The old man looked down at the fire, then over at Kurt, the glimmer of a tear in the corner of an eye.
“We still have the hearts of men. We can be hurt in our hearts. I have seen many beloved lovers fade away, dying of old age, or disease, or from the cruelties of the world. While I go on and on. At first I would isolate myself from those shorter lived people around me. But I am human, and loneliness eventually wins the battle.”
Kurt could feel the sorrow in the man that sat across the fire from him. The desperate loneliness that wrapped the man like a mantel. He had felt some of that himself, in his hundred odd years. A wife who went to the grave while he, her husband, was still young and vital. Seeing nieces and nephews follow, though no children, for his wife would not conceive of him.
“Can we have children?” he finally asked. “And what is their fate?”
“I have had children,” said Levine, looking up into the face of the German. “As far as I can tell, from my case alone, we are fertile, though not as much as shorter lived humans. I have had a dozen children through my life. Never more than one on the same woman. They all lived to ripe old ages, those not killed in some other manner. But plagues would not kill them, and the oldest lived to over a century and a half.”
“And can we reproduce among ourselves?”
“Of that I am not sure,” said Levine, a smile coming to his face. “I have never met any women among those few immortals I have known. But perhaps now I can find out.”
Kurt gave the other Immortal a confused look. Levine grinned back at him and continued.
“I saw how you looked at that young woman when first we met her. And ever since there has been a thunderstruck look to you when you gaze at her.”
“Gaze at who?” asked Jackie, wandering into the campsite. She moved with the grace of a panther, despite her armor, and Kurt caught himself holding his breath as he looked into those ice blue eyes that contrasted with her dark face.
“No one in particular,” said Levine, glancing at Kurt, then looking back at Jackie. “And how went your night?” he continued in barely accented German.
“Your German is getting better,” she replied in the same language, taking a seat on a section of log near the fire.
“Practice, my dear,” said the smiling elder. “When you can speak dozens of languages, some will suffer a lack of fluency from lack of use. They are always there to be taken out into the light and polished. But back to you. Did you fare well through the night?”
Jackie looked at the small fire for a moment, a slight smile playing over her face. She looked back at the Immortal and sighed.
“It was almost too easy,” she finally said, shaking her head. “I mean, I went into last night literally shaking in my boots. I was terrified of what I was going to face. The only reason I could face them was that you two seemed to have no fear, and I wasn’t going to act like a coward in front of you.”
“I was afraid too, Fraulein,” said Kurt with a smile. “But I learned in the Great War not to show fear, especially in front of the men.”
“Well, I’m not a combat veteran,” said the woman after sticking her tongue out at the German. “I guess I am now, to a point. But as I was saying, I was afraid. And then these snarling beasts came out of the night and I slaughtered them. I mean they were stronger than a human, and much faster. And I was stronger and faster than they were. They couldn’t penetrate my armor, and only caused superficial wounds to the parts their claws could reach, while my weapons cut and killed. I saw one who had been hit by over a dozen arrows pull them out and keep coming while its wounds healed. No wounds healed that were made by these wonderful swords.” As she said that last she slapped the hilts that protruded over her shoulders.
“And you said you were injured,” said Levine with a sideways glance. “Superficial wounds, I think you said.”
“Some scratches on my wrists, where the mail hiked up and the gloves didn’t reach,” she admitted. “One large scratch across my face. And of course bruises all over from wearing that damned chain mail. But everything healed up, as far as I know.”
“Wounds from the werebeasts are known as a way of contracting the curse,” said Levine, looking intently at the young woman. “Or so go the tales on our world, and it appears our legends came from this world.”
Her dark face paled as she looked at the ancient Immortal, and she looked as if she were about to be sick.
“I don’t think the curse will hold for us,” said Levine, a wide smile on his face. “Any more than any other disease or condition. But it might be a good idea to watch you as the moon rises next, just to be sure. And it would be a good idea to secure a gambeson to wear under that mail. Bruising will not of course last, and you will heal quickly every time. But why go through the discomfort when you don’t have to.”
“But I really am invulnerable,” said the young woman. “I’ll live forever and I can’t be hurt. I guess I was still in a daze recovering from that Troll attack. But now it’s sinking in.”
“I was cautioning my large friend on just that subject,” said Levine, shaking his head. “As I told you before, we can be killed, though at times it seems we are undying. I have seen some of our kind go into the final darkness. It’s difficult to kill us, but not impossible. So listen, young Fraulein, while I tell you of the weaknesses I know, and the manner in which you can live a longer than normal lifespan, if you take care.”
* * *
Dr. Vogel Kreigel knew that he was dying, and there was not a thing he could do about it except lie under the tree and let it happen. The wolves refused to leave him, though he had kept on trying to tell them to go on, to save themselves over the last day. But the six large males had kept watch over him through the night, and were still arranged around his tree come morning.
