TYTERS

Part 1

Deserts

Chapter 1

Where am I?

It was mid April and seven friends were taking a leisurely hike in the local mountains on a pleasant Sunday afternoon. Torger and Graul were brothers who worked at their dad’s custom cabinet shop. Arden and Brun were brothers and Arden was married to Jex who had come on the otherwise all guys outing. Rome had recently ended his service in the Navy and was an Uber driver and college student, and Antic loved all things Disney so much he decided to work there and had been promoted to a management position at the original park.

They were hiking along a trail in the Azusa Canyon Forest. The name forest is misleading because this is Southern California and it’s a desert. Without cities it would be nothing but sand and scrub brush. Each person carried a pistol because the area had rattlesnakes, coyotes, and mountain lions. Arden and Torger carried a shotgun also. They each also had a hiking pack with hikers’ items in the pockets. Torger and Arden were experienced hikers and were slightly bothered about staying on the trail for the benefit of the group. All of them were a little overweight but kept physically active. It was getting past noon and the sun was beating on their heads so they decided to get off the trail and head for the shade of trees. After a quarter mile walk through knee high bushes they came to a cluster of pines. They all sat on the ground for a water break, except Arden who had severe ADD.

Arden walked a ways further into the forest then called back for everyone to come look at what he had found. Reluctantly everyone got up to go see what it was. They knew better than to stay sitting because once he got an idea into his head he would argue his way was right until others gave up trying to lead him to reason. Arden loved arguing and would argue about anything at all just for the fun of it.

What everyone saw when they got there was something truly shocking. A pulsating pale green dome about three feet in diameter was hovering a few inches off the ground. A small electronic instrument that looked similar to a smart phone was under it. They all surrounded it and naturally talked about what to do and asked each other what it was. After a minute of conversation Arden was unable to stand the suspense any longer so he reached out and touched it. The pale green light instantly expanded to encompass all of them and a second later all seven people and the electric device all disappeared.

Torger stood in a rocky field with tall grasses coming to his waist. To his shock he was completely naked. He looked around and saw his brother Graul standing ten feet away, also completely naked. It was Graul’s face, but not his body. It was the body of a skinny teen, about fourteen years or so. Torger looked down and saw that he too was in the body of a wimpy teen.

“Graul? Is that you?”

“Yep. What, why? I don’t even know what question to ask right now.”

They both looked around on the ground for their clothes but found nothing. After a minute of searching Graul said “I found something.”

Torger walked over and Graul picked up what looked like a Kindle tablet off the ground. They agreed that was odd and Torger urged him to turn it on. After a few seconds the screen came on then a display of icons.

Get Started Weapons Armor

Money Cities Notoriety/Quests

Maps Exp Stats

Items Spells Translate

Graul touched the Get Started icon.

Welcome to The Tyter’s Hunt …loading… Graul! Tyters hunt dangerous big game for sport and social status. You have been transported to another solar system. This planet has been terra formed to foster growth and strength for all who are summoned here. In three years a squad of our hunters (we are Tyters) will arrive to hunt the seven of you. The Tyter who kills the most humans will receive prizes and notoriety. If all seven Tyters die during the hunt the remaining humans will be free to live here. We hope the drop down tabs on your tablet are self explanatory, after all you are the smartest race on your planet.

Torger read the message over Graul’s shoulder and asked “What the hell is going on?”

“I don’t know any more than you do. Look around to see if you got a Kindle too.”

After a few minutes of searching Torger found his tablet and had the same written starting message. He touched the Weapons icon.

Knives level 2, 0 exp

Swords

1 handed level 0, 0 exp

2 handed level 1, 0exp

Bows level 0, 0 exp

Clubs level 3, 0 exp

Staffs level 0, 0 exp

Guns level 29, 0 exp

You own no weapons

Torger didn’t know what the levels were, but they may have been fairly accurate. He had played softball for a few years but quit due to ankle problems. He and Graul were used to swinging a baseball bat, and that might be a club. He was in the Army for six years and his job was to fix guns when they broke, and he frequently test fired them at Fort Irwin, but that was years ago. He did own a few cheap swords for fun.

Armor showed no results, Money showed 0 gold, silver, and copper. Cities showed none, Notoriety showed 0 fame points, feared 0/100, loved 0/100, respected 0/100, hated 0/100 for dwarves, elves, and goblins. Maps showed an aerial view of the field they were standing in, and that was a small dot in a sea of blackout. Exp was a little more interesting. Experience 0/1000. Available ability points 0.

