Callie heard a buzzing, almost like an alarm clock going off in her head. When she opened her eyes, the message from the system was bright red in her vision.

  ”What the!?” She exclaimed quietly.

  ”Turn off the alarm,” Kane grunted next to her.

  ”Kane, wake up, it is a message from the system,” Callie said, trying to get loose from Kane’s tight grip around her waist.

  Kane grunted as he slowly let loose of his grip. He stretched without opening his eyes as Callie sat up in bed, stretching herself. Callie tried to shake the notification away, but it flashed but didn’t go away.

  Callie opened her menu, but then shook her head so that she could at least get dressed before looking at the new selections she could make. As Callie stood up, Kane sat up himself.

  ”Damn it, seriously!? A time limit!” He exclaimed not so quietly. This seemed to have woken up some of the kids, who Callie could hear rustling around in the living room.

  ”It’s not even 6 o’clock!” Kane continued angrily.

  “Nothing we can do about it,” Callie said, trying to calm him down.

  ”Fucking system,” Kane grumped, leaning against the headboard as his eyes glazed over like he was in a menu.

  Callie headed to the bathroom and got ready quickly for the day. While brushing her teeth, she opened her menu back up.

  She had jumped two levels again and thankfully no debuffs despite the short amount of sleep she had gotten. The ‘healer’ annotation was new, but it made sense with what she had been focusing on. She scrolled right to get to the skills page.

  “Interesting,” Callie thought as she spat out her toothpaste. She could select two passive spells and two spells now that she was a level 6.

  Callie selected the first ‘select two’ annotation. Callie started going through the list. It looked like the original four spells from when she was a level 1 were still on there, but LIGHT and SPARE THE DYING were options now as well. She clicked on MENDING again to refresh herself on what it meant. Callie remembered debating on that spell, but ultimately she got RESISTANCE.

  Although being able to repair things would be helpful, she again decided it wasn’t worth one of the two skill spots she could select. LIGHT had some potential, but she didn’t plan on them fighting in the dark much, and they had flashlights. SACRED FLAME, however, did pique her interest. If these were anything like RESISTANCE, then she could cast them any number of times throughout the day. Sending out a flame could be very beneficial. Callie selected SACRED FLAME. One more selection is needed from this list.

  She clicked on SPARE THE DYING. Thinking back to Stern and Zeus getting injured by the badger, and seeing the devastation from last night, Callie looking at the description was just a formality.

  She selected it and sighed heavily, forgetting that she was still looking in the mirror in her bathroom. As she let her eyes focus past the floating words, she saw the dark circles and the worn expression on her face. Although the system didn't acknowledge her exhaustion, she felt it.

  Without closing her menu, Callie picked up her hairbrush and started combing her hair. She moved on to the next list of spells. A large scrolling list appeared in front of her. She instantly felt overwhelmed. Callie looked out the bathroom door, past the words abstracting her vision of Kane, who was still sitting in bed. When she had asked him for advice earlier, he had told her to focus on healing. So that is what she did, Callie scrolled through the list until she saw something that sounded remotely like a healing ability.

  What she came to was GROUP HEALING. The description said she could heal up to six people or creatures near her. They had more than six people she was caring for, but it was a good start. She selected it. One more selection, she kept scrolling. Not seeing anything else that sounded like healing, she started at the top and slowed down her scroll through. She got to something called ENHANCE, and she clicked on it to see the description.

  Callie stared at that description for a moment. It wasn’t exactly a healing spell, but she was thinking back on the encounters they had so far. To be able to enhance an ability of any of her friends could come in handy. She closed the description, with only being able to select one more, she wanted to keep looking. Callie thought she could always go back if there wasn’t something else she liked better.

  As she scrolled, something caught her eye. REMOVE CURSE, she clicked for a description.

  Thinking back on what she had heard Jonah say. Callie didn’t waste more time; she selected REMOVE CURSE. She didn’t know if she would ever get close enough to a cursed creature to remove any curses, but she liked the idea of having it just in case.

  Callie was about to close her menu, but then she remembered that there was a whole other menu. She swiped right away to get to the ‘FEATS’ menu.

  Callie saw the new feat of BLESSED HEALER. She clicked on it for a description.

  “Okay, that will definitely come in handy,” she thought. Not seeing anything else to select, she closed out of her menu and finished brushing and putting up her hair. Taking a final look in the mirror, she nodded to herself slightly and headed out to make breakfast. She hesitated at the doorway, though. Callie looked back at Kane, still sitting in the bed with his eyes glazed over. She walked back to him and gave him a kiss on the forehead. Kane’s eyes cleared for a moment, and a smile came across his face.

