Sudden Short Story 113

"I need to get back," he said. 
"Get back where?" asked the nurse as she jotted something down on his chart. 
"Maybe," he said, groggily, "maybe I need more sleep." 
"Mm-hmm," replied the nurse, "Well, you came back clean, so we'll have to discharge you.  The best I can do is turn out the lights and close the blinds until I finish your paperwork." 
"Yes, please," he replied, barely keeping his eyes open as his head rolled around. 
She closed the curtains and turned out the lights on her way out.  He knew that he didn't have long.  He rested his eyes for just a bit.  He needed to rest in reality while he could, but he had to get back. 
Luckily, the nurse knocked just before she opened the door, waking him up.  He fell into a shadow just before she flipped on the light switch, though he accidentally took the bed sheet with him. 

Sudden Short Story 108

The girl unexpectedly hugged the boy, who himself pretended to be a girl, and he giggled at the jest. 
"What's this for?" he asked. 
She leaned in close and whispered, "I figured out that you're a boy." 
His first reaction was to jump away, but she held him tight. 
"I can't be a boy," he pleaded.  "Boys are mean, and I'm not mean." 
"I figured it out, though," she said.  "There's something about you that seems different, something that I like....  I realized it after I drank from the fountain of wisdom." 
He struggled with her, but she just held on tight.  "The fountain of wisdom is corrupted and broken," he said, "No one's supposed to drink from it!" 
"And I wanted to know why," she said.  "It all made so much sense afterward, too.  We live forever because we drink from the fountain of youth, but we've forgotten more than we can remember.  Even I don't know where everyone went, and I don't intend to find out.  The grown-ups have been gone for a very long time, and so have the boys.
"But," she whispered again, "now I have a boy of my very own."
And he wondered if she would ever let him go.  

Sudden Short Story 107

The giant's work was almost complete.  His people he carried to their new home, but they did not recognize him as their own.  He was so colossal and so ancient that they had no idea that he was younger than some of their ancestors.  Even he had lost track of their genealogy.  Did any of his friends have descendants here?  Even he did not know, and the internet was long gone.  
He told them to go on ahead, past the first river that they saw, and to stay there until another met them there.  They were reluctant to leave, but they did so, anyway. 
This world was maintained partly by the giant's continuous thoughts, which were so integrated that he could not separate them without also separating part of himself.  He could not stop thinking the thoughts that he had to think to prevent entropy from ruining this place.  He also could not join them as his gigantic self, forever growing.  So, he gave up part of himself.  He petrified his body to protect his nervous system, forming a small mountain with his arched form, his open mouth a cave hidden between his elbows.  He created a body inside of himself from what could be spared of his organic parts.  Then, he reconfigured his nervous system, leaving behind his enthropic thought-patterns and the parts of himself that he could not extricate from them. 
From the mouth-cave emerged a new man, yet the oldest man still alive, and he headed toward the river, to join the rest of humanity. 

