Chapter 7
The Death of J'Piana...
The demigods placed the large, alien vessel on the ground to the east of the village. A stream of black smoke lined the blue sky following the ship like a lost child, and Ku and J'Piana couldn't wait to see the creatures who piloted the burning vessel. To welcome strangers terrified and intrigued Ku, but he didn't let anybody know his innermost fears, not even J'Piana. For over fifteen years, the Trilobites were alone on Ozarrio, and now out of nowhere, an alien vessel broke through the Speed Force barrier, meaning they'd be trapped on the planet for eternity.
For years, he prayed to Ptah for an alien vessel to break through the barrier, and now that it had, he felt insecure about everything. The feelings he once had for the females of his species passed, an issue he never dreamed of having. The ship-large and sleek-darkened the sky, and it looked like nearly one hundred crew members would fit on it nicely. He was familiar with the ship, a ship that was part of Ptah's fleet called the Dragon Fleet. It was the Imperial Dragon, a vessel that Ptah decommissioned after the collapse of the old verse. But when Po guided the ship to the ground, he quickly started escorting a large, but young group of female Trilobites off the vessel. And once he cleared the women off the ship, it began to dissolve in front of his eyes, and he knew that Orion was behind the ladies crash landing onto the planet.
Darkness fell upon the community quickly once the ship dissolved; it was as if the night overtook the day, and the three moons took away the harshness of the two suns. The men surrounded the women in an instance, and barely gave them enough room to breathe. It had been fifteen years since they smelled a woman outside of Bri Ogden La, and she didn't have any interest in any of the men.
Quickly, the other Trilobite males descended on the young women, and they were forceful in their approach. Tugging and pulling on the ladies, Ku immediately stepped in, and said, "Don't manhandled the women!" Most of the ladies stood less than five feet, but under the three moons of Ozarrio, they were beautiful-all of them. Everything about the women was as beautiful as anything, to the homosexuals and the heterosexuals alike. And since ten Trilobites had passed from the time they landed on the planet fifteen years earlier, each male could easily have the comfort of five females. Unfortunately, it was obvious that several of the homosexuals didn't want anything to do with the women, and that angered Po. It made him make an edict in front of the community that homosexual relationships had to cease.
"All male on male relationships must end," Po said as he stood in front of the community. With his hands on his hip, he then said, "We must breed or die."
Ku didn't know how to take the new edict on banning homosexual relationships in the community. J'Piana walked up to him after Po left the area, and he looked somewhat distraught. Ku knew that the young Trilobite had never known the touch of a woman, and from what he could tell, didn't desire to be with one.
"May we talk?" Said J'Piana.
"No," Ku said, "The law has been set. We may not like it, but we must obey it. This includes you." He felt the young man's breath against his right ear. The scent of the sweet, Booshi fruit was coming off his breath.
"Just like that, we're defeated?" He said, "The god has spoken, and the love we had is gone." Quickly, he walked away, and when Ku reached for him, he pulled his left arm away with all his strength. He was going back to his hovel alone and didn't take his five women with him. And then as Ku stood in front of his five women, he took them back to his hovel where he fed them. They were famished, to say the least.
In all, approximately six men-including Ku-didn't want anything to do with the women chosen to be with them because they had proclivities for other men. But when it came to Ku, he took the women back to his hovel because he felt it was the right thing to do. Vo-Ptah's last child with Ro'Dan-invented the lottery system with the help of Orion's hologram, and when he gave the printout to Ku, the old Trilobite called off the assignments. This matching took place within hours of the spacecraft landing on Ozarrio, and it was late into the evening once Ku received the matches. Five ladies went with Ku, with Po, …, and with J'Piana. But when J'Piana saw his five women, he kindly rejected them in front of the community and then went to his hovel without his ladies. Needless to say, his actions upset Po, and his outrage was palpable. Despite his work with Ku on the cornfield and building the entranceway to the She Ah Vog, J'Piana was only known for one other thing: comforting the men of Ozarrio. He massaged their shoulders, backs, and intimate parts, and he didn't only do this job for Ku, but for all the upperclassmen who asked him, including Po.
