*******

And by ‘sure’, I meant, ‘what the literal fuck’ or ‘are you fucking kidding me’ or ‘if you can . . ?”. To be perfectly clear, I was stunned that I had taken down this animal in a non-lethal manner without explosions or bloodshed, but actually doing something with this creature presented several problems. First, I wanted to get some sleep and get on my way down to Florida, and second, I didn’t really want to be here when it woke up. Reasonable paranoia was screaming its bloody little head off, warning me to pop smoke and disappear from over sized magical animals, and if I wasn’t dumb enough to do that, then to put it down for good.

Gingerly walking up to the slow-breathing bear, I stopped five feet away. The sheer girth was awe inspiring, but its breath was kickin’. Reaching out with my mind sorcery, I carefully rooted around in its brain and found where the hibernation instincts were, and then followed them to where they ended near the normal sleep instinct patterns started. Weaving a small runic diagram of peace undergirded with safety and security, I wedged it right between its instincts and put plenty of mana into it, long enough that it should last for a month unless I removed it. Taking a few steps back, I gathered up my companions and took them back to camp.

“Ok,” I started, making sure to keep my voice softer than usual, “No creature is dumb enough to mess with a bear that big except for us, and now it won’t wake up unless we do something stupid. I want to head down south and fast.”

“My lord,” Reeanth whispered, “Is this not another opportunity?”

“For us to get eaten? Yes, that’s exactly what this is. Play stupid games and you win stupid prizes.”

“Aw come on man!” Johnny interrupted, his voice barely louder than my own. “Can you see me riding that beast into battle? We could be badass kings if we wanted to! You got your flaming dog and I got a mountain bear, and we find something stuck up to fit your giant lady friend.”

Before another fight could erupt, I put my hand on Reeanth’s arm and squeezed just a bit. Her readied outburst died in her throat as I glared at her. “Now’s not the fucking time for this,” I growled at both of them. “I say we sleep and get a move on early and let the bear wake up naturally and do bear things.”

“My lord is correct, although, if it is still asleep when we return then it may be a valuable resource to harvest. There are many in the multiverse that would pay a handsome price for such a specimen. Mana-mutated animals on this scale tend to be rare, and can even be potent ingredients for weapons, food, supplies and alchemical potions.”

“We are not turning my bear into a goddamn rug!” Johnny fired back. “I’m gonna tame it, ride it, and we’re gonna be best friends!”

My head dropped into one hand as the beginnings of a headache crept into my temples, which my flesh sorcery conveniently banished. Three deep breaths later, I looked Johnny dead in the eye.

“How?” I asked, “How in the world are you going to tame that?”

“With this!”

A small flash of light pulsed from his staff that was currently in its short walking stick form. A small scroll popped into existence just above his hand and plopped down suddenly. My intense bewilderment prompted Johnny’s answer.

“My staff dude. It’s like a magical suitcase. I can stick stuff in there and this scroll came with it. Some mumbo jumbo voice told me when I was high that this could get me a pet or something, but I would have to choose.”

To my magical senses, the scroll felt like a completely normal piece of paper. There were a bunch of scribbles on the inside that I couldn’t immediately decipher, but there was no mana or magic or sorcery in that scroll whatsoever.

“So, I’m going to do something really dumb man,” I replied, somehow squashing my surprise enough to formulate a thought. “I’m going to trust you.”

He took a deep breath as his face lit up. Reeanth quickly smothered his imminent explosive jubilation with her hand. “Quiet cretin! This definitely does not work if you wake it now!”

Sheepishly nodding while clutching his scroll, he went really still to show he got the picture.

“Good, now stay that way, or I’ll break your leg and kick the bear in the nose, leaving you here as a distraction,” she threatened, taking her hand away from his mouth. She casually swung her mana-maul around in her other hand to show she meant business. That weapon weighs well over thirty pounds and Reeanth was handling it like a child’s toy. His Adam’s apple jumped up and down as he gulped with a hint of fear, miming zipping his lips closed.

Turning to me, Reeanth wasted no time. “My lord, is there a way that you can keep the bear mentally pliable or vulnerable. This scroll seems to be a Chaos based artifact form when the Ripple altered the Earth. There is a very good chance that this would work on the bear, and honestly, it would be an incredible asset to have.”

