“I’ll see you in about a week, mom. Love you.” I hugged my tiny mother goodbye.

“I’ll miss you, sweetheart. Please be careful, okay? Watch for snakes. You know how they are as it gets colder. I’ll see you when you get back. Have fun!” She held me as tightly as she could for a moment, then let me go, her worried smile plastered on her face as it always was whenever I left.

I loaded the last of the gear into my little car, got in and drove off to go camping in a nice spot I’d found several years prior. It was a little ways away from civilization, but that was a huge part of its draw for me. I’d been camping there since I’d found it all those years ago. It was peaceful. A small river was just a few hundred yards away from the rock face I used as a shelter. The rushing water always helped calm and ground me. I wasn’t dumb, however. I still set up a tent and all, but the rocky overhang helped radiate the warmth of the fire all around me. It was pretty cozy, all things considered. Yes, I was definitely looking forward to this next week.

I got to my campsite about four hours before dusk, and hurriedly made camp. I figured I’d just sleep the first night, and go wandering tomorrow. I pulled the five bundles of well-seasoned hickory wood from the car and set them up under the overhang, so they’d keep dry. I’d use one or two for the first night, and bring more firewood back later. The weather report showed no signs of rain for the next three weeks, so I figured I’d be pretty safe from the rain. Still brought the poncho, though. No sense in being unprepared, right? I set the fire, and just sat, watching the night and listening to the river. I wasn’t terribly concerned about coyotes or bobcats or mountain lions. Most of them stayed away from people, and those that would possibly approach were likely to be starved or desperate. I kept a .357 and a .30-06 with me at all times, along with a wickedly sharp hunting knife. I didn’t think bringing my bow would be of much use camping, especially in an emergency situation, so I left it at home.

After some time simply sitting and watching the fire, listening to the sounds of nature, I started dozing. I figured it was a good time to turn in. I set a couple more logs on the fire, to help keep me warm through the night, and crawled into my little tent to sleep.

I woke to the sound of a few crows fussing over something nearby, with the early morning sun starting to light up the woods. It was quite a bit colder than I was expecting, so I raised my head to the mesh window of my door flap, expecting to find one of the large, beautiful, dark-colored birds sitting on my camp chair, preening and staking his claim to a new thing.

What I saw, instead, were three people going through my things with no regard to whom it may belong to. Since they hadn’t seen or heard me, I withdrew, collected my pistol, and stepped out to confront them.

“Is any of that yours, perchance?” I made sure to speak in as loud and forceful a tone I could calmly manage. The three of them flinched and stood stock still, their backs to me. They were small; about half my height, and wrapped in what looked like cloaks and fur caps. It was a bit chilly, so the clothing made sense. I cleared my throat loudly. One of them slowly turned around, his hands raised slightly. His face was an odd bluish-gray, his nose slightly pointed, and his eyes were yellow.

“Jika kancinci mawethu.” he said in a thick, raspy voice. At his words, the other two dropped what they had, raised their hands slightly, and turned around. They all looked similar. The smallest of the three took a hesitant step forward, and I whipped the barrel of my pistol towards his face. “Siyaxolisa. Sifuna nje ukutya, kwaye sicinga ukuba akukho mntu apha. Ungasenzakalisi.” I could hear some pleading in his words, even though I couldn’t understand a word of it. I shook my head, and lowered my pistol slowly. This could be bad, but I didn’t know if these were kids or not. The three relaxed visibly. I tucked the pistol into its holster on my belt.

“Are you boys hungry?” The three flinched again at my voice, and I realized they probably couldn’t understand me. I nodded to myself, and rubbed my belly, then pointed at my open mouth, hoping they could understand that. The tall one perked up and said “Ukutya! Ewe.” I motioned for them to stay put, and dipped back into my tent, pulling out some of the dried fruit and jerky I’d made a couple months prior, just for this trip. It wasn’t much, but a little dried meat and fruit would be a simple thing I could give them. I emerged, holding a small bag of each. “Here you go. Some fruit and meat. It’s what I have. Sorry I can’t help more.” They flinched again, and I cocked my head to the side. What a weird reaction to my voice. I shrugged and offered them the food, and they took it gratefully.

