The Prophesy: Book 3 - The Hammer of Atlantis

 

Ian and his team of diplomats left at dawn for the mouth of the Amazon river, after taking a hefty breakfeast, and paying a last visit to the Matriarch, which was supervising the nest while awaiting for the arrival of the third wave of eggs. She had expressed her satisfaction at the quality of work done so far, as she shone beautifully under the magic light provided by the care of Harp.

The flight from Thebes was flown at a leisurely three hundred miles per hour, and took eleven hours. The arrival in the mouth of the Amazon was in the middle of the night. The boys settled on a small island, more a mud flat than anything else, and set camp, using magic to shelter themselves from potential predators, and tents to keep insects and other varmint out, with a very fine mesh over the windows.

The heat was terrible and it was raining nails when the boys woke up the next morning. After a light breakfast, Edwin the Elf and Hildegard the Dwarf began building a pirogue. They fell a huge hardwood tree that would give them ample space for all members of the expedition. They placed long bamboo poles with lighter balsa floaters across the pirogue to stabilize it and prevent it from capsizing. Magic was used liberally to dig out the big log and cut it to size. As sext neared, they created wide-fin paddles of a light but resistant variety of wood. Finally, Edwin added a foot-controlled rudder, and five seats.

"It's ready. We should test it before going anywhere with it."

"Good. I've made a waterproof sack for the tent. We could create and disperse the tent every day, but that might attract undue attention to our power. We must look as inconspicuous as possible for as long as necessary," replied Ian.

"I'm wetter then a dog in a pool. Do we need to wear all that stuff?" asked Raja, the dragon boy.

"I'm thinking along the same line," added Xianathan, the Unicorn.

"Let's simplify things for everyone. I'll put my knives in the bottom of the pirogue, and we can all wear nothing. It will be better. I never thought this place could be so hot. While on land, use a personal magic shield at all times. While in the pirogue, we use a common shield," decided Ian as he disposed of his clothes with a sigh of relief.

The test of the pirogue proved its floatability, but also revealed it was difficult to manoeuvre, refusing to turn on demand.

"We just need to anticipate change of direction or speed," noted Edwin. "This thing has a lot of inertia. Do we need to go back to camp, Ian?"

"Not really. I materialized food; we got the tent, and our weapons. Since the pirogue doesn't capsize at sea it should not do so in the river. We are all set. Raja, we need to have our first objective. Since we are invisible from the shore, fly off and find us a village to visit. We will wait on your return to engage in the mouth of the Amazon."

The dragon boy took flight, first converting to a sea gull and then, as he reached the ceiling and disappeared in it, to his natural green dragon form. Half an hour later, Raja gave his report.

«I found a village, located on an island right in the middle of the mouth of the Amazon. It contains about fifty souls. It is encircled by a wooden palisade, and there are some domesticated animals; I also saw the signature of a dozen dogs.»

«Fine, what is their current activity?»

«They are repairing fishing nets, I would say, and some are out hunting. I see some smoking racks. There are twelve fires, which, given our study in anthropology, means there are twelve families. The village is composed of round huts with thatched roofs, and a hut that is slightly off the village, probably the hut of their god. The village has a central plaza with a hug tree in the middle, a gum tree, I would say.»

«Have you been seen?»

«They seem to be more inclined to keep an eye on the foggy water then to look above.»

«Guide us to near the vicinity of the village and join us when we get close,» asked Ian.

It took the pirogue an hour and a half to make its way up the Amazon, even with the help of magic to push it against the strong current. As the diplomatic team neared the village, Raja dropped out of the sky in the form of a sparrow, landed in his seat, and converted to a green boy.

"I think we need to change our skin colour, if we are to be able to talk to them. Let's take a light brown colour, which would fit this climate," suggested Edwin, whose blond hair stood out like a beacon.

"That's a good suggestion. I wonder what to expect?" said Hildegard.

"We should know shortly. By the way, did you see these huge animals?" remarked Xianathan.

"Yes, they are sea crocodiles. I am glad we put up the magic shield. I saw a couple try to climb on the floaters," replied Edwin.

The pirogue emerged silently out of the rain, unnoticed until they were less then twenty yards from the rather shaky dock, were a series of pirogues of smaller make were tied. On the shore, a couple more were in the process of being shell-burned, and a few older boys were axing away at the interior, removing burnt-out wood in preparation for the next burn.

"These are stone tools!" exclaimed Edwin, as he saw what was used. "I knew we had regressed, but to go back to the Stone Age!"

"An Ancient said he did not know what weapons would be used to fight world war three, but he knew what kind would be used to fight world war four: sticks and stones. Apparently, he was not off by any significant margin," Ian said, remembering his long discussions with Harold, Samson, and Diamondcutter.

A young child, swimming in a water hole near the river, finally noticed the pirogue and let out a shout of warning, taking off like a rocket for the centre of the village, and crying alarm.

"Do you understand what he is saying?" asked Xianathan.

"Not a word, but I'll remedy to the problem as soon as an adult comes to the shore. Mind reading can teach a language instantly!" said Ian, as they continued to progress toward the dock.

The alarm brought out every single adult, all carrying, one, a bow and arrows, another a lance, and yet another a mace. The females, easily recognizable by their rather sagging breasts, herded their children and retreated further inland, while the men and teens congregated toward the shore and the dock. An old man, using a walking stick, made his way to the front of the rather exited group, accompanied by a bulky man.

"That's the elder, and, from what I gather from the others, their shaman. The other one, on his right, with that bone across his nose and that big red parrot feather stuck in his hair, is their chief, and what I would translate as commander in chief," Ian informed the others. "Here is the language download," he completed as he sent them the information he had garnered from his mental spying. "Their society is patriarchal, organized in twelve families; the hut is not the god's home, but the pubescent boys' hut, which stay there until they take wife. A boy becomes a man when he has hunted and successfully captured a large animal and has undergone a ritual of passage; from the image, it is circumcision, done after the boy returns from his first successful hunt. He must capture his wife from other villages, and that is the constant cause of friction between them and other villagers. The boy who is not interested in girls is considered shamanic descent, and after a while, he joins the shaman in his hut. Currently, there are three apprentices to the shaman. The training of a shaman seems to be risky business, since they are often sent alone in the forest to gather herbs, rocks, and capture animals for their parts. This one lost two trainees over the last three years."

"I wonder what role the females play?" said Edwin, as they watched the agitation on the shore from a safe distance.

