“I think you’re mixing up Warcraft with Diablo,” I interrupted.

  “What?”

  “Just that…” Seeing the concern in her gaze, I smiled wide. “Never mind, continue. Just… Diablo doesn’t have mounts, and… yeah. Continue.”

  “You get my point though? You got an awesome mount, you stole his drones, and you have a team that’s all higher level than you, essentially.”

  “Go back to that Ichor and Prana thing…”

  She considered me, then made the car start flying again. “As we go, sure.”

  And true to her word, as we flew on, she began to tell me all about it.

  17

  “When I first came to this land, there was talk of a protector,” Ahlaksiz started. “One who would seek out certain monsters to protect against the ones who would do harm to this land. I was one of his summons, and served him loyally. At first he wouldn’t let me listen in on his meetings with this team of what he called ‘Myths,’ but the longer I was with him, and the more intimate we became, the more relaxed he became.

  “His name was Godfrey, and he played a major role in the Crusades. This was after we split our separate ways, though. Before all that, he was simply working off the old legends surrounding Arthur and Avalon, and he put together the fact that mythical creatures did indeed exist on Earth, and had done for many years. Some seemed to be monsters from my world, but there were others possibly from elsewhere. I don’t know where, exactly.

  “The group he called Myths he protected from those who were termed ‘Legends.’ He was convinced him to make a move against a Legend in a faraway land who had been known to cause trouble. This Legend was rumored to have knowledge of the location of the Holy Grail. So Godfrey set off, bringing me along. This was all well before the actual start of the Crusades, mind you. He didn’t get the information he wanted, but managed to kill this Legend, and in doing so confirmed a suspicion from one of his Myth ladies—that killing a Legend would allow one to increase their powers. Linking had its effect, as you know, but he got greedy. He started hunting down Legends simply to kill them and absorb their power. Green energy was termed “Prana,” while red they called ‘Ichor.’ The former would enhance him on simple levels, but the latter could give him actual skill increases, and powerful ones at that.”

  “Wait, so leveling up has some basis in truth?” I chuckled, watching the states of America as we passed by fast enough to make it a blur.

  She nodded. “In a sense. And all of this, it got to the point that Godfrey no longer focused on how much of delineation there was between Myth or Legend in his quest for power, and even brought other knights with him. Some say the evil he committed in those days largely fueled the start of the Crusades, but I don’t know. I was long gone before that, because he got so power-hungry that, one day he called me to his chambers and attempted to take my life. He wanted my Ichor, but I didn’t let him have it.”

  “What’d you do?” Kinara asked, wide-eyed.

  “He had his sword out, two of his so-called Myths with him, and they were all moving in on me. Naturally, I used my claws and teeth to obliterate one of them on my way out. I wouldn’t have, but they left me no choice. Even after my first strikes, she pursued, and in the end I not only tore out her throat to end her life, but absorbed her Ichor. If he had simply started by taking hers, he would have been better off.”

  “So you got an upgrade?” I asked.

  “I’ve had several over the years,” she replied. “Some I’m not even proud of. Mostly I’ve used them to upgrade my shielding, as that seems to be what keeps me alive. It’s why I can take a beating and keep on rolling. But I also upgraded speed and awareness.”

  “Wait, the…” I turned back to Milkshake. “The light when we killed the hunter?”

  She nodded. “These terms mean nothing to some. But back home, most are at least aware of the way one’s life force can enhance your powers.”

  “It’s part of why the hunters exist,” Kinara added. “They seek out power, whether for themselves or to pass on to others in strange rituals.”

  “Though some give out only Prana when killed,” Ahlaksiz said. “Others, Ichor. Which is one reason some monsters, such as Tooth and his boss, look down on Kinara.”

  “Apparently, others like me don’t have Ichor,” Kinara said, pouting.

  I frowned, feeling for her but confused. “Wouldn’t that be a good thing? If you don’t give a big Ichor upgrade when you die, wouldn’t they be less likely to want to kill you?”

