“He’s under here!”

“Gods he’s a mess.”

“I thought he couldn’t be hurt. They shot him two dozen times and he kept running around like it was nothing.”

“Help me move this.”

“Careful, that’s the only thing keeping his blood in.”

CJ dipped in and out of consciousness for several hours. He felt himself being lifted up on a makeshift stretcher and paraded across the street. His mind must have been playing tricks on him since he thought he saw a coyote pacing back and forth down one of the alley ways they passed. The Trinchars and the new blonde woman managed to get him onto a bed in one of the nearby buildings. Rubio had a bandaged right arm but was otherwise whole. The two women seemed to be in better shape. The blonde woman was now dressed in pants, boots, and a NY Giants jersey. Her hair was pulled back and there was a smattering of blood on her hands. CJ caught a glimpse of Monty as he tried to convince everyone else of something. The words were jumbled in CJ’s head as he let his mental fatigue take him off to dream land.

His mind was finally calm. If he died from the explosion, at least it was good death. CJ managed to save that woman from what seemed to be a terrible fate. The Trinchar’s would have a safe place to live, and Monty would be with people he could trust. Monty was a good rabbit, and CJ was happy he pulled him out of that pet shop.

“That decision likely saved your life,” came the voice of Sun Wukong.

Suddenly CJ found himself in that white expanse again. Only this time there was no mountain pagoda. There was a round table with multiple tapestries hanging from nothing as a backdrop. Moving clockwise starting on CJ’s left, the first tapestry depicted a coyote skulking behind a cactus somewhere in the bluffs of Arizona. At least that’s what it looked like to CJ. The second was a massive spider hanging from a tree limb dangling over a pride of sleeping lions. The spider had a black carapace. Around its neck it wore a yellow and black necklace with a pyramid pattern. Next in line was an obvious Egyptian image of Set, the hyena god. CJ didn’t know why they say hyena since it looked a lot like an aardvark. Not his religion, who was he to judge. Finally, there was a hanging tapestry with the image of a stag surrounded by runic symbols in green. Each was a work of art in its own right. The individual woven strands seemed to hum power. Then something different happened. Sun Wukong walked up to the table and bowed reverently.

“Enough with the theatrics monkey king. Your Harbinger is here now. Should we not begin?” asked the glowing image of the coyote.

Each word sent a ripple of light through the tapestry before the voice cut off. The light wove its way around all the patterns and through to the top of the tapestry before winking out. This happened with every word. CJ stood there, dumbstruck by the majesty of the spectacle.

“I would like to go first, considering this one is of my tribe to begin with,” flashed the depiction of the spider.

Those words shocked CJ back into the moment as his mind spun. What was he looking at? He thought mind racing to catch up to what he was seeing. The monkey king showed reverence to the images as he approached. He wondered if they were other gods and if he should do the same. Without a second thought he bowed in deference to the gathered tapestries.

“As you should, mortal. See that, they can learn. Now I would say I have just as much claim to him as my southern brother Anasi over here. Our continent is large, and our family lines spread wide,” commented the image of Set followed by excessive snickering.

“None of you may claim him. I have an accord with this one already. Don’t pretend like you didn’t hear Coyote call him my harbinger. I see your schemes. Now my Harbinger, named CJ for some reason, has already created a safe zone in this integration. That pure mana you are enjoying right now, that’s because of his efforts. A little compensation is in order,” explained Sun Wukong.

“Don’t make me laugh. Your harbinger is operating on my lands. Lands none of you wanted to help me protect from the colonizers. Since he was born here, I have decided to be lenient. I will only charge him with one hundred years under my banner,” spoke Coyote confidently.

This was met with an uproar of disapproval from all the gathered deities. It took Wukong a full five minutes to calm down the attendees and bring order back to these proceedings.

“No, you will not indenture my Harbinger to your desert to clean rocks for a hundred years. That does not make sense considering all that needs doing. Sorry about this CJ. We’ll just be a little longer in deliberations than I’d hoped,” apologized Wukong.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“What deliberations? Every one of you has been awoken early due to Wukong’s plan. Our siblings in all our respective pantheons still sleep and you’re squabbling over one barely empowered mortal. He’s only cleared one Bolster dungeon. It practically burst into tears after killing a few humans, for Odin’s sake. Summon me when we have made some real progress. I may crown my own Harbinger before that happens. My lands are in just as much danger. As soon as they return, the old grudges will be reborn. This one will not be able to stem the tide. Literally,” spoke the stag before it burst into flames that consumed it entirely.

“He’s not a millennium person. Let him stretch his legs a little. Then maybe he’ll come back with a clear head,” quipped Anasi.

“Perhaps we should reach out to Veles instead? He’ll be happy to know Perun still sleeps,” asked Set.

