As I followed Clyde and looked about, I reluctantly came to the realization that it seemed like we did have too many people living here in the compound without enough solid roofs to shelter them. Or at least it appeared that way to me, upon seeing the confusion caused by so many people moving and running about right now. On the other hand in my opinion two people are a crowd let alone this overgrown cluster fuck. I had thought that I had bought enough modular homes but we obviously needed more houses because of the refugees we had picked up during our actual journey back from Kilmer’s.

At Kilmer’s, Clyde on my behalf had told his friends that I would do my best to keep them safe. But with night flying monsters and no hard roofs over their heads, I wasn’t living up to that implied promise. Maybe the women had a point about moving into my house but I won’t ever tell them that!

“Vince I got somebody I want to introduce you to. I think I found the guy to lead your army. His name is George Mesquida, he was a captain in Nam and he should have been promoted, but he pissed off some REMFs, and as a result the army lost a good officer.

Before all this shit started, he had some severe health problems. The doctors put him on several drugs that really messed up his thinking. If it hadn’t have been for those drugs I’m sure that George would never have been dumb enough to follow Kilmer and go to his estate.

But just like you and I have gotten healthier; the Captain is looking better now too and thankfully his mind is back to being as sharp as it ever was. Out of all the guys we picked up I think he’s the best one available to lead your security forces. And frankly I think we’re lucky to have him here with us now.”

“Well I pray your right Clyde but I hope he can deal with my terms. I already told you and showed you what the Ding-Ding system has told me about being a Professional Hermit and I hope he can handle that.” He grunted back at me.

I wasn’t happy about going back to Kilmer’s estate today but I had made some promises and we did need some more hard sided living spaces. What with flying monsters, tents were now far too dangerous for people to live in. As far as the predators were concerned they probably viewed tents the same way I used to look at the paper wrappings on fast food hamburgers. Hell, it was only sixteen miles to Kilmer’s, if we didn’t have to fight or waste time negotiating today we might be able to make two trips before dusk. There had to be at least ten more trailers there that we could return to their rightful owners.

Clyde and I were walking towards a group of men gathered near the Scorpion, the Sherman and the Hellcat. All of them were in army green but most of their fatigues looked pretty old and faded. Hell, even Clyde was in an old set of army fatigues. There was one man there that seemed to be doing all of the talking and those gathered around him, appeared to be listening intently to all of his words, including Richard Jacobs who I recognized from yesterday. I used my appraisal skill on the talkative Mister Popularity. Even looking older than I am he was a very distinguished looking and handsome man. I hated him immediately. Hell, he probably had all of the girls in his high school in love with him. He was sure to be an asshole and I think the best job for him was to be a speed bump on a test track for our armored vehicles.

Name: George Mesquida

Title: Captain

Title: Husband of Sheryl Mesquida

Clyde should have mentioned to me that this asshole was an orange. All the greens and oranges here have learned to control what another person sees when appraisal is used on them. Currently blues are out of luck and we can see everything on their status screens, which is a pain for me because blue hurts my eyes. George must have learned to hide things too, since I could only see that little bit of information about him. I suspect he had hidden his asshole and lothario titles. But he was an orange and I guess I’ve sort of learned to trust that. I walked up behind him, controlled my urge to kick him in the ass and introduced myself when he paused in his talking.

“Captain Mesquida, I’m the Professional Hermit Vincent Standish. Clyde tells me that you’re an excellent leader of soldiers,” and probably a seducer of women too, you good looking asshole. How would you like some second degree burns to your face?

He did the Spock eyebrow raise and he pulled it off perfectly too, damn it. I could never do it that accurately and once years ago I even dressed as Spock for a Halloween costume party. Maybe that’s when my marriage went wrong? George Mesquida looked back at me and I’m certain he ran his own appraisal. “You don’t seem very much like a hermit Mister Standish, especially what with all the people you have here.”