"Some are sold for peace, to barter treaties, and others are captured, usually at a very young age. They have their own ritual of passage, apparently. From what I see, a girl that has her menarche is brought out in the forest, in a special hut built for the occasion and introduced to sex using an artificial phallus to make sure she is ready for her husband. Once this is done, the hut is burned. The girl is to keep the phallus all her life, as a token of her passage to womanhood. From the image of the object I see in the women's minds, it is rather big, bigger then most men's phalluses. It may be because of its use, or simply a question of perception. The older women of the tribe do this. She then gets explanations on childbirth, the periods, and the religious significance of each of them. Apparently, it is the oldest woman that assists in childbirth. The number of deaths of both mother and child is high, which explains the extreme value attached to the capture of a girl for reproduction later."

"Do you think we are ready for contact?" Raja noted, as he kept an eye on the activity on the shore

"I do not know, but we do not have much of a choice. A group of men just pushed a pirogue off the dock and are headed our way. Let me do the talking. And materialize a loincloth. I doubt we feel like getting circumcised to be taken seriously," replied Ian.

A large pirogue, containing ten men paddling furiously was indeed headed toward the boys. Contrary to the boys' pirogue, it did not have any secondary hull to stabilize it and it threatened to turn over at every wave. It was only by a constant and delicate balancing act that the men managed to stay right side up.

"I think this pirogue of ours will introduce a technological revolution!" said Edwin, as the pirogue grew ever closer.

"And the crocodiles seem to think there is a lunch to be had. They are all jumping in the water and converging toward us," added Xianathan.

"I plan to prove them wrong!" Ian said acidly.

As the indigenous pirogue came closer, one man, taller then the others, hollered:

"Who are you?"

"Visitors," Ian stated.

"From where? There are no villages out there."

"Have you been everywhere?"

"What do you want?"

"To talk to the elders," replied Ian.

"Why should the elders talk to children?" said the same man, as the pirogue came closer.

«I do not trust that guy. He plans on stealing our weapons, taking the pirogue and reducing us to slavery, before making us into long pigs,» said Raja.

«I noticed,» said Ian, which then replied to the man. "We have been sent to inform your people of something. We are young, because our people did not want to seem hostile to yours."

"They should have sent adults. We can take you prisoners, and take your wares! It is rare we are offered food!"

«These are cannibals, Ian!"

«I figured as much. That is what he meant by making us into long pigs. It's dunking time. The crocodiles will be fat this year!»

The pirogue carrying the ten men suddenly capsized, and the would-be aggressors found themselves in the water. The crocodiles converged and quickly drowned the panicked men. Ian and the others watched, cold as ice, the bloody carnage.

"Any other bad arse that wants a swim?" Ian yelled at those left one the shore, over the cries of terror and pain of the rapidly decimated party.

The men on the shoreline answered with a hail of arrows, which rebounded harmlessly on the magic shield. Ian and the others pushed the pirogue to the tip of the dock and climbed out, taking their time to get their weapons. Realizing that their arrows were not even reaching their intended targets, the men pulled out skull-crackers, stone axes, lances, and charged. The first to make contact with the shield were stunned when their lances broke in the middle of the run, even before touching anything! The next to be shocked into reality were those handling axes and skull-crackers. As they tried to hack through to their intended victims, the stone impediments splintered, rebounded, or otherwise were deflected harmlessly. The Shaman, realizing this was a manifestation of sorcery, decided to fight sorcery with sorcery. He began dancing and singing an incantation. Ian saw the Shaman's action and had a hard time not exploding in laughter.

"Do you think he needs a lesson in magic?" he asked the others, who were smiling at the Shaman's vain efforts.

"Sure, let him have it!" replied Hildegard.

Ian looked at the dancing fool, and suddenly, a terrible lightning strike hit the man repeatedly, roasting him on the spot and turning the sand he was standing on into instant glass. The noise was such it reduced everything else, including the men of the village, to silence.

"So, will the Council Elders listen to us, now?" he asked sweetly in the silence that followed the fireworks, silence only broken by the noise of the raindrops hitting the ground and the rush of water against the dock's pillars. Even the birds had lost their voice.

The man that had been identified previously as the Village Chief replied shakily.

"We will, gods of the Storm. Why didn't you tell us you were gods?"

"Would you have believed us?" Ian asked.

"No," replied the man, after some consideration. "We would have laughed at you, much like my son did."

The boys, still shielded by magic, began to walk toward the village's central place. The men opened rank in front of the approaching deities, and created a continuous honour guard along the path leading to the Tree of Council, representing the God of the Forest. Its role became clear, as a totem representing the king of these forests, the Jaguar, was visible under the canopy of the giant tree.

«Do we have that genetic map in store?» asked Edwin.

«Yes, we have all cat species still alive, including the granddaddy of that one. Why do you ask?»

«Convert to one, three times normal size, before sitting on the ground and taking back your shape. That should nail the issue for the seriousness of the situation.»

«He is right, Ian. That would put an end to all debates,» said Raja.

"Ah, a picture of me!" said Ian, as he looked at the totem. "You underestimated my size! Should I claw you up for it?"

The elders and the rest of the tribe looked at Ian wondering what he meant, until the biggest, meanest Jaguar to ever roam the earth replaced the sweet-looking boy. The giant Jaguar roared, sending birds and forest animals scurrying for cover, before looking directly in the eyes of the Chief, who had lost his bladder control. The man saw his death in the golden eyes of the god and began shaking violently. To make things worse, Ian licked his lips, revealing teeth that seemed to drip with saliva. Then the Jaguar sat on the tree stump that was the seat of power and the sole prerogative of the Chief, before running his twelve-inch claws along the side, marking it as his. The Atlantean Heir then converted back to his sweet-looking human shape.

"Is everyone that is able to move present?"

"Yes, God of the Forest!" replied the village leader.

"Good. Listen and listen well."

Ian then exposed why he and his friends had come to the village, and what they wanted the villagers to do. Finally, he concluded:

"I know you have allied villages. You are to send out a message to them, asking them to meet the God of the Forest here. Since I doubt they would believe a messenger without proof, I will supply that proof."

Ian created five glassy objects, showing the profile of a Jaguar, with the mark of five claws running across the picture.

"I am aware this is not a proof, but the moment the chiefs of the other villages grips this plate, the picture will be burned on their chess, and the five claw marks will rip across the same area. It will be excruciatingly painful, but it will still be less so then getting me mad. Send your messengers. We know where your allies are. That meeting is to be held in five days, at sunset. We now have to go, since there are other villages to visit."