The next day Ku's flock of women took to the field unmolested during the night, and watered the corn, attended to the things around the farm, and drank a sweet, Booshi drink made from the Booshi trees that grew alongside the tarn. He drank only briefly. His eyes watched J'Piana walking along the side of the field with his hands in his pockets, and then he had an epiphany: he could continue his relationship with him in private. Nobody needed to know his business, and as long as he impregnated his flock of women, then he filled his obligation to the community. The whole night the ladies offered themselves to Ku, but he resisted the temptation. The idea of J'Piana sleeping alone bothered him because he loved him deeply.
"J'Piana, can we talk?" Ku asked as he chased him down the narrow road. It was nothing more than a solid path that the feet of the Trilobites made through the years. And as he approached his old love, the young man sped up as if he didn't want to hear Ku's voice. "J,Piana, why must you act this way?"
Suddenly, the young man came to a stop in the middle of the path, and then looked back at Ku over his left shoulder. "Did not Po forbade our relationship, Ku? Did he not say we either breed or die?"
The old Trilobite who had the face of a young man reached out his right hand and held on to J'Piana's right shoulder. Without thinking, he turned around, kissed him on the mouth, and then they embraced for a long time. It was a relief to Ku in so many ways. "I will build a building, a kind of green room where we can show our love out of the view of the rest of the community." It seemed like a fantastic idea, but it was at least a wise move in his mind.
"You do just that," J'Piana said, "But if Po finds out we're not obeying the rules, he'll kick us out of the community."
Ku looked down at the ground for a moment and thought about J'Piana's flock of women. The last time he saw them they were near the temple camping out the previous night. "You must give your women a place to rest their heads. You must show some interest in them if we are to pull this off."
"But to have them in my hovel and touching my things. It's something I cannot fathom," he said, "The idea of bedding one of them sickens me. I've only known the grunts of other men, and it's what I enjoy."
Ku listened to his lover's entreaties about not sleeping with his five women for over an hour and then retreated back to his house for his ax, the one made from temporal metal from the She Ah Vog. He received help from nearly thirty women holding hatchets, the ones assigned to gay men, and they descended down into the deep, sapphire forest for some of the strongest trees. Due to the fact that J'Piana and a few of the other men didn't want any women in their hovels, Ku decided to build housing for the ladies. And in all, it was about thirty women living in iffy situations because the men they were matched to were gay, and if they were to stay safe, Ku took it upon himself to build them a safe place.
When Ku stood in front of a large, pine tree with his ax by his side, he watched some of the women on the other end of the field. Raising the ax into the night air, he took one huge swing at the pine tree directly in front of him and sliced through it like it was made of butter. The temporal steel blade had the perfect edge, and when it hit the tree, it sliced through it effortlessly. The tree fell to the right of him and made a large thumping sound. The women jumped up and down for joy and then raised their hatchets in the air. Immediately, they began cutting the tree into logs, and the men of the village gathered them in the wheel barrels and took them back to the village. All throughout the forest, Ku cut down the healthiest of trees, and the women followed behind him chopping them up into logs.
After two years, Ku and his team built an apartment complex to hold the women who didn't have men. And in that two year period, the women gave birth to nearly two hundred and fifteen babies. But when Po noticed approximately thirty women never gave birth in that two year period, he began to question the reason why.
"Ku, in the last two years, J'Piana and you haven't fathered any children," he said, "Why is this?"
Ku stood in front of Po for a moment, and then said, "We wanted an opportunity to learn all about the women."
Po laughed for a moment, and then said, "To know them? You can learn all about them in time, but now we have to produce babies, and have a strong and healthy population of children."