  Callie squeezed his arm gently, now fully hearing the kids’ excited chatter from the living room. She walked into the kitchen and started making breakfast.

  “Damn alarm clock!” Kane thought as he heard the beeping.

  Kane felt Callie start to stir, “No,” he thought, “Stay in bed,” as he tightened his grip on his wife’s waist.

  ”What the!?” Kane heard Callie exclaim.

  ”Turn off the alarm,” Kane grunted back at her.

  ”Kane, wake up, it is a message from the system,” Callie said, trying to wiggle herself from his grip.

  Kane thought about grabbing tighter, but his brain finally caught up to what she said and decided to let her go. He rolled over and started stretching. He debated not opening his eyes and going back to sleep, but ultimately decided that if the system was waking them up, it was probably important.

  Kane opened his eyes, seeing the message.

  Kane grunted again to himself as he sat up enough to lean against the headboard, still not ready to get out of bed. He could feel the soreness in his legs still, so the prospect of standing up to get dressed did not seem appealing to him. Kane swiped to the right, making the warning beeps in his head stop finally.

  “Huh,” Kane said to himself, “No buffs.” Kane surely felt like there should be an exhaustion buff or something. Thinking about the last time he had seen on his phone before falling asleep, and looking through the words in front of him. The quick math told him they had slept about four hours, which didn’t seem long enough to wipe out the buffs he surely had when he went to bed.

  Kane shook his head slightly. It didn’t matter. If the system wasn’t going to punish him for too little sleep, he wouldn’t worry about it. Then he saw the dash still next to ‘ARMOR’; he had forgotten they had picked up some armor off the soldiers yesterday. He needed to find a set and make sure the system recognized he had it. He wasn’t sure what exactly having the system recognize the armor would do, but it couldn’t hurt.

  He swiped right again to see what level 6 would give him.

  Kane’s list was now long enough that he had to scroll down to see his spells list.

  “Cool, more spell options,” Kane thought sarcastically to himself. A lot of the list looked the same as what he had to select from before, but as he scrolled around, he saw there were quite a few more options. Kane first scrolled through all of the options. After the quick scroll through, he saw a handful of spells he wanted to take a closer look at.

  Kane had looked at ENTANGLED before, but after looking at the description again, decided it wasn’t worth spending the spell slot on. He moved on to ENHANCE ABILITY, but it didn’t seem like a great choice either. In the thick of battle, he didn’t want to have to make a decision on what to enhance. MAGIC WEAPON was next to peak his interest.

  That spell sounded almost too good to be true against creatures that seemed to have their own magical abilities. But Kane didn’t want to make his decision until he had looked at the last spell that caught his attention. Kane clicked on TRANSPARENCY.

  Kane heard Callie turn on the water in the bathroom to brush her teeth. He looked past the words in front of him and smiled slightly to himself, seeing his wife in the bathroom. At least some things in this new world hadn’t changed. Callie hated getting her day started without brushing her teeth, he didn’t get it but he knew the importance of the ritual for her. He went back to looking at the selections. Kane took a moment to debate with himself between MAGIC WEAPON and TRANSPARENCY. Both would be helpful in any upcoming battles. Ultimately though Kane chose TRANSPARENCY. The ability to sneak around could come in very handy, their rifles at least had taken down the creatures they were fighting so he was banking on them continuing to work.

  Kane swiped right to open up his ‘FEATS’ menu.

  Kane was surprised to see an extra skill listed to his already extensive list. Kane clicked on the EXTRA ATTACK BONUS.

  “Well that could be helpful,” Kane said quietly to himself, then thought to himself, “I wonder what would determine the extra damage?”

  Kane was kind of glad now that he hadn’t picked the weapon spell.

  As Kane was finishing his thought he felt Callie kiss him. He focused on her through the words and smiled up at her. She gave him a half smile back but Kane could see the fatigue in her eyes still. She walked away from him heading to the kitchen. Kane briefly had thought about grabbing her and pulling her into bed but he could hear the kids' increasing excitement in the living and decided against it.

  Kane went back to his menus, he double checked that he hadn’t missed anything and then closed everything. Moving to the edge of the bed to get up he stretched again trying to get some of the stiffness out of his body, but his age and time in the military only allowed the stiffness to turn into soreness. He slowly got up and headed to the bathroom to start his morning rituals of getting ready. As he passed the bathroom doorway he heard the beep of the security system letting everyone know one of the doors had been opened. Kane shook his head and continued moving towards the toilet.

