I spent 4 weeks there sighing about that damn river and exploring in detail the land around the volcano and I decided I would make no attempt to tap into the power source . It was obviously too well guarded and my curiosity had been satisfied for the moment. I decided to find somewhere secluded and do a bit of the fishing I had been wanting to do before I left for Bridge again.

I would have.

But like the precursor to my future that it proved later, the doors of the volcano opened wide and out streamed a procession of people dressed in ceremonial clothes and masks. They were headed to a small arena like area I had seen before. It could have been a outdoor temple. I just didn't know never having seen it in use. Till now.

I made the link to Inquiry and sent it out into the bright day. The snow was starting to melt and the climate was getting warmer. Some of the frost covered trees I had seen were shedding the cold also and beginning to send out small leaves. Spring was approaching fast. Perhaps, I thought, it was a celebration of Spring. I parked Inquiry where it would have the best view and I watched.

There were between 40 or 50 people there. They made their stately way into the arena area and formed a circle around the altar in the middle. A big man dressed in black and red robes stepped out of the circle and placed a small bundle on the altar. It was obviously a baby. A shiver went up my spine. He started singing in a deep bass voice and stood back from the altar. The rest joined in. All except for 9 smaller figures standing nearby who had their hands tied behind their backs. Children, 5 boys and 4 girls, all around the age of 3. The singing stopped and adults came and took the children to spots equidistant around the altar, standing behind them. The big fellow started singing again and the volcano pulsed with more strength, the light from it reflecting a sickly green in their faces even in the daylight. He stood with his arms raised towards the volcano and when he brought them down the adults wrapped wire around the children’s necks and garroted them. I noted that the robes those adults wore were of a different pattern than anyone else there. I would try and remember that. The head of the congregation turned towards the baby and started singing a different song, lifting his hands over the babe, a peculiar stream of magic yellow emanating from them enveloping the newborn.

I closed my eyes for a moment and shuddered, gritting my teeth and tensing. Hot and cold waves of anger started crashing thru me. I called Inquiry back and split the image on my VR so I could look around the small cave I had ensconced myself in. Hurriedly, I configured the hover disk to standing mode and hopped on it strapping my feet down in a wide stance. All my gear was packed already. I keep my camp site clean when on a recon. You never know.

If I had stopped to think, perhaps I would not have done what I was about to, but I was helpless in my rage. After all this wasn't my world. These weren't my people. I didn't know what motivations lurked beneath the surface and at that moment in a space in time I could not have cared less. I couldn’t think, all I could do was react. I would be eternally and forever damned if I would let the small baby on the altar suffer a similar fate. But I was at least a mile away. If that child was dead when I got there...

Inquiry met me half way and I stuck it into one of my inside pockets on the coat, I carried my .45 colt in my right hand and had positioned my Vorpal sword to where I could reach it quickly. If I could just swoop in and grab the baby, I would be gone so fast back to the portal to Bridge World it would make their eyes spin.

The hover disk sped silently across the white and melting sludge of snow and ice. If I could have I would have made it howl with the anger I felt and focused the peoples attention to me and the retribution I brought. There were other things I could do to break their ceremony up before I actually arrived however. I holstered my . 45 and brought the Vorpal sword out. I always keep good spells hung on it. I muttered an incantation beneath my breath and made the sign of Infinity and Remorse , figure eighting the word and pointing at the Arena. I triggered the spell,”Jabberwocky!”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

In their midst and in the mists that suddenly appeared, a shape began to form. Lights glimmering, shimmering, sparkling. It was a galumphing shape. A dangerous shape. It was an expression of energy and a manifestation of power. I was, childishly, rather proud of it.

Bright eyes, red eyes against a background of shimmer green and a body out of legend and pre-history. It looked similar to a T-Rex but only about as much as a man resembles an ape. The Jabberwocky reared it’s gecko like head above the ground twelve foot and down. His long clawed hands clenched and unclenched. Flexing his short stubby wings in agitation, he roared a primal scream and challenge revealing a mouthful of sharp and yellow teeth. And he looked mad.

I spoke to him and I told him my desire. I didn’t really want to kill anyone for following the tenets of their religion but for a moment there I almost lost control as it burbled happily at the sight of so much prey and meat on the hoof. So to speak. And the meat was escaping, all running madly back towards the volcano in absolute and sheer terror. All that is except for the big fellow at the altar. He was still singing and had his hands held over the baby. Crap. The Jabberwocky ran after the others nipping at their heels like a collie herding sheep. When he was done he would disappear again into the mists he came from. That left me to stop the big fellow from completing whatever ceremony he was trying to finish.

I came from out of the direction of the sun. But even if I hadn’t he would not have seen me caught as he was in the spirit of the moment. I braked the disc and then slid into him. He rolled and landed on the cold wet ground with a sickening thud. I scooped the baby up and started to leave when I noticed that one of the children that had been garroted was still alive also, barely moving, struggling for breath with a crushed trachea. Her would be killer had been more sloppy than the others. I rushed over to her and put her on the floor of the disc and then got the hell out of there. Praying all the while.

I was almost to the portal thinking I was home free when black robed warriors started teleporting in around me. I pulled the .45 out and blew a hole in the forehead of a man clinging to the front of the disc. His lifeless body fell to the wayside. There were about 10 of them winking in and out around me with a quick slash of knife or thrust of spear. Way too many of them and where had they come from? I emptied the .45 and dropped it to the floor of the disc pulling my Vorpal sword out again. Another popped in ahead of me and threw a spear. I skim-weaved to the side and took his head off with a snicker-snack of my sword. I accelerated again, speeding for the portal. They were waiting for me.

I almost pitied them as I took a spell off the infrastructure that held my sword together and unleashed it in their direction. Bright ruby, knife -edged light arced against them; I expected bloody severed corpses but they stood against me and I could feel the power behind the volcano protecting them. Desperately, I reached for another of my offensive spells, one that, ordinarily, I would have saved for a fellow Bridgewalker. It tore against their wards with a hot white light that hurt my eyes but again, they stood against me, the volcano feeding them more and more energy. I couldn’t afford to delay my exit much longer. I was a strong Talent and such as these should have gone down before me but against the power behind the volcano I appeared to be powerless. Unless. I smiled viciously. I had to hurry; I could feel reinforcements on the way and I had a dying little girl at my feet.

First I had to ward myself as a blast played against the shield I had erected. Surviving and holding onto the baby all the while with my left arm, I knelt and pulled out a timed plasma charge I had thought to use against the volcano’s gates, set it for 10 seconds and threw it onto their wards. I reached into my arsenal of spells again and pulled out one guaranteed to catch some attention. Counting down all the while; 3, 2, 1. 10 seconds an eternity a single second a million lifetimes. I released the spell, but not at the black robes. No. I launched this one at the volcano instead. The plasma charge and the spell went off simultaneously and a gigantic, moonish face appeared before the volcano. It had a horrible grin and it winked at me as it inhaled, then morphed into the jagged hole I had torn to the in-between. Bits and pieces of the volcano were coming off , getting sucked into the vortex that had formed. Apparently the power behind the volcano couldn’t divide its attention because when the plasma charge blew it killed all the black robes and my way was free.

As I sped through the portal thankfully, I could hear and feel something screaming, gibbering maniacally for revenge. A surge came from the volcano and the hole to in between vanished. I had hurt the Power I felt behind the volcano deeply but it had survived. I hoped Cassandra was home. I needed her.

It was my turn to vanish.