Later in the evening after he spoke to Po, he opened the door of the Green Room, and when he did, Bri Ogden La stood in the middle of the hovel completely nude. Several of the other ladies were kissing all over her bare body. She was the reason the women didn't complain about not having a male in their group of five because Bri Ogden La kept the women satisfied. Immediately, he exited the room and let the ladies be, but now he knew one of the elite class engaged in homosexual activity after Po banned it.
When the first batch of children turned eight-years-old, Po had grown increasingly agitated with J'Piana and some of the other men who hadn't impregnated their five women. The men and women gathered around a large table and began to feast on their nightly dinner when Po warned J'Piana and Ku that they must impregnate their five women or else.
"Did I not put out a warning about homosexuality in the community?" Po asked with a grimace on his face. He chewed on a piece of bread, and then said, "I'm giving you two one more chance to correct this."
J'Piana-in his anger-leaped to his feet, and then said, "Once upon a time you loved me like you love those women. You're such a hypocrite."
Suddenly, Po's eyes turned red, and a stream of light came out of his eyes, tearing J'Piana in half. It happened so fast that it took a second for Ku to realize what took place. But when he watched his lover fall down into two pieces, he screamed as loud as he could, and when he attempted to attack Po, his five women held him in place.
"You killed my lover!" Ku screamed. "Why would you do that?"
"Leave," Po ordered, and then immediately everybody left the area except for Po and Ku. The elder Trilobite pulled the cloth from the table and gently wrapped up his lover. His ax hung off his right hip.
"Why would you do this, son?" Ku asked. "Did he not please you all those years ago?"
"Father, he challenged me," he said calmly. "How can I not answer it? Either breed or die."
"Is that a warning?" Ku asked.
"Yes," he said, "I will kill you…"
Suddenly, Ku's ax left his side and hit Po center mass, killing him on the spot. He let out a loud scream, and then Bri Ogden La came running to her brother's side. By the time she got to him, he was already dead.
She looked back at Ku with anger in her eyes. "What now, father?" She asked with a grimace. "Am I next? Or Vo?"
Ku pulled the ax out of his son's chest, and then said, "Maybe one day one of his twenty children will come for me," he said to Bri Ogden La, "But to let J'Piana's death go unanswered is something I wasn't willing to do."
Suddenly, a bright, painful light encompassed Ku, a vengeful white light that took him up, high into the sky, and flipped him around and around, and then slammed him to the ground. In the distance, he heard Bri Ogden La screaming, but couldn't see her because the brightness was all consuming and blinded him. And then out of the blue, he saw a stream of fire shoot across his face, and he didn't know what to make of it. In the distance, he heard a voice; it was Orion, the real Orion, and she was angry at him for what he had done.
"What have you done?" She screamed. "You've killed my boy!" He could feel her rage as she unleashed an overabundance of heat on his face. It felt like thousands of needles stabbing him all at once.
"Orion, please spare my wretched life?" He begged, "I didn't mean to kill, Po. But he killed J'Piana, the one whom I loved."
"Through the crackling in the wind, I see all that you do," she said, "And I sent the vessel of women so you may replenish your population. But now that you've killed my boy, I place the curse of life upon you. You will not see death, but you will know it. No longer will you be known as Ku Dan, but you shall be Ku Klip."
"Please, Orion. I beg you to not give me that name," he said, "I will be known throughout Ozarrio as the traitor to the gods."
"Yes. You are," she said.
He knelt before her, right hand raised in the air and begged her for forgiveness, and then a large bang took him out of his dream state, and when he landed to the ground, he did so at the feet of a resurrected Po.
"By the gods," Bri Ogden said in a brittle voice. Her black hair turned silver, and her eyes gray in color. "You've angered Orion, Ku. She has given you the name of the curse one. I fear her powers."
"Yes," Po said, "The anger of Orion falls square on your chest. You will leave our community, and forge your own way away from us because you dared to defy the orders of The Great One. You are the Klip."
