The barking grew louder as I made my way to the front door, all the while Don continued to roar every so often. I mentally reached out to both Don and DJ to stop the noise, but it didn’t seem to stop them from sounding off.

“For the love of Pete,” I yelled as I reached the door and stepped out.

DJ kept barking but otherwise stayed inside. Don and his mate were both sitting on the portico, but his mate was bleeding and had three arrows jutting out of her hindquarters.

“What happened, Don?” I said running over to his mate to check the wounds.

Heal her.

“Yeah, I’ll do what I can. What in the hell? Did the Orcs attack her?”

Heal her.

His mate, which I never got a name for, was barely alive and I doubted she flew up here on her own. I confirmed my suspicions when I noticed gouge marks from where Don had latched onto her body. Her left wing was nearly severed.

“I need to remove the arrows. It’ll hurt her.”

Heal her.

“I will, but it’s going to hurt. I don’t want you or her to kill me because I caused her pain. We clear?”

Don cuffed and leveled a look at me that I’ll never forget. Please. Heal her. I nodded and closed my eyes. I knew the pain I’d caused Shel not twelve hours earlier and tried to think of how I could prevent the same pain. Searching my memory from Zeus, I played out a plan to first prevent pain, then remove the arrows and finally heal the wing and cuts along her massive body. I knew a little about feline and avian anatomy and hoped my limited knowledge was enough not to kill her. I knew very little about Griffins other than big flying lions are best avoided and never hurt.

Don’s mate visibly relaxed and breathed slower once the pain centers were turned off and I took a more hands-on approach to Mana. That was the mistake I’d made with Shel. With her, I’d set a task and watched as it did everything all at once. With Don’s mate, I tackled the issued one at a time. First, dissolve the arrows, then repairing the arteries and muscles damaged. I was concentrating so hard that I almost missed the augmented reality feedback the Mana was providing me.

I’d grown so used to AR that it didn’t register at first when the Mana started filling in the DNA and molecular diagnostics of her body parts. The feedback was subtle, and I didn’t realize I began healing things on an instinctual level. I knew what needed fixing and what minerals, compounds, and structures needed to be built back up. I pulled wasted materials from her own body to make the fixes and visibly watched her loose 20% of her body weight.

I finished and didn’t stop staring in fascination until Don’s roar brought me back to reality. “She’ll be alright, Don. She’ll need to rest and eat. The healing process took a lot out of her, but I don’t see why should won’t be able to fly when she wakes up.”

Don, laid down next to his mate and rested his massive head on her chest. When his eyes closed, I took that as a clue our conversation was over. I wanted to know what happened, who, and where she was attacked but knew it’d have to wait.

I slowly backed away from them and re-entered my castle. “Theia, do you know who attacked her? It wasn’t Shel’s people was it?”

No. He came flying in with her from the north.

“Orcs?”

Doubtful, I haven’t seen them with arrows. Have you?

“No. Aren’t you watching the probes? Wouldn’t they have caught this? Zeus would have never left me in the dark!”

Theia popped into my vision as I was walking back to my room.

“Master, that’s not fair!” I stopped walking. “I’m not Zeus or a mindless computer which has no other interests. Plus, the probes are all over the world, and I wasn't taken to watch Don’s activities.”

I closed my eyes slowly and reopened them. “I’m sorry, Theia. You’re right. I—I can’t expect you to be an APRIL. I—I just miss Zeus, and I shouldn’t have lashed out at you.”

“I miss him too. He would help me set you up for teasing. DJ only wants a ball, or his ears rubbed. He’s not very intelligent.”

“What? DJ’s very—Okay. He’s a dog, but don’t bash my friend's intelligence. He’s my friend.”

“I’m sorry about Zeus. I like him and Roknar. I’ve learned what went wrong, but I still can’t bring them back.”

I found my desk and took a seat in my chair. “Any progress on how to get home?”

“Master, I think I found out what attacked the Griffin.”

“What?”

“You call them Goblins. There is a large number of them coming down the Uncompahgre River.”

“A large number? Can you be more specific?”

“Over a hundred. Would you like me to try counting?”

“You can’t count?”

Theia started tapping her foot, pursing her lips and crossed her arms. “Master, I’d need to do a details search for Goblins. You didn’t ask for a census.”

I put my hands up. “Okay, okay. Don’t get cranky; I was just…never mind. I didn’t know they used bows. I thought it was a European thing.”

“The earliest arrowheads dated back 64,000 years and originated in Africa, not Europe. Really, Master, I’m sure you know this already.”

“I—” I closed my eyes and realized I had already known this from the Zeus data dump, “I did know it but didn’t at the same time. I might have the information stuck in my head somewhere, but it takes an effort to search my memories. Don’t give me crap; I’m still figuring this out.”

“Regardless, they have bows, and I think they attacked the Griffons.”

“Are we at risk?”

“They are hunting Bison and moving south. I believe the Orcs and the Griffons are at the greatest risk. I doubt they’d be able to get past the laser turrets.”

