The baby curled his tiny hand around the old man’s finger and smiled up at him, but the intense ache in the man’s heart choked off his response.

The infant’s joy was replaced by a trembling cry and the man fumbled inside his cloak, pulled out a small stone hammer, and laid it on the infant’s bare chest.

The baby’s slender hands wrapped around the smooth handle, his cries ceased, and the child fell into a peaceful sleep. A soft glow from the base of the hammer illuminated the gentle face of the sleeping boy.

If only he could be that calm. The thought of returning home without his son was tying him in knots. The plan seemed sensible at first, leaving the hammer here with his son until he was old enough to return and lead his people to victory. Now the old man found himself fighting the urge to take the child, retreat through the portal door and close it forever behind him.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

He thrust the idea aside. Giving in to his fears would lead to disaster for both worlds. There was no choice but to leave his son behind in this strange world, with its wide-open spaces and searing heat.

He scanned the vast plain toward the ridge of hills on the horizon. Somehow the people his son was to live with had taken the pointed homes of their settlement away, leaving only circles of stones behind. Where had they gone and would their leader even arrive in time? He had seen the man astride a long-legged beast that shook the ground as it ran. Surely that creature could bring the leader back to fulfill their arrangement.

The baby stirred and the man rocked him gently in his arms. Turning his infant son over to a people he had observed only from a distance did not bother him, for the hammer had assured him their leader was a man of honor.

The first harsh rays of a new day glinted off the polished stone and bit at his face.

His plan had failed. Disappointment mixed with a sense of relief as he hugged the child to his chest and stepped back into the circle of rocks behind him.

As he turned toward the open door, he heard the drum of distant hoof beats.