Looking back towards the monstrous bear and then back at me, she continued, “Everything in the universe respects strength, and your strength attracts more of the like. It would be a waste to not take advantage of this.”

I took a few minutes to think about it as my two companions gathered dead wood from the surrounding area. Threats of waking the bear and assurances that I could keep it asleep sufficiently motivated them to do the work for me. The light from the enchanted lightstone was calming as sleep poked at the edges of my awareness, which I promptly pushed back with flesh sorcery. A giant bear, who would have thought? And besides, a giant armored bear, you couldn’t ask for a better playmate for Spot.

I really wanted to let Johnny have at it, but the simple fact that the scroll looked like nothing significant to me bothered me more the more I thought about it. Does this mean that the energy that Johnny uses is invisible to my senses, kind of in the same way that my pure magic is invisible to him? He does his cultivation meditation thing, and I can see in the magical spectrum that his body is changing, but I cannot see the agent or medium by which it is. It just looks like his body is doing its own thing, taking in a nutrient that I can’t perceive, and getting better because of it.

“What’s it really like out there?” I asked, directing my question to Reeanth who was building the fire. I checked to make sure Johnny was still sitting up on top of the wall surrounding the camp meditating. “I know the universe is big and all, probably in the way that I cannot conceptually conceive it, but . . .”

Taking her gathered wood and arranging it into a pyramid, Reeanth touched it and softly spoke a word. A spark jumped from her fingertip and the fire was lit.

“The many realms are not just ‘big’ my lord, but they are far apart as defined by how you understand space. Some races choose to brave the endless wastes of the cold void in search of new places to settle, while others manipulate space itself to shorten the distance. Portals, gates, spatial cracks, wavelength transportation, and the most insane travel by way of the Cosmic web.” Leaning back against one of the piles of dirt in the shape of a couch I conjured, she put her feet up and stared into the blaze.

“There are many ways to get where you’re going, but you actually have the safest of them all, the World Tree my lord. If you’re wise, that can take you anywhere. But that holds danger in and of itself. There are many realms above and below in frequency. Your people had many tales of what we call Mirrored worlds. Sister realms tend to be the closest in relationship, but your planet’s was quite strange. You not only had the Faerie realm occupying the same space but different frequency, but your Mirror Earth was directly across the sun from Earth. You simply couldn’t see it due to your technology’s shortcomings.”

“What?! No way that’s true. I mean, the Faerie realm, sure, but the Mirror image of Earth on the exact opposite side of the sun? I call bullshit.”

“I do not joke my lord. Before the Great Rending, Earth and her sister Terra . . “

“That is terribly unimaginative.”

“Yes it is my lord. Humanity also has its lows as well as its highs. As I was saying, this planet functions as a small nexus for a significant network in the Cosmos. It’s not hard to go from here to anywhere, as long as you know where to look. Your realms of Nirvana and Sheol are just as close to Earth as Faerie, but far more dangerous. Your ‘demons’ and ‘angels’ come from there. Their war is really the only constant in the universe. Theirs is the only thing that stretches back consistently into the expanse of history.”

My eyes squinted as I looked at her. “Do you not remember Gav’riel?” I asked. “Big dude completely made out of light, you know, not a normal occurrence?”

“It’s completely possible to meet an angel or demon and not remember it. They are the undisputed masters of thought and memory manipulation. They’ve been doing it to Earth for millenia through, although most of you can’t remember it, only shards of vague memories seem to remain. The best course of action is simply not to anger them. Sodom and Gomorrah were real, and I’m sure you’re familiar with that particular ending.”

A few suddenly tense heartbeats elapsed as I scanned my brain with my consciousness sorcery to look for gaps. Nothing came up, but that’s the kind of thing that really conjures up fear, the thought that someone can change or alter what fundamentally makes you you.

“So angels are real, got it, and apparently demons, but that was probably a given. But what else? Is the universe undergoing some crazy giant war, or is there some kind of intergalactic peace? Who rules the roost around here?”