I smiled and walked past them to the cold ash of last night’s fire. I should build it back up. It was pretty cold for early October. I laid some kindling and wood on top of the cold ash. “Time for a fire.” As I spoke these words, a small bolt of flame traveled from my right hand into the wood, and set it alight. I scrambled backwards, shocked beyond belief. “What the fuck just happened?” I started panting. The three kids jumped back as they heard the whoosh of the fire catching alight, and started to silently cry. I looked at them, wide-eyed, fear plastered across my face. “What did I just do?!”

They slowly backed away from me, clutching the food. “Wait! Stop right there! Tell me what is going on!” They stood stock still, terrified. I walked over to them, and I could hear the crying start anew. “Hey, hey, hey. Shh. Don’t cry, please. I’m just as scared as you are.” I knelt down, so I could be on their own level. I reached out, and gently put my hands on the largest of the three’s shoulder. “It’s okay. I promise, I’m not going to hurt you. Can you please tell me your name?” I placed my hand on my chest. “I’m Ivor.” I patted my chest. “Ivor.” I gently touched his other arm. “You are?” The poor thing was crying hard, obviously terrified. I dug into my pocket and pulled out the cloth I used to clean my glasses with, and gently dried his cheeks. “None of that, now. You’re safe. I promise.” I touched my chest again, and repeated my name, then touched his arm.

This time he seemed to understand, and in between sniffles he said “Ahte-tan.” I smiled broadly.

“Well, Ahte-tan, I’m glad to meet you.” I pointed at my mouth, and with my hand, pantomimed speaking, then touched his ear and shook my head. He shook his own, and I sighed. I sat down and gently took the bag from him, and pulled out a piece of dried apple and meat. I returned the bag and pointed at the fruit. “Apple.” I pointed at the jerky. “Beef.” I took a bite of each and smiled. “It’s okay, Ahte-tan. Eat. Uhhh… ukutya?” He perked up at his own language and took a hesitant bite of the dried apple. I noticed his teeth were all sharp, pointy and small. He spit it out, making a face, and took a bite of the meat, and his eyes got huge. I laughed and motioned for him to keep going. “It’s okay. You can go ahead and share with your brothers.” I kept eating the piece I had, and just watched them.

The wind started blowing a little harder, and I shivered. I stood up and walked back to the fire, and set another log onto it. Why was it so damn cold in Kentucky in early October? Something wasn’t right. I noticed the three hadn’t followed, so I looked back at them. They still stood where I left them. “You boys can come sit over here and keep warm, if you want.” As I spoke, they seemed to relax and scurried back over, huddling around the fire. I went back into my tent and retrieved my jacket, knife and the rifle. Something was definitely wrong. I didn’t know what, but these kids were definitely afraid of something.

I walked back out, fully dressed this time, and sat in my chair. Overhead, high in a tree, I heard a crow calling again. The boys jerked in fear, huddling closer together. I heard a thumping noise farther out into the woods, and whirled around, leveling my rifle at the possible threat. I heard a distant voice calling out “Phuma, mpuku encinci. Phuma ngokukhawuleza, kwaye ndiya kuba nenceba.” The three kids whimpered and huddled behind me. I braced myself for the coming shot. I waited, watching, straining my ears.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

I didn’t have to wait long. Presently, a rather large, tall man stumped out of the tree line, looking right at me. “Ungubani? Ndinike amakhoboka am!” The kids shrank in fear, crying. “Ndiyakulumkisa. Ndiyawazi umlingo.”

Ahte-tan tugged at my pant leg saying “Nceda, mhlekazi. Uyawazi umlingo wokwenyani. Ukuba awushukumi, uya kusenzakalise akubulale.” I took the risk of looking back at him, and patted his head.

“Kufuneka ubale ezintathu. Nye. Mbini. Ntathu.” I had no idea what he was saying. His next two words were really clear, however. He thrust out his right hand, palm extended and shouted “ICE BOLT!” As he shouted, the air coalesced in front of his palm, and a missile of ice sped towards my head.