  Callie smiled as she rifled through the fridge, she decided to make eggs, sausage and use up the last of the sourdough bread she had made a few days before with toast. It wasn’t anything special but she figured they all needed a good hardy breakfast. As she was turning to the stove she heard footsteps on the stairs and then the chime of the security system letting her know one of the doors had been opened. Seeing as how the door next to the kitchen was still shut she assumed it was the basement door.

  “Morning,” she heard Phillip say as she turned on the stove to heat up her cast iron pan.

  “Morning,” she replied, finally looking up to see Phillip followed by Carlie. Both looked tired. She gave them a slight smile before she turned back to the sourdough bread to get it sliced for toast.

  “Cosette, go get dressed for the day please,” Carlie called over to her daughter.

  “Eliza, Josie, you too, please,” Callie called to her daughters and they followed their friend down the stairs. Callie looked up to see Dani following them.

  She heard the typical *thump* of her daughters jumping off the final step, then she heard Stern’s voice. She couldn’t hear what he said but she could tell by the tone that he was tired as well. Callie lightly shook her head and proceeded with making breakfast.

  “Need help?” Carlie walked over asking.

  “Sure, want to work on the sausage?” Callie asked in return.

  Carlie just nodded and reached for the package of sausage. As the ladies continued with breakfast preparation Stern had made his way up the stairs.

  “Guess who has SAVAGE ATTACK?” Stern was laughing as he rounded the final step.

  “Yeah, well I can half my damage,” Phillip laughed.

  “What does SAVAGE ATTACK mean?” Carlie asked with a hint of skepticism in her voice.

  Still with a goofy smile on his face, despite the exhaustion in his eyes, Stern said, “Once in every ten minutes my attack is worth double the damage.”

  “Damn,” the smile on Phillip’s face vanished.

  “Right!” Stern said, smiling even bigger.

  “Yeah, well I got ALERT which allows me to sense attacks or danger,” Carlie joined in the skill competition, bringing Stern's smile down a notch.

  “Well, that could be useful,” Stern, although still smiling, had a contemplative tone.

  “What’s going on out here?” Kane asked, suddenly coming out of his bedroom.

  “Dick girth competition,” Callie said with laughter in her voice, though she didn’t look up from the pan with the eggs in it.

  There was a brief stunned silence, and then laughter from the three men.

  “Well if that’s what we are doing, let me bring mine out to shut you two up,” Kane laughed.

  “NO! NO! No one wants to see that wrinkled thing!” Stern exclaimed through laughter.

  “Stern can now damage things pretty badly but only once during a fight, and Carlie can sense danger sooner. Phillip, what about you?” Callie asked, finally turning around with a plate full of fried eggs.

  “I got something called UNCANNY DODGE, apparently if I see an attack coming I will only take half damage if I don’t miss the hit,” Phillip said slightly deflated.

  “Hey, so your slow ass isn’t completely screwed,” Kane smiled at his friend.

  “Oh shut up, you look older than me with that stiff back,” Phillip gave his friend a half smile.

  “What did you get Kane?” Stern asked not taking his eyes off the eggs and sausage as they were being put on the counter next to a stack of toast.

  “Oh, just a little thing that makes me invisible,” Kane laughed.

  “What the fuck!” Stern and Phillip said in almost unison.

  “I think Kane got the big dick award,” Phillip continued.

  “Damn right I did,” Kane laughed, pulling out some plates from the cabinet and loading up a plate with food.

  “Eat boys, we have more coming for the kids,” Callie said as she made scrambled eggs.

  Stern and Phillip followed Kane in loading up their plates. The three boys moved to the couch as the kitchen table was still filled with their haul from the previous day. The kids came up a few moments later still laughing and giggling to each other. Josie immediately got in line to get food and the rest followed.

  “Where is Giana?” Carlie asked Cosette.

  “Still sleeping,” Cosette said as she put food on her plate not looking at her mom.

  Carlie looked from her daughter to Callie.

  “Let her sleep,” Callie advised as she put the last of the eggs on the serving plate.

  “You are right, I’m going to make her a plate though otherwise there won’t be any left,” Carlie said as she grabbed two plates and started putting food on them.

  Callie grabbed her own plate and took it over to the living room where Zeus was already trying to steal food from the girls who were huddled around the coffee table. After yelling at Zeus twice to leave the kids alone, Kane got up and let Zeus outside. There was a little bit of barking from Zeus, but nothing more than the normal so Kane came back and sat down to finish his plate.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  The group mostly ate in silence, everyone seeming content enjoying the meal in silence. Kane and Stern got up for seconds.

  As they came back Kane realized, “Hey, Callie, you didn't tell us what you got?”

  “GROUP HEALING and REMOVE CURSES,” Callie said to the group not elaborating any further.

  “Dang! Those are definitely helpful!” Phillip said through a mouthful of food.