"Why the Klip?" He asked calmly. "That's the worst name in the ancient language of the gods. I beg Orion not to give me that one." He paused for a moment as tears raced down his cheeks. "How long have you been in contact with Orion?" He asked calmly.
"Since the women came nearly ten years ago," he said, "For one more year, the gateway that allows her powers to enter this world will be open. Father, you must leave this community for your crimes. You are the Klip. You will never grow old and you will never die. You will wish for death, but it will never come. This is your curse for the crimes against the gods. Goodbye, Ku Klip."
Current time:
James slept on the couch in Tre'Yan Pitnick's small cottage; it was an uncomfortable sleep because he thought about Lena the entire night and her safety. But at the same time, his host had similar features to his girlfriend, and even though she had a fair visage, he thought it would be wrong to enter into her bedroom. But for the whole night, he was tormented by strange hallucinations of the woman straddling him. It was odd because for a second he couldn't move at all. It was like he was having night terrors, a problem that he had after his father was murdered.
He lay on the couch when Tre'Yan awoke early and prepared a breakfast of bacon, eggs, and goat's milk. It had been a long time since James had a big breakfast and he enjoyed every bite of it. Before Rachel injected him with the Superman formula, he used to go to the gym every morning then have a gigantic breakfast. But since he had super strength, his gym workouts were pretty much pointless. He barely broke a sweat when lifting weights and running on the treadmill.
When he stood up off the couch, he felt a little dizzy for some reason, as if he were recovering from being drugged. It took a moment for him to work off the grogginess, but he finally did. A part of him wondered if it was the effects of the Superman formula that caused vertigo or something else. He walked over to her bathroom in the back of the cottage and noticed familiar wetness between his legs. At first, he thought he imagined he had sex in the middle of the night, but now he had some evidence of it. In any case, he was completely confused.
After he finished up in the bathroom: washing his hands, throwing water on his face, and rinsing out his mouth, he walked into her kitchen area. "The three-headed monster never came last night," Tre'Yan said calmly as she set the table. James immediately noticed the similarities between her and Lena and the way she set the table. Her calm disposition made her desirable. "It must've found some unicorn flesh or eaten from Tavi's corn," she said with a grimace. "I just hope it wasn't a Munchkin." She motioned for James to come over to the table and he did, but he also noticed the frown on her visage.
James looked at her for a moment, and then said, "The three-headed monster tried to eat me last night." He paused for a moment, and then said, "I should've told you about this last night. It made every attempt to swallow me, but couldn't." He sat back in his chair, and then said calmly, "I killed it by tearing off its middle head."
She dropped her fork on her plate and it made a racket. He noticed her right hand shook like she had a problem with her nervous system, and then he noticed her hand vibrating faster than possible. She then placed her hands on her lap, calmed down for a second, and said, "The Tin Man will attack the Munchkins over the death of his three-headed monster!" She exclaimed. Setting her forehead on the table, she began to breathe loudly. "He blames them for everything and this will be an excuse for him to kill them. You've put them in danger. In the name of Ptah, you must help them."
James quickly stood to his feet, and said, "I will go to the village to make sure they're okay." He walked over to the front door, and then said, "Thanks for the meal." Looking back at her for a moment, he smiled. She didn't smile back but he thought it might have to do with her culture. He left out the front door and ran through the forest at the speed of sound until he was about a block away from the Tin Man's convoy. They stood in front of the Munchkins with their weapons trained on the entire village, and he feared they'd fire on the people before he had a chance to intervene. When he ran through the forest to Munchkin Country, he didn't expect to see the Tin Man and his people on their sophisticated hoverboards. Immediately, he noticed the silver monstrosity was nearly seven feet tall and had large, muscular arms and legs made out of tin-plated iron.