You mean I don’t look impressive enough; don’t you, you prick? So I’m still growing my hair back and maybe I’m wearing a few chicken feathers in what I do have on my head. But I get some minor bonuses for the feathers and I think they’re rather stylish too. All the best dressed hermits are wearing them this season, so fuck you.

Maybe I should get a chicken as a familiar and whenever it pisses me off or if I get hungry enough, I can simply make soup out of it and then just get a new chicken. And let us not forget the eggs that it can lay, can a cat do that, I think not! Handsome Hank seems to be waiting for a reply, so I guess I better say something.

“If everyone on my lands had somewhere else go to, then you would be looking at the happiest hermit in a thousand miles. Sadly we’re all screwed. Monsters are eating us, our cars don’t work, electricity is kaput and I got far too many fucking people living on my land right now. For the time being, we all just have to learn how to deal with all the shit that is going wrong in our lives. Clyde says you’re good and you’re obviously an orange. So I’ve got a job offer for you but you probably won’t like it. The Ding-Ding System has acknowledged me as a Professional Hermit and Landowner. As such, again according to the DDS, I am the absolute ruler of all the lands I legally own and beholden to no one. Because of that, I have certain magical gifts that have come in handy, such as the ability to enchant light bulbs and manual action repeating firearms. To protect my gifts, I have to play the role, the DDS has given me. That means that I’m the only noble here and everybody else is my flunky. If people disagree with that or with me, then I am forced to take action or risk losing some or all of the abilities and skills that I currently possess, which could fuck us all and not just me. I need a Captain of the Guard, and for that matter I need some trained or semi-trained thugs to staff any guard he might lead. The question is Captain, can you put up with this kind of fuck upped situation or do you want to get off of this crazy train while you still have the chance? Truthfully while looking at you, I don’t find you that impressive but I guess you’re the best I’m likely to find,” you miserable arrogant too pretty son of a bitch.

“Will you do everything in your power to keep my darling wife Maria and her sister Sofia safe?”

You’re probably sleeping with both of them aren’t you, you shithead? “Captain Mesquida, I’m a mean asshole. I might have an orange screen but I can assure you that I’m an asshole. I can’t promise shit. I’ll do my best to keep everyone here safe and I pray that I don’t screw up too often. That’s the best response you’ll get from me. If that won’t do, then fuck you,” I snarled.

Clyde made a sudden inhalation of breath, and maybe a few of the other men around us did as well. George looked back at me without making a reply and I waited. I used the time to observe everything that was going on in our immediate vicinity. You can never have too much firsthand knowledge. I noticed a rather loud dispute, going on about a hundred feet away from us. “Clyde, do you see those four jokers over there, that look like they’re about to start swinging at one another?”

“Yeah I see them.”

“Good, I’m waiting on a response from Captain Numb-nuts here. Can you go over there and tell those four men to come see me right now, because I have the urge to yell at someone. And you might mention to them that if they don’t come here, then they won’t like what happens next, though I might. I feel the sudden need to release great amounts of anger.”

“Sure thing Boss,” he took off at a run, that chicken shit. I better stop using that expression since I’m the guy who’s always wearing chicken feathers! I kept looking around. I saw Faith, which was good. It was time for a little payback. She and Isabella had evidently borrowed a tractor and it looked like they were hitching it up to Faith’s travel trailer. I yelled and waved my arms to get her attention. She saw me and started walking over in response to my call. In the other direction was my son-in-law James, I threw a rock at him to get his attention since he was rudely ignoring my silent telepathic shouting. Sadly I missed his head. He looked around angrily and saw me waving at him. I suddenly remembered that neither of us were telepaths. Oops, my mistake. He started to trot in my direction.

Faith made it to me first. “Do you need something Vincent?”