Torger didn’t know what ability points were or how they could be applied but he guessed that every 1000 exp gained, he earned 1 ability point, but he didn’t know what experience points were either. Stats showed Health 100/100, Stamina 30/30, Strength 1/1, Mana 0/0. Items showed

Health potions Low-0 Mid-0 High-0

Mana potions Low-0 Mid-0 High-0

Strength potions Low-0 Mid-0 High-0

Stamina potions Low-0 Mid-0 High-0

Spells showed None.

Graul had similar results, unsurprisingly, minus the gun level. “Torger what happened? Where are we?”

“I don’t know. The messages on the Kindles could easily be a trick but that doesn’t explain how we got here and where our clothes and equipment went to. Let’s look around.”

Torger scanned the horizon and pointed. “That’s Mount Baldy, so we’re in the foothills, let’s see, near Upland. So Azusa Canyon is about twenty miles west. But where are all the buildings, roads, power lines? And there are a lot of trees in the mountains. Wow! Even some redwoods! How are redwoods growing here?”

“I don’t know! I don’t know anything. I don’t know where the others are at. All I know is I’m thirsty and naked and the sun is going down.”

Torger looked at the sky. Surprisingly he wasn’t blinking as much as usual without sunglasses. He always wore sunglasses and was sensitive to bright light, but now it didn’t bother him. He saw that the sun was going down, but it was pretty far south. As he was looking a cold breeze came down off the mountain. It shouldn’t be that cold in April. Looking at the sky again he said “Graul, this isn’t good. Not good at all. In fact this sucks. It’s winter.”

Graul looked at the sky and felt the wind and knew Torger was right. The weird thing about SoCal weather is it can be eighty degrees and sunny anywhere from mid September to late June, so when they got transported to the field the weather happened to be the same going from mid April to what was probably close to winter solstice. What they couldn’t hide from was that nights were cold- that is by California standards, meaning overnight lows of thirties to forties. Without clothes or shelter this could be a miserable night.

Torger looked at Graul and asked “Why are you so short and scrawny?”

“Why are you so short and scrawny? Why did we change physically?”

“I don’t know. What do we do now?”

Graul answered “We have two options. Try to figure out how to make shoes so we can walk somewhere, or try to find shelter for the night and make a fire.”

“I vote for fire, we’ll figure out the walking problem tomorrow.”

The brothers tenderly, slowly, and painfully walked over the desert rocks and around sage brush and cacti, toward a cluster of trees at the foothills. It was only a couple of miles away but was almost completely dark by the time they made it there. They found dry leaves and tried striking stones together but without the combination of flint and steel they didn’t get any sparks. Next they tried rubbing sticks together but that didn’t help at all. Finally they fell asleep on bare ground and shivered all night.

Chapter 2

Home

The brothers woke up at sunrise and again asked each other “What do we do now?” Being very hungry, thirsty, and cold, they decided some sort of footwear was of supreme importance. Torger pulled a piece of bark off a redwood and then broke it in half. He laid each piece on the ground and stood on them. “If we can find some ivy we can wrap it around our feet to keep the bark in place.”

Since both brothers were professional woodworkers they knew redwood bark was soft and easily sanded, if they had sand paper. They walked around and found thick moss growing on some trees. They braided it and wrapped it around their feet to make the most environmentally friendly kicks ever. The moss made poor twine and the wood slipped a lot, but they weren’t barefoot on rocks.

Next they decided to head for their house, or where they used to live. They were hoping to take an indirect route up the mountain first to San Antonio Falls. Again, falls is an optimistic word for the name. It actually is about twelve feet high and drops water at the rate of two showers running at once, but it is fresh water and that’s what they needed the most, so they walked due north, straight up the mountain.

After about a mile the bark under Torger’s right foot cracked but stayed in place from the moss rope. After another mile they saw a wisp of smoke straight ahead through the trees. As they came closer they saw and heard metal clanging on metal in a steady rhythm. After a few more feet an arrow whizzed through the air just missing Torger’s head. He jumped back and they both hid behind a tree.

A deep and loud voice shouted out “Breck gund nog awker fillart.”

Torger peeked his head around the tree and saw a dwarf wearing iron armor. He held his bow with a knocked arrow pointed at Torger’s head. Torger raised his hands and said “I’m sorry we’re trespassing. We just wanted food and water.”

The reply he got was “Breck gund nog awker fillart.” That wasn’t helpful. But what was helpful was Graul pushed the Translate icon on his Kindle and said “We want water.” The speaker had a slight delay and said “Gaum riker.” The dwarf spoke in dwarvish again and what was translated was “We are willing to trade if you have anything of value.”

Graul took up the conversation. “We just arrived yesterday. We have nothing. We are hungry and thirsty and don’t know what is going on or how we got here.”