Suddenly, he saw the crowd of Munchkin's throw their hands in the air, and then he took off at the speed of sound again, but this time to stop the would-be carnage. As soon as he stepped in front of the woman with the soft, sapphire countenance, he felt a series of laser blasts bounce off his shield. With the press of the button on his watch, he was decked out in his Guardian suit and it sparkled under Oz's two suns. When the laser fire bounced off his shield, it killed two iron guards in the Tin Man's entourage. The laser cut their iron bodies into several pieces as the Tin Man looked on with a scowl on his face.
The silver monstrosity hopped off his hoverboard and stood directly in front of the Guardian. His face held a certain kind of anger that James noticed immediately: thin lips, protruding forehead, and fiery red eyes-all formed into a nasty scowl that caused the Guardian some dismay. "What are you?" The Tin Man asked with a grimace on his visage. "You move like the Messenger God of old. Like Hermes. He's the reason this world and the Speed Force exist. Are you from the realm of the gods?"
"No," James said, "I'm James Olsen of Earth." He paused for a moment. "Don't hurt these people," The Guardian said, "I killed your three-headed dragon because it attacked me." He had his right hand extended, and on the face of his palm was a metal attachment. It fit right in the center of his palm on his right hand. It was a positronic laser that Winn installed on the suit.
"You killed Randolph?" He asked as he chewed on his tobacco. For a moment, he noticed the silver monstrosity looked at him with a stern countenance as he spat on the ground in front of him. The other men of iron and flesh remained guarded, but he didn't worry about them. For now, the silver, behemoth of metal was his main concern.
"The dragon tried to devour me," he said in a strong, low-pitched voice. "I did what I had to do."
"Olsen is your family name? The Olsen family out of Liberal, Kansas?" Asked the Tin Man as he continued to stare straight at James without flinching. Most of the people looked frightened, but James tried his best to remain calm.
"It is," he replied. "My Great Great Grandfather was born in Liberal Kansas, but the rest of my family lived in Seward."
"So, Julian Olsen is to you…?" He asked.
"My Great Great Uncle, but he went missing at seventeen," he said with a gasping sound in his voice. "Did he come here?"
"No," he said, "He's dead." He looked at the villagers for a moment, and then asked, "Why are you taking up for these creatures, earthling?" Asked the Tin Man as he raised his right fist to him. "They'd never do the same for you."
"It's the right thing to do," he snapped.
"You should just walk away, earthling," The Tin Man said.
"Can't do it," James replied.
The silver behemoth smiled for a moment, and for some reason, James relaxed his guard. "I guess being the guy on the losing end of the battle is genetic," he said with a nasty look in his eyes. Suddenly, the Tin Man swung around with a right foot and connected with the Guardian's head and it resulted in him flying into one of the cottages, causing it to fall down around him. It happened so fast that he didn't see it coming. He ran over to James, picked him up in the air, and cracked his back over his steel knee and it sounded like a tree trunk breaking in half. "You're in my world now, James Olsen who runs like a god," the Tin Man said as he charged toward a wobbling James, and elbowed him in the forehead. The earthling fell backward onto the ground and moaned. He didn't expect the Tin Man to run so fast, but he did. When he hopped to his feet, the Tin Man punched him through his shield and that caused him to fly back one more time. It was as if he had just as much strength as Supergirl in his punch. James then flew into the Tin Man and knocked him to the ground, but several of the Tin Man's guards fired on him. They hit him with red lasers that caused him to fly into another cottage. That was when the Tin Man grabbed James and began beating him into the ground. It was obvious the old man of steel had more combative training than James. "You should've minded your own business," he screamed, "This wasn't your war." When the Tin Man finished with smashing James into the soil, he walked over to the other villagers, and said, "Your hero is dead! You'll pay for this Olsen's interference," he said with a grimace. "I want forty more percent of your harvest every year from this day forward."
"We can't give you that," Mary said, "We're barely getting by with the current arrangements. It would destroy us."
"Then I will return in three days with my army and show you true destruction," he said with a grimace, "Your hero that runs like a god is dead, and nothing will protect you from my vengeance. May Ptah have mercy on your souls."