[Please get out of here before those damned things come back,] he sent with his mind and his new found telepathy at White Paws, the largest of the wolves and the one that was lying closest to him. The wolf pulled his head off of the dying man’s lap and licked his face, sending a wave of soothing warmth through the connection, taking away most of the human’s pain and transferring it to the small pack. A few of the wolves whimpered, but most just took the pain with stoic resolve and continued their watch.
[We will not leave you, friend Vogel,] came the powerful mind of the wolf, linked in some fashion to the other canines in the pack. [We will defend you until the life leaves your body, or the lives leave ours. None of the ugly humans will again hurt you while we are alive.]
The biologist sent back the emotions he felt through the mental circuit. The big canines whimpered and whined softly, and another of the males, Rogue, he of the black mask, licked the other side of his face.
Too bad they don’t have hands, he thought to himself. Then they might have been able to remove the arrow and stop the internal bleeding. He had thought about telling them to seek other people. But the only people he had so far seen on this world had been hostile. And there was no guarantee that humans from his world, if there were any such here, would see the canines as anything but a threat. He refused to risk them in such a manner. They were too important to him. They had been a long term project of his and the university, and they were his beloved pets. The man found himself tearing up as he looked at his charges.
Each of the animals was in the sixty-five to ninety kilogram range, much larger than any extant wolf on Earth. Their heads were larger compared to their bodies than any other canines on Earth, with a large domed forehead that contained brains the size of a Chimpanzee. Those brains carried the intelligence of those large manlike primates as well. The wolves had the same superior sense of smell and hearing as their wild cousins, meaning among the best of any land animal on the planet. But their blue/green eyes were as good as a human’s, both in acuity and depth perception, while their night vision was still as good as most wild canines. They were the best that mankind could engineer, and it was hoped that they might prove useful in many of the tasks in whi
ch dogs were used.
Before the nuclear blast had washed over the research facility, where the scientist had been taking care of the animals in their fenced in run, no one had suspected the other gifts the creatures had possessed. Gifts that only became apparent in this new and strange world that they now found themselves in.
Dr. Kreigel had wondered at first if he was going mad. He had good reason to believe so. After all, he had just survived a nearby nuclear blast which should have killed him and his genetically engineered charges. Then reality had changed, the world disappeared, and a new one surrounded him. And then his wolves had talked to him, both individually and as a group. He was sure that it was a hallucination, until the wolves started telling him things that they were about to do, and then demonstrated in front of him their ability to do so.
The individual communications were something like talking with a slightly retarded young child. The group communications, as the six welded their individual minds into one, were amazing, like having a discussion with a bright twelve year old. Not really that, though. There was a different quality to the minds of the canines, and they would probably never achieve a human intelligence, though what they had was light years ahead of any other nonhuman animal.
The wolves had caught their own food without being taught when they first landed in this place. They hunted as one animal with six bodies, all knowing exactly what the others were doing and performing their tasks with absolute efficiency. Meat in the form of pork and venison had been plentiful, even as the super canines had chided their master and friend about cooking his over the nightly fire.
The day after arriving the pack had run into a resident pack, twelve snarling adults and a number of juveniles. The residents had been angry that some other canines, and ones that smelled strange at that, had usurped their hunting grounds. The native wolves, though much smaller, were still large and fierce creatures, which had moved in for the kill of the outnumbered super wolves. And then a change had come over them as the Earth animals beamed their thoughts and emotions into the brains of the natives. They had gone from fierce to frightened in an instant and had crept away. Creeping turned into a yelping, running flight about a hundred meters out, and the wolves were gone.
Dr. Kriegel has almost resigned himself to being the only human on this planet, as far as he knew. And then last night they had run into the ugly humans, as the wolves called them. The wolves had been on the hunt, and the grotesque creatures had come upon the human before he knew they were there. The arrow had caught him in the ribs, missing his heart but piercing one of his lungs, and the creatures had come in for the kill.
Suddenly the wolves were there, slinking silently out of the shadows. The ugly men had been startled, and before any of them could fire they all quivered in fear, dropping their weapons and running away. Over a dozen of them did not get away, dragged down by the great canines and their lives torn from them.
The wolves had encouraged Kreigel to move away from the site of the killings. He had walked when he could, crawled when he had to, and found this spot near a small clear stream from which he could slake his thirst when he had need. But he was dying, and was sure that he would soon bleed out.
[Someone comes, friend Vogel,] came the transmission from the wolves. [Many men, riding on large animals.]
[Are they the ugly men, my brothers?] thought the human, wondering again how he would get the wolves to leave him, that they might survive when he did not. He wanted the wonderful creatures to go on. If not on Earth, then in this place. Surely they would be able to find mates, and the superior genes in the wolves would breed true in the hybrids that would be birthed.
[They are not the ugly men, friend Vogel], came the transmission. [One wolf sees them now, and sees that they are different. They ride on beasts similar to those you call horses. But not quite the same. We sense a goodness about these men, though we will still watch them closely.]