Sudden Short Story 103

She gave a quick knock and slipped into his office.  He was wrapping up some old-fashioned paperwork. 
"Hi~," she almost sang as she entered. 
"Oh, hi, sweetie," he replied, and looked at his monitor.  He gathered his papers and bent behind the desk, to file them into the lower drawer, as he said, "Sorry, normally Paul sends me a message when you're on your way up." 
"I happened to catch Brian on his way back in," she began. 
He shot up like a bolt, just as Brian put the knife to her throat. 
"Away from the desk," Brian ordered, "Hands where I can see them.  We're going to do this slowly, so that there's no funny business.  Grab your monitor by the top and face it this way." 
"Brian, look at me," he said.  They saw each other, eye-to-eye, and that was all that he needed.  The room seemed to darken as a feeling of dread swept over everyone present.  But especially Brian.  Most especially Brian.
The feeling lifted, but Brian inexplicably threw the knife away, which slid under the couch.  He bolted for the door, but recoiled.  She went to her husband and clung to him.  He held his wife, to reassure her. 
"W-What's going--" Brian began.
"Your fillings," came the simple reply.
Eyes visibly widened with dawning terror, the would-be assassin grabbed at the insides of his own mouth with his hands, which muffled his emerging screams.
"Honey," she said, trembling, seeming to look over her shoulder, but with her eyes closed, "what just happened?"
"Brian was let go this morning.  I'm sorry, sweetie.  In the future, I'll see to it that terminated employees are escorted off of the premises, not just out of the building." 
"No, I mean... What did you do to him?  How?" 
"Well," he began, somewhat awkwardly, still trying to comfort her despite the scene mere feet from them "you remember how you married me for my intelligence, right?  Well, I realized that, usually, when people are said to sell their soul, it's just a metaphor for the loss of one's soul, when one profoundly compromises one's ethics.  So, it's not exactly like a financial exchange.  But, since I was going to take to your religion, I was going to make such a compromise.  To minimize my loss, I sold my soul beforehand, to get this power.  As for Brian, I made him deathly afraid of metal." 
"You... You... sold your soul?" she asked in disbelief, despite ostensibly believing in the existence of souls and the ability to ... lose them?  She wasn't sure anymore. 
"Of course, sweetie," he replied, still holding her, "I'd do anything for you." 
And her trembling only worsened. 

Sudden Short Story 96

He put the crystal into an empty jar.  "That's enough for this month.  Better get started on the next," he said to himself.  He had to take advantage of the abundance of ghosts tonight.  With the veil between worlds as thin as it was, he could capture enough souls to satisfy his next two contracts.  Then, surely, he would have enough to retire, right? 
Then again, it would be nice to have a safety net.  He could keep at this for a while longer.  After all, he was the best at what he did.  He could find ghosts better than anyone, and he could capture the easy ones without breaking a sweat.  There were always more soulless clients, who needed souls, and they'd easily hire him, so he'd have enough money soon, right? 
He looked again at his jars, and he suddenly wondered why he felt that he needed them, too. 

Sudden Short Story 95

The army of the frozen kingdom stood aside, as the man in the bronze armor approached the king, who sat upon his icy throne. 
"You have destroyed much of the beauty of my kingdom," said the king.  "What is it that you seek?" 
"I seek to restore warmth to the world," replied the man. 
"But why?" asked the king.  "What do you want from us?  I can grant many things in exchange for your departure." 
"The warmth that I bring is not meant as a weapon.  Your kingdom is merely a casualty in my process of restoring warmth to the world.  For the sake of the world as it was before your eternal kingdom rose, I channel heat itself.  I am sorry." 
"Do not think my army a trifle," said the king, and his knights began to lead an approach on the bronze one, but it was too late.  He had already begun to glow his yellow light, and their swords melted away, and then the throne, and then their shields, and then their armor.  The castle itself began to liquefy and recede, and the army fell. 
"You were willing to negotiate," said the man with the untold heat in him.  "I will remember that, and plant a leafy tree in your honor." 
And with that, the king melted. 

Sudden Short Story 94

"Professor," began the student, after class, as he was putting his materials away. 
"Yes?" he said, hardly looking up at this point. 
"Do you know much about botany?" 
This question was somewhat unusual, as he was a professor of ancient history specializing in migration period Europe.  "I know a little," he said, not letting on just how much he knew.  "Why do you ask?" 
"It's just that I've noticed this odd trend.  Whenever we have class here, the vines on this side of the building are longer after class than they were before." 
He hadn't realized that there were visible effects this far into town.  "Well, maybe those vines just grow quickly," he said, playing dumb. 
"But I have classes in this building Monday and Wednesday, too, but it only seems to happen Tuesday and Thursday.  Since you're here those days, too, I thought that you might know why." 
"Well, that's really outside my field," he said, "It's not like I've measured them or anything, either."  He sought to cast doubt on her observations.  "Maybe you could ask someone in the botany department, though," he continued, maximizing his cover. 
"OK," the student replied, "It was just a thought.  Well, see you next week," she added, departing. 
The professor was relieved, but nevertheless worried:  Was the Wellspring of Life continuing to affect him?  Had they closed the ritual improperly?  He would have to convene with the other Ur-Dren immediately.  