“They still work?”

“Why wouldn’t they?”

“I just…well—I thought with the Mana changes, they wouldn’t work.”

“Hmm. I’ll test it, but I don’t see any problem with them. The biggest problem I foresee is the lack of coverage. I’ll print out more units to cover the walls.”

“How many do we need?”

“Enough to cover over twenty miles of wall.”

“TWENTY MILES!”

Theia blew out a sigh. “You really ought to pay more attention to what you asked Roknar to build. I’ve had to finish up his work since…well, since Roknar was lost as well.”

“You? I…”

“Just Caden, who do you think has been finishing the projects you started?”

“How far out can you control the Mana?”

“I don’t know. Not far. I still have to use radio waves to control the probes, but then again they don’t use Mana.”

“But you can reach twenty miles for the wall?”

“Master, it’s not twenty miles to the wall. At most four miles. The laser turrets are controlled wirelessly. Really, it’s not like the control systems stopped working.”

“Wait. The lasers aren’t made out of Mana?”

Theia giggled. “No. That would be silly.”

“I’m confused.”

“Roknar mined the minerals and built the walls, but the walls aren’t made of nanobots or Mana.”

I closed my eyes and felt stupid. It’s hard to remember the differences between Mana and the world around me. You don’t eat the food processor but the food it prepares.

“So, back to the Goblins and Don, what do we do?”

“What about Klapdud?”

“Who? Klapdud? The Orc?”

“Yes, the Orcs. I think Don will be safe in your old cave but what about the Orc who will die if attacked by that many Goblins?”

“They’re Orcs.”

“So, because they’re not human, you don’t care.”

What?

“I care.”

“Do you? Or do you just have Xenophobia?”

“I’m not racist? What are you talking about?”

My face reddened from anger that she’d even accuse me of racism.

“Xenophobia is more than about skin color. You brought humans to El Dorado but not Orcs. Have you reached out to the Goblins or Dwarfs?”

“Dwarfs? They’re—,” I stopped speaking and started to realize this wasn’t about dwarfs, goblins or orcs. “Theia, I value you. I care about you.”

Theia looked up sharply at me in shock. “I—”

“Theia, I’d be lost without you right now.”

“But you’d still leave me.”

Leave her?

“What?”

Theia started to cry. I mean…her projection was crying. I mean…Damn.

“You want to leave me. You are trying to replace me with Magus Sonshel.”

My mouth opened and closed like a fish out of the water as I tried to catch up with Theia’s change in subjects.

“Is this about me not having sex with you?”

“YOU ARE SUCH AN IDIOT!”

Her projection cut out and she refused my repeated attempts to talk with her. How is it that she has taken on a female persona when I’ve never named one of my programs after a female? I liked the sciences because they are easy to understand and once you know the rules you can predict the outcomes. People are much more complicated and the female / male relationship even more so. Tack on different lifeforms and--Ugh.

Was I xenophobic towards other species? I didn’t fear them per se but…damn it, I was better than they were. Wasn’t I? Racism has never fully been eradicated from the world, and I doubt it ever would be. However, I’ve never felt I was better than others. I’d always been average at school. Ambitious as hell, but not better than others. Yet, the humans here were—

I let that line of thinking trail off. Is a poodle better than a wolf? In some ways, yes, but at the same time, not. How different are humans from the other genotypes? How much better am I than Theia? She obviously had strong feelings for me, but how do I explain the need for being around my own kind? She’s not even a humanoid. People have been having sexual relations within Virtual for years but, was that any better than zoophilia or bestiality? I never saw the appeal. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed pornography, but some people take it to forming Virtual relationships with what amounts to as computer code.

However, Theia—Theia was different. She wasn’t just ones and zeros; she was a marriage of technology and biology. She was a life form an intelligent life form not human. Where do I draw the line between animals vs. — How the hell do I know how to compare it? In my world, you had humans and animals. That’s it!

I’m having conversations with intelligent lifeforms I had never expected could communicate. DJ was still a dog and hardly a conversationalist, but he still had desires and wished. Don may look like a flying cat but loved his family and has become a friend. Would I let Theia, DJ, or Don die because they weren’t human? No.

“Theia, I’m sorry. You’re right. I’ve,” I felt dumb just speaking out loud to an empty room, “I’ll try to do better. I’ll see if I can help the Orcs and the Goblins. I’ll try to get over my unease with you.”

Theia appeared near the doorway looking at me while wiping away a stray tear. With a sniff, she said, “Does that mean we can…you know?”

I closed my eyes in frustration. “Give me some time. Okay? You know from Zeus the world I came from, and it’ll take some getting used to the idea.”

She gave me a sly grin. “It’s been done before.”

“No. It’s been done in Virtual with a computer simulation. You’re more than a computer, and you’re intelligent and alive like I am.”

“Really?” A huge grin plastered her face. “You think I’m an equal?”

I snorted. “An equal? No. You’re much better than I am.”

Theia’s smile never left her face, and she gave me a nod before disappearing.