"Do you plan to visit our enemies as well?"

"Yes. The time of tribal war is over. A fifth of the tribes honour me, and those that do not honour one of my friends. There are five thousand villages to visit and we have very little time to do so."

"I thought there was only one Great God."

"There are many gods, but we work as one. This is why we are here together today. If we did not work together, this world would not have lived as long as it did. It is only you that fight; we do not. If we did, nothing would have survived a war of the Gods."

"I wish you luck with the Snakes. They are treacherous."

"No more then you were," replied Raja, taking on the form of a green Dragon, much to the shock of the villagers. Returning to his boy form, the Dragon continued: "Beware of what you preach, for you do not know what you speak of."

"I noticed you have prisoners. You are to release them, with a message to their tribe. They are to inform their tribes to expect the visit of the Gods. See to it they are escorted to your borders and reach them safely. Execution! From now on cannibalism is prohibited. Who practices cannibalism will be fed to the crocodiles, alive!"

After eyeing severely the elders and the tribe's members, Ian completed his instructions:

"Do not believe that you please us by circumcising your boys. Teach them to stay clean, to wash before sex and after sex, and after doing elimination function, that is all we ask. We need no sacrifice, and torturing your boys to prove their manhood to us is irrelevant. They need not prove anything. And their genitals do not obsess us. We will not spend days looking at penises to make sure they are cut or not. Respect their body. Respect your body. We find any ritual involving body piercing and marking revolting. You are beautiful in your own right, without the need to adorn yourselves. This goes for the women as well! Look at us! Look! Do you see any such thing as a tattoo, or a scarification pattern? Do you? This is what we expect of you, to be in our image! You are born the way you should be!"

"We understand, my lord. But how are we to differentiate between tribes?"

"You need not differentiate between tribes! You are united as one in infinite diversity. We will now leave and continue our task. Expect us back in five days for that meeting. All members of your tribe should be here by then, and I mean all. That means all five villages, men, women, and children! That means expect three hundred people and their dogs! Oh yes! The dogs are our eyes and ears. Hurt one, and you all perish!"

Just then the twenty-two dogs of the village walked into the plaza and sat in an arc facing the humans. Ian extended his hand, and a green, healing light reached each dog, repairing years of abuse. Their fur coat was suddenly shiny, thick, and free of infestations; their body was made healthier then it ever had been, and years of privations vanished instantly.

"This is what a dog should look like. They are our representatives while we are gone. Mistreat them, and you mistreat us! Be forewarned: We know everything, see everything, hear everything!"

The five Atlanteans left the plaza, walked to their pirogue, and set sail up-river.

"Where to, Edwin?"

"Let's visit that Snake tribe next; from the mental map of the tribe's Chief, it is upriver on the left shore. Let's speed things up as soon as we are out of sight of the village. I want to reach that place before sext. Raja, once we are out of sight, fly over, ahead of us and see if you can detect their village."

"Raja, since we are headed to the Snake tribe, you will handle the primary transformation after we have established first contact."

"That seems logical, Ian. I'll be ready when needed."

As soon as the fog and rain hid them from view, the pirogue picked up considerable speed, actually skimming on the river under the magical impulse.

***

The first village of the Snake's tribe was located at the mouth of an important tributary of the Amazon, well hidden from sight by a thick cover of vegetation. Had Raja not located it from the air, the boys would have passed right beside the tributary's mouth without ever suspecting its presence.

«This is the snake paradise. Did you see that huge one hanging from a tree?» commented Hildegard.

«I noticed. It is now in the Ark. Its last lunch had been a caiman, that's why it was so sleepy. But I also noticed a profusion of smaller snakes, much more dangerous then that big daddy. There was that little red and yellow devil, whose venom could kill one of us in ten minutes flat.»

«Let's be more attentive, Ian. I sense we are being watched!» said Xianathan.

Just as they passed under an overhanging branch, Ian saw a man crouched on it, watching them from above. He did not move until they had passed and Xianathan kept an eye on the man as their pirogue continued moving up the narrow river toward their objective. As soon as the man felt he could move, he ran off the branch, jumped into the nearest tree and began drumming violently on the hollowed tree trunk.

«Bye-bye surprise, here comes trouble!» moaned Hildegard, the dwarf boy.

«Diplomacy seems to be a pain. However hard we try to act with restraint, there are always jerks willing to pull the sword on us,» Edwin replied.

«Well, at least the shields are up. They will be in for a surprise if they act up. I've not seen crocodiles, but I'm sure some are eyeing us from below the roots of these trees,» said Raja.

As their canoe turned a sharp bend, a sandy beach came into view. From it, five pirogues were being pushed into the river, and a clamour met their appearance at the curve. The waterway was narrow, making for difficult manoeuvres for the boys' own boat.

«We are going to have to face them right off. These people are very hostile," Ian said.

«I agree,» said Hildegard. «Let me see if they like a taste of steel!»

Just then the first pirogue came into range for an exchange of arrows. As the arrows rained on them, Hildegard stood up, took aim, and beheaded three men in a single throw, before recovering his axe by magic. The sudden loss of balance caused by the falling corpses sent the two others overboard as the pirogue did a full roll. That demonstration of marksmanship did not reduce the ardour of the four other pirogues. They continued to advance as those that were still alive and in the river crawled back in the water-filled tree trunk.

«My turn for some fun!» said Edwin, as five arrows left his bow and met their mark, killing his targets instantly. The arrows were recovered by magic as soon as the men hit the water, returning to his quiver. The abandoned pirogue drifted into the under-hanging roots to come to a standstill.

«Are there still no crocodiles in view? Where are they when you need the garbage collectors? I won't pay my taxes this year!»

«Ian! I don't want to miss, don't make me laugh!» said Raja. Raja then dove overboard, shifted to his dragon form, and swam under the nearest pirogue before jumping out of the water and let his huge body fall on the surprised men. Two were crushed, while the pirogue sank right to the bottom of the river, putting the three others into the uncomfortable situation of swimming to the shore. The wave created by Raja made the last two pirogues roll over, precipitating every one of their occupants in the river, and washing out the two that had managed to climb on their water-logged canoe.

«The naval battle is over, my lord. Let's do a landing!»

«That is fine with me, Raja. Lead the way,» replied Ian.

The boys beached their pirogue and tied it to a tree with a magic rope and a knot that would have made any mariner proud. The boys were ready to move inland, and follow the narrow path when the survivors of the maritime battle managed to set foot on the sand bar.