  “Dad, don’t talk with your mouth full!” Cosette scolded her father.

  Phillip smiled down at his daughter and then finished his plate. The kids followed Josie and Eliza’s lead of putting their plates in the sink and then they all headed back downstairs. Presumably to play. Callie and Carlie finished eating and then got up themselves to clean up the mess in the kitchen.

  “We need to go through everything we grabbed yesterday,” Kane said suddenly looking over at his two friends.

  “Yeah? And?” Stern asked, scooping the last of the food on his plate into his mouth.

  “I don’t have anything after armor and I know we picked up some armor off those soldiers yesterday,” Kane tried to explain.

  “You are right, I don’t think I do either,” Phillip said as he took his plate over to the ladies.

  “So . . . . Where do we start?” Stern asked taking his plate to the kitchen as well.

  ”Did we get everything out of the trucks?” Kane asked.

  ”We should check on all of the animals before we do anything,” Callie called over her shoulder.

  The boys stopped what they were doing and looked at each other. Kane had been trying to not think about the animals and the death they had seen last night. But he knew Callie was right, the animals deserved their attention. He sighed and started looking for his boots. He was so tired he couldn’t remember where he had taken them off.

  ”Phillip, can you go down and check on Giana before we head out?” Carlie asked over her shoulder, grabbing the last of the dishes to be washed.

  ”Sure,” Phillip said as he headed for the stairs.

  Suddenly Zeus went nuts outside. He was shouting and barking at the same time. Something had set him off. Kane finally found his boots and threw them on running to the door in the same breath. As he made it to the door he realized he had forgotten his rifle in his truck. So much had happened last night he didn’t go back for it.

  As he looked outside he saw Zeus barking at a stoic looking Jonah. Kane stopped what he was doing and started laughing at the ridiculousness. Jonah looked up from Zeus and looked directly at Kane in the window. The stoic look turned to confusion. He made a step towards the house and then Kane heard Zeus.

  ”INTRUDER! THIEF! ENEMY!” Zeus was yelling on repeat through his barks. Zeus was not letting Jonah finish the step forward that he wanted to make. Jonah tried again and this time Zeus just barely missed biting his ankle as Jonah pulled away from the lurching dog.

  “Help?” Jonah asked in an unsure tone towards the door.

  Kane walked outside to help Jonah. As Kane walked up behind Zeus, Zeus turned nipping at Kane to keep him back. Kane’s mood went from laughing to serious. Zeus felt the change and instantly dropped to the ground.

  ”Opps,” Zeus whimpered, realizing he had done wrong.

  ”Don’t nip at me ever,” Kane growled down at Zeus.

  Kane turned his attention to Jonah, “Sorry about that, he is good at his job. Usually.”

  ”He did what he is meant to do,” Jonah said, then he turned to look at the cow pasture, “Infans born.”

  ”What?” Kane asked, looking in the direction of Jonah’s gaze. As he turned his head he saw out of his periphery Stern and Phillip walking towards him.

  ”Baby,” Jonah said, pointing towards the cluster of cowks.

  Kane started walking towards the cowks and where Jonah had been pointing. As he got closer he could hear the cowks baying quietly. Kane heard the door to the house open and shut. He looked over his shoulder to see Callie and Carlie walking out of the house.

  Kane kept walking towards the cowks, Phillip and Stern caught up to him just as he was within arms reach of the first cowk, a female. Kane reached up his hand to touch the cowk gently. When he touched her she carefully moved aside to show a freshly born cow on the ground. Licking the baby was Charlotte.

  ”Charlotte,” Kane gasped. He knew she was close to the end of her pregnancy, he just didn’t realize how close.

  Jonny Boy walked up next to Kane pushing another female out of the way, “She went into labor shortly after you left last night. Cowk Mother helped her. The baby is a little early but Cowk Mother helped the baby too,” Jonny Boy said in a very somber tone bowing his head towards the newborn.

  Kane finally took his eyes away from the newborn and started looking around, “Who is the Cowk Mother?” Kane didn’t realize he had spoken out loud.

  ”Cowk Mother is their leader, she is very wise. She has birthed many cowlets and has assisted even more,” Jonny Boy tried to explain, “She knew the stress of yesterday could hurt Charlotte and the baby so she was ready.”

  ”Thank you Cowk Mother,” Kane said, not knowing which cowk was the Cowk Mother.

  A cowk with a light spot on her forehead bowed her head. Kane gave a slight bow back.

  “So, she’s like a wise woman but for cowks?” Stern asked with a touch of awe in his voice.

  ”Sounds like it,” Callie said from behind them, “Best kind of doula to have in a complicated birth, someone who has been through it many times before.”