Now Kreigel could hear the sounds of a large mounted party approaching. The creaking of leather mingled with the jingling of steel and strange high voices speaking in a musical language like none he had heard before. He wondered if these were angels coming for him, and he was soon too depart this world.
Then the first of the men on the back of their mounts were before him. One raised a bow, arrow notched, aimed at the nearest wolf. One of the men beside him lay a hand on the other man’s bow arm and gently pushed the weapon down. The wolves were all on their feet now, watching the men intently, and Vogel could feel the psychic power of the beasts beaming toward the men. One shook his head and then doffed his helm, and the human’s eyes grew wide at the sight.
The man had wide blue eyes set in a fine featured face, with a fair, lightly freckled skin. Shoulder length blond hair hid all but the tips of his pointed ears. He wore greenish brown clothing, from which peeked the shining chain mail that he wore under the cloth. The hilt of a long sword jutted at one hip, while the feathered shafts of arrows showed over his left shoulder. High horseman’s boots of supple leather covered his feet.
As he started to dismount Kreigel’s eyes registered the mount, which was not a horse any more than a house cat is a tiger. For the mount, with glossy white coat and clear eyes, sported a meter long horn growing out of the center of its forehead. And he noted that the other mounts moved with a grace that could not be matched by more normal equines, as if a deer had grown into a horse’s body.
The Elf, for Kreigel thought he must be one of that mythical race, landed softly on his feet and walked with a slow calm grace toward the human. He kept his hands in sight, and lowered them when two of the wolves approached, sniffing at his digits. The man showed no fear, coming up to the recumbent human and kneeling beside him.
The Elf spoke, and Kreigel could not understand a word. But the minds of the wolves opened up to him, and he could see the surface thoughts of the Elf, and read the concern of the man for him. And something about the prophecy, though the wolves did not read deep enough to tell him what that meant.
More speech brought his attention back to the other Elves, and the score more that had ridden up while he watched the approach of the one. One of the riders dismounted, leaving his unicorn to graze without worrying about securing the beast or having one of his men hold it. Kreigel could tell that this one was a ranking member of the party by the way he held himself, as well as the jeweled hilt of the sword buckled to his side. The Elf approached as the first examined him and his arrow wound. The Commander stood over the human and spoke that musical speech, while the human biologist shook his head.
[Can you understand me now?] came the voice into his head in halting German. [Your animals are bridging the gap between us in some manner that I do not understand. Some of my people are telepathic, though we normally need at least an inkling of the language we will communicate in.]
[I can understand you,] thought Kreigel in wonder. He hadn’t thought that he had any telepathic ability, though the wolves had communicated with him easily enough. But this creature had just intimated that humanoids could speak mind to mind. And he just might have some little bit of ability himself, on this world.
[You are sorely wounded, man], thought the chief of the Elves to him. [I have a healer with me who may be able to help you. Would you allow him to work on you?]
Kreigel nodded his acceptance as he coughed, feeling, tasting, some blood coming up into his mouth. The Elf stood up and yelled something, then knelt back at the side of the man. White Paws ambled over and placed his head on the human scientist’s lap, letting out a sigh.
[These are your animals?] thought the Elf, his name coming over another band of the mental circuit, High Commander Fenris Hallanta.
[I created them,] said the scientist, thinking how fitting the Commander’s name was. Fenris the wolf, though it probably didn’t translate here the same as it did in his world.
[Are you a wizard then, to create life out of nothingness?]
[Not that kind of creation,] thought Kreigel, chuckling to
himself through the pain. [More like selective breeding. But with a bit of a difference. We actually manipulated the genes of these creatures to make them what we wanted them to be.]
[I don’t understand this term, gene,] thought the Elf, who considered himself an Ellala, whatever that was. [But I think I get the gist of it. You manipulated that in the seed and egg that make us as we are. Wasn’t that arrogant of you, though the result seems to be good?] The Ellala was now running his hands over the soft fur of the wolf, his eyes marveling at the size and strength of the animal.
[It is the way of things from my world,] thought Kreigel, as another of the Ellala approached. This one wore the same clothing and armor as his fellows, but carried a bag over his shoulder, and wore a symbol of silver on his breast. The other Ellala made signs at their forehead as the man passed, and several sent him what could only be described as loving smiles.
White Paws lifted his head from Kreigel’s lap and backed up, his manner calm but focused on the approaching Ellala. That worthy knelt down by the side of the human and ran his fingers over the wound and the stump of the arrow jutting out. He said a few words to the Commander, who spoke back, then looked at Kreiger.
[The healer will attempt to remove the arrow and bind your wound,] thought the Ellala leader. [It may cause pain. It may not. You must tell your beasts to not interfere.]
[That we already know,] came the mind of the small pack, and the Ellala Commander’s eyes widened. [We will not interfere in your attempt to aid our brother and friend.]
Refuge: The Arrival: Book 2 Page 12