"Get in line and walk ahead of us!" thundered Ian, as Raja stood guard, his massive body literally occupying the entire beach and shielding everyone from the persistent rain.

None of the twenty survivors offered resistance; their weapons were at the bottom of the river, and the presence of Raja removed any will to fight, should any have subsisted. As the men walked along the narrow trail, the constant breaking of tree branches, the repeated falling of trees under the pressure of Raja's body on both sides of the narrow path acted as a constant reminder that this was not a normal situation. As they emerged in the fields that encircled the village, the villagers ran to hide but met with an impenetrable wall of magic that kept them within the confines of their fields. As they neared the village, Raja bent his head and literally pulled the doors and a good chunk of the palisade encircling the village out of the way, sending the big trunks flying in the forest behind the village.

«Do you think you can enter the village in that form, Raja?»

«No, I'm too big for that, Ian. I'll take my green boy form, to remind them of whom they are dealing with.»

As the procession of rather greyish-looking warriors and the boys walked in the village, the magic wall forced the other villagers to return home, before pushing them to the tree of Council. Under the tree was another totem, representing a badly misshapen dragon with vestigial wings. The boys quickly looked at Raja, which had a hard time not laughing at the figure.

«I'm in trouble if I'm going to need to take that shape, my lord. At least the Jaguar was properly proportioned!»

«Take your real form, Raja. Let them adjust their view to reality rather then the other way around. You have the floor... err, mud!» replied Ian, as he tried to stifle a laugh, as his feet sank in the brownish goo.

The loincloth had been torn to shreds by the initial shape shifting, and Raja had only briefly taken boy form to enter the village. His green scales had impressed the villagers even more then his dragon form. Raja decided that showing off was in order. He took a diminutive dragon shape, and walked to the seat of power, a big log chair. He set it on fire with his breath, waited for it to burn abundantly before slashing the chair's back rest with his left paw claws and then, shifting back to his boy shape, he sat right in the flames, rubbing his body against the burning wood.

"Ah, that feels good. I was getting tired of bugs in between my scales!" he said, looking at Ian with laughter in his eyes.

The villagers were awed by that prowess and fell on their knees with a thump, before putting their forehead on the muddy ground.

"Stand up! I need to see your faces, not your bums!" thundered Raja.

The villagers shakily stood up, huddling together.

"If it's that cold for you, I can turn the heat up!" he said.

«They are already losing bladder control, don't push it!» said Ian.

«I'm enjoying myself so much!» replied Raja, pouting mentally.

«Let's proceed with our task. You can have fun later.»

"I am Raja, representative of Typhoon, the God of Snakes! We are here to set up a meeting with all members of the Snake Tribe. You will organize that meeting in six days, at dawn! We know which villages swear obedience to the Snake. Here is the convocation plate to deliver to each Chief. The moment they take hold of their plate, a tattoo will burn on their thorax in the shape of the Clawed Snake. Those that do not answer to the call on the morning of the sixth day will die!"

"Yes, my lord. Why is that meeting organized?"

"You shall learn all you need to know on the morning in six days. Now, here is a review of the laws of the land. We know you reduce heads of your enemies, we know you feed on them. We know you practice rituals for boys and girls so they reach adulthood. All this stops right now. Thou shall not kill, nor eat, nor enslave your enemy, because you are all brothers! It is not because one honours another god that he is less worthy then you. We gods are brothers; so shall you be! Look at my brothers, they are gods too, and they work with me in harmony! We show no scar, no body piercing, no tattoos, and no circumcision! So it shall be for you as well!"

"What about women? They have no..."

"Stop it right there! They have something you will never have! They carry the nest, where our eggs grow; they protect our home for nine months! They bear us to life. Let it be known that this difference is what makes us who we are. Being different is not a sign of deformity or inferiority. We value that difference; we value diversity! Who are you to disrespect what we respect and encourage?" thundered Raja. "Now, send the messengers, free the prisoners, escort them to your borders, and begin abiding by our laws! We will be back at dawn on the sixth day!"

«That is quick, Raja. Well done!» said Ian, as the boys walked out of the village to the shocked looks of the villagers.

***

The boys quickly walked the path to their pirogue, boarded it, and left for the main channel of the Amazon.

"How many Snake villages will that meeting bring together?" the Unicorn asked.

"I made twenty-two markers, so it means twenty-two villages, all located on the same side of the river. I'm surprised there were that many, I would have thought there would be relatively the same number as there are Jaguar villages, but it doesn't seem to be the case."

"What do you expect their size to be?"

"The usual fifty plus or minus ten members. That puts the tribe at one thousand one hundred."

"If it continues like this, we'll be doing this when the end of the world hits. We need to speed things up."

"I agree with you, Ian, but how?" the dwarf boy asked.

"I have no idea."

"May I suggest something?" said Xianathan.

"Sure."

"Let's first establish the basic core divinities of these people. We can then use dreams to trigger their movement to specific points of meeting at a specific date. We already know two such core divinities: the Jaguar and the Snake. It's for us to discover the others. The Jaguar village we visited also had contact with another group, not of the Snake tribe, according to them; why not head that way? It's across the river, a bit further up, if I remember. Raja, could you take flight and look for that village please?"

"Sure, Xianathan. We still have not seen orcs, and that bothers me."

"They are deeper, further up the river, along one of the main tributaries, one identified as the Marañón and Ucayali rivers. Their interaction with humans is minimal, and is mostly along the Amazon. We will meet them near the end of that project," Ian informed them. "It was in that area Harp saw two tribes unite to fight a common enemy."

The boys sped up river, rapidly reaching the entrance to the small river that led to their next village.

"What's that foul smell?" asked Edwin, as they moved up the narrow stream.

As their canoe progressed, the smell grew stronger, obliterating any other smell from the forest, not a small feat given the omnipresent odour of rotting vegetation that usually permeated the Amazon forest.

Just as the boys were about to throw up, the cause of the obfuscating assault on their sensitive nose became apparent: a huge column of ants was walking up river on their left side, apparently on the hunt. Animals ran away in all directions, some, too slow to escape or cornered on a tree, getting devoured alive.

"Did we need meat-eating ants? And these ones are small, black, but number in the billions!" said Ian.

"And look at that! One group is building a bridge to try to jump the river! We can't pass under that safely!" said Edwin. "We'll be invaded by ants the moment they can fall on us from above!"