  They all watched as Callie passed them and went up to the Cowk Mother and gave her a gentle scratch on the forehead, “We should get Charlotte some molasses water.”

  Kane knew what she was talking about so he headed back to the house. They usually gave it to the new mothers in their herds, the surgery water to help restore their strength and the bonus of giving them a treat for a good job. Callie walked over to Charlotte. She took a quick look at the baby and then went to see if Charlotte had passed the after birth. Not seeing it she looked over at the Cowk Mother.

  ”Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Callie asked.

  The cowk did one nod of her head. Callie made a big sigh, then looked at the rest of the group.

  ”I need the medical kit, we may have a twin coming,” Callie said.

  ”A what?!” Stern gasped.

  ”I’ll get it!” Carlie said, having already turned and started running back to the house. When she got to the halfway point back to the house Kane came out the front door holding a container.

  ”Get the medical kit!” Carlie called out to him. Kane looked surprised but turned around and then went back into the house. When he emerged again he had the medical kit in one hand and the container in the other. He started walking towards Carlie, Carlie ran up to him, grabbed the kit from him and started running back.

  By the time Carlie made it back with the medical kit, Callie had already rolled up the little bit of sleeve she had and was massaging Charlotte's backside. The Cowk Mother had moved herself to Charlotte’s side and was gently baying at the cow.

  Carlie opened the kit for Callie, Callie brought out a shoulder length glove and quickly put it on. She grabbed something else from the kit and put it on the arm of the glove. Callie quickly felt inside Charlotte, she gave a small smile to the rest of the group.

  ”I can feel it, it is still alive,” Callie said through the strain of reaching into Charlotte’’s backside.

  ”How can you tell?” A stunned Phillip asked.

  ”It suckles,” Jonny Boy gave out a happy noise.

  ”Now the hard part,” Callie said as Kane came up with the molasses water. He offered it to Charlotte who gladly drank it.

  ”I’m tired,” was all Charlotte said as she finished drinking the molasses water.

  ”We are here to help, you just need to get it out enough that we can help,” Callie said.

  The Cowk Mother turned so that her body was against Charlotte's but her head was facing Callie. Suddenly a glow formed around the Cowk Mother and Charlotte. Callie had removed her hand so she wasn’t included in the glow. As the glow started to die down Charlotte gave out a cry of labor pain. A short time later Callie could see the hooves of the second baby.

  ”I need help!” Callie called, grabbing the baby's hooves.

  Kane came over to help his wife. Each of them grabbed a hoof.

  “We need to pull evenly, remember?” Callie asked, looking at Kane.

  ”But only when we feel the pressure ease,” Kane recited remembering the different trainings and conferences he had ‘unintentionally’ listened to when Callie said she wanted to get cows.

  They waited but when they felt what they were waiting for they gently pulled. The babies’ nose and head appeared. They waited again, the next pull the baby came free hitting the ground.

  ”Shit! You didn’t catch it!” Stern cried.

  ”It’s okay, it helps jump start the baby,” Kane said smiling slightly at his concerned friend.

  Charlotte turned and started licking the baby. A few short breaths later and the baby let out a wheeze and then a cry. Callie bent down removing the mucus liner from the baby's face smiling as she did so. Charlotte continued her job as the first baby worked on getting to its feet. Once it was up it unsteadily walked over to Charlotte and started suckling.

  ”Good baby,” Callie said just over a whisper.

  Callie and Kane backed away from the second baby letting Charlotte do what she did best. They had had one other female but that cow wasn’t as good of a mom as Charlotte so they had sold her to a couple down the street who weren’t interested in breeding. Callie had been sad to see the cow go, but Charlotte had been amazing for them, and she was a good mom.

  A short time later the second baby got to its feet and despite falling twice made its way to feed as well.

  “Good baby,” Callie repeated, “Good momma.”

  Callie started to take the glove off seeing the beginning of the afterbirth starting to come. Charlotte shouldn’t need any more assistance now. The group, following the lead of Callie and Kane, moved away from the newborns and the cowk circle.

  ”Jonny Boy, what happened here last night?” Kane finally asked, seeing that Jonny Boy had walked away with them.

  Jonny Boy dropped his head and let out a sorrowful cry. As he did, one of the bulls came over. Jonah also came over, having not been allowed to move previously by Zeus. Zeus finally decided to come over to the broken fence line allowing Jonah to move with him.

  ”We didn’t see it coming, it sounded like thunder at first,” Jonny Boy started raising his head slightly, “First were the arcanus, there were so many of them. At first they just passed by just on the other side of the fence line. Then came the badgers, they didn’t keep going.”