Later in the day…
When the Tin Man left the area, James hopped to his feet, wiped off the dirt from his suit, and then pushed the button on his watch and his uniform disappeared. He realized he'd have to fight the Tin Man in an unincorporated area so no innocent people got hurt because he was just as strong as any foe he ever encountered. But at the same time, he couldn't fathom how the man of tin knew about his Great Great Uncle, Julian Olsen, and that disturbed him. He had heard from his father that his Great Great Uncle had possibly caught a ship to West African in eighteen ninety-eight, but he wasn't sure.
Before he had an opportunity to catch his breath, he saw the older lady that the Tin Man almost shot pacing. She had long, black hair with sapphire skin and green eyes, and from what he could tell, her visage resembled Kara's face. The similarities between her and Kara were acute and precise. They had the same body language and disposition. She didn't look that old, but according to Tre'Yan Pitnick, everybody on Oz aged slowly.
Mary looked at him for a moment, and then asked, "Why aren't you dead, James Olsen? The Tin Man is like a god on Oz. Since he seized power, nobody has matched him in battle. He dispatched all his enemies and wears the Tins as rust-resistant metal."
James smiled, and said, "I'm not easily defeated. I just wanted him to think he beat me so he'd leave. This area is too populated and I worried about hurting innocent people in the battle. With just that little tussle, we destroyed two houses."
She looked up at him for a moment as the morning suns were now high in the sky. "You don't have a blemish on you," she said as she wiped the sapphire grass off his clothes. "Are you some kind of god?"
"No," he said with a smile. The way she looked up at him brought joy to his face. For a moment, he thought he was talking to Kara. "I'm just hard to break."
"When he finds out you're alive, he'll kill everybody just to get to you," she said with a grimace. "He's an evil Munchkin who never just gives up." She looked at his missing pants leg and then said, "I have some clothes that'll fit you. They were my husband's clothes, but he died years ago."
"That'll be great," He said with a smile. "I've beaten, nearly eaten and splashed with acid in these clothes. It'll be nice to get into some fresh duds." They walked toward her small cottage when he looked over his right shoulder and saw a puff of smoke emanating from a small vase on the ground where the Tin Man's soldiers stood. The smoke crossed the path of a large, unkempt Munchkin, and caused him to pass out in the sapphire grass. "What's that?" He asked.
"Oh dear," Mary said with a surprised look on her face. "It's poison from the poppy field! It's enough to kill every Munchkin in the village."
James watched the gas move toward the cottages slowly, but he realized quickly he had the power to do something. He remembered Superman creating a funnel using his superspeed and decided to do the same thing. He pointed his right hand at the billowing smoke and then made a circular motion with it. When the stream of dangerous vapor went up into the air, the locust attacked it, not knowing what it would do to them. At first, James took pride in saving the village as a team of Munchkins placed the injured Munchkin on a gurney. Out of his peripheral vision, he saw a locust nose dive into the center of the community and its guts splattered all over the front of several cottages. They burned. He found himself tossing dirt on the front of small houses at an incredibly rapid speed. Once he put out the fires, two locusts fell to the ground and splattered into the cornfield, ruining a quarter of the food. Quickly, he realized the deadly fumes were pernicious. At first, one locust failed. Next, two locusts failed. Now, five locusts twirled to the ground and landed near the tarn, burning the sapphire vegetation around it.
Traversing the land at a rapid speed, he put out fires all over Munchkin Country because of the falling locusts. It was more work than he thought as nearly forty-five locusts burned Munchkin Country. The bucolic, sapphire vegetation burned in front of his face as he tried to extinguish it with mounds of dirt. He tossed up approximately two hundred tons of crud, causing craters all over the immediate area. It took him nearly two hours to put out all the fires, and when he finished saving Munchkin Country, the three moons were high in the sky.