Sudden Short Story 93

In the center of the room, on a raised dais, knelt an angel, its wings spread and raised, its face covered in its hands, weeping. 
"How did you get in here," asked the stranger of the interloper. 
"I honestly don't know," he replied.  "Tell me, do you know what this place is?  There are so many strange rooms...." 
"This is the afterlife, and I am the Keeper.  The rooms are all occupied, so you haven't wandered off.  Part of my job is to keep you out," spake the Keeper, indicating a door.  "Come, this way." 
On their way out, the interloper asked:  "Tell me:  That angel back there, how did it die?" 
"It died of grief - the first one in a long time.  And that was no angel." 

Sudden Short Story 86

Q'alya al-Orn was wandering once more through the desert, when he was overtaken by a vision.  From every horizon, a mass of water, so great that it rose above each dune and had no gaps, encroached upon him, until the dune on which he stood, which seemed itself to be rapidly dissolving, was the only land around.  The water was so very deep that he could not see the bottom anywhere. 
Before him, a great alien god sat within the water, its tentacles writhing, lashing out at any ship that dared be upon the water's surface.  A corpse from one of the wrecks floated to Q'alya's island.  "We were glad when it took the deserts," it spake, "for we had more fishing, and we lost nothing.  The deserts did not sate it." 
An enormous tentacle came and took the corpse to the god's mouth.  Then, another tentacle came and seized Q'alya, whose island finally gave way.  As he was raised into the air, he saw nothing but water in all directions.  As he fell into the god's enormous maw, he was engulfed by darkness, which was completed as it shut its mouth. 
Q'alya awoke with an enormous mission before him:  He must somehow find and somehow stop the great alien god from turning the world into an ocean.  He headed toward the nearest city, and hoped that it was friendly to elves. 

Sudden Short Story 82

...
"Yeah," she said in response, trying to play it cool.  "Who'd want someone like that, anyway?" 
He recognized that tone, that waver.  She'd become too human in his time there; she'd become a bad liar.  Or maybe it was just now. 
Regardless, his instant realization took him so by surprise that he sat up and turned away from the river to face her. 
He forgot to hide the look on his face, though, and she read it plainly enough.  She was actually dumbstruck, which was new. 
"No," he said, not wanting to hurt her feelings.  "No," he said, not wanting her to think that he meant what he meant.  "No," he said, regretting what he'd just said, but it came out as just "no, no, no." 
She didn't know how to react.  Her own thoughts were unfamiliar to her.  She tried to fly away, but she couldn't, so she just ran. 
"No," he said, quietly, to himself, as he realized what had happened.  The spirit world hadn't changed him, but he'd begun to change it. 
He wandered off that night, hoping to find a way out, before he ruined everything. 

Sudden Short Story 81

The little girl sat at the bus stop as the #4 pulled away.  Though kicking her feet a little, she had a melancholy about her. 
"Why are you sad," asked a woman's voice. 
"Because I'm waiting for the bus," she said. 
"When the bus arrives, will you be happy?" 
"I'm happy now," answered the girl.  "But, I'm also sad, because I miss my family."  She looked off, down the road, which now wound through bushes and trees and was made of dirt.  She was already losing them, in her mind, and her reason for going.  Tears began to well in her eyes, but she held them back.  "I won't miss them once I cross the hedge, will I?" 
The bus arrived. 
"No," answered the voice. 
The little girl boarded the bus. 