"I'm in no mood to be ant lunch!" said Ian, as he savagely let out a powerful beam of light that set the ants on fire. Unfortunately, the forest was soaked and it was raining again, so the fire did not spread but fizzled as the burning ants landed in pools of water accumulating everywhere.

The other boys began helping Ian, and while the Heir made repeated use of lightning to set some thickets on fire, some undercut the thick bushes that lined the river, fell the overhanging branches and cleared the canopy so they could progress safely, and others attacked the ant column directly. Progress was slow, and the boys were feeling ever hotter.

"I wonder how long before we reach the head of the column?"

"I think it is unlikely we do, Hildegard. The column is moving upstream faster then we progress. And furthermore, the stream is becoming narrower, which will ease their passage but hinders ours!"

"Do we need to move upriver much longer?" Xianathan enquired.

«There is a path, hidden in the bush that leads from a narrow mud flat to the next village. Their pirogues are underwater, which is strange.»

«That isn't so strange, Raja. They are hiding their port by sinking their boats. I am sure that we would be unable to see the pirogues from the water, but from your vintage point, the sun shines deep enough to let you see their shape. Keep flying in circles until we reach that point. Have you seen anything else?»

«You mean apart from a profusion of warm-blooded animals, not really. I would not trust these waters. There seems to be some strange-acting logs! I've never seen a log swim upriver!»

«That 'log' is a caiman, of the crocodile family. I'm not too worried about them.»

«I would be if I were you, Ian. There is a collection of them sunbathing on a protruding rock just before the turn in the river that leads to the mudflat. A sudden explosion of activity from them would be a good alarm system for the village, which is not too far from that rock. They only need keep an eye on it to see the activity.»

«I'll freeze the caiman, they will be real logs!» said Ian, just as the canoe engaged in the last stretch leading to the protrusion. As the tip of the canoe peeked around the corner, Ian extended his hand and the surface of the rock lost all its heat, becoming shiny with ice, and cooling the caiman into a sudden lethargy.

"Let's get over to that mud flat and tie our pirogue to that tree quickly. The heat will soak up the crocodiles fast. Join us, Raja."

The boys walked off in the forest following the narrow path. The smell of the ants was overpowering. Animals were running underfoot, trying to get away from the river as quickly as possible.

"This is strange. The animals are acting like they are running from the ants, yet they are across the stream!" commented Xianathan.

"They may have crossed the river?" suggested Edwin.

Just then, Ian felt a burning sensation on his left foot.

"Owww! Damn it! They did! Let's fly off!"

The five boys converted to dragons, creating a cascade of crashing trees, and then took off. Ian turned back and began torching the forest between the river and the path they had been following. Trees exploded due to the sudden conversion of their water contents into vapour, smoke billowed from the mud. As the forest burned under the dragons' breath, the progress of the ants became apparent. They had managed to bridge the narrow river, and were using leafs and brushwood to swim the river. Big balls of ants could be seen spinning in the water, moving slowly downriver in diagonal.

«We are barely making a dent in their numbers!» Raja said.

«What is their objective?" Edwin asked.

«From their movement, they seem to be headed to that village we were going to visit. They should be there in half an hour!» Xianathan replied.

«I doubt discretion is in order, given the noise we made?» Hildegard said, with a trace of irony in his voice.

«No, but we could fly in as parrots, rather then dragons. At least, we could get close to the village without being detected. Let's climb above the cloud cover and dive while shifting shape. They will have been alerted to the ants by now, I'm sure!" decided Ian.

«Do you think they have seen us?»

«Seen us, maybe, but not clearly, Raja. Remember, we have been in the clouds blasting the forest, and that created a lot of cover for us. They probably saw dark forms, flames from the sky, and heard a lot of explosions, but we carefully kept from overflying the village below the ceiling,» replied Xianathan.

The boys dropped from the cloud cover, five tiny black dots invisible in the rain, and flew off behind the village, to land in one of the manioc fields. Once on land, they took their little boy look and began walking toward the village, protected behind a magic shield that kept them dry and safe from projectiles or animals.

"We will have to move the village right away, Ian. The ants are playing havoc with our plans," said Hildegard. "It seems everyone is looking at the disaster we caused. I would have expected at least some doing some field work."

"It's not every day you see god at work!" quipped Edwin, as the others laughed.

The boys made it around the palisade without being detected, and even managed to mingle in the villagers as they watched the fire along the river, which was smouldering and getting extinguished by rain.

«Well, we now know who is their main divinity. It is another predator, the caiman. Who would have thought it possible? It takes all sorts of gods to make a world!» Ian said to the others. «Who wants to play a crocodile god?»

The boys looked at each other questioningly.

«Ian, we do not have their genetic map!»

«That's unexpected. Well, there is another god of lesser importance, the Paradise bird. We could take the Pterodactyl shape. We got the genetic map. I'm sure one of these huge reptiles would be considered the father of the birds. Who wants to play the Pterodactyl?»

"I'll do it, Ian. It's my turn to have some fun," said Hildegard.

The boys moved forward, getting closer to the warriors of the tribe, until they stood beside the village chief, who was trying to figure out what was happening near the river. He was in a discussion with the village shaman and the Elders, as well as a few of the warriors. All sorts of hypotheses were floated, from a thunderstorm setting the forest on fire to a fight of gods between Heaven and Mother Earth.

"It is neither," said Hildegard, from his diminutive size.

"You should stay with your mother, boy. You have no right to be with men!" thundered one of the warriors.

"Do I know you? Do you know me?" replied Hildegard, calmly, as he looked at the man under the nose.

The man looked down and couldn't place the boy that was talking to him like that, but it did not matter. No little brat would talk down to him in this manner and get away with it. He tried to slap the boy in the face only to realise he was on the ground after a nice flight over the offending little monster. As he shook the cobwebs in his head, he became aware the boy was standing on him, applying an axe to his genitals!

"One move, and I convert you to the fuck hole of this village!" said the boy, in a voice so sweet he was surprised the bees weren't converging on them!

The other adults around the two had finally realised something was up. They looked at the unfolding events, wide-eyed, unsure as to what action to take.

"What are you doing? Get off!" commanded the village chief.

"Once he promises to behave, otherwise the situation will get worse, for him first, for everyone else immediately after."

"What could you do, boy? We outnumber you!" replied the Shaman.

"Numbers aren't everything, no more then size, as this idiot just learned."

"I have powers!" said the shaman, looking at the young boy, who answered with a crystalline laugh.

"That has yet to be seen! You might impress the tribe with your tricks and illusions, but you do not have power. I do."