“Let’s wait until everybody is here Faith and then I’ll explain.” The four arguing yahoos showed up next and then Jim arrived. They all started to talk and I politely asked them to be quiet. “Shut the fuck up you morons. We obviously have many more people here today than we had yesterday and I have no time for settling any arguments. Nor can this community afford any disruptive disputes. Any fucking minute now we could be attacked. A dragon could come out of the sky and try to kill us all. So when I saw four arguing idiots, I decided that we needed some people to settle disruptive quarrels quickly, fairly and efficiently. Faith Harper here,” I pointed at her, “was a Judge in our old world and might still be one as far we know. I worked with her and I was impressed. James here is or was an attorney and he has an orange screen. Both of them have true sight, so they can tell when people are lying to them. Faith and Jim, I would like you two, to be my Peace Officers and to settle any arguments before they get out of hand. We don’t need injured people, damaged equipment or sore feelings here, not if we’re going to live. Will you both please do that for me?”

They focused their attention on one another and they seemed to be communicating solely by facial expressions. It must be some kind of secret code used by assholes, I mean lawyers. After a final nod from Jim, Faith began talking. “What exactly are we going to be, cops, judges, or counselors? Give us a clue Vince?”

“Faith we are a small community. I don’t expect this to be a full time job for you and Jim but you never know. I wish for you to solve things as peacefully as possible. You do have the authority to hand out punishments but I want a one line summary of all punishments at the end of the day and your victims, I mean the accused, have the right to an appeal with me. But warn them, my punishments will be much worse than yours if I think they’re in the wrong. If the situation warrants it, think like Judge Dredd and I’ll back you both up. Remember I have true sight too.” I grinned evilly at them and they both shuddered. I believe they were recalling, how I had gently helped them gain their own true sight ability. “You are not to act like a couple of gentle Care Bears. If some assholes give you too much grief, we can always kick them out, except for me of course.”

The two lawyers walked several feet away and began whispering. The four yahoos looked nervous and wisely kept their mouths shut. After a few minutes the sidebar ended and the ambulance chasers came back. Faith did the talking again. “My associate and I are willing to take on the job.”

“Fantastic and I thank you; first off find out why these four clowns were arguing and settle it. Next thing to do, is to get with Steve and have him issue each of you, one of the revolvers that I’ve already enchanted. There should be three or four .357 magnums left, unless he’s given them out already.” I’ve always liked that caliber, so I purchased it, in a lot of different models from almost every revolver manufacturer there is, once I had the money to do so.

“Then get with Glen and have him make you some shields, not badges but real functional metal shields, maybe make them buckler size so you can wear them on your belts. Have him put some intimidating official sounding words on the front of them. I don’t have any ideas on what to say, so just figure out something on your own. Don’t put any words on the back of them, since I’ll probably enchant the shields later on and I’ll need the space to engrave some symbols.”

I know you still have that armored vest Faith, so just keep using that. But Jim, you need to have Glen give you some of that armor he’s making now, if you don’t already have something better. I see Isabella has your trailer hooked up and ready to go, Faith. When you get back to my house search it, some place in there, I’ve got some asps and a few cans of pepper spray. I think they’re with my knives, in a big wooden box in one of my closets. Each of you should grab a can of pepper spray and an asp. When I have the time, I’ll enchant your asps too.” Why does that last sentence sound so wrong? “You might think that I’m arming you up far too much for the job that I just asked you to do but I’d rather have you carrying heavy than being hurt. Besides that, you both have already fought monsters, so you must already suspect you’ll likely be forced to fight them again and it wouldn’t hurt, that when that time comes you’re carrying a few more weapons than you previously did. Oh, if you see any knives you like in that box you can take one but only if there are two of them. Make sure to leave one of every style for me. I like to buy things in pairs and sets so there should be duplicates of almost all of the knives that are in the box.”

I have no idea why but when I started talking about issuing them revolvers their expressions went from being sort of gloomy to looking hopeful. Then when I talked about the shields and asps they actually began to smile. Perhaps they’re perverts, since when did lawyers get so excited over weapons?