Sudden Short Story 74

It's a funny thing, how laws are, but I suppose that it's funny how people are, too.  There are still lights strung up on nearly all of the houses, here, even though it's April.  Last year, most people took their lights down by Valentine's Day, but we don't actually have to until a week after the first melt of the new year. 
It used to be that most people had to take them down before MLK Day, since winter was always iffy at best around here, and the first melt was usually while the calendar was still in the single digits.  But then, of course, there was last winter, when the wind blew in from all directions, and the snow stayed.  It was nice to see the snow, but not so nice to drive through it.  Still, everyone took their lights down eventually, seeing as how it would look downright silly when the snow finally melted and there were Xmas lights up on St. Patrick's Day. 
We complained a lot at Easter.  We were all a little nervous by Memorial Day.  By the 4th of July, we were downright scared. 
Food could still be grown down south, but even there the weather was weird, being always unseasonably chilly, and windy.  States of emergency have been declared damn near everywhere, and most people are quietly abiding, since nobody knows what to do. 
We try to keep peace and order and hope, where we can.  That's why it's nice to live here:  Since the ordinance says that we get to keep our lights up until the first melt of the new year, we're keeping our lights up against the dark.  The law is still being obeyed, to the letter, which helps with peace of mind, and we also get to look at our pretty lights. 
I don't have the heart to tell my neighbors what I've figured out:  We're in the middle of Fimbulwinter, and Ragnarök is coming. 

Sudden Short Story 65

"I am told that you can free me," she said to the foreigner, as she sat by him in the tavern.  Priestesses were uncommon there, but nobody would think to question her presence, either. 
"If your will is bound by a deity, then yes, I can free you," he replied. 
"And what do you seek in return?" 
"I need access to the temple," he explained.  "I also want me to tell me whatever you can about your highest priestess, as it will help me in my cause.  Otherwise, I need little." 
Hope stirred in her, that she might be able to escape her fate.  "I must have something to call you, if I am to take you to the island.  What is your name?" 
"I have had many names, but I go by Asura-Anatakartta.  It was given to me by a people from my home plane, after I slew the threefold god of the west." 
The idea that he came from another plane of existence was very surprising to her, but she was trained to spot lies, and this man was not lying.  "What brings you to our plane?" 
"I have been exiled from my home plane.  I do seek to return, but it is a long journey that I undertake." 
"You slew a god, and you can free people from them.  Who would want to exile you?"she asked. 
"Other gods, of course.  Deities think that they're untouchable until someone kills one and lives.  Though, even that was not enough to warrant my exile, the first time.  It was not until I slew Brahma that the rest of the Trimurti mustered enough power - theirs and their allies' - to banish me." 
The priestess realized that she might be a bit out of her depth with this one, but there was still the mission to do, and she would be free.  "Let us go, then," she said, standing.  "Once I am free, perhaps I can help you on your journey home." 
"You cannot, but thank you," he replied, as she led him out.  She sensed that she should not ask further on that subject, and so she remained silent. 

---

He waited outside of the high priestess's abode, just out of sight to anyone who would be leaving the doorway.  The house servant was out on errands, so he had said that the house would need to be empty for his work to begin.  He had not lied, but he had allowed her to believe that he would be doing a secretive investigation of the premises. 
They were inside for a long time.  The high priestess had sensed deception in her subordinate, but was unable to tease it out of her.  Eventually, they left, headed toward a different part of the island.  He crept up behind the high priestess, then ran her through the spine and heart with his sword. 
"The thing about deities," he began.  The young priestess spun around, startled that he had revealed himself, and then more startled at the dying body before her.  "... is that most people don't really understand what they are, and each one is different.  She didn't even realize it, but the high priestess was the goddess.  I had uncovered that much during my previous investigation, before I even met you.  And so, you are free," he said, wiping off his blade.  "Unfortunately - and I am so very, very sorry for this part - she had already named you as her heir." 
She was so shocked that, by the time that he charged at her, she was only able to throw up a simple shielding spell, which was immediately shattered on the point of a blade that had slain gods.  She died free, but still she died. 