"Boy, you shall not insult our shaman with impunity!"

"I have the impunity of a god, which he does not have." Hildegard walked off the prone figure, bent over, picked him up by the foot and threw him right across the plaza, resulting in a series of skin burns and a broken leg. "So, any takers for a fight?"

The result was understandable: the warriors backed away, leaving the delegation in an open circle.

"Let's get down to business," continued Hildegard, "We know the cause of what you witnessed. We did it. There is an ant army converging here. We slowed it down, giving us time to intervene. We are running short on that, since they are getting close."

"Why should we believe you?" asked one of the warriors.

«Why is it there is always a Saint Thomas in every group?» wondered Edwin.

Hildegard did not answer, simply shifting shape to a superb Pterodactyl, in full nuptial colours, before taking his boy shape again.

"Does this answer your question, oh sceptic of the Gods?"

After the gasps of fears had stopped, the chief replied, awe in his voice, "what do you expect us to do?"

"Pack your essentials. We will move you to safety. Send your best runners to the villages of your tribe to tell their population to meet us at the top of the Sugar Loaf, in exactly six days at sunset. Here is the mark of the bird god, my father. It will attest to the value of the order, should another sceptic oppose the convocation of the villages to the meeting place! Let the consequences be clear: receiving the convocation burns an image of myself in the thorax of the one who accepts the plate, and absentees shall die! Now, get ready for your move."

«Should we move them directly to Thebes?" wondered Edwin.

«No, let's move them to the Sugar Loaf. They will be busy preparing the site for their tribe,» decided Ian. «You forgot to put an end to their barbaric rituals, Hildegard.»

«I plan to, as soon as everyone is assembled.»

Just then, the last members of the tribes stood wearily looking at the five boys.

"Where are your prisoners?" asked Hildegard, as he looked around, finding none.

"We left them behind."

"Get them now. They are to go free, and carry the message to expect the visit of the gods later."

"But they are prisoners!"

"They were prisoners. Do you wish to face the wrath of the other gods?"

The prisoners were quickly brought to the forefront of the tribe's populace. Their condition was dismal, and Ian healed their most apparent wounds with a flick of a hand. After giving them instructions as to what was expected of them, the prisoners were taken out and led to the village's limit. A few were even ported to the villages already visited by the boys, with a reminder to their respective leadership that the gods would be back shortly. After this, the entire village was transported to the Sugar Loaf, to the shock of the villagers.

"Remember, you need to get ready for a trip; you will be receiving every member of your tribe. A warning: do not harm anyone, prisoner or child, or otherwise you will pay with your life. Warn the other villagers that the prisoners are to be set free! They have a message from us to carry, and any attempt at interfering with that message will bring the Fire of the Gods on your selves. We now leave to continue our mission," completed Hildegard.

The boys converted to Pterodactyls took flight and climbed out of view, over the clouds. Once out of sight, they converted to dragons and turned toward the river.

«Do you think our pirogue is still usable?»

«I don't see why not, we just need to take dragon boy form, all of us. I doubt the ants can hurt us, given the scaly skin that transformation entails!» replied Ian.

The boys landed in the forest, moved to the river, torched the pesky ants that had invaded their pirogue, pushed it in the middle of the river and then jumped in to return to the main channel of the Amazon.

"What's the count?" asked Xianathan.

"Let's see, that tribe is composed of twelve villages, so, using our average of fifty per village, that adds six hundred more to our numbers, bringing the total to two thousand. We could visit two more tribes today, if we sped things up, bringing the number of tribes to five," replied Edwin.

"OK, let's do as Edwin suggests. We will then have an idea of the number of tribes we can expect to visit, and estimate how much time it will take. I had earmarked a month for this expedition. We will have a better idea of how far off the mark I am at the end of the day," Ian decided.

***

The next tribe to visit was located along the Xingu, and proved friendly. Their main god was a figure that resembled an elf, with golden hair. A study of their legends talked of times long past, where a golden boy had guided them to their land, and helped them settle in. That helped decide it was Edwin's turn to play deity, and he handled it without a hitch, not even bothering to change shape.

Edwin helped his cause considerably when he removed an inflamed appendix from the chief's son, after Ian had blocked the pain signals. The fact that Edwin opened the body without using an apparent object such as a knife, tied, cut, and cauterized the big intestine with a beam of controlled light nailed the issue for the villagers. But the cherry on the sundae had the villagers even known what a sundae was, occurred when the boy sealed the gaping wound, not even leaving a scar.

«From what I've been reading in their minds, the biggest issue in the area is a tribe of men-grabbers, as they call the tribe they are refering to. It is located further up the Xingu, about ten days by pirogue according to their estimate. They have already freed the prisoners, but they want us to keep these men-grabbers under our direct control. The others will be collected by the tribe for us to pick up as each village is emptied to regroup at the selected meeting place, an island up river we should cross on our way. The other prisoners have been let go with the convocation of the Gods,» reported Edwin.

«What symbol marks that tribe's god?»

«It is the Elvin bow. You know how typical it looks. It stands out in their totem, as the boy holds it at rest. By the way, we can add another two thousand to our running total, bringing it to four thousand or one point six percent of the estimated total. There are forty villages along the Xingu and its tributaries before we reach that other oh so fearsome tribe's lands. Their meeting is set in seven days at dawn.»

***

The boys quickly took to the water, bringing the so-feared men-grabbers with them, a meagre four ladies that seemed to be ready to pounce on them at the slightest occasion.

"If I were you, ladies, I would sit still, unless you want to be used as fish bait!" said Edwin, as the women eyed them with murder in their eyes. "We only look like boys."

The rest of the afternoon was spent navigating the Xingu toward its source, as the pirogue skimmed on the water. The female warriors were probably more impressed by the pirogue's speed as it moved upriver then by the boys, and the presence of numerous caimans, snakes, and other water-loving animals that watched their passage without even blinking an eye probably added to their discomfort. Normally, anything unusual would scatter the water-fowl in a terrible explosion of wing-beating, but the canoe seemed to be invisible to all; they even passed in the middle of a flotilla of pirogues of their arch-enemies, without even managing to raise the alarm.

«Magic can be so fun! Creating that invisibility spell was the nicest!» said Ian.

«The only issue with it is that the pirogue creates waves. The poor sods do not understand what is coming to them until we are past, and by then it's too late to do anything!» replied Xianathan.

***

As the pirogue progressed and entered the new tribe's land, the recently freed prisoners became ever more agitated.