She took her time formulating an answer, almost too long. “There is much of the universe that is at peace, simply because most of those planes have some kind of patriarch or LawKeeper that can keep the area in line. As I said, strength matters. The Hungry Ones have their secret set of realms and worlds, and much to the multiverse’s dismay, no matter how many we find and destroy or liberate, they are like cockroaches. They always come back from somewhere, and they’re always at war with anything that lives. It also is not uncommon to find a completely untouched natural realm. Terra was one such natural paradise before the Great Rending and now it is desolate wasteland.”

“Don’t stop now!” I spat as she went quiet. “What happened?”

“Humans. We happened. Mik’hael and Gav’riel didn’t dare to break the treaty with the Legions and fight on Earth, but Terra was a perfect substitute. Almost nine centuries of the most vicious war with sorcerers and battle wizards with their golems and giants and dragons at the center of the fighting, the ravenous dead of the Hungry Ones simply couldn’t resist. Several of their Nightmares and Deathnaughts at the direction of Eelgatroth the Lich, the Holder of the Scepter of Pain, poured their forces through portals powered by sacrifices. The temptation of all the piled up mountains of dead was too much. Those corpses would have been realm-changing in terms reanimating a demon and angel undead army. Due to this, both sides decided on their first cease-fire to burn the world to ash using wytchfire. Now, only shattered fragments of skeletons remain there to this day. It was a painful reminder to both the Host and Heathens.”

“I don’t even know what to say.”

“I say, that after retrieving your family, you make your next priority to rid Earth of the Hungry Ones. There is a collective agreement that whoever is the most instrumental in removing the threat of the undead from a plane is put in charge of it. Again, strength is respected, but also rewarded.”

“Lady, I got bad news for you,” I countered, “They are literally my weakness. The only true weapon I have against them is the big ass flaming canine. That’s one reason I wanted the Centauri weaponry, even though it’s gone now, but I was hoping to maybe fill in some of the gaps for combating them. I’m guessing that light as well as fire hurts them, but it’s not like I have a specimen or two to experiment with.”

“There’s always the High Council of Witches. The Hags would do anything if you were to help them out with their little problem.”

“Assume I do not know what you’re talking about, please.”

She let out a soft chuckle. “The Witches are an incredibly powerful force, almost as big as the Centauri Empire but far more deadly. They are known to be staunch allies but treacherous by nature. They’ve discovered how to preserve themselves into a mockery of eternal life, but eternal youth, that is what eludes them.” She turned to look me up and down and continued. “And flesh sorcery, would return them to their younger, more beautiful forms. In fact, they may even want to trap you forever simply to keep them looking young.”

“Uh, no. Not gonna risk eternal imprisonment for someone’s vanity.”

“You may not have a choice soon my lord. Their Amazons are most skilled at seducing and controlling men. They’re also one of the most feared fighting forces. They excel at hunting magic wielders and their reptilian mounts have fought off dragons. They keep a breeding house of men with magical talent for breeding so that hopefully some of their offspring will have the potential to be a Witch.”

I fought off a shiver. “Ok, note to self, immediately flee or mindwipe Amazons. Ok, well, what do you know about cultivators, like Johnny? I’ve learned some disturbing information, but it does conflict with other things I’ve learned.”

“They’re both respected and feared my lord. They follow the rules of dragons. The older they are, the more powerful they become. Their hoard is their lifeblood and they’ve fought wars with pretty much every race in their search for items and objects of power. Their last war was with the Riders of the Flame, humans who cared for the fire-aligned dragons in exchange for bits of soulbound fire sorcery. The Riders were a most deadly foe, the combined cunning and creativity supporting and directing the raw power and presence of a dragon turned many battles. They were the frontline against the Hungry Ones for many centuries. That was until a group of cultivators decided that dragons and their breeding grounds were meat farms, and the sorcerers could be used as magically bound combat slaves.”

“That’s not reassuring me about him,” I said, motioning towards Johnny with my head.

“My lord, cultivators occupy one of three areas. They either literally do not matter when they are off contemplating the mysteries of the universe for uncounted years, or they are your worst enemy. But, it has happened before, they could also be your best friend and most powerful ally. It truly is up to you. I believe that you may stand a chance at shaping a young one if you play your cards right.”

“Fuck it, I’ve decided.” Letting instinctive impulsivity rule the day for once, I stood up and jogged to the wall where Johnny sat. “Get up dude, we’re gettin’ you a bear!”