  “The opposite ends up being true,” Kinara replied, squirming in her seat and turning to look out the window. We were over a large lake one minute, mountains the next.

  “She’s right,” Jalee said, wrapping her arms around herself. “It’s like… like they think because she doesn’t give out Ichor, her life isn’t worth a damn. Like she’s an animal, to be hunted.”

  I couldn’t stand the idea that they all thought of my Kinara like that, and turned away from the others, retreating into myself. Jalee had even served a hunter—she had been on the side that killed others like Kinara for sport. Kinara might have been one of them, had I not summoned her when I did.

  “You need to know this,” Ahlaksiz said, “as painful as it might be for a human to hear. You don’t have to think of Kinara as any less, and I’m sure none of us do. There are others that are even more hunted than her kind, a type known as ‘Shades.’ And if you want—”

  “I’m not going to play their game,” I countered.

  “Ferris…” Ahlaksiz turned, a hand on my leg. “You don’t have a choice. You don’t have to hunt anyone down or become a monster like that early master of mine, but you are going to fight. You are going to kill—you’ve already seen that, and you know that it affects you.”

  My enhanced powers since the death of the hunter, but also with recent enhancements… and enlargements, further confirmed what she was saying. “So?”

  “So, there are ways to embrace these upgrades. To cultivate the power, focus on where you want your enhancements to go. Prana can help with what you’d think of as stats—speed, strength, agility. Yes, charisma too, which maybe has to do with…” She glanced at my crotch, then away quickly. “It’s all part of that. You’re doing it whether you want to or not.”

  “How do I apply it?”

  “Some use items that help them focus the ability to upgrade. Others have to sort of meditate on it, and have even learned how to redistribute the Prana within themselves. This is where the idea of meditation and Taoist beliefs and all that originated. You can learn this, too, but if we’re able to find you an item that allows you to see the upgrades more specifically, that might be easier for you.”

  This was all a lot to take in, but no more so than everything else I’d been through lately. Looking out the window of our flying, cloaked car was a good reminder of that, especially as we seemed to be passing over the Atlantic Ocean now.

  “And Ichor?” I asked.

  “It’s powerful. With Ichor, you can find ways to reclassify yourself, to give yourself a special focus, like a—”

  “Class,” I cut in.

  “Yes, class selection, essentially. When you’re able to really narrow it down, that is.” She sighed, turning and putting a hand on Kinara’s knee. “I would never assign one’s value based on what you can take from them in death. Without Prana, you can’t increase your normal stats, like you said. But without Ichor,” she took her hand away, eyeing the other two before turning back to me, “you could never reach new heights. And there’s more to it than that—I believe you and Milkshake here split the power when you killed that hunter. That’s why she keeps the sword, why it’s bonded to her. But I’d bet that if you try to summon it, as long as she doesn’t have it active, you’d be able to.”

  “It allows one to bond to and even upgrade a weapon, or item,” Milkshake said, nodding. “Yes, I gave him the light, after taking some for myself.”

  Ahlaksiz offered her a half smile. “As I suspected.”

  We flew on for a while as I leaned against the window, at times closing my eyes and drifting off to sleep, at other moments simply watching the waves below. A storm formed in the distance, dark-gray clouds swirling, and the dark lines of gray told me there was going to be rain.

  “I… gotta piss,” I said, realizing we were over the Atlantic still. One thought was the water bottles, but I didn’t like that idea one bit. “What’s the chance of us slowing a bit so I can open the door and go?”

  “Not a good idea, not with the winds out there,” Jalee said. “I’ve been holding it for a bit now.”

  Damn, she was right. The wind would blow it right back in my face. The bottles would have to do.

  “Hand me one of those empty ones,” I said, indicating a bottle in the back.

  She did, then laughed. “You’re not going to…?”