Sudden Short Story 59

A noise came from the book at the center of his study.  He eyed it, warily.  Another, similar noise came again.  Sighing, he closed the book that he was reading, stood, and carefully replaced it on its shelf.  He looked outside, seeing that it was mid-afternoon here, and that there was no sign of rain.  Even basic information like this could become vital - the people of Earth were utterly lacking in scruples.
He removed the key from its hiding place, opened the lock on the book, and hid the key under the lectern.  He opened the book, and saw through its window the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen.  This was a mistake:  By choosing the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen, they had already given away their hand, revealing that they had a complete psychological profile on him, one more impressive than could have ever been formed before he left.  Perhaps they thought that they were being subtle because she was clothed.
"You know why I am here, and I understand that you've been wont to dispense with pleasantries for some time now," said she, ever formally.
"You're here to negotiate," he answered.  "You want me, or access to me - it's all the same to you, really."  Despite his extended periods with no direct human interaction, he had lost all patience with the rest of humanity.
"We are willing to accept lesser terms.  Perhaps if you would permit us to spontaneous complex detailed dimension creation science...  As the first known discoverer controlled science, it would help us greatly in our attempt to understand the phenomenon."
"'Spontaneous complex detailed dimension creation science'... I suppose that that is direct and sufficiently detailed to serve as an adequate name."
"You call it something else?" she pretended to not know.
He played along.  "Heh," he let out, with a slight smile.  "'Age Science', though not officially.  I've gotten a bit poetical in my time alone, I suppose."
"'Age Science'?" she asked.
"Did you make that much noise just to play Pretend-We-Don't-Know with me?  It bears such a resemblance to what happened in the Myst series," he said, grabbing the cover and three-quarters-closing it.  "I did put the gate between worlds into a book, after all," he finished, opening the book fully again.
"I'll get right to the point, then.  Regardless of whether you can, we know that you will not create other people with your science.  Thus, unless and until you rejoin us, you will lack anything and everything that comes from other people.  There will be no novel recipes.  Nobody will act as your sounding board.  There will be no stories besides those that you write yourself.   And you will never have sex."
"I know," came his immediate reply.  He made sure that he was looking at his negotiator's face when he said it, though.  The stillness of her face during that brief moment of silence told him more than any tell.  After all of their simulations, all of their possible logic branches, had they missed the possibility that he'd say simply 'I know'?  Perhaps all of their supercomputers weren't nearly as smart as they thought themselves. "If that is all," he began. 
"It's not."  This answer wasn't entirely unexpected, though he knew that pretty much anything could happen now.  A case was placed upon the desk in front of her, and she opened it.  Three brittle scrolls looked like they might break at the slightest provocation.  "These appear to be a rather unique archaeological find.  The location of their discovery, as well as their condition, make it likely that they come from the early Han dynasty.  However, they have specifically not been scanned or otherwise inspected, but were brought directly here for our use.  Return to Earth, and we promise to examine them as thoroughly and as carefully as possible, learning from them as best we can.  Refuse, however, and they will be incinerated." 
They could have offered or threatened almost anything else ... .  For the first time in... perhaps ever, he was visibly shaking with rage, unable to control himself.  "So....  It has come to book-burning, has it?  Then let me start."  He slammed the book shut, locked it, and hurled it into the fire place.  Then, he sought out the materials to create a fire.  There was nothing left for him on Earth, not even hope. 

Sudden Short Story 56

The scene at Megiddo that day was difficult to describe, even by the many witnesses after the fact.  A man sat upon an old stone, whetting his blade, and that was the only thing that made sense.  Two billion people were there, even though there wasn't room, and they remained distributed across the planet.  Many gods were there, towering over the congregation, and yet no taller than an adult.  They were thirty-three and yet three-thousand.  They were omniscient, and yet confused. 
"What is happening?" asked the god. 
"You are bound by my oath," spake the man.  "I was serious about my promise to you.  You forsook one of your flock, which was unwise in the first place.  But I made my promise, and I intend to keep it." 
"Her death was part of my greater plan," said many of the faces, "I work in mysterious ways."  A few, though, said "the devil did it."  They all seemed to expect this to save them. 
The man with the sword stood and approached the gods, pocketing his whetstone along the way.  He stopped before him.  "Restore her to life by my side, and I will release you from my previous oath.  Otherwise, I will kill you." 
Many of him became defiant.  "How?  With that sword?  You'll have to cut through two billion others before you can touch me." 
"I would," said the man, "but this is no ordinary blade.  In fact, it's so strong and sharp that it could pierce an iron chariot." 
In that moment, the people saw something that they had never themselves seen before.  Their gods were afraid.  And, in that moment, the man thrust his sword under the gods' ribcage and into their heart, and the blade was multiplied across them all. 
By the time that the blade was pulled out, the witnesses were gone, except that they were wherever they'd been the whole time.  None of them were terribly affected by what they thought that they'd seen, though. 
After all, they'd never really believed that particular set of fairy tales, right?