"I think they are recognizing their homeland," said Raja, in Atlantean.

"My colleague noticed your agitation, ladies. You better stay still because we noticed a school of piranhas following us as through they expected lunch. It might be you if you continue trying to make the pirogue roll over. Notice it is designed to resist your attempts. The more you move, the more likely it is that you will need to swim. We have no issue with piranhas having an early dinner! Raja, take flight and see if you can detect the nearest village," said Ian.

The departure of Raja startled the ladies, but all they could see is that there were now only four boys instead of five. This created even more of a temptation for them.

«Ian, the looks these ladies give us tell me we have a brewing problem.»

«I know, Edwin. Since you are at the rear Hildegard, discretely grab your axe, and be ready to use it at any sign of trouble. I need to focus on the water ahead so we do not hit any snag. Edwin, handle shielding with Xianathan. Do not forget to install a shield across the pirogue so when they do attack, they meet an unexpected obstacle.»

The trip continued silently for a while, and Raja guided them toward a secondary affluent of the Xingu. The change of direction increased the tension aboard the pirogue. As every meander was negotiated, the women were becoming ever more excited.

«You are getting close, guys. The next stream to your left will lead you to their hidden landing. It is a protruding rock that marks a sharp change in direction, beyond which the river is composed of rapids for several miles. We are nearing the edge of the Amazon basin, and from there, the ground climbs up regularly. Two giant trees that have fallen across the stream mark the entrance to the stream. You need to pass under the trees. I suggest reinforcing the shields. I detect heat signatures congruent with a hot-bodied animal, crouching on the upper branches. I would say a small jaguar.»

Ian slowed down and turned right for the fallen trees as they made their way across the wider river. The four passengers, who considered this a good omen, spotted the jaguar; if the cat attacked, it would be a good distraction to take over that magic pirogue! As the pirogue's tip progressed under the trees, the jaguar disappeared in a flash of light, much to the astonishment of the ladies.

"Sorry, girls, we were not going to let that poor jaguar get hurt to satisfy your greedy attitudes. Do you really think we were born of the last rain?" said Xianathan as he eyed the distressed faces of the four women.

The four boys laughed at the discomfiture of the four bitches, until Raja came back with a last message.

«Their landing is around the next bend, on the right side of the stream.»

The canoe swiftly negotiated the sharp bend and lost speed, falling back in the water, as Ian removed magical impulse. He swiftly brought the canoe to beach on the protruding rock.

"Welcome home ladies. I hope you enjoyed your trip by Amazon Ship Lines. No thank you is required, just get lost. We have to meet with your tribe leaders shortly. You might consider running up the trail to inform them of our arrival!" said Ian.

The women took off running, as Raja returned to join the boys. After tying the pirogue, the five boys converted to jaguar shape and slipped in the forest.

«Why not wolves?» asked Xianathan.

«Wolves are unknown, and they would stand out. On the other hand, five jaguars would go unnoticed. They will think they are seeing the same five times over, and I count on that confusion,» said Ian.

The five felines caught up with the running humans, and then kept up with them easily. They were so slow Raja decided to put some gas in their tank and roared behind them a couple of times, giving them the necessary adrenalin to beat the world record at the mile dash!

«Ah, the pleasure of being a bully!» said Raja, as the four others roared in laughter, adding another notch to the speed of the fleeing ladies.

The village loomed ahead as the women ran across the fields, trying to reach the illusory safety of their peers. The boys kept roaring at regular interval, making it impossible for the fleeing individuals to take a breath and even cry out in alarm. Those people in the fields hollered to each other and ran to intercept and protect their village from what they considered a feline attack.

By the time the four women reached the village's entrance, the boys had managed to slip inside and walk to the biggest hut of the place, definitely an important meeting place. The village had, like the others, a huge gum tree under which was the hut and a totem, with what looked like a horse. Somewhere outside, the sound of horses could be heard, as well as the bark of a few dozen dogs.

To say this construction was a hut would not render it full justice. It had three stories, wrapped itself around the gum tree trunk like a pant leg, and presented numerous windows and doors. A covered balcony extended from the second floor, its furthest extension supported by a colonnade of wooden posts.

The horse totem itself was sculpted in a massive tree trunk, representing a mare ready to give birth, from its distended underbelly. The horse was painted in chalk white, with ochre spots and black feet. Its mouth showed bared teeth, ready to bite at anything coming close.

On the left, a strange seat was set, high above the ground, and presented a hole in the front. Around the legs and armrests and at the level of the thorax were straps of leather that measured a good four inches wide. Beside it was a steel container that seemed to have been heated to a high temperature repeatedly.

«We know their main god, Ian. What next?" Edwin said.

"Xianathan! That one is for you. Once things settle down, take your true form, but do not forget to keep the shield up!" replied Ian. "I wonder what that chair is for? It looks strange."

It took some time for things to calm down, and the four ladies were led to the big hut to meet with the leadership of the village. The level of yelling and obnoxious comments coming out of the far from soundproof building made it clear to everyone within earshot that the meeting between the village leadership and the four returning ladies was not going well. Meanwhile, the boys roamed the village, listening in on the domestic issues. It became apparent to them something strange was going on. Men were doing the cooking; holding home, while women carried the weapons and the marks of war, from scars to paint. The men wore jewel, their genitals in very explicit display of their virility, and the women paraded them around like trophies. Domestic violence revealed that the men were physically abused, and that the prisoners, all males, were used for sexual satisfaction.

«What the hell is going on here?» wondered Xianathan, as he watched the unfolding events.

«We do not know, but I intend to find out. Let's go back to that central hut. It is time for us to be known. Get the shields to maximum, I suspect we are going to create waves!» said Ian.

«As if we have been doing anything different today!» Edwin said. «By the way, Xianathan, do you think you can convert to Unicorn once inside that hut?»

«There is enough space. However, if the saying a man builds his home to house his ego is right, the owner of that place must have an ego worthy of the Gods!» as the Unicorn eyed the rather strange-looking building.

«Deflate it!» replied Ian.

«Guys! I just read from that lady priest what was the use of that strange chair! It's sick!» Edwin said.

«Spill!»

«That is the chastising chair! The moment a male stops being attractive to the females, he is tied to the chair and his balls and dick are cut off in cold blood before the wound gets cauterized with a red-hot iron! The hole is so the bits dangle freely for the blade when the sorceress does the deed. The brazier we saw beside it serves two purposes: to heat the cauterizing blade and to burn the penis and balls! We better check our jewels! They do that to boys as well, if they feel they are too ugly to be mated!»