Mary stood approximately five-foot-five-inches, sapphire skin, green eyes, and slender. Her black her grew past her shoulders and she had a quiet disposition overall. She gave James some of her deceased husband's clothing and he believed they would fit him perfectly. The men of means in the community had already fixed the damaged cottages and the women prepared the community meal of unicorn steaks, fried sapphire tomatoes, and potatoes. Mary showed him the community showers on the edge of the village and he took a long, hot shower and tried to focus on Lena. A full day passed since he saw her last and he didn't know if she survived or not. But at the same time, he knew JJ wouldn't just let her die, at least he didn't think he would just let her die.
Quickly, he got dressed because the Munchkins treated the evening meal as an obligatory event, and he didn't want to offend his host. As soon as he walked out of the community shower, Tre'Yan Pitnick stood in front of the entrance way wearing a silver, military-style dress that went past her knees. Her presence caught him off guard because when he left her cottage that morning he felt she was displeased with him over killing the three-headed monster. They walked down a brick trail with light posts that stood about twenty feet apart; it gave them enough light to see each other in the darkness of the night. In addition, he wondered if they engaged in coitus on the previous night. It was something that weighed heavy on his soul.
"I've been eager to ask you something," he said calmly.
"Go ahead," she said with a smile.
"Did we do anything last night?" He asked.
"What do you mean?" She asked. "We had sex. Don't you remember?"
He paused for a moment on the trail, and then replied, "But I wouldn't just have sex with a stranger like that."
"You said, 'Come here and make love to me.'," she said, "It sounded more like a command. And you also reminded me of Prince NeFare of Moxia. He was my old boyfriend. He came to Vega Star as a part of the student exchange program."
"Do you miss him?" James asked out of curiosity.
"Every day," she said with a grimace. "He died in the Moxian war three years prior to me getting stuck here." She paused for a moment. "I saw what you did with the fires," Tre'Yan said with a smile. She held him by his right hand as they walked down the trail to the community dinner. "You're obviously of the god ranks and trapped in the Speed Force like the rest of us. If you happen to be stuck here forever, I'm not opposed to beginning a relationship with you."
"I'm here by accident," he said with a grimace, "I'm sure my cohorts will find a way to save me."
"I don't think you're here by accident," she said, "You have the strength of a god and the speed of a Speedster, but the Speed Force didn't recognize your signature and imprisoned you for illegal use of speed. In time, this prison will release you once it has mapped your speed signature. It may take a week, two weeks, a month or whatever. Or it may be never."
"Is that true?" He said calmly, "I fear the rage inside of me makes me unstable and I have no way of controlling it when I have an episode."
"There are wonderful apothecaries on Oz. They'll have something to calm your mood," she said, "Unlike me, I slipped into this verse by a mishap with my warp core," she said, "I will never get home. But at the same time, I will never know freedom as long as the Tin Man lives. He forces me to supply the kingdom with most of my corn and he pays very little for it."
"We did battle, but he's far too strong and nimble," he said calmly, "He's definitely an old warrior that I will have to study." James pulled out a chair for Tre'Yan, and she took a seat. Mary sat on the other side of him. Several tables stood throughout the community with over three hundred people eating at the same time.
To James, the aroma from the meat was unlike anything he had ever smelled in his life. Quickly, Tre'Yan fixed him a plate and then fixed her plate, and before she ate, she said a quick prayer to Ptah. Mary looked over at James for a moment, and then said, "There's only one way to defeat Nick."
"How?" Tre'Yan asked as she looked over at her.
"By removing his heart with the Enchanted Ax that took his limbs," she said.
"That's crazy," Tre'Yan said, "The Gnostics Witches have the ax and it'll take an army to get past the Tin Man's guards. There has to be another way."
"I might be able to get the ax," James said, "We have to do something if we're going to stop him from decimating the village."
"Well, all I know is the ax that took his limbs is the weapon needed," Mary said, "It's imbued with temporal metal and magic. No other Enchanted Ax will do."