I’ve always liked guns for plinking and hunting. Back when I was married I would go into the gun stores and just drool over what I saw there but I would never buy anything because I needed to save money for my family. Before my wife left me I had one shotgun, a Mosin Nagant and a twenty-two rifle, which is not exactly like owning an arsenal of firearms. The Mosin was my deer rifle and I bought it because it was cheap and so was the ammunition. The shotgun and the twenty-two were my grandfather’s. Later on, I had to sell off all three firearms when I lost my job because I was still badly in debt from all the bills my ex-wife had stuck me with.

When I won that lottery money, suddenly I could go into a gun store now and actually afford to buy something. So I did, I bought lot of things, and it made me happy at the time, I was like one of those people that you always hear about who are constantly buying shoes or watches but never wearing them. If I bought a certain model of firearm, I normally bought two of them, one to occasionally shoot and the other as a spare, which I left untouched in its box in case I damaged the first one.

Now all of my firearm purchases were paying off. Especially since ninety percent or more of the handguns, rifles and shotguns I bought were manual actions and not automatics. I’ve just never cared for automatics that much, they’ve always seemed cheap to me.

Faith and Jim took off running, like they were two kids on the way to the candy store. I had to yell at them, to get them to stop. Then I pointed at the four men they still had to deal with. Boy did those two look sheepish when coming back. Their faces were red with embarrassment, morons!

Faith was mortified to have forgotten her first assignment. But Vince had told them to get more weapons! Weapons were now a very good thing in Faith’s world, weapons were wonderful. She had been issued one of Vince’s Enfield rifles and now she slept with it next to her bed. Guns kill the monsters that want to kill and eat her. She knew that for a fact, since she had already killed more than one of them, that had been attempting to make a meal out of her. Now she was going to get a revolver, which thrilled her but what she really wanted, was for Vince to enchant her own shotgun, in case the bats came back for her again. However now that she was living in Vince’s house, though he didn’t know that yet, she could easily ask Jennifer to sneak her shotgun into his to-do bin.

Arriving back at her starting point; she and Jim, quietly took the worried looking four men off to the side. She stopped her daydreaming and started to question them.

Now that Faith and Jim seemed to have that under control, I turned my attention back to Captain Don Juan who suddenly seems to have gotten shorter? Why the hell is he on one knee in front of me?

“My Lord Standish, I George Mesquida do faithfully swear to serve you, in these times of trouble, to defend your lands and to protect those people who peacefully reside upon them, so long as they obey your laws and orders.”

I do believe Captain Asshole is mocking me. Well two can play at this game. I didn’t have a sword with me, so I used my carbine which is deadlier. I touch his right shoulder with the barrel and then his left. I even refrained from accidentally smacking his head with the barrel as I moved it from one shoulder to the other, I am a saint! I wonder if I’m doing this right, hell these are my lands, I can’t be doing it wrong because I’m always right. “I accept your oath and I dub thee Sir George Mesquida and I name you Captain of the Hermit’s Thugs, I mean the Hermit’s Guard, and may you serve long and honorably.” This will teach you, you son of a bitch just who is the biggest asshole around here.

DING

Boy, you two really stepped in the shit this time. George swore an almost completely open ended oath and “Wonder Where his Ass is At” accepted it. You’re both fucked now. Neither of you ever saw that movie “Dumb and Dumber” did you?

Sir George Mesquida, for swearing such a powerful oath and having it accepted by the Professional Hermit and Landowner Vincent Standish, you have been ennobled and granted the following skills and enhanced attributes to help you fulfill your duties. Betray your oath and you may lose all of your new gifts.

True Sight: Every good commander needs to be able to tell truth from fiction; and accurately see what lies all around them.

Fire Magic Level One

Earth Magic Level One

Quick Thinking Level One: When things go to hell and “quick thinking is required” your thoughts speed up by ten percent.

+50 Percent Increase in Strength.

+25 Percent Faster Reflexes.