  “Imagine you all telling the story of how you set off on a quest with me, only to have me die over the Atlantic from an explosion of the bladder.” I chuckled, unscrewing the cap and then trying to position myself to make this less awkward. At least there was no steering wheel in the way. Scooting forward to the edge of the seat, I unzipped and pulled out my larger-than-normal cock, only slightly annoyed that Ahlaksiz was watching. Glancing over, I saw that Kinara was craning her neck to see as well.

  “Can I have some privacy?” I asked.

  “Give him privacy,” Jalee said, and suddenly there was a sound of tinkling. She was doing it too!

  “Careful with that!” Milkshake said, and then laughed, moving away from her.

  At least it took the pressure off of me, so I was able to get my stream going. But it wasn’t like the tip would remotely begin to fit into the opening of the bottle, and as it started to fill, I couldn’t hold it at an angle anymore. How the hell did people do this in movies?

  Sure enough, at the end it was too much and as I shouted for another bottle, I realized it was too late. The last bits spilled out onto the floor, and I was mortified. I had to hope that Jalee had fared better than me.

  “We need to get the car cleaned,” I said, holding my nose and feeling incredibly embarrassed. “Anywhere we can stop?”

  Ahlaksiz, looking quite amused, checked the display on the car and said, “Ever heard of Scotland?”

  My embarrassment replaced by excitement, I tucked my dick away and worked to get the cap back on the bottle. I’d always wanted to go to Scotland, even if it was only a quick stopover to get the piss cleaned from the car.

  18

  I could practically hear the bagpipes playing before we even landed in Scotland. My imagination filled with thoughts of men in kilts and women doing the sword dance as I’d seen in my teens going to the Highland Games in Long Beach with my dad. Those had been great times, with meat pies and spicy-as-hell ginger cookies, fun sword fights, and of course the parade where the clans showed off. That was a fun one, even though it wasn’t out in nature like some, because it was partnered with the Queen Mary, a ship from the 1930s that had played a role in immigrants coming to America.

  Naturally I didn’t expect visiting Scotland to be anything like that, or not exactly anyway. And I understood that we weren’t going on a sight-seeing trip. Still, it was rather exciting.

  We crossed high over the green patch below that I figured was Ireland, and then a bit more water before starting our descent to Scotland.

  “You’ve been here before?” I asked.

  Ahlaksiz smiled wistfully. “In fact, I lived here for a bit, with an old friend of mine. A woman you might recognize from stories, though not on sight.”

  “What? Who?”

  “Goldilocks.”

  My mouth dropped. “You can’t be serious.”

  “What’s confusing?”

  I scoffed, looking at the others as if they’d join in to laugh at this idea. “You’re serious?”

  “Like the Ichor and all that, powerful beings—yes, some have taken on specific monikers, or legends rose up around them. Some simple stories, others beyond comprehension.”

  This time I laughed. “Don’t tell me, she has three bears?”

  “You can think of them as Myths and Legends, or monsters. Maybe aliens is a term that makes more sense? Or demons?” She shrugged. “I have no idea, but I know that I’m real, and that my old friend is real. We’ll pay her a visit, and maybe open your eyes to the way of our worlds that much more.”

  All I could do was turn to watch the land below, relieved by Ahlaksiz saying it seemed we hadn’t been picked up on any radar systems or the like. To my surprise, we were approaching a city. I frowned, realizing how stupid I’d been—of course Scotland had cities like any other country. Why wouldn’t it? But in my mind the place still existed in the 1400s or so.

  “Is time travel possible?” I asked, as the idea suddenly hit me.

  “What do you mean, time travel?” Kinara asked.

  “Going back in time. Visiting previous periods, stuff like that. If there’s magic and monsters, other planets and maybe aliens, I don’t know what to expect. So time travel—is it real?”

  Ahlaksiz chuckled, shaking her head. “Not that I know of.”

