards the edge of the plate.

The kit reached out and speared the bites, one at a time, until what it had been given, was gone.

"Do you want some sausage?" asked Reed.

The kit looked up at him and squeaked again toothily, so Reed cut up some of the sausage into small bites and pushed them to the edge of the plate too.

When that was gone, the kit began to get restless, so Reed quickly finished the rest off what was on the plate and took the kit outside. When it had finished its duty out there, he returned to the table for a cup of coffee with the kit riding happily on his shoulder. He held a cup of water for the kit, and it drank thirstily, then meticulously washed itself while Reed drank his coffee.

"That was the cutest thing I think I have ever seen. How did you teach him that?"

"I didn't teach him anything. He's always been like that. Like I said, very polite. Better than some men."