Sudden Short Story 53

"There you are," said one guard to the other.  "The sun's nearly down.  Do you even have your sword with you?" 
The second guard was looking a bit disheveled - he didn't even have his helmet on - and had arrived, by running, holding an iron shovel.  He checked himself, then his backpack.  Finding no sword in there, either, he at least put away his shovel.  "No sword, but I've at least got my axe.  And my bow." 
"Give me the axe, then, and I'll give you my sword.  I'm a better shot with a bow, anyway."  He made sure that he had easy access to the axe, then got out his bow, and checked his arrows, to make sure that he had enough. 
They left the gate northward.  After peering around the northwest corner, to ensure that everything was clear, they doubled back southward, passing the gate on the way to the southwest corner.  It was on their way back to the gate that they saw a giant spider as it attempted to scale the walls.  Since they had the jump on it, they closed in and took it in melee.  It was finished with a blow from the iron axe, but it was worn, and the head came loose from the handle in the process. 
Frustrated, the first guard took back his sword, and they returned to the gate for the next portion of the watch.
"You stay here, while I go get your sword and helmet.  I'll run your shovel back, too." 
The other guard handed over his shovel.  
"If any other monsters appear and are close enough, shoot them."
He waited by the gate, wondering what might come out tonight.  The giant spiders were the worst, it seemed, since they appeared in numbers and could scale the walls.  As he contemplated this, though, he noted that one of the tall trees in the nearby wood seemed darker than the others.  He looked upon it, and was overcome by the ominous sound that seemed to come from everywhere at once.  The tall, dark creature turned to face him, and their eyes locked.  Carefully, he drew his bow. 
"DON'T SHOOT IT!" he heard, but the cry came too late, and he had already released the arrow.  Just as it seemed likely to hit, though, the creature disappeared. 
"Where'd it--" but he was swiftly stricken from behind. 
Before anyone knew what was happening, they were all fighting for their lives, as the enderman teleported around, leaving death piles and missing blocks in its wake. 

Sudden Short Story 52

Laviten wound his way through the winding gap at the top of the mountain.  There had yet to be any branch in it, so there was no issue of getting lost.  He just wondered how long it would be until he finally encountered the horned man.  He rounded a corner, and there he was. 
The horned man stood on a narrow plateau in the center of a great depression in the rocks.  The plateau brought him to the same height as Laviten, who was dumbstruck, not having known what to expect.  The horned man stood on the toes of one foot, his other tucked against his thigh, with his hands in an odd gesture at his hips.  He did indeed have horns, and his eyes were closed. 
The horned man spoke suddenly:  "You seek to change who you are, Lesser of Leotan."
It was more a statement than a question, but Laviten felt compelled to speak.  "I came to seek your wisdom."
"You sought wisdom from the shamasal; from me, you seek direction." 
The horned man's directness befuddled Laviten, though only for a moment.  "Y-Yes.  I do not know what I should do next.  Where am I needed?  What shall I do?  What if shapeshifting is not the only magic to --"
"Go across the high mountains," interrupted the horned man, pointing behind him to his own right with his right arm, "There you will find your star."
"But... of all the stars in the sky, none are mine," he protested.  "The Oracle of Oras saw none for me."
The horned man opened his eyes, and fixed Laviten with his gaze.  Laviten stood transfixed, staring at those implacable eyes.  He began to notice what was so disquieting about them:  Were they moving left and right too rapidly to be noticed?  Or were the pupils actually wider?  Laviten realized that the horned man had raised his left arm skyward.  He followed it with his eyes to its hand curled into an upward-pointing finger, and then upward into the bluish sky. 
Laviten fell backwards and scrambled backwards instinctively, for that what he saw was so terrifying.  He had only just noticed it, but in that moment realized that he had seen it ever since he emerged from the gap.  Had he seen it even before then?  Perhaps even before he entered the gap, when the mountain was no longer climbable?  How could he not notice it before now?  Neither cloud nor moon nor star was to be seen above.  Though the sky was clear, the moon and stars that forever bathed Ogo in nocturnal light were not to be seen. 
"That is the power of the star that awaits you," spoke the horned man.  "Its light is enough to banish the other stars, and more.  Now go, across the high mountains.  When you reach the other side, your journey will have begun." 
Uneasily, Laviten collected himself and stood up.  Promising himself to remain undaunted, he thanked the horned man, and then proceeded around the crater, toward the awaiting mountains, where the horned man's right arm still pointed. 