  “Too bad,” I said, thinking how much I’d love to go back and see the Scots in those old days, or maybe go farther back to the time of pirates or Vikings. Then again, meeting some supposed Goldilocks would be pretty cool. Maybe.

  We veered away from the city and past a golf course, then to a road that led up a nearby hill. There we waited for a truck to pass before landing and uncloaking. Now we were just another car making our way through the suburbs.

  “What city are we close to?”

  “The nearest is Paisley,” Ahlaksiz replied. “Glasgow isn’t far off.”

  I leaned back, smiling to myself at the thought of being so close to Glasgow. Where I really wanted to go was Stirling, to visit the Stirling Bridge. The Wallace Monument in Causewayhead would be nice, too, but I understood that we weren’t there on a sightseeing trip.

  “Who exactly is this Goldilocks character?” Jalee asked.

  “And are you sure we can trust her?” Milkshake added.

  Kinara, however, lay with her head back and mouth open, a tiny bit of drool at the edge of her lip.

  “A fairy tale character,” I replied, seeing that Ahlaksiz was distracted by looking at the streets and signs. “Basically, she goes to a house and finds three bowls of porridge. She’s hungry so tries the first, but it’s too cold. Then she tries the next, and it’s too hot. Finally—”

  “Finally, blah blah blah,” Ahlaksiz cut me off, coming to a stop in front of a house that could have easily fit in with any in the nicer parts of Glendale. It was white with green trim, and the only thing about it that stood out as odd was its overly large door.

  “They asked,” I replied.

  “So you give them a story for little children? You have no idea who she really is. Do you even understand the point of that story?”

  I shook my head. “Something to do with breaking and entering?”

  She laughed. “Maybe. In earlier versions of the story she was an old woman, one who entered their house out of spite. It’s this version of the story that probably holds more truth than others.”

  “How so?”

  “It wasn’t spite so much as a power play. In the early days, Goldilocks was known as a bit of a thief, one who came under attack by many, and the famed bear trio was even rumored to have been hired to take her head. She walked right into their home—the location of which was hidden by magic—and ate their food, sat in their chairs, and slept in their beds. When they came home and found her, they were impressed, but there was more to it. She challenged their leader to a fight, and when he accepted, she managed to get her golden locks on him, chains and all manner of kinky restraints, then went for his package with a hand and a knife. Her offer was simple, one or the other. He chose the hand, and by the end of the night she had all three of them in her service.”

  “The father, mother, and child?”

  “Not at all. The three bears are all grown men.” She indicated the door opening, a man stooping down to fit through the doorway, then staring at us with arms crossed. “There’s one of them now. Monsters, mind you. They aren’t Earth bears. They shift, heal, and have claws that stay sharp and can penetrate most materials.”

  “Wait,” Kinara sat up, suddenly awake and alert. “I know that man.”

  “The bear?” I asked.

  She nodded enthusiastically. “The Three Marks. For a while, all self-proclaimed kings and queens, all warlords… basically anyone with power back home wanted their heads.”

  “The Three Marks were on the top of the hunter’s list,” Jalee added, lowering in her seat.

  “We shouldn’t keep them waiting,” Ahlaksiz said, opening her door. “Now, I should warn you, try not to piss them off.”

  I gulped, wondering how little I understood about all the other fairy tales and nursery rhymes of my youth. We followed her out of the car and approached the house where the large man was waiting.

  “Not often we get visitors,” he said with a bit of a Scottish accent. With a sniff in the air, he added, “Especially not of your kind.”

  When his eyes settled on me, I thought I could see the bear in there. The ferocity, at any rate. He had clearly seen his fair share of action, and had that distant look of someone who was immune to pain and hardship. This guy stood even taller than my buddy Alex, and was thick, too. Wide shoulders, a thick beard that had no break point between it and his chest hair. A scar on the side of his left cheek by the ear, which made me wonder since Ahlaksiz had said they could heal.