  Jonny Boy stopped and put his head back down.

  ”Common mass formation,” Jonah said, shrugging his shoulders, “Usually many animals, put ahead of mages.”

  ”Okay . . . .” Kane said looking at Jonah and then turning back to Jonny Boy, “What happened next?”

  ”It wasn’t all of the badgers or none of us would have survived thank goodness, but some of them turned and ripped open the fence. The bulls put themselves in front of the cowks to try to protect them. What we didn’t know was the snagon’s were coming next. The snagon’s passed us like we were nothing but then more badgers and humanuras came and took one of the yearlings before we even knew they were there,” Jonny Boy continued, but his excitement seemed to be rising, “It was horrible but the bulls split their forces. They were incredible!”

  Kane had a sneaking suspicion that some elaboration was about to come. As Jonny Boy continued, his story started seeming more and more fabricated. When it started to sound like there were eight bulls fighting and defending, Kane knew the story had gone from truthful to fantasy. Kane looked at Stern and Phillip who also weren’t buying anything Jonny Boy was saying.

  ”And then I kicked it and it died!” Jonny Boy finished his story.

  ”Um . . . Thanks Jonny Boy,” Kane said, not sure what to say after sitting through the story.

  ”Let . . . Let’s go check on the goats,” Callie finally said, breaking the stunned silence, “Thanks for the . . . . The information Jonny Boy," Callie added.

  Callie started heading towards the goat pens. Kane patted Jonny Boy on the head before following.

  “Thank you little cowk,” Jonah said with a slight bow and then walked with the rest.

  When they got closer to the goats they heard them quietly chewing their cud. Callie paused before going through the open gate to the goats. She decided to take a look at the chickens first. She knew at least one snagon had moved past the cowks to go after the chickens, so at least that part of Jonny Boy’s story was right.

  Charzar was perched on the hole in the chicken run. Callie smiled at him.

  ”Doing okay?” She asked the chicken.

  ”Yup, just waiting,” Charzar squacked.

  ”Waiting for what?” Callie asked.

  ”Not sure, but I don’t think that was the last time something will try to kill us,” Charzar said before puffing up and fluffing his feathers.

  Callie nodded in acknowledgement and then turned back to where Kane and the others had gone into the goat’s pen. As she walked in to stand next to them she heard Kane asking Turbo questions, but it was sounding a bit like a free-for-all with all the goats trying to answer at once.

  Through the chaos of multiple goats talking, Alex hopped his way into the goat pen grabbing onto Callie’s leg as he stopped next to her.

  ”My Lady, the humanura said more was to come,” Alex said practically in a whisper. Callie looked over to the rest of the group who seemed thoroughly distracted by the frantic story telling of the goats.

  Callie ushered Alex back out of the goat pen and to the small bench she had next to the shed.

  ”Alex, tell me what happened last night. And please, don’t elaborate, I need to know exactly what happened,” Callie told the creature as he hopped up onto the bench next to her.

  ”My Lady, they sent an army! I don’t know if that army was meant for us, but it certainly decided we were part of the targets it was meant for,” Alex began with intense sorrow in his voice.

  ”I’m sorry Alex, but please, I need to know,” Callie cooed at the poor creature trying to encourage him to continue.

  ”As you heard last night, there were two waves. I was sitting on the roof of my hut waiting for My Lady to come home when I saw them. The first wave was further away and should have passed by us,” Alex pointed to the east where the cow pasture was and then stopped seemingly to think before he continued, “There were arcanus, burs, snagon’s and badgers in that group. A badger stopped and looked at the cowks, I think it smelt the new babies, because it ripped through the fence and ran straight at the cowks. The bulls thankfully got between it and the cowks.”

  Alex stopped and a single yellow tinted tear dripped down his face.

  “It’s okay Alex,” Callie soothed, not sure what else to do but knowing he needed to keep going. The commotion from the goat pen showed they weren’t going to get an accurate story from the goats, and she knew Jonny Boy had fabricated most of his story. Either because he didn’t know or he didn’t want to remember.

  With a deep breath Alex continued, “What the bulls didn’t see was the second wave coming straight from that way," Alex pointed to the north.

  Callie nodded.

  ”The second wave had badgers and snagon’s but not arcanus. I thought I would be safe if I went to the goats because I thought the first wave didn’t stop. The arcanus had looped around and went to the goats. I saw the baby get hit by an arcanus as I ran up. The boys did their best to protect everyone but the arcanus were quick. I know there was at least 2 arcanus but I started to run back to my hut after I saw the baby go down. So many young have been killed in this war, I couldn’t stand to see young here die the same way.”