+50 Percent Increase in Stamina.

George’s eyes had gotten very big. I had to wonder why I hadn’t gotten some of the perks that he just received. I mean I am supposed to be the Big Kahuna around here, right? Well fuck it, the surf is up and we got things to do. “Captain Mesquida you are now in charge of all of my military forces, I will not second guess you because I don’t know jack shit about military matters. No that’s probably a lie, I’m an asshole so I will second guess you but I’ll do my best to keep my mouth shut. We need better defenses for this compound but we also need those trailers which will offer better protection for some of the homeless people now living here. You decide the best way we should go about accomplishing those two goals. Whether we should leave now or postpone our trip for a day or two while you get things better organized here.”

He quickly gave me his response. “Give me an hour and then the expedition can leave.” He ran off while calling out names.

Well, I guess my hope of making two trips today is falling into the crapper. “Clyde, please find Steve and tell him how I just made George the man in charge of our defenses. Steve is still the person in charge of organizing everything else in this rat fuck.” I waved my arms about indicating everything in sight. “If he needs to see me, I’ll be moping over there in that corner and working on my Earth Magic. I hate to use you as a messenger so if you spot someone else that you can stick with the job, do so.”

“I got it covered Vince,” and he jogged off. I yelled “thanks” at his retreating back and he waved a hand over his shoulder acknowledging my gratitude.

I went to the corner as I had told him I would and practiced my latest magical skill; that I had just developed. The new ability allowed me to call rocks up from the Earth. I had gotten the idea from an old fantasy novel that I had read years ago, it seemed to work fine during the two short tests that I had done by my house. While some of the over two hundred acres I owned was decent farming land most of it was so full of rocks that it was next to impossible to grow any food crops on it. I hoped in the near future to take advantage of all those rocks.

Almost an hour later I was enjoying my quiet time. I was in nice shady spot with no breeze; I might have even dozed off. “Vince?” I heard Clyde’s voice calling me to me but it was coming from above my head. I opened my eyes and looked up. There was now a sloped wall of rocks almost ten feet high surrounding the spot I was sitting on, not one of the rocks was touching me. Clyde’s head was peeking over the top of the rock wall and he was looking down at me with a slightly amazed but puzzled looking expression. I explained my predicament to him.

“Mack and I need a lot of rocks to build the new walls we’re planning for this compound; that is when we find the time to do it. I was just testing a new way to get them.” Almost every time I’ve read an adventure story, the main character keeps their associates in the dark, so he or she can later spring surprises on them during an emergency and thus prove how wondrous he or she is. I think that’s one of the stupidest things a person can do in a real life situation like this. If I don’t see a definite reason to keep secrets then I won’t keep any secrets. On the other hand if I need to keep my mouth shut, I will and fuck them if they don’t like it.

Clyde’s puzzlement disappeared. “Rocks from up to sixty feet away from you; began working themselves out of the ground and then once free of the earth, they would slowly roll or slide in your direction. It’s a good thing that it all began so gradually and you were sitting out here in the open where people could see you or they might have panicked. Once the rocks got close enough to you, they would stop and then they just sort of naturally piled themselves up all around you, like they were a bunch of puppies trying to get closer to their momma, it was a little creepy. The ground in some areas is now sunken in a little, in those locations where a lot of the rocks came out of the earth. Mack is inspecting the fence to make sure that it didn’t take any damage but so far it looks alright. Since the fence nearest you is one of the inner fences it’s not even close to being as important as the outer fence line.”

I nodded my head in agreement to Clyde’s last statement and I was thankful for his detailed report about what had happened. I had actually been trying to only call rocks from twenty feet away or less; not sixty feet, which means I was also grabbing them from sixty feet down. I was lucky that I hadn’t caused any damage with my first large scale attempt of this spell. Maybe next time I should keep my eyes open but it’s so much easier to do most of my magic tricks and keep my mental focus when my eyes are shut. I had the strongest feeling during this magic experiment; that the only reason that it had been so easy for me to do, was because I was doing it on MY LAND.