The world seemed to move in slow motion as the missile sped towards me. I slung my body to the left, felt the frozen missile graze my cheek, heard a hissing sound as it whizzed by my ear, and the inevitable explosion as it impacted the stone wall behind me.

Where the fuck was I?

I spun my head around and looked at the rock behind me, seeing the spalling of the ice against the flat wall. I whipped it back at him, and it was at this moment I got angry. He was going to kill me. I wondered if I could repeat what I did earlier, so I raised my right hand, pointed at him, and shouted “FIRE!”

I felt warmth flow through my body, flowing up from my feet, as if it was coming from the very depths of the earth itself. It flowed up my body and gathered in my right index finger for a moment, then a thin beam of fire shot from my finger, speeding through the air towards my adversary. The shock and fear on his face was there for only a moment before he also shouted “ICE BOLT!” and the two elements met between us, the missile carving a path through the flames, only to splash me harmlessly with warm water as it melted. My fire had also petered out by this time.

The man panted, as if exhausted. I motioned for the kids to stay where they were, and started walking towards the man. He weakly raised his arm, and muttered the same words, but there was no real energy behind them. The missile that left his hand was weak, slow and dropped to the ground a mere foot away from me. As I got closer, I wondered if there were other words that could have an effect on this world. Couldn’t hurt to try, right? He looked beaten, anyway.

I reached out with an outstretched hand, palm towards him, and softly spoke. “Zap.” To my utter surprise, a thin bolt of electricity shot from me and hit him in the hand with a loud pop, leaving a large black mark, and causing his hand and arm to contract painfully. He howled in pain. I smiled, understanding washing over me. This world seemed to be like my fantasy worlds in my D&D games.

I stood up straight and reached out for him, speaking forcefully. “Hand of air!” I felt a thump in my chest as I saw the shimmering outline of a five-foot hand made of air currents floating in front of my hand. I turned it this way and that, marveling at how it looked just like my own. I reached and took hold of the man, lifting him up, and took him over to the fire, holding him about three feet above it. My mind raced with possibility as I tried to figure out how to understand their speech. Could I simply copy his knowledge somehow? Couldn’t hurt to try. I brought him closer, and touched his forehead and said, “Duplicate knowledge.” He stiffened, and strained mightily in my hand of air. My entire hand glowed. Once he went limp, exhausted, I touched my own forehead, and the glow dissipated as my brain was flooded with everything that man had ever experienced and knew. I staggered, dropping him next to the fire. Going down on my hands and knees, I panted, my brain struggling to make sense of the rush of information. I vomited on the forest floor as I strained, trying to will all this into a separate compartment, a new building in my head. It seemed to work, as the pain subsided. I wiped my face, and went back into my tent, looking for some rope.

I found the rope, and proceeded to tie the unconscious man up, then wrapped a strip of cloth around his mouth as a gag. I motioned for the boys to huddle around the fire, and added more wood. They looked at me wide-eyed and quickly obeyed.

I sat in my chair, and leaned back a bit, closing my eyes. Time to see what the fuss was all about. I slowed my breathing, and started the process to enter a meditative state. Once calm and collected, I opened the new door in my head, and peeked inside. This wasn’t my normal mind palace, that was for sure. I looked around, searching for the Book. The Book was the keystone to understanding the mind palace. Not everyone had the same symbols, of course, but for most people, books represented knowledge and information. It took a few minutes, but I eventually found it. Upon opening it, I went to the beginning, and found what my intuition told me was Language. I saw my own language interspersed throughout, containing words like ‘Fire” and ‘Ice’, and ‘Bolt’. All elemental words and movement verbs. I copied these pages, and I shut his Book, and left his mind palace, locking the door. I entered my own mind palace, and opened my Book. I inserted the pages of Language, and found that I now knew his language, as well as the language of the kids, who, to my horror, I discovered were slaves. I slowly brought myself out of my trance to discover that more than an hour had passed and the man, who I now knew as Blainaut Kiernan was awake and glaring at me and the boys. I cleared my throat, and the boys looked at me.