  Alex was fully crying at this point. Callie started, carefully, but gently petting Alex. Alex cried for a short bit and then seemed to calm himself down enough to continue his story.

  ”I didn’t make it back to my hut, the badgers and snagon’s were attacking the cowks. And at least one snagon slithered past me, I froze My Lady, I can’t fight a snagon. Many of my kind have tried and failed.”

  ”It’s okay Alex,” Callie reassured, “What happened next?”

  ”Since the snagon cut me off from my hut, I went the other direction and saw a huddle of snagon’s go through the cowk pasture. Only one stayed to attack, the rest seemed entranced to keep going. More badgers came too, but only a few fought the cowks. I don’t know how many fought, but at least,” Alex held up two of his hands like he was counting his fingers, “six kept going with the snagon’s. Then I saw the humanura.”

  Fear came across Alex’s face as he mentioned the humanoid creature. Callie looked up hearing footsteps, she hadn’t realized the goats had gone silent and her friends were slowly walking towards her and Alex.

  ”There were at least. five humanura. One of them was a mage in its long cloth. It looked at the cowks and then over at the goats, I don’t think it saw me but I ran into the grass anyway. The mage pointed to two of the humanura and then it and the other two went with the burs and the rest of the badgers and snagon’s following the others. The two humanura joined the badgers. One of them killed the baby! Why would it kill the baby! Then it killed the mom cowk. Why would it kill something so beautiful! Why would it kill them?!”

  Alex started crying again burying his face into Callie’s side. Callie looked up at Kane who was now standing in front of her. Callie could feel the tightness in her chest and the tears starting to roll down her face. The humanura had targeted the weakest members of the herd, intentionally. How could she answer Alex’s question when she couldn’t fathom a reason herself.

  ”If Frowlers is not gone, need to see face now!” The anger in Jonah’s voice ripped through them all causing Callie to jump startled.

  ”I . . . I think I remember where that one would be. It was probably the one that tried to ambush me,” Kane jumped at first but then composed himself and started heading towards the pasture.

  The group followed, Callie gently petting Alex before she stood up to follow.

  Kane zigzagged a little through the pasture feeling a bit disorientated from maneuvering last night in the dark versus now in the daylight. Quickly he found the gully where they had buried the humanura. Kane could see the dirt pile settling quickly like whatever was underneath it was disappearing. Kane took a quick moment to remember which way he had run from to get to that gully and then took off running in the direction he thought was right.

  A few moments later he saw the body starting to turn to ash to his left. Because he had killed the creature after the other humanura, not as much of it was gone yet. Jonah must have seen the humanura too, because he took off at a run, quickly outpacing Kane, to get to the creature.

  Jonah stopped barely disturbing the soil versus Kane who came sliding to a halt beside him, almost kicking dirt onto the creature. Blood had pooled under the humanura, Kane couldn’t help but wonder if the blood would stay after the body had disappeared. Then Kane saw in his periphery Jonah kneel down and turn the face of the humanura towards him.

  “Maledictus!” Jonah hissed quickly getting back to his feet, “Cursed one. Havornus was our most skilled warrior before war. He was bad before Frowler take him to join against Hunters.”

  ”Jonah, you know this thing?” Kane asked, stunned.

  ”He killed many humanura and many druids who support Frowler,” Jonah was nearly spitting from the anger in his voice, “Harvornus worst of Frowlers, does not deserve name of choosen!”

  ”Jonah, who are the chosen?” Kane asked, trying to take in everything Jonah was saying as the rest of the group caught up to them.

  ”Frowler chose humanura to teach and make whole, Frowler did not create humanura as Hunters say. He merely found and try make whole,” Jonah looked stunned at Kane’s question.

  ”Jonah, who was the other humanura? The one we buried last night?” Kane asked.

  Jonah bowed his head and sorrow was written over his face, “Amicus, frater, he was my brother, my friend. He join Frowlers against Hunters when mother killed.”

  “I’m sorry Jonah,” Callie said, stepping up to gently touch Jonah’s arm. Jonah shrugged away at first but after taking a look at Callie’s face he relaxed and let her touch him.

  ”Jonah, what happened in your world?” Carlie asked the question everybody had been wondering.

  ”Too much but not enough,” Jonah dropped his head again.

  ”Jonah, how did you come here?” Kane asked.

  Jonah looked Kane straight in the eyes, making Kane uncomfortable as those oversized orbs stared at him, “Jonah told warn last Druid, Jonah was running to get him, Rift opened and Jonah came through.”

  The group just stared at Jonah.

  “Kane, could Josie be a Druid? She hasn’t told us what she is,” Callie asked, not hiding the fear in her question.