Sudden Short Story 46

Sam got himself up onto the dirt step that he'd made on the way down, then back to the surface.  The rain poured down, reducing even the light that their torches shed.  "Well, he's not down there."  

"Even the coffin's gone," commented Lou.  

"Do you think that he's gone on to whole-corpse revivals?"  

"I think that he's trying to throw us off track.  Maybe he's going to butcher this one like he did the others, but with all the pieces this time around."  

"It might not be that bad," added Sam, hopefully.  "Maybe there was nobody in this grave in the first place.  It could be a decoy."  

"I suppose.  The village does seem pretty abandoned.  If they fled, though, then they must have thought that they'd have some time.  They seem to have taken their livestock with them."  

"Luckily, they couldn't take their crops.  I saw a melon farm, and it's summer.  We should see if that's come in before we set out."  

"I suppose that I could go for a slice of melon," Lou said, as he put his shovel in his pack.  "It'll save us our rations, anyway."  

They walked down the hill toward the village, seeking shelter as night fell.  The rain should have let up soon.  They found a house with two beds and only one window, and made shift a simple barricade with some spare wooden planks.  

"What's the plan for tomorrow?" asked Sam, as they readied for sleep.  

"We'll break our fast on the melons, if we can," answered Lou.  "We'll do a last check for any abandoned equipment that we may need.  Then, I think that we should set out for those mountains that we saw, to the northwest of here.  In case he is in the area, that's where I think that he'd set up."  

They lay silently, for a short while.  Then, Sam asked, "Do you think that you'll be able to kill him?  If it comes to it."  

"You mean because he used to be our friend?"  He looked over, and Sam nodded.  Lou stared back to the ceiling.  "I hope so, Sam.  We're the only ones who can."  

Sudden Short Story 45

The lights burned brightly in the war room, for that only so much fuel could be carried.  The looks around the room were grim, though one alone, beneath a many-patterned cloak, had particular intent to it.  Finally, the silence was broken.  

"Even with the elves on our side, we've only been able to slow them down.  The elimination of the gnomes gave them the Alps, and they'll have Europe in half before we know it," said one in frustration.  

A second started:  "We still have the North Sea.  If the jotun can keep the Baltic secure, then we'll never lose the east, or our connection--"

"The jotun are losing on the eastern front!" interrupted a third.  "If we can't get Loki manifest, then that damned witch will have us for sure!"  

The man with the patterned cloak continued to stare grimly at the map. Finally, he spoke.  "We have to retreat."  

"We can't afford to retreat!" cried the third.  "If we give up Iberia, then they'll march right on up to the isles, and we'll lose Gibraltar and our main foothold on the Mediterranean."  

The cloaked man walked over to a book shelf and retrieved a red-bound tome.  He opened it, to reveal a key stored inside.  "Send half of our supply ships up the eastern coast of Britain, through the North sea, to land north of Hadrian's Wall."  He moved a tapestry aside, revealing a metal section with a key-hole in it.  