«Full shields, and if we get intercepted, take no prisoner. I don't intend to burden myself with that kind of crap!» decided Ian as he grabbed his own penis and balls protectively.

The five boys made it right near the imposing hut before someone spotted them. Edwin took no chance and an arrow pierced the voice box of the unlucky person before she could utter a sound. Ian then sent it directly to the piranhas, porting the corpse silently.

They progressed inside the hut; as luck would have it, they found themselves in a guard hall, and there were quite a few women walking around. Ian decided it would be better to be invisible then confront the guards right away. The boys made their way to the still intense yelling by hugging to the walls. The next passage was going to prove difficult. A long, rather narrow hallway, occupied the centre of the hut, running around the tree trunk. It was busy with traffic, as people shoved each other to execute orders of all sorts.

«How can we go unnoticed in that jam? We are bound to collide with someone!» moaned Xianathan.

«Let's port in areas where there is less traffic, then port again. I don't think we will need more then three jumps to reach the door to where all that yelling is coming from,» Edwin said.

Edwin's solution proved to be practical, but the boys had to split at the end, because there just were too many people in the entrance watching the yelling match. They regrouped across the room, against a wall and assessed the situation.

«Ok. The four are being literally belittled for having been taken prisoners in the first place. According to their customs, they should have fought until death. These four say they got knocked unconscious, disarmed and kept for food. Given what we know, it is entirely possible it was the case. Anyway, they are told they would have been better off to feed their enemies then come back. If it continues like this, they will be killed,» said Raja, that had taken the task of mind reading. «They are called liars for describing the canoe and us.»

«It's time to act. Xianathan?» said Ian.

As the venom in the voice rose, the Unicorn shifted to its original shape, cracking the far wall, and pushing the upper floor out of the way. A powerful beam of magic left her horn and finished slicing the house open so it could move more freely.

The sudden appearance of the Unicorn amongst their midst brought a movement of panic, and a couple of the warriors even tried to harm it. Xianathan did not hesitate and sent them, alive and kicking, right into the nearest piranha pool!

The boys pulled their weapons and formed a defensive square around Xianathan. That provoked another flurry of yelling and attacks that ended in another dozen fish feeds. Xianathan moved toward the throne, made out of a rare hardwood and reduced it to cinders by blasting it with his magic, before materializing a seat of obsidian stone, standing on it and, just as his horse shape began to sit, convert to his boy form. Just to be provocative, he kept a two-foot long penis, which stood erect and reached to his neck, in plain view as he sat down.

«Let them deal with that!» he said to the others.

«You sure know how to make an entrance!» said Raja, as he eyed the reddish appendage of procreation.

«Life is a perpetual show, and this one is rolling!»

Xianathan eyed the very agitated women, who were looking at the horror in their midst with disgust, fear, and quite an amount of loathing.

"Stay still!" he thundered. "I am Xianathan, the envoy of the Equine god. You will show me the respect that is my due, or you shall perish to the last one! Those that dared attack my party are now feeding the toothed fish, the piranhas. I am here to order a meeting of your tribe in seven days at dusk. Miss that meeting and you will be destroyed. Here is the plate of granite carrying the convocation. The chief of each village of your tribe is to receive one. We made forty of these plates, one per village. Remember, those that do not meet us in the imparted time will be eradicated! As for your customs of chastising men and boys it stops now.»

Xianathan destroyed the brazier and the chair from inside the hut, bringing down the wall in the process.

"We will heal those boys and men you have so savagely abused. They are being sent to Heaven to be healed as I speak and will stay under the protection of the gods. It includes the prisoners. From now on you shall not take any prisoners, nor shall you continue warring with your neighbours."

"The Amazons do not receive orders from males, be they gods!" said the pompous sorceress that had been doing the barbaric rituals for years.

"Then you die," replied Xianathan as with a single move of his little finger, he set the woman on fire, burning her to cinders.

"Any other defiant of the gods' orders?" he asked sweetly.

After waiting a few seconds, he completed: "So I thought, fire always brings stubborn arse holes to reason! Get your best runners, and get these plates distributed. A warning: the customs concerning males stop everywhere the moment the messenger arrives! We have eyes and ears everywhere, do not believe one second you can escape unpunished if you do not respect that edict!"

After the last runner had left, the boys walked out in the open plaza.

"We now retire in the stars for the night, since tomorrow we have other tribes to meet. Remember, we keep an eye on all tribes; attack one, and you get removed with extreme prejudice."

The boys all converted to Pegasuses and flew off, to the utter amazement of the Amazons.

«How many more do we get?» asked Raja.

«Another two thousand were added. That brings the day's total at six thousand. If this is an average, we can estimate that collecting the whole population would take forty-one days, excluding the days we need to spend explaining things and moving people around.»

«Did you notify Thebes of the incoming flux of refugees?» asked Edwin as he looked at Ian.

«They should always be ready for an influx. If they are not, I'm sure Paschal will chew them another, much bigger, arse hole! Anyway, ten males do not constitute what I would call a flood!»

"Where do we sleep?" wondered Xianathan.

"There is that piton over there, it must be next to impossible to climb up to its tip. Our canoe is safe where it is: I put it up in the forest canopy, out of sight for the night. The camping stuff is already on the piton. We need to dig a hole so the fire is not visible from afar. It's no use tempting fate.»

The boys changed shape once again, and landed on the protruding rock, before setting camp for the night.

"I hate this place! I feel like a fish! Always wet, and trying to breath out of water!" said Edwin.

"We better find a faster way to move and distribute these convocations, Ian. I'm already feeling sick and tired of jungles!" added Hildegard.

"I'll think of something by tomorrow morning. For now, let's enjoy a hot meal under the net. I never knew there could be so many insects wanting my blood!"

"Not to mention vampire bats. We really need to set a protective ward, Ian," replied Edwin.

"When I think cattle used to have to put up with this. I hope the poor horses in the village are not dealing with similar issues!" said Xianathan, as he contemplated the swarm of insects and bats flying around them.

"I don't think so; I noticed extensive barns for the horses, and the presence of numerous braziers to produce smoke and keep the insects out, plus the presence of finely meshed nets that could well be used as insect repellent. And there is that pile of strange-looking green leaves. I think they produce a highly toxic smoke that would keep out all but the most starved mosquito, according to a woman that was preparing a pile for a paddock's brazier."

"Thanks, Raja, I will sleep better.»

"It is ok, my lord."