“Hey kids. I know your language now. Blainaut will never lay another hand on you again. You are now free, and if you want, you will be in my care. Otherwise, I’ll find your home, and see you safely returned.” They all looked at me in shock. I laughed softly. “I copied all his knowledge to myself. I now know everything he has ever done, thought, seen or heard. I know it all better than he does, actually.” I turned and addressed Blainaut. “And now for you. I should destroy you, you know. Where I’m from, we don’t take kindly to slavery or slavers. Ahte-tan?” I called over my shoulder, “What would you like to see done to him?”

The small lizard-folk boy walked up to me and tugged on my pant leg. “Sir, don’t kill him. He may deserve it for what he has done to me and my brothers, but show mercy. Please. The Great Mother would be pleased with mercy.” I knelt down and placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder.

“As you wish, Ahte-tan. I won’t kill him. I will, however, do unto him what was done to you.” I said softly.

I stood and walked away from the quartet for a bit. I looked down, and placed my right palm onto the forest floor. I slowed my breathing and concentrated, speaking “Draw gold” My consciousness raced into the earth, finding small bits of gold and gathering them up, pulling them to the surface, to deposit them into my left hand. Once I had enough, I ceased concentrating, and popped back into my own space. I looked around for something to hold it, and found a rock with a shallow depression worn into it. I dumped the metal into it, and walked farther down the rock face, towards the stream. Once again, I placed my right palm onto the earth, and spoke “Draw ruby” My consciousness raced outwards once again, fanning all about, searching for the elusive red stone. I found one small seam deep within the mountain, and pulled it towards me, pushing a long cylinder of stone out in front of it with a terrible grinding sound. It wasn’t the nicest, or the biggest, but it would work. I headed back to where I’d left the gold, and set the chunk of ruby down. Picking up the rock, I uttered “Shape metal.” And willed the gold into a solid chunk, and then into a fine ring with a setting for a stone. I picked up the gem, and spoke “Carve gem” and willed a beautifully faceted gem out of it with plenty to spare. I pushed the gem into the setting in the ring, and spoke once more “Fuse.” and felt the heat from the gold and the stone becoming one at the molecular level. I walked back over to the group and held the ring up between my fingers. Once again, I cast more magic. “Duplicate.” The ring in my hand began to vibrate and a second ring slid out of it. I took the duplicate, and slipped it into my pocket for now. I held the ring in between my hands, closed my eyes and uttered “Fine engraving.” I engraved the words for ‘Master’ and ‘Automatic size’ in both the band and the gemstone. I slipped it onto my pinky, and the ring settled comfortably and perfectly. I touched it and uttered “Lock.” and it felt as though it became part of me. Upon inspecting it, I could still rotate it around the digit comfortably, but when I tried to remove it, it gripped me most firmly. Satisfied, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the other ring. Holding it in my hands, I repeated the process, except I engraved the word ‘Slave’ instead of ‘Master’. I made five copies of the ring, and slipped four into my pocket.

Satisfied with my work, I walked back to Blainaut, and jammed the ring onto his little finger, and Locked it into place. Sitting behind him, I grabbed both sides of his head, and said “Burn magic away”. I didn’t know if it would work until I heard him scream into the gag. Looked like having the magic burned out of you was painful. I undid his bindings and gag.

“Now, Blainaut. Go get firewood.” The boys were shocked to see him get up and start collecting firewood. I directed my gaze back to Ahte-tan. “So. Ahte-tan. What are your brothers’ names?”

He puffed up his chest and proudly proclaimed “I am Ahte-tan. First of my father’s brood. This is my first brother Ahte-naah,” he pulled the next smallest forward, “And this is our little brother Ahte-ukum.”

I looked at the three and smiled. “Well, boys. How would you like some fresh meat? I can get a deer or something over here, probably. I think I understand how magic works here, and can more or less make anything happen, I think.” They looked at me with a newfound awe, and nodded. Time to get to work making these kids healthy again. Maybe they’d finally grow as big as they were supposed to.