Clyde continued to talk. “The Captain has things organized so we can go now. He’s appointed two lieutenants, some noncoms, and he’s gotten some additional weapons out of Steve. The other new members of the Hermit’s Guard will patrol and drill while we’re gone.”

We mounted up and left the compound, Captain Mesquida had changed our formation. The Hellcat was now in front, the Sherman Grizzly was in the middle and the Scorpion took the tail. I was curious why he had changed things but I didn’t let it bother me. I knew the Hellcat had one inch of steel armor compared to the Scorpion’s half inch of aluminum. The only thing that I didn’t like was that I was stuffed into the Grizzly now. I thought the Hellcat was cooler and of course Captain Mesquida had chosen that as his new ride; that putz.

We were making good time but when we were halfway there we were suddenly charged by six mega rhinos. I have never seen a rhinoceros before but they don’t usually get as big as a full size cargo van, do they?

Somehow, Captain Mesquida seemed to be ready for them and he had the cannon on the Hellcat already pointed in the right direction when the rhinos first appeared. Grape shot, consisting of fifty caliber lead balls, were the only projectiles we had for our fifty and seventy-five millimeter cannons. They seemed to work against the beasts but only at close range, which I didn’t appreciate at all. I’m just glad I didn’t pee my pants. Luckily, the rhinos weren’t super tough, just super aggressive. The Scorpion veered off to the side, in order to get clear lines of fire on the beasts. It managed to kill half of the monsters with its little 20mm bolt action cannon. The Sherman’s cannon only fired once and I’m not certain that it killed any of the monsters on its own. Afterwards the Captain insisted that we stop and examine the animals, he wanted to know how we had killed them and where their vital organs were. In case we ever fought them again, so that the next time we could kill them even faster.

George ordered the armored vehicles to form a rough triangle around two of the corpses and I dug out a chain saw. Cutting into them was kind of like sawing into a hardwood like black walnut at first. It was a messy job but I guess we had to do it and I had no objections.

Storm Wind had heard the sounds of thunder and the roars of monsters. Ever since coming to this cursed place, he had been in constant fear for the tiny portion of his clan; that had been swept away with him from their mother world. At far too young an age he was now the Clan Chief after the passing of his Aunt, may gentle winds take her valiant soul to Heaven. He wanted to investigate the sounds of thunder himself but he knew that doing so was no longer his job, so he sent Tornado Challenger instead. He had firmly ordered the Challenger to be careful but he knew that it was a futile desire. No other flyer in the world would soar when there were tornadoes about but the Challenger had done it twice.

I was wondering if rhinos were good eating when I got the urge to stop and take a piss break. I wasn’t that desperate to take a leak so I slowly meandered over to the gap between the Scorpion and the Cat. Clyde called out, “Hey Vince where are you going?”

“I’m going to inspect my penis, ever since all this shit started it’s been growing about half an inch per week. I hope it stops growing soon because it’s gotten so big that’s it’s a little uncomfortable now if you know what I mean.” There was a sudden silence behind me as all the men stopped talking. I imagined that all of them were now wondering if every man’s penis on this planet was growing bigger except for theirs.

George yelled out, “You really are an asshole, aren’t you?” I flipped him the finger and Clyde called out in reply.

“How could you have ever doubted it, Captain? But whatever you do don’t ask him to ever teach you anything. The Ding-Ding System has set things up so that the nastier he is as an instructor, the better chance you have of learning any subject that he teaches, and I’m firmly convinced that the Boss enjoys being nasty far too much.”

I was pissing on the grass when I looked up and something immediately caught my attention. I couldn’t stop peeing and since there seemed to be no immediate threat, I decided to use appraisal while I continued to water the grass.