There was surprise, but a fourth man chimed in:  "I don't know what you've been holding out on us, but we won't be able to mount a counter-offensive from the highlands on the scale that we need."  

The cloaked man retrieved a map from the wall-hole and unfurled it on the table.  "That's a distraction, actually.  We send word to Erin to build a fleet of the most sea-worthy vessels possible.  The rest of our supply ships will sail up the sea, so as to avoid giving away our plans."  He pointed to the Irish Sea, now dwarfed by the enormity of a world-spanning map.  The rest stood in stunned silence.  

"From Erin, we sail across the northern Atlantic," he said, tracing across the map with a finger, "being careful to remain northward until we reach the eastern coast of this continent, which, in my world, was called 'North America'.  The other one is called 'South America'.  It's very creative, I know.  From there, we sail southward, around the Florida peninsula, toward the Mississippi.  We'll have to forego our ships at the delta, but that will get us as close as possible to the Ozarks, which are our final destination in this world.  Any questions?"  

"I have three," said the fourth.  "First of all, why do we need to go to these Ozarks?"  

"That's the second-closest ley line intersection capable of handling a transit of the required capacity.  The first is Aleppo."  

"Fair enough.  Secondly, though, when were you planning to tell us about this?" he said, waving his hands widely across the two new continents on the new map.  

"Originally, never.  There are many risks to this plan.  The only reason why anyone should be willing to undertake it is due to desperation here.  We don't know the political situation in the Americas, or whether they've already been invaded.  Besides, this is a retreat.  I was hoping to stop this horror here.  What's your third question?"  

"How do you even know that these continents exist in our world?" he asked, pointedly.  

"There are several reasons, but I'll give you the most direct.  I came here through a geomantic invocation.  For the one that I used to work, the ley lines had to be identical between the two worlds, which means that the key points had to be so, too."  

"So you're planning to recruit these Amerikese and launch a counter-offensive from there?" asked the second man.  

"'Americans', and no.  When I said that I was hoping to stop it here, I wasn't referring to Europe.  Unless the natives have unlocked some immense power while remaining isolated, they're not going to be a match for a force that controls Eurasia, Africa, and perhaps Australia.  We'll have to move on to another world, though that itself is a gamble.  As we go, the best that I can do is force our enemy to follow.  If you have a better plan, then, for the sake of everything, please tell me now."  

Sudden Short Story 43

"So what did that guy have," asked Steve, as they left the market stall.
"Some string for my bow.  So did you find anything?"
"Maybe.  There's this guy back at the tavern who might have something."
"The tavern?  Really?"
"Well, he didn't start out there.  He was ranting in the town square, before, but he wasn't getting very far.  I managed to coax him down off of his box, though, but I promised that you'd hear him out."
---
"So, let me see if I have this straight," said John.  "A giant monster attacked your village."
"Town-upon-the-Lake, yes."
"And you came through the mountains to recruit adventurers and explorers."
"Right."
"And you want us to slay this giant monster."
"You and whomever else we recruit, yes."
"So, if we survive this, then we're splitting the glory - which is fine, if it's as big as you say - but our only material reward is replacements for our worn-out arms and armor."
"Oh, no, you'll be getting those before challenging the monster."
"Oh.  Well, that's nice and all, and I'm not unsympathetic to the plight of your villagers, but it still doesn't seem worth risking our necks for that - and, if your pitch is anything like that of your fellows, I suspect that we'd be the only ones to show up, anyway.  You've managed to hide from and even escape this strange beast, so perhaps you could find somewhere else to go.  It's not an easy choice, but it's better than the alternative."
"There's nowhere else to go, though.  You see, the beast is nesting.  It has already laid an egg sac, bigger than a house.  Eventually, the eggs will hatch, and these creatures will spread throughout the land.  No place will be safe."
John thought for a moment, then turned to Steve.  "He makes a fair point.  Let's do it."