  ”Jonah protect Josie now,” Jonah said, confirming what Callie was hoping wasn’t true.

  “Jonah, who do you need to protect Josie from?” Kane asked, feeling anger welling up inside himself. No one was going to hurt his child.

  ”Hunters, mages, Frowlers,” Jonah was looking back towards the house, “Frowler was Druid, they blame druid.”

  ”Kane, what are we going to do?” Callie felt genuine fear now.

  ”Jonah, did the creatures attack because of Josie? Because they were looking for her?” Kane asked not hiding the anger in his voice.

  Jonah turned back to Kane. He didn’t speak for a few moments, “I don't think so, mage would have stayed if was looking for Josie.”

  Kane looked at Callie, “Jonah, you need to tell us everything you know.”

  ”Jonah was young when bellum start, Jonah only knows now,” Jonah said.

  ”What is bellum? That’s not English,” Stern finally spoke up, sounding just as angry as Kane.

  ”Frowler give humanura talk, seniores say he give talk of great people, Romani, Romans,” Jonah said through hesitating words.

  ”Romans! He taught you Latin!” Phillip burst out with utter shock in his voice.

  ”Frowler told seniores that great people have great language,” Jonah tried to explain.

  “Holy shit,” Phillip and Kane said slightly off from each other.

  The group stood there in silence as the humanura at their feet continued to devolve into ash-like wisps. The wisps flying back to the Rift.

  “Why is it doing that?” Stern asked.

  ”Humanura cursed, can not go back to dust,” Jonah sighed and then turned walking back towards the house.

  ”What the hell does that mean!?” Stern yelled angrily after Jonah.

  ”Let’s finish checking and feeding the animals, we need to figure out what we are going to do,” Callie suggested, though exhaustion had creeped into her voice.

  Callie, followed by the rest, headed up towards where the cowks and cows had all gathered. Callie made quick work of checking the wounds, only one of the bulls needed his wrappings redone. The goats, though still uneasy, seemed to be fine and not needing extra care. Even the baby that was on death's door not twelve hours before was doing better. When they got over to the meat chicken area, they could see feathers scattered showing they had indeed lost at least one chicken to the snagon. When Callie took a closer look and then counted the best she could it turned out they had lost two chickens.

  Having finished their inspections and the feedings, the group headed back to the house. Jonah was sitting on the steps leading to the front door. As they got closer they saw that Josie was sitting with him.

  ”Josie, why are you outside?” Callie asked with great worry in her voice jogging slightly to get closer to her daughter.

  ”I wanted to make sure Jonah was still here,” Josie said in a matter-of-fact way, clapping her hand onto Jonah’s over and over again.

  “Little Druid is safe for now,” Jonah said, not taking his eyes away from his hands that Josie was still clapping.

  ”Jonah, we still need to know as much as we can so we can keep our families safe,” Kane said with little feeling in his voice.

  ”I know. Little Druid doesn’t need to hear,” Jonah said, still not moving.

  ”Mom, can we play outside?” Josie asked, finally stopping the clapping and looked up at her mom.

  Callie looked over at Kane.

  ”I think all the kids could use some fresh air,” Carlie said when no one moved or said anything, “We can talk outside while they play.”

  ”Plus I don’t think Jonah would fit inside the house very well,” Stern said with a smile on his face.

  ”No, humanura don’t . . . fit in Hunter's homes,” Jonah said, finally looking away from Josie and looking towards the front door.

  ”If those humans who attacked us are Hunters, then I want to be called anything else,” Phillip grumbled folding his arms.

  ”Lazy, fat, hungry, what else do you want to be called,” Stern laughed gently, thumping Phillip on the shoulder.

  Phillip just glared at Stern.

  ”How about punching bags,” Kane laughed.

  ”I’ll show you a punching bag,” Phillip finally relaxed and started laughing with his friends.

  ”Go get the rest of the girls,” Carlie smiled at Josie.

  Jonah got up when Josie did, for the first time he looked unsure of what to do next as Josie ran inside calling for her sister and the rest of the girls.

  “Let’s go to the backyard,” Callie suggested.

  Jonah nodded slightly and followed Callie. Alex appeared behind Callie between her and Jonah. Kane wasn’t sure where exactly he had come from, he just kind of appeared. Alex had a swollen face probably from crying, but he had a very untrusting look on his face as he kept turning around to look at Jonah as they went around the corner of the house.

  ”Kane, we are going to need an extra chair, um, or something for Jonah to sit on,” Callie said over her shoulder.

  ”I will be fine,” Jonah said before Kane could respond.

  Callie just shrugged and continued to walk towards the outdoor table that was set up in the middle of a small area that was mowed in the backyard.