The response was “Has it been a hundred years already? I will give you food and water and tell you about this land if you go far away and stay away.”

Torger looked at him and said “I don’t know where we will go or what we will be doing for the next few days. This is the only fresh water source for twenty miles. Until we get information I can’t promise anything.” He hoped that his brashness wouldn’t result in an arrow through the heart. Graul looked at him like he was hoping for the same thing.

“Fine. A little information, then we will negotiate. My name is Baybil. Once every three years the tyters bring a strong life form here to hunt them. Dwarves, elves, and goblins are the indigenous intelligent life here, and we don’t get hunted. The tyters transform the land to look like the birth place of the life they bring here. This world is called Nuva. Each race brought here is brought once every hundred years. Since you arrived yesterday, the tyters will arrive in three years and hunt and kill you. If you are near us dwarves, we may be killed in collateral damage. Therefore, go away and stay away. Enjoy the three years of life you have left.”

Graul couldn’t let that go so easily. “How can you be so cold hearted? Don’t you see we have real needs here? Help us today and we’ll repay you later.”

“Hrramph. I doubt you will have anything to offer us in the next few days, but I will make you a deal. I will give you leather shoes, a skin of water, and two roasted rabbits. In exchange bring me back a deer in four days. If you fail, make sure none of us dwarves of the Cucamonga clan see you again or we will kill you.”

Torger said “Cucamonga, as in the Cucamonga Indians that were native here four hundred years ago?”

Graul looked at him and said “I didn’t know that’s where Rancho Cucamonga got its name.”

“I saw it on an episode of Storage Wars.”

Baybil spoke up “I don’t know what you’re talking about and don’t care. Do we have a deal? Bring me a deer in four days or go away.”

Graul looked at his tablet and saw Quests was flashing, so he tapped it. The screen read:

Bring Baybil a deer in four days. Reward will be paid in advance.

Torger asked “How common are deer around here? Where we’re from there is very little wildlife left. And how are we going to kill it? We need a bow to hunt it.”

“I’m not giving you any weapon. There are many animals around here. If you can’t kill a deer bring something else that’s useful.”

They agreed. A half hour later Torger and Graul each devoured their unseasoned roasted rabbit and drank the whole water skin a few times as they kept refilling it in the falls. The San Antonio falls were much bigger than they had ever seen it. Meanwhile Baybil brought them two pairs of old worn out leather boots. Torger had the idea to sew the tree bark onto the bottoms of the shoes. They were horribly uncomfortable to walk in but it was way better than what they had.

Torger asked Baybil “One more question. We were both born at San Antonio Community Hospital in Upland, and it seems we appeared in Upland when we arrived here to Nuva. Does that mean our friends are at the places where they were born?”

Baybil answered “I guess so. We stay away from the tyters’ prey.”

Since they didn’t know where their friends were born, that was bad news. They thought they were all born in California, but weren’t sure. But the brothers were co-owners of a house in Rancho Cucamonga, so maybe the house was there. That was wishful thinking but they had no other ideas, so they headed in that direction. They walked down the foothills and then along them to the east. Their feet hurt from the bad shoes but they made much better time than they would have otherwise.

After about eight miles the sun started going down and it once again got cold. They decided to push on into the night and make it to the house, if it was there. As they walked they commented that no other dwarves had come out to see them in that little village, which had no buildings which they could see, except a medieval blacksmith, and thought that was strange. As they walked in near darkness with the last of the sunlight they saw a cabin to the south. Completely overwhelmed with excitement they hurried (they couldn’t exactly run) towards it.

They arrived to find it exactly as they would expect to find a log cabin which had been built two hundred years earlier. There was nothing around it; no road or path, no garden or fence, and no sign of an owner at home.

They knocked then pushed the door open. The inside of the house had nothing. There was a simple fire pit with a smoke stack, a cast iron pan next to it, and a shotgun without ammo. Exhausted they laid down on the hardwood floors in the cold empty house and tried to sleep, with little success.

“Do you think the others are near?” asked Torger.

“I don’t know. Where do you think we are?”

“The message on the tablet is obviously a hoax. We’re not on another planet.”

Graul answered “Someone has gone to a lot of trouble. This looks like SoCal, but where are all the people and buildings, and what happened to our friends and clothes? And how did we get from Azusa to Upland?”

“I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out tomorrow.”

Graul was silent for several minutes. “Torger?”

“Yeah?”

“While we were walking here tonight, I didn’t see the Big Dipper or Little Dipper. They’re there year round.”

Torger didn’t respond. He had noticed the same thing but didn’t want to bring it up.