Challenger looked down at the strange flightless beings with the large moving noisy machines. His people had mastered windmills, waterwheels and the printing press so while he was impressed he wasn’t in awe. Tornadoes could awe him but nothing less than that. He used his new appraisal skill and was gladdened to see that there were two oranges and all the rest were greens. He was wondering if he should try and make friendly contact with them. Others thought of him as being reckless and he was, but only when it was just his own life at risk. He would never do anything to jeopardize his clan, especially not now when every pair of wings mattered to them. He watched as a person, with an orange plaque, walked between two of the machines and started to relieve himself. For a moment there he was certain that the man had spotted him but the strange person hadn’t reacted at all and had just continued to calmly pee.

I read the green status screen I suddenly saw before me.

Name: Tornado Challenger

Title: The Daredevil

Title: Scout of the Long Flight Clan

I loudly called out. “All right men I need you to listen to me very carefully now. Hold your fire; I have just spotted a nonhuman green screen sentient. He is observing us. He is a tan and brown feathered humanoid, and is less than four feet tall. He’s on a large tree branch about one hundred feet away from me. There are wings coming out of his back and when they are folded up, they look like they extend another foot and a half above his head. So if you’re measuring from the bottom of his feet, to the elbow joint in his wings, that makes him almost six feet tall in total height. He’s dressed in what appears to be a thin brown leather shirt and pants. He’s carrying a spear and there might be a knife on his belt. His green status screen says his name is Tornado Challenger. I suppose that has to be a translation of some kind. His title is Scout of the Long Flight Clan. He is certainly far from home and probably scared so let’s not screw this up.”

DING

As an absolute monarch you have the ability to understand any sentient being, you wish to communicate with and have them understand you as well, if you so desire.

Well that’s a convenient new skill. I could hear the Captain giving out orders to the men. I let Challenger see that I was watching him, but boy he has the coolest name. He could meet Luke Skywalker in a bar and just sneer at him because of his superior sounding name. Why don’t I have a cool name like that?

Challenger read the screen of the man that was now obviously observing him. How could this strange person be a hermit when he was surrounded by so many people? Suddenly the man began to speak and an orange screen appeared before Challenger’s eyes.

“Tornado Challenger the Ding-Ding System has given me the ability to talk with you, so please don’t be alarmed. We wish you no harm and I’m hoping that you feel the same way towards us. We were warned by the Ding-Ding System that our world would be changing. Many of our machines no longer work, we are gaining strange abilities and we see colored status screens. Monsters are coming onto our world and have killed many of us. Be careful, some of my fellow humans, out of fear, might mistake you for a monster and attack without warning. I also give you another warning a small minority of humans are not good people and might attack you just because they can get away with it and they are evil. I would like to talk with you, so we may learn about one another and hopefully in that way pose less of threat to each other through ignorance. Another warning, I am a rude person but not an evil person.”

Before me I saw a green screen as he replied. “Vincent Standish I see you. I am a scout for my clan. I am sure my clan leader will want to meet with you. Can you wait here while I bring him?”

“Challenger, my group here is on a short expedition to retrieve some shelters for my people. I would like to complete this task and meet back up with you on our return trip in no more than four hours time. If we do things that way, you won’t need to rush and I can still get the shelters my people need. Is that alright with you?”

That is very okay with me. We will be waiting here upon your return. Journey safely Vincent Standish.”

Journey safely, Tornado Challenger. If your people eat meat and you find these beasts we recently killed are appetizing for you, you may freely help yourselves to them. But watch out for the large pellets of lead that we drove into the creatures to end their lives. The pellets are slightly poisonous for my people and they may choke you if mistakenly swallowed.

Challenger lifted his spear in salute and took off flying away from us. Our examination of the rhinos showed us, as we had expected that the fifty calibers balls had been far less individually effective than the 20mm bullets. It looks like we’ll be mounting some 20mm rifles, by the commander’s hatches on our vehicles as soon as we can and we’ll also be making some slightly bigger grape shot for their main guns.