“We’ll be fine for now. We need five but Loki will come to his senses sooner rather than later,” answered Sun Wukong.

“Is this some kind of gathering of trickster gods?” asked CJ.

The room went quiet with each tapestry gently swaying in a breeze that wasn’t present before. CJ pulled on his collar and got ready to make a tough room comment before all the gathered deities started laughing. It was uproarious. Waves of energy brought about by the laughter buffeted CJ’s form as he forced out of the meeting space and his popped open.

“Good. You’re awake. I thought we might have lost you,” said Rubio seated to CJ’s right.

Groggily, CJ looked around the space. Apparently, they were in a mattress store. Different brand mattress from all manufacturers were set up wall to wall. They all had pillows and bedding of various designs. The windows to the street outside were largely intact. The most damage done was to the front door. It seemed the floor to ceiling window of a door was smashed apart. Right now, a mattress was propped up in the entryway to keep out the elements. Toward the back was register seated on a table. There was also two doors in the back. One led to an office with a bathroom and the other led to the back lot and loading dock. It smelled like air fresheners in here, the kind that just twist up with a chemical wax inside. The blonde woman hurried over with a cup of water. CJ shook his head and went to sit up when he noticed Monty was curled up in a ball on his chest. CJ wondered why he felt so warm but then he remembered the last time Monty did something on his chest and freaked out.

“What is it? Did something happen?” asked a startled Monty as CJ started quickly moving.

Monty hopped off of him and landed on the bed to CJ’s right next to Rubio. CJ made a motion to pull something out of his sleeve when he realized he wasn’t wearing his tuxedo jacket. In fact, he didn’t have his shirt on either. His chest was wrapped in makeshift bandages along with most of his right arm. The look of confusion on his face was evident so Rubio just started talking.

“We took off your clothes to treat your wounds. There was easily a foot of wood sticking out of you after the explosion. What happened to that barrier of yours?” asked Rubio.

“I don’t know. I just had the weirdest dream. I’m actually confused about that myself,” said CJ.

“I can tell you. First you gotta promise to stop blowing yourself up,” said an angry looking Monty.

His ears were sticking straight up, and he was standing on his hind legs. His front paws were crossed against his chest in a mocking tableau of Elena’s normal stance. Monty’s bunny brows were in a v shape as he waited for a response.

“I promise to stop inadvertently blowing myself up,” complied CJ adding extra emphasis to inadvertently.

“I’ll accept that for now. Look at your health and mana levels, then come back to this conversation,” ordered Monty.

CJ did so. He noticed he had notifications waiting for him, but he set them to the side. His health was at eighty five out of one hundred ten. His mana was a shiny full two twenty. Before he refocused on the conversation, he checked the first of his notification.

Quest Complete- Defend Leaf’s Bend: There is a group of marauders intent on taking Leaf’s Bend for their own. Defend the safe zone to maintain control. Rewards: Control of the safe zone, various gear, Active Party skill book.

As soon as CJ read the notification a flash of light happened right in front of him. Then a small book dropped on his lap above the covers. CJ went to pick up the book, but Monty hopped over and stood on it.

“Uh uh. We aren’t done yet. This is important and I need you to focus on it. Elena, if he gets distracted again you have my permission to crouch saw him,” chastised Monty as Elena walked over with CJ’s clothes in hand.

CJ didn’t like the way Elena immediately understood what Monty meant. She put his clothes down at the foot of the bed and hefted up here chainsaw.

“Fucks sake, I’m paying attention. I’m paying attention,” CJ shrieked completely forgetting about the skill book reward.

“What is the result of your findings?” asked Monty.

“My mana is full up and my health is steadily ticking up. It’s not at full yet,” said CJ quickly.

“Right. You’ve been flirting with consciousness for two straight days. Drink that water,” ordered Monty.

“I still can’t believe the rabbit can talk,” said the blonde woman.

“That’s Jennifer. She helped out after you freed her. She’s a no phone. I think you can do that Harbingers thing. She seems like decent people, but I digress. If you readjust the ration on our regeneration ability, you’ll heal faster. You took real damage because of what?” asked Monty.

“I guess… because my mana topped out. I remember seeing the ability working before the light cut out. Then I kind of just blacked out,” CJ said sheepishly.

“Got it in one. Your barrier only works as long as it has a jug to fill. Once the jug is full it just stops working. You are not superman. If you’d been standing in the middle of the road soaking up bullets until you topped off, the next one would have sent you to the underworld. Got me? Stop being an ass,” said Monty in a huff before he jumped down to the floor and walked further into the store.

“That rabbit cares a great deal about you. He didn’t leave your side once in the last two days. One of us was always here just in case you woke up, but Monty never left. You ought to do something nice for him once you’re feeling better,” said Rubio before patting CJ on the shoulder and stepping away.